MessiWillSignForVilla

It was only last season that stating you'd be happy with mid table on here would be met with cries of "lowered expectations". Saying our fans expect 6/7th isn't exactly wrong.

Yep Thinking about it, probably a captains armband, although a black armband is more fitting.

To be fair to their fans (urgh, I feel dirty typing that), a lot of them acknowledge that Gerrard has been more detrimental these past seasons, most were saying he should have never played in the semi final for instance as there's no place for sentiment in football and a few have been bemoaning him being in the team recently. They still stop short of blaming Gerrard for being rubbish though.

Yeah, but Milner isn't treated like some sort of demi-God by the media or any fans. No, Gerrard is not a bad player, and I don't think anyone will ever argue that, he was a very good player, but he was nowhere near some of the midfielders that people like to catergorise him with eg Scholes and Lampard. Those two were ridiculously good for their clubs, but suffered at International level as the teams were never tactically suited for them. If England had done a better job accommodating those two, Gerrard would never have been seen as equals to them. Not to mention that Gerrard has been dragging Liverpool down over the last few years yet still being "Captain Fantastic" or whatever Sky come up with this week. Though I suppose that's a point for liking him

What,more than Barcelona? Actually, we're third behind Real and Barca, ahead of Bayern *According to Tom Fox.

I think Ireland fans would be even more pissed off it that happened, justifiably

Really??? My Dad got a phone with them about a month ago, suppose I should pester him to enter

That misses the point, again, I think. With so few tickets, there will always be more people who can't go. The line/criteria depends on movable things. Plenty of Arsenal season ticket holders won't be able to go, for example. The point that the allocations are too low, is an FA thing, and the FA's decisions penalise match day fans at the expense of FA folk and guests etc. Many fans may have just one chance of ever seeing their team at Wembley in the FA cup final. Then the FA give loads of tickets to the same people every year. Yes it's been like that for ages. Yes it's wrong. Yes the Fans organisations and individuals complain. and No nothing changes. Yeah, this was pretty much my point. I know that having only gone to 2 games I'm going to be quite a way done the priority list for Villa, but the fact that for FA's showpiece final only just over 50% of the fans there will be supporters of the clubs in the final (in theory as I dare say some of the "neutral" fans won't be neutral) is ridiculous. As I said, if Villa were given just say 8-10k more tickets, considering not all tickets have yet been sold, I'd have had a much better chance of getting a ticket. At the very least they should have kept the allocation they had for the semi's. Yes it is my fault I haven't been to enough games, but it doesn't stop the FA's allocation of tickets being utterly stupid. As for complaining to the FA, even Arsenal's CEO complained to the FA about it last year, but they've still done nothing about it and I doubt they ever will.

He's in the current Ireland squad, centreback for Reading Agree that the media circus is actually somewhat a compliment for Jack, just hope it doesn't distract him from getting that MoM performance on May 30th As for that clip of Cunnigham on Grealish, to cut your nose off to spite your face comes to mind.

How come Clark playing for England at youth level doesn't matter then? Or McGeady and Pearce for Scotland, Wilson and McClean for N.Ireland? And as you say, it doesn't matter when it's players like Bruce who switch allegiances (which is even funnier, since he's from Norwich ). I understand why people might be a little pissed off, I just find the double standards quite funny. It's OK when they pick us or are shit and pick someone else, but if you're good don't you dare think about picking anyone else. I agree with the retirement though, I wouldn't mind if all our players did tbh.

Some of the sense of entitlement from some Irish fans is pretty funny to read, especially as Ireland is probably one of the greatest abusers of the Grand-Parents rules. Grealish is 19, it's a fairly big question at a fairly tender age to demand a straight answer for. Yeah, it was probably easy for the likes of Cunningham, Keane, Brian O'Driscoll etc. considering they're all fully Irish and didn't have to make a choice, but Grealish grew up in England, and only qualifies through family, demanding he makes a decision right now on how he views himself patriotically over a qualifier and a meaningless friendly, is a bit ridiculous. Personally, seeing how some have reacted recently, I hope he picks England just to stick it to them.

