Straggler

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.......

If i was him i would want out. The club is poisen to the career of almost every employee. Reputations are being tattered for right and wrong and I bet he thinks he is in the wrong camp. An escape to west ham as they move into their new stadium must look like a God send. with no clear leadership in the club things still look like they will continue to deteriorate. I can blame him for pissing away a year of his career, but not for wanting to go. We are not really even a good place for a young player to grow anymore, we are where careers go to die. The elephants graveyard of football.

oh f me

It's like being paid 5 million for flushing the toilet.

Of the players listed as complaining Gabby Agbonlahor, Alan Hutton, Leandro Bacuna, Ciaran Clark, Brad Guzan, Mark Bunn, Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards I would miss none. I feel they are all as culpable as each other for the disastrous position we find ourselves in. In the pro RG camp there is Jordan Ayew. Never mind the others Ayew is one of the few who has actually tried and shown some quality this season. I would get rid of all 9 of those "senior" players to keep him. Sod it, I'd get rid of all 9 of those players if he left. All 9 of them have failed to perform under at least 2 managers and most of them it is more. Sooner or later they will have to take a look in the mirror to find where the blame should lie (glass backed with silver, not the red top newspaper). If this is a real revolt and these retched impressions of professional football players are able to exert genuine influence in the direction of the club it really is a case of the lunatics in charge of the asylum.

That last interview with RG is pretty damning. He is basically saying that his squad is so poor he knows he is sending out players that are not up to the job and don't have the heart for the fight. Never mind what that says about the players on the pitch, it speaks volumes about those that cannot even get a game. What a desperate state this club is in.

I have recently taken an active interest in politics. It was the HOT topic of the use of vellum to write all our laws on that tipped me over the edge. There is an article on the guardian website: We should not abandon vellum – it tells us that our laws are serious It stirred me to write an email back to Jakey boy. What with him being a true blue Tory free marketeer I figured this is the place to put it. Would be interested to hear if any of the rest of you have a more sympathetic ear for the pro vellum camp. For those of you that are not aware, all our laws are currently hand written on paper that is made of goat skin (vellum). They are then stored in a big old vault with all the other laws. Dear Jacob I read with interest your article on Vellum in the Guardian. I have a couple of points I would like to make in response. My understanding of your argument is as follows: £80k is a small amount in the scheme of things. The symbolic value of Vellum outweighs the financial cost To the first point of it just being £80k. It is the age of austerity. If we truly are all in it together then the cuts need to come from everywhere. There are bigger savings to be made, but there have already been smaller cuts delivered. A saving is a saving however small and one that is so easily delivered should hardly be mocked for its size. Equally £80k is more than most of us earn in a year. Whilst in the big picture £80k is not a lot, I can’t help but think how long and hard I have to work before all my contributions add up to that much money. Every pound is hard earned, and is not to be squandered lightly. Now onto the symbolic value of writing laws on vellum. If writing the laws on vellum was ever truly symbolic that time has long since passed. I have a history degree and hadn’t come across this practice until now. It is certainly not the basis of why I take the law seriously, that has much more to do with my education, upbringing and the police. A symbol that is unknown is little more than an archaic practice. A dead symbol. If you want to impress me with the permanence of the data then why not read “5D Data Storage by Ultrafast Laser Writing in Glass” and get the laws written by lasers and stored in nano-structured fused quartz glass for 13.8 billion years. If vellum has us taking the law more seriously than paper, we can surely bring an end to all crime by writing them in this fashion. Just think of the savings that can be made by disbanding the police force! Frankly I’m surprised we have paper copies at all. Just send the newly crafted laws in a private email to a family member and you can store them in perpetuity in the servers at GCHQ. In conclusion I find your arguments to be lacking any merit in the content. I will give you credit for putting them eloquently though. Kind regards

Definitely renewing. Think of all the extra games in the Championship that I will be able to boycott in protest. Bet they don't see that tactic coming. And they think I'm the sucker for renewing. hehehehehehe. In all seriousness yes I will be renewing. I didn't stop going to the movies because of Adam Sandler I'm not stopping going to the Villa because of RL. Yes I am aware that the comparison of Sandler and RL doesn't work in context at all let alone comparing the Villa with going to the movies. I just have a very empty and shallow life so I really don't have anything better to do with my time and money. Its the Villa or back to smearing the names of the people who have crossed me in feces on my living room wall again. It is a choice I have seriously considered. But yes I will definitely be renewing. I will also be looking for something more productive that posting drivel to take up my lunch break. Just to be clear the drivel is the bit about the feces, not the bit about renewing. I understand under current circumstances it can be hard to tell.

Yep my MOTM today too, there wasn't much class out there today, the little there was came from Gil. His energy was excellent too.