paddy

Solano, didn't really rate him when we first signed him, this season up to when I last saw him against Norwich he's been superb

Smith Smith Smith or Smith please. Bit of passion, great work rate, good striker, more in the Angel mould than the Vass and Luke mould, Smith every time, sometimes you need a dirty bastard, if we signed him he'd be a Holte End hero in no time, 2nd choice would be Forssell. Who do I reckon we'll get... Keane, he wouldn't be too bad, but too much like Vass and Luke and not worth 5m anymore, I don't really think we need a player like him.

I went for Lee Hendrie as the biggest difference from last season to this, but he goes up and down, so he gets a lot of chance to be the most improved unfortunately. Whoever voted for Barry I would have to disagree with, with the odd exception (admittedly I haven't seen villa play since Norwich at home as I left the country 2 days later) he's been nowhere near as good as previous seasons, yes he was good on saturday by all accounts but do you think that's clouding your judgement? He's been average at best, remember when he played under GT, he was absolutely awesome, he's nowhere near that level again yet

A prime example of the problems of filtering! (unless that was deliberate) On a slightly related topic... I've got a PS2 bought out here, and I want Pro Evo 4, they don't sell it out here so logic says buy it off the internet, 34.99 including delivery to NZ isn't bad, but then I realised the format could be different out here, like with DVDs, so does anyone know where I can find out for certain whether a PS2 game bought in the UK will work on an NZ console? I know they're both PAL format, does that mean they will? Also if anyone knows of it cheaper somewhere that'd be great too. Cheers

I'm not sure if this one has been on here before but it's a favourite of mine, if in extremely bad taste... What's Eric Clapton's favourite chord? A flat minor

This joke was told on some radio station out here while Prince Charles was visiting, treading on dodgy ground, I'm sure most of you will get it as the allegations were widely discussed. As Prince Charles' plane was approaching Dunedin airport the captain made an announcement saying they were coming into land, would they please return their seats to the upright position etc etc. A stewardess doing the final check goes to have a quiet word with Prince Charles and asks him to put his book away as they came into land. The Prince apologises before realising he doesn't have a bookmark, so he asks the stewardess if she has one, "No sir" she replies "Can't you just bend over the page". Prince Charles pauses a moment then says "If you knew how much trouble I got into last time I did that..."

I would

First thing's first... I don't like Carlton Cole, I think he's crap HOWEVER, if he was our player I'd probably look at it that he's only young and has quite a lot of potential, if he was our player I'd have no problem playing him, because he could turn into a very good player, but at the moment he's awful, so we gain nothing from playing him, because he's not ours in the future, I don't think he's played his last game in the prem, Norwich, Palace and Albion would probably find a use for him in their team along with some others. If he was at a team that owned him that wasn't one of the big 3 then I think he'd do quite well, but I can't see him succeeding as a loan signing because it doesn't give you time to improve. So I voted no...

Ian Taylor for me off that list, but he's more of a true hero Crouchinho and DLC both reached cult hero status and would have been my choices

surely nowhere near that high

Crouch, not worth £5.5m by any stretch of the imagination, but I was often impressed by him, at least he could control a ball, lay it off etc. sometimes he really was class

I voted Little, he got me hooked and he did well overall, he was in charge of the first game I saw, he's still the only manager that has shown me villa score 7 goals in one game (that was my first game), then 4 goals the next (home game), I have to say apart from GT mkII they were all good Pretty sure it was Little who signed Ian Taylor as well wasn't it? Whether it was him or Big Fat Racist, they deserve a medal

I think you missed the fact that I'm obsessesed with Cygan, you probably weren't on here when I was celebrating his birthday, on another villa board my name was "Pat - scal Cygan"

I might change my vote atually, only a truly great manager could pick up genuine talent such as the big man, Cygan

whoever it was their inbred brother/sister voted for them as well it seems

It was very close between Wenger and Mourinho but Mourinho just stole it I'm afraid, unimaginative I know as Wenger worked wonders with little money, but Mourinho is just class

How things change, I guess this is why the polls are left here, so you can look back on them, the poll if done again would probably change quite a lot, but I'm well aware that it is to do with "Favourite" and not "Best", but best leads to favourite in a lot of cases (not mine, my favourite is DLC, he's not the best) anyway just thought you might like to read the comments and you can all see how much we all change in 11 months (just under), by we all I not only mean our opinions, but the players as well there's some other polls well worth a look back there as well but I don't really want to drag up more than one, seems as if I'm spamming these are some of my other favourites.... Carlton Cole or Beattie? Who would you drop to accomodate a new signing? Which central midfield partnership?, before Hendrie started scoring presumably... like I say this isn't to prove anything, or have a go at anyone, it's just interesting

well 2 people so far it seems, those people who recognise we need defensive cover I guess, or perhaps want to save the pennies, Yak for me though

it looks nothing like Phil King! :shock: Why wasn't Andy Reid in the poll by the way, I reckon he'd have got a fair few votes, more than Kelly and Faye anyway

well thats the email we got from the club today, seems like Mark Draper to me (yeah I know it's not meant to be a picture of the new signing.... but if it is who is it? I go for Draper or possibly Gary Charles)

yak has the 3rd best strike rate in premiership history, and that's for portsmouth, says a lot really

I forgot one section I meant to put in.... it was a particularly bad year for "celebrities" passing away, there were obviously many more than this, and arguably some bigger names, but these were the 3 that got me (in order) 1. John Peel - Absolute legend 2. Marco Pantani - Yes he was a drugs cheat but he was a hero of mine, still can't believe the pirate has gone, haven't watched cycling since he gave up 3: Brian Clough - The best manager ever? Well he said he wasn't but he was "in the top 1", whether he was the best ever is debatable but there's no doubt he was one of the best

