Straggler

Funny old game football, I had Gil as my MOTM.

Right I think I have the bones of a protest. I think one of the biggest problems that we have is that almost all forms of protest are negative. There are many forms of negativity in that some can affect the team, some impact on us going to games, some will be interpreted in a negative way by the media and others appear unachievable and make us look foolish as a fan base. As such I have been thinking on a positive way to get our message across. I also have a few prerequisites that are personal to me, but will help inform you about how I’m thinking. Prerequisites 1. I am going to keep going to the games. This season and next season and for the foreseeable future I will keep on going. There are lots of reasons for this, based more around friends and family than they are about the club, but for me it needs to be a protest that includes me coming to the games. 2. I don’t do hate. I’m a passionate fan, but wishing ill on people just isn’t my bag. I’m not a religious man, but do un to others as you would have done un to you is how I try and live my live. So how do we do a positive, wishy washy liberal, be nice to your fellow man protest at the game. We do Randy a favour and help him sell the club. Rather than wave white flags let’s hold up For Sale signs. The premise behind this message is: The decisions being made at the club have been a combination of baffling, counterproductive and incompetent. I can’t help but feel the same inadequate performance has been delivered in our efforts to sell the club. We may hear that good solid professionals have been hired to sell the Villa, but we have had good solid pros installed all over the club, if we are to believe the hype and I have serious doubts that the right people have been hired. So let’s take the sale out of the hands of Randy’s hands and help him advertise our availability by doing the marketing for him. By the way, I don’t seriously expect holding up for sale signs to actually result in finding a buyer, it is simply my way of finding a positive way of telling Randy to bugger off. It’s not focused on the players, it is very hard to misinterpret (although I’m sure the press can manage it) and it is not us as fans telling a man who already wants out to leave.

The difference between us and Chelsea is that when Abramovic is told no he will send a couple of boys round with a needle full of polonium 210 to 'persuade' the fa. Randy will send his boys out to get pizza for him because he doesn't give a shit. And if Randy hired them they will probably bring back a dead parrot if they manage to find their way back at all.

£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.

It was a stupid thing to do and he has let down his team mates. However I don't think it is just a pinch on the shoulder he is reacting to. He is playing in an awful team where has been one of the few people really trying to improve the situation. He has seen the people in charge of the club throw in the towel and still ask him to keep on fighting. He has seen yet another refereeing calamity from close up, piling up the feelings of resentment and frustration. He looks pissed off at the world at the best of times, I think the overall feeling of frustration and apathy at the club is hitting him more than most. Then he has some little prik pinching his neck and he swings for him. I'm not condoning it at all, a pro should be able to suck all that up and use it as a motivation. He has also condemned himself to having every defender in the league poking prodding and pinching at him for the foreseeable future. I'm certainly not for chucking him under the bus for this one though, he needs to serve his time, then come back into the team.

This really worries me as it's how I see it too. I have an image in my head of Tony Adams holding up a Villa scarf as he takes the job and it terrifies me. We are one bad summer away from back to back relegations and we have prepared for it by alienating the manager and painting the ground in an interesting new shade of failure, with tones of utter capitulation.

Saw Hateful 8. Thought it was dross. I know you are not supposed to like the characters (which I didn't), but I didn't believe in any of them either. Whilst I know that QT is a massive movie geek and has done some interesting technical things, I spent large parts of the movie bored. When the shooting started it was cartoon like and I felt like much of the writing was childish. There was little or no drama, no suspense (as I didn't give a crap who survived), very little humor, and I didn't think it was cool. I liked Reservoir dogs, Pulp fiction and Jackie Brown, but this just didn't draw me in.

Very much agree with this. I'm pretty sure we are going down, but how we do it is ever so important. We need to come out at the start of next season and stamp our authority all over the Championship. If we have the wrong attitude we are in real danger of having back to back relegations. With the right attitude we at least give ourselves a shot at coming right back up again. If we destroy the very fragile recovery that Garde is building or are not able to recruit effectively as we have a reputation as a rotten club we could end up starting next season with Gabby Sinclair and CNZ as our starting front three and stinking up the season.

No war to be found here. I love the movies (excluding 1,2 and 3) but I like a load of tosh films and feel no animosity if people disagree. Probably right to move that chat to OT though, so on Gabby, I'm struggling to care if he stays or goes or tries or doesn't try. I should probably move to the movie thread where I'll be more interested. I'm like the person who bothers to fill in an online questionnaire then ticks the "has no opinion" box.

Sorry just wanted to use a star wars quote. Anyway I'm off to Tosche station to pick up some power converters.

Without wanting to sound all uncle Owen, it's only one more season.

Assuming it is Occams razor misspelled

Sod that I'm in a hotel in a different city from the wide and I'm still doing this. So ner I'm a bigger loser

We are worse because we have Sinclair, Grealish and Gestede who remind me of when Milosovic, Collymore and Yorke used to stand around doing bog all to win the ball back. We didn't get away with it then and we won't get away with it now.

Thunderball said that this is an opportunity knocks selection. I agree. Sadly the knock remains unanswered. This performance is back to everything that is wrong with the club. Players not making themselves available, no urgency, second to everything, I think we have a 15 man squad at best.

who is the farmer doing the pundrity on 5 live? I like him

Would be happy enough to see this go through. I've not seen a player hide on a pitch as much as Scott does. I was hoping for so much more but feel that he has already retired from the game in his head. Can't blame him for taking the money but sooner or later the penny will drop and he won't find a team . That said people are still looking at adebyor so it shows the game is full of fools with money.

If we sell Sinclair to Swansea we may get deducted points for doping the competition.

I did wonder if I would have that suggested to me. In response let me say that I am not the hero type and..... Aww sod it I am Ironman

I would like to play devil’s advocate for a moment. Whilst basking in the glow of an unexpected victory last night I started wondering what events had transpired between the insipid display at Wycombe and the committed display against Palace. It has only been a couple of days between the two matches, but the performance on the pitches were worlds apart. Obviously there are the changes to the starting 11, so it can be argued that at last we found a formula and a team ethos within those 11 souls that can drive that greater level of effort. There is one other thing that stood out between the two matches and it was the tirade of abuse delivered to the player getting on the coach at Wycombe. I do wonder if the obviously unacceptable and foul attack by a small number of oafs may have pricked the cossetted bubble that the players live in and hit home more than they would care to admit. Are these intellectually challenged, socially unacceptable Neanderthals not the heroes we deserve, but the heroes we need and do we owe them a debt of thanks?

Are you seriously telling me after the last five years of muck that we have a significant percentage of glory fan helping to pad the numbers? I'm generally stunned on match days that there are still so many like minded masochists turning up.

Gabby has had a bunch of kids and his performance has remained "consistent". Kudos to gabby too

Not without its issues? You are Mark Kermode and I claim my 10 internet points.

I don't care if he is selfish. It has been a miserable season and Adama is exciting to watch. I want him on the pitch for longer just so I can be entertained. There is sod all else fun happening this season and he is the only player I'm looking forward to seeing.

Glad that Mandanda is getting one of these, don't want the Adebayor situation all over again.