Gringo

It's a bit of tosh reallly as last season we had people who wanted to put a positive spin on anything they could find. But now we're going back into VT topic area. Lock thread please, silly in the first place. It's all a facebook thing - that forum is lame, so I'm moving next door. We didn't want to know. Just contribute something.

Domenyk Lattlay Fottfoy

A committed bunch of chaps trying hard. Which is an improvement on the majority of last season, so onwards and upwards.

lee mason === cock

ANother hoof ball to no one

If we turn Bent into a winger d'ya reckon we can flog him for £20m in the summer?

Good play by warnock

Jol's had a look at the Villa set up and realised he has to change things to get a grip of the game. Now it's our turn to show we can respond to the challenge.

great tackle by fat boy dunne

Joke booking, joke referreeing.

Aye, but if it was deschamp's bus they'd be even more attrractive going forward.

Inches stan, inches.

A glorious start to a New Era. Same as last season's opener - 3-0 to the mighty Villa.

dr who might be easier than star wars........... + ==>

So the ECB is going to take action, but I was under the impression that they weren't able to do this until the ESFS program was ratified by all the participating govts, of which so far none have done. So are the ECB in breach of EU law or are they making it up as they go along. Strange things happen when a group of people decide to unilaterally ignore the law.

They've got a temporary exception to EU laws whilst it's deemed to be a problem. But the way the law was framed it has to be introduced by local councils and amsterdam for some strange reason (ie 50% of their tourist income were dragging their feet) - but it has to be introduced by 2015 (I think). No doubt the EU courts will keep extending their temporary exception ad finitum.

The EU court judged the dutch plans for a 'weedpass' illegal under EU laws (we're all EU citizens now, no discrimination allowed), but allowed the govt to proceed on the basis that they can ignore the law when they don't like it.

The tel aviv exchange missed a lot of the fun on friday, but at the close the NYSE was virtually unchanged, and the downgrade was yet to happen. It's going to be quite savage tommorow.

and not one bbc or sky news reporter on site - all they show is twatter pics and mobile phone videos. Maybe it's to make it more like the african riots. Are all their journos on the piss on a saturday night, or do they only cover the pretend riots that the agent provacateurs set up for them?

You're lame

Which is all very nice. But seeing as all the investment banks use the ratings to determine the (future) value of the bonds, we're going to see a Margin call Massacre on Monday. Barely 18 hours ago I questioned the value of recalling the political puppets due to the stock market falls - but this is clearly quite diffferent - here is something where muppets could actually add value by co-ordinating and getting the investment banks to agree to an approach to the downgrading of billions of dollars worth of collateral held against all sorts of investment vehicles; persion and hedge funds included. If they puppets want to keep the bubble afloat they need to be on the phone all weekend.

League: Expanding on the leagues within a league theme - I think the premiership has fragmented a bit further Last two seasons: Four leagues - teams challenging for the title, for chumps league, midtable stragglers and the haunted - with little movement between those groups. This year I see those groups splitting like this (with the teams sorted alphabetically within each group): So Villa, anywhere between 7th and 14th. I'm not too worried about the defence in itself, but with a lack of cutting edge, the team will be under pressure for long periods and confidence will take a hit along the way. Cups: We won't get very far at all without some luck and victories on penalties. Players: Eck will get more out of the players than the previous incumbent but without a couple of the youngsters making the breakthrough we will be rather threadbare in the final third. What do I want: The kids to fill the holes, becuase it doesn't look like money is going to What do I expect: A lot of draws, some poor runs that will see us staring at the trap door, but enough gumph from the senior players to steady the ship and take us to mid table.

The current generation of muppets were born in the 60s but they're still in hock to the right wing media. They we currently cultivate and grow career politicians whose only loyalty is to party and benefactors one can't see that changing in a hurry.

Someone's singing from the wrong hymn book Is this important? Because you have pan-govt regulations like solvency II that mandate that x% of funds are held in AAA rated instruments then these funds will have to start planning to move out of US debt into somethng more stable. Of course you can ignore S&P and pretend you use Moody's or a blended rating. But the agencies tend to follow one another so it would be no surprise for fitch & moody's to have downgraded the US by friday. Money will move into UK and euro bonds, making the debt cheaper for the UK (well done gideon) and prolonging the basket case euro currency which will make it's collapse even more tragic. The fall in dollar values will harm chinese exports acting as a damper on their growth which in turn will double (ot triple if you include the costs of the extended euro bailout) whammy germany whose main export markets are the US and China. Though govt debt for the UK will be cheaper, exports will be hit and financial flows into the UK will be harmed by the strength of the pound. This week Japan and Switzerland have been actively trying to devalue their currencies and swervin Mervyn will have to join in that game in the coming months. Globally there will be downward pressure on 'real' equity and commodity prices which may be offset in actual terms where they are priced in USD. Precious metals will be strengthened as the other safe haven, the USD, weakens. Alternatively S&P will announce on Monday it was all a clerical error.