cheltenham_villa

i dont see why he should be dropped. Own goal aside i dont think hes been any worse than the rest of our back four recently. We saw against Wolves that we dont have any other competent left backs. Clark came in and couldnt handly Kightly at all, Warnock was bought on and quickly nullified his threat. Certainly a replacement in the summer but right now we have no better options.

at a guess id say petrov probably has probably been involved in more villa goals than any other player this season. A clarke Petrov midfield is perhaps lacking in a little creativity yet it supports a front four of bent, keane, ireland and nzog. Petrov has been a great servant to this club, his time probably is drawing to a close but at the moment hes one of our stand out performers and we have bigger problems in other areas.

disgrace to insult a man whos just insulted another

And in fairness again, you could say that about a lot of players that Mcleish has played this season. I just wish I could work out the common denominator Subtle, but what about Gabby and Stephen Ireland? Would that be the same common denominator? That being said, I agree with your post above about Delph and that the blame can't be laid at MON's feet. Yes there are exceptions , which is why I said "a lot" and not "all" Off topic I would say the players that have performed to a reasonable standard under Mcliesh as Given, Clark, Petrov, Ireland, Gabby, Keane and maybe Bent. The issue is the rest of the clowns. On Topic, Delph needs games and confidence, you cant blame the signing, it was common sense that didnt work out.

Cadburys in general i worry for. I mean fads aside, when was the last new product they launched. The last actual product to become a mainstream chocolate bar. I cant remember. Dairy Milk, Caramel, Double Decker, Crunchie, Buttons, Creme Eggs, Mini Eggs, Fudge, Roses, Chomp. All been around for bloody years.

My opinions have certainly changed over the last couple of months. Were constantly seeing the same group of players able to raise there game when required. Mcliesh may not be blameless, but the players are certainly partly responsible for the constant mistakes and lack of effort.

Liverpool may be the only club higher in the league that would be interested. There are plenty lower that would pay the wages though and I think he'd leave. Wouldnt have been surprised to see him QPR bound. Always worth remembering that we were below Sunderland and in disarray when he signed for us for a big pay day.

credit where its due. Keane looks a storming loan and Ireland looks to be the player we always thought we were getting. Even if we go on to lose this, we finally look like a team that can score a goal. More energy, more concentration......corner turned?

get in

no the German model is not allocated one space per person. it works out at 1.5 people per space. borussia dortmunds ground holds 80000 with terracing but reduces to 64000 for champions league games. I reckon if they bought standing back it would cost u about £15 to stand at villa and if they opened up the lower holte and lower north to standing i reckon you could get an extra 6000 people in villa park. That makes no sense. Our average ticket price is probably about £30, lower holte holds about 8000? £30 x 8000 = £240000. Make the lower holte terracing and allow in 50% more people = 12000, times that by your £15 = £180000. Club loses £60000 on match days. Come on people do the maths. If this is cheaper, your talking £5 at the most. FWIW I dont believe in our health and safety conscious society we will be allowed 1.5 people for every seat.

Why do people think it would bring cheaper seats? its still going to be one allocated space per person. The german model is cheaper because, well its cheaper to watch football in Germany. I cant see the incentive to make it cheaper, safe standing wont necessarily bring new fans, it will simply move them from one seat to another. Make a safe standing area for 5000 and you probably lose 5000 fans from the Holte which isnt selling out anyway. From the clubs point of view, is it not better to have those 5000 fans paying £30-£35 rather than £20-£25? Maybe im getting cynical but personally i dont think this is anything more than positive PR for the club. They know the fans will like that they've tried, they know the FA and others will probably not allow it.

