flashingqwerty

Yeah, but wiwcutlbofp? for the life of me i cannot figure out that one... On topic though - Ireland has talent and can play really good football. Houlier clearly hadnt a clue how to handle him, but big eck has a history of knocking these types of player into shape so maybe he can sort him out? I'll reserve judgement until we see him in preseason. if i'm honest, i think he'll be on his way before the close of the transfer window

5m is too much for given, but 10m is also too much for foster if we can get given for 3m then we should, otherwise foster, but not for more than 8. though i think its already been said, we should pick up a cheaper more experienced GK for now and spend what money is available for the more important areas and use future revenue to pay for the ideal gk further down the line.

was reported on today fm in ireland during the week that villa have agreed personal terms with given and the only block was the clubs agreeing a fee i'm still dubious though as it wouldnt be the first time they had 'mis-reported' something like this

I'd go as far as saying the manner in which he left the club and his general attitude might seriously affect the thoughts of any chairmen considering him for their clubs. Totally unprofessional, also the manner in which he took most of the 1st team coaching staff with him, showed a complete lack of respect for the club and it's fans. He wanted to inflict the most pain he could. He comes over as a very arrogant, self centred man. He will never manage a club on the scale of Villa again. nice too see that the sensible villa fans have a voice too - well said!

you cant seriously want MON back after the way he bailed out on us? Personally i never really liked the man and thought he was never going to lead us further than 6th The manner in which he left the club, and the timing of it, is nothing short of criminal and i dont understand why he is still hailed as a god by many villa fans when in my opinion he is on a level with Gobby Cabbage and Alpay - he's an absolute word removed.

have to say i find this sort of speculation over a new manager very distastful considering our current manager is currently in hospital.

i think the chamckh goal shows why we defend deep, he strolled past dunne because dunne is pathetically slow and goes to ground far too easily. If he spent half as much time trying to usher his man out wide rather than lunging in and going to ground like a maniac we'd concede half as many goals.

we were exceptional in th second half and if we had a semi decent striker we'd have won the game Heskey really should have had a hat trick today - PLEASE GABBY GET FIT!!!!! Ireland was awful, Dunne needs to be dropped, Petrov needs to be replaced NRC is coming on leaps and bounds , so glad we didnt let him go. should have taken all 3 points, deserved at least 1, manager has to take some of the blame for getting his tactics wrong and a poor team selection

it depends on the opposition i think... if we're going to be under pressure for long spells then we need it to be Dunne and Collins as these two will throw themselves at anything and put their bodies on the line to save the team. However, neither of these are particularly good with the ball, so against 'lesser' teams where are defenders will get time on the ball Dunne and Cuellar should play as Cuellar is better on the ball and running forward (though i think Clark will be better at this role in a few years)

big fan of NRC - just think we dont use his to his strengths... he's a good defensive midfield player; he should hassle, tackle then play the simple pass to ireland or petrov so they can push us forward that would make us a much harder unit to break down

end of the road for me in many of his ecent interviews he appears to have lost his passion and desire and confidence that he can improve us. i find this very starnge as there are a great many players out there who could add and improve to our squad that could be picked up for less then 4 million or even on frees (Joe Cole) but it appears we're not making moves. As a team we are making the same errors time and time again, no right back, playing people out of position, paying over the odds for useless players, signing people that will never play, over using/not rotating players who are playing badly, playing players through injury, not signing people before the start of the season so they have no time to gel, freezing players who have a lot to offer out of the team... he list goes on its time for a change as MON's ego has grown larger than the club as far as team selection goes and he's given up the ghost on achieveing top 4.

