GaztonVilla

I can be found @garygleeson mostly tweeting about my local councillor @davidpotts101 Councillor Potts rose to fame back in February when he tweeted about one of the Milliband brothers, calling him a "rocket polisher". Following that, he admitted to alcoholism, resigned from the Tory party and announced he would resign as a local councillor. When his resignation didn't happen, he blamed an "administrative error" and promised to rectify it as he was planning on entering rehab to battle his alcoholism. Guess what? He's never resigned.. Not only that, but he never attends council meetings, doesn't hold constituency surgeries and generally doesn't do very much as a councillor. Well, he claims his full allowances and attends the mandatory "1 meeting in a 6 month period" required in order for him to continue claiming his allowances. Councillor Potts claims to be sober nowadays. His tweets suggest otherwise. Anyway, sorry about the rant. @garygleeson

Gazton, you rate it above God vs Italy in '94? I have not seen Dunne's performance yesterday. If so, that is high praise indeed! I suppose it's hard to draw direct comparisons because of the quality of opposition and the prestige of the event. God vs Italy 94 was an excellent performance, yet it was an excellent disciplined team performance too. Last night was a pretty shambolic team defensive performance, yet Richie put himself in the way of things when it seemed everything else was falling apart around him. To sum up, yes, better than God vs Italy 94 as an individual performance in adversity.

Paul McGrath is the best defender to ever pull on a green jersey. However, Richie's performance yesterday was the best individual defensive performance by an Ireland player. And anybody who's read my posts on God on this forum will know that is a big statement for me to make. The Honey Monster was immense. Back to his best? I reckon he just set himself a new level.

Forgetfulness or euphemism?

Barton has been pretty vocal on his twitter in his rants against the NUFC board. This has got to be the first time Barton has fan's on his side

What iPhone model have you got?

Good man Shay, tearing up to the half way line to get involved in a punch up..

Was a great run to the front post by DB.. Left his marker for dead.

Nice. Bent.

Sunderland are, from what I've been told, still in the mix for this player.. It's far from cut and dry at this stage.

OMGZ that pass for the 1st goal

Emma? ITSOTP!!!

Find me anybody, ANYBODY, in Shay's position who would be willing to write off £2million pounds at the click of his fingers. Your figures are wooly at best, but lets work with them. If he has £20m of investments, you're asking him to sacrifice 10% of that?

Everyone knew Downing was off.. They've known that since late April/early May. Unless we had bid before end of April, Whelan would have been aware that we were losing Downing and Young and looking to replace them before they left. And here's a spanner for your work - if we had bought N'Zogbia before selling Downing, wouldn't that have given a signal to Liverpool that if the held firm at £15million, we'd be desperate to sell as we'd be overloaded in that position?

That's a very myopic viewpoint. If you think a professional footballer would sacrifice up to 20% of his earning capabilities in the last 5 years of his career, for any reason (footballing or other), then there is no hope for you. Given will want stability - the chance for him to play regular football and be paid accordingly. He has 5 years, maybe 7, left at the top level of professional football. Do you not think he's within his rights to feather his nest?

Think this through.. From January, the entire footballing world has known that Ashley Young would be leaving AVFC and that we'd recoup £15m+ for him. Since May, the entire footballing world has known that it was likely Stuart Downing would leave and that we'd recoup £15m+ for him. Whelan is no fool. Whether we'd bid for N'Zogbia before the sales of Young and Downing, he would still have known that he was a replacement for one of those players. If people think Whelan was willing to accept 9m the day before Downing was sold but changed his valuation based on reading the BBC Sport website, they are doing him a huge disservice. The man is a self made millionaire - he doesn't make kneejerk decisions.

A set-up which included Kevin MacDonald in a senior role too...

I think it's also too simplistic to say that Shay's contract will be: 52 weeks @ 60k per week for 5 years = £15.6million Transfer fee of £3million Total investment is £18.6m There will be appearance, clean sheet and other bonuses written in to the contract. Also, Shay's wages will be covered by insurance in the event of a long term injury. The GK position is vital to the team - You don't rotate it as much, you rely on stability in that position more so than in any other position. Investing heavily in that stability, whilst mitigating against any risk, makes sound business and footballing sense. Let's remember that Shay Given is one of the best in the business at what he does. Having that kind of quality costs, but the return on that investment will be IMO significant.

Just a note on Shay's Shoulder.. It was about 15 months ago that he injured it. In the last 12 months, he has not been sitting around wrapped in cotton wool in case his shoulder popped out again. Do you think he hasn't been diving around in training? Yes, training is different than a match scenario.. He's played competitive football in that time too. His shoulder, you're right, could pop out now. So could Gabby's. In the 15 months since he had treatment on the original injury, it hasn't popped out. His chances are looking good. ps. He's **** chuffed to be at Villa.

Is he prone to injury? Or has he suffered one semi-serious injury?

See my last post.

That's far too rational. You're obviously not a Villa fan, if you can be that clam about it?! He's right though.. Villa need to start flexing their mussels in the transfer market. We're absolutely crab at transfers!

I was told last night it was done and the only thing remaining was for Man City to sign over his registration. I presume that remains the final hurdle.

Well, put it this way.. If you went to work and your colleagues held you down on the floor and pulled your hair out, only for your boss to laugh it off and tell you that he'll only deal with the situation as long as you write a poem about baldness and recite it to an assembled group of your colleagues, how long would you continue to work there?

The stories about the hair plugs being pulled out are true. SI was, naturally, unhappy at that but it was the reaction of Steve Staunton and FAI bods that was behind his decision not to play for ROI any more.