peterw

to be fair I'm a few hours ahead of you (I'm in delhi) so I've been festering for a good few hours now...

People who are eating noisily is of course a bugbear especially the unnecessary rustling of containers, packages, or bags or whatever. HOWEVER, **** who attack the end of a packet of crisps like they're trying to release a drowning puppy from a black bin bag at the bottom of the canal, and then surface to find they sum total of their gluttunous fuckwi**ery is precisely 4 grains of salt and a shaving of rind. *******. I'LL JUST BUY YOU A NEW FULL BAG YOU GREEDY ****.

People who have a bar of chocolate - for example - then nibble like a **** mouse, close the wrapper over the little **** bit they've gnawed at, then proceed to do the same thing again 5 minutes later. JUST EAT THE **** THING.

People who take a tablet for whatever ailment they may have and then proceed to do that violent jerking head backwards movement. What the **** is that about. Do they do it every time they eat or drink anything? ****.

I thought this was a possibility in January. I think he'll frustrate the hell out of us if he did join and would be similar to when Heskey joined us. I'm not sure he's what we need and it would be starting to have all the hallmarks of a manager who needs to spend big on reputation rather than understanding the sum of parts, and how to invest for the future. I'd be frankly worried if we went down this route - not so much for the player but what it says about us. I'm a born worrier (Brummie default setting) but it feels to me that we're once again at the start of another missed opportunity where we have money and squander it rather than having the right people in place to get the right players on the pitch. Gerrard could ruin us as he's never had money to spend and if the noises of Suarez, and Firmino to join Coutinho (mind you if it works out well I've got the start of a great and catchy terrace song) is hopefully media putting two and too together, otherwise we'll be stuck at trying to get to 11th inperpetutiy but then have a releagtion every 30 years or so. We are ahead of the game slightly with our wealth - if we waste the next two or three years we will be caught up and over taken again, similar to the mid to late 90s.

Dpeneds if we are a big spender.

No, it re-set a game or two back.

especially considering that he hasn't been playing for quite a while. perhaps his contract talks are nearing a positive conclusion?

*Ahem* Give me a second whilst I revel in a genuine first ITK that actually came to fruition. I will bask in my own glory.

Talking to an ex-Rangers player (played in that 9 in a row team) and he was asking me what I thought of Gerrard. As we were chewing the cud he said one of the biggest problems with Gerrard at Rangers towards the end was that he was losing the dressing-room. I asked him if that was just his opinion or media reports in Scotalnd and he said that he still has connections at the club and was what they said to him. He does come across like a manager who will have his favourites - I've always seen him as a manager who needs to buy for success and wouldn't be able to manage without money (most other managers have done the hard yards without money before getting to the elite clubs -and with that cliques may set in in the dressing-room, those that 'his players' and those that are not. It was just an observation I had from outsode looking in and may be baseless and inaccurate; however, it was interesting to hear the Rangers guy say what he had to (I'll obviously caveat that with that we don't know what had gone on behind the scenes at rangers and Gerrard may have been the one in the right and the bad eggs may have been the player(s)).

Mings tried to move up because he saw the movement of Konsa and realised that we were in all sorts of troube because of Konsa being caught square. It was a last dithc attempt to stop the attack early otherwise Burnly would have had the same 2 on 1 that they had anyway. Mings rolled the dice nothing more.

Not sure where the best place for this is so starting a thread. Mods - move/merge if already elsewhere. The most noticeable and best things I noticed on saturday was the return of the Villlllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa song from way back when. As a younger Villa fan I used to love when we sang this with the emphasis on the final syllable being elongated for what seemed like minutes (for the younger fans who may not not what I'm talking about). To hear its reintroduction gave me hope for the youth and that all is well with the world. Cue someone telling me we weren't singing that, or that we've been singing it all season...

Not at all. Mings has a player (more or less) on his shoulder with the ball moving rapidly through our non-existant midfield (where was the CDM?). At no point is Mings in a position to move up as the ball is nowhere near his side of the pitch. Konsa should have tried to back pedal for anoyher 10-15 yards or so and allow Mings to come across to close the gap between them, and/or any defensive players to also come back. This was all about poor decision-making by Konsa which led direcvtly to the goal. His poor decision-making in the first half should also have led to a Burnley goal. He's a bit of a liability at the moment and needs to be rested. I said months back that I though Konsa needed to be replaced but not because of defensive short-comings, despite Saturday (and previous games) he is just going through a really bad patch and I have no doubt he will get his mojo back and become a good defender again. My issue is and always will be what he does in possession of the ball. I have very little confidence in his ability with the ball at his feet - even just in moving the ball 5 yards and timing his passes. he always looks unsteady and uncertain in possession and apart from his excellent ability at 'going down under pressure' really struggles when he is closed down, struggling to find the 'out' ball and remianing composed. He may be sold or he may be kept for a season to see if he can develop (as said, he's still young), but either way Burnley's goal did highlight two of our biggest weaknesses for me all season. Konsa and CDM.

