MessiWillSignForVilla

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.

John, I'll ask this again, how is expecting a team, who almost got relegated last season, to finish this season between 10th-14th anything other than realistic? How is it lowered expectations? Should we be finishing 8th+? Surely lowered expectations would be accepting that we are relegation fodder and expecting to finish around 16th-17th again. The fact is, we have a bit of a shit team, so it is unrealistic to expect us to finish much higher than 10th. Are fans happy that last season we were in a relegation battle? Hell no. Are fans happy with this season? No, it's been very disappointing. Are the fans happy that some players haven't shown the improvement we thought they would? No. But if going through a few years of shite means that when we get back to where we "should" be we are there for longer than 3 seasons, then I'm fine to battle through for a few rough years. I expect us to be back in and around the top 5/6 within the next 4/5 years, depending where we finish this season, I expect us to be in Southampton's position next season, knocking on the door of the top 8 but likely to not finish higher than 8th.

Yup, just one of Leigh Francis' characters like Avid Merrion. It's a shit character though.

I thought the rest of the Arctic Monkeys did very well to not burst out laughing during that speech, I thought it was brilliant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26267220

Just checked the stats for the Arsenal game on BBC Sport Safe to say Bayern might be dicking them then?

Started a new Villa save using the unofficial update. Just lost 4-0 at home to Palace... They had 3 shots on target, 4 overall, with an OG where Vlaar walked up to my goal line from 25 yards out, turned around and booted it into Guzan's back I also had 27 shots myself, with about 15 on target, no surprise Speroni played like he was better than Banks. Sometimes this game just pisses me off...

I was hoping against all hope that that fire might have been real then

Gonna watch it for the Arctic Monkey performance, and then switch off almost immediately. Music shouldn't have award ceremonies, it's not a competition. Also it's hugely subjective, so you'll never get the right "best band" or whatever.

I wouldn't class lambert as bringing those players into the team. Baker had played under Houllier and McLeish but got suspended and injured so didn't get more appearances. 14 games for Weimann is a decent amount in his breakthrough season. Clark and Bannan (more so Clark, who lets not forget is has the scond highest villa appearances behind gabby) had had ample opportunities within the first team prior to Lambert. Hell Carruthers himself even got a couple of run outs for mcLeish. So far Lambert has only given Williams and Burke game time, and that has only been in minuscule amounts. Baker started 6 games under McLeish, had been loaned out for the first half of the season and only made his first appearance of the season in January. Last season he started 25 times, more than 4x the amount from McLeish's season. Weimann started 5 under McLeish and was loaned out to Watford, only to be brought back as back up when injuries hit. Again, 25 starts last season, 5x more than 11-12. The fact is these two were players that were back ups to the first team before Lambert came and have been semi-permanent first teamers since. If that isn't playing our academy players, I don't know what is. As for Clark and Bannan, I only said you could argue a case for them too, as Clark almost doubled the amount of Villa appearances he had in the previous 3 seasons in just one, and Bannan started double the amount of games than the season before. The assertion wasn't that Lambert doesn't give our academy players debut's and chances, it was that he doesn't play them, but there are at least 4 players that he has played considerably more than they had previously been played before he came.

Of course people have lowered there expectations of where we should currently​ be, as I'm sure you've noticed we've been in 2 - arguably 3, it depends how you see Houllier's season - relegation battles in the last 3 seasons and could be heading for another. But that doesn't change where people think we should eventually be or where we want to be. I fail to see how thinking that a year after a relegation battle that expecting to finish between 10-14th is anything other than realistic, and how that is defending Lerner or Lambert is baffling. It's called being patient, seeing that it is better off for the club in the long term to build slowly towards getting back to the top, instead of chucking money at it, which I think is the only way for a quick fix at this point of time and in our situation. Every Villa fan out there wants us to be at the top again, but we should be aiming to get there sustain-ably so that we stay there and don't fall back on our arses when the bubbles bursts.

Baker and Weimann. Both may have been given there debuts under different managers, but they hardly featured during those seasons, Baker only played 8 times and Weimann 14 under McLeish and not many of those appearances were starts, last season they got 26 and 30 respectively, with both starting 25. You could argue for both Clark and Bannan too, who both started a considerable more amount of games than the seasons beforehand.

