VILLAMARV

From the BBC website after the Moldova game:

Despite Southampton's Lambert and Jermain Defoe of Tottenham being the only orthodox strikers in the squad currently available to face Ukraine, Hodgson is not planning to call up a replacement.

"I suppose one would, if there were very obvious candidates," the 66-year-old said.

"I think we worked very hard through the candidates, and with Andy Carroll still injured, you would have to be going way back to think of people to bring in."

So Gabby is way back somewhere in Hodgsons mind then

am I still allowed to come here and publically disagree with referees decisions if I think they were wrong?

his attitude before this interview wasnt a problem for me, and of all the cast offs he was the one who seemed to want to actually play anywhere he could. Not going to endear you much to the fans if you're going to go and publically slate the club while they're still paying your wages though. Silly boy. deserves everything he gets on here after that imo.

yup, its not like the whole qualification process is seeded in our favour or anything is it

really? Im pretty surprised by that tbh - I wasnt venting my fury here back then myself but in his time at Newcastle he was hardly painted as a model pro. I suppose the 10 goals in his last season at Wigan gave a few people hope he might be worth it

Well he certainly upped his workrate and application during and after the Newcastle game last year and I'll credit him for that, considering I usually call him all sorts of things! but apart from the fact that it was a ridiculous transfer at the time for everyone apart from Wigan he likes a dribble too much imo. occasionally he passes the ball but its all too often just run into dead ends.

He's still a pretty talented player, but I wont be at all upset if we move him on ASAP

Back in May I wanted all this this summer -

Even if Seigrist steps up to the first team squad we'll need another GK if Given leaves. SO JED THEN
We desperately need another decent CB. If not 2 - HAPPY WITH OKORE

We could do with some cover for Lowton at RB. If not 2 if Hutton & Lichaj are going. - ARE WE COUNTING BACUNA HERE? HERD? EITHER WAY HUTTONS STILL HERE

We could do with a decent LB. - PRETTY HAPPY WITH LUNA SO FAR

We desperately need a left winger, if not 2 - HAPPY WITH THE LITTLE WE'VE SEEN OF TONEV SO FAR

We will need to replace Bent if he goes - SORTED

Baker and Weimann should be signed up for the rest of their days ASAP. Clark should be given a new contract. The rest of the 2014 contract expiry group should be made to prove themselves next year. - DONE, DONE, DONE, AND DONE

So all in all Im pretty chuffed Mr Lambert. Nice one.

thank god we didnt get sparky as manager

WOO HOO !!!!!!!!!!!

fixed

 my least favourite villa player ever.

He should be forced to work as a ball boy.. the worst deal avfc has ever made.

Sounds like a great idea to me, and just what we needed for all the reasons posted in the last 17 pages. lets hope he signs

Dont know what is hard to fathom about us signing a striker though......if it happens!

Bent has been shipped out for this year at least and when that happened there were plenty of people wondering what the backup plan was if Benteke is suspended/injured etc. Doesn't look like Benteke's replacement to me just Bents replacement.

As Nzogbia is injured and therefore not saleable in this window I reckon for everyone's attaking midfielder to be signed we'll need Bannan and Ireland gone and we all know in our hearts that aint gonna happen. However they are both out of contract in the summer and maybe the courting of kiyotake can restart then? when maybe we might have a bit of benteke cash floating around. I'd much rather hang on to spend the money wisely than go get another Ireland just coz it's deadline day. Likewise I think we'll see another RB option coming in if Hutton leaves but not before.

I also hope hairy hands isnt Faulkner coz I cant imagine I'd agree much with the guy whereas Hairy Hands seems to speak a fair bit of sense imo

Im not sure what people want sometimes, Would you rather no-one pressed the ball?

