JohnCresswell

Please keep this thread on topic and relevent to The General

Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 0 Barclays Premiership Villa Park Sunday 18th March 2007. God Bless Aston Villa. We may have been starved of Premiership football recently but we got a game when we really needed it – and it helped prevent thousands of people everyone having to do something ‘special’ for ‘Mothering Sunday’. I’m not moaning about moaners or anything, but sometimes you do want to shout out at the top of your voice “Well what do you bloody want then?†Today saw Villa’s last ‘tough’ opponent of the season – games in which you go to expecting a couple of goals to be put past you. Even as we entered the last twenty minutes I was still expecting Liverpool to go up a gear and get the goal they had been patient for, but the never did. You see, whilst I’m unhappy at this current poor run we are on, I’m realistic. I’m not going to rant and rave about losing to Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool – these teams are significantly better than ourselves. Therefore, rather than taking the game to them and allowing ourselves to be inevitably thrashed do to silly defensive mistakes we need to be more cute, more solid and today we did that. Football is about points, not performances. I’ve always said I would rather us play dull and not lose than try to play pretty and fall flat on our faces – and today we earnt a point against a team that is far, far better than us. Can’t see anything in there to complain about! In fact, if one set of fans were to be complaining, I’d have said it should be the Liverpool fans – who would be going home very disappointed about the fact that their team did not threaten the Villa goal until five minutes from the end and put in a very, very lacklustre display. Villa’s much complained about defence did their job today. They never really looked too confident, but they kept the clean sheet and that’s all you can ask for. Bouma continued his rise in performances and once again seemed to be the star performer at the back. On the other side, Phil Bardsley was rather poor and mistakes twice led to half chances for Liverpool. A change in formation meant that Carew started up front on his own. A good and bad point, here. Ashley Young seemed to be much more comfortable on the wing than he has been in previous games up front, however now with nobody to run onto the flick on from Carew’s headers often chances to attack were wasted. Carew put in another man of the match appearance – the physical ability of this man is just crazy – at one point FOUR Liverpool players had surrounded him and he still managed to come out of the challenges with the ball down to his sheer strength. Neither sides ever really looked like winning, however it was Villa with the majority of the chances. Petrov was clearly clipped on the heel as he tried to turn in the penalty area following on from a strong run by the below par (and out of position) Agbonlahor. Naturally nothing was given as penalties are very rarely given against the St Liverpool team of Honesty. They would never foul anyone, would they? The referee today was a new one on me, and a late replacement for Mark Halsey, who I presume was mucking up somebody else’s game yesterday instead. The referee was keen to do everything absolutely by the book which while may have been great for him and the assessor in the stand, it made the game hard to flow and he missed the one big decision – for a foul similar to which he gave Gavin McCann a yellow card for - not to mention ignoring Kyte’s ridiculous dive. So, a good point for me today. You can’t please some people, it seems, but sometimes you need games like that just to stop the rot – so to speak.

I'd say it was on a par with sticking a lit cigarette in a team mate's eye. :nod: While we want a nasty bastard on the pitch, he needs to be able to get on with his team mates off the pitch, simple really. Both Barton and Bellamy has 'previous' with regards to not being that type of player.

