delboy54

So a final between Russia and Qatar then....just goes to show where the money is coming from

12 hours ago, Kingman said:

 

Just a bottle of beer to get the "right" decision?....refs come cheap these days - thought the going rate was at least a bottle of whiskey in the refs changing room

I predict at some point around the 90 + 8 mins they will be awarded their soft penalty to win the game.

Regards

Del

Sorry, a bit late to this...

I was 22, standing with my old man (Holte Ender in The Sky) at the time half way up the clock end and behind the goal. The Villa played poorly and deserved the 2 - 0 the arsenal gave us but there were lots there with radios glued to their ears and as the game wore on events on the pitch mattered less and less! everyone was cheering when Boro scored against ipswich but a lot of us didnt really believe it we thought is was a gigantic wind up!

Amazing that Dad and me who we both lived in Suffolk (I still do) were not season ticket holders at the time, we just drove to London got the tube to Highbury, paid the gate money and walked into the clock end, we did at lots of away games we attended.....I cannot stand Ipswich, hateful fans esp in those days singing "Ipswich Republican Army" at us Villa fans at Portman road after the pub bombings.....

A couple of memories that made me laugh at the game was a little old geezer at the clock end selling programs and he was deluged with fans wanting one and all those fans running on to the pitch (I was not one of them) and digging up clods of the pitch to take home.........did anyone ever manage to get their "sample" to grow?

Great times to be a Villa fan, dad and I lost count at how many coaches we saw from Villa, I am sure it was over 70 odd....

VTID

Regards

Del

So now the dust is settling, it appears other than some ego's being dented and some of the top 6 executives being booted off some committees , the top 6 have basically got away with no punishment...as we all expected.

Sweepstake to guess when super breakaway league v2.0 is rumoured? 

9 minutes ago, sne said:

"I'm really sorry (I got caught)"

What about an apology to the rest of the Premier League clubs and football in general....Shocked that he is so out out touch with the fans and not realising what would happen......

Very interesting last few days.....and 170 pages on this topic, and some great comments!!        this is my view...for what its worth

There needs to be a  water tight system in place to prevent this from happening in the future (and they will try again) with clear "if you do this again then this will happen to your club"

I don't see any "punishment" given out to these clubs

The owners could not give a shit about the fans or the club, they just see this as a vehicle to create even more money and improve their investment (esp the US owners -  they are obsessed with $$$)

I hate sky, don't have it and never will and they are the people to blame for this to be honest, they have gone on about "the big six" for years, and this term is insulting to every other club. What defines a big 6 club? the end result was that these so called big 6 clubs believed their own hype

The only way to punish these clubs is monetary, voting rights and transfer embargoes ...you have to hit the owners pockets i.e. their money and "investment"

VTID

Derek

I am sure that the top 6 owners have checked before they made the announcement about this silly super league, knowing full well that they would win any legal challenge to remain in the PL and play their super league games mid week as planned...I bet they will have their cake and eat it

The top 6 can all bugger off and play in their shite super league as far as I am concerned, but I reckon they will still end up playing in the PL as the the relevant football authorities will bend when they see money/compensation/brown envelopes offered.......

That should be the main concern for all clubs outside the so called "shite six"

VTID

Derek

All this talk about a "one man team" can also apply to other teams like "Tottingham" for example without Harry Kane they would be in the bottom half of the table...

Regards to all

Del

I remember doing the couch to 5k plan, and that sudden "mountain" of continuous running for 20 mins!.....the plan prepares you for it though, and the sense of achievement at the end of it is great.

Keep at the plan, its worked for loads of people.

When I finished it I said I am now going to do it in reverse i.e. start from 5k and reduce my runs until I become a couch potato again!

Currently doing about 3 off 5km runs a week and sometimes 10km...at the grand old age of nearly 63.......once Park run starts up again you can do that!

Good luck and keep at it...

Regards

Derek

It was Liverplop's choice to play their kids last season

We have been forced to

Just wondered if anyone else caught it on Radio 4 about 0740 this morning...

Purslow was being interviewed regarding the "plan"......I don't know how to do a linky thing but catch up/listen again is available I guess

He was very guarded in the interview and the "plan" appears to have no support from Villa but fully endorses the idea of helping lower league teams....

Worth a listen

Hope I don't get told off for not posting a link to this....!

Regards to all

Derek

I work for a UK company with American owners, and despite all they say about "quality" and "associates are the most important asset" etc etc....American owners of anything are only interested in money....and how to obtain more of it. They treat their "competition" as the enemy and effectively at "war" with them to remove them from the market and thus gain autonomy.

This is exactly what the owners of liverpool and man utd (lower case letters!) are doing here.

