StanBalaban

We will really miss Keane's movement. You can see him pointing and screaming at the rest of the midfield too.

What a ball from Keane. Bent should have buried that!

I'm excited to see how this line up plays, and if nothing else it's been a while since I said that. Would perhaps have preferred CNZ instead of Marc and Ireland in place of Bannan, but otherwise looking forward to the game.

I've lived in Kent for 20 years now and NEVER seen a Villa kit made by any manufacturer in ANY sport shop, Nike or otherwise.

The arguement that Nike give us bigger "global appeal" is quite simply bollocks. Liverpool, Man Utds global profile is down to the fact that they are the two most succesful teams in the county. Do you wander into JJB and see any Sporting Gijon (HeeHon) kits? No. Why? Because nobody gives a **** about Sporting HeeHon. They care about Real Madrid and Barcalona. Why? Becuase they are the most successful teams in Spain.

So the sad, and seemingly difficult lesson for us to note is..... Nobody in Asia, the Middle East, Antartica or anywhere else gives a **** about Aston Villa. (apart from the collection of global miss fits and perverts that grace Villa Talk of course - and FWIW I love each and everyone of you.)

Exactly. Shops of any kind don't stock items in the hope that they'll give those products more exposure, they stock them because they believe the products will sell. Regardless of who makes our kit, if any sports store across the globe believes they are going to make a profit by selling our kit, they'll stock it.

Truth is however, apart from a few expats, no one gives a hoot about our beloved team. If we started to play well, entertain and win things then that would quickly change. With our current setup however, the kits could be made by Hugo Boss and cost a tenner and it still wouldn't be popular. You're lucky to find a stockist outside of the West Midlands, let alone in Asia or the Middle East.

I share your desire for AVFC to be a global brand and for our shirts to be sold in every corner of the globe. But I live in Leicester and walk into my local JJB and Soccer Sports and can find maybe 4 tucked away home Villa shirts. The fact is, big teams have their shirts in shops because they win games, floating around mid to lower table we won't be a global brand for a very long time.

This may be the case to some extent, however prior to Villa having their kit made by Nike you could not get a Villa shirt in NZ or Australia from a high street store. As soon as Villa kits were by Nike they were found in stores right next to Barcelona, Man United and Arsenal Nike shirts. This had nothing to with winning games and all to do with distribution and sales agreements.

I doubt I will ever see a Villa shirt made by Macron for sale in a high street store in this part of the world.

I was willing to give him time until he explained his game plan after the Man City game. I the past we've had managers (JG and MON) that were arrogant, bizarre, stubborn and often tactically naive but, in their pomp, had the ability to make the players feel 10 ft tall and ready to take on any team.

After the City game I can see that AMc is all of the above except he'll make the players think that they are 3ft tall and should be scared of the bigger boys.

A no from me.

That in his opinion, a defeat to Man City was entirely acceptable and pretty much to be expected.

Check the first few pages in the match thread - hes not on his own.

The rest of your post - I agree with.

He's not on his own because of him, not in spite of him. He has driven this negative attitude into the very foundations of the club. Thanks to Eck none of us believe anymore, even myself and I've always been considered a glass half full kind of guy.

Say what you like about O'Neill but we would enter a game like this thinking we had a chance. Even under Ged, by this time there were signs. The 3-1 defeat to United for example was around the same time of year. It was around about now we seemed to start turning the corner.

How much longer are we to wait?

Yep, I have to say you are spot on there

Is it sad that after a Villa home game that I feel the need to read the Stuart Downing is shit threads on RAWK to cheer myself up now? :oops:

Is it too much to ask to just...have a go?

Like most fans, I'm not in favour of protests etc. But today has proved to me, unequivocally, that we are doomed under Alex McLeish. I kept clinging to the vague hope that things might begin to change, that if we all just show a bit more patience he'll somehow get a system in place and start getting the fans onside. But it will NEVER happen. He is a stubborn, deluded, footballing dinosaur and I'm beginning to physically hate the man.

City were under big pressure to win today with Utd going back on top yesterday. We were the huge underdogs with really nothing to lose. All the Villa fans want is to have a go, for the manager to show just an ounce of belief in his team. Instead we were predictably set up for a 0-0. You just know Eck was delighted at half time hence why nothing changed whatsoever going into the 2nd half. It was painfully obvious that it was only going to be a matter of time before City scored and when they did we seemed content to keep it at a respectable 1-0.

