MessiWillSignForVilla

Proof from Seattle!

Just because Jol thinks Bent is good in build up play doesn't mean it's true. I've seen enough of Bent to know that he is too lazy to fit into Lambert's tactics. I'll point out when we drew 1-1 to Norwich at home, winning 1-0 with ten men and Benteke was brought off for Bent. Bent was too busy hanging off the shoulder of the defender or trying to come too deep to pick up the ball that we had no outlet upfront, cue 25 minutes of pressure from Norwich and an inevitable equaliser. If Bent was half as good at link up play and creating opportunities for others as Benteke is, we would've won that game. To play Bent effectively you need a striker to hold up the ball to play alongside him or a creative midfielder/winger. He'll do well at Fulham as he will have both in Berbatov and Taarabt, although if I was a Fulham fan I'd be concerned about how much that attacking line will track back. Don't get me wrong Bent has been fantastic for us, he kept us up in 10/11, and arguably again in 11/12, but that was because he had a decent supply line, under Lambert the striker is part of the supply line, something Bent cannot do. I wish him well, he's not done anything wrong during his time here IMO, and I hope he does well enough so we can get roughly £5m for him next summer.

have you seen some of mismatched in Rugby World Cup That's pretty much the only International Rugby I don't like watching, it's not fun watching New Zealand/Australia/South Africa putting 80+ points past Georgia/Namibia/USA. Although some tries in those games can be rather spectacular. The same way it's not fun watching Spain/Barcelona pass the ball around the back four for 90 minutes and hope one of the strikers makes a good run so they can make a safe pass through for a goal.

That's the problem, that's what most football pundits do, say what you see. Whereas a good pundit will actually explain why Team A picked apart Team B, rather than the current lot saying Team A picked apart Team B. They will explain why option B or C was better than option A which player X took. Someone like Shearer would just say Player X took option A, I would've taken option B. And so on. People get worked up about pundits as they are useless and offer no valuable insight, but there is the potential for pundits to really be valuable and offer interesting views on games, which currently doesn't happen.

Went to the same tackling school as Jonathan Hogg apparently Don't know why I remember that specific commentary line from one of Hogg's 6 games he played for us, it was about 2-3 years ago too.

I hate international football, so for me it won't be that great! Yeah, but... the World Cup? You don't hate the World cup surely? It's like a thousand Christmases rolled into one for any fan of football. I'll watch it, but normally switch off after the first half if it's not England or the final, even then it's hard for me to watch the entire game. It's just too tedious for for me, too many teams play possession football and try and bore the other team into defeat. Tbf, I can't watch much football anymore if it's not Villa, only big games i.e WC Final, CL Final, FA Cup Final etc., Rugby is much more entertaining for me, it's almost always an open game.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/422527/Gareth-Bale-drops-Spurs-exit-hint-with-expiring-tax-disc Some journalists really are desperate enough to do anything for a story

Football commentary/punditry is just terrible in general. It's just so plastic. Rugby and cricket are much, much better. I'm going to miss ESPN's rugby coverage, the commentator's just had a chat whilst watching the game, going off on tangents telling stories from when they played, like you would with mates down the pub. The same with cricket. Plus as you say, they actually have some knowledge of the sport aswell which never hurts. It's quite telling when someone as boring as Gary Neville is considered by far the best pundit around, although I do like him, he is actually good.

That was part of my point. The Westwood and Lowton that started in November last year wont be as strong as the two that start on Saturday Yeah I agree, the second bit was more of a general point, although Westwood and Lowton weren't particularly great around that period.

I hate international football, so for me it won't be that great!

To be fair, only six of them I think will be nowhere near the matchday squad, and three of those are the subs. One thing that is a positive for us this year is our starting line up don't have the pressure to adapt and prove themselves in the Premier League, and won't be in a relegation battle (hopefully) very early on like last season. Our flirt with relegation will also instill a belief in the players that if it comes to it, they can get themselves out of it again, unlike last year when they all looked like lost children at times. This is why I don't think we will need many more players, as last years squad have grown in ability and confidence.

I don't understand how the FA can support the idea of a winter world cup, why not question whether it should be held elsewhere. But then again, money.

http://deadspin.com/5980241/french-magazine-reports-that-qatar-bribed-its-way-to-the-2022-world-cup Scoop of the century My main question about Qatar is if it's unrealistic to play there in the summer, why was it given the World Cup that has been played in the summer for almost 80 years. EDIT: Added the text.

