romavillan

petrov and makoun looks to work quite well

missed the line ups, gabby behind bent, is ireland on the bench or not recovered from his knock yet?

last 14 days fine, the next 28 are key though!

IF that flores story in the mirror is true, then i'd much prefer the board had gone with him... anyone know if it's been reported elsewhere too?

or they play good possession based attacking footy from a really solid base i think prandelli could do a good job for us to be honest too. italian footy isn't always catenaccio. EDIT: dunno how this ended up in here it was for the mde in italy thread!!!!

How many Italian fans do we have? Like 12? people my age and a bit older over here know us, and we get respect for the european champions cup win. younger people who know their footy knwo we've been there or there abouts top 6 for a while and we get respect for giving good games/turning over the top sides every now and again. i've seen quite a few people with villa trackies in and around rome, most popular by far are arsenal, man u and chelsea though. rossi is a good shout, i'd add spalletti to that list though, he's working in russia but he had roma playing some fantastic football a few years back. woudl love to see ranieri too. of the less experienced, zola deserves another crack at it with a better squad...

hoddle is running his project in spain to give a second chance to kids who didn't quite make it first time round, it's going pretty well...

A few villa talkers have taken annual leave due to stress!! otherwise - nail on head yup bang on. i'd also add that a lot of people developed massive delusions of grandeur in the process. why can't we just get mourinho, we are the biggest club in the world!!!

when did some villa fans start thinking we're man united or real madrid or something? all the anti GH types screaming about how our great club is being degraded by talking to someone like martinez? WTF. just coz randy has some cash doesn't mean we have a divine right to appoint mourinho and rule the world. some of you need a reality check. i would LOVE to see rijkaard or carlo at villa. don't get me wrong, but throwing hissy fits about how we should be appointing some world beating manager and pushing for the top 4 is a bit wide of our current mark. which is getting back to being regular top 6, having a couple of good runs in the europa league and starting to attract a level of player that can get us there!

so does anybody actually know anything?

very good advice, can't beleive all the OHMYGODMARTINEZTURNEDUSDOWNEVERYONEISLAUGHINGOHNOWEAREDOOMEDITSAFARCE reactions. we asked to speak to him, whelan agreed then to force martinez into a rush decision on a new contract WITHOUT on offer on the table from us he went blabbing his mouth off all over the place. simples.

so want that to be true, all depends on how categorical that interview with la stampa was. he's been partial to the odd wind up over the years so who knows...

i really don't think it'll be abotu budget, this is the last summer that randy can have a splurge in the market without worrying about the new uefa rules on finance isn't it? if so would make sense to invest heavily in the squad so money can be made with sales to balance the books later if needs be. i don't reckon the money has run out at all, and i doubt that we'd be in the market for a top manager with a budget of zero. that woudl be stupid.

Then again in the past 6 years I'm pretty sure he has been sacked from 4 clubs for underperforming. He seems like a second rate Gerard Houllier nope. he got the sack at juve after he worked miracles when the board thought they coudl do better, they have gone to shit after they made the mistake of letting him go. he then took on the poisoned chalice of the roma job (as he's a fan) and the inevitable happened. roma were in a shit state before the recent takeover, way too much player power (they kicked out spalletti) and zero money. a poor director of football (signed adriano) etc. etc. ranieri built the valencia side that rafa won with, and built the chelsea side that mourinho won with. he's taken clubs from outside the top bracket and built a team that can challenge before. i think he'd be a good appointment.

which MM post btw? what did he say?

My family are aquainted with Ranieri, I think (hope) someone would have told me if it was imminent. davvero? che centra catanzaro con ranieri? lui e romano, no? c'hai famiglia a roma?

which leaves a list of who? rijkaard, moyes and benitez?

yeah, was convinced it might actually happen this time too! it still might, if it spurs the board to make a direct offer for ancelotti instead of sounding out his agent or whatever they were doing before to make kendrick say that they'd been in touch with him... maybe... but probably not. arse.

the carlo quotes come from this article... http://www3.lastampa.it/sport/sezioni/calcio/lstp/405652/ the only part that refers directly to villa is this bit... ok, the question before this bit was whether he wants to stay in england forever, he says no because he is italian through and through but it's an esperience he has enjoyed. then the bit quoted above is "to find another squad? fulham, aston villa: there aren't many left really" to which carlo responds... "no, to go back to london and organize my life. apart from a break of six months, i've been coaching since '95: i'll stop for a year and look around, to freshen up, to study how my colleagues work" la stampa is mainstream italian media, not a little tinpot website. i'd say it rules him out completely. which is a shame as i've spent 3 or 4 days hoping he'd sign.

carlo ancelotti, without any shadow of a doubt would be the best and most ambitious signing of a villa manage in my life (and i first went down villa park before graham taylor the first time round). odds in to 3s from 20s. GREAT FUGGEN NEWS.

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8690_6962159,00.html shame he couldn't have been so vocal about carlo ay!

post above refers to carlo ancelotti obviously

yep i don't get it either, in terms of motivation alone if during training he tells you you're as good as almost anyone he played with/managed you'd be given a HUGE boost. remember he was at the center of one of the best club sides OF ALL TIME (sachi's milan, gullit, rijkaard, baresi, van basten, maldini etc etc) and has managed some of the greats of the modern era too.

certainly since the 20s that would be true, before then we were the ac milan/real madrid of world footy (small world granted). getting someone as proven world class as ancelotti would be huge.

that would be bad