thegiddygambler

I think we'd get about 15 million for him, hasn't been recognised by England at all, if he gets some games he could possibly command 18 million. No more than that for me.

The point about RL appointing MON and that being his biggest mistake has some merit. That said, name MON's three most expensive signing?

Yes, we all know who they are.

Bought for roughly £30 million, sold for roughly £60 million after years and years of combined top class performances.

Only MON knows why he bought all these poxy players on disgustingly high wages and yet never had any intention of even playing them in the team!

Sidwell, Beye, Davies etc

Bannan is a better passer of the ball than Scholes ever was, in my opinion.

I'm sorry but I find that to be a completely idiotic statement. :shock: :shock:

I look forward to seeing him play.

Who is he like?

I'd say Adam Johnson is a good comparison but Grealish has far more technical ability

Isn't that Gareth Bale then?

Grealish is a jinky winger, he's small for his age

well the fact he is short might be part of the reason he is so good. There's clearly a correlation between short height and good dribbling imo. Maradona, Messi, SWP, Lennon, Juninho, Zola

The FA is mulling a top level double-bill to celebrate Britain's return to Olympic football after 40 years.

The men's and women's teams would play international friendlies at the same venue on the same day next July.

Olympic rules state friendlies cannot be played at London 2012 venues, ruling out Wembley, Old Trafford, St James' Park, Hampden Park, City of Coventry stadium, and the Millennium Stadium.

Villa Park in Birmingham is seen as a strong contender for the fixtures.

The ground is no stranger to high-profile fixtures as it was used in the Euro 96 championships and hosted an FA Cup semi-final as recently as 2007.

London 2012 will see the women's team making their Olympic debut with the men competing for the first time since Munich 1972, when they were knocked out in the group stages.

July's double-header would be one of two pre-tournament friendlies for both teams, which are being organised by the FA on behalf of the British Olympic Association, and would be played shortly before the start of the Games on 27 July.

London 2012's football tournament starts on 25 July, two days before the Opening Ceremony, with two women's preliminary games at the Millennium Stadium. The women's final will be played on 9 August at Wembley, where the men's final takes place two days later.

The FA sees the Olympics as a chance to boost the profile of women's football, and the double-header friendly fixtures would be a great opportunity to engage a wider audience for the sport.

Hope Powell, appointed last week to manage the women's team, hopes the Games will lead to a rise in popularity in the women's game in the home nations.

"I'm delighted to be in the position to be able to take a team into such an illustrious tournament, I just wish it were starting tomorrow," she said on the day of her appointment.

Powell has led England's women for 13 years and to four successive major finals, including Euro 2005 on home soil.

Former England defender Stuart Pearce was named as the men's manager, and he called on Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Football Associations to make their players available for London 2012.

The Wales and Scottish Football Associations have reiterated their opposition to a British team as they feel it threatens their independence as football nations.

The 18-strong men's squads must contain 15 players who were born on, or after, 1 January 1989 - but three players can be older. There are no age limits for the women's selections.

London 2012: FA ponders Team GB Olympic celebration games

I hope this is true.

Would be great to see Team GB playing in Birmingham.

I can't say I care tbh. Love track and field? watch the olympics. love football? watch the world cup.

We are.a below average team who, with a limited manager, will struggle to stay up. It is unfair to expect a manager of mcleishs ability to polish a turd. There is a manager currently unemployed who could get more out of this team but he would not come here undetermined this joke of an owner

Below average team who will struggle to stay up? Get real. Sure, we're not world beaters, but we're hardly below average either.

I'm starting to think we are very much below average to be honest with you.

That first half against QPR was shaemful. There's been so many home games this season where we've created little to nothing attacking wise.

Gabby, Given & Bent are good players, Dunne, Collins & Warnock are quite capable. The rest are very questionable and I include our "wonder kids" in that description.

Do we know the type of cancer? RIP Paddy, life dealt you a terrible hand

Not a fan at all.

I am a fan , I want the club to win games, win trophies and be successful. but I am not in a position to influence the running of the club to enable that to happen. He is. It is clear he does not have the money required to make us successful, so is running the club to keep us going and be sefl sufficient , Eck all to do with winning games of football and winning trophies. So in effect his onwership of the club is actually holding us back from being successful now. If I was running the club and was holding us back from achieving success I would look to see if I could sell to someone with the spondulux to take us forward to win things.

