MessiWillSignForVilla

Pip and Grenn 

 

Book stuff

I'm not sure what to think of the little kid killing Ygrrite, although it was kind of obvious he would, I just think it's more poignant in the book with Jon thinking he's the one who killed her and then looking for the body afterward.

 

Also, I suppose Grenn dying fighting the giant is almost as good as Donal Noye, ahh screw it, 6 men v one giant or a one armed man v a giant, Donal Noye's death was much more bad-ass!!!

 

Also, no Mannis

Didn't watch the game, I was asleep, but got to say I'm encouraged that we only lost 20-15 with practically our whole team missing, hopefully with all our Sarries and Saints players back we can give them a good game next week!

Add in all our currently injured players, and we have a very, very strong squad for 2015

 

 

you dont play for so long at Man United and win what Ferdinand has won by being rubbish...

 

More than likely this was for a player coach role, as he wouldn't have the legs to play every game. but he is far from rubbish

 

No you don't play for so long at Utd if you're rubbish, that's why he moved there 12 years ago for £30m, but that was 12 years ago. Ferdinand is now 35, slow, injury prone and no where near as good as he was. Just because Ferdinand was a top, top defender, doesn't mean he is now. I'd rather Senderos now, who is still in his prime, than Ferdinand now, who is completely past it.

 

Keane played for Utd for 12 years and was a top player, should we stick him in midfield instead of being assistant? Actually, that's not a bad shout...

 

 

At 35 years old - lets say he played 10 games this season and is able to transfer his knowledge of the game etc. onto Clark/Baker/Okore.

 

Would this really be a bad thing?

 

No, but why pay someone what Ferdinand would demand for 10 games a season and some coaching?

As I said, I'd rather Senderos, who is younger, will most likely be able to play more games, be better and cheaper than Ferdinand, who is not what he was.

you dont play for so long at Man United and win what Ferdinand has won by being rubbish...

 

More than likely this was for a player coach role, as he wouldn't have the legs to play every game. but he is far from rubbish

No you don't play for so long at Utd if you're rubbish, that's why he moved there 12 years ago for £30m, but that was 12 years ago. Ferdinand is now 35, slow, injury prone and no where near as good as he was. Just because Ferdinand was a top, top defender, doesn't mean he is now. I'd rather Senderos now, who is still in his prime, than Ferdinand now, who is completely past it.

Keane played for Utd for 12 years and was a top player, should we stick him in midfield instead of being assistant? Actually, that's not a bad shout...

This is just a rumour from a city gossip columnist. No facts.

It probably is just a rumour, and I'm not saying that I believe it, but, why is a random journalist in the finance section of the Telegraph gossiping about Villa? Why is it not in the sport section?

It doesn't make sense, I mean, the rest of the article talks about Lord Mandelson and Tesco, Football gossip is a bit of an odd step to take in that article. Although it is more speculating about Arison's financial movements, but still, it's a strange place for the rumour to pop up.

Meh.

Just like the Holt signing, not nearly as bad as people are making out on here, but not exactly good, just, meh.

Although I would argue this would be a better signing than Holt, as cover for CB is probably our most desperately needed signing other than a CM or Full Back.

Casper is the ghost of Richie Rich!

Well technically 

the other bloke died first so the Mountain was the winner whether he lives or dies.

I think that's the main thing about it,

Trial by combat can't really be a draw, it's more of a first to die sort of thing, and it's fairly obvious Oberyn died first

 

 

That's a fair point ender and John, but I think dropping the price by 50/100 mil would not attract anyone less wealthy because any buyer knows they still would need to invest 500 million (including the initial purchase) over the next 5 years to even stand a chance of getting us anywhere.

Unless of coarse there is no intention of getting us anywhere.

Technically they can only invest £225m over that period

Even if we some how generated a lot more income?

 

It doesn't matter how much income the club makes, the owner is only allowed to put in £45m per year under FFP rules. He could technically invest more through other avenues like sponsorship or any other loop holes in FFP, but as pure cash injections, £45m is the limit.

Haven't been in here for a while because of spoilers and that so apologies if it's been discussed.

 

Anyone think this season has been a bit... meh?

