brummie

There seems to be a common misconception that just because Nike are supplying our kits, this means Villa shirts will be available wherever Nike kit is sold. This is not the case. It will always be up to the retailer whether or not he sells our shirts. We're not suddenly going to start appearing in sports shops in Truro and Inverness just because they stock other Nike gear - we'll only be stocked in those places if the owners think there is a market for our shirts. The only way we're ever going to start shifting kits in places like that is by being successful on the pitch. Yeah, the Nike kit will be better quality and will look nicer, but that alone isn't going to start making people queue up to buy it at the Barcelona club shop.

Really, thats amazing as the transfer window is not even open then! Don't sour my post by introducing pesky facts. He will join us, you'll see. Pesky facts which stop your post from being true? Oh... Yes, that's what I was implying, Einstein. Oh well stop posting rubbish then brains! It is true. You're no Einstein, mind.

Really, thats amazing as the transfer window is not even open then! Don't sour my post by introducing pesky facts. He will join us, you'll see. Pesky facts which stop your post from being true? Oh... Yes, that's what I was implying, Einstein.

Really, thats amazing as the transfer window is not even open then! Don't sour my post by introducing pesky facts. He will join us, you'll see.

Bent will join Spurs on Monday, and Defoe will join us next week. That's a fact. You heard it here first. Well, almost first.

True with Carew, but we actually paid 1m just to have Maloney 4 months earlier - he'd have been on a Bosman in the summer and therefore free.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Scott Parker is the absolute epitome of the average Premiership footballer, and not the kind of player we should be signing. And who on earth thinks Liverpool are going to want to sell Finnan, who has been one of their most consistent players this season? And more's the point, why would Finnan want to leave a CL semi final (at least) club for a mid table one?

"After Portsmouth, now Aston Villa seem to be seriously watching Muntari. According to a Ghanaian newspaper, Martin O'Neill, Villains manager, is now trying to convince his board to part with more than the 7 million pounds they have made available to him, which will not be enough to buy the Ghanaian, for whom Pozzo (obv their manager) is looking for 12m".

I agree Bardsley isn't up to much, but not on the basis that "if he's not good enough for Man United, he can't be good enough for us". They're the best side in the country and probably the best side in Europe, and Bardsley has a talismanic figure ahead of him in the shape of Gary Neville. If we're going to use that logic, we can say that David Bentley and Steve Sidwell weren't good enough for Arsenal, so they're not good enough for us either. I also can't believe people are talking about getting rid of Laursen. He comes back from his long term injury, does well, picks up a routine injury unrelated to his long term problems, then looks immaculate when he comes back, and people are complaining about him? It strikes me that we have four top notch central defenders in Laursen, Mellberg, Cahill and Ridgewell. I can think of plenty more positions which need strengthening first.

What, like Sidwell and Bentley? Some of the comments on this thread are a bit over-optimistic. Think about it. Why are players like Ribery or Hargreaves going to come here? Because we've got lots of cash? So have lots of other clubs. We're currently looking at about 15th place, and no European football of any kind, let alone Champions League football. No player who currently has that is going to give it up to join us. We need to be realistic about the sort of player we're likely to get.

Funnily enough, the exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I returned my tickets to the Arsenal game just before lunchtime, as I've got a dreadful viral infection and have been barely able to stand most of the week. To arrive at 11 o'clock or so and be told that I can't park anywhere near the ticket office and have to find some street parking just because it is a match day seems absolutely ridiculous, especially when the game is 9 hours off. Anyway, I did so, and staggered huffing and puffing to the ticket office, muttering dark things to myself about businesses who find it acceptable to treat their customers so shoddily.

I assume you mean Robert Earl, the Planet Hollywood guy, ian? He's not actually planning on taking over Everton, he took a small shareholding at the request of Kenwright, but has said plenty of times that he has absolutely no interest whatsoever in increasing it, I believe. I think also with the Liverpool takeover, there's not a lot to worry about there. Their consortium is back by hideously rich people, yes, but they've deflated the balloon a little there by pointing out there will be no endless supply of cash / RA style funding. In fact, I believe their arrangement to buy the club is not entirely dissimilar to the Glazer Man U deal - borrowings are involved. We need to put things right on the pitch, and then we'll have a chance of competing with clubs like Liverpool for signings. If that side of thing isn't right, then how much money our owner has will not really matter, as the players won't want to come.

The crowd for this game will be nowhere near 38k, sadly. The prices for the family enclosure are fine, but I've just forked out 62 quid for two tickets for this game, so it isn't as if it is cheap across the board. Still too expensive, in fact, for what is bound to be 90 minutes of fairly mediocre football.

But with our pansy stewards, can you see it being enforced? I think someone has had a word with the stewards and bucked their ideas up. At the Man U game, they were constantly scanning the crowd and chucking out anyone who even looked like they might be an away fan in our ends. I've never really seen them that bothered before. I even saw them chuck out a group of about five pissed up blokes despite being outnumbered.