He is running the club, and is holding us back from winning things now or at least having the chance at winning things. Do you think he is looking to sell to an investor with the cash we need to progress or do you think he is happy to just stay around and keep us "ticking over" ?

I agree with a lot of what you say but as for Randy "holding us back" I would say that is dependent on whether a prodigal son is indeed waiting in the wings to splash the cash and make us kings of Europe. If such a figure is ready but Randy won't sell to him I'd say he is "holding us back". I think at the moment nobody wants to buy. No idea if RL is doing anything to attract investment. I think Faulkner is a buffoon, though I base that largely on a hunch I've got owing to the handful of times I've seen him in action.

Agree with Joker and Alec, our only chance to win anything. The league cup is acyually quite easy to win in comparison to other trophies, the smaller clubs should be beatable as long as we dont play our reserves and the big clubs we stand a chance of beating because they play their reserves.

I'd rather win the league cup and finish 14th, than not win it and finish 8th.

If I'm honest I'd take a league cup won OVER a 4th place finish! I can see beyond the kudos of getting a slot on ITV 1 Wednesday night! Not sure everybody will agree with me on this but glory is the currency of football in my eyes. CL would possibly put us in a stronger position to build infrastructure re revenue but I crave cups! NOT a top 20 place in annual revenue for Western European footy clubs

Shit Premier League team?

Disliked?

Don't think either are the case.

I very much dislike him as an owner. Just as I disliked Ellis.

Look at our situation now...is it that much better than it was under Ellis? I look at our starting XI On paper now compared to when Ellis sold and whilst we may have improved slightly, its nothing major.

Lerner has made a massive profit out of AVFC and will continue to do so as he sells off our star assets. The Holte Pub etc were investments, They werent done for the fans, ultimately they will make him a massive profit.

Not only that, he just hired a manager who relegated Birmingham City playing boring football....

Ive watched 5 games this season and have been bored silly watching boring football throughout. What is to like about our owner? His tattoo?

People tell me he has invested heavily into the club. He has, but its all for him, nobody else. I guarantee the day Lerner walks away from our club, he will have made millions.

Sorry, I dont rate the bloke. He is a failure in the NFL and is slowly bringing us down over here in England.

IMO of course.

Sorry, I'm no financial expert and hate to get into those sort of things but how has he made massive profits from the club? Hasn't he lost like £200 million or something? :?

It's safe to say Randy hasn't or more likely WON'T be losing money on Aston Villa. Any investment he's given has been ring fenced by his loan to us, so we're paying him back. He didn't have to lend us the cash I hear you say! Well he loaned us the cash to improve the club's stature/value. It's backfired on him a tad as I think he expected us to a far more powerful force by now but a United renaissance and City's emergence has punctured our hopes. The price he got for Villa, £65M was it??, is the steal of the century IMO.

if you go down to b6 today you're sure for a big surprise

if you go down to b6 today you'll never believe your eyes

coz randy lerner's having a laugh

and selling all of our playing staff

today's the day the villa have got no mooooooney

Ha good stuff, looks like Lerner's days are coming to an end ASAP. Hence why Krulak has vanished, obviously unwilling to talk nonsense when he knows RL wants out.

Gonna be a funny atmosphere versus Newcastle I think

Thegiddygambler = clearing in the woods. T W A T

Some people clearly unable to see what's staring them in the face. Lerner's pulling up the draw bridge. No room for sentiment in football, he got into a game he didn't understand, gave it a good shot and now wants out. Somebody who needs to insult other fans via a keyboard is what's known as a clearing in the woods.

if you go down to b6 today you're sure for a big surprise

if you go down to b6 today you'll never believe your eyes

coz randy lerner's having a laugh

and selling all of our playing staff

today's the day the villa have got no mooooooney

Ha good stuff, looks like Lerner's days are coming to an end ASAP. Hence why Krulak has vanished, obviously unwilling to talk nonsense when he knows RL wants out.