Not long enough, he clearly has the potential to be a great player, thats only 2 years, i would sign him up till 2016 at least, im tired of villa players waiting till the last couple of years of their contracts, saying they want to move, and we don't get nearly as much as we should e.g. Ashley young ( He wanted to leave, ok i get that but we could have got alot more than 16mill if his contract didnt run out that summer... we tried to get Ashley to sign with two years to go, he didnt want to and left with a year left. Not sure what else we could have done. We cant offer players longer contracts, on more money and talk about cutting the wage bill. It takes a balance. Gardener needs to be kept within a couple of years, until he has proved he is ready to make the grade and play a bigger part. The his contract should be altered accordingly but we cant afford to go throwing big money and long contracts after every kid with promise. I'd disagree to a large extent, I think different situations merit different treatment and you have to take the balance between the sporting and financial benefit in each case separately. In Ashley Young's case, the sporting benefit of giving him the kind of contract that might have kept him here longer or at least bumped up his selling price was clear, but financially we couldn't really afford to keep him on even if he'd wanted to stay. If we'd given him £90k a week for four years, his resale value would have gone too and we'd have ended up with a thirty odd year old player with limited value. Writing £10-15m off his transfer value through age and paying him £18m over four years means you've got to be very sure you'd get value on the pitch. Gardner is in a different situation, the sporting benefit still rests a little bit in hope, but we could tie him to a five year deal tomorrow and he'd still know he could go in his early twenties if wanted to. It'd suit him because he can get games here, it'd suit us because we could secure a big fee if he's successful, and if things go bad, we're looking at a contract of what, £1m a year maybe a little more and a minimum resale value even if he's unsuccessful of £2-3m - it's a low risk-high gain situation for the club and I think we have to try to sign as many of our youngsters onto long deals as we can - financially it'll make sense. Sadly I think once those youngsters hit their mid-twenties we have to sell those that are a success in order to continue to develop, but I think securing the potential that we have, just in case, is vital to the future health of the club. you talk about it as low risk, but if you apply the same policy to all young players with a bit of promise, its easy to add 5 millions a year to the wage bill. Personally id rather see that money go on one or two game changing players that could make a difference to the here and now. In Gardeners case, he looks good but has made a handful of appearances. Look at the likes of Isiah Osbourne who showed a lot of promise early on, a few rave reviews. Before you know it weve stuck him on the sort of contract your talking about offering Gardener. All because in truth he was probably ahead of his peers in terms of physical development and so foun youth and reserve team football easy. I dont recall us losing many kids for small money because we let their contacts run down, in short im happy with our current policy.

Hell, no. If I feel shit, I stay at home, simple as. Guilty? **** that. Ive never wasted a good sick day on an actual illness. Sick days are for hangovers and extra holidays. If im gonna be ill, i may as well be ill at work. Not these days though, no work no money.

Not long enough, he clearly has the potential to be a great player, thats only 2 years, i would sign him up till 2016 at least, im tired of villa players waiting till the last couple of years of their contracts, saying they want to move, and we don't get nearly as much as we should e.g. Ashley young ( He wanted to leave, ok i get that but we could have got alot more than 16mill if his contract didnt run out that summer... we tried to get Ashley to sign with two years to go, he didnt want to and left with a year left. Not sure what else we could have done. We cant offer players longer contracts, on more money and talk about cutting the wage bill. It takes a balance. Gardener needs to be kept within a couple of years, until he has proved he is ready to make the grade and play a bigger part. The his contract should be altered accordingly but we cant afford to go throwing big money and long contracts after every kid with promise.

This is gonna sounds really harsh but he needs to take chances like the free header in the first few minutes. I know hes young but if you are going to break through at that age you have to be able to shoulder the responsibility. Missing a chance like this might be the difference in starting the next game or Ireland being brought back into the team.

jesus christ, I know nobody likes Warnock at the moment but its Albrightons fault, acknowledged by everyone including him. The only thing thats wrong is the witch hunt. Albrighton has put his hand up and admitted blame, he'll learn from it.

