54 minutes ago, andykeenan said:

Bournmouth v Man City 2pm SS2

10 hours ago, cyrusr said:

They are so confident that they have sacked him without pay off, which is generally unheard of in this day and age.

Quite so. When I read he had the LMA in his corner but still got the boot I figured he had a mountain of evidence against him and little in the way of defence.

4 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

I know.

I'd have took it full on the chest, Ronaldo chopped it and put it in the stanchion.

I'd have moved into the flightpath to take it right in the scrotum to psych them out then flicked it over my head as it dropped and scorpion-kicked it to Wesley on the half way line, doing 10 one-arm press-ups whilst it was in flight then moonwalked back to Heaton to take my high-five.

2 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

Benteke putting in a performance of Rudy Gestede proportions. God he is so shit now. Zero impact. Zero mobility. Zero effort.

 

Just retire mate.

No, say it ain't so. They aren't playing to his strengths, they don't love him like we did and he still loves us.. He just needs to come home where he's loved and be the main main and have a team built around him again. When he hears the Holte roar his name again it'll be like Forrest Gump running off his calipers. "Run, Christian, Run!".

Or so the perennially unrequited lovestruck would have us believe in and around every **** transfer window since he turned to shit.

1 minute ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Not good enough for this level and mentally slow, offside all the time and over hit passes or crosses, a Dutch Shaun wright Phillips 

As I said in the match thread just before he got the hook he was pissing me right off. Bad decisions, offsides, ineffective when trying to pass people, useless crossing. For the second game running he was crap. But then again, I didn't think much of him at Championship level either.

Right now he's got an awful lot to do to even justify his purchase, let alone a starting spot. His place goes to Hassan next week and I'd even consider sticking in Guilbert on the right wing with Elmo at FB because Jota hasn't been getting anything to stick.

4 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

I feel we made a huge mistake not bringing in another striker and winger though. Jota doesn't look up to it and lacks pace. El-Ghazi was always going to be questionable at this level. Trez looks bright though. 

Agreed. I wasn't sold on AEG last year and he's done zero in these first two games to sway me from that view.

Jota I did have hopes for based on the pre-season friendlies but, as you point out, pace-wise he looks like he's running on a waterlogged pitch. He's given the ball away far too cheaply with wayward passes in a period of the game when retention and incisive, accurate passing was absolutely imperative.

I don't want to see AEG start again next week. In my estimation he wasn't effective enough last week to warrant the nod for this game.

Now hook AEG, he's really getting on my tits

That's how you do it

A win in the first of our 39 cup finals this season. Has anyone yet suggested we see our games like that?

We should view the home games as Cup Finals and away games as the away leg of a two-leg semi final. Look to always secure a draw at a minimum and not concede but always try to sneak a win to take the away goals back to our place.

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

benteke is a more interesting one, when he was linked with Dortmund I could buy in to that, got a soft spot for them so id have been quite happy for him knowing that we were shit and he had to leave really for the sake of his career, as soon as he went to Liverpool that was me done, couldn't get behind him, not interested in watching, not interested in defending him or trying to tell the world how good he is or making positive comparisons to lukaku, I was out

I do think as I've got older my liking of individual footballers has dwindled (and clubs in general, used to watch Dortmund and barca a lot, inter a bit) im interested in watching some good FM players like ndombele and kean but thats about it, the ironic thing being that it was villa's decline that largely killed my enjoyment of football but its left me with just the villa

TBH, as far as Benteke was concerned as soon as he put in a transfer request after his first season  he destroyed any chance he'd have had of my holding him in any regard.

Juxtapose Benteke and Carew. Which one was there going wild celebrating our Wembley triumph and which one probably didn't even watch it?

Carew liked the club and enjoyed the ride. Benteke used the club as a vehicle for Benteke to drive to new destinations.

When Tammy is celebrating our Champions League win I'll group him with Big John.

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

In other words, 'do it on purpose'. It's not an accidental thing. 

Oh, I get it now. He put them side by side accidentally so therefore it wasn't a juxtaposition. Careless.

5 hours ago, John said:

I also don't usually have much time for a player after he has left, there are exceptions though and Tammy is certainly one of them in my opinion.

Like Snodgrass and Mings, he showed a real affinity for our club and it's fans. He also like Tyrone, played a crucial role in getting us promoted. For me that outweighs the fact that he was on loan, rather than "our" player.

