MessiWillSignForVilla

Not forgetting players like Burns, Ford and Watson who haven't really played for England yet too. Just looking at our current backs, I think we have a really exciting 5-10 years ahead of us (providing Youngs finds form again): 9. Youngs(24), 10. Farrell(22)/Ford(20)/Burns(23), 11. May(23)/Yarde(21), 12. Tuilagi(22)/Twelvetrees(25), 13. Burrell(26)/Eastmond(22), 14. Nowell(20)/Watson(19), 15. Brown (28)/Goode(25). A very young and exciting group of backs, all except Brown could easily play for another 8-10 years, so we could do with finding an up and coming FB, although Joseph can play FB too I think, and he's only 22. And not to mention forwards aged 25 and under include - Marler, Vunipola (both), Launchbury, Lawes, and Morgan, plus Kvesic and Thomas who are in the current squad, but I've not seen much of them. I'm getting excited about the Wales game now, I think we'll be setting up the Italy game as the Championship clincher

He was crap, not because of shit tactics, but because he just doesn't care anymore. Simple as that imo. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but when the game finished, Benteke instantly walked off the pitch and down the tunnel whilst the rest of the team "faced the music" so to speak and clapped the crowd and shook hands with the Newcastle players. He may have been gutted we lost, but I doubt he was anymore gutted than the rest of the team that he didn't have time for the thousands of fans who travelled up to Newcastle for the game. Also, he was lazy on Sunday. Plenty of times he got played into similar positions to when he treated Smalling like a paper bag, and he just sort of jogged there and did nothing. Not forgetting how he butchered a 3v2 with a lazy pass straight at Williamson. He was lazy and obviously doesn't care anymore. He's gone, mentally, and he's just waiting until he gets a move in the summer, which with his current form, he's gonna be very surprised when he doesn't get it. And yet Bennett was solely blamed for the goal for doing the same thing despite Bacuna and Vlaar's awful defending?

brazil was only candidate as FIFA made them the only one Argentina, Brazil and Colombia wanted it and CONMEBOL unanimously agreed that Brazil should host, so only Brazil bid. Colombia also bid but withdrew, and even if they hadn't Brazil would've been the better option.

Brazil was the only candidate, FIFA had no choice really.

Hodgson has said he might employ a "penalty psychologist" for the world cup. Because that's what we need Why not just focus on winning the game within 120 minutes?

We'll have to play Morgan then, not a bad replacement I'm sure many teams would love to in be our situation with our No.8's. Good news about Manu too, Tigers could do with him too. I'd love to see a centre partnership of him and Burrell, or him and Twelvetrees, again not a bad situation we find ourselves in, I think this England team is shaping up to be the best in recent times, possibly since 2003.

Dead leg I think, shouldn't be out for too long, hopefully.

Was easily our best player today imo. Some of his touches were fantastic, he was constantly making space for himself and the rest of the midfield, made some nice passes and even some good tackles. In essence, he dictated the midfield today. Hopefully he'll be back soon, I never want to see Delph that close to our box again. The midfield just looked lost without him and didn't really know what to do.

Sorry, edited it now, but he's already a bit of a badass anyway

When I was 6, I dropped a ceramic piggy bank, it shattered and a huge, sharp piece caught my hand and almost cut off my thumb. On Mother's day too, what lovely present

This is the main thing that bugs me about the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26289318?r=1

So people who don't go to the games shouldn't have their views taken as seriously? I don't think that was the original point being made. It was very much what was implied. The whole point of "it's easier to patient if you don't go to games", was very much in the manner of, if you went to games you'd be much more unhappy, which implies that if you don't go to games your patience is less valid. It implies people are only patient because they don't/can't go to games.

So people who don't go to the games shouldn't have their views taken as seriously?

So because I'm a student who lives 4 hours away from Birmingham, my view are less valid? Watching on TV and streams is the only way I can watch Villa anymore, but because I don't/can't go to games, my patience means less? Bollocks. I'm going this weekend as it's my first chance to got in three years, so will my patience be valid come Monday if I still believe Lambert is the right/best man for the job currently? And just to clarify, any sentence that starts with "This isn't/I'm not, but..." usually is.

Because they had only won 1 game in 10? Not a great record.

Professional Dosser, aka Student.

