Amo69

Livermore gone to hull permanently, another one we could've got, I think he's an excellent player

The fact City were a league 1 side not that long ago gives me hope. Also seeing Atletico Madrid winning La Liga and nearly the European Cup gives us all hope.

The Mcleish appointment has been the single worst moment in my living memory of Villa. I was truly disgusted. Overall I do think this is becoming close to the darkest hour in my time. I'd say the one shining light is we still have a truly outstanding striker. I just wish he wasn't bloody injured!

I personally think it just boils down to us having good players but no world class players. The difference in the two games were Cavani, Suarez and Pirlo. Rooney is the closest we have and still not on that level.

Fans don't want to see it but I reckon we would be better off keeping a solid shape and hitting teams on the break. We are not good enough to take the game to better teams and the two games showed this.

It depends how much they paying out. If it's quite near to max payout which I suspect it might be ill prob take it. To much to lose.

Thank **** for Messi. Not even sure about Germany now. All teams have to be respected these days. The fact Ghana have to come at them should help though.

I guess DNB? or Double chance, just to make sure you get some money back.

Yeah, and maybe cash out if Bosnia take lead.

I got £50 on France, Ecuador, Argentina, Germany and Bosnia all to win. Returns £418.

I think my finger will be hovering over the cash out button in a few hours.

Bet on Nigeria, just to cover it..

Yeh I was thinking that. Assuming Germany beat Ghana that is.

To be fair, if it's properly prepared, cooked and served, there isn't much that you can't eat on a 'food animal'.

Offal seems to have gone out of fashion in recent years though.

True. Just don't tell the person what part they are eating and they wouldn't care.

No way, North America is the easiest.

Anyway, this Australian team was rebuilt after the horrendous qualifying campaign and 6-0 losses to France and Brazil. We have young players now who will have improved again in 4 years time.

I used to think that, but Mexico is better than any of the Asian sides for me and they struggled in qualifying. Plus North America has the US, Costa Rica and mexico in good position to get out of their group, while Asia, despite having its two best teams in weak groups, looks set to have none of their four and a half bids to the second round.

They still qualified, didn't they? The rest of CONCACAF are rubbish (on paper, anyway)

Isn't North and Central America mainly 3 massive countries and then the rest small islands and countries with very low populations?

South Asia has massive potential but they just don't love the game enough, or at all.

The Sven years don't look so bad now!

I never thought they were. We lost on penalties twice and were beaten just about by eventual winners. But I think the biggest difference is we always had a pretty solid defence.

I reckon he should have just taken Terry. We're not good enough to leave players out for non footballing reasons regardless of how disruptive they are.

Best centre half pairing in the league.

Even the.....and the.....

Geez!!!!

Tasty?

Out of interest what's the support for Villa like out there? Are we well known?

Also why on earth would anybody support them?

If you want a true true true fan, There is only one other than me that I know. He actually signed up here before couple of days but he didn't know how to put posts.

I know couple of people who just watch the games with us and just support them because they know we rarely get happy with a win.

We are well known in those who watches european football. But mostly doesn't know how big the club is! I've been angry couple of times when some people couldn't know the difference between Villa and West Ham ! Some of them thinks I support West Ham ! haha.

And why I've supported them ? It's a long story, I hated Villa as the most team I hate 2004, Yet I liked them in the same year ! haha. But I just used to check the results later as I stopped watching european leagues because I've been to the USA for a while. Long story which I might talk about later. lol.

Whatever you're reasons for supporting Villa it doesn't matter anymore, you're stuck with them!

I really hope you're right about the Saudi interest in the club.

No way, North America is the easiest.

Anyway, this Australian team was rebuilt after the horrendous qualifying campaign and 6-0 losses to France and Brazil. We have young players now who will have improved again in 4 years time.

I used to think that, but Mexico is better than any of the Asian sides for me and they struggled in qualifying. Plus North America has the US, Costa Rica and mexico in good position to get out of their group, while Asia, despite having its two best teams in weak groups, looks set to have none of their four and a half bids to the second round.

Four and a half?

my personal mantra is -

If you're going to eat an animal, eat all of it.

All of it!!

