The Fun Factory

I have just been thinking- which is probably a bad idea. Lambert has come in to bring in young hungry players on relatively cheap (but still huge compared to 95% of the population) wages. Said players now finally coming good such as Betenke, Lowton, Westwood. So we either have to give them huge wages increases to keep them at Villa, which breaks the salary remit, or we sell them. Then there is the danger that they dont peform and we are stuck with big contracts, or we sell our best players every year and we can never move forward. How is this circle to be squared?

A win would be fantastic. A draw would be probably be good enough. A defeat would put everyone on a downer again. Just need to keep the mommentum going from last monday. No cock ups please Villa!

Its a fantastic honour for Villa Park to be hosting World Cup Rugby. It is a fantastic honour for the city of Birmingham to have it as well. I mean the city hasnt been great geeting events has it? Olympics, No. World cup 2018, no. European and Uk city of Culture, no. Lets sell the club and the area and build on it. The club will have 2 years to prepare for a few matches of rugby on the pitch, I am sure it will be fine. Embrace it, I mean it will be years if ever if England host the football world cup and the euros might not have a host nation again. Rugby isnt really 'my' sport but the whole point of a world cup is to showcase it to other people, and everyone to have a good time!

Yep he had a blinder on monday. Superb. I laughed when last week I read arsenal were interested. Now I am a bit worried! He has been one of Lamberts best signings. Has had a few bad games but his form must be sky high now.

If he feels up to it, how good would it to see him walking the players out?

Best case scenario is for Villa now to be a top 10 club. Anything better would be a massive bonus. Lambert must have realised this, so even more respect for him to leave Norwich for us. We cannot afford to aim for top 4. I am afraid that's the current situation. People might not like it but the club needs to play it straight. The O'neill years was based on a false promise and people are still fed up that we failed to get top 4. If they say we are realistic, but ambitious, will try to buy the right players and use our youth set up, I think most fans will accept it. It may change in the future, but don't hold your breath as clubs dont want to get off the champions league gravy train.

Yes saw it in the news and record on monday. They said the home league game had 60,000 at Villa Park with 30,000 locked out when the gates were closed before a 5.30 kick off. Must have moved it late for sky! The other monster crowd V the mackems was a little bit more recent in 1975 when 57,000 were present at Villa Park seeing Villa getting promoted to the top flight after 8 years. Will we ever see a 50,000 crowd again at Villa Park? Probably not.

It was a brillant peformance and result last night, but if we lose at Norwich and other results dont go our way, we will soon be on a downer again. I think a point would be fairly good, obviously a win and we will all be laughing. I just fear that there will be a few more twists and turns coming our way. Norwich are cack though- I think there only win in about 15 is Reading?! They cant score goals. We obviously can. Just need to keep a clean sheet for once. Like everyone has said , its back to work on the training ground and concentrate on Norwich. The sunderland game will mean nothing if we cant pick up a few more points in the last 3. One last push.

He absolutely nailed his shot into the goal. What a moment. Lovely stuff. Like many of the other players, he will be better next year esp if we can get another experienced centre half in.

Right first up I am not taking this shit of 'bigger' clubs buying bentenke. Spurs and the like are just richer than us currently. Most clubs Villa can eat for breakfast and crap them out before lunch. I just hope we can give him a bigger contract and he hangs around for a few more years yet. I really think it will aid his development in the long run if he has the time to learn his craft at villa for a couple more years. Eventually he will go to a moneybags fc, but hopefully not this summer.

Yes out of my usual seat in the Holte and I can confirm people in the trinity were singing! A rare occurance.

Just back from Villa Park. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Isnt it nice to smiles rather than frowns at the end?! Villa got better as the game progessed, once we started to pass instead of lumping it to Bentenke. The second half was liquid football. Lowton was brillant, Bentenke was a beast and everyone played a part. Sunderland in fairness fell apart after the sending off but how clincial were the Villa?! The only downsides are my blooded shins over too much goal exictment but what the hey. What a night. Still not save yet but this is what the future may hold. And isn't it exciting?

Already got a knot in my stomach about this one. Forgotten what a stress free football match is now!