I considered doing that, but since I live in Newcastle it would have cost me the £100 odd for the tickets plus roughly the same for each 4 hour return train ticket, as well as not realistically being able to get to Southampton and currently having my exam period, the £500 ish it would have cost to do that wouldn't have been worth it for the possibility that the ticketing might fall to a booking history of 6. The cost of a touted ticket is roughly the same I would have had to pay for the booking history and the Final ticket. Anyway, not gonna do it, it was late when I made that post and I was tired after an exam, having thought about it with a clear head, it isn't really worth it.

It's not the FA's fault that you've only been to two games. Peculiar answer. As Stevo says (and it's the same every year) 40,000 tickets (15,000 more than either club gets) go to the FA family etc." as "reward" for God knows what. These tickets then often end up getting sold on, or passed on. How many games a fan has been to or not has nothing to do with that. The two clubs should get (at least) the same allocations as for the Semi-final. That still leaves 25,000 other tickets (or 8,000 excluding the middle tier). It's like the choice of referee - instead of the sane choice of "the best ref of the season" they go with buggins turn. A ref can only ever do one FA cup final. It's an outdated club of numpties that organise the way the FA cup is run. They're happy enough to chuck tradition out the window and move kick-off for extra TV money despite the travel problems it causes supporters, but perish the thought they'd actually let supporters of clubs in the final a decent allocation of tickets, when there's backs to scratch and handshakes to be made. Every time we get to a final it's the same. Every time any ream gets to the FA Cup final it's the same. Every time we have an election and elect a minority government it's the same. It's always someone else's fault. We knew the rules before a ball was kicked in the competition. It's not going to change. It's even listed as a benefit of buying a season ticket. Instead of complaining about being unable to get tickets this year, perhaps people could complain TO THE FA so that it's fixed for future seasons. So because it's always the same I'm not allowed to complain about it? OK. Stevo was right, my point was that with an extra allocation of 8,500 or so, my booking history of 2 wouldn't be as much of a stumbling block to getting a ticket, they're would have been a chance for me to go, but with the current allocation it's meant that the club can't feasibly give me a chance of one. Of course my current booking history means it's MY fault I can't get a ticket, I understand that, but it doesn't stop the fact that the FA's stupid allocation has given me even less chance of a ticket. And I used to have a season ticket, but then I went to Uni and moved 200 miles away, and it became kind of inconvenient to go to every game. So I only go to ones I can, i.e. Sunderland and Newcastle, stadiums I can walk to/get the metro to.

Has anyone on here bought tickets not through the club? i.e. from third party ticket sites, if so what was your experience with them like and are many to be trusted? Only asking as I'm desperate to go to the final, but only been to two games this year (both North-East away games, as I'm currently at Uni in Newcastle), so it's unlikely I'll be able to get some through the club and some sites are looking at £600 for a ticket which would be a lot of money to be swindled out of. **** the FA with their ridiculous allocations

Nah, luckily for most clubs they're not run by fans that judge every player they know from what they've seen on MotD, FIFA, FM and Sky Sports. If a club seriously wants him I'm sure they'd be willing to stump up a fair wedge of cash. And considering that Plop fans like to go on about "5 times", Shankly etc., they've got very short memories considering Benteke ripped them a new one just a few weeks ago and has done every time he's played at Anfield

If the only real interest is from Plop, I hope he reads what their fans think of him. Would be mad to go somewhere he's thought of so lowly, especially when they have no chance of winning the league and slim chances of Champions League. Would be better off staying a year and then going to actual title challengers like Utd or Chelsea.

I'd like to know if Sanchez's English is significantly better than Gil's Probably not too much better, but he would have had an extra 6 months to learn and would have a better chemistry with the team than Gil has. Again using the SF as an example but, Sanchez was joining in with the celebrations a lot more than Gil was, he's obviously more settled with the rest of the squad.

