stewiek2

Trying out some new kit templates I've drawn up. So here you go Dom...

I am sure that O'Neill and Lerner will make an evaluation after next season.

5 years is probably the right time to give a manager.

There should be an evaluation of where we are going during as well as after EVERY season. Forward planning. You know, a Plan B if Plan A isn't viable.

I'm not the biggest fan of the guy, however, I don't want us chopping and changing managers. I just want a manager who can see where things are going wrong and make adequate PRO-active not RE-active moves to correct things.

Ths missus woke me up this morning saying 'Come on, it's 8.'

I thought '**** me they've scored another!'

IF he goes, then out of that last the only one worth a punt is Hughes. The rest are **** wank. May as well pop Dolly back on there.

Personally? I'd love Moyes in, but why come to Villa when I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Old Trafford goes calling. Jol? Yep wouldn't be adverse to that. Magath, Blanc too if we are going foreign. The games changed since Dr Jo was one of the first foreign managers. Sadly for MON, the game has changed since he was at Leicester too.

Stop using photoshopped images. Everyone knows there is no Plan B!

Pundits don't pick up on it because Redknapp doesn't "leave them in ruins". He manages the team, not the finances.

Terry Venables is dodgy as **** yet the media love him too. You may want to read Tom Bowers's book 'Broken Dreams.' You may change your slant on Redknapp after reading it.

The Courteeners - Take Over The World Quality tune and a decent album (Falcon)

I'm really liking the new album. Far better than the first.

Candi Staton - You Don't Love Me No More

Lyn Collins - Never Gonna Give You Up

Fred Wesley and the JB's - Blow Your Head

I think Liverpool could be the first to sound him out

No chance in hell he would go there. No chance. He hates that club as much as we do. He still has work to do here and he knows it.

A lot of clubs, both Foreign and British, have sounded him out before (even last summer) and he's turned them down. There's only really one job I am truly concerned about him moving on to, and we all know what that is.

A real worry for you isn't it. That job. But I don't see Taggart retiring just yet, despite Moyes (fantastic manager) being his own choice to succeed him (if rumours are true).

On the note of who's won things, what has MON won in England that Harry hasn't?

MON won trophies at Leicester, a club he took over in the Championship, and then became one of Celtics most successful ever managers when he took the job when Rangers had won 12 of the previous 13 titles.

Harry, despite managing in English football longer than MON, only has 1 trophy to show for it. As I said before, he needed to financially cripple a club to do that.

Redknapp is a decent manager, no doubt, but he's always spent more money than his club could afford and isn't as good as MON.

Unfortunately football has moved on since his days at Leicester when really Man United were dominating everything and everyone else was much of a muchness, and well in Scotland the only team to worry about is Rangers. MON's record in terms of trophies is admirable, but unfortunately, like Cloughie in the 1990s, I think MON has reached his peak and is in decline as a manager.

What has changed since last season really? He still plays players out of position. The football for the most part is shit, his substitutions bizarre, his tactical nuance is questionable at the very least. And he bottles the big decisions as well as, it seems, constantly sending teams out to nick a goal and defend it for their lives rather than try to WIN games!?! Hell at 1-1 Saturday we were trying to protect it... against WOLVES!?!

I and a few others said that this season was crucial for him, as he needed to show he was up with the modern game. I so little evidence of this. He had TWO right backs on the bench against Wolves yet moved his out of form left midfielder there!? Unbelieveably shocking management.

This isn't just about this season, it is about the last two seasons of decline. I don't ask for us to win things, just to play good football and show some desire and nuance to win games. With this squad we should expect better than he is delivering. Maybe he needs to change his coaching staff and philosophy. But he will not. And that is to the detriment of Aston Villa football club and quite frankly, if he is still in charge next season I see NO change at all and we will once again, be toying with better but eventually accept a top 8-6 place whilst playing the dullest, one-dimensional, predictible football out of any of the 'top teams.' Time for a change I think.

Despite being frustrated with recent results and team selection, I still think he's the right man for the job.

I don't think we'll make the fourth and the CL, season is tailing off poorly as it did last year. Europe has been a none event this year which is probably a good thing as I doubt we'd have been able to cope with the extra games.