As commented above they have introduced a shit sandwich of a plan to see the reaction, yet all the while have several other plans that have less shit in them but these plans can still be called a shit sandwich...

If this were to go ahead it will mean the end of football as we all know it

I have my vouchers as well, a bit concerned that they will expire Sept next year....I mean I would hope there is some return to "normality" by then but with Covid still causing lock downs etc the chances are with restricted numbers attending games, of being able to use all the vouchers, I think is slim to be honest...

Wish I had taken the cash now........

Regards to all

Derek

oops.......sorry my apologies to both...............

I remember watching that England V Wales home international game with some fellow apprentices in our "digs" in Lowestoft. I said to the guys "Brian Little is finally coming on!, and they said "who?"....at the end of the game they all said "why is he not playing all the time for England?.....he is the best player in the team..."

Regards and apologies to all as I was not the first to mention SBL's first and only appearance...!

Derek

I was in the middle of typing........ "comes on for the last 20 mins, players a blinder like SBL did against Wales all those years ago and never get picked again"....

Then I had to take a phone call...

and then John (above) beat me to it when I got back to VT.......

Stupid work getting in the way of important stuff like VT

Regards to all

Derek

We need to be a bit more intelligent in the transfer market rather than naive as I think we have been recently.

I saw a list of Everton players that they have bought over the last few years, some of these players cost more than 20 million each and virtually all have been duds.

We have enough duds in the present team without adding to it.

Regards to all

Derek

14 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Has anyone heard a single word, even a hint, from anyone involved in the game - from the league, from the PFA, from FIFA, from UEFA, from owners, from players, from pundits, from the media, anywhere at all, even a whisper of them changing the way the game works so that it's not this vulnerable in future?

We hear that we might lose clubs, we might lose leagues, players must take massive pay cuts, there might be mass redundancies, there's a threat to thousands of jobs - all on the back of one missed TV payment - but we don't hear one word about changing things to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Now is absolutely the time to be discussing ideas like a league fund where each Premier league team puts in a million a year so there's money centrally for a rainy day. Now is the time to discuss scrapping FFP and putting in salary caps and limits on agents and transfer fees. Now is the time to talk about governing football clubs by their debt, not their top line. Now is the time to talk about making it possible for success to come at sensible budgets, to reduce the reliance on endlessly growing TV deals, to reduce the risk to footballing business's that by design at the highest levels within the game operate right on the edge of their existence. 

The unseemly scramble for money has exposed the rotten core of our league; its grubby reliance on cash, the way it uses and drains fans, players and anyone who comes into contact with it, the way it's governed to ensure that every club strains for finance and that those that draw in the biggest TV numbers are protected at all times.Coronavirus has given the world a peek behind the curtain of football and what we see is sordid, crooked and massively flawed. 

All this on the back of the continuing idea that Manchester United will spend £100m on Jaden Sancho as soon as the window opens, that big clubs will make big deals, that Jim White will cream himself over the yellow ticker on deadline day, that players will earn £500k a week. All this on the idea that as soon as things are back to normal, they'll carry on exactly as they are and we'll learn absolutely nothing, change absolutely nothing.

It's all very well restarting the machine, even in empty stadiums, but those aren't the only doors that seem to be closed - and no one is talking about opening the game up.

 

 

Totally agree with this, but money is the king in the Premier League and there are so many vested interests.

Football though is overdue a reset with reality

Regards to all

Derek

I know its all about money and sky making sure that Liverplop pick up the title.

But, if the season is cancelled then the only competition that has been completed is the League Cup. Write off the FA cup as well as any promotion/relegation, unless a version of crickets complicated Duckworth - Lewis method is bought in to determine the league positions.

Anyway a thought - would we all really be still pleased at the season potentially being written off if we just happened to be about to win the league (however unlikely that will ever be)?

Regards to all

Derek

It would be ironic if we had to play all our remaining home games at an empty VP and then won them all........

Allan Hutton 

Thought to myself back in November we are going down.

The main issue is that although we are rubbish, teams easily beat us and we don't seem to be able to stop that.

The other problem with going down as many clubs have found yes, lets develop the young players and build on that blah blah...but what happens you do well - you look like you could go up then a Premier League team come sniffing and make us an offer for our young and hungry players that we have developed and this offer that we should refuse..... is accepted.

We lose the player (s) and drop down in the league repeat season after season. We will become a Forest, Wednesday and other long lost giants of the game while the Sky top 6 battle it out watched by the plastics

VTID

Derek

Well I hope they close VP next Saturday I do not want to witness at first hand another abject display.....I have got some drains to unblock or some paint to watch drying instead.

I count 22 players in that picture...that is what you call a "goal mouth scramble"!!!