romavillan

watch the youtube vid, most of it is him covering a lot of ground to win the ball back get his head up and pick out a great pass.

nah don't buy all the too lightweight stuff to be honest. hopefully it's a trend that will die down a bit that you have to be built like a brick shit house to play modern football. what matters in the middle of the park is getting the ball back and moving it well when you have it. you can be any size and be good at either or both of those things. i don't think we need to spend more money in the middle of the park, maybe a wide player so we have some options to change the formation and be more direct and play wide. i'd like to think PL can find a good pairing and back up from the central players we have. KEA, herd, delph, GG, bannan and ireland means that we have 6 players competing for central spots in the midfield, chuck in zog, holman, carruthers, albrighton and that's 10 competing for 4/5 places depending on the formation. i think that's a shitload better than what PL had to pick from at norwich and expect us to have a better midfield as a result.

if you're THAT interested i can tranlsate it a bit better than google would! not much more than the fact that he's become a symbol of fair play after he refused 200 grand to throw a cup game against cesena and his resulting fame has led to an "important"/decent/big offer to come to villa and have a role in the youth set up... nothing about teaching the butt, or bringing out the gimp.

big offer to coach in the youth set up apparently. dunno what a big offer is though in that context! prob €200,000

cool, cheers, interesting stuff. i'd tip weimann in front of fonz. if PL can bring either of them through to some sort of success we're on to a winner though,,,,

well at 23 he's not exactly near his peak though either (lets call it 28, 29 for a midfielder). i think he can only get better. if we do get a couple of nice surprises from the academy set pushing for first team action, then that's like 2 signings as well. @kevan: did you see my question to you a couple of pages back?

i'd expect us to do better than norwich did last year then, so at the least mid table with no relegation scrapes or brown trouser moments for months on end like last seasons fare! re: the youngsters comign through, i reckon we'll get at least a coupel of good suprises this year. bannan, albrighton (when he gets fit), carruthers, herd, gardner, clark, baker, dj, weimann... i'd say at least 2 of them are gonna make a real step forward this year.

i'd say had rather than have zero confidence. the point abotu our squad being better in every department to what norwich had at their disposal is a very good one. i take it you don't rate any of the youngsters then?

Is the Wet Spam game the end of the window then? Nope, but the points dropped or won before the window closes still counts at the end of the season we have a better squad already than last year, with the additions of KEA and Vlaar. we have a manager who will play to the strenghts of ireland and zog and bent, and not accentuate their weaknesses. the youngsters are a year older and will give us more strength in depth too. even being pessimistic i'd expect us to better last season by at least 9 points, which will see us safely mid table i'd reckon. being realistic, even without additions to the squad i reckon we'll be top half.

All of those players are unproven at this level. I think we need a couple of players of proven quality now. One in CM and another up front. I supose it would depend on what we could afford really.... I'm not fussed if they aren't proven PL players.... they cost more money on wages and Fee's and none of Norwich's players where proven up until last year! Thinking about it... I'd take Rhodes. Seems like he could be a better job than both Weimann and Delfouneso. And would give gabby a chance pull up his socks instead of being gifted a first 11 place. interesting that you would think something like that, don't want to shit stir... BUT... that something jack might think of weimann?? surely they played together when weimann was getting hatfuls of goals in the reserves? he had a couple of decent displays int he first team last season too. fonz did it in the reserves too, he's shown flashes that he has really good feet but maybe his probs are in his head. something we should hope PL can sort out for him on another note, i personally am not concerned we aren't splashing the cash, we have got ourselves a manager who beleives he can get better value from lower leagues and abroad and through his coaching and tactics can win games at this level without needing £40m to spend in a summer. from what he's said about players personalities, probably the last thinkg he wants is to spunk £20m+ on a british striker who probably has a god complex and an ego the size of the moon.

wow, richard hoping for the cup! i'd say we'll be solid in the league, take care of business at home, win a few away and be easy top half. with the cups it depends so much on the draw and luck, i'd like to think we'll play the yougsters together in the carling cup and have a good little run, and give the fa cup a proper go and get to the last 8 maybe if all goes well. who knows, maybe a better run than that i'm pretty confident that PL is here to do a job, turn us around and try and win something with us and stick around for a good few years till one of the big european clubs come knocking. that said, it won't happen overnight but i think next season will be a good one!

i reckon with PL we're guaranteed these 2 (unless the wheels dramatically fall off the wagon and he loses it, very unlikely). plus i reckon we'll see a more modern style of football and finally some movement add some good movement to the 100% effort for 90 mins every week and being set up to win games from the start and i'd be ecstatic. i think after that the results will look after themselves.

ace. keep guessing. anyone actually got solid info as to the clubs intentions re: j2m? i've read the visa stuff, and i won't get on a political one about ridiculous tests for a prem footballer. are we certain the english tests are the only reason? and does anyone know at what sort of stage the process is at to get him the visa required to train and play with us again?

