McGregor1888

It was certainly foolish - but many young men are guilty of being foolish. The kid needs some support to get him through this. If he doesn't learn from this and repeats the mistake in the future then some of the barbed comments from posters might be justified. If he had killed someone and run away then "utter disgrace" would be fair comment, in my opinion. Thankfully he didn't.

Reading threads like this its sad to see so many Villa fans buying into the media nonsense about Man Utd. It looks like half our fans are "Brummie Reds" in all but name. Have some faith in the club, none of us know how things will pan out in football over the next twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six months. Gardner just might make the grade, along with a few others, and Randy might start spending again. All ifs and buts. This type of writing off of Villa from our own fans reminds me of last season when we had many a supporter on here saying Villa would get zero points from our final two matches of the season. "Villa ain't good enough to get anything out of Arsenal and Liverpool" was the general sentiment from the "Brummie Red" brigade among us. Oh well. Let's wait and see what happens before writing off the mighty Villa.

Pottering around in eighth position, for me, is not acceptable for the major club of the UK's second city. It's acceptable for a whole range of clubs and teams from the towns and cities of the provinces but for a club of Villa's size and setting it is totally not on. I can accept where we are at the moment as a short term measure and in the light of the cutbacks Randy is making but, long term, if this is the sum of our ambition then we might as well give up.

IMO, Scholes was up there with the very best. Zidane, Davids, Nedved...Scholes sits equally with all of those. Phenomenal player. As good as Zidane? I would say Zidane was one of the top tier of great players - and Scholes wasn't in that bracket.

Of course, but their youth are excellent and ours are mediocre. That is the only difference, as ours aren't really good enough. I must have imagined Bannan's hattrick away to Man Utd's reserves a couple of seasons back when we spanked them 1-4.

My understanding is that Lerner's new strategy is for us to build a new, winning side through developing and promoting our youngsters. Selling Young (both of them), Brad F, Downing etc. I can handle...selling the Gardners, Bannans, Albrightons etc. would be a different prospect all together and raise serious doubts, for me, about Randy Lerner and his ability to lead our club to success.

Hi General A quick one: The media reporting of the tour of Hong Kong has been some of the best stuff I've seen on AVTV in many a year, please pass on congratulations to all involved. The whole trip to Hong Kong, as a PR exercise, has been very impressive - especially the international kit launch. For the first time, it seems, Nike has genuinely stepped up to the plate and put a little effort into helping promote the Villa brand. I still note that on their official site they treat Villa as some form of insignificant club, however. On their site they have whole sections devoted to clubs not nearly half as famous or successful as ours - I find this both insulting and a little puzzling. Is there any way we can find out why this is? To finish off, I'd just like to say that if any future kit launches are planned, would you consider Cleveland, USA? Thanks for your time.

take off your claret and blue specs I wonder how many points will separate Villa and liverpool next season? In my view, not many.

When have Arsenal or Spurs ever signed a decent player off us? It just doesn't happen.

Without delving into the past of either club.. How are Liverpool a better attraction than Aston Villa? (other than our recent piss poor appointment of a manager?) You honestly believe we are even close to being as attractive as Liverpool are? They are a global brand, huge, massive, known world wide! They are also a "brand" that is becoming smaller and smaller with each year they fail to compete at the high end of football. Their current set-up is not wealthy enough to sustain a prolonged spending spree to buy their way to the top, either. At the moment they remind me of Villa when Randy took over. I can understand why, at the moment, someone might want to leave Villa to join them BUT if its to win trophies...I'm not so sure Liverpool will deliver. That Downing might want to leave, for me, is a sign of Villa's current down-scaling and lack of ambition rather than Liverpool's "bigness". He had opportunities to join them before but didn't. In my view, Liverpool are currently bigger than Villa in the same way that Tesco's is currently bigger than Harrod's. They haven't always been "bigger" and they won't always be "bigger". These perceptions are very fluid and change with the years. Liverpool are an attractive brand today, but not huge. They are not top tier. Unless they get taken over by Russians or Arabs I find it hard to believe they will reverse the decline.