"Holding" midfielders and "defensive" midfielders are two very different things. One has the sole purpose of breaking up opposition attacks and protecting the back four, the other is a midfielder that sits slightly deeper and is more defensive minded than the rest of the midfield but is still important in build up play. Westwood is the latter IMO, and the one Sherwood seems to dislike is the Holding midfielder (the former).

Highly doubt that Sherwood is trying to "protect" Gil from any bids, it wouldn't really make sense. Also, if you're Valencia, why have a buy back clause that lasts 6 months? If I were to take a guess at why he's not playing, I'd say it's because he's still learning English. Having watched some of the Semi-Final videos, Gil looks really out of place and doesn't seem to fit in, an obvious factor for that could be not having a f'in clue what anyone around you is saying and still settling into his new home/area. Maybe Sherwood just thinks that in a relegation battle you need the whole team to pull together and fight for one another, and that at the moment whilst he's still settling in, Gil just isn't right for that currently, especially when you see how awkward and out of place he was in the celebration photos/videos. Plus, we're playing well currently, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Playing Gil might upset the balance, he might make us 10x better, but it's a risk that probably just isn't worth it right now whilst we're getting results. I'm sure Gil will play more next season, when there's less pressure and European games in mid-week to worry about

Saw something on RTE where their sports analyst said Jack would turn them down as he doesn't like MON/Keane and thinks they would be bad for his career. Dunno how true it is, will try find the article. Here it is, http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2015/0511/700399-dunphy-martin-oneill-is-insulting-jack-grealish/? Turns out it was just the guys opinion, so may not be strictly correct

Only other time Falkirk have won the Scottish Cup? 1913. Who won the FA Cup that year? Aston Villa.

She's an ex-The Only Way is Essex cast member apparently, so yes?

No. On the footballing spectrum he's more like Bannan So similar to Xavi then?

... now where have I heard that used in defense of mediocrity before.... ? Agreed. The fear of the unknown should not put us off. You don't think there's a reason to be cautious about our next takeover? Do you think anyone other than lerner would do? I find it astonishing that anyone can have that view I think its normal to be fairly cautious but I'd have to hear some horrendous things to really put me off. I think there's a slim chance the next guy makes me see 5 consecutive years as bad as the last ones. I'm far more excited to move on from Lerner than scared it might be worse. Lambert is a great example of why I'm excited for change. I really really hope Lerner isn't as desperate to get rid of the club as you are. I'd say there's a high chance we'll be in a much worse situation if that's the case. I think you grossly underestimate how bad things can be with the wrong owner in charge. The fact that you think it can't get worse than the last 5 years is hilarious. Don't get me wrong, they've not been fun. But do you really think scraping premier league survival is as bad as it gets? Open your eyes mate. I find your fear of life without Lerner hilarious. We had Doug and I didn't witness 5 consecutive years worse than the last ones so I'll stick with my prediction that I doubt new owners will do worse. I think things could be a lot worse with the wrong owner. I think many bad things could happen to me in the world. It doesn't stop me leaving my house in the morning. And if Lerner cares as much as is claimed, he won't sell us to people we couldn't trust. Portsmouth fans probably thought that with Al Fahim. And Al Faraj. And Chainrai. And Antonov. Blackburn fans with the Venky's too. Hell even Blues with Yueng. The fact is that our "worst" period is battling relegation for few years, but it could be so, so much worse, and whilst Lerner hasn't been great recently it doesn't mean we should want him to sell up to the first person to make an offer. If you think we've been bad and cash strapped under billionaire Lerner's cost cutting, imagine how little cash we'll have from a group scrabbling together the funds just for the asking fee that also includes that dickhead Adams. The grass isn't always greener.

Really happy that Cleverley is playing so well now and has turned it around, but perhaps have a couple of stinkers for the next two though Tom so we can keep you