CHEESE

You may have noticed a small number of Vikings at Villa Park at our last home game. Nothing to worry about though - it was a group of the friendly Norwegian Villa Supporters Club, who had come to watch the victory over West Ham. Here is Michelsen's report, along with some of the pictures taken.... I thought you'd might appreciate a report from my week-end trip down from Oslo to see the boys entertain West Ham. Needless to say I had a great time, however the trip turned out even better than I'd dreamt it could be. I booked my trip only two weeks ago while listening to the Watford game on VillaWorld. Too late, I thought, to join the Norwegian Supporter's club, who I knew had a planned a trip up to Bodymoor Heath and a tour of Villa Park. Ah well, I thought, I'll just spend Friday sightseeing around Birmingham. Luckily, I bumped into a couple of the guys from the AVSCN in the airport and they invited me along. Before I knew it, I was at Villa's training ground waiting for the players to show up for training. I soon forgot all about the players though, when a certain American pulled up in his car. We waved and cheered, and out stepped the most down to earth billionaire you could imagine. His t-shirt not even tucked properly in like he'd just got out of bed, Mr Randy Lerner greeted thirty crazy Norwegians like he was one of us. I got to shake his hand and thank him, and he was more than happy to pose for photos for everyone. I was stunned by how real this man really appeared, and you could tell how he thoroughly enjoys being a part of Aston Villa. A couple of the guys from the AVSCN had arranged a meeting with Martin O'Neill, and returned full of praise for the manager as well. According to them, a fantastic character. We then made our way in to Villa Park for a nice lunch at the Corner Flag and an interesting tour of the stadium. I thought the tour guide was a top man, and the old fellow made no effort to hide how pleased he was with Ellis being gone and Randy taking over. He also said he expected there to be an announcement regarding theNorth Stand in the near future, however he made it very clear that was only an educated guess and that he had no inside information. Then the club gave us a special discount in the Villa Shop, a fine gesture I think appreciating the effort put in to come all the way from Norway to support the club. On Saturday I got to the stadium early, having walked from the hotel to get a feel of the local area surrounding Villa Park. The weather was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Villa News&Record on the steps of the Holte End. I presume everyone know all about the game by now, but I must say the atmosphere was fantastic and seeing as this was my first win at Villa Park in five attempts, I've never felt better being a Villa fan. Obviously, having a Norwegian player whom I've followed since he was a mere kid scoring the winner contributed to that feeling of pride I had walking through Aston Park on my way home. This club is going places, General sir, and I can't tell you how grateful I am to the man I had the honour of shaking hands with on that Friday for making it all possible. The whole trip was such a fantastic success for me personally, I wish I could do it every week-end. Hopefully I'll be back in April for more of the same. Pictures:

With such a long break between games, and the transfer window having slammed firmly shut, I’ve took it upon myself to try and take a bit of a wider look at football. It didn’t really work mind, as it soon came right around to Villa again. Transfers may not be something the press can actively talk about for a large part of the year now due to the window in place, but something seems to have taken it’s place – takeover talk. Over the past few years Villa had been the main club the press seemed to enjoy doing this to. We’d all get excited (even if you said you weren’t) at the thought of a cash injection and the club going places other than down. And what happens once we finally get our man? It seems like every club in England are being taken over. Manchester City are the latest club, apparently, and rather ironically it’s being said that both Michael Neville and Ray Ranson are both looking at the possibility of putting in separate bids for the club. So what has all of this got to do with the price of fish? Well, nothing, unless you are someone who was effected by the three ‘Cod Wars’ between 1958 and 1976. Despite being incredibly happy with Villa’s takeover, I will happily admit that I was also a tiny bit annoyed. You see, West Ham, media darlings and one of those clubs who have that “We are a big club, honest†mentality got taken over at the same time, and of course rather than actually do any reporting on Villa, the same tired clichés got dragged up whilst the press-pack whipped themselves into a frenzy at the signings of Tevez and Mascherano and possible MSI investment, and later on Magnusson’s completed takeover. I didn’t like it one bit – after waiting for so long, it was our turn for a bit of publicity, to be in the spotlight. So this is possibly one of the reasons why, with this enforced break on us in which we see Villa playing what seemed to be one game in a month,with another break following, rather than go down the easy option of cheering on whoever is playing Birmingham City, I’ve been watching (and laughing) as West Ham continue to get closer and closer to playing in “The Championship†next season. Even during January, the hype went on. As West Ham went about signing players at overpriced values on vastly overpriced wages (all of whom have injured themselves or failed to perform), Villa went about quietly (sometimes too quietly for some of us!) assembling a new forward line. Once again, it was West Ham who seemed to be making the headlines, and we were all being told of how they would now stay up easily. I can even remember one buffoon newsreader on talkSPORT saying he was happy that West Ham hadn’t signed Ashley Young as he wasn’t worth the money yet virtually in the same breath congratulate his club for signing Lucas Neill on his megabucks deal from Blackburn. So, even though I may have a dislike for them, I have to admit that I almost felt sorry for the West Ham fans as Charlton scored their fourth goal. And then I realised who it was and soon snapped out of it. Because folks, out of all the recent takeovers that have happened around the Premiership recently, with the exception of Chelsea (and even then there are always question marks regarding Roman Abramovich’s long term interests), Villa have without doubt come out as the club with the best deal, and West Ham as the worst. Manchester United’s takeover certainly occupied more column inches than any of the others. The fierce reaction from some of the fans was probably more down to the fact that a lot of them think that the world is out to get them – they’ve probably taken that from Ferguson who often seems to display that attitude. Whilst the Glazer sons have gone about actually providing money for the manager and building up the stadium it’s actually been ‘business as normal’ – except for that huge, huge amount of debt the club has had to take on as a result of being taken over. Villa? Well as no money has been borrowed by Randy Lerner, we simply don’t have that problem. Liverpool’s was done in probably the quickest of all of them, yet in regards to PR it was Gillet and Hicks who made the biggest gaffes. We don’t expect new owners to know everything about the game, but to call their purchase a ‘franchise’ showed a deep lack of understanding. Randy Lerner? He waited six months before his first ‘interview’, meanwhile he let his actions do the talking. Whilst Gillet and Hicks went for a big ‘all singing, all dancing’ press conference, Lerner went for a lower key affair keen to put the emphasis on Villa, not his name. And it’s appreciated. West Ham – where do we start? At a time they needed a manager with motivational abilities, they chose a new one who out-stayed his welcome at Charlton and whilst had achieved to begin with, in recent years has been seen as being rather dour. I can imagine Alan Curbishley’s teamtalks are no more inspiring than I imagine David O’Leary’s were once he’d given up any hope of taking Villa any further. And we haven’t even got to mentioning how Magnusson has borrowed money to buy the club, that some reports say that the interest on this borrowed money is a very high value indeed. In fact, the only club who can come near is possibly Portsmouth. Gaydamak’s money meant Pompey stayed up and have now pushed on to be a better team than they could've dreamt of beforehand. One thing they do need is a new stadium. Their current ground is appalling – without even a roof for away fans. One was planned before Mandaric left, but now it’s on hold. Lerner last week again stated aims of improving the outside of Villa Park (the return of the mosaic? Please!) amongst redeveloping the Holte End and North Stand – once the team has been improved. So, the results may not be going our way yet, but I think it’s fair to say I wouldn’t want to be a fan of anyone else but Aston Villa at the moment. And that’s before we even mentioned the fan involvement actively encouraged by directors since the takeover!