The comedy thread got me thinking about how 2004 was generally, so... Was 2004 a good year for you? Obviously every year has its ups and downs, but 2004 was certainly an eventful and productive year for me, and I'd put it very much in the "good year" category, one of my best to date I reckon From a personal point of view: Started off not great with one hell of a lot of cleaning up from a very messy new years party Started to come along quite nicely with Villa's improving form Turned 18 in February, spent my birthday in the pub (all day) and then had one hell of a joint party a couple of days later joint with my cousin who's 4 days younger than me, one of the best nights of the year I reckon Villa obviously continued to provide excitement building up hopes of champions league football I passed my driving test (and haven't crashed yet either) Took a bit of a downer when my hockey team finished 3rd in the league, the top 2 go up, absolute scandal that was, can't be bothered to explain the details but "we was robbed" Took a bit of a downer when Villa missed out on europe so narrowly but it was still fantastic to do so well having started the season so badly Did my A levels, didn't get as worked up about them as most people (parents and teachers) would have liked, but still came out with 2 As and a C, and got into my first choice uni (Leeds), can't complain at that really Spent an absolutely fantastic week in the Lake District with some mates and my old school helping out on a D of E expedition, some things that happened really can't be repeated on here but alcohol was a major factor (as always), long road trips are always good and we just had a great week annoying the locals (not intentionally), going to the beach, playing football, drinking the local cider and just generally having a laugh A couple of weeks after that I went to Malaga for 8 days with 2 good mates of mine, free accomodation so lots of spare money for booze (recurring theme anyone?), had a great week even if i did get mugged, met Led Zepplin while in a drunken haze Spent 28 days seeing my mate every day over the summer (including those 2 weeks), somehow we managed to not get too pissed off with each other in that time, we even went a week without spending money, just playing pool and doing very little generally Took kind of a turn for the worse when most of my mates went off to uni, there was the end of the drinking most nights of the week either at the local or up town, lost a stone in those few months though so shows how unhealthily I was living before Then I thought having spent so much over the summer and as I was going away in January I really need to earn some money, night shift at asda it was, very tiring, very depressing really, but it had to be done and is almost over now Took another upturn when I started "seeing" a lot of a very lovely young lady, but a huge downer that we both know that as of January we can't see each other for 8 months, which is absolutely gutting Kind of got boring towards the end of the year with only spending time with her and my best mate coming back from uni most weekends keeping me sane (along with still having the band and hockey) Hockey team is thrashing everyone this season, going to win the league by a mile, nice one Band is going well, recorded a good demo (click here for 2 of those songs) this year and played some very good gigs, had a great year with them Obviously ups as villa started well, bit of a down losing the derby game and a bit of a downturn in form Not a bad christmas either, very hungover christmas morning which wasn't good but the rest was good From a more general point of view: TV: Comedy was obviously a huge plus point, all discussed on another thread, absolutely superb, say no more Great sporting moments on TV as well.... I actually got interested in women's tennis, 1) because it was nice to see someone playing so bloody well at such a young age and just playing great tennis 2) well.... i'm sure Rob can elaborate on what I mean And not forgetting the Olympics, I really enjoy the olympics, the whole thing, I'd never watch badminton at any other time! But Kelly Holmes winning the 2nd race had me jumping out of my seat, and the 4 x 100 was just breathtaking, absolutely superb, great stuff Euro 2004... We could and perhaps should have won this, choose your scapegoat as is customary, Urs Meir is no doubt top, Beckham up there as well, Vass completely unfairly up there, I blame Sven, when you go 1-0 up and everyone just goes "oh shit" because you know that you're going to sit back the whole game is so annoying, but there were some great times watching that, loving the france game until the final minute, portugal was good for a while, it's nice to watch football with your mates and actually all be supporting the same side for a change Reality TV was shit, all of it, I usually like BB, but hated it Radio: Kerrang started up in brum, which isn't bad sometimes, makes a nice change Sara Cox disappeared off Radio 1, even better! Current affairs (i wanted a better heading than that): George W was re-elected... hmmm, Madrid train bombings.... hmmm, annoying toffs complained about banning fox hunting... hmmm, our parliament wasted loads of time discussing it... hmmm, Fathers For Justice put in a few appearances, not too bad, plenty of other boring rubbish, they don't really report good news, either that or there isn't any, currently dominated by the massive earthquake in the Pacific, that sort of thing certainly doesn't come around very often, shocking So there you have it, my review of 2004, no doubt I missed out something really important, but I can't think what, no doubt I will later Obviously 2005 could be even better what with moving to New Zealand, but 2004 was amazing, and I really did love it, so it was definitely "Good year" for me, roll on 2005!

I forgot Catterick was this year as well, dodgy in parts but an absolute work of genius in others, would probably nip in just ahead of max and paddy into 4th

I thought that vicar was a little bit far, I remember turning to whoever was in the room at the time and saying "can they really do this?", "wouldn't have thought so" was the response, but they did the rest of it is just right though, there's a line and they don't quite cross it, most of the time they stay well away from it actually, "yeah I know" Andy is in a wheel chair but they're not taking the mick out of disabled people in any way, he's not even disabled, and the indian woman they're taking the mick out the woman speaking to her not the woman herself I'd rather Matt Lucas didn't wear some of those gay costumes sometimes though! a little bit much to take sometimes, where the hell does he get them from?! (no not because I want to go and buy some :roll:)