Did we pay £35 million for Downing? Carroll certainly didn't make a full recovery in six weeks. Liverpool will only be getting a fully fit Carroll next season. All clubs are willing to take a gamble on a quality player. Look at Man Utd with RVN. My original point is nothing to do with the gamble of signing a player with an injury, it's the fact that we beat Spurs and Liverpool to the player. When it comes to signing quality players clubs simply do not look upon injuries as gambles. They will speak to specialists before the signing is made and will have a clear idea of what the recovery process will be. That's why the likes of Carroll, RVN and Downing get signed. They are not gambles if it is clear from medical examination that they will make full recoveries. RVN was not purchased until a full recovery was made! Carroll made a debut didn't he, it was 6 to 8 weeks, so he played. The point about Downing was he broke his foot in May we signed him in June, knowing he would be out for half of the season, we gave him a pay rise no doubt a signing on fee and possibly paid for his medical expenses. Spurs and Liverpool would not sign a player with a broken foot, so really your argument is flawed, you keep using Carroll but played last season for LIVERPOOL!!! A broken foot is not like losing a leg, of course clubs sign players with such injuries. I would wager we offered more money to Downing than Liverpool or Spurs were prepared to offer and thus we got our man. The injury had nothing to do with putting either club off. I'd rather sign a player with a broken foot than a player who had been through what RVN had been through - Downing was not even a gamble compared to that. Villa beat Spurs and Liverpool to the signing of Downing in the same way they beat Spurs to the signing of Ashley Young and Man City to Fabian Delph. We were the more attractive place to go at the time. It's the same reason why Luke Young stuck with us last season as opposed to going to Roy Hodgson's Liverpool.

Did we pay £35 million for Downing? Carroll certainly didn't make a full recovery in six weeks. Liverpool will only be getting a fully fit Carroll next season. All clubs are willing to take a gamble on a quality player. Look at Man Utd with RVN. My original point is nothing to do with the gamble of signing a player with an injury, it's the fact that we beat Spurs and Liverpool to the player. When it comes to signing quality players clubs simply do not look upon injuries as gambles. They will speak to specialists before the signing is made and will have a clear idea of what the recovery process will be. That's why the likes of Carroll, RVN and Downing get signed. They are not gambles if it is clear from medical examination that they will make full recoveries.

I don't think the injury put them off. Injuries don't put clubs off "quality" players - case in point Liverpool signing the crocked Carroll.

Let's not forget that Liverpool and Spurs were after him when he decided to join us. I think, as it was when he initially signed for us, Downing is simply looking at where the respective clubs seem to be heading at the moment. He wants to win things. This "club x" is bigger than "club y" stuff is silly. And, yet again, it simply underlines the small-time, inferiority complex some of our fans have. If a club seems to be on the up and is an exciting place to be is all that counts. Onto other matters. I recall when we signed Downing, forums such as "The Liverpool Way" (whatever that means) were rejoicing that such a "mediocre" player was joining Villa. Oh how attitudes change in a matter of months! By the way, a big "Hello," to anyone tuning in from said Scouse forum. Irony is a splendid thing. Anything over twenty million and he's all yours!

Looking at those figures for Carroll and Henderson, Downing has got to be valued in the region of £30 million. Liverpool's current recruitment process reminds me of O'Neill's - buying young, English talent. There's absolutely no way 'Pool will make the top four paying over the odds for such middling players.

