FamousHolteUnion

Thats the Sun article

The Sun reporting it now too.

Just came on to say about the Peter Lansley thing then. Lambert it is then. Presume this was planned, we go public, they say no, Lambert quits and we try and appoint him for free. Only to end up paying Blues, i mean, Norwich £3m for their manager

He wont come without being given some spending money

Holt just does as he pleases on twitter. As shown by his little bitch fight with Swansea fans on there tonight. Ended up tweeting Danny Graham 'You'd look good in Red'. Doubt he means anything by it. Besides I imaginehe's getting quite excited about now incase we can come in for him and get him out of Norwich (he did very well this season but at 31 and likely with a relatively large fee I hope we ignore him)

Chance of Moyes: 0%. We're in a similar financial position to Everton, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

One reason could be that there is no heritage to their support? They pretty much have a free for all in who they choose to support. For me (and many of us I assume) one of the major reasons i support Villa is my family. My dad, granddad all support Villa. For many of the asian population [i assume] that is not the case, they can choose whoever they like without any emotional ties to a particular team, some of those who were not born in England may not even particularly feel the 'support my local team' thing either. I also imagine that football clubs, like anything you do as a youngster that sets you apart from the rest, opens you to ridicule and I guess it's possible bullying. Again imagine that some people may choose a 'safe' option in Liverpool, Utd and in the coming years Chelsea or City as there is less chance of them being picked on as children (maybe? seems awfully sad if that is a reason) I imagine if I had no local team and my family were not bothered who I supported (or possibly didnt care about the sport) that theres a chance I could have supported somebody other than Villa. That said, yes we do get asian supporters. I usually sit in the lower holte when I go to games and there are always Asian fans there

Anyone else think we offered a piss-poor contract? He wanted to come, his wife came and visited the city, he still wanted to come, His owners kick off and threaten to seriously destablize Molde He still wants to come. We offer a contract and he has has a meal with Rokke Doesn't want to come. Seems strange to not want to move here for family reasons considering his wife had already checked out the city and they would only be a few miles away from where the kids grew up in Manchester. Honestly think it was our terms. Hope i'm wrong though

We havent approached Lambert though. This strikes me as with Martinez last year. Ole was our number one we approached him, offered him a contract and he said no. Only down hill from there. Same as with MArtinez, approached, said no. Hire McLeish. How long until Mick McCarthy is spotted at VP?

If it's not Lambert now I won't at all be happy. Praying Martinez gets Liverpool job really do not want him.

A young keeper would be too much imo. We already have a massively young squad, some experience is needed - and this season proved that GK is one of those positions we need an experienced keeper. We already need to buy one keeper as #2, who can be young and up and coming sure. But hiring 2 promising keepers to work with our young and promising squad is a recipe for a nightmare.

Is he on a large wage? Yes. And he's the only one who earn't his wage last season. We would also struggle to find a replacement as good and consistent as him for less/similar money. Michel Vorm? Or has he put himself out of our league with last seasons performances?

West Ham another option, their fans desperate for a new LB. Strikes me as the kind of player Big Sam would think he was getting a bargain with.

Skjelbred ruins me on FM, often gets bought by Arsenal (I think, and us if im not Villa). Wouldnt mind him purely because he's decent on FM (not for actual footballing value, just my FM game next season)

Avram Grant came about as close as is possible to winning the Champions League at Chelsea in '08, in very similar circumstances to RDM. He's still a shit manager. RDM lost 13/18 games with West Brom in the prem, leaving them 17th (better by +1GD than 18th Wigan). With just the remaining 13 or so games Hodgson got them to about 12th and well clear of the relegation zone. RDM did well at Chelsea (in the cups) and mediocre with them in the league (still an improvement over AVB) but he did it by indulging the old guard. He wont get the Chelsea job because the old guard need to go. He cannot do that, he shouldnt be trusted to do that. Similarly, we need somebody to get rid of the old guard and bring in a new era, RDM's only success is by indulging the old guard and playing shit football (and getting EXTREMELY lucky last night). The exact opposite of what we need.

Trees isnt giving info on Randy's jet any more because of the furore surrounding Molde at the moment. Plane Spotter has retired!

Q: 'Are you Molde manager after the Summer break?' Solskjaer: 'You see how it is when I answer hypothetical questions.'

Announces he has a release clause if a Prem Club comes in for him. Young, exciting, attractive football, emphasis on young players, knows the league well, well known person, knows SAF (Letter #2), Cheap wages, no compensation. Seems to meet both the fans and the clubs criteria. Also, you dont just announce you can leave whenever you like if your planning on staying. As good as done?