I just did a quick points with and without Bentake last season. It's 23 with and 15 without. However we did see him play quite a few games when he was rushed back and clearly not fit. Had he been fully fit I reckon we could have got more from those games.

Now I know it's not as simple as one man but his absence next season is most likely going to hit us hard. As Mantis mentioned our best bet is that he can hit the ground running when he returns and have at least half the season fully fit.

Out of interest what's the support for Villa like out there? Are we well known?

Also why on earth would anybody support them?

Abdul are you in Saudi Arabia mate?

I got £50 on France, Ecuador, Argentina, Germany and Bosnia all to win. Returns £418.

I think my finger will be hovering over the cash out button in a few hours.

It's just one of many reasons I think we are screwed mate.

We're not screwed. Yeah things aren't looking fantastic but let's just wait and see? It almost seems as if people have already decided what kind of season we're going to have. It's only June.

You've decided we'll be fine.

Where have I? I said let's wait and see. Just because I haven't gone on about how I think everything will be terrible doesn't mean I think things will be great.

Fair enough. I did also say let's wait and see but for the record unless there is some significant changes i.e. takeover I do think we are screwed, I.e. Relegation.

It's just one of many reasons I think we are screwed mate.

We're not screwed. Yeah things aren't looking fantastic but let's just wait and see? It almost seems as if people have already decided what kind of season we're going to have. It's only June.

You've decided we'll be fine.

I don't get how that is exaggerating. If the majority of our points are gained when he is on the pitch and he is not back until half the season is passed, there is a chance their could be no way back. Look at QPR as an example.

There is a chance we could be in a relegation scrap yes, but saying we could be down and out by say November/December is just pure hyperbole. I mean, by the end of last year Benteke had played a grand total of 4 games for us properly fit and we weren't doing too badly at that point.

And as Rovers said, look at Sunderland and Palace last season.

Did we finish the previous season with the worst form in the league and then the owner putting the club up for sale? You may not agree but I think that is key.

I don't think last season's form has that much of an impact, especially when all but one of our injured players should be back by the beginning of the season. I mean, we finished 12/13 on fire yet didn't exactly start last season in that great form (Arsenal win aside).

Didn't we? Considering the teams we faced we looked really good. Should have beat Chelsea and Liverpool and Newcastle just about beat us.

We could debate this forever and never agree. Let's just wait and see and hopefully I'm proven wrong.

We were alright but I don't think we were as good as the form we were in at the back end of the previous season. I just don't think you can use the end of one season as great indicator of the form of the beginning of the next season.

It's just one of many reasons I think we are screwed mate.

I don't get how that is exaggerating. If the majority of our points are gained when he is on the pitch and he is not back until half the season is passed, there is a chance their could be no way back. Look at QPR as an example.

There is a chance we could be in a relegation scrap yes, but saying we could be down and out by say November/December is just pure hyperbole. I mean, by the end of last year Benteke had played a grand total of 4 games for us properly fit and we weren't doing too badly at that point.

And as Rovers said, look at Sunderland and Palace last season.

Did we finish the previous season with the worst form in the league and then the owner putting the club up for sale? You may not agree but I think that is key.

I don't think last season's form has that much of an impact, especially when all but one of our injured players should be back by the beginning of the season. I mean, we finished 12/13 on fire yet didn't exactly start last season in that great form (Arsenal win aside).

Didn't we? Considering the teams we faced we looked really good. Should have beat Chelsea and Liverpool and Newcastle just about beat us.

We could debate this forever and never agree. Let's just wait and see and hopefully I'm proven wrong.

I don't get how that is exaggerating. If the majority of our points are gained when he is on the pitch and he is not back until half the season is passed, there is a chance their could be no way back. Look at QPR as an example.

There is a chance we could be in a relegation scrap yes, but saying we could be down and out by say November/December is just pure hyperbole. I mean, by the end of last year Benteke had played a grand total of 4 games for us properly fit and we weren't doing too badly at that point.

And as Rovers said, look at Sunderland and Palace last season.

Did we finish the previous season with the worst form in the league and then the owner putting the club up for sale? You may not agree but I think that is key.

Sunderland and palace this year disagree.

Yes this is true.