danceoftheshamen

I think he will too.. Once he's fully developed his outer crust........................Sorry couldn't resist

I'd sell Bent to them for 10m + 3 pts When we play them.. That would be more valuable to us at this point than the extra 3m

Correctly guessed at a draw in that Southampton game tonight, So that makes them still on course for around 38 pts according to my calculations. Looking at the fixtures they could actually do us a favour by beating Wigan in a couple of games time as i think we will finish closest to Wigan out of those two. In fact if Southampton went on a decent run they actually have to play every one of the sides "at risk" apart from us so they could do us some huge favours. Especially at Reading & home to QPR.

I'd go for Hutton Warnock Makoun as deadwood in the regard they are clearly not in the managers plans so therefore are sapping up wages preventing replacements coming in.

May be easier to look at who isn't deadwood lol! Do we actually have a first 11 including no deadwood or any of the players listed above? I'll have a go Guzan Lowton Vlaar Baker Westwood Benteke Weimann Nope ..can't do it! That just about says everything 1. More to add to the list of ...not deadwood, but players we are paying who are not able to play, of course is Petrov sadly. At least i assume he is still on the payroll?..you would hope so anyway unless there is some kind of insurance cover in his situation?

Yeah looking at that we have to go for the 6 wins somehow .. Am sure we can get a couple of draws from somewhere too but 6 wins? There really is no margin for error. Having said that what do we think the safety mark will be this season? I have just done some calculations looking at all the remaining fixtures for us & the teams "at risk". I got this ..............................W..D..L..PTS Norwich City............5..4..6....43 Southampton..........2.10..4...38 Newcastle...............3..7..5....37 Wigan.....................4..5..6....36 Aston Villa..............3...4..8...35 QPR.......................4...5..6...32 Reading.................2...6...7..31 Now that has us losing to Wigan on the last day... If we won that we'd replace them as safe however. Other wins against West Ham, Fulham & Sunderland all at home with losses against Everton (a) Arsenal (a) Man City (h) Liverpool (h) Man U (a) Norwich (a) Chelsea (h) Wigan (a) Its actually very tight indeed for most of those clubs apart from maybe Norwich. A bad defeat could put any one of those teams right in it.. but by the same token an unexpected win could save them.

Me neither... Could possibly see 4 wins & 6 or 7 draws however taking us to around 38/39 pts.. Big question is would that be enough? At half time yesterday i was thinking "if we can just hold onto this it could be the one result which will keep us up". Well we couldn't, so it's now all back in the melting pot again..such a shame. It's a really fine line now & Newcastle is a must win as we have a very limited number of games left that you would think this squad are capable of winning... Newcastle at home is one of those few but it won't be easy of course.

Thought we sacked Nike off didn't we? Due to being bottom of their list of priorities.

It is looking more & more as though our survival depends on us finding that defensive midfielder. Worrying thing is it also looks as though one may not be coming...How long is left of the window now? 10 days? Also with Baker now injured we really do need that new CB.. What state would we be in if Clark got injured now? Or Vlaar?

Another nail..... Lovely.

?? So thats as i thought then.. In the late 80's was when we went down (87) which was the tail end or "bust years" as i mentioned of Thatcher, leading to the recession of the early 90's.. At least thats what i meant..Anyhow enough about politicians (even though the Prime Minister is a Villa fan of course)

In all honesty although i know it would damage the club in many ways financially mainly, i do remember the last episode & went home & away to every match practically then. I remember we had an awful start.. loads of poor draws if i remember correctly & everyone was really worried .. but then we started to adjust & get some results. I was hitch hiking to loads of away games back then.. we'd take a tent & make a weekend of it.. watch the game (which were always Saturday afternoons back then) then off out clubbing.. sleep in the tent & hitch hike home on the Sunday!. Great times Remember getting completely soaked at Plymouth then pitching the tent in the middle of a ring road island with a thicket of trees in the middle which gave us a bit of cover lol!.. Eventually got a lift back as far as Bristol off some sympathetic Bristol City fans who had a huge camper van & arrived back sometime Sunday evening lol!...Cost... £0 (apart from admission) But what i think you'd find is it would bring the Villa fans back together again. It had a kind of galvanising effect.. the attendances were around 25,000 but then attendances were generally lower back then anyway due to the Thatcher "bust" years leading into a recession in the early 90's if memory serves. The away support was, as it still is, magnificent... So on that side of it it could be beneficial & good fun in some ways.. great to see some different grounds too & we would be well capable of winning any game home or away too... forgotten what that feels like thats for sure So, for all those who have never experienced such "lows" before.... all would not be lost my fellow Villans. It may just bring the whole club back together again after the fragmenting effect of the last few appalling years. We have a chance to avoid it yet though so fingers crossed but this club can definately come back from that. Never know it might even bring the lion out of it's coma too!

Do agree Mantis.. thing is i think they are looking at the "could" stay up bit. meaning we could also spend & still go down resulting in problems financially maybe?.. After the decimation of the last 3 seasons i guess you can see why Randy is so determined to not let it get back to that point... by the looks of it that includes if we got relegated.

I think it's becoming obvious now that the investment is being held back as they realize we are not good enough & could well go down. This would explain the cautiously low budget Lambert is saying he has gotten. Surely if they really believed we would stay up with a couple of decent signings then it would be folly to not do that considering the immediate 60m hit from the new TV deal. If we spend big & still get relegated however that could cripple the club. It's a "covering all bases" move for me... at least thats how it is appears.

It is noticeable how over the last 3 seasons we have had incredible amounts of injuries... Houllier was wiped by it out in his first half season, ditto AMC & now Paul Lambert... I can never remember such a harsh run of injuries & nearly always to the spine of the team too which cripples us & for me is why we have consistently struggled to find form.

Problem is teams don't fear going down a goal or 2 against us because all season we've been having these "20 minute self destruct" sessions.. When we readily concede 2, 3 or more goals. With this side as soon as you rattle them they implode ..badly. It's happened all season.. Everton (H), Southampton (A), Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd etc etc etc etc... Never seen anything like it its damn odd?!

scary thing is i wouldn't even say we've been standing still..... more like sprinting backwards!

I think we need 5 wins 5 draws minimum from 15 games?.. that was crucial today.. draw was no good for us.. to have it at 2-0 then throw it away is inexcusable proves they are simply not good enough for the Premier League (& thats even worse considering how poor the Prem is this season).... Roll on another embarrassment on Tuesday. Don't tell me... we'll go 3-0 up, be at Wembley & then concede a dodgy penalty & lose it in the last 5 mins. effing muppets

I take that as an awful point... 2-0 up to screw it all up .....AGAIN!... Once is bad but to do it again when you are 2 goals up in a local derby & in the relegation zone & havn't been ahead in a match for what seems like months is pathetic. Awful football team.

They may have just thrown survival down the toilet.. bunch of clowns excuses have now run out.. furious

Excellent!!.. that was so important,... especially after the Baker issue. When the last time we were ahead in a game? Was it Liverpool?...Fantastic Benteke!

Its bizarre isn't it... A settled back 4 as we all know is key to keeping clean sheets. It's killing us all these changes all the time... Always seems to happen to the spine of this team too which is also crucial. No wonder we are so crap.

This season just sucks more & more with the passing of every hour. Disrupted already so now watch them panic.

Big shame.

Oh goody, Bennett is starting