VillaAlex

Rafa had something like the 4th highest salary in Europe when he was manager at Inter, do you really think we would give him close to anything like that. If Houllier as to leave I'd much rather us get a manager who knows what Aston Villa means, has the right philosophies and isn't brought in for his reputation. Too many managers in this country get jobs because of their reputation and often flop because of it. In other countries bright young coaches get jobs often due to their achievements at lower league or youth football and can be a breath of fresh air, as they have had to develop fresh ideas to get themselves noticed.

Hi Joachim

Stieber is going to Mainz in the summer, great move for him!

Griezmann is quality, if it worked out for GH and we wasn't in this mess I'd have been calling out his name as a potential signing. Lacazette and Bakambu looked like talents too.

Thursday is the end of the week for me, so yeah

Such an uninformed opinion of Martin Jol. The only blip on his record was this season at Ajax and something was wrong there from the start fot he season when he was close to leaving for Fulham. The season before he broke many of Ajax club records. He got Spurs to finish 5th after not spending alot of money. He spent £10 million and had the 9th highest wage bill in the Prem. Comolli was the guy who spent most of the money and that was the following season. Comolli spent big money on good players that simply weren't ready to play at Prem level. When Jol was in charge of transfers he brought in low cost, senior pros, for little or no money, who were able to make an immediate impact. At Hamburg he had the best win perecentage for 30+ years and the second best in the clubs history. Do you even know the injury problems they had at the end of the season when they fell out of title contention? Also during his year at Hamburg they made a net profit of 30 million euros, selling their 3 best players. He only finished 8 points of the title and was challenging for the title for all but the final weeks when injuires caught up with them. Fans are far too quick to judge a coach on what he's won. But anyone must be able to tell the Van Der Vaart, De Jong and Kompany are worth more than 8 points in the Bundesliga. Had they not had to sell those 3, I'm sure he'd have won the title. He was twice named Dutch Coach of the Year when at RKC and took them into Europe. He also won Roda their first trophy in 30 years despite the club going bankrupt. If you look closely at Jols record in very impressive and it would be hard for any coach to have done a better job at most of the clubs he's been at. The only blip was with what happend at Ajax. Do you really belive Mourinho could have taken the Spurs side he took to 5th. Or could he have done a better job at HSV considering the players the sold and injuries they had? I'm sure there are other equally as good managers out there, that are equally as under rated as Martin Jol, but as a Spurs and Hamburg fan I'm more aware of him. Fans judge mangers far too much on the basics of their CVs and don't look at the circumstances in whch they were working. On paper Harry Redkapps CV was pretty unimpressive and most Spurs fans didnt want him because of it. I bet there are quite of few mangers out who like Jol and Redknapp, don't have the great CVs but have the qulity to really take you forward as a club. It just requires your board to do some real in depth research, rather than just looking at what a manager has won. Many Ajax club records? What were they? It doesn't matter if Comolli brought them in or not, Jol had a job as manager to get the best out of the players. He got you to 5th place and you missed out on the last day which was unlucky. However your squad had lots of quality imo so it was no major achievement to get to that position. I am not saying he did a poor job... After that season the pressure grew on Jol and it was bye bye. I then said he did ok at Hamburg, I watched the side a lot that season, again a team with lots of talent and as you say small depth. Similarities to us with MON last season. Ajax you can't defend, Ajax haven't won the league in years but they have a fantastic squad, if the records you mean are winning several games 5-0, 6-0 etc... it means nothing when you lose more games then you should by the odd goal, which after all is what cost them the title. He then proceeded to fail in the other competitions, making certain players ineffective while Eriksen a top talent was oddly left out the side. The Ajax fans grew restless, not helped by the Fulham interest in the past and he was sacked. As for RKC I am not in the position to comment.

I don't see why everyone is saying Jol, he's such an average manager. Got Spurs to a decent finish spending a lot of money, but now Redknapp is there and is doing a lot better. Flopped at Ajax, the majority of their fans wanted him gone just like us with Houllier. The inexperienced De Boer is now doing a better job. At Hamburg got 5th place and two semi finals which he both lost. Fair enough he did ok there.

Van Basten :notsure: :X

Dark City really wasn't for me. Recently watched... Excellent film with a powerful message. Third Kurosawa film I have seen, ranks just under Yojimbo for me which I love to bits. Need the motivation to watch the Seven Samurai sometime though... Also watched this the other night... Really enjoyed it, thought Rockwell was excellent but just felt a bit let down by the ending which was rather tame.

Exactly, so many players don't make it so usually it makes sense for younger players to earn as much money as they can early on in their careers just in case. It's a shame it's that way as so many players don't fulfill their potential because of this. It's all about taking risks and making the right choices.

Diego Polenta Adrian Luna Neymar Alex Sandro Yohandry Orozco Juan Iturbe (Very similar style to Messi.) Rogelio Funes Mori Players that impressed me in 2011 SA U20 Tournament. Polenta in particular.

seems like a snatch and grab.

Hahahahahahaahahahahahahaha. Get in!

Davies Absolutely brilliant defending!

^^ I agree. This is one of the worst games of football I've ever seen. Bolton have had some nice touches in certain stages of play but it's continuous long ball from one end to another.

Elmander 8) Clinical finish.

I'll be so pissed off if Downing leaves, he's the one player that has to stay. We can't build a new team overnight and because of this it would put a lot of pressure on the likes of Albrighton and Bent. If Friedel contract is true I am bemused, he is the problem with our set pieces and it won't change until we get a commanding and vocal goalkeeper in.

Yeah they're signings loads on my game. They just enquired about Petrov

It took him 5 minutes to score!

Yay, been waiting ages for it, aint played FM for months!

Blue Valentine is indeed a great film, very powerful ending. Gosling was as great as ever.

Petition lol, embarrassing.

Ash wins another penalty

Downing assist from the right, sorry but I had to... Get in

The past two minutes tell me we're going to lose, we can't miss chances like this and we will no doubt pay.