i really dont think martin has it in him to take us beyond where he already has. Not saying he's done a bad job, just think that to take us further he needs to change himself more than the team as its his flaws that are holding us back. Example? Sure... Every year MON has been in charge we have stopped playing well from march til the end of the season pretty much. In year one this was a transition year and we had a very small squad, i can forgive that. In year two we were still very much in transition and still had a very small squad. In year three we had a settled core and a team and a fairly decent sized squad - tiredness was caused by a lack of rotation as MON either felt the players didnt need a rest (though i think a blind man could see they did) or he no faith in the players in the squad to do the job (despite having signed these players for substanial sums) In year four - see year three and its confounded by his refusal to use substitutions when players are clearly not able to continue due to fatigue and his seeming inability to make changes to our shape when things arent going well other than to move a few players around so that most players are playing out of position. we also need to look at his signings: Stiliyan Petrov Celtic £6.5m - average player, often goes missing in games and lacks stamina Didier Agathe Celtic Free - did he ever play? Chris Sutton Celtic Free - did a job but was only ever a stop gap John Carew Lyon Swap - good signing, but i do wonder if it was MON's idea or houlier's Ashley Young Watford £9.65m - very inconsistent, but a good player Shaun Maloney Celtic £1.1m - might have been a ecent player but was allowed to leave before we found out Wayne Routledge Tottenham £1.5m - oh deary dear... Moustapha Salifou FC Wil Undisc. - oh dear again Zat Knight Fulham £3.5m - wasnt good enough and was sold off again we let better defenders go to make a space for them Scott Carson Liverpool Loan - oh dear once again Harry Forrester Watford £250 000 initial fee rising on appearances - watch this space Eric Lichaj Unattached Free - watch this space Marlon Harewood West Ham Undisc (region of £3.5m?) - MON's worst signing? Nigel Reo-Coker West Ham £8.5m - looked a good signing initially but mon lost control of this one Curtis Davies (WBA undisclosed but around £7.5million?) - jury is still out on him too, has a ot of bad days Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5million) - honestly? awful footballer and adds nothing to the team Brad Friedel (Blackburn, undisclosed but in the region of £2 - £2.5million) - good stop gap solution Brad Guzan (Chivas US, undisclosed, starts at around £800k up to £2m on appearances etc?) - promising Nicky Shorey (Reading, around £4m?) - very poor player Luke Young (Middlesbrough, around £5m?) - good player but MON prefers to play a CB at RB - bizzare Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8million) - looked good when got a good run at CB but has been moved to rb - bizzare James Milner (Newcastle, around £12million?) - accomplished player and turned out to be a decent price for the performances hes put in since moving infield Arsenio Halfhuid from Excelsior (undisclosed - watch this space) Emile Heskey from Wigan Athletic (£3.5m) - ooops MON did it again - amazingly poor so the vast majority of MON's signings have even turned out to be bad ones or he's fallen out with them, played them out of position, or just frozen them out for some reason. Best Man Manager in football? i dont think so... personally i think Mark Hughes would do a better job. He'd at least get us playing some decent football and isnt afraid to changes things and admit when hes made a mistake

OBE - he was high and late - had that been a tackle on our player you'd be calling for a card

Paul McGrath proved you dont need to have pace in order to prevent a fast player running past you both baye and young would have been in a better position to stop him and woud have marshalled him far better than carlos ever could have because they are fullbacks and he is not

yeah petrov is having one of his many 'stand around and point at things' games have to say that when we have the ball he looks completely disinterested and just points away from himself so noone passes the ball to im average player and an awful captain IMO

