nick76

Hey general, Not sure whether this has been mentioned but I wonder if we could ever hold a match against Juan Pablo Angel's team like a first game of pre season or something if MON would be interested because as shown by one of the polls on this message board he was a bit of a hero (over 70%) and unfortunately we never got to give him a proper send off so would be really nice if he could appreciate what we thought of him before he retired in a few years time. Cheers Nick

Sad sad news about Bouma, really hope everything gets better for him as he has been a great servant for us in his few years here and was immense last season. On a lighter note, it now looks like we will need more of your family members to play for our team, what with Mrs K playing right back, do you have any brothers or sisters that could play left back???!!!

arent they the same thing, just one is oh so very slightly more polite than the other

Also isnt Rafa damaging Barry's career??? from Barry's point of view. Somehow some time ago Barry found out Rafa wanted him, he like the idea of going to Liverpool and thus his mind wandered....He thought it would only be time before he goes, Villa set a price which everybody estimates is 18m, Rafa continues to bid nowhere near that..... Rafa wanted him on the cheap, he has made an England International, a club captain and hero at a club going places....into a player that is booed, has no future currently unless the said Rafa pays up and thus could be sitting on the Villa bench for a while longer and if his move doesnt happen then it will take a very long time for him to get back in the team and even more debatable if the Villa fans will accept him back...... So in some ways if Rafa doesnt pay the asking price, which he has known for some time then surely he is also damaging Barry's career from barry's point of view????? Rafa just wanted a cheap deal and cam up against MON

What the ****? He is contracted to the Villa. If he don't like that, he can stick a transfer request in. He hasn't. Okay, I'll type it in bold then. I'm talking from Gareth Barry's point-of-view, in response to a poster who was also talking from Gareth Barry's point-of-view. Clear? I imagine that Gareth Barry is kicking himself for signing a four year contract that he can't get out of easily. If he had not tried to get himself a transfer to Liverpool, his career would be doing fine - with a team on the up, and breaking into the England side again. Who is doing most damage to Gareth Barry's career? Gareth Barry. He could be doing a hell of a lot worse than playing for Villa, that's for sure. But it's difficult to argue that he doesn't know himself what's best for his career. I suppose that also depends on the future as well I mean if he gets very little playing time at Liverpool or Liverpool go on a slump and end up fifth (say for arguments sake Everton get fourth) then Rafa maybe sacked, Torres might leave....and the new manager doest like Barry.....then Gareth Barry has gone from a club that he is a hero at, the manager loves and he's the captain of, also he is playing for England......so he has ruined his career..... I mean look at the players it's happened to.......where it hasnt improved their careers Bosnich from Villa to Man U Sidwell Kewell Shevchenko Darren Bent Jeffers and these are just a few, and I agree there are successes as well.....but who knows until you have hindsight whose ruining whose career....MON is just stalling Barry's History shows us that the grass isn't always greener. Whether or not Barry makes the best decisions for his career, it's still his career and those decisions should be his to make. But of course, there is more to consider than just what Gareth Barry wants. What I would say is that O'Neill is walking a bit of a tightrope. Although he has every right to demand the full asking price, if his unwillingness to negotiate is purely a matter of pride and principle, it'll be the player who suffers and unfairly so, in my opinion. Are you still on that line about MON unwillingness....geez no wonder I havent read the barry threads for ages.....MON set a price a long time ago, told Liverpool....Liverpool havent met....end of story.......he even tried to help by, his words, putting a proposal back to Liverpool which unless I have missed something Liverpool havent responded to yet..... Liverpool have always known the score!!!!! They know the price they either want to pay it or they dont.

