MessiWillSignForVilla

YES! West Brom been shite all game apart from a moment of brilliance from Brunt, deservedly back in it!

WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON! Our Derbies are never exciting!

From limited knowledge of the Dutch League and FM, yes, but more in the Westwood typed mould of defensive mid. A passer who dictates play not a tackler. Admittedly I've not seen him play much, but I think that's the type of player he is. I'm sure someone with a better knowledge of the Dutch League will correct me.

If we were Spanish or Italian, with the future King, PM, and former Bank of England chairman as fans, we would have dominated the league for the past 10-20 years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dugdale_(Aston_Villa_chairman)

Also happened to be Chairman during a period in which we won the league and European Cup, more than plausible that he supports a club which was owned by his uncle during a successful period.

We can't have more loans, what you've said is wrong. The rules are, you are allowed 2 long-term domestic loans per window, 4 in total, but only 2 at any one time, with long term being defined as starting during one window and ending in another, and only 1 loanee from the same club. Then you are allowed essentially limitless foreign loan deals, and I think 4 short term loans too, although I'm not sure about it. We currently have 2 domestic long term loans in Bertrand and Holt, if we wanted more loan deals, we'd have to look abroad. Ipso facto, we won't get Ince unless it's permanent.

Well, that is what teams tend to do when they loan out youth players to get experience. Teams tend to ask for fees for players close to the first team that won't start week in week out. Zaha isn't really on the brink of the Utd first team, so it's a lot for what is essentially a youth player. May as well get in someone like Hoolahan permanently for that much than gamble on someone like Zaha for 6 months.

Wasn't that about the time Pulis was having his little cry about diving too? and then he didn't admit Pennant dived for the free kick That is one of the few games that have massively pissed me off. We better not sign that dickhead.

Everton paid Sports Interactive to get their data earlier than anyone else, so I'm sure it's contributed. It's not a bad idea to be honest. I don't think any player should ever be signed PURELY on football manager. But if it's a case of "There's some 16 year old in Uruguay who's rated ridiculously highly, go and watch him for a month and see how he plays" then it's not totally ridiculous. By why would the guys at Football Manager know about that kid and people working in football didn't? I would be surprised if FM has a vast global scouting network which is better equipped than the professional clubs. It would be far easier to just randomise the top prospects than actually try and discover and predict them for real. Well the FM stats are maintained by volunteers, quite often fans of the respective clubs (thousands of volunteers, by the way, if I'm not mistaken). Like Andy Clarke here on VT. A lot of them are fanatical about the stats. I'm not saying they're a better judge of player, but it is conceivable that someone like Andy at a club based in Uruguay (to continue my example) would have seen a prospect before Everton's head scout? I'd say so. I doubt any club's scouting network is aware of every player at every club in the world. Like I said, I'm not saying it should be the judge of a player. But a little flag to say "apparently this kid is a real prospect, and he's one we've never looked at" is quite clever, I think. Quite a few clubs use football manager to identify potential targets too I believe I wouldn't be surprised if Seamus Coleman was discovered on football manager. Pure speculation, but 2008 was the first year everton bought the rights to the games database to get access early and the next summer they signed a virtual unknown for 50k from a tiny Irish club. Slightly OT but to add to the question of why would guys at Football Manager know more than guys in football, the volunteers/researchers for Football Manager often go to every single game, home and away, watch all the reserve and youth games and have a pretty extensive knowledge of the clubs the research for. Although you probably shouldn't completely judge a player on how good they are on Football Manager as it is a game, I'd say their ratings are more hit than miss and often quite reliable. As for Hoolahan, although he'd improve the side, if it's true that Norwich will sell him but not to us, it's time to move on, let them have an unhappy player bringing the morale at the club down as they approach a relegation battle. I have a suspicion we will get him though and this seems very much like the Steer deal, where Norwich will be essential saying "Big, nasty Villa came in for our player, but we fought really hard to keep him and we screwed them over for the fee, so it's a victory really" by making the deal look like it was massively advantageous for them, when in reality it was inevitable and an OK deal all round.

Aston Villa FC ‏@AVFCOfficial2m The Big Interview: @KidderminsterFC hero and @htafcdotcom forward @Lolleyj10 talks about Villa. Read here: http://bit.ly/1eJYetR #AVFC

The thing that annoys me with commentators pronouncing foreign names is when they get it wrong because they don't know how to pronounce and are just guessing. I don't mind Eden Azar or Santi Cathorla, as they're quite close to what they are pronounced like. It's when it's stuff like David Luisch, as that's pronounced Luiz. Also when they don't bother, like with David Villa, in Spanish b's and v's are pronounced very similarly, so it should be something like Dabid Biya, but we get the french pronunciation of his first name and whatever the commentator can be bothered to say. If you don't know how to say, just pronounce it like you'd pronounce it English. The most annoying thing is that I do it too, as I know people wouldn't know what I'm on about and probably laugh at me if I tried to do them properly.