A bit, it's more been more filler than usual, and as a book fan it's been the series where I've had to come to terms with the fact that the show tells the same story but differently, but I think there has been a few scenes that have more than made up for the filler, like Joffrey's death, Lysa's "suicide", Tyrion's "confession" and the trial by combat last night, plus I suspect that there will be a few more scenes in the next two episodes that will also be worth the filler.

I'm especially looking forward to next weeks episode

Looking at the close ups of the kit, the pinstripe behind the badge doesn't come out at the point of the badge, that's going to annoy me no end!

Just move the badge about half a cm to the left and you've got it symmetrical on the line! 

Other than that, nice kit 

I don't mind this appointment. He's been there and done it, so the players will listen to him. Are there any good Irish players that he could tap-up for Villa?

I heard this Jack Grealish fella is alright

 

 

Seems nailed on then. Not sure what to make of it. What will he bring? Will there be another addition? What's does it mean if we get taken over? It poses more questions than answers. Hopefully Keane will stand up to Lambert a bit when he comes up with his formations as the other 2 didn't seem to do anything and for every good result against bigger teams there was 2 bad ones against lower teams. I'd still like an attacking coach of sorts as our movement is awful off the ball!

 

 

I think Keane may be able to help with this. We never have enough backbone to see off the teams we "should" be beating, and for what ever reason Culverhouse couldn't put that backbone into the players. I don't think it was so much as just tactics, just that we seemed to roll over or be too nervous against those teams.

 

Hopefully Keane will add a bit of bite to the players so they can stand up for themselves in the scrappier games.

 

won't that bring even more stupid tackles and unecessary bookings?

 

Tackling and closing down requires technique also, something our players don't really have.

 

To be honest, if being hard to break down against the "lesser" sides in the division means we have to be a bit dirtier, get a few more bookings and give away some silly fouls every so often, then so be it, especially if it means we don't have to worry as much about relegation.

All hypothetical of course though, we have no idea whether Keane will give us some backbone or whether he'll alienate every man and his dog at Villa.

Seems nailed on then. Not sure what to make of it. What will he bring? Will there be another addition? What's does it mean if we get taken over? It poses more questions than answers. Hopefully Keane will stand up to Lambert a bit when he comes up with his formations as the other 2 didn't seem to do anything and for every good result against bigger teams there was 2 bad ones against lower teams. I'd still like an attacking coach of sorts as our movement is awful off the ball!

I think Keane may be able to help with this. We never have enough backbone to see off the teams we "should" be beating, and for what ever reason Culverhouse couldn't put that backbone into the players. I don't think it was so much as just tactics, just that we seemed to roll over or be too nervous against those teams.

Hopefully Keane will add a bit of bite to the players so they can stand up for themselves in the scrappier games.

 

Pete Colley has just been at SSN reporting from Villa Park saying its a done deal and he will become Lamberts assistant when he returns from America.

Orly?

 

Keane has also pulled out of ITV's World Cup coverage "to focus on coaching".

Personally, I think he's the sort of person we need. He may not have been the greatest manager, but he sure as hell was a great captain. He may scare the living shit out of our squad, but maybe it's what they need so that they don't balls up constantly. Maybe he can teach Westwood or Delph a thing or two about playing in holding midfield too.

As for him being "footballing cancer", if captaining a Utd side that won multiple Premier League titles, FA Cups and a Champion's League is footballing cancer, our squad is well and truly ****!

EDIT: Beaten to it. Twice. And by the guy I quoted. 

That was brilliant

Book question relating to the end

couldn't work out if they killed the mountain rather then going with the poison horrible death story! but if that's the case then won't the contest have been a draw? Obviously can't really tell yet, and IMO the mountain is a nothing character, especially in the show, so they might as well get rid of him, but it wouldn't make sense in terms of the result and sentence

He isn't dead, just poisoned I think and Qyburn manages to "save" him:

 

Extra book spoiler

He can't be dead, he's Robert Strong!

Here's an old video of Bob Rich from the Iplayer when he got involved with Beddlington. Could be some interesting foreshadowing about a minute and a half into it.

Not reading anything into it but that's weird that our name was seemingly plucked out of mid air, especially as we weren't publicly for sale then too.

