Ooh-Ah

OH MY GOD. Are people still complaining about Ireland getting Player of the Year the year before last? It was awarded based on player ratings given BY VILLA FANS on the OS. He WAS our best player that season. That doesn't mean he was immense. I don't know if anyone remembers but we were absolutely horrendous at the time. He's clearly a superb footballer, I refuse to listen to anyone who disagrees with that. Having said that I'd obviously like to see him move on to make room in the squad and on the wage bill for younger, fresher players. For whatever reason he hasn't done enough for us, but as previous posters have mentioned it's certainly not down to his work-rate which by all accounts is outstanding. From what I can tell he's a decent guy, if a little strange. But that's the nature of the game, footballers seem to be so obsessed with public perception. When someone comes along who's irreverent and doesn't play the game, he's cast as a headcase. I for one hope he finds an alright club.

Id argue that the performance against Sunderland was up there with the best performances I have seen from any Villa player. I thought he was out of this world. There's a chance it was because I'd been starved of decent play for a few years but I remember saying to my family and other ST holders sitting around me in the Upper Holte that I had never seen a full back run a game like that before. He was first class that day. More of the same please Matthew! Did Benteke get Motm? Thought it was good that Lambert came out and said that Lowton was by far the best player on the pitch. Not to take anything from Benteke or anybody else that night. Agent Cuellar deserves a mention.

Haha

I didn't get why people were so excited about the Luna/moon puns at the beginning. I mean, I got that 'luna' meant 'moon' in Latin. But then I realised that the words 'luna' and 'lunar' sound the same in most English accents. IT'S LUNAR. THERE'S AN 'R'! 'R's make a rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound! Humbly yours, An Irishman

People need to stop trotting out the "If Andy Carroll is worth £35m then such and such a player is worth £50m" line. Andy Carroll was never worth £35m. It was an insane transaction. Do you really think Faulkner is going to be on the phone to Chelsea saying "Well, Liverpool paid £35m for Carroll, we want £40m for Benteke"?

Yeah or maybe Benteke has told him he's going to Chelsea and Delph was all like "Christ, you'll score loads for them!"

I like our policy of signing young players too but the phrase "Everything in moderation" comes to mind. If we forget for a minute about the way he left us before, Barry is exactly what we need.

The club and Stan should make a statement, just to deter small pockets of supporters from carrying on with it. If some people do it and more don't that'd look terrible.

No it definitely shouldn't continue. I think chants and things are inevitable but the applause should stop. It can't go on forever, it'll eventually get half-arsed and that would undermine how great the gesture was last season. It was perfect while it lasted. Please let's not ruin it.

I used to be an engineer for Mita & we had a box in the North stand which i used to go in a few times a year.. Never forget the one night at home against Arsenal when out of the blue the actual Japanese owners came over to the UK & i ended up sat in the box with them.. Just before Kick of we were allowed out onto the pitch & it went up on the scoreboards "Welcome to our guests from Mita".. the funny part was i had blonde "Gary Shaw" style hair at the time & being dressed in a suit & walking out onto the pitch a chant of "Gary shaw Gary Shaw ..Gaaaary gary shaw....when he gets the ball he's bound to score gary gary shaw" went up as he was out injured at the time & i'm sure i got mistaken for him The thing was though the Mita guys had come over & they said they were here to decide whether or not to renew their sponsorship deal or not.. They were very impressed with the fact that so many Arsenal fans had traveled up from London & they asked me if many Villa fans would be going to London with Mita displayed on their tops? ..Immediately i realised the relevance of their question so proceeded to tell them ..."oh yes definately".. "In fact the number of fans Villa take down there will be much more than Arsenal have here".. & then i reminded them that as there were a few London clubs this would happen a few times a season.... They were really delighted to here this, thanked me & shook my hand & a week later the sponsorship deal was renewed!! So i would like to think i had a very small part to play in helping the club renew the deal! Brilliant!

I wish people would stop going on about getting the circular crest back. We changed our crest five years ago, the club aren't going to change it again so soon. And anyway I don't want us constantly changing our logo. It's bad business. We should be trying to build a brand. Changing the badge cheapens the image of the club. United have had the same badge since 1970. Madrid's crest has been the same since the 40s. Barcelona have theirs since 1910. I guarantee you that at numerous stages during the past fifty years various bright sparks have marched into head office at each of these clubs with a plan to change the crest to something more current or something cooler, but they were put out on their arse because it's a stupid idea. We're one of the biggest clubs in England. We should have an identifiable, fixed logo. Maybe in an ideal world we would have kept our badge from the 80s but the simple fact is that we didn't. There's nothing wrong with the current badge.

