thefeet1980

Very impressive.

This. I was really pleased when we signed Ireland - it softened the blow of losing Milner. I think he is a very technically gifted player, unfortunately his attitude is all wrong. There is no chance of me feeling any sympathy for him; I actually thought Gazton's post was a little embarrassing - expecting us to feel sympathy for a lad on 60k because he is being made to fight for his place and handled a little robustly. I'm glad he's is off our wage bill (which I hope he is). Although I'd love him to sort his head out and come back as the player that we know he's capable of, given what else we know of him, I think there is very little chance of us seeing him pull on a villa shirt again.

Gazton, is all that fact or just conjecture?

Have to admit, this made me laugh: "What a strikeforce Villa will have. Young and Bent. Just like their fans."

Good performance, shame we couldn't grab a win but showed good character to get back in to it. Pretty solid at the back too. Bring on Man City.

Bently shite.

Agent Ridgewell!!!

GET . THE . **** . IN!!!!!

Thank **** for that - Carew is a useless lump.

haha Yorkie struggling with 'Agbonlahor'

I wish that Mr. Em was available instead of Carew.

Agree with the team choice but surprised that Downing is upfront and Gabby on the left?

Yes I pay for my season ticket and spend money travelling to some away games so I can hope we lose. Maybe I should stay at home and tell everyone on the Internet to be positive. So are you honestly saying that you were hoping we'd get knocked out the FA Cup today?

Another excellent post OBE

Nail. On. Head. Yep, spot on that. I think Mr Moxley may have been reading this site a lot recently concerning that story. Very one-sided, I like the way he didn't make a single suggestion of who could come in and do a better job. It feels like to me that he is obviously aware of the way the majority of villa fans are feeling and has written that article accordingly. A biased piece of journalism, though not necessarily incorrect on a lot of points. I thought the article was typical Daily Mail shite. Feeding the public sensationalist, lowest common-denominator, bollocks. As with most things, the Mail has yet again failed to change my opinion.

Good to see so many thoughtful posts.

If he is then he is even more of a word removed than I thought.

I'm going to stick my neck out....I still don't think he should go. I am absolutely gutted to see us in the relegation zone and feel sick that we lost tonight. However, I watched the game closely and actually felt pretty confident at half time; we could have been two up. It was clear that the players were nervy but I felt that a goal would come and that Sunderland weren't posing too much of a threat. My only real concern was Gabby and Ash playing in the positions that they were, it is clear that Ash needs to play on the wing and Gabby up front. I thought about it at halftime and wondered if it is perhaps the case that Houllier is pandering to Ash's desire to play up front in an effort to persuade him to stay. Nonetheless, I thought that perhaps they may swap during the second half. I didn't feel that Houllier should introduce any subs - I couldn't see how he could risk accommodating Albrighton - too risky defensively to take off Petrov or Reo-Coker, the only option I thought about was Downing - but it would have been a risk. Then Heskey got sent off. That destroyed me, I knew at that point we wouldn't win. Heskey was playing really well again and at the centre of all of our chances. It **** things royally for Houllier, I imagine he felt at that point, as I did, that we should hold out for a draw. With that being the case, who could he bring on? Had he introduced Albrighton or Bannan at that point, prior to us conceding, then he would have been slated for defensively weakening an already weakened side. When we conceded, he took a gamble by throwing on Bannan and Albrighton - we nearly conceded again/ We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game, I don't think we lost it because of poor tactical decisions, we lost because of a moment of madeness from the otherwise excellent Mr. Em. Yes, we are now in the relegation zone - I still don't think we will go down. I don't believe any serious pundits will be predicting that we will go down. One of the most glaring issues tonight was the lack of options on the bench - Houllier needs a chance to bring in some players this month, which he is in the process of doing. At the end of the season I've no doubt Randy will sit down and discuss things with him again. I am also convinced that regardless of fans baying for his blood Randy will not sack him now. I actually think that if he goes we will be less likely to strengthen this January and therefore more likely to go down. Who would we replace him with....Big Sam...**** off.

Houllier's claret and blue army!

Last month has been awful but he still meets with my approval as manager.

Happy New Year to you too fella. A half decent post for you to sign off on - even if I don't agree! :winkold:

Get him to **** who, or what? When you say you don't want to get behind the manager but you want him to '****' it creates a worrying image and seems like a very strange solution. :?

Maybe they keep mentioning The Battle of Waterloo.

Just watched the Houllier interview on AVTV following the Man City match. Quite a telling little section at the end, Jack asks about the players fitness, Houllier replies; "Ashley trained today, Stephen Ireland couldn't come....well, he reported with a (shrug) bad knee in the training yesterday, but I heard that he trained today (shrug), urrm, John Carew was not fit to travel (snort, smile) so he said, so, we've got to get on" I'd welcome others' thoughts, but to me it really looks like Houllier is frustrated with Carew and Ireland and there is a suggestion that they are simply taking the piss. He doesn't say anything blunt or criticise any players but it is almost as if he is imploring viewers to understand that he is having to deal with some annoying bollocks at the moment. The question that is obviously causing much debate is whether Houllier is the cause of this unrest or whether it is overpaid, lazy, prima donna players whose hearts are not in it. For the time being I'm on the side of GH.

Wait, you actually stayed for all seven goals? I was gone after five and found out about the other two on the train on the way home. Ok, I confess, I left after 5 too... :oops: