timharding

My favourite from sikipedia...

Thank God for the "Save Maddie" fund. Her parents can afford a babysitter now.

General,

In recent times Britain has encountered somewhat of an upheaval in what society sees as right and wrong, and ultimately what it is prepared to accept. With that in mind would it be appropriate for an organisation whose core business is the pursuit of physical excellence, to bring in a blanket ban both alcohol and unhealthy foods? After all, we would be appalled if Gareth Barry was to indulge in a burger and a pint before a game, so as an organisation should we be seen to encourage this lifestyle in our fanbase? Should we set a better example by outlawing these products from villa park?

Censorship is perfectly valid, though sometimes when making valid points, and then being accused of only being interested in upping your thread count can be sometimes frustrating.

well as of now our squad is weaker than last year when we got 11th. teams bellow have strengthened, a couple havent so 11th would be a good season for the squad we have got.

i also am playing by the rules o this thread and so am quite suprised that people think with a worse squad than last year we would finish better?

Thats only if you consider the squad to be worse. The only position we're worse in is right back, and thats only a numbers thing, because both Bardsley and Hughes were terrible.

Moores, Gabby and Gardner a year wiser, Young, Petrov and Carew will have had time to settle, we have added a cracking player in NRC and added better cover in the shape of Harewood. Overall a better squad.

I like mcdonalds. its not to say its all i eat, but it has its place. When your on the run. you finish work at 6 and due in the pub at 7? it works. Sitting down for your tea to a big mac? it doesnt. Indians the best, hands down but fast food itself? Pizza.

One of the tracks off the new editors album

General,

Wanted to offer further thanks, first to the club management for the great Lower north deal, and second to the ticket staff for processing our purchases so quickly and efficiently and the stewards that sat with us throughout a very wet windy night! It really feels that these days the staff are taking some level of ownership of the image of the club and its great to see.

Even the words 'White Stripes' make me wince.

Inspired by Tony's cover version hell I was inspired to put on Nouvelle Vague 'Sweet and Tender Hooligan' probably my favourite cover version. In fact that particular band make a habit of it.

I'm not practising but I'm catholic and although free will and a modicum of intelligence prevents me from blindly believing every silly thing I was taught, I do believe that my own personal moral code and ethics are built firmly on the religious teachings of my childhood. I also think that is true for most moderate people with some level of religous background regardless of creed.

I was thinking 7/10 when I first listened to the album but now its up to 8.5. The lastalbum i felt was a 9/10 was A Certain Trigger so you can see its been a while since I've enjoyed an album as much.

I love the way people are saying, we need a 20 or even 30 goals a season man. A little reminder for you:

One (1) player scored 20 this year and it was Drogba. Last year it was RVN and Henry, and before that it was Henry and Johnson. And the year before that it was RVN, Henry and Shearer.

So when your asking for those types of players, remember how difficult it is to produce such a tally. And how few players do it on a regular basis. Only RVN, Henry and Shearer springs to mind.

Very good post. Michael Owen has NEVER managed 20 league goals in one season.

I spent most of last summer in Europe and on my travels visited both Gothenburg and Riga. Both have no smoking policies and I found it to be very pleasent to step outside for my 'fix'. It also cut down my intake and I found my hangovers were much less severe.

However this hasn't made me any less resentful. Passive smoking still hasnt been proved even though the theory has been tested continually for many years. I watched newsnight a few years back and heard what appeared to be a middle aged middle class middle of the road scottish lady rattle about how she feels restricted from going to pubs because she cant stand the smoke. She also claimed that many people like her would begin to frequent pubs once the ban in scotland came into force. I'm pretty sure after one visit to the pub, she remembered that the loud laddish environment was the real reason for her staying away. I can live with the ban but its the sneering attitude of many people who will never frequent the pub on a regular basis, claiming some victory on those who they seem to view as shit on their shoe.

It would be interesting if, just to make a point, all smokers stayed out of pubs for say two weeks. And let the no smoking brigade enjoy a smoke free atmosphere in an empty pub devoid of....atmosphere

I dont think O'Neill is gonna look for 'direct' cover for players like Carew as it will limit how flexible we are tactically. I may be wrong but I'd be very surprised if every time carew was injured he'd be replaced 'like for like'. I think any striker he signs will have different skills, giving us four different options, thereby ensuring the opposition wont just be able to predict the way we play all the time. For example it has been mentioned that signing someone like Bellamy or Defoe (just an example fella's!) would be too similar to Gabby, but to my mind thats a very shallow comparison in that pace is the only similarity. Either of those players would add something we dont have in the other three, Carews agression (granted without the physique) allied with directness.