What kind of reception did he get at Wigan? Did he act like it was his last game? I know Benteke is better but I can't help but feel that Bent has been royally screwed over here. My only gripe with Lambert is the way he dealt with the Bent situation. To give him the captaincy and then strip him of it for no reason (other than the fact that he probably didn't realise how ready Benteke was for the PL) was crazy. From what I can tell Bent seems like a really good guy. And for all his critics you simply cannot argue with his record. Personally I'll be very sad to see him go.

We haven't all touched him in a corridor once, Percy. i met houllier and Mcallister too you know, had different opinions of them. So meeting the bloke has two fifths of feck all to do with it and it is to your discredit that you feel it does to be honest. As I said I felt the over reaction knee jerk screaming for him to go was wrong and far to premature. I am glad that the las two results have gone our way and that lambert is showing it may be right to have a more long term pragmatic view, in my opinion of course. Over reaction? We've just won two on the bounce and we're still one place above the relegation zone. That suggests a quite dreadful season so far. I'd say Lambert's got away with it so far. If this was a McLeish side he'd have been hung drawn and quartered by now. The difference with Lambert is that under him the players are genuinely trying and even in the predicament we were in pre-Reading, they still had enough confidence and team spirit to pull off two massive comebacks in a row. We're not out of the woods yet but I'd fancy our chances of staying up. Also as a team we're actually attacking the opposition and trying to score goals. That's why people are happy with Lambert in spite of our league position. Under McLeish the players looked disinterested and completely bereft of confidence. We rarely even looked like scoring a goal, let alone getting a win. His tactics were sickeningly negative. I doubt I was alone in thinking that we were certainties to go down around this time last year, and but for the referee missing Alan Hutton's handball against WBA we would have. We were utterly pathetic for the entirety of his reign. That's why people weren't happy with McLeish.

That's along the lines of a sgc quote... He is good and could become better with hard work, but i really doubt he'll be the best striker in the world Good job I didnt type "World" then. How often has the best striker in Europe not been the best striker in the world? All the best players play in Europe. Unless you think the title of best striker in Europe is not applicable to South American players who play in Europe?

The commentator for last week's game said that when Lambert first saw Benteke play, he was actually there to watch Genk's other striker. So If that's true Lambert found him (by accident).

Houllier had a much better squad at his disposal and before his arrival we had finished 6th three seasons in a row. And a number of the players disliked him/his staff. McLeish sent his team out with the most negative, inept tactics many of us have ever seen. The players looked completely disillusioned under him and we never looked like scoring a goal, let alone winning a game. Obviously things are going horrendously at the moment but the one positive is that at least everyone's pulling in the same direction. The problem is that Lambert simply hasn't got the players at his disposal. The squad isn't good enough. Fair enough we should be able to beat Bradford over two legs regardless but when you've got the likes of Ciaran Clark getting his arse handed to him by a League Two centre forward, that isn't the manager's fault. He has to play Clark, he has to play Bannan and/or Delph. And now it looks like he's going to have to play these players for the rest of the season. What was it Guillem Balague said when Benitez was linked with the Villa job? "He doesn't want to have to work with his hands tied behind his back, " or something to that effect? Lambert's hands are tied behind his back.

We COULD get a sponsor in 2008. The club, however, felt they weren't being offered enough so they went with Acorns, which I think was a fine gesture. We weren't dropped by FXPro. The deal came to an end by mutual consent. We weren't dropped by Nike. Nike were dropped by us. We weren't dropped by Genting. The initial contract is up at the end of the season and they've decided to not extend the deal. Personally I think the least likely reason for their decision is that Aston Villa are difficult to work with.

Yeah he'd just get taken to the cleaners by any striker with half a brain and cost us valuable points by making stupid unforced errors. FFS if we go back for players like Zat Knight we may as well pack it in.

Literally nothing. Lowton > Hutton Clark > Collins Baker > Cuellar And Stevens and Warnock are equally shit.

Cuellar is terrible. A complete liability. I really don't think we'd be better off with him than with Vlaar/Clark/Baker. And Collins was shocking towards the end of his spell here. Not to mention his attitude, which by all accounts stinks. Excuse me if I've misinterpreted your post, but are you unhappy that Paul Lambert signed Christian Benteke? You think we should have signed a DM, fair enough, but you can't be displeased with the signing of Benteke. I refuse to believe that.

That might just be the stupidest comment I've ever heard in my life.

Apologies, he might have played in the earlier rounds. Still, I doubt he feels as though he truly "won" a major trophy.

No he doesn't.

Bearing in mind what happened the last time we made the League Cup final, how unlucky for Guzan would it be if we got to the final and Lambert stuck with Given? (Very.)