Straggler

The thing that is afoot is at the end of your leg,which is being pulled

Did they not see Steven Gerrard, Iker Casillas, Diego Costa play? Sadly yes they did.

I suggest you review his Sunderland career again. Just reviewed it, granted just on Wiki. The Sunderland entry ends with Keane’s harsh management style was not appreciated by the Sunderland players, who were reported to have celebrated when they heard he had resigned. This was with Sunderland in 18th place in the league. I certainly can't find anything in there to make me warm to the man or the manager that is Roy Keane. Whatever his role may be at Villa park, I don't want him here, he is a bully and really would not give a crap about the club. I can't think how his appointment would help in the long term.

And Lukaku fell out and missed the ground (because he is on world cup form)

Platini and Blatter are two sides of the same coin. To me Platini looks every bit as corrupt around the Qatar fiasco, he will not be a breath of fresh air, it will be more like a gust of fetid air from a recently opened crypt.

I renewed. We seriously considered changing to egg chasing and getting season tickets to Bath, but in the end we fell foul to the lure of spending the day with our other good friends that all go to the Villa. We are quite used to the best part of the day being the meal before the game which we often have in the Holte suite so it sure as hell isn't about the quality of the food.

I agree with the vagueness of the statement, but if you look back at the third paragraph it pretty much confirms that the takeover will not happen imminently. Lerner wrote - "On a practical level, the Club will continue with its normal operations and plans for the summer." - This has been backed up by the Senderos and Cole signings. I do not think there was a deal lined up when that statement was published. Agreed. Things can change very quickly, and progress could be being made right now on a deal. We need to be patience. That last comment is so Zen. I love it.

Speaking of ffp did you see that red star belgrade have been banned from the champs league for breaching ffp rules. Pending the inevitable appeal ofcourse, but it is interesting to see who they are prepared to ban.

Lol @ the Internet points maths.

It's a bit of a weird debate to have about a player that does not cost you a transfer fee not being able to decline in value as it is not really in the spirit of the point I was making (which I have clarified earlier). Trent can definitely get one internet point from me for services to pedantry, but all i was trying to say is that Senderos is a bit pants and he is liable to be as pants if not slightly worse by the time we are shot of him.

He can because if he signs he will become an asset and have a value attached to him, however small that may be. I don't see that value going up whilst he plays for us. I do get your point that he is a free so it is not like we can lose money on the transfer value if we sell him, but the main thrust of my point is that it is unlikely he will improve with us and is likely to be every bit as worthless at the end of his contract as he is at the start.

I'd rather stick with the crap players we have than purchase additional crap players. He doesn't solve the problem of us having poor back up in CD he will just allow us to pick from a wider array of unsatisfactory replacements. He does however add to the issue of a player that can only decline in value pulling down a wage for being a bench warmer.

Rooney on the left is not even a tactical thing, it is by Hodgsons own admission, an exersize in getting Rooney match fit as he is not looking sharp enough. This is at the expense of giving Sterling the start he was due and giving him a chance to stake his claim for that spot. This is for me everything that is wrong with the England team. We are sacrificing the chance of integrating one of the young players of the season into the England team to allow Wayne Rooney to run around a bit in a position that he is on the record as not liking and that we are already well aware is not the one he performs best in. We have already ballsed up a couple of tournaments trying to accomodate a Rooney that is not performing at his best, I'd hate to see another one go the same way. Sadly all the signs are that despite the protests to the contrary, Rooney is undroppable and our hopes will be pinned to him finding a form on the international stage that he has not found for years.

The problem is that we don't have much of a story to tell potential new recruits "come and play at the villa our future is bright " "sounds good how bright? " "it's so bright it is like staring into the sun" "oh so a quick glance at villa's future and you won't be able to see anything at all." "yep you got it "

Chelsea are weird, first they get rid of Mata who was brilliant for them, then they find a new star in Hazard and then look to be getting rid there too. It takes a special team to lose them along with lampard, Cole and Luiz and think that they are improving

So true. Smalling is playing because he is at Manchester United, but if he wasn't already at man u they would never buy him. If he had come through the youth at forest or something he would not be on anyones radar let alone in the England team

finally someone thinking logically The problem with this logic is that there is a very long list of defenders that I would rather have than Clark and Baker. That list will include an awful lot of poor to average players. There were times last season I was lamenting the loss of Zat Knight and I would not be happy to see him pitch up here next season even as a 4th choice. Something must be done to improve our defense, this is something therefore it must be done, is not the logic I want to see used.

The Telegraph said a while back that Lambert had been given the green light to recruit a new assistant regardless of the takeover situation. http://tinyurl.com/nze5tru Seems fair enough as I imagine the roles are important enough to fill even if only for a short time. Not sure this tells us much either way on the takeover.

I hear that Russia are hosting the 2018 world cup in the Ukraine

Fabian is one of the few players that we have that can be part of a team that can kick on up the league and actually help us achieve something. I get the feeling that with better players around him he can achieve much more and could hold down a place in a top 6 team. My concern is that with a year to go on his contract that he may get those better players round him at a different club. For me what happens with Delph and his contract will significantly impact my relationship with the club. It is one thing to have a player agitate to leave a club is is quite another to squander away your brightest talents by simply allowing his contract to drift away. I hope we resign him, and I hope he helps lead us on to greater things. He is exactly the sort of player that we should make sure understands that the club values and wants to retain. I'd go so far as making sure he gets a cake AND a handshake for his birthday.

What a self serving, selfish, childish, small minded, petty little clearing in the woods this is making Yaya look. It's hard to have any respect for someone who behaves in that sort of petulant manner. He has almost in an instant gone from one of the players I most admire to yet another disappointing human being in the world of football like Balotelli or John Terry.

Ferdinand now he has left Man U would be ideal for us. Even if he only plays every other game it would be worth it. Experienced and a leader available on a free.

The Daily Mail article references "bundles of possession". The journo must've looked up a couple of stats to get the spend figures, but clearly hasn't watched Villa play or looked at any match stats. It's not a proper article it is just PFE.

The thing is that they are not regulated at all at the moment. You may be smoking nicotine free version with added vitamins, but the person next to you may be smoking e-cig version of a redbull. How do I know the choices that each e-cig owner has made? The problem for me is that it is pumping something into the air for me to breath that I have no control over and that the manufacture of which is unregulated. I am also wildly skeptical of the first studies that have been done that prove the e-cig is harmless. They always seem to be provided to use by the manufacturers of the devices, which is pretty much what happened with the old fashioned cigarettes (often sponsored by Dr's). These are the same manufacturers that were happy to sell this product with a bubble gum flavour in amongst the sweets and chocolates. There has been a cynical drive to get these undoubtedly addictive things into the hands of children and to re-normalise the idea of smoking in public places. The tobacco industry has already been proven to be a deceptive, self serving, really scummy operator and to me this smells of a very underhand way of saving the industry following the hammering they have had through very sensible regulation. I would absolutely ban them in public enclosed places, I would certainly ban flavors and advertising that is blatantly aimed at children and am happy enough with a restriction on purchasing them to be similar to that of existing tobacco products.

Sod all the pretty boys and goal scorers, I'd have Roy Keane of some such similar absolute bastard in midfield. I want teams to be scared of playing us and Roy faced down the likes of Viera, I'd love to have a bit of that in the team.