Coincidence I'm sure though.

Good luck to him where ever he goes, will probably be missed, more so to do with us not having any other wingers than his ability.

Ludicrously over rated, "the next David Beckham"   

The only thing I am thinking after watching that video... is that someone actually spent some time making it. Some people just have too much time on their hands and seriously need to get a job.

Well, it was by TalkSport, so they do have a job...

Finished my last exam of the year today, now for 3 months of doing naff all 

I do enjoy it but think its just they have so many different plots at the same time they could have maybe trimmed it out. think if they had more than 10 episodes to play with they could be broadened

The problem though, is that it isn't x number of sub-plots all in one story, it's one huge plot with several sub-plots used to accelerate the main plot that eventually tie back up together (or at least that is assumed).

For example, whilst Brienne's plot-line isn't too interesting and a bit slow now, it's vital to see/set up another plot-line further down the line. Another example is how Ned's plot-line seemed very important at the start, but it's main reason was to further the plot-lines of his children and to highlight the politics used in Kings' Landing.

They can't quite stretch out what they are currently using as the source material is already being fairly stretched out, at least two episodes this season have used a majority of non-book filler.

As the characters become more separated, the story diverges into more and more sub-plots. In the first Book/Season, all the characters were centred around 3/4 places with the majority being in Kings' Landing, but now you have at least 8/9 different locations, because all the characters are no longer in the same place and are going in different directions.

Also, don't forget that the main reason for some of the sub-plots is pretty much purely to highlight the effect of war on the common folk and outside of the capital/cities.

Lambert's just waiting for his pay off, I don't think he seriously wants to be here. Unfortunately Lerner will not sanction this at the moment, so what can he do, but to 'go again'!!

I think Lambert showed when he joined us that if he didn't want to be here, he wouldn't be here.

I though RL would have known about the Villa intelligence operative at BHX by now. Seems strange that he'd let a potential buyer advertise his intentions by flying in with his own jet???

 

My bet is that he's probably even heard the name "The Trees" after OGSgate. Doesn't add up for me.

What's Lerner going to do about it though?

He's not exactly going to convince any prospective buyers to not use their own jet. If you had a private jet, would you fly any other way? I doubt a billionaire is going to want to go on a commercial flight when he can get places in more comfort and I assume quicker with his own jet. Randy could be willing to lend any buyers his jet, but then that information would be just as intriguing as why would Lerner make PL and PF fly out to NY if he (or at least his jet) was to come to the UK himself just a few days later.

It's not as if Randy can embargo the information either, he can't get TheTrees sacked or even get him to not pass on information he notices.

Even flying into another airport would be a fairly unreasonable request, why fly somewhere to then have another 1hr30-2hr drive on top when you can fly to somewhere 30 minutes away from your destination.

Doesn't matter whether Randy knows about TheTrees' occasional information passing, he can't exactly stop it.

Guys stop it its pathetic. Lamberts staying and there's no buyer. How do people read these comments and then go 100% the other way and believe we will be taken over tomorrow??

It's not the X files, what you're reading is fact can't you accept that?

I'd love to know where this "fact" is from.

All we know is the club is up for sale, if you don't like the speculation, then stay out of the thread clearly named "£200 Million US Takeover".

If Red Bull were to take over we'd obviously get them as a shirt sponsor (no one would have a problem with that) and they'd probably try and change the name of the ground (don't think that would be too controversial either if it came with heavy investment) but I honestly can't see them trying to completely change the crest and colours of the club like they've done with other smaller teams. I just think they'd see it as being too much trouble. Besides, having a Premier League team like Villa playing in Red Bull Arena (or whatever they call it) with Red Bull plastered across their shirts would probably be enough exposure.

But then why would they buy us? It would be much more sensible for them to just sponsor us, why shell out the extra £50m+ per year for no gain?

Thankfully, maybe hopefully, this is why I think this Red Bull stuff is bullshit. It makes no sense for them to buy us if they can't change us to Red Bull Birmingham/Aston or whatever it would be, or change our colours. As Trent said, it's literally the reason they do it, and you'd hope the FA would be smart enough to block such actions.