Grant(aka_eddy)

Actually... we can perhaps expect to see an approach for Martin O'Neill. And for any hopeful Geordies out there....expect to be told to **** right off!!!

Steve McLaren I hope it isnt Redknapp though.

Ashley Young for me too. Laursen is awesome, our best defender and International/World class but Mellberg, Davies, Knight and Cahill would have the position covered to some extent. A big miss, but contained because of the other players we have. Whereas Young is our midfields creative force at the moment, take him out and our midfield suddenly looks pretty one dimensional and flat again.

Gabby was very good first half, quiet 2nd though. Moore did well when he had the ball but has ceased to be any kind of goal threat. Bit gutted about that really.

Good read, cheers Pete.

I hadn't realised til now but i'm grateful for you pointing it out. I will be listening carefully from now on to further fuel my dislike!

To all those who answered they would take the money, if someone offered you a million pounds whn you were 8 years old but you had to give up your dad and never see him again, would you do it? Of course not, so how could you knowingly do that to two other little kids? It's pretty sick if you ask me. There's a few people i'm surprised at and have gone right down in my estimation. Exactly the kind of self centrered greed that can make this world such a shitty place.

I'd leave it, honestly i would. If you told me there was a 'chance' something bad might happen to him however, then we'd be talking! But knowingly depriving two kids of a dad and a wife of a husband, not a chance. I value life above all else.

We havent had too many pens so far this year so i would stick with Barry hoping that this evens up in the second half. However if you have doubts about this then go for Young as he is improving all the time and will consistently notch up goals and assists whereas Barry is more dependent on the pens for decent points. I've changed my mind and voted for Young.

Other life has already been discovered hasnt it? Bacteria in water anyway. But assuming you mean intelligent then yes absolutely. I cant believe with the near infinite possibilities that our planet is the only one that can sustain life.

Both would be gutting but you can still get by without hearing. You can read subtitles, use sign language etc. I.e. there are aids to bridge the gap. Whereas with sight you simply cant replace it and also day to day life becomes that much harder. With hearing, the biggest loss would probably be music.

I'm not so sure that applies to be honest Al. All i'm after is confirmation the deal is set in stone or otherwise which i'm pretty sure the General could find out easily enough if he doesnt know off the top of the head. Whilst i feel it should be clarified, i do appreciate that releasing these details could potentially be unsettling in some way. So if The General declines to comment, i would understand why. edit - To clarify, i was actually hoping the answer would be that it was set in stone, just so that it simplifies the issue and we can speak about him as our own player. At the moment with his lack of appearences and uncertainty if the deal has to go ahead, i havent really accepted he's our player yet, well beyond a loan anyway.

Hi General, hope all is well. There is currently some concern over Curtis Davies' lack of appearance for the club and confusion over the status of his transfer. For the sake of clarity are you able to confirm if either Curtis himself, West Brom or ourselves are able to pull out of the deal to make it permanent or if this will go ahead regardless of any desire by any party to cancel the deal. Many thanks, Grant.

Exactly. He's now beaten the golden oldie in De La Hoya, and the new golden boy in Hatton. He's proved he's the best in the business by a long way. Fair play to him, I thought it would be closer than it was. Yep i'd agree with that, there's nothing left to prove is there. He seems like he isnt really that chuffed with being a boxer and wants to go out at the top, as the best as quickly as possible. Interesting he mentioned going into promotion, he'll make a fortune there and he knows it, suits his image and lifestyle alot better too.

The ref was extremely annoying but to be fair there werent many punches thrown when they did come together, Mayweather did a good job of locking up his arms and Hatton acknowledged it. Absolutely gutted at the result, Mayweather really was too clever and too fast, but no way did i ever think he'd win on a knockout. Ricky just got a bit too frustrated and left himself a bit too open, started picking up clean hits a good few rounds before that left hook that did him. I woudlnt see the point in a rematch either, there's not much different Hatton could do, he just got boxed out of the contest to the point he couldnt land anything significant. Mayweather style is truly horrible, to nullify Hatton and make him look average, but it's also pretty much unbeatable. Bollocks!!!

a nice mod might change it, i cant edit it now it's up i'm afraid.