I think we had the makings of a reasonable team today, just lacking some killer instinct and to many mistakes. Not Albrightons best game, the mistake for their goal aside he barely made a cross count. I also think were guilty of trying to play our best players, not our best team. Shoe horning Gabby, Bent and Ireland into the same team isnt looking great. Ireland has to play at the moment, pick one of the others. As I commented in another thread, its time for the players to start taking some responsibility, they showed in the second half that they are capable, lets see them cut out the mistakes and put effort in for the full 90.

I know that feeling. I'm looking at college courses and arranging work experience in relevant fields. My gf has done this sort of thing for years and got a job she is really happy with. It works. Volunteer your free time and people will look upon you quite fondly and you gain experience as you do it. Hmm. I'm not sure that's really the best move for me at the moment (least of all because I don't have a dicky bird what I actually want to do). I got this job just over a year ago simply because I needed some money coming in somehow and my CV was atrocious. It's only a retail thing and ludicrously part time - in busy periods at the store I can do 30 odd hours a week, but that happens once in a blue moon. A few things have hit me about it recently that basically makes me think 'I gotta get out of here'. I'm not a great salesman, which means running through the script with every customer makes my skin crawl, because I know that 90% of the customers coming to the till are thinking, like I would, 'I just want to buy this and get the **** out' but I've got to try to shill them for more spending. And just before Christmas a combination of being run off my feet and an... 'awkward'... customer pressed all my buttons and caused me to lose my temper that set alarm bells ringing in my head that I really don't want to do this much longer. My mates regularly say to me I need to get the **** out of there and I take it way too seriously for such a shit job that I've no intention of making a career of. And then last week I wander in for the first week post Christmas and I see that the hours have tanked already, I'm back to my ludicrously part time hours that, a year ago when I was still in my overdraft and terrified of every letter Halifax sent me, was something I was just glad for and hopeful that maybe if I do well I'll get more. Now I'm out of the overdraft finally, if only by a couple of hundred quid, it irks me I seem unable to get anymore hours, and a years experience tells me I can hit all the targets and meet all the bullshit checklist crap with each customer and I still won't get any more hours, while the tosser who started at the same time that noone likes will week in week out get 1/3 more hours than me seemingly because he signed his contract before me. The problem is I've started to look for work again actively, hoping to finally start to make my degree work for me somehow and everything I look at either wants a)qualifications I don't have or experience I don't have, a drivers licence, c) more UCAS points, or finally d) is in some field I don't want to go into. I log onto the Jobcentre job search and look for all jobs within 5 miles of my home and end up drowning in results for chefs. carers and forklift drivers - none of which is for me. My friends all say go do a Masters like they have but I'm not sure that will help me besides getting me somewhat out of the job market for another year. I dunno what to do with myself. But I've got to get out of that place and I need to start getting somewhere with my life. I'm 23 and still working in a glorified toyshop on hours a paper boy would balk at. what is it you want to do? I agree with your points on the masters, all it will bring at the moment is more debt and deferring work.

QPR easily have the money Having the money and spending the money are very different things. Many owners possess the funds, very few have spent £20m plus on one player. Its a big step, one we ourselves have only made once. For those questioning why he would go, the answer is simple....money. The exact same reason he came to us, dont go thinking the man will offer any loyalty.

he's been dire, like proper sunday league dire, for most of the season been decent, open your eyes

does that not apply to every player in the world?

dont suppose you know my mate Mark Harris (Pocket) from Zermatt do you, think hes ski'd at the X games.

did i just read that were now putting Mike Ashley up as a shining example of how to run a football club :shock:

But he's shit though. He has some good moments but he consistently makes stupid mistakes. dont think it was a pen. Very harsh.

Interesting comments on the Dunne mistake, in the premier league you get away with that because the striker would have been pushing out quicker. Stupid mistake though. All in all I thought it was a good performance and a well controlled game. Clark, Ireland and Petrov all good professional performances. Heskey a decent first half, thought everyone played well in a potentional banana skin. Nice tempo to the game, more of the same please.