romavillan

platty is prob learning a lot from manicini as it goes. might make a manager one day, not now though!

i think the plop will be in for capello now, give him a budget and he'd prob get them back in the CL mix. doubt they'd be in for lambert, not this time round anyway. will no doubt put the cat amongst the pidgeons with our board though, they shoudl sort something out sharpish.

that's very solid backing, another factor here is that he's been part of a long term project for a while, and after being so successfull why wouldn't he want to try and go one step further? £30m spent wisely might even get you lot in europe next year. that would be amazing for ncfc, and for lambert's career it would mean he'd be on the map for big clubs all over europe. the choice he has is between trying to take ncfc as far as possible or getting backed at villa park and taking on a good group of youngsters and trying to get into europe with us. if i'm honest i'd think it would be strange for him to jump ship after another successfull year with the chance to really cement ncfc in the prem and make a real name for himself. coudl backfire badly coming to villa. then again, who knows what he could do here with the right backing and the quality we have coming through from the academy. different challenge from coming up from league 1, but instead of the goal being playign prem football it'd be playing european football...

seems pretty settled and committed to me. although he does say that you never know what might happen...

well, if we did ask we wouldn't get. the board have used the words "young", "enthusiastic" and "vibrant" to describe who they are after. let's leave aside the fact that capello wants to win a championship or the champs league so would not even look twice at us at the moment. now, as capello is "old", "disciplinarian" and "dull". i don't think he could be the man the club have described. lambert is young, martinez is young, rodgers is young. they are all enthusiastic but i'd say rodgers and martinez are more on the vibrant end of the football spectrum. will it be any of them though? who the **** knows. last time the club made an appointment it wasn't exactly what we were expecting was it?

16s on the sackrace for mccarthy. he's not young or enthusiastic!

martinez is 5/2 for the liverpool job and 8/11 on for us. lambert doesn't figure for them and is 15/8 for us. as has been mentioned more than once by the club they want someone young so all the rafa talk, ranieri talk etc. aint gonna happen. even if i think ranieri coudl do us a job to be honest, he's built good teams in the past, he tends to **** up winnin gthings after doing all the hard work to build a squad that challenges...

cahill? gabby? herd? clark? albrighton? i still think with the right manager and some more time on the pitch of the players we've seen this year then lichaj, bannan, gardner and baker will turn out to be quality too. back on topic, if i was manager i'd be looking to use more of them together as they've been paying and winning together for years

so why has he say never splashed 500k, or 1mil on a european based player??? there are plenty gems to be had, fair enough some of that list are good up and coming youngsters from Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs on loan But need look lot further afield for players rather than UK based ones as someone who won the champs league playing at a german club, i doubt he'd only in the market for british players. not sure how many languages he speaks though. i'm warming to the idea of getting him in to be honest. would be good ot do ti quickly!

nothing's gonna ever keep you down! ahahah personally i'd be spending pre season fielding a team like this... ----------given---------- lichaj----clark---baker----stevens --------herd-----gardner---------- zog/alby---------ireland--------carruthers/hollman -------------bent--------------------- and set them up to keep the ball and move it around a lot revolutionary i know but apparently football can be played by keeping the ball on the grass and playing it through midfield, being patient etc. that team is technically pretty good, clark his happy in midfield so can distribute well from the back, everyone up to bent is good on the ball. i'd be letting the 3 behind bent swap around constantly too. once you've had a good look at them pre-season see what value there is in some experienced foreign talent (cheaper) to help them progress as a team. as has been mentioned we'd need to employ a better scouting network too...

well in the statement the club said they want a young and enthusiastic manager to go with the young and enthusiastic squad. no bad thing IMO, this would rule out... rafa ranieri mcarthy curbishley hoddle ...and anyone else over 50 odd i'd say. i reckon they'll enquire after martinez, rodgers and lambert for sure. norwich don't want to let lambert go, rodgers says he's committed to swansea and martinez already knocked us back to sign a new contract at wigan. so who does that realistically leave us as a young and enthusiastic manager?

AVB going to valencia i think? and not sure he'd be interested as i reckon he'll want a crack at champs league and winning things. not somethign we offer right now. we need someone who can get the youngsters playing good football together to make the heart of the team kids that have grown up together playign good footy and will give everything for the shirt (and don't earn as much as we have been paying ). then that someone should get in a few older players with real technical quality and experience to help the kids on. this someone woudl then be looking to get us top 6 again for a couple of years before we think about kicking on from there! who the **** this someone is i don't know. lambert has won everything as a player, and played under some great managers, he's earned his crack at bigger things by doing wonders at wycombe and norwich. he could probably do a good job here. martinez i think could maybe be better suited to the project of moulding the heart and soul of the team from our youngsters (who i think are miles better than they were allowed to be by AM) and getting a good style of football going. can we get either though? norwich saying they'll fight to keep hold of lambert, martinez already knocked us back 12 months ago. who does that realistically leave that could manage to do what we need? i think we might do well to look further afield than the prem for a manager. someone who has done that sort of building job with a young squad before and would love a crack at the premiership...

