Shoody

More to the point. Why did you stay away because of a player that played for us?

He turned liverpool into a midtable team after winning the CL. Surely thats gotta be pretty hard to do??

The ultimate goal being: Recognised as the greatest player in the world...but never leaving Villa

with a year on his contract to **** do something

They just said in the centre, which i take to mean In The Hole,

Let's be honest, The Fonz is superior to Heskey

Heskey should be offloaded and Nathan promoted to 3rd choice striker

agreed, personally i'd play him ahead of gabby who has been woeful this season

Gabby has been played on the wing so it hasn't been a fair reflection of the player.

FFS.

"It's a big thing, it's becoming trendy. It's a little niche, left-footed players on the right and vice-versa.

"He's equally as good on the other side. It's a big advantage.

"We looked at playing him in the centre. It's something we've spoken about. He's got a fantastic shot, so you could see us working on that in pre-season."

-GMac

In the Sun where they talk about him being offered a new deal. Regardless of how much of a **** ridiculous decision it would be to move another winger into the centre (he was poor there vs Blues/Wigan - i think it was one of them he was there for).

I guess this means we will almost definitely be getting atleast another winger in [unless they plan on playing all lopsided]

Lets be honest, even if we'd beaten both City and Reading we would have found a way of drawing Blackburn or Rapid Wien in the next round, so it doesn't really matter.

But doesn't really offer much different to what we have in Bent and Gabby apart from a bit more technical skill, his game is made mostly of the runs he tries to make, which is exactly what Bent and Gabby do. Heskey offers a way of holding up play more effectively [when hes on form]. Young in the middle trying to flick headers on never worked, he couldnt win headers and when he did he flicked the ball on to oppo defence, Heskey does it more effectively and is much stronger than our other strikers. He's not the best striker in the world obviously but he offers something different to our game if we need it.

If we lose Heskey we could do with another like him (hopefully a bigger goal threat though!)

Really do not understand how so many dont see what Heskey offers the team

So who does everybody else follow?

I follow Knicks purely because I'd love to live in New York and thats the plan anyway, so decided it's my honourary 'local team'

9-0 Albrighton, Bent and Downing all getting hat-tricks

thankgod. It's almost like we wont get **** over........again.

They thought it was perfectly fine that GH fielded a weak team in the Eastlands when the next round was Reading at home. They showed no signs of anger when it happened and I don't even think the club apologised despite the fact the FA cup is important to us.

I've been pulling you up on this for weeks now. You have no idea what happened behind the scenes for all we know Randy pulled his pants down and beat him. You really have no clue whatsoever what happened in the background. Also, go and read the Generals thread he wasn't happy, he laughed at 'White Flag' jokes (as he clearly saw the irony/funny side in them). But again, you have no clue what happened behind the scenes.

No excuses to do it when we only had two PL games in the months that were two weeks apart and we lost both games anyway. It made no logical sense whatsoever. It was bloody embrassing that we looked so weak and didn't even care infront of all the ITV spectators.

None of this is to do with the board, I get your point but it's nothing to do with the board whatsoever and doesn't give anything to your argument - agaisnt the manager - yes. But not to do with the board. They can't choose GH's team the second he starts doing that he quickly stops chances of us getting many many managers out there who would in no way come to a club who get involved in managers decisions.

You are implying that its the boards fault that team was fielded to begin with.. The board shouldnt be asking the manager to justify his team selection before a match. How could the board have prevented that!?

The fact the manager said he would do it again and the club would still continue to back him if he didn't fall ill speaks volumes.

I cant remember him saying that but I'll take your word for it. The board/Randy have certainly not come out and said they would back him if he did it again, they werent ever going to get rid of him mid-season and 90% of clubs wouldnt either, keep this until the end of the season as MM has been saying for months and how most people would agree is the best thing to do. It was either sack him in December or stick with him. we stuck. After that sackign the manager is suicide.

It's bloody obvious that all the club is concerned about is staying in the top league

Look at the Generals thread. He clearly is not happy with what has transpired since January. You are making things up.

while trimming the wage bill

Trimming the wage bill HAS to happen, we cant afford to prop up an £80m wage bill, we can't compete for trophies with a wage bill of that size. Have you heard of the Uefa Financial Fair Play rules? Probably not. Our wage bill is ridiculous. Spurs have a smaller wage bill than us. So do Everton.

Small wage bill does not = not competing.

Small wage bill = being allowed to compete in 3 seasons time

and spending less on transfers.

£30m in January, if we spend £40m in the Summer (i'd say thats likely considering the amount we need to change, or atleast the £30m-ish we expect to make from sales). Randy would have given similar amounts of money to GH/whoever as they gave to MON each season (think The Sun had MON's avg yearly spend at £70m)

They've shown no signs whatsoever of wanting another trophy in the cabinet this season

Again, can't force a team to play, cant choose the team without making the club a place no manager would want to work. Dont understand how you dont get this. They clearly want a trophy. It's a business, trophies increase business, how ridiculous to say they dont want one.

and I doubt they will for a fair while.