Lowton is miles up the pitch after losing posession and you can see him want to atone for the poor chipped ball that he plays by charging off up the pitch chasing the ball almost to the corner flag, Westwood goes to press the easy out ball when Wilshire is in possession, we're pressing high up the pitch after losing the ball. El-Ahmadi is covering RB - I say he gets a bit too tight to Ox-Chamberlain who burns him off for pace. As Lowton is furthest forward on the right and El-Ahmadi is covering him, shouldn't Weimann be busting a gut to cover El-Ahmadi's position? i.e exactly where Rosicky picks up the ball from Wilshire? If Westwood presses Wishire after Ramsey drifts off him maybe Wilshire is forced to play the ball in to Ramsey where Gabby and Delph should be there to cover? Vlaar sees the danger as the ball is played to Rosicky, sees that there's no-one there to press him and goes to challenge. Id much rather that than Rosicky has the time and space to turn and run at us unchallenged. El-Ahmadi gets caught 2 on 1 and decides to press the ball hence the Ox breaks free down the left. Had Baker seen all this and stepped up at this point Arsenal would have been a yard offside. Should Delph have positioned himself in the centre circle, sitting a bit deeper with everyone else pressing so high up? therefore giving him the chance to get back and cover Vlaars position. To my mind Vlaar makes the right decision and we end up getting caught on the counter attack by a good Arsenal team who expose the weaknesses caused by other peoples bad decisions or errors.

I dont expect people to agree with this but my point is really that this was hardly an isolated error being responsible for the other team scoring moment. Vlaar needs to win more headers from set pieces granted, and we could all do with a few clean sheets sometime soon. But not only do I think he's the best CB we've had for years with the ball at his feet, I love his attitude.

 

considering I joined up to VT in January time last season, when all our hearts were in the middle of being ripped out by Chelsea, Spurs, Wigan, Bradford and finally Millwall, it's nice to see that in 8 months in this thread we've gone from real despair and questioning what's going on to discussing whether or not Lambert's the best thing since filofaxes and mobile phones

Sort of says it all really

some of us have been saying he was the best thing since folifaxes and mobile phones before ,  during and after our poor run

 

Lol, I joined up to stick up for what I thought I saw he was doing with us then and i haven't changed a bit since, my heart and my head had to have a bit of a chat after the Millwall game I seem to recall but the head won the argument and through it all I wanted him to be given a few years in charge more than anyone since MON for sure. Its just nice to see nearly everyone on the same page in such a relatively short space of time. I LOVE the fact that the crowd stuck with him and we didnt descend into a Blackburnesque implosion. In fact it's my favourite thing about the whole season, more than Lowtons goal even.

I know, iwas gonna add a pre emptive apology to my last post but thought it was long enough It just really annoys me that people still try and defend his actions from some sort of moral perspective based on something really horrible happening to him once

 

 

I never rated him and didn't think we should go near him due to his history of being a prick.

what is this history of being a prick? because he was young and naive and panicked saying his grandmother had died when his girlfriend had a miscarriage

Yes. Why handle the situation so badly? He was young but, come on! And his behaviour since just hasn't improved, slagging of man city and slagging off Birmingham. Why does he never get picked by countless managers? He is a prize tit.

 

I can understand this arguement being used to defend his granny death lying antics from back in the day Zatman and whilst i'm trying to keep my tongue firmly planted in my cheek while i write about the joke that is Stephen Ireland, I don't think there's anyone with a soul that reads these threads that would wish a situation like that on any other human being. And surely anyone with a heart can only sympathise and accept that with your head in a crazy space like that your judgement can be impaired. Having said all that I think it's a pretty easy question to throw at a fair enough overall point to be honest. As for the whole Eire/miscarrige/3 dead grannys incident even with the mitigating circumstances it appears to us all (albeit looking in from the outside and casting judgement on him) that he handled it REALLY badly. Mancini questioned his ability to handle the mental strains of being a pro footballer before he ripped us off for Milner didnt he? His public BEBO page contained the quote "Football is shit, why did i get stuck doing it?" apparently. All in all I think it was pretty fair to question his temperament when he came here. I know I did.

Since then his breach of discipline while on loan at Newcastle, Houlier publically saying he needed to "work harder on his game", dropping him from the squad after 12 games and then shipping him out on loan first chance he got, Sueing Man City over him breaking his own confidentiality clause for his £2m leaving present, the bong smoking picture (sorry shisha pipe) debacle, all good examples of him being or acting like "a prick". And none of them would it seems have a mentally disturbing personal incident to excuse them.

considering I joined up to VT in January time last season, when all our hearts were in the middle of being ripped out by Chelsea, Spurs, Wigan, Bradford and finally Millwall, it's nice to see that in 8 months in this thread we've gone from real despair and questioning what's going on to discussing whether or not Lambert's the best thing since filofaxes and mobile phones

Sort of says it all really

 

 

For some reason,his goal yesterday reminds me of Stauntons at Sheffield Wednesday in Big Rons first game in charge.I can't really recall the goal but have a picture in my head of us breaking on the counter attack & Staunton smashing home.If Tony goes on to play as well as Stauton did for us,I won't be too upset.