Also, next seasons Europa League will be the first that the winners qualify for the Champions League too, another reason Utd should, and probably will, take it seriously. If they qualify

Whilst I don't quite agree that only 50% of a managers signings are a success, it's quite surprising some of the terrible players Fergie signed. Using that guy's rating system, which is obviously hugely subjective, Fergie averaged about 5.5/10 for his signings. Again, I'm surprised he signed so many duds, and quite a few recently too. I suppose the main difference is Utd didn't have to rely on those players to play for their first team that often.

"Droll" means "amusing". Glad you enjoyed it. I also thought that 'Droll' had a similar meaning to bleak. It means uninteresting yet amusing, I think. It's almost a perfect definition for the Boring thread. No it doesn't. "amusing in a quaint or odd manner; comical" Nothing to do with being uninteresting. Ah yes, I somehow misread unusual as uninteresting when I looked it up

Kroos will not be leaving Bayern. Only Neuer has more starts than him, and only Lahm and Alaba have the same amount of starts. He is way out of Utd's league, he is starting week in, week out for, imo, the best team in the world. How do a team hoping to get a Europa League spot this year have chance of getting him? The only team you'd realistically leave Bayern for currently is Real Madrid, or maybe Barca, but definitely not Utd.

Not anymore, the definition was changed to mean figuratively too.

"Droll" means "amusing". Glad you enjoyed it. I also thought that 'Droll' had a similar meaning to bleak. It means uninteresting yet amusing, I think. It's almost a perfect definition for the Boring thread.

That's your opinion, but I think we have enough in our squad that with a few signings we could challenge Newcastle and Southampton, as these are who I said we'll challenge with, I've not said we'll finish higher than 8th, that's too far out of our reach currently, but we could definitely finish between 10th-8th imo. And also if I'm going to be disappointed with expecting that, how have I got "Low expectations"? (I know you've not said this, just making a point ) You're right, there is no excuse for some of the performances this season, on the whole it's not been great. I believe we'll get £20m again in the summer, I see no reason why we shouldn't, it's roughly the same Lambert's had to spend the last 2 seasons and the wage bill should be sorted by now. I think if it goes on 3/4 players instead of 8/9 we can really improve the squad, and put us on a similar level to Newcastle and Southampton. Maybe you don't have faith in Lambert, but I'd like to see what he can do now our wage bill should be sorted, and I still have faith we can do well under him. When we appointed him, I wanted stability, he was the 6th person to take charge of our first team in just over 3 years, and that's not good enough. I think he should at least see out his contract. I don't think it would take an overhaul, I think Guzan, Vlaar, Okore, Delph, Gabby, Bertrand*, Benteke and even Weimann and Westwood could all get into Newcastle and Southampton's teams, even some higher up, if played in the right system. There's been a lot of criticism of Gabby recently and it seems people are forgetting he was one of our more important players under MON, when we finished 6th 3 seasons in a row, and I don't think he's gotten much worse since then, so I think it's unfair to say he's not a top 8 player. What we need is the right signings for the rest of our team to excel, we need someone who can do the dirty work instead of Westwood, we need someone who can be relied upon for when Vlaar is injured, and we need someone to provide chances for Benteke/Gabby. As for relying on 4 players, don't most teams? That's the point of building a spine, so you can build a team around it. How many teams would do badly without there "spine"? All but the very best. We have a spine of Guzan, Vlaar, Delph and Benteke/Gabby. Now we need to flesh out the team around it so we can improve. *Assuming we try buy him in the summer. Your opinion, but I think you're wrong, I think with the right signings we will not be anywhere near the relegation spots. I see progression as higher up the table with more points, and nothing less. Even if you don't see it that way, there is progression if that happens, no matter how small. I think if you compare us to last season there has been improvement in some areas. Our defence is much better, we have more goals and points than this point last season, and I still expect us to go on a run similar to last seasons. It has come at the expense of how we play, which is disappointing and frustrating, but I do see progression no matter how small. The season has been disappointing, but then again, I thought we'd finish between 10th-13th, so I can't really be too unhappy, as I didn't really expect more. I'd have hoped we would have had some more good performances this season, but it hasn't happened, and that is very disappointing and frustrating.

Until he was far away from the players we were heading lower and lower in the league. Which is just not true, after we signed Bent and Makoun, Houllier's first proper signings, and up until GMac took over, we won 5, drew 4 and lost only 3, which is the form that undoubtedly saved us that season. We may have technically and mathematically only been safe with 1 or 2 games to go, but we reached the total we needed to stay up with Houllier's last win, then GMac "saved" us.