petrov19

Not the correct decision IMO. After all the determination, spirit and will he's shown, Stiliyan Petrov deserved one last season with the club... Don't want to question or judge RDM's coaching skills and competencies, we will all do that come end of the season, but with this decision, he got me question his mental skills a bit. Not sure if any of the more experienced managers in the game would have made the same call in this case. You do not turn down a Paul Scholes who wants to come out of retirement and help the team one last time..

Come on you Bulgarian lion!

According to the Bulgarian media, Dimitar Berbatov is close to signing with either Newcastle United or Aston Villa. Again, according to the media, both teams have been in talks with him and have expressed desire to have him in their squads for the upcoming season in Championship. Berbatov is now free agent since his contract with Greek side PAOK has expired.

Sounds like we are about to sign some ten to fifteen 37-year-old players and build our squad around them.?? Can't see your point really. Does it mean if we sign a 37-year-old player we are banned from signing other players that are young and hungry? I really don't see how this signing could possibly do us harm and stop our progress... unless it costs us $10M which I doubt :). Plus, this 37-years-old player happens to be our former captain that gave his 100% every single time he played for Villa and I will always picture him as this never give up guy, running, pressing, fighting, defending with sweat streaming like rivers from his shirt, the backbone of one very good team that we had a few years ago... that's Stiliyan Petrov for me. And the fact that he got ill, survived and now got to the point where he contemplated a comeback at the age of 37 is nothing short of a triumph of football... and of life. Sometimes, football is all about these moments, and they're worth a lot more than we all think.

Will you like him again if I told you that he solved that problem "the Rooney way". He got his hair back just recently:)

Exactly! That's the Villa I wanna see. Great to have A Young, Petrov, Dunne back.

Not so happy to use the cliche, but.. I told you so. He wasn't still in charge when I said here, he just isn't the right man for the job and we are going to have really bad days ahead of us with mr houllier in charge (and that can be verified;)). I checked now the Houllier poll thread and saw that 90% had approved his apointment, seriously guys, what were you thinking?! Said it back then, I'll say it again - MON is the perfect Aston Villa manager and losing him was the biggest mistake ever, if its anybody to blame, it should be those responsible for his departure.

We actually did... by not showing support neither from the fans nor the players. If the club was behind him, he wouldn't have left. But remark taken, this topic isn't about him. You don't know that. Most fans were behind him, singing his name every game so for starters, that's bull shit. He left because of different views with the chairman is what is said, nothing to do with fans, players. Where was it that I read the players weren't very upset by his departure if you know what I mean :winkold:

We actually did... by not showing support neither from the fans nor the players. If the club was behind him, he wouldn't have left. But remark taken, this topic isn't about him.

I think there will be times when we'll be begging for a manager like MON. Huge mistake letting him go. Lets face it, we don't have a top 4 team and still were firm challengers the past 2 seasons, at one time even an outside title challenger. Yes, in the end we "failed" but what kind of failure is 5th or 6th place in the Premier League when constantly being a threat for top 4? I don't want to be a pessimist but I don't see us finishing nowhere near that in the forthcoming season(s). I loved his passion for the game, you know, jumping down the line when we score... reacting like he's rather on the pitch than off it. And I loved how we played under his rule, that's the way I think Aston Villa should look - firm defending and deadly on counters with the lads working their socks off. His only mistake was that he really exhausted his players by not making changes in the starting line-ups. And he payed for that unfortunately... As for Houllier, I don't know. What success does he have actually? Pool were shit when he was there, also I remeber in the 1994 World Cup campaign he was managing France and he needed 1 point from his last two games (against Israel and us, Bulgaria) both at home and lost both of them. Again I hope I'm worng but I dont think we'll repeat the MON's successes this and the forthcoming seasons.