friedel - 7 - had no chance with either goal and made a few nice saves warnock - 7 - solid and i dont remember him making a mistake cueller - 4 - offered nothing going forward and distribution was poor Dunne - 5 - at fault for the goal despite getting back well but overall under par compared to usual Collins - 6 - ok, nothing to write home about Young - 6 - some good crosses but his diving spoils all his best work, why does he dive when he's beaten the defender? Downing - 6 - crossing was poor, passing was poor, and gave away possession far too cheaply many times. not his best game by far Milner - 9 - class above any midfielder on the pitch, first half was sharp and dangerous, second half noone seemed to want to pass to him - too busy passing the ball back to united players Petrov - 8 - best i have seen him play in a long time, as he's usually just poining and telling people to pass elsewhere but made himself available today. Faded and needed to be subbed after anout 60 mins but thats not his fault Gabby - 8 - our only real goal threat but once they equallised we suddenly were unable to pass to our own players so he didnt get anymore service. he's becoming a quality player, if only we were better at passing to make use of him Heskey - 4 - useless, dont remember him doing anything positive to enhance our chances of winning the game, constantly beaten in the air, easily pushed off the ball and his frst touch was abysmal should never have started Carew - 5 - poor, but when vidic and evans were already winning every aerial ball i have to question why MON threw on another tall striker when our best threat came from playing passes into gabby and having him run at the defenders? should have been delfounso for me MON - 4 - got the tactics right from kick off and until half time i felt we were always in with a shout but petrov faded and was visibly tired and was left on the feild, he brought Carew on and pushed the CB's forward and got the team hoofing the ball forward even though a blind man could see we were winning nothing in the air and our main threat was running at the defence. My biggest criticism of MON has always been that he doesnt use his subs well enough and doesnt seem able or willing to change his tactics when things arent working, and is poor at spotting a teams weaknesses as the game progresses. Also i need to say that defencivly we did very little closing down and i dont think anyone was doing any marking or tracking troughout the game. We allowed a great attacking team time and space on the ball and allowed them to run into our penalty area pretty much unopposed. Going forward, when the defenders werent too busy lumping the ball forward for noone to get near, we looked dangerous. We need to start playing the ball through midfield and passing more as we are a much better team when the defence get the ball to the CM's as they are both very good players. Lots of room for improvement but signs that we can actually challenge united.

Hi General, Sorry to be here to complain, but the issue i'm raising is beginning to really frustrate me. In August 09 i was in Birmingham and bought the new kit, a rain jacket and a few other bits and peices from the shop which was great! As i live in Ireland 99% of shops stock little to no villa merchandise so this was my only real chance to buy villa products except for using the website - which is where my frustration comes in... Shortly after i returned home i torn a hole in my Villa jacket and couldnt get it repaired. Since then i have been on the villa direct website 3/4 times a week looking to reorder it - thats 5 months of searching and waiting! On many occasions the jacket wasnt even listed on the site and even when it was there were never any sizes available. I have emailed the shop at least once a week asking for stock updates - again thats 43 emails! and the only replies that i get state: "Thank you for your email, I have looked into this for you and unfortunately we do not have any expected dates as to when this item shall be back in stock. Please do keep checking on our website as this is regularly updated with new stock. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us. Yours Sincerely" Is there anything you can do to help improve this as its not really worth the flight to go to the club shop every few months... Thanks General! UTV!!!

Our midfield couldn't exactly do much about Spurs gameplan of 'Dawson to Crouch at every opportunity' to be honest. Dunne is immense, far better than any defender Citeh have at the moment. Poor game from us overall, Carew did himself no favours as he gave the ball away everytime he touched it. How **** slow is he on the ball? He just gets caught in posession all the time. how about taking part when our defenders have possession??????? like you have conveiniently left out of the quote above petrov just stands around pointing when our defenders have possession which helps no one. he should be making space for himself to recieve the ball and bring us forward rather than encouraging the defenders to go route one

i'm sorry but we made spurs look like world beaters today. ourmidfield is fast becomeing jokeworthy again does petrov do anything other than stand and point when our defence are on the ball? i'd be more happy with him in the stands tbh let someone who actually wants to participate have a go not that i am disappointed with a draw but we are capable of doing more than we showed tonight. Pretty much only the back 4 and goalie have anything to be proud of - the rest were pretty much awful throughout

by the question i assume you mean starting 11? in which case, all players from england being fit, it would be none. if you mean the squad: A Young Milner Gabby Warnock