The other thing to consider when looking for players is that the manager of the time, obviously only Smith before Gerrard will have a system and want players to fit that system. Smith would have said to Lange, Suso, and whoever that they are looking players who play in A, B or C roles lange then comes up with the best available options. bailey hasn't worked out but for many reasons offered previously - injuries, out of the team, no run of games etc he may come good he may not but I don't think he should be singled out as a reason for Lange being sacked. Ings was the only transfer I would hgave genuinely questioned but really it was a no brainer for a club looking for the posiition just about every Villa fan thought we needed strengthening - another striker next to Ollie. CDM hasn';t happened but it won't have been for wont of trying, remembering that the other club and player have to also be willing participants. For me the lack of choesion at the end of Grealish going and then Smith going has been the problem. The change in formation rendering quite a few of our players 'redundant' another. I wouldn't put any of that on Lange.

Or as a Scunthorpe home or Tranmere away kit.

Just so you could remind yourself of what a Villa home kit should never, ever, look like?

Ramsey is a regular, and then you have Chukwuemeka, Iroegbunam, Philogene-Bidace, Archer have all played Premier League football. Then you have Reilly, Chisene (and others) that have been on the bench. i think one thing that can't be laid at the club's door is the lack of a pathway into the first tam.

Even more humourously, Thatcher was willing to cede full sovereignty to Argentina if the islanders agreed. Argentina would also gain representation on local councils. She got lucky with the War - its winning saved her administration and prevented the public from knowing what she was willing to give away behind the scenes.

Well just like Thatcher in 82, a conflict is a great way to divert eyes away from the domestic arena.

I think the opposite - we'll easily find a buyer for him but likely to be in France or a similar level league.

What helped him weas tyhe change in formation. Sitting at the base of the diamond when Ings came on made things easier for him and he was able to put his foot in and nick the ball. The two number 10s saw him get dragged out of position and he looked uncomfortable not really knowing where he should position himself. That was nerves as much as anything having to adapt to something different on the biggest stage, and to be honest replacing him with Luiz would have made us better in the first half. However, after the change in formation he settled in well and for 30 mins (or so) looked like the player people are telling us he is.

Sorry - an extra £1.5m.

Not really an ITK but for what it's worth - I live and work in Delhi and my football academy played against another football acadmy on saturday. My children used to be at the other team's academy pre covid so I know their head of marketing and we got chatting after the match. He has just come back from ther UK because he is also dealing with CAZOO (sister companies - maybe something to do with Apollo tyres who are heavily involved with the academy he is dealing with here and who used to have links with Albion). He's always int he UK, and told me that he was part of the Cazoo shirt sponsorship talks. Cazoo aren't going with Everton next season and we are negotiating a deal with them, but we want £1.5m. cazoo aren't keen to go that high and he said that Villa were using as a marketing tool that we have gerrard and Coutinho and the returns sponsors will get back on that alone. Obviously that doesn't mean that we will be signing Coutinho for next season and may be using his name just to get the best deal we want...Or, we have alreayd taken the decision to keep him and want the money from spnsors to be associated with a top class player.

No, of course doing it on a pitch and on the training ground are two different things. But a manager can be swayed by the hard work being out in by a player and think he'll give him a go. And of course we do not have access to everything at bodymoor and see what Gerrard and his staff see. As a very minor example, roughly 30 years ago I was part of the Stafford Rangers reserve team squad (the year after they finished 2nd in the Conference I think, Des Bremner was there, around 90?). After a few months the reserve manager made it clear that he didn't fancy me much and of a squad of 30 I was never given even as much as a sniff of being anywhere near the matchday squad. i was told that they'd look at it again in the summer (I joined I think in the January from maybe Alvechurch). In the summer I was hardly contacted and just kept going and I guess they thought ignoring me would encourage me to leave. it did the opposite and I knuckled down in training and set out to prove a point. I remember after a series of good training performances I ended up playing left back (wing back - and I'm not a defender) and totally bossed everything scoring a hat-trick. From there the manager came up to me and said, fair enough you're in, and I was selected to play upcoming pre-season games v Stoke Res/Port Vale Res and Newcastle Town. So, no, no-one can be Messi - but to use Gerrard's favourite line, if you can be the best version of yourself, and show it on the training ground, you can certainly make them think differently.

my biggest concern when compared to the Smith tenure was that players that were bought in and those here seemed to be improved with coaching. gerrard seems to want to buy the finished articles. Its okay at liverpool and to an extent at rangers were sucess is demanded, but may not work with us. You'd need to be doing better than midtable to get those finished article players in enough areas to justify the outlay. Its a bit of a balancing act but I'm not sure gerrard has shown the patience (or maybe the ability) to do the work on the training ground with the players to ensure they are developed as was seemingly the strategy under Smith, according to purslow.