And that theory also stretches to other signings. A question I've read repeatedly is if we get NRC and we also go after Sneijder, where will they all play? Again that is assuming we're gonna have a 'starting 11' that never changes unless forced to (like under DOL) again being too predictable. I see MON having a core 5 or 6 players that are regulars, with the other 5 positions being selected on merit and to suit the occasion. That also gives flexibility of formation and would explain why two of MON signings (Young and Maloney) are two of the most versatile players in the prem with the ability to cover any forward going position.

I may be massivley wide of the mark and Mr O'Neill may prove it by signing a Carew mk II but its just how I have being viewing both the tranfer rumours and, over a longer period, the positional experiments since Jan.

I would be miffed in that he is similar to davis so selling davis and buying an older more expensive player with the same frailties would be a mistake.

Koumas is basically Stevn Davis in five years time. He's too lightweight, not disciplined enough positionally and the rumoured fee is too much. I wouldnt rule out championship players just because they're championship players but I think with Koumas is not at a level which would improve aston villa. I'm not saying he wouldnt succeed at prem level, in fact I think he'd make a very good signing for the likes of Blackburn or Boro.

kightley is a different situation to Koumas because age. It isnt the championship that is the issue it is the fact that at 28 Koumas is playing at his full potential

he's playing at his full potential based on the players around him - and gets rave reviews for it. if Ronaldo played in the West Brom team do you think he'd look as good as he does for Man Utd ?

No. because the service/reading of the game around him wouldn't be at the same standard as it is there. Ditto Koumas could look excellent in a talented side with pace and vision

you just don't know until you try

If that were true you could apply it to every player in the lower leagues. Lee Trundle would be awesome cos he played with better players. Should we resign Kevin phillips then?

TRIAL

Villa trial a kid I've never heard off. Any of our Scandinavian brethren know him? This seems a more solid link to me.

kightley is a different situation to Koumas because age. It isnt the championship that is the issue it is the fact that at 28 Koumas is playing at his full potential and there are better players out there than, wheras kightley is 21 with potential to become a star.

Nope Barry hasn't been our "best player for the last five seasons" because Angel scored 23 goals for us not long ago and Solano was head and shoulders abouv him when he was here too!!, stop going over board, Barry is a decent player but he's not on Sneidjers level and imo Petrov will be much better next season, he showed his class towards the end of last season, plus he's got experiance of champions league football and is back on the international scene, i don't know why people are so scared of change!!, :roll:

well, i believe you're wrong but you're entitled to your opinion. Solano wasn't fit to wipe Barry's boots as far as i'm concerned. if he'd ever bothered to turn up for an away match things may have been different of course. a few silky passes, and free kicks do not maketh a great player. Barry is a rare 7-8/10 player week in week out

but Barry suffers from the same problem a lot of our homegrown/raised players do. some supporters think less of them because they cost nothing

for what its worth, i wouldn't swap Barry for any left sided player in the premiership. that's how important i feel he is to our side

Solano won us matches and created and scored more, none of his goals being from the penalty spot either, and the notion of Nobby never turning up away from home is pure myth, i remember him scoring the equeliser at Southampton when we were two down, setting up Angel at Wolves when we won four nil, Setting up Hitz at pompy, Setting up Barry at Liverppol, he played his part but it was the whole team who never turned up most times away from home not just him,

My opinion is Sneidjer is better than Barry and would replace him, i don't know what the fuss is, and if you wouldn't take Robben over Barry then i think this debate is worthless.

I agree that Sneijder is better than Barry but he wouldn't replace him, they'd play in the same midfield, one on the left one in the middle. Cant agree with Solano though, he had a few good games but on the whole I didn't even blink when he left. He got his repuation for being good at the things that get you on match of the day, like crossing. Tracking back however...

The championship is a much tougher league than a lot of tin pot leagues in Europe

Which tin pot leagues? Holland? Where PSV got to a CL semi recently. Scotland? Where Celtic beat Man Utd and Benfica and gave the eventual winners a real go. No championship side could hold there own in the tougher comps.

as for Petrov, i assume you're having a laugh ?

granted that performance away to West Ham was excellent, but the very fact you had to go back that far says it all about Stan. one great game all season

maybe, just maybe O'Neill's about to cut his losses on him and ship him out and replace with better ? and lets face it, you'd find a better player than him far quicker than you would Barry. i think thats a given

I suppose we better sign koumas then? :roll:

They're effin awesome and the bands name refers to brummy 'twang'

He can piss off anyway.

Would be chuffed.