iancharlie

perosnally i'd just send ireland to a cave somewhere and leave him there. he is an enigma and not a very good one (although he did beat me at a national skills competition at Old trafford in 2000! he won i came 5th! ). thats my personal opinion though. nzog im undecided on he could come good and shouldn't be written off yet. i just want a team that sweat blood and tears really and the youngsters seem to do that! i'd have

given

cuellar clark dunne

albrighton bannan herd petrov nzog/gardner

bent agbonlahor

mccleish needs to be hard and take a massive gamble in my opinion the experienced boys (other than a spine of given, dunne, petrov, aggy and bent) are not really doing owt. put the kids around them and lets see what happens. worse is we get relegated but no-one dies!

he needs to start from scratch in my opinion but he unfort still has a job on his hands due to the mismanagement and naivety under MON; not that MON was a bad manager its just that money was spent lavishly on very avergae middle of the road players.

if the kids can thrive...we will survive.

4-2 one way or the other depends how mad benty gets!

ive plumped for 5-3 god knows why but i feel a goal mania moment

bent, jenas, aggy (x2) and heskey to get in on the action. dilkington and holt for them...

Not a particularly gifted or skillful player but he does have the desire to succeed which which is what a lot of our talented youngsters have have had missing recently especially the likes of the Moores and now seemingly the Fonz. I hope he can turn into our new Ian Taylor Herd seems to have the energy and drive to acheive this. All teams need a grafter and I really hope he can be ours.

his attitude reminds me of a young bosnich - determined and enjoys life. am glad in team. he'll start scoring too if he keeps going up for corners...

personally id just sell him on unfort he is not a good fit at VP. some players just do not work and he appears to be one of them. reminds me of a slightly worse version of sasa curcic at the mo.

i'd go with

given

herd

dunne

cuellar

warnock

clark

petrov

delph/albrighton

heskey

agbonlahor

bent

Herd is not a great footballer. His second touch is often a tackle and he probably does not have the footballing brain the likes of Clarke and Bannan do.

However, he has fight, desire and wants to win the ball back everytime he doesnt have it.

Lets not kid ourselves into thinking we are a great footballing side at the moment. We are probably going to be in a relegation scrap this season and players like Herd will help us scrape an extra point here and an extra point there.

When we were challenging for 4th with the likes of Milner, Barry, Downing, Young etc. Herd would have had a hard time even making our bench. Now however, he may well play an important role in keeping us in the premiership.

He was excellent at right back on his debut and he had a decent 45 against WBA. Give the lad a chance, he is probably no better on worse than Reo-Coker, one of our brighter players last term.

I doubt anyone who has watched us play this season is under any illusions about our current playing staff.

For me the only "established" players fit to wear C&B are Given, Gabby, Bent the rest of them are utter shite.

If it wasn't for the likes of Herd, Bannan (but who knows what will happen if the D/D is upheld?) Clark coming through we would be in a far worse position, I also include Delph in that as I still believe he has it in him to make the grade.

Make no mistake we are in for a relegation fight, lets hope the likes of Herd, who can play football is ready to keep us in the Premiership but under this manager I have my doubts.

agree with this - herd is the type we need really someone to shake things up a bit and who actually looks like he cares. now all eck needs to do is give clark the chance to shine and get the style of play identified as soon as possible. if this means leaving out big money signings so be it.

the players need to regroup. there is just something not right this year. think a refresh needs to be had really and some really hard decisions need to be made unfortunately. we need to get that freshness back as the place just seems ill at the moment!

2-1 hitzlesberger screamer in last minute.

3-2 to us.

Saw him play for Shams tonight against Sligo Rovers. I thought he did well. He was involved in every good move that Shams had and put in a few dangerous crosses. He is composed on the ball while his fellow defenders hoofed every time. I'll be curious to see how he gets on in our reserve team. I think he will be a better player when surrounded by better players.

Big thanks to VillaEire and all others putting in relevant and interesting information and thoughts about this young fella soon to be Villa player, instead of tiresome textual nonentities like "he will probably suck!!" etc.

We all KNOW that the probability that Mr. Stevens wont turn out to be the next God (or even a Dunne class of player) is excessively high. That is just the way it is.

Somehow, sometimes, however seldom, a player finds within himself all the right combination of personal traits and talent to become the One that really makes it all worth it, tenfolds, every acquisition that didn't quite live up to his potential.