If a mod wants to merge this then that's fine ,but i thought it deserved its own poll. Time to nail your colours to the mast! Hatton for me.

Leaving aside all the politics for a second and focusing on the football, the next England manager could actually be quite important to Villa in terms of nurturing and developing our players. I am firmly of the belief that the benefits of International football outweigh the negatives to a player. Now O'Neill is out of the way i'm quite excited to see who will be coming in and looking at the way they like to play and how our players may fit into their plans.

This is brilliant!

General, It's unfortunate that the politician line was used, i'm not sure who it was but trust me, most of us have found your communication straighforward and honest. Sadly, the links and hysteria surrounding O'Neill are being generated by the national press, with just about every sports correspondent of the national papers writing pieces calling for O'Neill to be offered the job last week, i'm not sure if you were aware of that. How much of a fuss we make about this is therefore largely irrelevant as the rumours will persist until there is a categoric denial of interest or the job is offered to someone else. Sorry if there has been a categoric denial but i've yet to see one. edit - I hope you also understand that we are used to interpreting quotes from players and managers on a daily basis and have also lost a manager doing well to the England post before. We see players leave who were 'committed' and not looking to leave and so on. Essentially, and rather regretably, it has become the case that anything other than a flat out "I will not leave for that job" is not deemed a denial. Grant.

And like I answered in the other thread I believe you are looking in the wrong place. Look through the last 30 years and except for a couple of players, Arse, ManU and Redscouse have always bought players, at Chelsea things have changed. Money changed the English game and whilst the domestic league is undoubtedly better entertainment all that happened is that mediocre players who used t o get by in the English First Division were replaced by better talents. There is a reason why very very few English(can expand that to British) players even get signed by foreign sides, they have not been and still are not good enough. Well so far in the other forum we've come up with 1 player Al, David Bentley who had to move to develop fully. That's it. Are you really saying there is no difference from that to the preceeding 5 years? And the 5 before that?

General, I'm going to echo the sentiments of others regarding specultion of O'Neill being linked to England... In the modern media-driven game it is very much accepted that 'no-comment' on these issues equates to an interest in the position. So as long as Marting stays silent (even if that is not the reaosn he does so) fans will interpret that as he will be leaving us. If O'Neill is not interested in the position then i would urge you to do all you can to get a clear and decisive statement released to that effect. I will watch with interest and no small degree of panic over the coming days and weeks.

Actually i'll ask a question here to prove my point so we can see how bad this effect has already become. Who of the top 4 clubs in England (Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U) have produced an English player of International quality in the last 5 years? I suspect this will not be a long list.

Can't say that i disagree with many of your posts Trent but i will disagree on parts of this. In the context of last nights defeat, and indeed the whole qualifying campaign, the responsibility does lie with the the FA for appointing a coach driver, and the coach driver for believing he was a competent manager, despite being an incompetent assistant manager to the predecessor. England currently have a pool of players that should be qualifying top of that group with comfort. However, long term the amount of foreign players in the Premiership will have an increasing effect on the players coming through, it is inevtable. Not talking about the top players of course who will improve standards, but that 2nd and 3rd tier of players who are brought over not because they are necessarily better than English talent, but because they are available much cheaper. And as they fill up squad places, there will be less game-time available to younger English players. More later developers will fail to break through, more will fail to get the games they need to fully exploit their natural talents without dropping a level or several. Eventually we'll end up with a smaller talent pool, i cant see any other way it will pan out. We'll still develop some very good players as long as clubs like Villa continue to extist and invest in youth. But who knows whether we'll be able to blood them in quite the same way when we're really competing for all competitions. In short, some foreigners = good....too many = bad. Imo of course

I'm going to guess an answer to this one if i may... I'm guessing as the club did not make an issue of the release of the 3rd kit that it was more of a necessity than anything else (either from Nike or due to kit clashes, be it only 2 or so), the club did not expect big sales and importantly in reference to your question, nor did they push for them. I would also imagine that due to the late release it may have been considered for a 2 year kit but that is almost irrelevant as the sponsor expires at the end of the season and so a kit change is inevitable and unavoidable. The General may have a different answer for you but since the club released this without any sales push i get the feeling it was necessary rather than an attempt to draw more money from the fans.