cheltenham_villa

i love the canals, the bull ring (though not near christmas), the curry.

my prediction is that in typical villa style, we will go on a little bit of a run. finishing the season strongly and in a respectable position, completely glossing over the fact that yet again we have gone perilously close to relegation. This will allow Mcleish another season, randy another summer of non investment.

ill never understand the infatuation with the CEO.

I quite like him, would have worked so well with someone like Milner.

I dont think he can be treated as a promising youth player any more. In his 3rd/4th season. Probably on a senior players wage. Time to make decisions about the likes of him and Bannan.

The problem with all these promising youngsters, is we cant afford them all at the same time. A lack of experience over the last two seasons has left us flirting with relegation.

I still dont understand why people think he is on the verge of being sacked. I dont think hes anywhere near. I think Randy would let him take us down.

how long did you get for lunch. We used to have half an hour and a couple of the lads would do 3 pints. Thats not even enjoyable.

Stan Collymore for me. Thought he was the missing piece.

Whats wrong with Zog then ? & now Stan has "flu" It smells wrong N'Zogbia is having an operation, and Petrov is ill. Don't know if you'd noticed but people get ill from time to time. As I said, I have no doubt that a lot of the players are unhappy with the management but I don't think there's some injury conspiracy. Maybe Nzogbia but Petrov doesnt deserve to be questioned, a great club man and captain. Has more than earned our respect and will be one of the big reasons we stay up this season.

how do you support a different club. I would suggest that if you can, then you didnt really support Villa in the first place. I cant understand being able to switch of caring.

I've been reading the Jo Nesbo books (centred around detective Harry Hole) and finding them a good read, also quite a few of them now so will keep you going for a while. Also you could try Stephen Leather and the Dan Shepherd series about an ex SAS now doing undercover work for the police. Obviously both from the start Have you tried books by Lorenzo Carcatera. He wrote sleepers (brad pitt film) but has a number of other italian/american crime thrillers. My favourite all time author.

is that Link still doing the rounds, PM please. For verification purposes obviously.

yes they can match his wages, think Beckham, Henry and Keane.

for me its not the player, its the message. The fact that we are looking at an Australian i've never heard of on a bosman acts as a little wake up call to our transfer targets. I think a number of us were hoping for a big message of intent from Randy and that all this doom and gloom of managing our wage bill, living within our means and signing players on a bosman was a bluff. I hope he does well, i really do. for me its the realisation though that the MON (love em or hate em) of challenging the top 4, consistent 6th place finishes, trips to wembley, etc seem to be over.

I don't agree that Gardner is all hype. Before his injury he played for the England U17's, U19's and U20's all in a 7 month period. He's now in the U21 squad and has been outstanding in the reserves while waiting for a first team oportunity. Gary is the real deal. you should definitely not let reserve team football cloud your judgement of how good a player is. Salifou and Osbourne ran that reserve league for a few years. Gary just needs games now before we can decide how good he will be. What better chance than the rest of the season. We are pretty much safe, time to let them play some football.

do you not think Randy has anything to do with the decision?

did you not see the figures released this week. 12m spent on management changes. huge losses. Mcleish will work on a shoe string, prepared to give the kids a chance. hes going no where.

Are you suggesting that asking MON to trim the wage bill and sell the deadwood (that he would not play and had signed), during recession was constructive dismissal ? Sorry, but any business has the right to adjust its spending to suit the economic clate, and any manager who believed in the club would have realised that things could not continue the way they were, and would also accept their portion of blame. This is something that MON has never done, and in my mind by taking the club to court when he wasnt man enough to stick around he has fleeced club and disrespected the fans more than Houllier did. pointless debate really as none of us no what was asked of him and none of us know his reasons for leaving. The court case probably means we never will.

Petrov is probably our player of the year, IMO. Not sure thats a massive compliment though.

its a nice idea, but what do you hope a tram system will bring to the city. why not spend that 128m on reducing council tax, rates for shops, lowering the cost of existing public transport. If the council was run as a business you would look for a return of at least £5 - £10 for every £1 spent. Will the tram system generate this?

Sorry, but the hiring of mcleish doesn't provide much evidence to back the optimistic view that lerner will get us challenging again. Surely that depends how highly one rates Mcleish? I rate him relatively highly, although given the groundswell of opinion against him, I think he's got his work cut-out to turn both the team, and importantly the fans, around. I really don't understand why you rate him so higly Jon. His Premier League record is dismal, and there is no way that we should be bottom currently of the "also rans" league ie the all the teams other than the top and bottom 5. His style of football is awful, his results have been almost as bad, and his purchases not a lot better. I wish I could see something that inspires confidence in him, but there really is nothing. He isn't a good coach, the players don't seem to respect him and the vast majority of the fans didn't and don't want him. Other than ridiculous examples, I struggle to think of a worse manager Lerner could have picked. Most of us predicted poor, dull football leading to a possible relegation battle, and that's exactly what we've got. I can see why lerner picked him, which I imagine is for two reasons. 1) He was desperate to get away from Blues, so would have taken any old job, and 2) it's a human shield for Lerner to hide behind. some reasons why Lerner likes him (genuine) 1. he is prepared to work with what hes got and buys into the vision of lowering the wage bill. 2. He is prepared to work with the sell to buy policy put in place by the owner. 3. He is prepared to give our emerging youth players a chance 4. You wont see him slating the running of the club in the papers or bringing any bad press the clubs way for off the field activities. 5. RL believes in him, he must do else he wouldnt have employed one of the most hated managers in villas history.

what tablets is it available on and how do i get it please. I have a samsung galaxy 10.1. been desperate for a decent browser for ages.

We may laugh about them but put yourself in their shoes. 5-10 years ago they were one of the biggest clubs in Europe, now they are staring down the stark reality that they might not exist soon. Ive got a mate whos been a ST there for 20 years, home and away, Rangers is his life. Dont think I can describe how hes feeling right now.

3rd place when your manager of Rangers, how is that even possible theyre still 9 points clear of third.