O'Neill needs a big summer though, we need to sign some quality, especially upfront. We need to be able to compete both domestically and in europe next term aswell, so the side needs some work.

Sounds exactly what was being said last season. Big Summer. Needs to look at using his squad. His style of play. Tactics etc...

The guy hasn't learnt a thing I think. still thinks it's 1994. Good cup runs but frankly to lose to the teams we've played (manure apart) would've been a disgrace. And even then we've struggle against a few of the lower league teams. I want the guy to be a success, of course. But I think he cannot, or doesn't have the fire in his belly anymore, to take us much further.

Who Everton got the weekend? Can't see us getting owt from Chelsea and an Everton will will get them level.

Paying the price for not rotating the squad. Midfield, as against Wolves, looked shattered after an hour.

I've put YES. But because he will do his usual of buying a player for more than the player would've cost had he took a punt last summer. I think he will sign Doyle.

That Kalinec fellow at Blackburn may not be a bad shout. Caused us problems in the cup games and has had a season to settle into the prem.

Woeful management. MON HAS to change the way we play and have some balls to make positive substitutions and tactical changes. Frankly, this seems beyond him.

General Krulak here:

1. Let me start by stating the following: I never count my chickens before they are hatched and I NEVER provide fodder to an opponent. Why we are talking about finals when we still have the semi-finals to play is beyond me. I think it would be extremely foolish for me or the Club to start describing the ticket situation for the FA Cup Final....can you imagine such comments being quoted in a London paper? I fight one battle at a time...I focus on that battle and do the best I can. What happens after that battle is for another day. Let's concern ourselves about the semi-final game...please.

Morning General Sir

Truer words have never been posted on this site. Sadly I think you will find them STILL falling on deaf ears in some parts.

You truly can't please all the people all the time. I personally would like to see us going back to abject failure, flirting with relegation and going about our day to day business like a bunch of amateurs, things were just so much more simple back then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It makes you wonder sometimes....

As ever and to the whole operation - keep up the good work, thanks.

I get irishcockney's point General, but how much can we look to the past and say 'phew' glad we aren't back there? There comes a point when the past is just that and we cannot keep saying 'well, we sure are better off than then.' There comes a time when you have to draw a line and say this our thing now. Such complacency leads to trouble, imo. I think we should always look to push forward no matter where we are, finish, succeed. That is why Sir Alex is the best manager out there, his unwillingness to accept that he, Man United have 'made it.' Methinks you are of the same ilk Sir. I think the criticism of MON recently is a seeming acceptance that this how Villa play and this is the team and that's it. Saturday was a strange one considering his recent talk of squad rotation and yet it seemed no idea or reluctance to change things, in my opinion.

They had us sussed from the start and MON refused to change.

That about sums it up for me. Thought Warnock was MOTM personally, offensively every one of midfield and strikeforce was shit today. The wind is swirling and making it bad out there so we do what? kept lump it forward to 2 strikers who frankly looked as if running around a bit was beyond them. THe final balls were just piss poor. Midfield went missing far too often, and we had not answer to Stoke sitting deep and hitting us on the break.

Fair play to Stoke, they had a game plan and it worked. Villa's game plan did not, and ditherer had no idea how to, or a reluctance to, change it. Perhaps if he got them to actually pass and move and pull Stoke out of position a bit more it would've been a good start.

Yes, a point away isn't a bad result, however, with some balls from the manager to have a back up plan and a bit more belief in his team to pass the thing instead of boring long balls it could have been so much more.

The Music of John Williams: 40 years Of Film Music

Al Bowlly & The Ray Noble Orchestra - The Very Thought of You

Excellent. "Pennies From Heaven" soundtrack by any chance?

The Singing Detective soundtrack. I do love a bit of Al Bowlly!

Al Bowlly & The Ray Noble Orchestra - The Very Thought of You

Noel Coward - Could you please oblige us with a bren gun

Bah, could do without another Wembley cockney wankfest

Yeah, especially after Manure's win last week!

Talk about a game of two halfs!

That must have been the bollocking from hell from Dither!