carlitobrigante

love this show, stumbled upon it when searching something to fill the huge void left when id finished watching both the wire, and the shield... have watched seasojn 4 epiosde 1, looks like this season will be another cracker.

A great transfer window General. well done to all behind the scenes. Despite the down turn, yet again we see significant investment in the squad, with some very shrewd moves. I think we have a much stronger squad than last year. And that is some achievement considering the players we have lost through no fault of our own. Great work. Now lets see what this season brings.

Not amazing but certainly very good. Im well chuffed with the numbers, and the general quality of all our signings. Collins Dunne Warnock Beye Delph Downing 6 good players, 2 of them with the potential to be top quality (Delph and Downing), 2 to fill out the squad (Beye, Collins) and 2 to stengthen the first 11 (Warnock and Dunne). We were only a good striker away from having probably the best summer window I can remember. Collins and Dunne are very clever buys, both leaders, both no-nonsense blood and guts defenders who will add what we have been missing at the back, i.e Leadership and Steel. We now have more options in midfield, espiecially once Downing is fit. Cant wait to see some of the different combinations we can now come up with. We now have the season ahead of us to judge what this team really needs to push on and secure the objectives of our 5 year plan. Way too many unanswered questions in our squad before we spend more than we already have. For instance: 1) Will Gabby step it up, can he keep improving? 2) Can the Fonz make the grade? 3) Will Heskey prove an assett? Will this be his only full season with us before he drops down a level at the end of the season when he is what, 32-33? 4)Will Carew sort out his consistancy issues? For me, if we are on a limited budget, I imagine MON wants a better idea of the answers to those questions before spending big bucks on a new striker.... 5) Can Sidwell re-capture his Reading form? 6) Can Reo keep the level he has now found? 7) Can Petrov perform well enough without Barry next to him? 8 Will Bannan keep improving? 9) Will Albrington keep improving? 10) Is Gardner happy to keep waiting for his chance, and can he make the step up? For me, too many unknowns before he blows even more money on the midfield... We should have the answer to the majority of those questions by this time next year. Yes I dont think we have done quite enough to trouble the top 4 like we did last year, but steadys the ship after the disastorous double wammy of Barry / Laursen leaving, and continues to lay strong foundations for the long term. And with the defence, well with Lescott at 24 mill, and Hangelaand and Upson at 12-15 mill, I reckon 10-12mill for Dunne and Collins is a great bit of buisness.

hi general i hope the doom and gloom merchants havent stressed you out on here recently. I'll admit to be worried we looked like we could be going backwards, but after another summer of decent investment and despite the unavoidable losses of our 2 most important players, Im happy to see we are still moving in the right direction. It was a 5 year plan announced when Randy joined, and after all the good work done so far ill avoid making any judgements on progress and proespects till we are 5 years on. We are still doing nicely though methinks long term. My question though is this, have you been surprised at the recent takeovers and influx of new owners with serious cash behind them? Has if forced Randy to change his long term strategy for Aston Villa?

sooo frustrated. I love MON, think his enthusiasm is infectious, I like the signings he makes (if only he made them abit quicker) and just seems like an all round top bloke. However his tactical naiviety is damn right shocking at times. Beye was terrible tonight, after looking so good at Liverpool. All second half he was drifting way too central and completely abandoning the wing he should have been protecting, and incidently the wing that their goal and chances came from. We finally decide to keep it on the deck......in the same game we play the 2 big men up front??? Delph looks like he will be class, was one of the few players who was always moving for the ball and was making the right passes. Very impressed. However once we went 2 up and they started coming back into the game it was obvious what was needed to see the game through, and once again MON got it completely wrong. Unbelievable how such a blatantly hugely intelligent bloke makes such retarded decisions. Carew and Heskey were atrocious. Carews goal was very smart, but the other 89 minutes he was piss poor, and so was heskey. I think this season will be a mid table finish, doesnt mean I think MOn should go though. I just hope to god he starts learning from his mistakes.

I cant quite believe people want MON out already, would do more bad than good, and the good work he has done so far has at least earned him our patience when things dont go so well. However I am seriously worried. I havent seen us play this bad for sooo long. We are going backwards for the first time since MON & Randy took over. I hope he turns it round, I really do, as MON seems a bloke of genuine class, dignity and intelligence. Equally so I hope Randy wont shy away from taking tough decisions if come this time next season we are still going backwards. Fans often lose faith abit too quickly and are far too quick to questiomn the managers decisions, my biggest worry though is the players seem to be doubting his methods too.

wow 13 people dont want MON as manager from this forum alone. Absolutely incredible. Seeing things like this make me think that we dont deserve success, or MON for that matter.

