brommy

I honestly doubt how much direct influence a politician has under the circumstance of war. A PM may have a background of law or finance but that doesn't make them a military strategist. I'm not sure how it worked in WWII but in the conflicts that have followed, I picture half a dozen senior military and civil advisors surrounding the PM and saying "Under the current circumstance, we think we should...", followed by any PM pausing for supposed thought and then saying "Yes. That is what we should do". The important part of how the public perceive their leader is performing in a 'crisis' is then sorted by the media. Having MT as leader during an extended high level conflict would have left the UK with as much to worry about after the conflict as during. That's the last thing you want. The UK's military superiority (not great leadership) during the Falkland Islands conflict, further compounded the domestic destruction being caused in the UK by giving a victorious PM two further terms. I suspect Rubert M. had more influence for the second re-election though.

I had the renewal information, including the 9 months interest free offer, by post on Monday.

There's no point in admitting or not admitting whether your opinion is correct or not. We'll see who was the better team this season when looking at the table after 38 games. Even if we lose twice against Wigan this season, we'll still be the better team IF we finish above them.

Walt smart, Jesse dumb. Also, I can't recall Jesse spending enough money (yet) to alert the IRS. If he has plans to do anything with his millions, he'll need to open a laundry! On a related note, how much does anyone on here 'guesstimate' Walt has amassed in his store 'pile'?

Milfner and Ginko, Thanks for your most recent posts. Enjoyable viewing/reading. Cheers!

I suspect your post might offend other football fans, not just Wigan! Of course your opinion is valid but not necessarily one I agree with on this occasion.

If the other teams around us are so well organised, why are they around us? They must have unravelled a few times this season as well! So losing against manu and sunderland means we are automatically down, even though we could still reach 40+ points??? Even if sunderland were the only other team we were competing against, it still wouldn't be certain. Adding stoke, wigan and nawich in to the mix makes it even less certain. I've seen enough changes in form from so many teams, including us, this season, that predicting any certainties is pointless.

I'd love us to finish on 49 points but the reality is most of us would take 17th place on any points. My guess to your question is 60:40 that we can manage it. If we do stay up, I have reasonable faith in our manager and most of our players to perform better next season, but I guess that's for another thread(s).

Why point score against fellow Villa fans? At a time when our Premier League status could go either way, there's a chance many of the predictions on this thread could be correct. I hope we stay up and this thread doesn't become full of posters slating others for lacking faith. Conversely, if we go down, I hope it's not full of posters enjoying a 'told you so' attitude. It won't serve anyone well. Either way, our club will be there for us all to support next season.

What sort of comments do they make? Perhaps they're trying to be friendly and you're wishing them a premature death!

Richard, to accuse people, whose actions and words you know very little, of being 'singularly incapable of displaying any decency' and yet be blind to the indecency of someone whose actions and words were there for all to see, is indecency in itself. Don't sink to their level and then criticise them; it is hypocritical.

Whilst I'm not one to aim poor taste comments at any dead person or their family, I think your comment displays a massive amount of ignorance and/or naivety.actually no, my comment displays a massive amount of decency. It is hypocrisy of the highest order to call for decency from those recalling the life of someone who showed very little decency during her life. it would only be hypocrisy if I did not display similar decency for someone from the other side of the political divide, or didnt call for it for someone from the other side of the political divide. I am willing to accept that it may be naively to call for decency from people who are singularly incapable of displaying any decency, but it is not hypocrisy. Yes it is. Why seem surprised that some people may have shown a level of indecency to a person who proved she was singularly incapable of displaying any decency in her life?

Whilst I'm not one to aim poor taste comments at any dead person or their family, I think your comment displays a massive amount of ignorance and/or naivety.actually no, my comment displays a massive amount of decency. It is hypocrisy of the highest order to call for decency from those recalling the life of someone who showed very little decency during her life.

Whilst I'm not one to aim poor taste comments at any dead person or their family, I think your comment displays a massive amount of ignorance and/or naivety.

**** disgraceful. I suspect there will be dozens of so called 'jokes' to come; similar to Diana's death and others. As distasteful as they may seem, many will feel Margaret Thatcher will finally reap what she had sown. Many people witnessed the destruction MT caused to whole communities, leading many destroyed families and even suicides. Believe me, MT herself was far more a disgrace than any words aimed at her death could ever be.

It is fitting that Margaret Thatcher's death is soured by the biggest legacy created by her life - division. It was argued that Margaret Thatcher had a love for Britain. That Margaret Thatcher did not have the same passion for Britain's people is a shame that she took to her own grave. I hope she was a good family woman. Her political life was a disgrace.

Instead of worrying about rumours and speculation regarding players leaving, why not enjoy what our best players are doing for the club? If you were dating someone you suspected was a league above you, would you spend all the time paranoid about her leaving you or fill your boots while it lasted?

I believe the £325 tickets are still £325. There was a discount of £30 if bought early last year.

Rather loosely, transfers are paid for by RL. Other than that, I agree PL's transfer record shouldn't have been slated on this particular thread. I'll now avoid counter arguing the original digression.

I agree Pelle. The overall effect of the team has been poor. That's for all to see. My point was to argue against the assumption that PL's transfer record is a failure. Our performance this season shouldn't mask the huge success of Benteke and Guzan transfers and the relative success of the Westwood transfer. Conversely, if we'd played well for most of the season, I wouldn't be claiming KEA's transfer as a success. It's hypocritical to state PL's transfer record is a failure at the same time as stating it would be even worse if it weren't for Guzan and Benteke. 6 out of 10, on balance. Not great, but hardly a transfer record 'failure'.

If PL's transfer record for Villa is so bad, wouldn't their current collective value be less than their purchased value, especially given the poor season we are having. My conservative guesses are: KEA would be less, Bennett less, Lowton equal, Bowery equal, Vlaar equal, Holman more, Westwood more, Guzan more, Benteke more, Sylla too early to say. Not bad for a team currently in 18th. It is too simplistic to look at our current predicament and equate it directly to transfer failures.

Unfortunately there's a chance our victory could reinforce their need to tie the NextGen to CL teams; after all, how dare Villa win it instead of manu, chel$ki or barca?

But PL is the one who has selected Clark consistently despite repeated evidence he isn't up to the job. He has also defended him and described him as "excellent". This surely reflects a bit on PL's judgement? Mind you, why is this debate going on here? It's the Randy Lerner thread! I'm not sure why BJ has dragged PL's transfer record in to the RL thread, but my response was referenced to just that - BJ's declaration that PL's transfer record was 'way over on the failure side'. Despite the poor season, I disagree.

Many pre-PL players have contributed to our downfalls this season. In order to isolate the PL signed players and judge their relative success, perhaps we should estimate their current values against their purchased values? I'd estimate that most of PL's transfers were worth as much, or more than we paid for them. A decent success given the poor season the collective team has had. PL is not 'way over on the failure side' and his transfers are not 'hence our shocking season and current position in the bottom 3'. Not to be negatively selective, without PL' s Benteke we'd be in the 'bottom 1'. As for pre-PL players contributing to our current predicament, I'll start you off with Clark...

It is obvious that any money spent on a player(s) that is not performing could have been spent better! As no club board/manager has ever acheived 100% success in that area, surely the important fact is the ratio of successes against failures, not just stating that money spent on a player, who turned out to be poorer than expected, was a waste.