Straggler

 

 

Baker has all the ingredients, I can see his career rising nicely.

We've already done those jokes this thread!

 

But that was 13 pages ago, or a dozen, as Baker would call it.

 

Thank you for my favourite post of the year so far.

I told a load of my colleagues during pre season how awesome he was and that he was going to be our main creative force.  Every man jack of them took the bait and had him in their fantasy football teams when the season started.  Now in a small way they know the ultimate futility of a Stephen Ireland transfer and I am less burdened with friendship than I was before this little prank.

He is happy to stay and he is happy to go if we are happy to let him go.  That equals go.  We will get offered enough money, as will CB and his agent.  No hard feelings it is the reality of football today.  Money talks and all that fuzzy stuff about opportunities to progress and being happy at a club etc are all trumped by big wads of cash now.  It will be good for all concerned and I hope the amicable nature of the negotiations (and I believe these various comments are exactly that: the opening salvos of the negotiations) continue over the summer.  I would hate to see him get an offer from a big club, have his head turned and start putting pressure on us to bring our asking price down.  I hope that won't happen, but it will not be unexpected if it does.  People can act real funny over money and there is plenty of the summer left for all this to turn a bit sour.

I'm resigned to loosing him.  He might be saying that he is happy to stay, but he is not saying that he won't go.  All this means is that if the right bid from the right club comes in then he will go.  There are not that many really good strikers in the Prem at the moment, certainly not in the Benteke mold.  There is going to be plenty of money splashed in the summer and I feel the chances are pretty high that there will be a big enough chunk of it aimed at the Villa for us to agree to a sale.  It hardly even matters which club it is as he will almost certainly x4 his wages and move to one of Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Man U, or similar from abroad all of whom can very justifiably be described as a step up.  I don't see him being that picky (he didn't even seem to know what city we were in when he joined us after all).

I will be sad when he goes, as I have really enjoyed watching him here (especially watching Smalling bounce off him on the way to goal at VP), but I will remember him as the main reason we staved off relegation this year and the sale that allows us a chance to add enough quality across the squad to stay up again next year (maybe even progress a little)

Yes! In b4 the lock.  Happy days

Now they are gone, I'm sad to see the back of them.  So much better to watch than Stoke or Sunderland.  Still rather them than us.

I always said that Ramsey is a good player

And that is that, shut the relegation thread

Ramsey really is playing like shite today

oh yes!

ffs

lots of diving

shit

they all lifted him with their backs bent.  I hope its not a spinal injury as those chaps clearly know very little about the subject matter at hand

phew

That Swansea defending was godawful. 

Oh, and Alpay was a beast of a defender (Alpay and Mellberg was about as good as it gets as a partnership) and Heskey has earned his way into this thread for his 14 goals in 92 appearances and for making my heart sink every time his name was announced in the starting line up.

Mark Kinsella just has to be on the list.  I hear the argument that Hendrie can't shoot, tackle or head the ball, however he played some very good games for us and got into the England team (once) on the merit of a very good run in form.  Kinsella was not even recognizable as a football player at any stage of his Villa career.  The only thing he had in his locker was pointing, which as a tour guide may be a valuable tool, but as a pro footballer is worth jack.  They even played in the same team and at no stage was Kinsella the better player.  He can't pass, can't shoot, can't tackle, doesn't cover, doesn't make penetrative runs, is slow (a bit of an assumption I know as I don't recall seeing him move), can't head and is good for team morale like having John Terry take all the wives out of an evening.  He even got enough games for us to know that it's not a one off it's just how he plays.

OMG I need a tissue

Holy shit! this is amazing

Loving Lowton today, just awesome

Oh yes

Pretty sure I'm dreaming

I agree 1-1 = 0

Which will be our score.

I celebrated a Tevez goal tonight.  I feel a little unclean.