the last few games have been pretty humiliating for me as we have played utter dross we're wuite simply carrying too much dead weight in the first 11 friedel has lost his form and is making too many mistakes - Guzan needs to get a few games petrov isnt playing well for more than 30 mins a game and looks knackered and needs to be rested sidwell - bless his soul - tries hard but has little impact on the games he plays in Hekey - oh dear - not good enough to displace an utterly useless and devoid bulge up front in Carew so he plays left wing despite Albrighton being a better winger than heskey could even dream of being Carew - him being on the pitch means we're playing with 10 men at the moment - his last goal aside he has done very little lately A Young - has been a mere shadow of his former self and seriously lacking form i seem to remember a certain Martin O'Neill making promises to fans at the start of the season that players that lost form and werent performaing would be dropped as we have plenty of squad depth and young players coming though to be able to cope well from what i can see half the starting 11 are playing without any form at all and they are still first on the team sheet - either MON is watching a different Aston Villa, or he's a liar, or he's lost it. i cant see another other answers. It doesnt matter if these players are fantastic in training every week - if they cant do it on match day then they should not be getting a place simple as that. Seems MON either hasnt the balls or the will to start making changes to a system and a lineup that just doesnt work

that was unepected - IN A GOOD WAY!!! COME ON VILLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shocked that milner made way - should have been either petrov or sidwell to come off as he is better than both of them defencively and offecively

its the same old story... a tired midfield cost us the game you could see it, i could see it, MON could see it - yet MON did nothing about it AS USUAL!!!! Had he taken off petrov and stuck on NRC or Sidwell most likley we'd be c elebrating now Or even changed to a 451 - we'd def be celebrating now but he just isnt capable of changing things in the same way other managers easily can and this is his biggest downfall that said i'm not fussed about being out of europe as we all saw last season MON will throw the competition away if it suits him to do so but this failing he has of not responding to tactical changes by the opposition has to stop it has cost us SOOOO many times its beginning to become laughable

Hi General, I appreciate your input and your pride and the responses of other fans - and i respect your opinion of course. BUT, its all just words and means very little in the real world to be brutally honest with you. Since Martin O'Neill first took over three years ago, every time we have had a bad result, or played poorly, he has reverted to excuses about how small the squad is and how tired the players are and how we need more quality in and how he will add x,y,z if and when he can. For 1 year, even 2 years i can appreciate it takes time to build a team. BUT 3 years is ample time to have addressed the squad size and to have brought in enough quality to the squad that we are not left in a situation where we are having at the moment. There is NO EXCUSE for only having 1 fit CB in the squad when we have known since January that Laursen needed to be replaced and Davies was having to play through injury - on top of that we SOLD our ONLY other backup in this position. I am sorry if this seems disrespectful but this is the equivalent of sending a bunch of 15 year olds into afganistan with a few ballons on the end of sticks and expecting them to defeat the taliban - its NEVER going o work! Enough of the excuses and asking for faith as Martin O'Neill has had AMPLE time with which to address the SEVERE shortage of numbers and quality within this squad. Yes we have made progress but at what cost? Do you throw away the chance to win a trophy on the off chance you MIGHT get 4th in he league? i think not - especially when you are already faced with a depleted and exhausted squad - it was always on the cards (clearly apparently even in december) that we were unable to last the full season without additions in january and we did NOTHING. To confound this we lost our best two players and started selling off the squad without bringing in anyone to replace them. We currently have fewer players of siginificantly less quality than what we had 12 months ago despite the efforts of Martin as hs team - this cries out to me that they are incapable of taking the team further. In order for us to have a team even equal to the one from 12 months ago we'd need to sign 3/4 top quality players, and i just cant see where they are going to come from. I am completely disheartened and diappointmented in the lack of ambition and progress shown by the management team - should we go into the season without SEVERAL additions i fully expect a relegation battle this term. I hope i am proven wrng but i cant see things being any differnt than they are right now under Martin O'Neill and fully expect him to be sacked by January - I am an IT manager and if i left my company without enough computers to operate efficently or to achieve my targets then i would fully expect to lose my job and in a much smaller time frame than Martin has had. Something NEEDS to change for Aston Villa to continue to progress and Martin O'Neill id not the person to invoke such changes as 3 years of excuses highlight as does the fact that our current league form of 2 wins in 19 games - this type of form is one of the worst in the clubs history and is the making of a relegation candidate. I'm not panicking over the first 2 games of the season - i'm panicking over nearly 9 months of completely inadequate and inept management of the team which leaves us as the worst team on form in the prem since january.