Typical way of influencing opinion by you stating your opinion in some defining way, which means **** all. If we win a trophy next year it doesnt mean the board wanted it any more than they did this year.

Abramovic spent £50m in Jan to try and win the Champions League and that didnt help diddly squat, he wont spend £50m next January but that doesnt mean he wants to win the CL less next year.

Bam.

Didnt he choose the Russian national team over Chelsea?

I've been saying Hiddink for a couple of weeks and would be a great shout but not sure he would come.

yeah, Collins, Warnock, Beye, Heskey, Dunne ...

Dont quite understand how a Young Adult [who could have a full time job] has cheaper tickets than a Student or somebody in the Armed Forces? As Armed Forces/Students have less guaranteed time/less money [in general] than a typical 18-21 yr old..

The payment plans seem great though

We won't see trophies for a while. The board currently have no ambition.

dont be ridiculous.

Jesus, Carmelo is a good player but there were loads saying that partnership wouldnt work properly as when Amar'e wasnt top dog at the Suns he couldn't perform as well, being the big guy at Knicks he was in MVP form (when i was paying attention anyway!)..

Surprised those 3 have all been chucked in, didnt NYK go their longest winning spree ever earlier in the season? or some record broken anyway?

Gallinari has so much potential too. Denver got a great deal there tbf with those 3.

A lot of Knicks fans thinking Chauncey Billups is there stepping stone to getting Chris Paul from the Hornets, which would be another great addition.

For £120m we dont have an awful lot to show for it and I think Randy will be a lot more careful with his money from now on. With Uefa FFP rules he has to be anyway, Moyes would be a good appointment as he's had 10 years of being careful with money.

Do we have enough money to sway Moyes? I'm not sure. He doesnt have much money but he has all of his own players at Everton I think Hibbert is the only one who has been there since he took over? He'd have to do a similar thing here whereby there are a few players to keep a lot that will/should go and some good youngsters. We are Everton 10 years ago only we are as good as they are now (if you get me?). Not sure thats going to sway him

Would remain to be seen whether he is capable of building a Champions League team (if he had been given £120m instead of MON, would we have been 6th or better? Im not sure) or whether he is only capable of building a team close to CL.

I'd be willing to take that bet but I'm not sure he would be.

edit: However, we do have the one thing he has struggled to get at Everton - a consistent, proven and in form goal scorer.

Havent followed it in a while... The Knicks got rid of Gallinari and Chandler!?

Ah risks, every investors dream... they love taking risks and would certainly spend a fucktonne of money on something everybody agrees is a risk.

Its more the fact that when I watched Burnley he had a little tantrum to himself because he called for the ball and didnt receive it 10 minutes after coming on and didn't look to chase things down as much fans would like him too, its like he got it in his head he couldn't reach something so didnt bother - he's a quick lad and it's the speedy ones you look too to try and force an error on the other team.

Surely Moyes would see the potential in Aston Villa - As Redknapp saw in Spurs when he took over a failing team from Ramos !

Everton are the Perennial mid table team ... and will continue to be under the current owners who cannot compete with the bigger spenders. He's had to take Beckford from Leeds on a freebie whilst we took Bent for an initial £18m - this transfer alone demonstrates we can spend .. and spend big when needed ! Everton can't compete with our spending - let alone the top top teams.

And a further point .. I keep reading that people pointing to the Felliani purchase of Moyes ... well I'd prefer to look at the following purchases of his : Howard, Baines, Jagielka and Cahill ... Those players alone tell me enough to know that he knows what he's doing in the transfer market.

He also knows a thing or two about bringing youth team players through ... ala Seamus Coleman so our talented pool of youngsters would also be in good hands.

Yep ... David Moyes all day long for me ..... Come on Randy ... Make it happen !

People pointing to the signing of Fellaini were just saying it shows he CAN sign people from abroad, Fellaini is another of these great signings he has made and is now being strongly linked with Real Madrid etc. I would kill for NRC to be as good as Fellaini.

People will argue that any money we spent on Bent we earned through selling Milner, Moyes too has been doing this at Everton and relatively often get sbig transfer fees for his players, Rooney and Lescott come to mind, with Baines, Fellaini and Rodwell all being linked with around £20m moves away. And Coleman and Jagielka also being valued fairly highly.

There isn't too much difference between the two clubs. yes, IF Randy decides to invest a lot this summer it could entice Moyes but we dont know if he will or not, we expect around £30-£40m from player sales - which is a fair bit - but not far off what Everton will be making this summer from doing the same [they will probably make more too]..

so for this reason theres not much for him to come here for, he'll get a fair bit of money but has to buy a lot of players so he'll have to spend his time trying to find bargains like he does at Everton. Or if he stays at Everton then he just has to replace what he sells and buy a striker.

But if Randy decides to invest £20m this summer then it could entice him if he comes with somewhere around £60m to spend

Gary Gardner is Claret and Blue,

Claret and Blue,

Through and Through

Gary Gardner is Claret and Blue

He. Loves. Villa.

to the tune of the song SHA use for Craig Gardner.