AVFCAM

MJMooney! Ha ha! Buzzinga!

Cheers Derry, at least I know it's not just me!

Again, read what I have said... I'm actually saying that, as with Spurs, signing with a new 'upcoming' brand IS a big deal, speaheading, exclusivity, special treatment. It should be seen as a good thing... Our current situation however will mean it probably won't be as people will see it as being 'pushed out of the mainstream' rather than, pocketing a fortune to spearhead a brand...my personal opinion is not included anywhere... Signing a young defender from Shamrock Rovers, should be seen as a good thing, but a lot of people have said 'is this as good as we can do?' Whereas, signing loads of average players was seen as a good thing under MON as we were on the up... So surely you can see what I'm saying...I've actually warmed to the idea (except funny symbols on shoulders) so your arguing against the wrong person...

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Sigh... Ok, I'll explain what I have said... If you read what I have written, instead of what you want to read, I have actually said that the UA and Macron deal would essentially be exactly the same, but because of the 2 different situations the clubs find themselves in, the fans (and the media to an extent) will see the 2 deals in 2 different ways...1 as a positive, the other as a negative. Isolating quotes and not including full sentences can imply different messages to what is actually meant...for example 'You're a tool, but who isn't?' can quite easily be quoted as 'You're a tool' So you see, I can distort quotes to... Off your high horses Gentleman, nobody rides a horse anymore...

I think it's more to do with the ongoing decline than the actual stigma attached to the brand. Spurs have signed with an unknown in UnderArmour, which has been seen as a fantastic deal for a brand new to the (UK football) market, as well as a chance to spearhead this brand as a new challenger to the PL title. UA are bringing some real tech to the table. So a positive for all... Macron for us, will be a disappointment for most BECAUSE they are a relatively unknown brand in the PL. This won't be seen as a chance to spearhead the brand in the PL, it will seen as being pushed out of the mainstream...mainly because of the consistent disappointments coming from VP. Hoestly, I've warmed to the kits that the pretty girls and Brian May are modelling, simple, stylish shirts...BUT, wih the consistent poor decisions the board are making, do you really trust them not to design (or to select the design of) an awful kit? At least with Nike you were guaranteed some good gear, even when the board choose a kit like last seasons 'effort'... Again, I'd kill for Adidas, I'd love to see what they'd come up with.

My main issue is the stupid 'man with ball' logos on the shoulders of the English teams shirts...they look like a uniform for a leisure centre in 1992.... It doesn't make a huge difference to anything, btut I like that my villa tops are nice to look at, I don't want to look (more of) a knob on matchdays... The foriegn shirts DO look good, but, as I've said, we're not foreign. We also don't wear stripes (not because we're fat or something) and the big thing, ALL the UK kits look pretty crap.

The whole thing with 'the kits don't look that bad' is a stupid point to make... Foreign kit looks ok when you're wearing it when you're playing on the training pitch/park etc...but when an English team pulls on a foreign looking shirt in a Premier League game, they look like tits! All of their kits look like they would blend in around Europe, but not in the Prem... I'm pretty gutted, I've always wanted to see blue sleeves with 3 claret strips on them... Next thing I can see being annouced is selling is that we're upping the season ticket prices to evidence the rise in talent on show at Villa Park...

Sunday League standard by the looks of it. I know it's not a huge issue, but it's just another poor shows by the board if true... There are some quality companies out there that we should be trying to associating ourselves with. I really want the board to be successful, but they just seem to make cock up after cock up... Adidas, Puma, Umbro, re sign with Nike. Any would be a better option that Macron, even someone like LeCoq or Kappa would be prefered in my opinion. I don't understand, the board want increased revenues, but they make choices that seem to imply the opposite... Another disppointment if true...

If I am honest, I'd prefer Villa not to sack McLeish. If I am honest, what I'd really like is for McLeish to turn us around and make us a winning team, taking us to cup finals and into Europe on a career with us lasting decades. Imagine how good that would be, to tell the Noses their manager made us great. My dream seems to be getting more and more unlikely. I don't doubt that McLeish wants to make us great, I don't doubt he'd have more chance if he had a bit more backing (although I'm scared to give him money to spend)...I've been behind McLeish as much as I can be... I just wish all the faith I'd shown in him had not backfired like this...sigh...

I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty certain he'll go. I won't blame him either, the team he joined is not the same as the team he now has to play in. We couldn't lose Bent, it would be madness, but I am never surprised by anything that happens at Villa Park these days. We'll ship out DB9, get in some clogger like Zamora. Spend the rest on someone average like Steven Davis, struggle to the end of the season and maybe even drop down. McLeish will fail to see the gaping hole on our wide left side where N'Zogbia has drifted in field, and won't buy a proper winger to fill the gap. We'll continue to rely on youth who are not good enough yet, who will continually make rookie errors that cost us goals and points (due to lack of experience). Our defence will continue to concede silly goals as we fall apart whenever a ball floats into the area. We won't be able to get goals back as DB9 will be gone and an injury to GA11 leaves us with nothing up top...oh hang on, we'll have Zamora, so we might score 2 or 3 by the end of the season if he's fit long enough. Sigh.