Nah, could be more on principle. Solskjaer isnt short on admirers, even if he doesnt get our job he would walk into another one (likely better than Molde too). I just cant see him resigning, he clearly is loyal (obviously his ambition outweighs that as it would with anybody) I cant see him walking out on the club imo, moving on to a bigger one? yeah sure he doesnt seem like someone to just quit though. Could be wrong of course, i've never met the guy.

I cant see Røkke saying its his last game today, they have 2 matches left this week, may as well have a manager/backroom team to manage them. He's already made himself look like an idiot. If he has any sense whatsoever tonights press conference should be about damage limitation. Ideally for us he will sack OGS but it would be stupid (and harsh - especially if we dont offer him the job). I can see something along the lines of him publicly stating he wants massive compensation for Ole though or maybe anther stabbing in the back of Ole.. more details from their private chats?

I thought it was a goodbye, the assistant was hugging players too (The English one likely to come back with him) but whoknows. They do a lot of things differently in that league, captains shake hands before and after match was my favourite 'SHAKE HANDS FOR PEACE'. and they bizarrely showed the ref some respect. strange. They may just hug each other a lot too. who knows? Only a maximum of a week to find out for sure!

Pros: Passing and movement is great, one two passes, quick movement in the box Attractive football, not many hoofs or aimless crosses - through balls always look impressive (personal opinion) Try and keep possession, not vastly like Swansea where it can sometimes appear to be going nowhere Direct at Fullbacks when from wide. Can see NZog and maybe Gabby doing well. Through balls 2 striker would work great for Ireland, Andi and Bent. (bad for Gabby as he cant finish 1-on-1) They almost scored from a corner (lol) Cons: Very high line - it's good, helps with possession and attacking, but similar to AVB at Chelsea going from a deep line to a high one too quickly can be very costly. Much more dangerous using a high line in the prem with better, quicker, more powerful strikers to take advantage. Direct at fullbacks - Works well for them, would be good for NZogbia but their route 1 is through the middle it's their be all and end all and run at the fullbacks if it ends up out wide. Considering we have Holman and Marc now, aswell as wingers such as Carruthers, Grealish, Graham, Robinson (admittedly fairly direct mostly tbf) there isn't much variety there. Ole may very well instill more variety with better players in his squad (and he'd need to) Didnt seem convincing defending set pieces. But the players arent exactly Premier League level, so it's hard to judge whether thats tactics or just the players. To be fair, this is off the back of me watching [my first] 70 minutes of Norwegian football, 2 days after these players' coach (and likely hero for the Norwegian's amongst them) may be leaving. But thats what I've taken away from it so far. The style/tactics are Exciting and Promising but very risky (I guess it's nothing I didn't know about us hiring Ole 2 hours ago! lol)

One fullback seems to go forwards and one stays back by the look of it, I'd like that. Try and pass their way out of danger but haven't seemed to over do it. They aren't scared to boot it if need be (reading a bit too much into it here maybe lol). Passing is a million times better than us this season. The players obviously mess it up a bit and attacks fizzle out with miss-placed passes but you imagine that would diminish in a better league with better players (some of these are part-time). Ole sticks to his word in that documentary, there isnt much use of wingers, if the ball comes from wide it is very direct at the fullbacks and cb's (Nzogbia would like this imo). Not many crosses, try and pass it round the edge of area. They aren't great at it but again you can see how it could work once you put better players on the pitch. Quite a lot of one-two passes and the movement is pretty good for such a poor league. Basically, presuming he can scout well for the premier league, can put this philosophy into us successfully and motivate those players (yes, big If's) then we could be very happy next season in terms of playing style. Just need to hope he's up to Premier League management.

A week ago we were chanting Lambert's name at Carrow Rd. We'll be happy with either and both would do well. I suspect Solskjaer would be better long-term (by far) but Lambert would have a much bigger instant-impact (thus making any naysayers shut up quickly). Either will do and we will improve with either. My personal choice is for Solskjaer as I can see Lambert becoming more negative over time (like MON did) to keep up with the pressure of results. Where as Solskjaer imo would be more stubborn at implementing his nicer brand of football (maybe at our cost to begin with) But either will give us better football than last year, both have their pro's and cons. I'd go for Ole. But it doesnt matter too much as both will be top managers in the future. Aslong as we dont get somebody riding a wave of lucky success (Di Matteo) or somebody on the slide (McCarthy, Curbishley) we'll all be very happy next season [unless you expect 8th upwards]

Nice Football. More goals. No relegation battle. Fans not getting on everybodies (including players) backs. 13/14 Nicer football. Top Half-ish. Then keep doing that until we drag the next Messi out the arse-end of Erdington or there are new financial rules that make the Premier League truly competetive again.