sharkyvilla

I just worry that the same thing will happen as with Cahill, he makes his move and fulfills his potential elsewhere and we think 'what if...'. I still think there is a Premier League-standard goalscorer in Delfouneso. If I were O'Neill I would definitely put a bid in for him.

Proving it was deliberate is tough if you ask me, but Mario's reputation may count against him. Meanwhile Messi's hattrick was ridiculous today.

Absolutely spot on. I love the way Barca make a meal out of everything Real hit them with as it exaggerates and takes the piss out of Mourinho's abysmal tactics in these games. The drama queens add that extra bit of hilariousness to the whole thing on top of the quality football from Barca.

I regularly watch seasons 1 - 4 but I break out in a horrible rash if I watch seasons 5, 6 or 7. Up to season 4, this was the greatest tv show ever made. I'm up to series 3 on DVD. I watched it when the show was on originally but just thought it was about time to watch it again now I understand a bit more about politics. It really is amazing and could watch it over and over. If I could be any TV character it would probably Josh Lyman. Other than that, Darkplace and the IT Crowd have me in hysterics whenever I put the DVDs on or watch random youtube clips

I got it for Christmas and just finished my first season with Villa. Ended up 15th and got the jill n jack. **** rock hard, probably too hard in all honesty. I can't work out whether I'm enjoying it or not. I got 7 red cards during the season and Dunne scored a ridiculous amount of own goals, Bent scored bugger all, Gabby got 1 goal, thank heavens for Delfouneso or I'd have got relegated. Came fourth in the Olympics too, had my right backs sent off in the semi and bronze medal play-off inside the first 20 minutes. No chance, it's not as if I have them doing aggressive tackling either. Just a cheating bastard game.

I just don't understand why QPR. He could end up playing Championship football at the shittest ground in London next season. I don't think he's guaranteed to keep a side like QPR up in the same way he did for us. It would be better for him to bang the goals in for us, go to the Euros and knick a couple of goals before Rooney gets back and then have offers from all over the place (before turning them down to stay with us).

Tbh these lists are almost impossible to compile but it seems for the most part fair to me. Aguero should be top 10 at least though.

Haha I loved that urban myth. It was so proposterous that it became believable! Weirdly the other day I was watching a BBC news round-up of people who died in 2011 and the bloke who wrote Baker Street was on it for being dead and it mentioned the Bob Holness/sax thing. Very sad news although Ed Milliband's slip up made me piss myself.

I reckon Hughes had the Chelsea job lined up with Hiddink over-seeing until it took so long for Hiddink to become available that Roman just thought **** it and went for Villas-Boas instead. By then McLeish had been appointed I think. I'd love to have got AVB in with David Dein as chief exec to rip up the scouting and playing set-up but just dreams unfortunately. I see no hope at the moment.

the profit might of been 'good' but there was no need to sell these players, we didnt need to sell them at all, by selling these weve took 3 steps back to the mess we was in before, had we kept them, we would be in a better state and certainly higher up the league chasing europe, which could have gained us more income than the profit we made on the 3 players not clever business imo by the board, they chased the penny, and missed out on the pound So if we had kept Ash at the club this season and he left on a free transfer, how would that have helped? Imo if you sell someone for 20m, double what you paid for them, then you can get two players in, sell them for a profit, then get another four players in, then theoretically you can end up with a better team. Spurs have kind of done that, but the difference is they have made much better decisions off-field with a tighter control of wages and more imaginative recruitment.

We did it with Barry and lost about 10m quid off the price. It's a difficult balancing act. Personally I wouldn't give anyone stick about those deals but I can see why people aren't happy about it. I hate losing our best players but clubs can get by as selling clubs if they do it right.

25m(?) for Milner, 20m for Downing and about 18m for Young who only had one year left on his contract are pretty decent deals if you ask me. That is massive profit on players that wanted to leave

I don't think he's lost anything other than his confidence. It happens to most goalscorers, the important thing is to keep giving him opportunities because he'll get on a roll eventually. Michael Owen could go half a dozen games not being able to hit a barn door and then get 12 in his next 8 games. Bent's only gone one game without scoring btw.