Opinions are opinions and everyone is entitled to one, but that opinion is just wrong mate. Sorry Petrov has been one of our most consistant and impressive performers...this year

My mate has already said he's not renewing, I was trying to talk him out of it with the 'support the club, not the man' arguement...but he came back with something I couldn't argue with...he said 'I'll always support the Villa, even if we'd been relegated I'd still have gone to games, but right now, the quality of football is so awful. Why would I want to spend an afternoon watching rubbish football? It's not enjoyable'... Fair point if you ask me...

Most of what Lerner has done/is doing is for the benefit of the club. He is trimming the wage bill, because we can't afford it (see 'huge losses') and if Lerner were to 'sell up' as people seem to want him too, he could leave us right in the shit, with our new owner not being able to fund us as he'd promised (see numerous Portsmouth owners) and we tumble down the leagues after brushes with administration. When he picked McLeish, he did it because he thought he had the right man for the job, granted, he was wrong, but he did it with the Villa in mind. He certainly didn't do it on the bloody cheap! Selling the best players WAS business sense, the amounts offered were ludicrous, unfortunately this wasn't followed by footballing sense when replacements were needed...although he did sanction our bid for Bent, £24m, for the goalscorer we desperately needed! Sadly, selling our wingers left us with no service to said goal machine...which was poor decision making for AML and RL... Granted, he's not throwing money at us, but we needed to find a balance, losing £45m+ a year was unsustainable (unless your first name is Sheikh)...look at Arsenal, they are run well as a business and are (almost) a good side too (although quite reliant on RVP)...we will find it a little harder because we are not a London club... Also remember, the quality of the football is terrible right now, but Lerner has kept the ticket prices down (when compared to the rest of the league) and when we did get an increase, few can argue that this season's package was improved! Everyone has an opinion, but I am happy with Randy as our 'sensible' owner, not so much in a footballing sense, but I'm hoping that will sort itself out. He has money when necessary, and is wealthy enough to keep us going. I don't want one of these middle eastern chaps (NOT a racial thing) to come in saying he has billions in the bank, only to find out he hardly has a pot to piss in! If you look at recent times, there's been far more 'wannabe' rich guys than actual rich guys taking ownership of clubs...

I am unsure, but only because I'm not sure if it's just 2 out and out wingers that we need. AML stands on the touchline screaming for the players to push forward and to stop playing stupid passes and giving the ball away, so he obviously cares and wants the players to change. With 2 wingers we'd feed the machine that is Bent, Albrighton perked up today but he's the only winger we have, N'Zogbia never has or will be a proper winger... If he doesn't address this in January, he's gotta go for sure. Sadly, this might be too late though.

You see, I've got to disagree slightly here. I don't think he showed lack of effort at all, he showed that he is out of practice. The lad only seems to get a few minutes here and there, he'd started to look ok by the Wigan game having had a few games under his belt, now, a month later he's thrown back in. I was sat in row 6 of C6 so saw his 'defending' and I was disappointed, but after that he was constantly running, he always wanted the ball and towards the end made a 40 yard run to try and support N'Zogbia (who made the wrong choice again). Although NZ did look quicker than previous games, which shows some improvement too. He's not a defender, many attackers find that they are shit defenders, especially when they are still not playing regularly. He's on a huge amount of money with years on his contract to burn, he has us over a barrell, he can just sit and earn his money if he wants, nobody else will pay him this much. Why don't we just support him, at least this way we might get some use out of him. Bad defending yes, but it was his first 'contribution' (or non contribution) of the game.

Shillzz totally correct, thank you!

What has really hacked me off about the whole Ireland situation is that McLeish was waxing lyrical about how is thought Ireland was a great player etc, he played him a few times, but then, as soon as he started to look decent, he's benched him again... I forget the game, but the last one he played in, he looked decent, at least a 6 or 7 out of 10, which is far better than most this season...but since then, I don't even think he's got on the pitch... I'm sure these decisions are made for a reason, but I can't see any reason why... I hope he plays tomorrow, if only to stop Heskey being played in midfield* *for the record, I like Heskey, he is useful, but not in midfield, not when we have more agile options...

Every season, people moan about Stan. Every year, Stan is one of our most consistent performers... (consistently good, before anyone cracks a joke) He tires after 60 minutes yes, but we'd sub him off if we had anyone better... He does pass every way but forwards yes, but at least he doesn't lose possession... When he came back from injury last year, our midfield and all round play improved dramatically... That is all.

Razor I think you're actually in the minority, most viewers etc (especially the media) seem to think he was decent...3 mates who were at the game say he was above the average 6/10 from last match We're all entitled to an opinion, I'm hoping you're wrong though, we could really do with a positive like Ireland being a performer again!

Nobody laying in Ireland, good news, perhaps he IS becoming a decent player for us.

The anti football team are the only team to score at Eastlan...sorry, I mean the City of Manch...oh, sorry, I mean the Etihad Stadium this season...

Limvillian... What are you on about sunshine? Giving up before the game... We were on top for the first 20, playing against a second string that are better than most of the league... I'm guessing you either haven't watched or listened to the game, but you 'gave up on your post before you started writing it' We're all gutted we haven't won mate or kept it close ,but let's not be silly eh?

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At least Stephen Ireland is showing improvement game on game...he's been pretty handy today by most accounts! Let's hope N'Zogbia can match it!