What the ****? He is contracted to the Villa. If he don't like that, he can stick a transfer request in. He hasn't. Okay, I'll type it in bold then. I'm talking from Gareth Barry's point-of-view, in response to a poster who was also talking from Gareth Barry's point-of-view. Clear? I imagine that Gareth Barry is kicking himself for signing a four year contract that he can't get out of easily. If he had not tried to get himself a transfer to Liverpool, his career would be doing fine - with a team on the up, and breaking into the England side again. Who is doing most damage to Gareth Barry's career? Gareth Barry. He could be doing a hell of a lot worse than playing for Villa, that's for sure. But it's difficult to argue that he doesn't know himself what's best for his career. I suppose that also depends on the future as well I mean if he gets very little playing time at Liverpool or Liverpool go on a slump and end up fifth (say for arguments sake Everton get fourth) then Rafa maybe sacked, Torres might leave....and the new manager doest like Barry.....then Gareth Barry has gone from a club that he is a hero at, the manager loves and he's the captain of, also he is playing for England......so he has ruined his career..... I mean look at the players it's happened to.......where it hasnt improved their careers Bosnich from Villa to Man U Sidwell Kewell Shevchenko Darren Bent Jeffers and these are just a few, and I agree there are successes as well.....but who knows until you have hindsight whose ruining whose career....MON is just stalling Barry's

I know we are not supposed to post on posts in the General thread but Don't do it then. Blandy

General, I think it maybe losing the faith in his transfer dealings not him as a manager, well that's my opinion. I know the two, in so many ways are linked and we know that MON would never work any other way. He is an awesome manager and yes I agree him picking the likes of Young and NRC I am delighted with, but what happens if the players he wants he cant get? (rhetorical question) two years to wait for a right back, when we havent got one.....no real right sided player for a season as Routledge came in Jan but didn't play. I would never change MON and my comments are through frustration more than anything else and I don't want you to reply because I know the comment and I fully understand the comment and I agree with the comment you would make because I know I should keep the faith and MON is the right person for the job......but geez I would love to meet him and give him a quick slap and tell him to hurry up with a few players :?

Andy_P_LFC you have no idea how good GB would be for Liverpool....as somebody who has watched him since we brought him from Brighton about 10 years ago...this player is a gifted player. Technically you may be right in that Alonso MAY be better but the balance GB will bring to your team and his all round game is better than Alonso's and I know you will disagree but if GB does come to Liverpool you might look back in a years time and agree with me.

agreed totally.....no 16.95m...its 17m plus Finnan only now, we've stood our ground this long

I agree with Peter and I know it's not your area and you have little knowledge because you arent involved in transfer side but I have placed my trust in MON liked asked and he has delivered with 16th to 6th in Premier League placing. But now today is our first competitive match of the season into a european competition that we worked hard to get into last season, and literally 180 minutes away from UEFA cup football and yet our squad is far from prepared. Hopefully our key players pull us out of the bag and get us through but there are only a few of them and MON should have least got one or two more in by now to support them. I understand transfers are hard, I understand getting the quality we want is hard but Peters first paragraph is a serious problem for our club and a number of these issues have been there for a long time, like the right back situation. I do trust MON but I do wish he would stop talking so much about getting support in for our current players and he's working hard to get players in, and I know he's only answering questions from the media. We all know he is working hard and I know there is no answer to us the fans apart from patience and trust what he's doing. He's a great manager, I just am a little disappointed in him that he has allowed us to be in a vulnerable position for this, our first competitive game, and a game that has a significance on both our season ahead and potentially the view of other players coming to the club if we had European football to offer them. I have no question to you, it's just my comment that I wanted to express and feelings at the moment.

General, I'm not going to back up RossAndreas as I disagree with a lot of what he said. I don't think MON needs to be monitored, I believe he worked miracles last season on too smaller squads and we were very lucky with injuries. I think in some ways I do agree with him on transfers but not that MON is no good or needs to get a move on, just maybe he needs a little more luck or pay that little extra if needs be. I trust MON and think he's a fantastic manager, and would love to see how he does with a good size and talented squad rather than the small and up and coming squad that he currently has.

