Straggler

My seat gone too. There are 5 of us that have sat in the same seats for 15 years. A great spot we had too. It is a perfect storm of kicks to the gut from the club at the moment. I told the others I don't want to renew now, although I think the news from the football board had done most of the work on that decision already. To think that just 3 days ago despite everything I was ready to renew without hesitation.

A journo needs to get to one of theses guys and get to the bottom of the reasons for leaving. The boot is already in from the letters so all they will do is being clarity and it is badly needed.

I think you are over valuing our assets. The land our buildings sit on is hardly prime. The players are operating at a loss. A fire sale of everything would do wel to raise even half the asking price.

What did she tell you......

My worry exactly. Every day that passes is an opportunity missed. Leave it much longer and they start being nails in the coffin for next season. If the club has to stop what it is doing to wait for a man that cares as little as he does and has less ability we are screwed. We are already way behind being optimal and not far off shooting ourselves in the foot again.

He could have said something like this. Having made the decision to part ways with Remi we approached David Moyes. David was very excited about the opportunity to revive our fortunes and impressed with the preparations we had in place. As such I would like to announce that Moyes will be our manager next season and will be in place immediately in a consultancy role to oversee the reconstruction of he club. Don't just talk about plans, demonstrate with some action.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is probably a duck. Aston Villa under Lerner have lurched from one mind numbingly stupid decision to another. The club has not shown any great subtlety or ability for subterfuge, all they have successfully done in communicating us is managed on occasion to say nothing. The messaging from the club at all levels has been that we are waiting. Little said it to the supporters groups, Hollis is saying it in his statement. I for one am more that prepared to believe them. That it is the absence of a strategy and absolutely blows my mind that the club is so unprepared sadly is consistent, stupid behavior from the Villa. What are we waiting for exactly? The right manager to come knocking on the door and asking for the job? Football is a competitive sport, no one achieves anything without driving for success. Even if (and god I hope it is the case) we are working hard behind the scenes and are much further advanced than we appear, why not communicate that with the fans. Say that they have plans, say that they have targets and say that they are working on them hard. We already know that our own players have started their plans to move on and in some cases (Gana) they are advanced enough for the agents to be mentioning teams. This will be happening across football whilst we dither. There are enough decent managers out of work, why the hell not approach them? Find out who fancies it. Even the ones in work, at least put the feelers out there. If we are not talking to them you can bet your ass that someone else is. God damn this stuff frustrates me. You cannot build momentum without applying a force and we needed to start pushing over a month ago. Football is a race, whilst we stand still our competitors race ahead. It is so stupid you have to believe that there is a bigger better plan being worked on in the background, I certainly hope that there is. However, I hoped that Sherwood would be able to oversee a team overhaul having never bought a player. I hoped after dodging the bullet with Mclaren we would get a good manager. I hoped that Richards had learned how to be a center back in Italy. I hoped Lescott would bring leadership and quality, I hoped that Gestede would be a suitable replacement for Benteke. I had so many hopes that the folks in charge of Aston Villa knew better even though I expected the worst. ( I even changed my dream team name to hope>expectation this year). Sadly all the evidence of the last six years points to apathy and inertia leading to our stagnation and ultimate demise. That the club is announcing more of the same as a strategy for the summer should not be a surprise, it is only the stunning obviousness of its stupidity that has us grasping at straws that surely there has to be something bigger and better going on behind the curtain. I don't think that there is. I think we are quacking like the same duck we have been for the last 6 years, which to be fair is pretty decent as we appear to be a dead one.

Went to a fancy French restaurant tonight. All I wanted was a steak and the bastard waiter kept on trying to get me to eat this fillet minion. I've seen the minions and I don't want no bastard yellow meat.

They have had me convinced for years now that no one knows what they are doing at Villa Park. I'm lapping up that sales pitch like a fat kid at a cake festival. they really don't need to keep ramming that message down my throat. I can't wait for the big reveal when the roll out Mourinho and go "ah ha! and you guys thought we were ballsing this all up, it was actually a massive bait and switch so we could prepare the way for the biggest scoop in Championship football."

They don't have to appoint him, but they might want to suggest that they can take over in the summer and start planning now. Sign a contract now that starts the employment in the summer. Negotiate, find out who is even interested in doing it, make the long list a short list, just do something. I'm not saying appoint him today, but for the love of god how have we not even spoken to anyone about the possibility yet.

I see no advantage in waiting. We need to give the next coach every chance to plan and prepare for next season, to get the measure of the problem, to sound out any possible signings. I don't want the first interaction with the players to be when they come back for preseason training. We should know everything we want to achieve over the summer before it begins. I thought maybe we already knew who we wanted before we got rid of Garde, but we as a club seem very relaxed about this whole process.

There won't be either way. Brian Little said earlier today that they haven't even spoken to a candidate yet, they have only drawn up a list.

Brian Little spoke at the supporters clubs chairman's meeting today. He said that they have a list of managers that they are looking at but that they had not spoken to any of them yet. Can I be the first to say WTF! It seems the rumors of waiting tor relegation to be confirmed are off the mark. What the hell they think they are playing at though I can't imagine. If they really haven't approached anyone yet then they are making the same mistakes as the last lot, what possible advantage can there be in not moving quickly.

