Jenko#4

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, so I'm hoping one of our Swedish or Danish friends can help out and confirm whether something I heard today is actually true or not.

Apparently our two greatest defenders of recent times, Mellberg  and Laursen, are now technically related? Apparently Olof's wife is cousins with Laursen's wife. Is this correct?

I'm going to open a whole can of worms here, but the greatest burger of all time is the 'Dead Hippie' Burger at Meatliquor in London.  2x mustard-fried beef patties, dead hippie sauce lettuce, cheese, pickles, & minced white onions. None of this Gourmet Burger nonsense, it's a proper dirty burger and served pretty much rare, but no burger I've had since can get anywhere near it. Would definitely recommend......

29 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said:

I wonder what peoples opinions are of American medicinal culture vs our own?

I'm still astounded at just how frequently and casually Americans seem willing to medicate themselves. Obviously I don't personally know any Americans but I do listen to quite a few podcasts involving them and they all seem to be on medication of some kind, having also seen Louis Theroux's documentary and from what I have casually observed in the media and TV it really is common place. Is this just because they are ahead of he curve in terms of being open and doing something about it or has it almost become in vogue to have issues and to be actively treating them?

I can't help but think that 50 years ago half the population of America and the UK weren't all walking round anxious and depressed because they didn't have their meds to sort it out. Is it just a symptom of modern society or something more than that?

Really fascinating topic I think.

I wonder if it is as simple as US healthcare being private, and ours being public? I may be completely wrong on this (maybe an American can help out) but aren't US doctors and clinics  essentially profit making organisations? So if they can push pills to everyone then they make money, explaining why so many people are on medication. The NHS is trying to save money, so maybe they think it better to go through other routes first (exercise, diet, therapists etc..) before giving away medication?

This is a very black and white way of looking at it, apologies if I've offended anyone.

17 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

Funnily enough I wanted to ask a similar question yesterday in this thread, but I didn't know if it was appropriate, it might be a bit like talking about a paper cut in an amputee meeting.

But I do get this weird thing every now and then where I just feel like crap for a few hours, an 'everything's pointless' kind of attitude, pissed off about something even though I don't know what it is, a stupid thing like my laptop playing up is the end of the world and things that I usually enjoy suddenly feel empty. 

The missus just has to leave me alone for a while until I snap out of it. Then when I feel better, I have no idea why I was so down and I just forget about it and I feel like I was just being like a moody teenager. Maybe I'm just going through puberty still.

I get this pretty much word-for-word as well, especially the part around being pissed off about something even though I don't know what it is. Then I end up getting even more frustrated and moody because I don't know what I'm being moody about.

I've worked out that mine seems to correlate to some sort of mental 'comedown'. If I've had a good night out, or spent some quality time with the missus/mates, or even had a productive day at work, then once that is over I seem to hit a wall. Once i realised that was what it is, it made the feelings more palatable and manageable. 

3 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Bacuna is only decent if he is played at right back. He isn't good enough to play any other position. 
I imagine he will be phased out now De Laet is here.

He was bought as a winger though from what I remember. He wasn't good enough as either a fullback or winger in the Premier League, but I think he could be in the Championship.

23 hours ago, Nath_s91 said:

Tony has spoken

Well Dr. X definitely isn't 'Hairyhands'. Look at them, its like he's never done a hard days graft in his life!!

I don't think we are after a winger. As @Grasshopper mentioned, if Bacuna now has a future, I think he will be used there. We all saw a couple of years back how good a delivery he has from advanced wide areas (I think he set up 5 or 6 Benteke goals in a short period of time) and I think a settled, focused Bacuna with the fans onside, plus poorer Championship full backs, should be productive. 

Stranger Things spoiler.....

I think they could potentially finish on a similar number of points to us last season. You look at their squad and its set up in a very similar way.

Full of players who didn't make it at a big club and are only playing in the Premier League based on past reputation, and earning big wages because of it (for  Djilobodji, McNair, Rodwell, Borini read Lescott, Richards, Sinclair, Richardson).

Then they have the next level of player down where they have older players on big money with no resale value (for O'Shea, Pienaar, Defoe read N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor)

I think at the moment only one player (Defoe) would improve our current starting eleven, and even then I wouldn't take the gamble as it would feel like a throwback to darker days. Watmore looks a good player, but Sunderland fans already see him as the next messiah even though he isn't the finished product yet (Grealish anyone?)

Plus in David Moyes they have a manager whose personality makes Paul Lambert look like he is on hippy crack!!

Van Persie maybe?? He was linked with Rangers and Stoke, and I'm sure we could compete with those two wages wise.

32 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Lambert was fantasy football club with Merton and  max talking about his time at villa. Said Lerner made the job difficult and changed the goal posts after second season. Said we only paid 7m euros for Tekkers and 900,000k for Ashley Westwood. You would have to say considering the shitty constraints Lerner imposed lambert didn't do too bad with the money he had. He was just shit after a while. 

He looked about 10 years younger as well. His time at Villa really took it out of him. He came across as very intelligent, I still feel he was the potentially the right man for us, just at completely the wrong time.