Crap- meant shirts, not skirts. Fat fingers!

I wonder if Lerner can stil be arsed with Villa. He has sunk a lot of capitial into the club and effectively we are in the same or worse postion then when he bought the club in those summer days of 2006. Doug might have been an annoying old git but he had the last laugh- he never put any of his cash into Villa and got a nice £20 mil payoff when he sold up. Still at least the old boy still comes to the games- Lerner hasnt for years.Obviously the Man City take over totally blew us out of the water and we have never looked like challenging for the top spots since. We can talk about it for days but Lerner bascially gave O'Neill far too much trust in transfers and wages, and we are still paying the price 3 years on. Houllier was a experiment that went wrong, McClueless was a omishambles and the jury is still out on Lambert. What is the most disapointing thing for me is that under Randy, Villa still havent seem to be marketed well enough.I thought americians were good at this! We all thought under Doug, Villa were always under sold. If I remember they brought in some big PR guys, and then nothing happened. A good team helps hugely of course, but even under MON's days we didnt sell out no where near enough. Villa skirts were and still are, hard to buy in shops outside the midlands. Clubs like Spurs have a far better 'brand' than us. I know its mostly down to them being good at the moment, but some of it is still marketing. The North Stand rebuild is totally dead in the water and we face going further back into the pack when West Spam get a free 60,000 stadium. Liverpool are still spending huge amounts whilst United and the rest of the champions league teams are lightyears ahead of us. I dont know how we can catch up other than trying to stick to our current plan of youth development and buying rough diamonds. Unless Lerner is Billy Beane in disguise, this isnt going to have a happy ending. 7 years on and we still dont know him at all. We dont want a return to a Doug type chairman talking nonsense all the times (like a son to me etc, etc) but Randy has to make clear what he wants out of Villa, even if he is uncomfortable in the lime light. My gut feeling is that he tried to get us top four which failed. He has know going to try and recoup the money under Lambert's policies and if we stay up, look to sell in a few years time.

Listened to a bit of it on the radio. Fair play it sounded like a exicting fight, but to make out it shows Khan as championship material is a bit odd. Sure he has the skills but yet again doesnt have the chin. He seems a decent guy but he isnt going to change and I cant seem him being one of the UK greats.

45 quid is a bit of a joke. Must be helping Delia's retirement fund. Still I am always fairly impressed with Norwich's turnout at home and away. Suppose its because there is no other team for miles around!

According to the Birmingham Mail over 35,000 expected which should be the bare minimum for such as a big game.

All I know me and my underwear wouldnt be able to cope with another season like this. Come on Villa lets win our next 2!

I dont think any other player divides Villa fans as much as Bannan. The game is all about opinions, but I am in the anti Bannan camp. Yes he does obviously have some ability, but he is too inconsistent, gives the ball away too much, and those aimless long passes going nowhere annoy me. He has been on the fringes of the team for about 4 years in which most senior players above him have left. For whatever reason a succession of managers have not made him first choice. Perhaps it would be for the best if he goes in the summer and we get a few quid for it.

He has been largely underwhelming. He might come good next season like Petrov who took a year or so to settle in, but I have my doubts. At present I would have Znog ahead of him.

Whatever combination Lambert has done the season (and lord knows he has done a lot), the midfield as a unit has been awful. You cant polish a turd. And its a massive floater.

Whats it with all the massive stock clearance? Are randy and faulkener going to get some family sized petrol cans, pour them over villa village and claim the compo?! Like the scene in Goodfellas.

The Newcastle game was a strange one. At the start of the second half they were all over liverplop like a bad suit, but once the 3rd went it in the atmosphere went like a lead balloon at St James's and they totally fell apart. They have been fairly useless all season. I went to the away game and we outplayed them.We should have got a point in the home match but we threw it away in a awful 1st half. That Fulham game might be enough for them to stay up but they have nasty fixtures coming up. But most teams seem to be winning so I reckon we will need at least 40 pts to stay up. Everyone is saying it but we really, really, really, need to win on Monday.

That last minute winner newkey got v Fulham looks increasingly bigger by the week