redrum

Schmeichel, Neville, Stam , Vidic, Cole, Ronaldo, fabregas, scholes, Giggs, Shearer, Henry

7 man utd....

Sunderland will thump us, no doubt about it. O'Neill will be so fired up for this.

He'll be dying to smirk to those who wanted rid of him because of his desire to invest and push forward, rather than sell all and hope for the best. There's a big I told you so on the way this weekend.

best goal has to be the Bergkamp one against Newcastle. it is pure genius.

as much as i love paul mcgrath, i wouldn't have him in the top 2 central defenders in the premiership.

I'd have Vidic, Stam on the team and even Terry ahead of him.

Saying that I still voted for him , out of the villa/ireland association

If we can't beat Bolton at home, we deserve to go down.

If we:

1) get rid of a good manager with amition, because he didnt agree with our chairman over he club's ambitions and future

2) buy heskey when pushing for champions league while in 3rd place

3) stop investing in the squad, give up on all ambitions

4) hire two managers who were obviously total crap, one whose career was over and wanted by nobody, one other whose career will soon be over if we go down, and will be wanted by nobody

5) sell all our good players who can make a difference in a match

6) get less than 40 points in a season

7) have the least amount of shots on target over the past 4 games, when fighting for relegation

8) have our highest paid earner - Stephen Ireland at 80000 euro a week (correct me if wrong)

edit .... add 9) play disgusting football

....we deserve to go down

mcleish by a long shot , houllier would have destoyed the club, even if we had money to burn.

I actually thought we played ok. What we were missing was a bit of intelligence in the last third.

Chris Herd had a great game.

Maybe it's just what I expect from Villa anymore .... thats why I am not disappointed i guess

2 great signings for a low price. plus got n'zogbia on a 5 year contract.

has shown respect to Villa, and will hopefully be able to motivate our players.

i couldnt care less what club's he has managed, as long as he does a good job here

i blame lerner, not mcleish, for not providing us with funds to buy a proper CM (which is going to ruin Villa's chances of a decent position this year)

yes so far from me

malouda allowed to walk in .... how can a team expect to survive without a midfield.

says it all really for us going forward......

...our only highlight is ireland ballooning a shot wide and high from outside the box

overall - anonymous midfield ( disgrace we do not buy a quality CM )

we will get murdered by teams who can keep the ball all season long.

other than that...

defence is solid enough

delfouneso will never make the grade

gabby looks like he's lost more pace

given looks in form

dunne has played quite well, bar the goal

5 year contract?!?!?

Good work Villa!

Even if N'Zogbia tears up the league in the next 2 years, he'll still have enough time on his contract for us to keep him another 2 years (or to at least tell the buying club where to go (or ask them for £40m)).

I'm chuffed that N'Zogbia has signed! I think we all knew it was going to happen, but it was taking so long that there was always a niggling worry that something might break down.

------------- Given --------------

Young - Collins Dunne Warnock

------- Petrov -- Makoun -------

Albrighton - Ireland - N'Zogbia

-------------- Bent --------------

Bench: Marshall, Clark, Beye, Lichaj, Baker, Delph, Bannan, Gabby, Fonz, Heskey

This is the team I expect to see against Derby, and I can't wait!

Are we allowed ten subs next season?

our CM is still rubbish ... will be our downfall this year.

So the simple fact here is we're going to miss out on a player we desperately need because we won't pay an extra one million pounds? Brilliant.

You don't know its that though.

Its easy for us to say just 1million.

But there are far more things to consider when running a football club.

My bet is Randy lerner wants to sell this club. . All he has do to now to maximise the selling price is get wages/revenue ratio correct and keep us in the premiership. He will be satisfied with 15th/16th/17th. Within two years he will sell this club.

Firstly, you don't get top dollar for a club if you asset strip it.The club will be worth far more than the sum of it's parts so the more good players you have on your books form appreciating assets for the club - therefore the club is worth more.

A successful club is also worth a lot more than one that is less so, and a more attractive proposition due to the image of the brand. If Randy is looking to sell (and I don't think he is for one minute) it would be in his interest to be selling a successful brand.

With the debt in effect being a debt to Randy himself, this is the only way he's ever going to see a profit on his investment.

