BangkokVilla

On the Ellison front here is one of the top Google image results for Ellison- baseball cap. The colour is distinctive and is the same in the picture from VP ...

I think many places offer a better 'lifestyle' than the UK- be this weather, work/life balance, financial or other. I think it really boils down to whether your mate and his family will miss friends and family... Australia is a long, long way from home (or indeed anywhere really..) which doesn't make visiting or trips home easy. I did vaguely research moving there myself a couple of years ago but decided against it. I recall reading a few articles in the UK press at the time covering the large numbers of Poms now returning home to the UK. Link Link2 As he is a professionally qualified dentist, I guess he should be able to get a working visa almost anywhere, how about Florida or Spain if he wants some better weather and more outdoors lifestyle ? I just spent 6 months back in Brum after 8 years overseas (with the odd 1 week visit home) I have to say I enjoyed it. We are professional whingers in the UK but it really isn't that bad !

Everybody, do not google Jessica Nigri Sorry, I couldn't resist. Thank you. Bit twattish for the Predator push, due a telling off and no more.

He's got to go for that. Didn't look so bad on first viewing, then I noticed how he brings his right boot back down outside his left ankle- clearly an unnatural position and IMHO a deliberate stamp on the head. In the game I noticed AWJ bleeding near the eye at the first scrum but didn't see the stamp.

Sweet Jesus Brad....WTF.

Get the **** in !

Just got back from the game- well it is a long trip after all Fantastic day down at VP, North Stand lower was rocking. Well done all at VP for creating the best atmosphere I can remember since the Derby games. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Thought we were OK 1st half but lacked any sort of penetration, Brad's save from Samba's header was a stunner. Better in 2nd half, nail biting at times and proud of the lads effort cheered on by a great crowd even when we were having some rocky moments. 6 from 6 out of Reading and QPR is better than I'd hoped for, just a shame Wigan and Soton won although it seems others are now being dragged into the mixer e.g Sunderland. Still a long way to go yet but let's allow ourselves to savour this win for a little while !

Bollox

Everything was looking good until the usual set-piece goal being given away. After that we were completely useless- no control, shape, confidence or ability. The lack of composure in a difficult situation from both manager (who changed the formation to a completely ineffective one) and players can only be massively worrying with a relegation battle ahead.... Edit : Congrats to Bradford.

Firstly, welcome to Birmingham mate. It's a great city and I am sure you will enjoy your time here. I only know South Birmingham well,so based on what you have indicated as being important I would suggest Harborne or Moseley as well. Both have active high streets with plenty of shops,restaurants and pubs/bars. Harborne is about 2 miles/10 minutes from Broad Street (City centre) with lots of entertainment options, probably going to be the same from Moseley. Harborne is very pleasant. Popular for students and young professionals. Easy to find a nice place to rent right off the high street with easy access to facilities and transport into town. Moseley has a bit more 'character' about it I would say, and a more varied mix of people. If you like currys you are in luck, as the Balti triangle is just a few minutes away. Probably more of a challenge to get something directly off the high street here but plenty of places within a 5 to 10 minute walk. If you want to live in town itself, Jewellry quarter/St Pauls square might be of interest.

I find that GIF quite disturbing to be honest. I am a big UFC fan and I have just finished watching 148 -but I can't see the fun in watching someone defenceless getting shoed in the head. :?

Blimey, some spiteful comments on this thread in the last few pages. I can't see he has said anything that controversial. I think he is a decent premiership squad player but I am not especially worried about him going. I presume as a relatively big fee signing he is on a sizeable package and I think we can save money for what he offers. However, I think he should have been told if he was not going to get a new offer. Granted he is on very good money but I assume he has a family and kids and like us all, a future to think about. Some of the comments regarding 'stress' in the context of receiving a big pay cheque remind me of John Gregory's stone-age attitude with Collymore. For some, money can't buy happiness, only a better class of misery.

My first regular season of watching Villa with my mates was 87-88 when I was 14 years old. 3 quid in, queues up Trinity road (Left side Holte End.) jumpers for goalposts and all that. Have to say it was good. Winning games, exciting matches and promotion. I have been quite lucky really, at least upto 2001, seen a couple of 2nd place finishes, a good number of top six finishes, European nights, last stand of the Holte, some cup wins...I won't mention 2000 FA Cup. Not a whole lot to get excited about since then apart from some reasonably good times under MON and beating the noses,eventually, but that only made it sweeter. Anyway, not especially enjoying now, back to 2002-2005 survival mode. We are currently in the shit but I don't think we will go down.

This. Was never a nice place to go (apart from convenience), always had to endure the walk back to the station after the game with their lot picking off anyone wearing colours. They seemed to really hate us for some reason and over time I responded in kind. I guess there weren't many other regular derbies around, in the 90's at least, so it grew from there on both sides. Nothing like the rivalry with Blues but there was definitely an additional edge to Cov games. Just for the record, Highfield Rd was an absolute shithole as well.