MessiWillSignForVilla

Just beat Liverpool 1-0 away, to go second, with a grand total of 30% possession Wonder how the fans would react to that! I also had 25% possession for the majority of the match. I had to switch to comprehensive highlights so I could actually watch it, it was so boring.

Exactly the same for me. I think Allardyce has got enough about him to get more points with West Ham than Pulis will get with Palace.

FFP still counts towards the league IIRC, just not as restrictive, something like you can't make more than a £100m loss over a three year period, something we had done when it was announced.

I see it every day when I go to Uni, the way the road my Uni is on is orientated means that you're staring straight at it when you're walking towards it, a bit strange as it's sort of framed by the buildings too. It sort of just looms over the city. You get used to it though.

Without Carroll, I'm not sure West Ham have the strikers that are able to bully Clark and Baker, I'm sure they'll be fine.

and Martinez before Rodgers! Its interesting that Rodgers thought it was totally wrong for Cardiff to sack Mackay but Swansea were right to sack Laudrup. Its very harsh on Laudrup. One bad spell and he goes. its a good job our chairman isn't so over-reactive! It's not one bad spell though, after the cup win, they only won 2 of their remaining 11 games, with only 1 from the 4 before too, 3 from 15 isn't very good. Add in to that their unimpressive form this season, and only 1 win from their last 10, it seems as if recent form isn't a blip, but their original good form under him was the blip.

In terms of immediate effect, it's a toss up between Keane and Bent, they both arguably kept us up the seasons we signed them. But for long term signings, has to be Young followed by Carew.

Use google docs, it's just as good and free Not too sure about compatibility with MS office though.

I wanted Bennett back in the first team when Luna was playing, but I don't think he'll ever get past Bertrand to get there. If we sign Bertrand permanently, I'm more than happy to have Bennett as back up, he's a good enough left back for where we are now, but I think the most he can hope for is back up for where we want to be. Would definitely rather have him over Luna.

I saw a pretty good article which kind of explained why that is, I'll try to paraphrase; Essentially, when Seinfeld first aired, it was revolutionary, it broke all the rules of being a sitcom, which is what made it so great because it was so different. A lot of the things they did on the show broke the norm and it's what set it apart from all the other sitcoms of the time. However, since then, what Seinfeld did has become the norm, because every sitcom since has tried to copy them as it was a winning formula. When you go back to watch Seinfeld now, it seems outdated and cliché. But the reason it seems like that was because it wasn't at the time and they have been copied ever since because it was so brilliant at the time.

Considering he went off with a twinge and is doubtful for the weekend, I'm gonna guess we'll next see him against Cardiff. Hamstring injuries are dodgy, but if he came off straight away after a slight strain, there's a very good chance he won't be out for long.

Yup, it's ridiculous that this kid is considered "the next Wilshere" who would probably rake in upwards of £30m, yet we get so little. EPPP working at it's finest to keep costs down for the big clubs. And considering he's had a personal meeting with Hodgson, I'd say his move has gotten him closer to international football than any of our English first teamers. (Shouldn't this be in other football anyway?)

And who says football fans aren't mature and petty, eh?

Why would that cause a feud? The Isle of Sheppey is shite... Just kidding, I've never been there

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/texas-aggies/20140204-despite-career-ending-injury-texas-am-still-honoring-recruit-collins-scholarship.ece Maybe not of interest to many on here, but I thought it was a bit heart warming that this kid hasn't had his whole life ruined by an injury when he was given an opportunity of a life time, I'm sure many universities* would have just cancelled his scholarship. It's good that he gets a chance at a good education despite what's happened to him. *Not sure if this has happened before in the US though.

Fixed

Ok then, since I don't waste my money on the Sun, was it a private facebook account? If so, I take back what I said.

Wouldn't like VP to be renamed, but if it brought in £10m or so, I wouldn't mind it being officially "Red Bull Arena" or something like that. Of course it's all PR bullshit and should be totally disregarded.