We are without a shred of confidence or ambition on the pitch and at times are seemingly lacking in the most basic technical ability. In possession, we give the ball away in the sloppiest manner all the **** time. When defending, we look nervous as hell.

Playing Heskey in midfield is beyond a joke. Its **** embarrassing. Hutton is an abomination of a right-back. Dunne is past it, Collins nothing but a lump. Albrighton will join the likes of Gardner, Ridgewell and Luke Moore as a graduate of our average at best, Premier league also-rans academy. And Bent might as well be sitting in the Aston Social for 90 minutes for all the service he's getting.

Some people will look at this result and say a 1-0 loss to the best team in the league is no disgrace. I say bullshit. We could've won today. City were comfortable only because we made it so easy for them and offered absolutely no opposition. But we didn't even try, we didn't have a clue.

I'm sick to death of hearing that Villa fans are being out of order to McLeish, that the only reason he is disliked is because of his connections to the other lot. I reckon 99% of Villa fans would take Chris Hughton tomorrow given the chance. It has NOTHING to do with his time at Blues and EVERYTHING to do with his despicable anti-football mentality.

It gets said every week but thank Christ for Wigan, Wolves and Blackburn.

Spot on, excellent post. What must it be like for CNZ and Ireland, both of whom are confidence players, when Heskey is picked ahead of them in midfield?

If we manage 40% possession and only concede 2, i'll be impressed!

43% possession and conceded 1, you must be chuffed!

Classic McLeish in the post match interview. Apparently it's not fair to expect us to attack Man City before they scored.

Interviewer: "how do you stop this worst record a VP for 20 years?"

AMc: "Simple, win the next match!"

Interviewer: "How do you win the next match?"

AMc; "Erm....erm...."

:oops:

we'll get destroyed now chasing this game

Chasing the game with what?

We need Ireland on to keep the ball - in place of Heskey, and CNZ on in place of Marc, who has been piss poor.

I feel sorry for Keane. Joint the Villa at the moment is like visiting an old people's home. You don't as much release the youth in the elderly, more get dragged down to their level of lethargy.

You would've thought it would make more sense for City to be in their normal sky blue or White away kit, instead of what they've got on?

Wolves into the bottom 3 now

Collins and Heskey.

FFS tho no surprise is it

City aren't a big team in terms of high. Hopefully we can actually get something from a corner with Dunne, Collins, Heskey and Gardner all over 6ft.

Very surprised so many think this will definately end in defeat, baring in mind i was only the other week Man City lost to Everton.

Everton are a much better side than us.

Herd & Petrov were out in Birmingham city centre last night at 4am, really professional behaviour by our model captain.

Anywhere between 0-3 and 0-6.

Really? How do you know? That's shit if that's true. The good old Art of War by Sun Tzu says that the battle is often won before it's been fought. If that's how the players prepare then they deserve to lose.

The same can go for us fans too, especially at home. Give off the vibe and atmosphere of expecting a defeat then don't be surprised when we get one I guess.

Is yaya out ??

Yep, still at the African Nations. Midfield to choose from is Barry, Milner, Johnson, Silva, De Jong with Nasri 50/50.

No matter how well we (or practically any PL team) defend, City are likely to score, so it makes no sense to try and protect a 0-0 from the off. If there is one chink in their armour, it's that they can be vunerable to being attcaked.

We know Silva, Aguero, Dzeko and co are going to keep us busy so it's vital that CNZ, Keane and Bent keep Lescott and Richards busy, otherwise they will destroy us.

With Balotelli, Toure and hopefully Kompany out the very least we should be asking for is for Aston Villa to have a go at winning the game!

2-0 Spuds after 5 mins. Saha with the second.

Dalglish is getting away with murder anyway....2 wins in 9 league games now...Hodgson had a better record when he was sacked.

The whole Suarez issue is deflecting attention away from Dalglish, Carroll and Downing. Hopefully the circus will continue and they'll continue to slip down the league together!

Yup MON doesn't like rotation and it bites him in the ass all too regularly. I hope it continues!

He'll run his first XI into the ground for the rest of the season that's for sure.

Another win for Norwich moving them up to 8th, 4 points behing Liverpoo.

Much as it winds me up to say it, good post match interview from Fergie. Spot on in my opinion.