Yes I had honestly heard of him before the euros, and just because you hadnt doesnt mean you should assume no-one else has. Admittedly not long before then, as he only really rose to prominance in russia in 2006-2007. the russian league is a good quality league with lots of very good players. Not many make the switch to the premiership mainly because the russian clubs dont let their stars go easily (as youve seen with this whole protracted saga) and they cant be gotten on the cheap, add to that it doesnt get the exposure of other leagues, the fact they are already on very high wages, and the worry about whether they will settle etc etc and its no big surprise really. i love the arrogance some European fans have......whaaaaat he is 27 and never played in England, Spain or Italy? Must be shite then.....

Arshavin is a top notch player, and will blow people away with his talent when he gets fit and in form.. Spain basically had Puyol and Senna watching every move he made in that game in the Euros. Not performing well against the best national team in europe possibly the world is no disgrace as some of our players were shown last night. seems some use that one game to write the bloke off. would have bloody loved the guy here. He will make a big difference to Arsenal, but luckily too late to make any real impact this season.

the General is getting bombarded with alot of ticketing questions I see, we have a great team in the ticket office whose job it is to answer these queries, surely they should be the first port of call? on a personal note, Im abit annoyed the easy payment scheme is once again only 4 payments and starts so soon, other than that all looks perfectly reasonable to me.

hahahahaha, i love reading malcolms posts from back when. I so wish he wasnt red carded, would love to read his thoughts on last season, and more importantly this season so far...

have to agree on the catering General... I dont bother even getting up from my seat at half time, although i would love to get some food and a beer. Unfortunately the only way to do that is to leave 10-15 minutes before the end of the first half and still not be guaranteed to be back to your seat intime for second half kickoff. Most the people around me are the same. I have to leave a few minutes before final whistle to make sure Im not waiting ages for a train, if I chose to have half time refreshments aswell Id be missing almost a quater of the game every week!! Im sure its the same at most other clubs. I feel though that if something could be done to drastically speed up service times, then the takings would go up drastically too. Soooo happy with the club at present General. Major praise is due to MON and Randy and all the guys and girls behind the scenes.

I read a hell of alot, I probably read more than I watch tv... I do like the odd fictional book but Im really into history or biographic books.. The book on Pablo Escobar (called 'killing pablo') and Nikita Kruschev were amazing reads. Im currently reading 'the decline and fall of the british empire' which is also damn good. Jarhead, World War Z (great fun, highly recommended), bird song are all great novels ive had the pleasure of reading recently. I see lots here are quoting Iain Banks books? Ive heard he is very good, I think Ive read one of his called 'the wasp factory' which was brilliant but Im not certain is the same author. If your into sci-fi then i recommend the horus heresy series of novels. Based around the warhammer 40k universerve, but doesnt matter if you arent a fan, theres about 8 books so far and another couple coming, real epic story. Ive got a whole rack of books of the same type which i will be probably dropping into a charity shop soon. If you live near Solihull and want to grab some feel free to drop me a message.

general, with all the recent excitement regarding the race to the whitehouse and with you and McCain sharing similarish backgrounds, have you ever been tempted to dip your toe into the murky world of politics and run for office?

hi general. a little gripe from myself ref season ticket cards. In summer when I renewed my season ticket was told i wouldnt be sent a new card and that my old card from previous season would be used. fair enough. ive now lost my season ticket card and rang up to ask for a replacement. However I was told it is firstly a £10 charge and i would have to come and collect a form (which only the main ticket office have) and fill it in and pay the £10. Now normally that wouldnt bother me to much, but the fact that these season ticket cards arent being sent our on a season by season basis leaves a sour taste in my mouth when asked to pay for a replacement. The main thing that annoyed me was that i was told by the ticket office over the phone that yes they could print it off for me for tonights game, but i would have to get a replacement arranged asap as otherwise my account would be put on stop?!?! My only other gripe really is that ticket info and ordering seems to have been a real mess recently. Me and my friend had a real nightmare ordering euro tickets. I hope this is sorted out as it really did seem abit of a shambles. As I say its only a minor grumble, on and off the pitch in general i couldnt be happier!