He was in one of the Grant Holt training shots on the OS, so I assume he's working his way back to full fitness.

I don't think so really. It may be a bit OTT, but people have a right to be annoyed by this. Lowton showed last season he has the potential to be a very good RB and could certainly become a fan favourite, he already was a bit, especially after that goal. And this was one of the main reasons many on here were confused and disappointed by his absence early in the season. Now it's slowly trickling through that the cause of this is rifts with Lambert, secretly moving to Sheffield - ignoring club policy to live close to Brum -, and then showing up late for training - there may have been a crash, but he wouldn't even be on the M1 if he lived nearer to Brum -. And I wouldn't be surprised if you could throw little effort in training in there too. All this because he can't live an hour away from Sheffield? If I was earning Premier League wages, hell even top end League 2 wages, I'd make an effort to obey club policy and move within 20 minutes of the club. It's not good enough. People are annoyed because he's throwing away the opportunity to play Premier League, and for Villa, for years to come because he won't move to Brum, he needs to get a grip. But if he can't handle living far away from Sheffield, I'm sure we can sell him back to Sheff Utd in League 1. People are annoyed about a rumour and have no idea behind the reasons why it may even have happened or how many times it has happened. Added to that they have no idea about club rules or his famliy circumstances and reasons for living away Also your "If I was on premier league wages" is a bit holier than thou. It's been reported that he was disciplined for turning up late to training, and his missus confirmed this on twitter and stated he had an excuse as there was a crash that he caused traffic he got stuck in. Not much digging can tell you this was probably probably the one on the M1, which indicates he is living north of Mansfield/Chesterfield. No, we don't know the exact club policy on where players should live, but this isn't the first time this issue has reared. It happened with Ireland and I think one or two other players two within the last couple seasons, including Lowton a few months ago. So I think it's safe to assume this is a rule at the club, but we don't know the specifics. So Lowton shouldn't have been caught up by this traffic. It's not as if this is all about this one incident why people are getting upset, he's been crap all season and not really been showing much effort, so to now hear he's showing up late to training, and possibly breaking club policy in the process, is frustrating. Fans don't like to see when players seemingly throw away what they've got. Maybe we are jumping to conclusions and Lambert is just really strict on when players show, no excuses, but I think it's extreme given Lowtons excuse. As for my comment about wages, I don't see how saying I would move closer to BH if i was earning thousands per week shows a smug sense of moral superiority.

I don't think so really. It may be a bit OTT, but people have a right to be annoyed by this. Lowton showed last season he has the potential to be a very good RB and could certainly become a fan favourite, he already was a bit, especially after that goal. And this was one of the main reasons many on here were confused and disappointed by his absence early in the season. Now it's slowly trickling through that the cause of this is rifts with Lambert, secretly moving to Sheffield - ignoring club policy to live close to Brum -, and then showing up late for training - there may have been a crash, but he wouldn't even be on the M1 if he lived nearer to Brum -. And I wouldn't be surprised if you could throw little effort in training in there too. All this because he can't live an hour away from Sheffield? If I was earning Premier League wages, hell even top end League 2 wages, I'd make an effort to obey club policy and move within 20 minutes of the club. It's not good enough. People are annoyed because he's throwing away the opportunity to play Premier League, and for Villa, for years to come because he won't move to Brum, he needs to get a grip. But if he can't handle living far away from Sheffield, I'm sure we can sell him back to Sheff Utd in League 1.

So, which Championship player are we signing tomorrow to completely deflate the mood on here after today's good result?

Great result, would have definitely taken that before the game. Frustrating and disappointing that we we gave up a 2-0 lead though. Weimann looked good, as did Benteke at times. Very impressed with Bertrand, Holt was OK. First half was the best I've seen Vila play since the 6-1 last season IMO, hope we keep it up. Ref had a **** shocker.

Don't like what Bacuna did, but Sturridge should be off

He's been **** conned there!

Nah, the major difference is that Big_John was positive and slightly optimistic before kick off

fiver on Villa to win with Benteke to score at 25-1.... :D

Looks like Grant "The Saviour" Holt might be on in a bit...

ANDI!!!!!!!!!!

Not a free kick but looks like he could actually be injured. I shouldn't cheer injuries but,