The last of the 'crown jewels'

[Capt. Pants 4,300]

1 hour ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

Tear up the world is a stretch for Buendia as well. He's been a perfectly adequate PL player in a team that will never make the top four.

Well Villa finished 7th. Emi must be gutted he didn't stay here.

[Worthy Nigelton 1,080]

6 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Well Villa finished 7th. Emi must be gutted he didn't stay here.

I never said that. I'm his biggest fan but he hasn't set the world alight yet has he?

[Robert N. LiM 4,573]

On 10/08/2023 at 12:03, king canary said:

Clubs evolve, players and managers move on but there is still a small part of me that is sad to see what feels like the final key piece of that season depart. 

Tim Krul, but yes. Great post and what times they were.

On a personal level the pinnacle was not the Man City win because I wasn't there, but the FA Cup win at Spurs, because I was. Two pens scored by academy players, Krul just bossing the shootout, 9000 fans going crazy, the players charging the length of the pitch. Great times.

[chicken 2,656]

5 hours ago, Capt. Pants said:

Well Villa finished 7th. Emi must be gutted he didn't stay here.

He was part of a squad that finished 7th. The detail of that is that he made 38 appearances. 11 of which he made off the bench. A further 19 he was subbed off. Five goals scored and 2 assists. Just on that basis alone, he isn't really contributing more on the pitch than he did for us in terms of output.

I know goals and assists aren't everything, but he had 7 assists and a goal for us, which is one more goal involvement. Yet arguably he is in a much better side at Villa.

He hasn't been a star man for them, he has been inconsistent and his stats, appearance wise, have reflected that. His first full 90mins last season was the 10th game of the season Vs Forrest. His second came 9 games later at home to Wolves. Outside of that he completed more than 70mins an additional 7 times. I think it's fair to say he became better at the tail end of last season, which is easier to recall.

That said, I think it is more than fair to say that whilst part of that squad, it is very hard to argue that he had a massive influence on their season, at the very least, he wasn't dependable for them in the same way he was for us... and that is his 2nd season with them. We know he has struggled to nail down a position there, and only shown signs of it at the tail end of last season.

Unfortunately he is now out for the majority of this season too so I guess we'll not know for a while longer, if he can become a top ten team ever-present player.