Hughes

Agree, but this was quite a few years ago. He has generally calmed down after that. Aker is not solely owned by Røkke, its a listed company FFS. Aker is saying that this has been discussed for a long time. I believe them.

So blackmail?! Wow... Don't worry Ole I know where you will be welcome! I do not believe that for a second. Aker is a major publicly listed company. Even if Røkke can be a hothead, I am sure this decision has nothing to do with OGS flying to meet the Villa.

Any such movement to other airfields? Ålesund, Molde, Oslo? He does not have to go en route to Kristiansund.

Amen to that!

No, it's not, "skjær" is a reference to, quite simply, a rock in the water. So, Solskjær is basically "sunny rock in the water..." Anyway, breaking news in Norway is that the corporate group Aker is to sell their ownership in Molde and pull funding. Aker is controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke (some of you nerds may remember that this is the guy who owned Wimbledon some years ago). If this is true, the chances of Sunny Rock in the Water coming to Villa has just increased substantially. Without the Aker/Røkke money, Molde is fuuuuucked. You are right in the fact that "skjær" on its own translates to rock in the water, however, "solskjær" is on its own a norwegian word translating to sunshine or more acurate ray of sun. Like the sun breaking through the skies... Ha ha, norsk er vanskelig! I think we both may be right, it could be both, actually! Anyway, news about Aker and the municipality seem to indicate that Molde will be in no position to compete going forward.

No, it's not, "skjær" is a reference to, quite simply, a rock in the water. So, Solskjær is basically "sunny rock in the water..." Anyway, breaking news in Norway is that the corporate group Aker is to sell their ownership in Molde and pull funding. Aker is controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke (some of you nerds may remember that this is the guy who owned Wimbledon some years ago). If this is true, the chances of Sunny Rock in the Water coming to Villa has just increased substantially. Without the Aker/Røkke money, Molde is fuuuuucked. Or Olé stays at Molde so that they dont pull funding? Coincedence they announce to pull funding when it looks like he's off? Apparently, Aker pulling out has nothing to do with OGS talking to Villa, this seems to be a straight forward corporate decision. It's the other way round in my mind; OGS already knows that funding will go away, which makes it much more probably for him to accept Lerner's offer. And now reports are breaking that the local municipality is reassing their financial support to Molde (no direct financial support but linked to their stadium). I am confident none of this is a reaction to OGS getting on that plane, it's the other way round, surely.

No, it's not, "skjær" is a reference to, quite simply, a rock in the water. So, Solskjær is basically "sunny rock in the water..." Anyway, breaking news in Norway is that the corporate group Aker is to sell their ownership in Molde and pull funding. Aker is controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke (some of you nerds may remember that this is the guy who owned Wimbledon some years ago). If this is true, the chances of Sunny Rock in the Water coming to Villa has just increased substantially. Without the Aker/Røkke money, Molde is fuuuuucked.

IMO this is completely and utterly wrong. He is extremely ambitious and IF he comes to Villa it will be his big chance and he will bend backwards to be successful. This is a guy looking to manage ManU some day. If you think he will be a puppet and not have demands, you do not know or understand OGS at all. Anyway, today is Constitution Day in Norway, the biggest celebration of the year here, so kind of really strange timing for OGS to travel to the UK. If he comes, I have three concerns - will he kick some of our dross out immediately or give "everyone a new chance"? This concern, however, to me applies to all possible new managers. He will not be afraid to confront and ship out however but I hope he knows/ understands that some players quite simply must go. - will he be talking about how "fantastic" ManU are all the time, and refer to SAF at every chance? Do not think so, but there is a risk for that. He is a ManU man and loves ManU - if he comes and is successful and SAF retires in two or three years, he will be front runner (and he will be running as fast as ****) for the ManU position. The largest Norwegian paper is reporting that Molde and Solskjær's agent deny any knowledge of this. And, if offered the job I would not be surprised if he turned it down ( he recently went on record saying that he was not at all even considering Wolves) - as mentioned, this is an extremely ambitious man (but, from what I remember his wife may be a Vila supporter!)

I guess it is impossible to argue with the first paragraph. The next two; yes, we need investment but at the same time I think we all know, or at least should expect, that there will not be "lots of" cash available. The new manager will have to operate within the real world. Richard, who do you want as the new manager?