An analogy would be if you owned a decent car but wanted to sell, would you strip the bumpers and tyres off, or spend money giving it a valet? Which one is going to net you the most cash?

but what if you spent that money on a valet, and it didnt make that much improvement on the car or its price, would you keep spending more money on a valet, or cut your losses and sell for the best price available

In all seriousness I would expect N'Zogbia to prefer a move to a club that has finished above Sunderland in 36 of the last 37 seasons.

that's what a complete lack of ambition does to a club's pulling ability.

Remind me where we signed Darren Bent from when we were near the foot of the table again?

its obvious. because Lerner would have lost more than 18 million if we got relegated. Plus Darren Bent fell out with Steve Bruce, Villa were the only club who would pay 18million for him last January

So the simple fact here is we're going to miss out on a player we desperately need because we won't pay an extra one million pounds? Brilliant.

You don't know its that though.

Its easy for us to say just 1million.

But there are far more things to consider when running a football club.

My bet is Randy lerner wants to sell this club. . All he has do to now to maximise the selling price is get wages/revenue ratio correct, keep the UK quota of players satisfactory and keep us in the premiership. He will be satisfied with 15th/16th/17th. Within two years he will sell this club.

In all seriousness I would expect N'Zogbia to prefer a move to a club that has finished above Sunderland in 36 of the last 37 seasons.

that's what a complete lack of ambition does to a club's pulling ability.

our squad this season is weak, injuries to 1 or 2 key players and we are in a relegation battle.

i do not want Aston villa in risk of relegation.

for this reason alone i am not in favour of lerner's ownership ( I really believe he is selling this club in the next 2 years)

Only problem is, will he remain fit?

That unfortunately, is not the only problem with Stephen Ireland.

The fact that we are hinging our hopes of success on this man shows what a sorry state the club is in.

He only shone brightest in a team including Elano & Robinho, but what's that worth aye...

not much now to be honest...if anything at all... showed some potential for a year and a half, then threw it all away because he is like a spolt little child who believes the whole world should revolve around him, and if it doesn't he will have a hissy fit and cry, blaming everyone but himself.

he's worth a go, yes, based on the fact that we have no other choice and he is costing the club 80k a week on top of ~8 million of transfer fee. so far ~12 million for ~10 crappy appearances, and comments slating the club and how he wants to stay at Newcastle because they make him feel like family. worth ago, but i wouldnt't hold my breath on him being a villa saviour

Only problem is, will he remain fit?

That unfortunately, is not the only problem with Stephen Ireland.

The fact that we are hinging our hopes of success on this man shows what a sorry state the club is in.

if stephen ireland banged in 20 goals this season for us, none of the top 4 would still buy him

I watched him play close to 100 times for Ireland, and he is top quality.

He is so consistent, he just doesn't make mistakes.

Would be a great signing, and he should be good for us for ~3 years

Plus he is a great friend of Richard Dunne, and may be an inspiration to get the Dunney Monster playing at a top level once more.

key quotes from last week......

Ancelotti said: "I would coach West Ham - why not? It's a challenge to manage a team in the Championship.

"The atmosphere at West Ham is amazing. It doesn't matter if you manage a top team or a smaller team.

"It's more important to work. I was happy to train in the second division when I was learning."

i think hes getting the villa job

Carlo Ancelotti 2/1 on paddy power, oh my god I'm gonna lose it

If this happens we will be set up in every way except the team - and he'll sort that

.....

Without any doubt. Ancelotti is great manager. But do you really think he will arrive to Villa Park?

He costs, and do we have the money to get him and to buy outstanding players?

Do the club have ambitions to be in top four?

Why did we got Houllier? To create future team. But he is sacked after nine months. Is it possible that our goal is to create another future team?

We had MON, we needed money to buy some players. MON didn't get the money.

I think Ancelotti is too big for Villa. Sorry.

(of course I will be happy if he comes. It would be statement -Villa wants to be in Champ. League-)

I would normally agree with you, however...

The guy wants to stay in England and I don't see any other realistic possibility unless Redknapp was to leave Spurs this summer. People mention QPR will have money to spend but there has been no proof yet that the money is there and have already made a set wage budget for next season which isn't that big.

Hughes id definitely out of the question. No way would Sky Bet let his price from 1/20 on to evens if their source wasnt accurate.

As for Ancelotti being too big...

Sell Stephen Ireland, his 80k a week will pay Ancelotti's wages.

Plus Ancelooti said last week he wouldnt rule out listening to West Ham offers...he obviously like managing in England, and we are the biggest club available at the moment.

ancelotti is possible imo. he said he wouldnt rule out listening to offers to the vacant west ham job.