Gonna be a funny atmosphere versus Newcastle I think

OK I wrote this song for Stewart Downing whIlst listening to this song on my MP3 player on a canalside swigging lager. Lager is very creative.

I've changed the "Oh Stewart Downing" bit for " Oh Super Charlie" I think it's GOOD man and original!!

Here's a link to the tune, when the singer say "when I've been running" instead sing "Oh Super Charlie........of the Villa attack......"

Lyrics

OH SUPER CHARLIE...OF THE VILLA ATTACK

OH SUPER CHARLIE.. JOHN TERRY ON HIS BACK

OH SUPER CHARLIE....GIVE THAT BALL A SMACK

HE'LL BE RUNNING MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY......

REPEAT.....OH SUPER CHARLIE....OF THE VILLA ATTACK..ETC

Feel free to kick it off, my mates aren't the best at kicking songs off and I'll struggle on my own! LOL UTV

Let's spell it out. So far he has been poor shading into anonymous. A lot to do to justify his transfer fee.

How was Downing or Youngs 1st 3 games for Villa. Hardly spectacular

Young scored on his debut. Downing scored in his first start against Pompey in League Cup

Young got an assist (for Carew) in his second game as well IIRC

I seem to remember Young starting rather slowly (although he scored on his debut) but improving and then the following season he showed what he was capable off.

To be fair Young, Milner & Downing were crap for their first 6 months playing for us.

General would you consider informing Sky Sports News on the day you plan to post? It's just that I regularly come on here to see if you've posted but you usually haven't. I watch Sky Sports regularly and if they could put a "Sky Sports BREAKING NEWS C. Krulak returns" banner across screen I could then just stop coming on here to look and could find out from Sky Sports News instead.

Villa 4 Wolves 2

38,123

The club shop in town has a sign up saying "ticket office not available between 1 and 2 as staff on lunch" !! :shock:

Surely, somebody can deputise?? Have the club not thought that workers in B'ham town centre on THEIR lunch breaks would like to be able to use the ticket office?

General, your visits to this site now appear to be very few and far between.

I think this is such a shame as I did once really enjoy looking on here and seeing correspondence at least twice a week.

Now it appears a post once every 3 weeks or worse is the norm.

I can appreciate that you're busy but given the club started this intiative don't they have some interest in keeping it operating at an appropriate level of interaction.

In addition, by making visits so few and far between you are arguably making things even more difficult for yourself, should you wish to respond to fans questions/points with any meaningful reply. That's because you'll have nigh of 35 posts or more to trawl through!!

All the best, hope to see you at VP soon.

Giddy

General do you think this so called "fair play rule" has ben pretty much fatally undermined before it's even begun? By that I mean. One of this country's true great clubs arsenal sell ground naming rights and shirt sponsorship for £90million. An arab owned club with ZERO history sell naming rights and shirt sponsorship for £400 million, coincidentally to an Arab company!!! :shock:

I'm considerably underwhelmed if all we're doing is signing Given & Nzogbia Clearly the dream looks over, was nice whilke it last and perhaps had we had a bit more luck we'd have got 4th place. Ie, the season after we're 2 injury time minutes from being 8 pts clear of Arsenal, Liverpool suddenly imploded.

Alot of people are mouthing off about a lack of action in the transfer window General. Personally, I'm not particularly concerned yet. Arsenal have done NOTHING, Chelsea have done NOTHING, Spurs have done NOTHING, Man City have done very little given their ££.

However, what I will say is that Randy needs to realise that a hefty sum of £ IS required for us to even dream about making a spirited pursuit of 4th, 5th & 6th place and an assault on one of the cups.

May North Stand redevelopment commence Summer 2012??

Kind regards

Giddy

Not in the slightest bit worried. NO WAY will Randy sign McLeish. RELAX

on a more pressing issue General, when are we gonna paint the Witton bridge claret & blue? I can offer my services providing paint & health & safety training are offered in return.

I think we should all just let the board get on with things. The General seems to continually fight through a fire storm on here nowadays!! Though for the record I most certainly do not want McLeish.

Hoping Randy can pull a rabbit out of the hat!!!

having worked as a supply teacher in schools all over Brum my experience is that in a small number of areas they have a slight majority. Longbridge for example.