£62.6 million he purchased the club for in 2006. 10 years later you have to ask yourself "what are we really worth now?". If you did nothing but account for inflation that would get you to around £82 million, but that assumes of course that value of the assets have not depreciated. That we are (barring the formalities) relegated is a huge and obvious reduction in value of the club. TV money going, reputation in tatters, playing staff requires investment. I would go as far as to say that as the TV money is the huge bulk of revenue generation it is not unreasonable to suggest that we are worth less now in real terms than we were when Randy purchased the club. This is in part a reflection of how big a risk we are to invest in. We have a very real and predictable reduction in income thanks to the parachute payments, with little or no means to mitigate against it other than cut our outgoings. The unpredictable nature of sport means that we are by no means a certainty to get promoted and there is a very small window in which to do that before we become an established lower league team. The risk is massive and risk reduces the value. So without my rose tinted AViators on, what do I hand on heart think the club is worth? Probably not much more than Randy paid for us 10 years ago. Will he sell the club for that sort of money? I doubt it. get relegated again and we won't even be worth the combined value of the assets. He should lower the asking price because we are not worth what he wants for us. No decent businessman is going to pay twice what we are worth and maybe, just maybe this is why we are struggling to find a buyer. If you buy a Ferrari and wrap it round a tree it does not appreciate in value.

If only you had told me about this one earlier! We have foolishly gone and got the Kuga already. Gutted. I hadn't realised that a Top Gear challenge car had ever made it into full production. The breathtaking lines, the sensuous way it seems to hug the road, I honestly have a semi right now thinking about how it must handle. Actually forget it, I'm off to sell one of the kids for parts, I've found one with 85k miles on it for under 60 grand, I need to buy it before they realise they put the wrong sticker price on it......

This investigation is probably the first step towards firing him. There will be some sort of process that will allow the club to bin him off based on behaviour. It may not be as simple as the verbal then written warning followed by a p45 but it will be something like it. They may not be able to get rid on this one but sit tight for a few weeks and he will do something else that will qualify as repeat offending and it is offski for gabby. I cant imagine him learning his lesson.

I have read Stans articles about the players. I'm one of the people who never really forgave him for his performances on the pitch for us. Can't fault what he says on this occasion though. Gabby has to go.

Yep, I still don't know how. I for one voted for Petrov. Ireland had about 6 decent games that year which is still more than Grealish has had in his career, but still not POTS in my eyes.

Right then, after an extensive week of driving cars, some good some bad, I have come full circle and purchased the Jag XE. Went through so many options but it was decided on pure driving experience, I just like being behind the wheel in the Jag. I really really wanted the Mustang, but the 10 month waiting period plus the cold hard reality of having to live with it as a high mileage work vehicle had to count it out. I'll just save up and but a 68/69 Fastback classic instead and drive it at weekends (or more likely in my dreams). In other news we are on the look out for a car for the wife. She wants something that sits her high up like a Range Rover. So far we have looked at the following Renault Kadjar, Ford Kuga, Mazda CX5, Toyota Rav 4, Nissan Quashqai. The wife so far likes the Kuga because it has a button that closes the boot for her (driving thrills not a priority here). Any recommendations or indeed horror stories about the above or similar cars. BTW thanks for the help with the other car, I really appreciated it.

It's really sad that it has come to this but I agree with sne. I remember as a young buck when he busted out his first step over at Villa park. It had the studied clumsiness of a toddler taking its first steps and I cheered it as I laughed, feeling that I was watching him make an effort to improve. And improve he did. But we are through the looking glass now and everything is spiraling downwards. Sadly he seems to be dragging other people with him. He is a Villa boy and when he is gone I will be more able to remember the good old days, but whilst he is here he is not a player, he is not a leader, he is not an positive example to others and we cannot afford to have him as a major influence in the dressing room. Time to go Gabby. Edit (FYI I'm sad about Gabby, not about having to agree with sne)

This is very confusing to me. This is Leandro Bacuna we are talking about here? Plays for Aston Villa? Thinks he should be playing Champions League football in the next two years? Who exactly does he think he is better than? Or maybe he thinks if he keeps improving at the same rate that in two years he will have improved enough? Unfortunately anything multiplied by zero equals zero. He's gone from not being a regular starter and not being specialized enough to hold down a position to, well, not being a regular starter and not being specialized enough to hold down a position. In a team that is getting worse. He is one of many Villa players that could really do with taking a long hard look in the mirror. I'm beginning to think looking there are no mirrors at VP at all, but that said there are none so blind as those that will not see.

Always happy to take advice. The deal I am looking at is here http://www.ridgeway.co.uk/jaguar/new-cars/jaguarxe/ It went up a little at the weekend to £570 deposit, bu other than that it is the same.

I'm test driving the c class merc and jag xe this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. The deals available on the new xe are amazing though. 300 a month with a 500 deposit may prove too good to turn down.

Didn't know about the waiting list for the Mustang. Thanks for that I'll check it out. A Mercedes sounds nice too and possibly a little cheaper to run.

right chaps, I am starting a new job and will have a 5k car allowance to go with it. Rather that doing what I have always done and just drive my long in the tooth Saab and take the cash I intend to get a lease and drive something a little nicer. With that sort of cash and no restrictions on type of car etc. what car would you recommend. I will do 20k miles plus in the year so it will have to cope with that. I'm thinking of getting the new Mustang.......