Got a lot of time for Villa, a proper club with a great fanbase. Villa Park sounded amazing last night.
And they've got to where they are by spending wisely as well. Last 5 years their net spend is less than Forest and West Ham, less than half of Spurs and Man U and less than a third of Chelsea.
From those who played last night, Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey, Barkley, Duran - Villa didn't pay more than 30m for any of them.
Red Star Belgrade v Benfica Feyenoord v Leverkusen Monaco v Barcelona Atalanta v Arsenal Atletico Madrid v Leipzig Brest v Sturm Graz
If you told me this was a Conference league game next Thursday i'd probably believe you.
Brest coming 3rd in Ligue 1 says everything about the quality of French domestic football.
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Just came across this post after discovering that tonight Lille beat Real Madrid 1-0 while last night Brest went to the Junior Plastic club (RB Salzburg) and won 4-0 and are second in the table
There's a nice article about Brest here from back in February, but I read something more recently that said they had had to sell key players in summer because of financial issues affecting all French clubs due to a failure to close a new TV deal. Can't find that one though.
As for Lille, that's a 50,000 stadium they play in, and that part of France is much like the England's industrial north. You wouldn't want to go there on a cold Wednesday night in October. Real clearly didn't.
Lille might be the workaday part of France, but hardly Stoke when it comes to the weather
Brest have had an amazing start to the CL considering how small they are, indeed their own ground isn't good enough to host games.
And this run will ensure that within a season or so they will have a stadium fit for elite games. I don't like how the money is ring-fenced at top level but lower down it really does make a difference because clubs don't and can't spend so much on players. When Viktoria Plzen had the temerity to first get into the UCL group stages some 15 years ago they had to play in Prague. With the money from being pulverised by Barcelona et al they completely rebuilt their stadium which previously only had one stand, and is now covered all round and UEFA compliant. I think it only took 12 months. And they have been a force ever since -I've been there for some cracking Euro nights, the atmo is like the old FA Cup games when an old skool town club hosted the likes of Man U.
Got a lot of time for Villa, a proper club with a great fanbase. Villa Park sounded amazing last night.
And they've got to where they are by spending wisely as well. Last 5 years their net spend is less than Forest and West Ham, less than half of Spurs and Man U and less than a third of Chelsea.
From those who played last night, Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey, Barkley, Duran - Villa didn't pay more than 30m for any of them.
Is that just for transfers?
Suspect Villa have a higher wage bill than West Ham and a much higher one than Forest.
Definitely well run though, and Emery has been superb, was a great appointment when some were doubting him a bit.
Got a lot of time for Villa, a proper club with a great fanbase. Villa Park sounded amazing last night.
And they've got to where they are by spending wisely as well. Last 5 years their net spend is less than Forest and West Ham, less than half of Spurs and Man U and less than a third of Chelsea.
From those who played last night, Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey, Barkley, Duran - Villa didn't pay more than 30m for any of them.
Is that just for transfers?
Suspect Villa have a higher wage bill than West Ham and a much higher one than Forest.
Definitely well run though, and Emery has been superb, was a great appointment when some were doubting him a bit.
Got a lot of time for Villa, a proper club with a great fanbase. Villa Park sounded amazing last night.
And they've got to where they are by spending wisely as well. Last 5 years their net spend is less than Forest and West Ham, less than half of Spurs and Man U and less than a third of Chelsea.
From those who played last night, Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey, Barkley, Duran - Villa didn't pay more than 30m for any of them.
Is that just for transfers?
Suspect Villa have a higher wage bill than West Ham and a much higher one than Forest.
Definitely well run though, and Emery has been superb, was a great appointment when some were doubting him a bit.
Yes just on transfers.
You're right though their wage bill is higher, only 11m total more than West Ham though, which is nothing when you consider they've made over 20m in prize money from the Champions league already. And that's before you take into account tv money and gate receipts.
Reminds me of going with work colleagues to Arsenal Man Utd in 1991 Arsenal had clinched the title earlier in day when Liverpool had lost so their fans were in party mood.
We were in the corner by clock end with Man U fans and Jeremy Beadle had a box at that end.
He was getting abuse from the United fans so he unfurled a champions banner and hung it over the front of his box, and was pointing down at it and giving it back large to the United fans. Unfortunately he had it back to front like photo above and United fans were all singing ‘watch out, Beadles a c*nt’
Was quite sceptical when the new format was announced, but i have to say it's turning out to be quite decent.
We no longer have the old format where (in most groups) the 2 best sides hammer the 2 bottom sides and qualify easily. Some bigger teams like Bayern, Madrid, PSG etc are struggling and some unfancied sides are high up.
I don't doubt that the vast majority of the big clubs will still make the last 16 but at least this format will keep things interesting for longer.
Comments
From those who played last night, Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey, Barkley, Duran - Villa didn't pay more than 30m for any of them.
Suspect Villa have a higher wage bill than West Ham and a much higher one than Forest.
Definitely well run though, and Emery has been superb, was a great appointment when some were doubting him a bit.
You're right though their wage bill is higher, only 11m total more than West Ham though, which is nothing when you consider they've made over 20m in prize money from the Champions league already. And that's before you take into account tv money and gate receipts.
We no longer have the old format where (in most groups) the 2 best sides hammer the 2 bottom sides and qualify easily. Some bigger teams like Bayern, Madrid, PSG etc are struggling and some unfancied sides are high up.
I don't doubt that the vast majority of the big clubs will still make the last 16 but at least this format will keep things interesting for longer.