Totally agree.

And so it starts again; as soon as the one thing we Villa fans could agree on actually happens, we start to hugely disagree on the replacement of AM. Do not get me wrong, discussions is what VT is all about, but could we at least, for once, agree to just **** support the manager that is appointed, no matter who he is (and no; it will not be Grant (whether it is Peter or Avram, it will not be Sven and it will not be Steve McLaren). Based on the statement today it looks like a Lambert/Martinez kind of guy. Me, I do not think Lambert is the right choice as such, but if that's the appointment I will get behind him, no doubt, and I am not saying he will be bad. Just think it's one or two years too early, that's all. For me, Martinez ticks all boxes. ANYWAY, after all the shit we had to put up with this season we really, really need to get together and unite when the appointment is made.

My only concern about him going is: I have no doubt he really means that there will be changes in the squad next season with him in charge; I.e. underachieving players (at least some; we need to keep at least a few players...) will be shipped out by AM. I truly believe he is fed up with the attitude of some senior players. If a new guy comes in, the risk is that he will "give all players a clean slate" etc etc, and that we have to endure yet another year with some of the player dross we have. In my view, that is not an option. On the other hand, keeping AM is really not an option either. And, I not sure I trust AM to spend money. However, we REALLY need to get rid of quite a few blood sucking bats in the current squad.

I assume that you are not a professional athlete earning £10k+ per week and taking the hopes of 1,000's of people into a huge game on Sunday! An extra 1% can make all the difference in a professional football game - our lads lose an extra 1%, I can't imagine VdV was out on the piss on Tuesday night. These lads are massively privileged and they haven't got a scooby. 20 odd pages on this?! Seriously. It isn't even that big of an incident (well the bit caught on camera anyway). It's absolutely nothing, ages before a match, no criminal charges and very mild compared to what you normally see on Broad St. This whole 'taking the hopes of 1000's' rubbish too - it's FOOTBALL! Yes, we all love it, yes it's important in some ways and if it'd been the night before the match maybe I'd have a different view - but I can tell you that I'd be a lot more concerned by a doctor ever drinking - 1% loss in concentration IS actually life and death, or my lawyer not being quite all there if I'd been falsely accused of murder! Medically speaking I doubt you could tell which players had been drinking on a Monday and which hadn't by a Saturday morning. Silly, perhaps. Slap on the wrist - public apology to appease the media in light of the whole role-model status but then move on. Fans getting all uppety is ridiculous; it's just cos we're having a sh*t season. I bet none of you complaining have ever had a few drunken nights and done something you regret?! It's a bit double standards, we're all human. Or are we now removing Paul McGrath from GOD like status at Villa Park because he couldn't really be considered a role-model. Silly yes. A 'slur', 'disgusting' or 'insulting' it is not. I do not really care about the role-model thing. I care about our players being, for the most, not good enough and drinking and not taking care of themselves during season does not make them any better. Oh well, I have put my view forward and will leave it at that. I am just a bit sad that some fellow Villa fans seem to be happy with not asking more from the players.

Yeah tell that to God, tell that to the lawyer that goes out for a drink or two and wins his case the next day, I myself intend on going out for a few tonight and fully intend doing a great job in work tomorrow, where I will have to be fully concentrated on the job for 8 hours and given its FA Cup final day, I'll be bloody busy, a new problem to solve every 20 seconds or so. It doesn't matter what you do in life, you need to let off steam, different people do it in different ways. This on the face of the evidence is a storm in a teacup Well, in fact I AM a lawyer. Every now and then I take clients out and it gets late. I can tell you that I am much less effective at work the next day than if I had stayed at home. And, you may "intend" to do a good job tomorrow, but if you think you are as good at your job after a late night out as you would be if you stayed home, you are in self denial and just incredibly deluded my friend. Anyway, this is about footballers playing for the Villa, not solicitors or whatever you do.

So Bicks hiow many 'incidents' like this was he involved in? Quite a few I should imagine, most young people have been. Have you never drunkenly kicked a door? Did he drink five days before the Olympics? Or five days before a major competition? Unless your friend is participating in casting, I doubt it. I do not care if the players go clubbing off-season. I also think you are completely wrong when equalling professional athletes to us "normal" folks. You can function well in your job, I assume, even if you are on the piss now and then. These guys cannot because, in lack of better words, "their body and mind is their work".

