Ponky

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.

One thing that puzzles me is why Robertson and Walford were straight out the door with MON. Yes I understand that they are a team and they follow him wherever he goes - but at the moment he has gone nowhere! So Walford and Robertson are now unemployed because MON decided he had had enough - strange. If my boss quit his job and expected me to quit with him even though there was no other job to go to I'd tell him to do one! The fact that those two did not even stick around to assist the club with the transistion to a new manager suggests that either there was considerable acrimony between MON and Randy & that they left in support of MON, or that Randy wanted a quick break and asked them to move on. Either way I think Robertson especially is a big loss for us.

This is my thought. Klinsmann as manager with KM as asst manager, at least in the interim. With the season already started and a severe shortage of coaching staff the new manager will be reliant on KM to get him up to speed with regard to the abilities of the players and their various strenghts/weakness, because whoever it is will have had limited time to watch us play apart from the past two weeks or so - assuming it is not another manager from the premiership.

So Moyes, McLeish, Moyes or Ancelotti? beat me to it Sorry - I thought I'd mentioned MOyes, but included Mancini twice. So Moyes, McLeish, Moyes, Ancelotti or Moyes?

So Moyes, McLeish, Moyes or Ancelotti?

Carew was a different player 2nd half. I suspect someone asked him if he had an interest in turning up at all, and he was very dangerous for that following 25 minutes or so.

You as well?!! But it's 1:52 am here and I have to be up for work in 5 hours!! Glad I stayed up though. Feeling much happier with the world than I was this time last week!

The boys showed some testicular fortitude today and after the week we've had I couldn't be prouder. Yes, we rose our luck at times, but we could also have won this 2-0 or 3-0, so I don't think we were as shit as some people are saying. Clearly work to be done, but let's hope it's a corner turned and the boys head into the break with some confidence and a desire to show some people wrong and hopefully with a new manager to impress. I thought Luke Young set the tone early and his goal was magnificent, but Ginger Collins for me was the big red brick wall that Everton could not penetrate. And whoever marked Cahill out of the game deserves a medal also. Ashley Young looked superb for most of the match and worked incredibly hard while Carew looked to be finding a bit of desire and confidence in the second. Very happy with the win, but I am not sure if I am going to get to sleep for some time as my heart is still beating out of my chest. UTV.

It's Spartacus!

Oh my God - it's Lawrie Sanchez :shock:

Ossie and Salifou would be very good players for teams in the next division down. If they were offered for a free transfer someone would snap them up with no problems at all. For some reason MON thought they were decent backup, but Kev playing Hogg the other night suggests that others will now come through and take their places. So they may well leave yet. Salifou may not get a new work permit though, so he'll have to go elsewhere.

I guess the silver lining in this loss is that the board will surely see this as a priority and make the moves needed to have a man in place this week. Watching senior players like Warnock, Petrov and hell even Dunne play so poorly and perhaps even like they did not give a shit was a very worrying sign.

Just as a bit of context. Man City played a virtual full strength team in Romania and scraped a 1-0 win. Liverpool played a near full-strength team against Trabzonspoor at Anfield and scraped a 1-0 win. We fielded a reserve team with only two players you would expect to see in a full strength villa team and came away with 1-1 draw. I think it's a fantastic result. Next week we will undoubtedly have a bit more quality in the team and I would think it will be more than enough to progress.

Well, not pretty, but sets us up for the next leg.