I think last season his attacking ability covered over the cracks defensively. Last season he would defend by reading the play and intercepting the ball and counter attacking before the winger had a chance to control the ball. This season he's been nowhere near as effective going forward and it has shown up what he lacks defensively. I like him and think he could be a good RB as long as he got his head down and worked on his defensive qualities, but he has seemingly done something to piss off Lambert and looks like he could be gone in the summer, shame. Even if he stays, we need a new RB in the summer, I think Lowton has rested on his laurels this season as he is the only natural RB in the squad, he needs someone to challenge him and keep him on his toes.

I think every Villa fan thinks we should - and wants us to - be challenging near the top and regularly finishing in the top 6, but I personally want us to be there regularly, I want us to be knocking on the door of the top 4, maybe even push for the title occasionally too. And if that means we have to take a few years of shite whilst we build the foundations, then so be it. I think the way we are currently going about things is the way to build a sustainable future. Next year for me is when the real questions about this "plan" can be asked, we should have built those foundations by now and should be looking to add quality and aim higher up the league. If it wasn't for Houllier's heart problems, I reckon we would have already built them and be knocking back on the door of top 6/8. I think that was the plan all along with Houllier, an experienced manager to come in and build the foundations for a younger manager such as Martinez or Lambert to come in and finish the job. Then we ballsed up with McLeish and had to start again with Lambert from even further back than where Houllier started. Look at the MON years. Yes, it was fantastic and probably the only time during my lifetime where I've felt properly proud to be a Villa fan. But what have we got to show for it? A couple of memories of Wembley and a Europa League group stage. In other words, naff all. For the three years we had on the lower limit of the top, we've only got memories and 4 years of crap that followed. How we got there was unsustainable and left us in a pile of shit. I want us to be sustainable in the upper echelons of the league. I want to be mentioned in the same breath as at least Everton, Tottenham, Man Utd and Newcastle, not Swansea, Stoke, West Ham and Norwich. I want Cup wins and forays into the latter stages of European competitions. But I'm also realistic over the fact this won't be possible without unsustainable spending for another few years. I'd rather it take 4/5 years to get to that point than 2 if it meant we were there for longer and also meant we didn't go to absolute shite when the bubble bursts, which I think the way we are going will do for us, if done properly. As for lowered expectations, it's only immediate expectations that are lowered, as it's unrealistic to expect a side who only survived relegation thanks to Wigan losing away to Arsenal days before the last game of the season, to be finishing any higher than 10th-14th. Long term expectations will always be for us to be around 5/6th or higher, but short term will always be changing and be determined by what happened the season before and what is realistic for us to expect in terms of improvement. If we want to be back where we "belong" we need to build slowly to get there, unless someone like Bill Gates suddenly decides he wants to bankroll us. It will take slow progression so that when we get there we will have a squad that is able to cope with the demands of challenging that high in the league, and we will have a squad that not only will we be able to build upon but it will be able to win Cups too.

I have to disagree, most religions have a wide cultural and geographic and ethnic diversity in it's believers. using such arguments you could say supporters of a football club are a race, or members of a political party. You could, and I'm not necessarily saying it should be defined as that. I'm just pointing out that because race is more of a concept that has various definitions depending where you look, of which I've provided two that include religion, that it doesn't necessarily only mean ethnicity. Biologically race means varying phenotypes in the DNA of an animal, but then that would discount things such as Nationality which is often under the umbrella of racism. Race isn't a real thing in the way it's often used, it's more of a social concept, which is why Racism is so stupid, Humans can't/shouldn't be defined and grouped together based purely on similar genetic make-up, attributes and beliefs.

No it quite plainly can't. It can, in some ways: That's from Encyclopedia Britannica - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/488030/race And from a slightly less reliable source, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_classification): Although it often refers to ethnicity, it can mean be used in relation to Religion, though it is rare that it does. Race seems to be a fairly undefined concept, and there are quite a few varying definitions, depending on what your source is. EDIT: Should have added at the start that Racism is defined as considering different races can be inferior/superior or should be treated differently, which is why I put the definitions for race.

No, because it's a different stadium. Lansdowne Road was knocked down and a new stadium built on top of the same site. It's known as the Aviva Stadium as it has no other name, and has never had any other name, in the same way the Emirates is known as the Emirates instead of anything else.

He was given N'Zogbia's number in January if that means anything.