I'm sure it will and it certainly needs to be judging by that final day display. Your two best players - Gerard and Carragher - have now seen their best days and the squad requires some serious restructuring. Outside of the CL and based in the NW your revenues will go backwards and it will be even harder to keep up with the current top 4. NESV (I think that's your owners name) are business people and are looking for a return. I'm not sure how they are going to achieve this? Abramovich, Mansour and even, to a lesser extent, Lerner are not looking at the model in this way. It is more of a hobby for those three. The interesting thing for me is how/when these FIFA regulations bite. The ungeared sides with good academies - Arsenal are probably the prime model - should then move into pole position?? I wouldn't read too much into that final day display. Half the squad was injured by that point plus nothing to play for (except outside chance of Europa League). Commercially, Liverpool is second only to Man U. But unlike them, we are debt-free without the crippling interest payments. Matchday and CL revenue are the only areas of weakness. FSG are looking for a return but over the long-term. The plan is to increase revenue through success. That means CL qualification is critical so if they have to spend their way back into it, it looks like they will. Two games before that you beat Fulham 5-2 away and it was a completely different story. The Liverpool hacks were having a field day; deluded and full of excuses. Villa had even less to play for and no manager on the sideline. Try playing three-quarters of a season with half a squad injured. The young Villa side that went up to Anfield and lost three-nil being a prime example. A fully firing Villa side would have battered your lot like they did the year before. Please, please, please, no excuses, Redman. You can't have it all ways. A final point: Liverpool are not second commercially to Man Utd. They do currently have a large global appeal, though. This, naturally, decreases every year the club fails to make Europe. Such is modern football. The only way Liverpool will be in a position of real strength once more is if they are taken over by multi-billionaires. Then they will be able to outspend everyone on wages and win a few trophies - like they did when the Moores were bankrolling them. Ker-ching!

That isn't a fact though. Have a little trawl around the net and see for yourself. Truth hurts, old son. You're owned by NESV and a basketball player. How very small time! You're telling us all that Liverpool are on an upward curve yet you sold your very best player last season, lost as many games as Villa and were given a good old beating by us at Villa Park on the last day of the season. You've been reading too many delusional, positively spun posts written by Scouse hacks, my friend. (Tony Evans, Tony Barrett and the like do you guys no favours by whipping you up into an unrealistic frenzy.) And remember - our manager left us five days from the start of the season in absolute turmoil. Looking at the form table from the end of last last season I'd be sticking my money on Villa. If "Handball" Suarez (scourge of the Dutch league) and Ten Pints Carroll are the signs that Liverpool mean business then, fantastic. A finish somewhere between 5th and 9th will be what you are getting. Trawl round the net? Are you kidding? Mate, I've been following the daily narrative of the Liverpool ownership saga for the past 4 years. I know exactly who NESV (renamed FSG) are. FSG are a sports management group of 18 partners some of whom are dollar billionaires, the rest are dollar multi-millionnaires. Most are financiers of some description. There's nothing small time about them. Congratulations on your 1-0 win. You were the better team on the day. What else is there to say about it? And if the form table since Kenny took over is an indicator (and I'm not saying it is) that's us comfortable in the top 4 at worst. Aye, and if the form table since Gary Mac took the Villa reins is anything to go by, Villa would have won the league!

They have the pedigree, the History, and are driven on by that. Sometimes, its hard to see what ours is Pedigree and history? Six trophies in their first eighty years of existence? Only becoming a winning club when they started paying their players higher wages than everyone else? Their "pedigree" is no different to Chelsea's.

That isn't a fact though. Have a little trawl around the net and see for yourself. Truth hurts, old son. You're owned by NESV and a basketball player. How very small time! You're telling us all that Liverpool are on an upward curve yet you sold your very best player last season, lost as many games as Villa and were given a good old beating by us at Villa Park on the last day of the season. You've been reading too many delusional, positively spun posts written by Scouse hacks, my friend. (Tony Evans, Tony Barrett and the like do you guys no favours by whipping you up into an unrealistic frenzy.) And remember - our manager left us five days from the start of the season in absolute turmoil. Looking at the form table from the end of last last season I'd be sticking my money on Villa. If "Handball" Suarez (scourge of the Dutch league) and Ten Pints Carroll are the signs that Liverpool mean business then, fantastic. A finish somewhere between 5th and 9th will be what you are getting.