People were saying the same thing about Gabby's attitude last year under Houllier. Change the manager and he's twice the player. Sadly McLeish hasn't managed to improve any other player other than Gabby, though to be fair he hasn't had the excellent wide players that Houllier had. I just don't see the financial sense of selling Bent unless it is another ridiculous Liverpool fee that's too good to turn down like the Downing one. We signed him because we were shitscared of getting relegated and selling him now would put us in real danger of getting relegated. If he leaves I'll stick my head up a cow's arse.

Carrick is average in an average side and good in a good side. He's not dominant enough like say Scott Parker in the middle for a mid-table club to stand out, but in a good side he is a pretty decent foil to the talented attacking players. He's a perfect 'Man Utd' player when they were brilliant but at the moment they are a side in transition and he kind of goes invisible, recent performances aside.

Great touch for a big man. Rivaldo was frigging amazing too. Not really adding much to the thread but hey-ho.

I often wonder what someone like David Dein could do for the Villa as Chief Exec. He was a big part in enabling Wenger to introduce all the changes he needed to bring Arsenal to the forefront of European football. Don't know whether he'd be up for it though.

I'm not sure I'd fancy us getting taken over by the Qataris and buying the title, giving players £250,000 a week. I'll always stick up for Randy and sure the last two managerial appointments leave a lot to be desired but I can see the reasoning behind both. It's just the deadwood left from O'Neill's reign that is the problem and I really hope it's true that Randy is waiting until they are off the books before reinvesting his money. He couldn't go on giving out £30m a season forever unless they got in the Champions League so it's inevitable he'd have to scale back as he isn't quite that wealthy. He and O'Neill had a good go but it's really tough.

The bit where he did the land diving the other week had me in stitches. I agree it's all staged yet I can't help but watch, a bit like wrestling really

At international level, is there really that much that a top, top foriegn manager can add in such a short period of time that he is involved with the players? He can't improve any of our players' technique overnight, which is basically where we fall down. I quite like the way some of the other international teams have picked a former great player to take over regardless of previous managerial experience. Get someone with an infectious personality that will get the players enjoying playing for England. Give them the best coaching staff behind them to help them out. The problem is I can't think of too many former England players that fit the description, although I am personally quite fond of Stuart Pearce and the job he has done with the U21s.

It could depend on how Guardiola's future pans out. I can't see Messi ever wanting to leave Barca with him as manager. I doubt he will ever leave Barca tbh. Messi could do Xavi and Iniesta's job. Neither could do Messi's.

I caved in and got a Kindle for my holiday (I was going to wait until they came out in paperback so they'd be cheaper). I'm reading the latest Peter James novel basically because they're set around where I live and they're generally enjoyable. I've recently worked my way through most of Robert Harris's books, I loved The Ghost and Archangel.

Yeah it's hard to justify the first half performance even for those of us who are more willing to give McLeish time. I rarely get angry about football but I was disgusted by the first half. At least it seems McLeish thinks it was equally unacceptable and things improved 2nd half (I thought we deserved to win in the end and the back 5 deserved a clean-sheet for their display) but the problem is does he have the tools and will to change it? We all need a bit of a lift really.

Thought Leo deserved a bump after his second hat-trick in 3 games. Anyone see his run from his own penalty box until he got scythed down at the edge of the area? Would have been a cracking goal that.

I would actually put O'Neill up in the same bracket as Moyes. The only difference is that Moyes is prepared to put up with the rough as well as the smooth, which MON clearly wasn't. Shame really, and I wonder whether MON is regretting the day he left as he obviously hasn't found a similar project to the Villa one since he left. He did lift the club and players whilst he was here and although he was by no means perfect, managers with that kind of ability don't come round very often.