That is an awesome idea......General running the marathon in a Villa top for Acorns charity, you would get a fortune in charity money from us villa fans, unlike say a normal villa fan doing it......no pressure though :winkold: Actually General, thinking about it is there anyway Villa fans can do it through Villa. Ok, let me re-phrase that, I'm born and bred a Brummie but due to work commitments, I have the hardship 8) of currently working in Sydney, Australia. We have a small run of 14km that happens every year called City2Surf and thousands upon thousands do it and this year it happens on August 10th. I'm debating whether to do it this year, kind of an incentive to get fitter over the next few months but I think what might make my mind up is if I'm doing it for a good cause like a charity. I have no idea how to go about that, apart from mocking up a little form, getting my friends and co-workers to donate some money to me and then me donating online to Acorns or something. Is there anyway the Villa could set something up, maybe a facility where we can download official forms from the Villa website, that maybe has the Acorns and Villa logo's on and then any sponsorship we get after the event we can then donate back through the website??? I can imagine there are many many Villa fans that do events like this and could possibly raise additional money, so us fans can help as well, I think help from the club on this would make it a lot easier. We can also have a charity meter or something on the website for how much the fans raise for Acorns....that maybe a little corny. Plus hopefully my new Villa home top will arrive in time for the run, so promoting the Acorns charity and Villa at the same time running in my Villa kit. Maybe in the new range that we bring out in the store/on-line, maybe a running vest with Acorns logo and Villa logo on, especially for this type of thing. Just a few thoughts anyway.

That is an awesome idea......General running the marathon in a Villa top for Acorns charity, you would get a fortune in charity money from us villa fans, unlike say a normal villa fan doing it......no pressure though :winkold:

Although still dont understand why my piss is sometimes bright yellow then other times clear and transparent....have read some stuff

will check next time, never thought of smelling my piss....

Can anybody photoshop a blues kit onto this please????

Have to agree General, if you havent seen Fever Pitch watch in the close season, then pass the copy onto Randy......good film

sorry, Nick, this is not a thread for discussion between posters. I've copied and pm'd your comment to you, so you can put it in the season ticket discussion thread to continue the discussion there. Blandy

Talk about getting us into trouble with the Council, General General, we are so proud that you and Randy could see a day like this and hopefully it's one of many we'll have in the future, and I for one would like to thank you both, plus all the staff for progress we have made under your term so far.

sorry mate this has been answered many times so maybe read earlier part of this thread. In essence it's an agreement between Randy and MON and both are happy with the current deal they have, neither party are looking to change that.

Hi General, I'm exiled in Australia for the last few years, and I try to get back as often as I can to see live games like I was against Man City but my real connection now seems to be Fox Sports here in Australia which shows 90% of all PL games. The only problem I have is it seems that if we play at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon at home we dont get shown this season. If we play away at 3pm or at home or away any other time, 95% of the time we are on tv. For example today 5 games are being shown today, Che vs Spurs, Mid vs Liv, Ars vs blose, Eve vs Man C and Hammers vs Fulham. I know there are seven games on a 3pm today so derby vs wigan miss out as well but it just seems that we are missing out every time when at Villa Park at 3pm on a Saturday, I wondered if you knew the reason for this??? or if any other Villa fan knows whose reading this??? Prob just the tv schedular is a blue nose but just wondered if there was a legimate reason??? Many thanks for your time General Nick

Q&A and comments for the General, only, please. Thanks Blandy

Hi General, I think it us that has to thank you. I'm back from Australia for 10 days to visit family for christmas but my first stop is Villa Park to get tickets for the game on Saturday. I moved to Aus 4 years ago for work (hard work I know with all the sun, surf and some other stuff) but after following Villa home and away for my previous 27 years of my life it's hard not being able to do that anymore although I do get to see 90% of Villa games on Australian TV which not the same does keep me in touch. To my point though, what you and Randy have done is amazing and I'm so looking forward to going to Villa Park tomo. Many thanks General Nick

I do have a question, a bit personal but hey we are all friends on this board..... Does Randy call you Charles or General??? I'm guessing your not a charlie