I'm assuming Liverpool are interested. Quite possibly, but let's be honest Liverpool are now a top 6 team at best. No CL, plenty of superior teams in the Prem, even if he wanted to move on and the Chairman would sell him without a new Manager's say so (0% chance of that), I'd assume that he would want to make a genuine step up from Villa? I suppose you could have made the same point about City chasing Milner last summer or Barry the year before. Sorry matey, it has been clear for a number of seasons what trajectory Citeh were on and I don't blame Barry or Milner for going there. Liverpool are not even in the same league in terms of ambition, prospects, finance or ability. That remains to be seen. Selling your star man to Chelsea is evidence enough. Liverpool are a club that will finish somewhere between 5th and 9th next season.

Liverpool a step up? Only in the minds of Scouse pundits and the Cockney media. The cold facts are that the Lerner Trust has more money behind it than NESV. Any player leaving Villa for 'Pool will not be stepping up a level in a football sense, either. Liverpool are no where near being a top four team. Downing has plenty of experience of finishing in sixth place at Villa Park. If Villa get the right manager in I expect an excellent season at Villa Park next year. As for Liverpool, they will collapse under the weight of deluded expectation and Kenny D will quit at the end of 2011-12.

What a magnificent, small-time attitude you have. So, by that logic the minnows of Chelsea shouldn't have bothered trying to sign Vialli and Gullit back in the mid-nineties? What about in 1995 when the turgidly boring Arsenal broke their wage structure and entire transfer policy to sign a foreigner called Begkamp? Should they have bothered? Now, at the time, both clubs had fewer trophies in the cabinet than Villa, and far lesser histories. (They still do, I would argue). The difference was that they had, at the time, something we lacked: Genuine ambition and a desire to compete. They had young, dynamic men in their boardrooms - Chelsea had Matthew Harding and Arsenal had David Dein. Both men had the vision and desire to lift their clubs and push them on to new levels. Aston Villa is one of the greatest names in football - despite having been hamstrung by Doug Ellis for years. Those Ellis days are over and we have a young, ambitious Chairman in charge of the club and he will do all he can to get the right man - and it won't be Steve Bloody McClaren. Either have belief in your club and get positive or support one that matches your seriously low expectations. If any club in England should have the right to demand the very best then it is Aston Villa Football Club.

1. We are not one of the top teams in this league. We are a long way off fourth. and now that liverplop are back on form, 6th is probably the best we hope for. 2. So it would be easy except for the fact that we need to sign a goalkeeper, a few defenders and a few midfielders? Half a team then?! Liverpool back on form? We finished the season higher up the form table than them. You'd do well not to listen to the nonsense and spin of the media. They don't big up Villa, they don't big up the City of Birmingham and they don't big up the Midlands. We spent the first century of our existence with more trophies than any other club in England. Tradition and history dictates we are one of THE great clubs. (I'd argue we are THE original giants and greatest club of the game.) Do yourself a favour and don't allow pundits in the media deflate your expectations and hopes for AVFC. Just because an ex-Liverpool player or know-nothing Cockney pundit says 'Pool are back does not make it so. They are rubbish and will crash and burn under the weight of nonsensical hype next season. It's interesting: when Liverpool finish sixth, they are on the way back, yet when Villa finish sixth we are also-rans...it's all about the spin of Scouse supporting pundits and journalists. Aston Villa, with all cyliders firing, is capable of destroying anything Merseyside can throw at them . The sooner some of our supporters actually show some belief in our club the better for all.

I wouldn't say Villa and Spurs are similar clubs. Villa, in metaphorical terms, are a vintage Rolls Royce whereas Spurs are a nifty, mid-level BMW. Villa are followed by Princes and Prime Ministers, Spurs by Talk Sport presenters. Two very different clubs with very different philosophies. In terms of recent success, the clubs have been performing at similar levels I'll grant you. They're outperforming us this season because of the predicament MON left us in allied to 'Arry doing a very decent job at White Hart Lane. I'm quietly confident we will be back challenging again next season, though.

I'm fairly confident Villa will finish above Spurs next season - just as we usually do according to my history books.