yeah me too, soz, missed your point a bit then re: size etc. and your right about PL playing diff formations. seems we agree that BB has something to offer though, i think he could turn out to be a cracking little player if used right and in the right company. hopefully PL will get the chemistry right and we'll all be in for a treat in a few weeks

that depends on how PL organises them, you don't have to be a massive bastard to win the ball back. look at barca when they lose the ball, or what about makalele? remember him, he wasn't exactly built like a brick shit house was he? if PL can get this group to run well off the ball and hunt in packs, there's no reason why bannan and ireland can't be very usefull in teh defensive phase too. i know they aren't exactly noted for tackling, but organised well applying pressure and closing space then they can help get it back plenty well enough IMO.

mcleish for me, just looking at the win % stats it's pretty clear. houllier is suprisingly high up the win % charts though! compare them all better than DOL's. interesting seeing the opinions that houllier made mcleish's job harder. i can see why you coudl think that seeing as we finihed 6th then all of a sudden flirted with relegation. that was definitely down to houllier wanting to change things, there was resistance from a group of players to that by all accounts which didn't help. the issues with the back 4 throughout the 2 seasons i think would indicate that neither mcleish nor houllier coudl get the best out of them. not that houllier somehow hypnotised them and turned them into shit defenders. neither of them could get the same players (mostly) to defend a set piece. something we were good at with MON. it's not like mcliesh was trying to continue houlliers changes, there was a marked difference in style!

i speak for myself but my opinion at time was based from what I saw before he joined Villa was mainly Spurs, Scotland and Rangers highlights and he looked like a good attacking right-back . Obviously watching him play regularly shows highlights not to be trusted to be fair he'd had a great season with spurs in their bes ever season for a long time. not done anything near similar here.

his PL reputation is based on good work for spurs in one seaason (while we were getting walker ready to take his place)- i don't think he'll fit the football that lambert wants to play really, if he plays his favoured 4-1-2-1-2 then both full backs will have to be pacey, have a good delivery and be able to beat his opposite number too. in a villa shirt we've seen nothing that suggests he can do that. if lambert can get him to do it then fair play, but i doubt it!

I've followed the Browns' version of Kendrick, and it seems the following is the situation: Randy will be selling 70% for $920 million, and the sale will go through in October. Pretty much a done deal seemingly. that's good news! i'm not expecting a windfall for the villa, but it should mean he concentrates his energy more on us, and the more cash he has in teh bank the better

http://birmingham.myvillage.com/place/aston-villa-leisure-centre-birmingham/ Zhang, don't take your mates to many gigs then ay? first time i went to the aston villa leisure centre i was 13 i think. and that was a long time ago now anyway, on stadium expansion, if we could get to 50k relatively easily we should. even just getting to the level of performance under MON would see it full more often than not, the extra revenue would help sustain that level too. no brainer for me. it's not like we're gonna be int he situation where we have an 80k seater stadium and only a 20k average rowd is it? that's when you really kill the atmosphere. trust me, i've been in the san siro and the olimpico with smallish crwods and they feel very very empty indeed. no chance that 35k people in a 50k seater stadium woudl feel the same way. any news on randy selling the browns?

yep nice one richard. also, can all of those who posted massively hysterical hissy fit posts about how shit we are as a club, how bad we looked, how it's typical that we missed out etc. etc. etc. please think twice before posting hysterical negative gobshite without reason the next time. it was pretty obvious that the hold up was being on tour in the states.

apart from not finishing bottom and getting relegated it was awfull. it also wasn't a season that started or ended in the third tier. let's face it, we've had worse! aaaaaanyway. back on topic, i have a sneaky feeling we'll get vlaar once we're back from the tour and the dust has settled over the outbursts from teh player and feyenord/koeman.

He was acquitted of his sexual assault charges recently. yeah but he still has the touch of a ....... :winkold: bravo! would be awesome if they took warnock and collins, collins to west ham also good. then there aren't many of the MON over inflated wage earners left are there? hutton can't be on much, wouldn't mind him getting shipped out too and then we'll be starting the season with a lambert back 4. lichaj/lowton clark/vlaar baker/dunne cresswell ???

Welcome to the club. We had some jackets made. nah, don't get all shy! now some stuff out in the media today suggesting that koeman is giving villa a week to sort this deal out. after another of his imaginary deadlines passing a while ago. PL has said nothing has changed since the last time he spoke about the situation. so probably they'll come back from the states and tie this deal up when PL is back in the office. http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2012/07/23/aston-villa-are-set-deadline-over-ron-vlaar-deal/

What's your point? :? yeah mcleish situation doesn't really compare. this is a bit more like OGS, get them over, they have a chat, they love it, gets leaked to the press, they publically say they love it and we are left in a tricky position if we didn't want to tie it all up straight away. if no photos had come out of this little tour, then he wouldn't have been forced to publically say he wanted to come. once he says that and we don't move for him then he's going to be pissed off, the club he plays for is going to be pissed off too. doesn't mean we have to come out and make a statement about it though. to be honest, if PL really wants him, we could prob go and get him when he's back from teh states. not a big deal, not the only CB in teh world, shows PL is lookin for the right type of players imo. move along, nothing to see here.