billybofalbion

There's an 'I' in win!

Westwood looked very good on Saturday anyway. I think he knows the English game well and is good at playing a dangerous ball forward; rather than just knocking it about in the middle.

Is this guy injured? He didn't play on Saturday but I've seen nothing official?? Says something for the player that I've only just realised he didn't play!

Would have been nice if Petrov had been there as captain. Hope it was the case that he was invited and just wasn't quite up to it!

Excellent! I'm Canonbury ... this could be a good gathering!

Get a grip. Sport is theatre. Tragedy is the more entertaining of all. The ups and downs are what make it. Go and support an Arab rich club if you don't want the emotions of football.

I had been thinking this was a big gamble but just realised it isn't at all... If we stay up; have a decent finish; perhaps even Europe at a stretch than well done Lambert you bought in player with excellent potential. If (IF) we get relegated (and I really don't think we will be): well we have a team of decent players; on championship wages, who are unlikely to jump ship, and even if they do we'll at least get are money back on 'um! I like it - better than spending a shit load on players like Habib Baye who I would happily have paid to leave the club a month after he came. The other thing to remember is that we have Gabby, Albrighton and Dunne back soon. Gabby I think will make a difference and the other two are experienced at the very least.

Glad to see him go. My friend said when we signed him 'Will give away penalties and pick up red cards.' That's pretty much what we've got out of him.

Think the only one I would be concerned with not getting there would be Lukaku. Having to avoid high wage demands is our problem.

Can you give an example of a player a lesser club have signed that we've missed out on?

This is good to hear. I think Villa fans want this play to do well more than almost any other. Did either him or KAE look very good on the creative front as well as defensively?

Really think / hope we should be trying to sign this player.

I heard this rumour from a Spurs fan friend of mine, so came on to see if there was any more to it. He reckons that Rose is actually a much better Left Bank than Left Wing ... When he covered there for Spurs last season apparently the only mare he had was ironically against us! I know people have been talking about us signing decent LB cover ... this could be it?

Completely agree with this. As Villa fans we've barely seen him string any run of games together - especially in the Prem. If he keeps fit and puts in a good run, I think our biggest fear with Delph could be losing our most important player again come the end of the season!

When he played under MacDonald last season I honestly thought he looked like an amazing player, seriously mature and accomplished considering he was playing first team for the first time. I remember at the time I just couldn't understand why he hadn't been used before by MON. Hope we see this again when he comes back from the U20 World Cup with Austria.

I wonder if the reason we haven't seen that much of him thus far (compared to the likes of Albrighton or Bannan) is because we have been trying to keep him 'out of sight' of the likes of City (or Madrid / Inter if those links are true) until he is accomplished enough for us to use him effectively in the Prem?

Bannan looked very good in the game against Blackburn today. His passing is amazing. I always compare his style to Paul Scholes (obviously saying he is nowhere near as accomplished) when I am describing him to friends and realised something about that today; for everyone who is worried that he is 'too small' for the Prem - he is actually the same height as Paul Scholes too! Actually all of the other youngsters looked pretty poor today I thought. Clarke and Albrighton gave the ball away a few times - so did The Fonz ... in fact those three reminded me of the way England débutantes look when they get their first cap, so eager to impress they made a lot of silly mistakes.

Reading the comments from Wigan fans on SSN website - not only do they all seem absolutely gutted but all seem to make reference to the fact he is MILES better than Downing.

There is no point in releasing statements about why we should relax in our assessment of AM. It just comes across as arguing with the fans rather than reasoning with them -as you can see from reading every post here, the fans are really starting to dislike the people who run this club. These 'statements' we're reading are making it worse. The only statement any Villa fan wants to hear is the one that announces the appointment of a manager we are happy with.

In the past twelve months Aston Villa have been made a mockery of. The recent search for a manager seems to have been completely farsical. I have never had so many friendly 'put downs' from friends who support other teams as I have in the past few weeks. Alex McLeish being our next manager: forget that he is the manager of our biggest rivals, I know you have, his 'proven track recond in the Premier League' is getting the club relegated. Is it just that you have a desire to win the Carling Cup, I notice that the one thing that links the previous two managers to McLeish? If so you aught to know that generally the Micky Mouse Cup is seen as being as big a joke as you seem to be trying to make my great club. I have been an Aston Villa fan all of my life and in the past 12 Months you have made me very unhappy with your running of the club.

Thinking about it a lot I don't want Ancelotti. He is a manger who manages big names and big egos that's his skill. He's not an inspirational manager who will inspire more average players to perform. I can't see him pulling any good value signings off either. He just isn't the sort of manager you need at our level - if he became Villa manager I think that we would see a similar scenario to what happened with Ramos at Spurs ... Although, I think as someone mentioned further back when Ancelotti was being mentioned as something of a pipe-dream, if he was to come along with Ray Wilkins at his side, that may be a different story.

If Mark Hughes was to get him playing like he did that season at City then I think he'd win fans over pretty quickly.

All season I have been saying I would like to see Moyes in charge. Earlier in the year I read a newspaper article that suggested Moyes would leave Everton this summer because of their sell to buy, or even just 'sell' policy. So this summer I was really hoping that the situation would be right for him to come to Villa. He would respect our exceptional youth policy as he has done at Everton and, given more of a budget than he had at Everton, could bring some serious success. But would his appointment tempt the current stars on the verge of leaving to stay / sign new contracts? He may be too 'steady' a choice. So I have to say that, actually, I would quite like to see something a little more adventurous like Ancelotti or Deschampes!