If the European Championships will have 24 teams, what's the point in the qualifying stage, would be much easier to have a two legged play-off. It's a huge shame that the NextGen is getting killed off, it seems UEFA only supported it to see if it worked so they could implement there own money spinning version. Will completely kill off our academy if UEFA get there way, as there competition will be a draw for younger players who will no longer care if they get first team opportunities, only if they get to play in the U-19 Champions League. Along with FFP, it's just one small step until that glorious day the top teams bring in the European Super League.

No chance we'll get a defender IMO, as much as I want a back up for Lowton. We've signed Okore and Luna, and as much as some may not like it, Lambert has obviously identified CB and LB as our weaknesses in terms of either depth or quality, and has signed players to rectify it. If he thought we needed another CB urgently as some suggest, we would've signed another. It baffles me that some say defence is currently our huge weakness considering we haven't seen what is probably going to be 50% of it play in a competitive game, and one of them looks as if he could be signing of the season.

As it stands Fulham will pay all of his wage, pay us 2 million up front, with the option of a permanent deal which will be another 3 mill. This is a good for everyone concerned. Yes, but could have been better for us. How much so? No one is willing to pay up front so a deal that rids us of his wages, albeit only for a year, and potentially pays us £5m, roughly what we wanted, is a good deal

It's better than nothing, it get's rid of his wages for a year, gives us a small fee and puts him in the shop window too. Yeah but to Fulham? A club who've already (allegedly) offered us £4m? But if it is a loan move then any rumour of a permanent deal is not true as no way would we accept a loan deal and not a permanent deal.

It's better than nothing, it get's rid of his wages for a year, gives us a small fee and puts him in the shop window too.

Thank goodness we're unlike Fulham in that the strongest point of our team is our defence. Why do you hate Villa so much? Our current attacking trio track back an awful lot, nobody mentioned either teams defence. I love our team but hate double standards. But Zatman pointed out Fulham's front three don't track back, which ours do, so in defense Fulham effectively will have 8 players where as we and most other teams will have 10/11, hence why Fulham could be favourites to go down. No double standards about it.

Possibly as apparently it's to Fulham who will cover all of his wages, the major stumbling block for bringing players in IMO

Yup. And to answer MessiWillSignForVilla's question fully: Young threw himself to the floor against one of his former team mates to win his team a penalty. Yorke sulked off against Everton to force a move. Downing turned his back on the club just weeks after stating that he was looking to sign a new deal. He also failed to show us respect after we took him from the Championship while nursing a broken leg. I get why those guys are hated, I don't get why Milner isn't. Yes he gave his all for the club. Yes he was a great player. But at the end of the day he spent two seasons with us, jumped at the first chance, turned the entire transfer into a saga which meant we still had in the 10/11 season for a bit (a saga which apparently made MON leave), and despite desperately wanting to go to Man City wouldn't hand in a transfer request to get it sorted just so he could get his pay off. IMO, he's just as bad as the rest of them. PS- Also, Yorke was just a big name I threw out there, I was five when he left and devastated and therefore know little about how he acted when he left

So were Downing, Young, Barry and Yorke, yet none of them are held anywhere near in such high regard as Milner.

Was the same last year, I remember either watching TV or listening to the radio after getting my three D's to hear that every other person who did their A level's seemingly got all A's and B's, it really twisted the knife in. Then people have the cheek to claim it's all getting too easy, but that's probably because they see every top student reveal there results on TV/Radio and never actually realise there are students who do average/terrible as well.

Quick question, why is Milner treated like a god on this forum? Yeah he was a great player for us, but he jumped ship at the first sniff just like the rest of them. He has no interest in our club, only money, just like Downing, Young, Barry, Yorke, etc. Yet seemingly because he didn't hand in a transfer request (the shitty thing to do when you want to leave like he did) he isn't vilified, but in fact loved! I Just don't get it.

Even though Liverpool are out top four and not getting back into it, they still want to hold on to the "status" of Liverpool, as they perceive it. The way they do that is pretend a talented Aston Villa side doesn't exist. I don't think it's that. It probably has more to do with the fact they know shit all about football. Unfortunately even with Benteke I don't think we're quite Top 8 material just yet.