statement sounds good to me, sounds like they realise it was a mistake. summed up by this i saw on twitter... "the end of an error" i think a lot of us (me included) gave him time but he got worse not better, he failed to buidl on the (few) promising performances and in the end we were really shocking to watch. totally 100% right decision to get shot now and get someone in who will be able to get the youngsters playing well and get us playing decent passing footy, which they've grown up doing with Sid and KMac. UTV.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1067003/hubbard:-alex-mcleish-sets-standard-of-mediocrity-at-aston-villa?cc=5739 not sure if been posted and not exactly the mainstream media but still, reason for hope if that is getting written...

keep scouring sites for signs that he's deffo going to be gone. still nothing, i'd really like the last game to be pretty much all the kids and let them play with teh shackles and pressure off and see what happens. can't see AM doing it though, can't see the club making any statements regarding his future till a week after the last game either. you'd like to think they have a replacement pretty much lined up and we can start thinking about the rebuild...

we need to hope that tottenham don't deal with the opportunity to go third very well and we get a point or better. otherwise we could be on the end of a proper beating tomorrow. if qpr and bolton win, then we are in deep shit.

if it was a manager who hadn't won titles in 2 different countries and the champions league already. then maybe i could understand saying that you're sick of it. even benitez won the title in spain twice and a uefa cup before winning the champs league with houllier's liverpool team. capello has been there, seen it and done it both as a player and as a coach. why would he want to spend the last years of his career trying to turn the villa around? i dont' agree either that he woudl be a disaster if he did decide to do it. i don't think he or anyone else is going to have an instant effect though. i think we're dreaming if we think any manager is going to come in and have one pre-season and suddenly we come out playing like barcelona...

no it wouldn't. he's won titles in italy and spain and is 65 years old, looking to top off his career and place in history by winning a title in england or another champs league. if he was 40 and looking to build a career then maybe a young villa side ready to be moulded in his image could have been a stepping stone for him on the way up. at 65 and wanting to win titles i doubt villa even gets near his list of places to go and work. i'd love to be wrong, but if ancelotti wouldn't touch us with a barge pole a year ago, why do you think capello would come to villa park?

ahah. especially those who like to stay out very far wide on the right, over the touchline...

I agree but for some reason others think that QPR will become one of the best teams in Europe overnight ;-) might be city have already won the title though before the last day. at very best it's tempting fate to say that it's impossible that qprwill get a point at the etihad...

well if they already had the title in the bag i'd say qpr woudl have a lto more motivation for the game than them, their minds would already be on the lap of honour and lifting the trophy. we need a couple of points at least to be sure, it's tragic we're talking about how we can stay up and not get another point all season! point against the spuds woudl be very **** handy indeed

on the other hand, swansea could do united while man city spank the arse off newcastle. meaning that man city will already have won the title and have no motivation against qpr who get a point after beating stoke at home.... ...meaning we go down.

Ha, my first shutting laptop. I genuinely believe this though, I don't understand the dependence and need to be drinking that people have? It will f@ck your body up, especially at the rate Collins seems to knock it back. Probably why the guy looks about 50 when he's actually in his 20's. Give it up and you could add another five years to your career. I honestly believe that. whilst you are right to a degree, i think it depends on what type of player you are. socrates and cruyff used to smoke 40 cigs a day throughout their careers. it's true the game is quicker now but cruyff would have been a fuckign genius in any age. if you're a pro that has to work very hard to get the most out of your talent in order to be at a compettive level then yeah, you are prob best not drinking or smoking if you want a long career at a decent level. if your game does not rely on pace and physicality (the type of players pretty much out of fashion at the mo, but think messi, silva, nasri, zola etc. etc.) then i don't see why you have to be anything but in shape enough to get through 90 minutes in a way that when the clock says 89 you are capable of doing your stuff. i'm not advocating that our players should be out getting spannered on a daily basis but it's not as black and white as you make out for me. a player like gabby will need ot be treating his body like a temple and not just not be drinkgin and smoking but be employing a top dietition to make sure that he's eating in a way that complements his training etc. if he wants to stay lightning fast past 28 years old. on the other hand, someone like merson could probably have played with a fag on and still been better than most

until we know what happened inside it's hard to judge. they had a day off the next day too. could be that herd had got a lot of abuse inside and they were with their ladies so no-one wants to lose face in that kind of situation. to be honest as long as they play well (and herd has been one of the few postiives this year) then booting the odd door in anger at who knows what kind of provocation, whilst it's not a good thing, probably isn't the end of the world!

not seen them much (only the odd highlight here and there) so can't say really, but he's supposed to be what keeps them ticking over from the middle of the park. herd could turn into that for us with the right coach