id like to repeat trinity toms messages general, im a season ticket holder aswell and yet to get an invite....

hi general. would love to hear your thoughts on the man city takeover. do you agree this was a real game changer and something which has made our job much harder? regardless, great summer and love the direction you and Randy are taking the club. that's the third question on the same topic. Can others please not repeat the question. Thanks. Blandy

done em all, heavy e and lsd taker in the early 90's, spent 5 years using h, only just recovering after all that.. stick to the occasional reefa now. some very good times and theres some mad storys i could tell, but like a previous poster says eventually you grow out of it.

General, thanks for helping make it fun and exciting to support the villa again...

General i owe you many thanks. I am usually at my most p#issed off during January. Christmas has come and gone and left me in loads of debt. Then I have to go back to work, its always cold , dark and wet outside.......not happy. But now Ive got Villa joint in 4th place to keep me smiling. Keep up the excellant work. I got my first season ticket this year ever and what a year to start you have a pm from me as well General.

unbelievable, the day villa talk got invaded by mad amercian cultists, who proceeded to then argue amongst themselves... classic thread. how can any thread ever top this?!? might as well cancel the internet

bye bye terry. when i see the pics on the news of a swat team laying seige to your ranch, or pics of another kool aid party (although in the case of your sex mad cult would it be a naked kool aid party?) ill think back to your enlightening posts here....

so Michael is 60? If he really is the messiah then its abit of an anti-climax? i thought the re-appearance of christ was meant to be something special. Not a 60 year old man having the time of his life being worshipped and having sex on tap with 50 odd followers on a ranch somewhere. The first id heard of him was from this thread about the documentary and im sure the same goes for most of us here. Not really doing much to change the world is he? ok he's got a pretty ranch where the 50 of you are at peace and happy. Fair play, but he's not doing alot to spead his message / change the world is he? im sure you'll just ignore my arguments like you ignored my previous posts. but still the having sex with sister in law and others bit sort of kills any sort of credibility in my eyes. Sexual relations outside of marriage, (with his sister in law of all people!) is expressively forbidden in the bible and coming out with the old chestnut 'god told me to do it' doesnt cut it im afraid. I see youve tried to explain it in the previous post but what youve written doesnt seem to make any sense to me. A parable is a story with a meaning. The only meaning i see in the story of michael is that if your 60 and getting old then tell people your the messiah and sad, blind, trusting people will offer to jump into bed with you. Terry please though, on a serious note, prepare yourself mentally that theres a chance he isnt the true messiah. whether he thinks he is but is deluded, or whether he is just a con man is nether here nor there. Make sure you build some sort of life outside of this group. When/ if this cult falls apart (as they all do) you dont want to look back and see how youve wasted years of your life . Keep an open mind and look after yourself.

Of course im not saying its immoral fair play to him, i wouldnt complain either (although ive seen a few pics of these birds he's had and think id need alot of beers before hand). but its not exactly consistant with what we know about the original messiah is it. this man is the re-incarnation of jesus in your eyes or isnt he? and the point is he isnt exactly acting 'jesus like' by shagging everything he can get his hands on is he? think of all the money he could save on booze aswell if he can turn water into wine?? convince him to turn water into jack daniels and dammit ill join your group too

some people cant be reasoned with. some people have a deeply rooted need to believe in something, anything, that will give there life some meaning. i had no problem with with what your leader and your group does. if it makes you all happy then well done. but the fact that he is sleeping with youngsters and many other women because 'god told him to' is where this stops becoming 'ok' in my book. what can sleeping with a sister in law (something the bible expressively forbids if i remember correctly) possibly be a symbol of, other than a man abusing his position. fascinating that people in the modern world can still be led so easily. you seem like a half decent chap terry, please please please be carefull and be sure to build some sort of live seperate to this group. when it all comes crashing down in a few years time id hate for you to be standing there with nothing left and having wasted 30 years of your life. you say your friend will rise from the dead very soon. So if in 20 years your friend is still in ground will you admit your were wrong? or will this be another 'symbol' oh and another thing, you say the diciples followed jesus on blind faith before he preformed any miracles? It seems you dont know your bible too well my friend and how the diciples came to follow christ.