No he's been injured for the vast majority of his tenure so you would think he deserves some match time then - but seeing as we hoofed both cups up the wall there is no likelihood of game time as Lambert loves Westwood and his weak set pieces - and that's the only player I could see him replacing, i.e. the type of defensive holding midfielder that does neither of those things. Everytime a striker is injured Lambert plays Kea or Tonev, I think he would rather sleep with the ghost of jimmy saville than play Gardener or Helenius, if things get desperate his go to 15 min cameo man is Bowery Ah, the old ask a question then use the response to bring up and argue a completely different point (a point also irrelevant to the original reply). Because we haven't seen enough threads get derailed into Lambert arguments recently...

You've kind of proven Stefan's point though haven't you? She's done it in a public forum (though I can't read the article so I'm guessing), something Stefan has said he hasn't, and she is very stupid and should be held accountable for doing that. However, if she'd done it on a private facebook page, that only had her friends on it, then, IMO, that's perfectly fine. Also, I think the key wording in that article is, "before nominating someone else to do the same." She's not dared anyone to one up her, or do anything better than her, she's dared someone to do what she did, and it's only a shot, something many people dare their friends to do down the pub every single day. The main problem with what she's done is that she's done it in a public forum, where everyone can see her, not just a few of her friends.

Exactly. Only a very small minority didn't give him a chance. It's annoying that the terrible job he did here gets overlooked by many. At the same point in the season, McLeish had 28 points from 24 games, one more point than Lambert has managed so far. I'm pretty sure quite a few were still giving him time at this point? IIRC, the ones who wanted him gone at this point were the ones who wanted him out from the start. I don't know about anyone else, but the major turning point for me under McLeish was when we didn't win any of our last 10 games of the season, just 1 win less than the record Laudrup currently has, that some on here want to replace Lambert with.

Whilst this is true, he's also done nothing to suggest he doesn't warrant a new deal. He's 21 and had some awful injuries, I have my personal doubts over whether he'll make it, but after such a promising youth career with us I think the least he deserves is to have a full, injury free season with us before we decide to pass on him.

I'm happy with Lambert having £20m to spend (net) in the summer, as long as it goes on 3/4 players, preferably Bertrand, a couple of midfielders and a CB. It's pointless discussing this now though, it's 4 months away until it really becomes relevant, we don't even know which division we'll be in (most likely Premier League), let alone what type of players we will be able to attract or how much we can spend. At least before this story, the bickering over Lambert wasn't using hypothetical situations which only serve to support whatever side of the argument you're on.

Let's not kid ourselves here, Milner was good for us, but it wasn't through any sort of spectacular technical ability, it was his work rate and the general try hard attitude he had. Of course he was good technically otherwise he wouldn't be considered a great player for us, but I think his Man City career has shown he wasn't anything special, especially when he's used as a winger. What both Bacuna and Milner have is something that's very hard to teach and coach into players, but it is more than possible for Bacuna to be coach to a similar technical ability as Milner. It's certainly plausible that given the right sort of opportunities and the right coaching that Bacuna could be just as good as Milner.

I don't know about everyone else, but the reason I wanted Bent gone wasn't he couldn't play with Benteke, but that we didn't create enough chances for him to justify £60k a week or whatever it was, and in the rest of the game he was a complete passenger as he is piss poor at his general all round play and offered nothing else. Yet we've signed Holt. Oh, sorry, I forgot we signed Holt on a permanent, £60k per week contract and is a goal poacher. It's not as if when he made his name in the premier league it was for being a hold up type striker who brought other players into the game, the complete opposite to Bent and much more suited to our current team. I'm still reserving complete judgement on Holt, in his entire 100 minutes or so for his Villa career, I thought he's done a job when coming on as a sub and was poor when he started. It's ridiculous to compare Holt to Bent, I don't even know why anyone would even think of comparing them.