I was thinking this at the time too, last LB I can remember scoring on his debut was Staunton. I like that as an omen, I like the beard, I like that he's called Tony Moon and I too like that he's not Bennett. Not coz I personally dislike Bennett, but coz I really hate the amount of goals we conceeded last year when he was on the pitch.

Dream debut for Luna, keep it up mate

Truly great save from Cazorla on the weekend. Good stop from Rosicky too when he weaved his way through. just as important as the 2 penalties I reckon.

Utter madness. Bet Platini was off to the drawing board the minute he saw an all English final last year! The idea that Uefa, Fifa or the relevant FA's don't have the money for this tournament with or without the sponsors is farcical. 

 

 

Not sure why Darren would consider joining Palace anyway,  half arsed club that never have been famous

 

To be fair. It was Holloway who made those comments not Palace. So your beef should be directed at him, not the club.

 

He made them about the club I support (actually he said used to be famous,  I've altered them to be more appropriate now) I have made them about the club he manages.

 

LOL

This still winds me up too. I'd be happy for us to never deal with the man for the rest of his career! I still enjoy watching/listening to the guy when he's being funny and i accept the stress was getting to him with clubs circling his prize asset but he did overstep the line with that one. criticising our club for making an official approach. still we dodged a bullet on that one i reckon Should make for an interesting Boxing day, where in a vain attempt to keep it all on topic, it seems Darren Bent wont be playing, if he passes his medical

If he's away somewhere and they're paying 100% of his wages its all good. To be fair I dont think shifting Bent next summer will be a problem if he does come back. At least we're getting offers for him. Hutton, Given, Ireland, Stevens, Delphouneso and the scottish iniesta dont exactly seem to be top of many clubs wanted lists at the moment.

Whether we agree with it or not Lambert has set his stall out pretty publically with his squad numbers for the year and one man's 'treating them badly' is another man's 'being totally up front with them and telling them they aren't part of his plans'.

for me if it might cut the number of transfer requests Lambert has to deal with in half, saves us some money and cheers Gabby up I'm all for it

 

be nice to hear some news of his departure, of all the outcasts he seems to be the one who actually wants to play somewhere.

Is he still here? I was hoping Jol had something to tell us today?

I personally don't see anything alarming about his club wanting around the £12.5m mark. From our point of view we want him and for as little as possible. But rather like us with Benteke they are holding a good hand, few years on his contract and they look like they got themselves a good player. Why would they want rid? However annoying it is in modern football it might boil down to the player themselves and plenty of us would be up in arms if our new star player had left after just one season huh! 

As for trusting Lambert's judgement, well I've generally been in favour of that, so whether he comes or not I'll assume there's good reason. 

I know there's a bit of speculation that we might be seeing a different target come in and I'm certainly no itk, but Id love to see this rumour materialise. Kiyotake looks and sounds like a really good player - we can only assume it would raise our profile in Asia to sign him, everyone needs a dead ball specialist and on top of that it would really please the fans. 

I also saw someone from the fans forum the other night said Lambert said no 'marquee signings' would be made as it was unrealistic at this point. I wonder if this would class as a marquee signing to Lambert's way of thinking? and i wonder if Bent, Hutton and Given were moved on whether this would make a marquee signing any more realistic? 

what's twitter?

Id guess that's probably right too romavillain. I've stopped hoping Hughes might fancy a punt on Ireland at Stoke. Still I've been waiting for the light at the end of the Ireland tunnel since the day he signed Ireland, Bannan and Delphouneso are all in the last year of their contracts - so if we don't shift them at least we know they'll be gone next summer. If we even manage to loan any of these 3 somewhere this season where they'll actually pay a percentage of their wages its all a bonus for me. 

Stephens, Hutton, Bent (contracts till 2015) and Given and Nzogbia (2016) on the other hand could conceivably free up around £200k - £250k a week in wages if they are all offloaded permanently, which going by the squad numbers seems to be the plan. 

For me we'll have to shift Hutton, Bent and Given before I start getting excited about anyone coming in. 

Still I can definitely say that this time next year we wont be talking about Stephen Ireland