Following such a player on his tentative steps from unknown youth towards classy Villa player is one of the few reasons football is still fun and engaging. I want our players to succeed, and it's so damn fun when the

In the meantime I enjoy all signs that Enda Stevens might just be this person, even though the chances are still very small, and all posts bringing something _about_ the player, especially positive ones, are to prefer ahead of bickering about, frankly, things that we all know already.

great post - i hope he makes it. reference to mark delaney too he scrapped his way through the welsh leagues and was very good for us. we need players with the desire not primadonnas. a villa built on those players is always better than ones who come in with a reputation.

Wise men must be listened to

That tap on the shoulder

Flutters through my thoughts

Clapping eyes on me

In my distant sleeps

In the dreams where I become caught.

That tap on the shoulder

Seeps through my soul

Engendering images of what men should be

In moments when needs

Must.

That tap on the shoulder

Beckons my feet to walk on through

Past the cellar door

In to the mud, the glory

Of what I can do.

That tap on the shoulder

Broadens my senses

Awaking meaning in a little boy

Who, was once lost

But, is now, well and truly found.

That tap on the shoulder

Forever lingers

In my thoughts

i think herd could be the cruncher in midfield instead of delph. bannan is tinkering along nicely. it always takes man u's youngsters a good number of years to develop and I am hoping this is bannan's year.

villa to win 3-0 or to lose 5-1. or draw 0-0! i cannot decide.

team should be

Given

Herd Dunne Collins/Clark Warnock

Albrighton Petrov Jenas Gabby

Nzogbia

Bent

or if not swap bannan for bent (if inj) and put Gabby up front.

One more thing about last night...

These are professional players, they don't need Eric Black barking out the exact spot they need to be stood on every 5 seconds. Just let them play ffs!

Didn't Graham Taylor essentially say those very words before England took on the USA in a friendly match shortly before failing to qualify for the World Cup in '94? They were subsequently beaten 2-0.

Players should take more responsibility, but they also need to be led. They are not jazz musicians that can riff with new bandmates on pure instinct - they have been told what to do and where to go the entire length of their careers, and they need instruction and motivation.

completely agree, although also some players just reach a stage where their motivation goes like it seems irelands may have done and poss delfs. some just dont like payng for certain coaches either. but also mcceish is still trying to see which players will fight for him and which wont in a competitive match. he found out more last night about those who might not stand up.

I will never excuse a lack of effort - and I think it's fair to say there were a few who could not exactly claim to have given everything they had to give last night and deserve to be criticised accordingly - but the lack of leadership on and off the pitch is why performances such as this occur.

put him as a defender in the sweeper role! i think though mccleish is slowl trying to reawaken his attacking ability that he showed off at celtic. could he become Garry Parker?!

4-1 villa bent hattrick

i think bannan could do well but i seem to recall Heskey had some blinders against rovers last year and delfouneso normally likes to score against them too....come on villa! am just watching the history of aston villa video (bought in 1989 with gerald sinstadt narrating ) - to get back to 1980/1/2 and have players like dennis, morley, sid, shaw and bremner...

im sticking £5 on bburn finishing bottom next season.

he may even bring the evil that is craig gardner back and i would not mind that one jot! again not my number one appointment and is illogical but this must have been randy's hardest decision ever as it goes so much against the grain it is untrue and he obviously is aware of that. they must seriously rate mcleish and for mcleish to go for it it does show a certain bravery and confidence. it is not an exciting appointment but we need to sit tight and see.

my favourite press conference was when Big Ron took over. my that was exciting. esp after the bad doctor!

it is unbelievable what is happening. i can undersatdn mcceish leaving the blues after having his feet trampled on on transfers and his team sacked but why would we interview? ok he did fairly decently with scotland and won a cup with birmingham but he is a blue manager - he is not claret and blue! surely there is a more popular choice.

gone are the days of BIG RON, The return of brian Little, the MON appointment (ellis did this i believe). we are scrabbling aorund in the dark. chelsea have said very little publicly. we may say we conduct oursleves properly but the only time we should know is when the manager has been appointed!

i think not interviewing mcclaren based on fan forum views was an oddity in itself and agree with GT's comments (when he was tlaking about the resppnse he had from wolves fans) but the mccleish pressure is much stornger and the board have in essence created a precedence with the stance over mcclaren. in al honesty i would prefer brian little/john gregory and allan evans back or even GT - at least they care for the club.

i've heard a rumour that has no doubt been mentioned on numerous pages that ive missed that moyes is coming to villa and mccleish to everton....

im now thinking i will be gus poyet. although if andre villas-boas wants to really prove himself in he premiership coming to villa would be a brave move!