I think this is where you go wrong, in my mind. This wasn't just "some young bloke". It's a professional, highly paid football player in what's called the most competitive league in the world. Playing for a team fighting relegation. And, two others were there as well, of which one is known to have caused alcohol fuelled shit before. I do not understand at all why this is acceptable. Any top player or athlete in any other sport, or football players in other top leagues, and fans would understand that this is indeed not acceptable. Not in football in the UK, though. But hey, let's accept mediocre attitudes from the players earning money you pay them and then blame the manager (whether it's MON, GH or the current idiot) when the same players do not match the players of teams that in fact act as TOP ATHLETES.

Kind of sums up my earlier point. Who cares? I guess we should, shouldn't we? Do you honestly think Collins performs to be best of his potential being, some say, a pisshead? At least I care about that. Loads of players do this all the time? Really? Maybe some of the second and third best do. Are ManU players doing "this" "all the time"? Arsenal? Surely not. Best teams act in a professional manner. We don't. One reason why we are where we are. Absolutely not the only reason, but definately one of them.

Quite right, and moreover; they are supposed to be professional athletes getting paid ridicoulous amounts of money to perform in their sport. They are not some average Joe or someone you should "see doing the same every weekend on every main street of the UK". The comparison to you znd me is baffling. Some of the reactions on here is the exact reason why England will never win the European or World Championship: too many of "you guys" (including too many of English / British players) quite simply do not understand what it takes to be the best.

Huge contradiction there. It was the opposite of what HDE did, as you say Lerner paid for new shares himself, i.e. he put more cash in by way of increasing the equity. Not really "which isn't all that different to what Ellis did". In fact, almost the opposite to what Ellis did. .

Let's face it; He was dead on arrival. There is definately huge question marks on his ability as a PL manager, but with his history (both in terms of a shabby track-record and in terms of his last job) he never really had any chance no matter what. The really frightening part is that a case can be made that noone else wanted the job - at least the ones being approached. I can understand why; Becoming manager of Villa these days is not a good career move as the risk of failing is enormous. So, the alternative for the board could have been no alternative at all, or taking a chance on a guy from the lower divisions or abroad. I believe the board did a big mistake in requiring "PL experience", and that's their fault. Appointing a man, who I believe is honest and hard working despite of his shortcomings, that never had any chance of succeeding was just plain stupid and clearly also the board's responsibility. Now we have to live with this for a while, and in the meantime the club is fast becoming irrelevant and totally disconencted with the most important thing - its fans.

I know. Would have been a midfield for the ages. Such a **** shame. Don't think we are selling both Young and Downing this year, that would be criminal. However, Young this year and Downing next year is more than likely. It's what we have become; a feeder club selling its best player each year. No way we are able to compete by doing that. Oh well, off to the pure pessimism thread...

ha! You really think our fanbase would give any new manager a chance if he doesn't start well? They'll be hollering for someone else the minute shit goes wrong. Wanting everything yesterday with no concept of patience or the idea that even good managers make mistakes. Totally agree. The only manager of the ones mentioned that will be given some time by our fans is Moyes, in my opinion. I fear we are quite simply too small for Ancelotti, he would not have THAT feeling for the club which I think our manager should have and would be off in a year or two. So, Moyes for me, he would kick some of the players' asses as well and they need some good kicking.

if true, the "terrible six" must go first. Disgrace if true. Makes you winder what MON was up to, seems almost unbelievable. Oh well, clearly some people may just go on blaming MON for what is going wrong at the club forever. But it's hard really to see how any of this is MON's doing. It's actually Houllier who has (seermingly) lost control, you know. oh well yourself. Have you seen some of my other recent posts you will see that I am fairly balanced (at least that's what I believe myself!) in who's to blame etc etc. My MON (who, by the way I supported strongly for a long time) comment was based on the assumption that if true, the situation as described did not start when GH arrived. Anyway, if true it is totally unacceptable regardless of MON or GH.

if true, the "terrible six" must go first. Disgrace if true. Makes you winder what MON was up to, seems almost unbelievable.