In my opinion, it also says a lot about Tammy that as a loan signing he was so determined to do everything he possibly could to get us up and was so joyful about doing it. I have seen several permanent signings over the years that have not come near to matching Tammy's relationship with the fans, or his contribution to our success and affection for the club. 

It's also a disgrace that he has been subject to racial abuse following his penalty miss. Should so called Chelsea "fans" have been involved in abusing their own player, I'm sure Tammy will regret returning to that club.

I don't disagree with your assessment of his time here and the entirety of that balanced, non-triggered post. We only differ in how I now view him. My view, which I'm entitled to hold, is that as an ex-loan player who has returned to his parent club he now generates nothing beyond indifference within me.

I hold a similar opinion in regards to Benteke. Once he went what happened to him and his career meant nothing to me. As I've said before elsewhere on here recently, I'm not what I'd term a football fan. I'm a Villa fan and generally only care about a player whilst they play for us.

3 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm only snarking at your vocabulary because you're snarking at somebody else's, but 'to juxtapose' two things means to place them in close proximity to highlight their differences or contrasts. You can't accidentally juxtapose something. 

No.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 hour ago, Xela said:

Sorry, can't agree with that. You could tell he loved his time here and was a key reason we got up. I hope he does well. 

I didn't say he didn't like it here and I acknowledged he did his job. Both is true. I said his heart was never here. His heart is Chelsea, it's his club and where he's always wanted to be and now he is.

And now he's just another player to me who plays for someone else. And as it happens, I don't care we didn't sign him either. He won't be anything like as deadly in this league this year as he was last year a level down, I don't think.

3 hours ago, Don_Simon said:

By being so fervently ambivalent, you're actually caring more than people that want him to do well. That, and it's just weird. 

"Fervently ambivalent". You don't know what either of those words actually mean, do you?

Apart from being pretty much a contradiction to juxtapose those two words in a sentence, both of them in no way reflect my view or anything I said.

10 hours ago, imavillan said:

I'm in the market for a new driveway and have been searching the internet for some local companies to get some quotes etc and came across this on their website !!!!! 

Needless so say i won't be getting a quote of this lot.......

I take it the blacked out word is "Shite"?

Struggling to see why anyone gives a ****, TBH. He did his job here at a lower level but was never our player and his heart was never here.

He's moved on and isn't coming back. Personally, I couldn't care less if he never scores another goal in his life. He stopped being relevant to me the second he stopped being a Villa player. 

Not personal in any way. I hold the same view towards just about all ex-Villa players. Some I actively wish ill upon, like Yorke, but for most I'm entirely insouciant. Sometimes I'll have warmth towards a player after they've moved on but they'll have had to have been one of ours and left in the right way, such as Cowans or Milner.

2 hours ago, rbcuk said:

Ankle sprain? How’s he managed to do that, didn’t see him run sat 

I was thinking that. It must have ben when he legged it off at the end to get first choice seat on the coach.

1 hour ago, hippo said:

Wot??? Smith might be gay ?

Putting the Pride back in the Villa.

6 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Certainly a codsideration if we're going to net him.

That's if we're trying to lure him at all.

37 minutes ago, Michelsen said:

You’re just asking that for the halibut.

Not at all. We were discussing the relative attractions of the places Sisto would favour and whether it would be a factor in whether eel sign for us.

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

Can anyone produce some statistics to prove if fans are happier with him in a Tracksuit or a Suit?  

Coach movement is vitally important, it sets an example to the players. Static coach, static players, everyone in football knows that.

So does anyone have any heat maps of Deano in a suit compared to track suit? I think they'll clearly show what he should be wearing to ensure a successful season. The heat maps don't lie.

1 hour ago, sne said:

Food is amazing thou 

Is it a fish-rich cuisine?

4 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

You mean a stream of them?

Or a massive, never-ending shoal.

On 10/08/2019 at 19:42, Dr_Pangloss said:

He's quick and intelligent, really impressed at the runs he made, will be more than useful, I imagine he'll distinguish himself as our best winger over the course of the season.

Yes, his speed, smarts and skills were clear. I had big reservations about him before he came in but I've already seen enough to know that was unjusitified.

He may never be Ronaldo-class but he is going to absolutely murder some of the lesser teams this season and hopefully will make the right decisions as he puts them to the sword. Pass when he should pass, shoot when he should shoot. The difference between a deadly good player and a frustrating good player.