To take the thread back on topic and away from the obsession some people have with certain players (what did they do, piss in your chips?) - the football blog is reporting that Villa are trying to sign Eidur Gudjonsson from Barcelona - was this in any of the newspapers yesterday or just a silly made up rumour (or both)?

I wouldn't go.

link: www.avfc.co.uk Would you?

Wondered how long it'd take for people to notice! Announcement in the Mods Announcements forum shortly.... Edit: Shows how much I pay attention. That forum has disappeared. It's in an announcement in the VT forum

As said before, they have signed a two year deal, and that the guys running the club are very honest and they keep their word - they are honourable men, and I'm sure, happy to keep the contract going, if a settlement can't be reached. Sure, I bet they could get more money elsewhere, but you have to look at it from both sides of the coin - the pay off 32Red would be recieving wouldn't really be that big a sum as they didn't pay much for the sponsorship in the first place (what haappened to all that partnership stuff they were talking about when it was signed?). If you were their CEO, you would look at Villa as an ambitious club, looking to make big moves and looking to further themselves and market themselves as a club. Why would you accept any offer break the deal unless it was a massive pay off fee - which wouldn't make sense. In fact, you'd think the CEO of 32Red would actually think about RENEWING the deal on bigger terms so as the team goes on, it's guarenteed the name is still on the shirt in the forthcoming years when Villa will be EVERYWHERE.

Of course, there is a possibility that 32Red will stay if they can't agree settlement with Villa. If they think exposure next season will be increased so it's worth more than the settlement they will stay.

The bookies have us favourites for Bellamy....

By AVFCinWales

By NurembergVillan

COuldn't care less if it's route one football or not. If it means we'll win games, I don't care how we play.

Thanks for this, Richard. I enjoyed reading it.

By Richard

By avfcinwales

Interesting - we are now worse than we were last season then

I must admit I started to get a bit bored when I'd got to page 300 of the transfer thread! If anyone wants to post some of Jez's classics then I'll add them in

So the Transfer Window is shut, and the worrying about buying anyone to improve the squad has finished, I think probably to the relief of fans, management and players themselves. VillaTalk tries to lighten the mood, and looks at poster's original thoughts on the transfer window, along with some of the reactions when we were first linked with the players we originally bought.