5 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

I don't get the horse riding in the Olympics. Fair play the guy has longevity but 7 Olympics and a hip replacement and he can still win gold? 

Do the horses get medals as well? May sound like a stupid question but they're the ones who are actually doing the physical exertion!!

Also, doesn't the chance of success mainly depend on how good a horse you own? The best riders might not necessarily be medal winners because they can only afford to buy Muffin the Mule.

As a fan, I'm loving the fact that Tony is so upfront about our dealings, as seen by the Lescott and Adama tweets today. It seems to have put the brakes on the press making up BS rumours about us for the time being. How does everyone think the press now see us? We were never a favourite of the red tops anyway,(we were pretty much their go to team for a bit of bullying last season- maybe deservedly so) and even the Evening Mail seemed to be against the Villa at times. Do you reckons Tony's honesty will help our cause in the press, or alienate us even further? 

No Adama tonight....... 

 Barton & Krancjar probably on very high wages, Senderos on trial, and potentially Lescott coming in who isn't going to be cheap either. Not exactly any resale value there...... they need to qualify for the Champions League this season or I'd be worried for their bank balance again.......

Robert Hopkins- Villa, Small Heath, Baggies, then Small Heath again

Scot Sinclair- Small Heath (loan) Baggies (loan), Villa

4 minutes ago, StanBalaban said:

It's interesting as Kozak is now #27 on the OS. He was indeed #18.

 

If any one was mad enough to order a Kozak shirt on the club shop website, he is down as #18 on there as well. 

1 hour ago, Ginko said:

So the numbers left vacant at the moment, according to the OS, are:

9, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 29, then most of the 30s and 40s.

Then there's the potential for the following numbers to become available if we sell any of the new bomb squad:

3, 4, 5, 11, 16, 17, 21 (maybe?), and 27.

I though Kozak was 18, Green was 19 and Hepburn-Murphy was 29?

I'll bet on the footie and play cards with my mates, but one thing I will never do is online poker/games/fruit machines/scratchcards etc..... I know that they are supposed to be regulated but how can you ever be 100% sure that what is happening on the servers in the background is ever 100% legit. I work in IT and know how easy it could be for an admin guy to rig the system if the losses are looking high for the company, or someone is cleaning up. There is already proof that people have created AI poker 'bots' that are continually online picking up winnings off less experienced 'real' players.

Has his 100m time ever been recorded any where ? The Spanish record is 10.06 seconds.... wonder how close he could get!

1 minute ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I'd happily take Cameron Jerome. 

I also think you're way off if you think Kodija can be had for £4m, or Bamford for £6m. 

Maybe I'm off with the figures, but look at Andre Gray, (£6m from Brentford to Burnley), Benik Afobe (£2m for Arsenal to Wolves) Calum Wilson (£3m from Coventry to Bournemouth) There will be players like that out there at those sort of prices, like Clough for example, and I would much rather pick up 2-3 of those than rely on 1.

I don't really understand this love-in with McCormack. He is prolific at this level, no doubt. But so is Cameron Jerome, who has actually helped teams get promoted out of the Championship 3 times, rather than just being the top scorer in an awful team. He is also exactly the same age as McCormack. Can you image the chaos on here if we were linked with him, and he has promotion experience?!

I would much rather spend £12m on 3x £4m potentially good strikers (Kodija, Wells etc..), or 2x £6m on slightly better strikers with room to improve (Bamford, Clough etc..) I know its not that straightforward though........

A random question on this subject, but do players sometimes have it written into their contract that they must have a certain squad number?  

I know it is unlikely that the above are already fixed, but looking at that list for example, Elphick (as potential club captain) should surely have 4,5, or 6. (was 5 for Bournemouth I think). It would be a statement of intent by the club to give Lescott/Richards/Agbonlahors number to someone else. I think they did the same with the bomb squad a few years ago.

Wow, they are worse than the blouses!! On the off chance that one of their hoodlum are copying and pasting from here again, and that their new messiah loves to talk about the 'facts', how on earth does-

4x league titles, 6x FA Cups, 1x Inter-City Fairs Cup and 30+ England internationals make you a bigger club than-

7x league titles, 7x FA Cups, 5x League Cups, 1x European Cup,  1x European Super Cup and 70+ England internationals ??

We even have twice as many Intertoto Cups as they do! It's not even close....

It really frustrates me about football in the Sky era that so many fans think that turnover, wage bil,l profit, & crowd size constitute success. I would much rather tell my grandkids I saw us win the League Cup than the fact that I remembered when we signed Andros Townsend and Jonjo Shelvey for £25 million..... mugs!!

43 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

We'll see what happens over the next few days when fans go their separate ways. I doubt it'll be the English fans continuing to be involved in these fights.

Russia are playing Slovakia in Lille on Wednesday, England v Wales in Lens on Thursday. Lille and Lens are 20 minutes apart and Lens is a small town, so guess where the French have recommended that England and Wales fans stay?? Yep......Lille!! So the fans won't be going their separate ways for a few days yet.....