Ponky

Karma, irony, or just a hazard of the job? Cow crushes meat worker

Good man!

You can watch the League Cup show on the BBC iplayer but unfortunately not available to those of us outside UK - hopefully someone will extract that & post on 101gg or somewhere

Commando at home, boxers in public. Except when I am commando at home while wearing only boxers.

If anyone happens to have the capability of uploading a link to the highlights (that would be likely to work outside UK) I'd be grateful.

Warnock is a worry actually. He does some great stuff mixed with some pretty silly stuff. He gives the ball away repeatedly too. We also miss Ashley Young's defensive work on the left. Cuellar looked pretty solid given the circumstances.

It was only what he'd been doing to Gabby for an hour, it's just that Carew had the strength to get away from him (albeit at the cost of a shirt). Most refs would notice a shirt pull in open play that almost pulls the shirt into two pieces. Last year he was briefly demoted to the Championship after two dreadful performances back to back - he should still be there. from the Telegraph report

Agree about Dean OBE - 15 fouls to 6 - WTF? And did you see what Knight did to Carew's shirt? rocket polisher.

We have been like a rudderless ship - no real guidance or direction. Hopefully Houllier can steady the ship and get us playing with purpose again because that was so frustrating to watch us holding on grimly at home against Bolton. One problem is having two wingers with no-one to cross the ball to. Gabby was so ordinary it's untrue today. We may as well play Heskey at the moment because Gabby seems slower than a wet week at the moment. Admittedly it didn't help that Knight was mauling him every time the ball came down but he just didn't seem to be interested all the same. Ireland made several great runs today that were completely ignored because we were too busy passing backwards. I thought Luke Young was very good today, probably our best & he along with Friedel saved our bacon several times.

I think Cuellar has been behind the 8-ball being injured during pre-season so it's probably more a case of not trusting his match-fitness. I reckon he'll play against Blackburn instead. I am hopeing this match will be Ireland's chance to announce himself and although it's KM in charge don't forget Houllier will be in the stands. i suspect the players will be busting their arses to show him what they are about. Villa by a cricket score.

If the current club refuses to allow the manager to break their contract then there's nothing you can do, unless there is some penalty clause or release clause written into the contract - my understanding anyway.

It was - basically they cheated their way to the win, but it doesn't change the fact that we should have cleared the ball. There are so many if only's in a game like this though, and most of ours happened in the first half. A 0-3 half time score would have been pretty safe even for us.

People having a whinge just for the sake of it. Nothing to see here.

Downing says they haven't had the pleasure yet

HTSOTP!!!

I would say giving the FFF time to find a suitable replacement is part of that process - not leaving them high & dry while they try to convince Domenech to put some pants on and come in for an interview.

Exactly - it also puts Kev Mac in a very poor position - "Sorry you're not good enough to manage us but do you think you could do it for us just this once more? Please?" It's like breaking up with your girlfriend then asking her for one for the road.

It's all a con. Patrice Bergues is none other than Patrik Berger in French

The good citizens of VT await the announcement of Villa manager:

I think the plane has been hijacked by Ronald Koeman, screaming "Give me der Villa job or I will blow up der plane!"

We've "lost" two players since Randy took over. One we refused to sell to the club that unsettled him - remember the Barry to Liverpool affair? And the other one we robbed the other club blind for - you know Milner for 18m plus Ireland (vs 8m for Van de Vaart, 12m for Ozil)? I fail to see how Villa get pushed around by anyone reall.

Which would be 6000 posts too late!

Could work. It would depend greatly on the rapport between the two and how their philosopies blend together. Would be hard to have Houllier chasing players that don't suit the way KM would want to play etc - they'd need to have very well-defined roles and responsibilities.

I'm pretty sure that was the Koeman interview actually.

Like him or not, Curbishley is highly qualified and available. This alone is a reason for Randy to interview him and seriously consider him. If Randy is serious about the wellbeing of the club he will want to be thorough and listen to what people like Curbishley have to say about their vision for the club - if only to have some point of comparison for other candidates. After all, knowing what you don't want is often as important as knowing what you do want. At the end of the day, if Curbishley got the job it would be because he was able to articulate and sell a vision for the club and its future that is on the same page as Randy's - and if Randy feels that he is the man to take us forward and a man with whom he can work closely, then it would be a good thing for the club - as long as Curbs can deliver on his vision. At this point in time though, having an interview merely means he is one of the stronger candidates, not the favourite.