Don_Simon

So, ive had my new teaching timetable, and teaching till 1700, coupled with a 90 minute commute home, and the need to spend time with my son means evening running is pretty much out of the question. Thus, i'm going to have to start doing morning running.

Now i'm probably the least likely morning runner on the planet, but ive been running for about six months now, did eight miles in one hour on saturday, and am determined not to let time issues make me stop. Has anyone got any tips for early morning running?! Or is it purely a case of mind over matter / pillow...?

So glad I was at the nou camp when he scored his first ever goal.

And had no clue who he was.

What a brilliant "I was there" moment!

My personal favourite is that "I was there" when he and the other Barca boys gave the Galactico's a 2-6 hiding of there lives at the Bernabau. Will never, ever forget that night.

I've forgotten what it's like to have best players

Oh the contrasts. Previous summers weve been battling to keep hold of our "stars" and this summer were battling to get rid of our rejects.

Not sure which I prefer?!

Going to jump in here with my probably my only bit of ITK ever, so I will savour the abuse if im wrong, and Olympian like revelry if right...

Fletcher wants out at Wolves, but wants desperately to go up North as his Mother and other family live in the NE. From the horses mouth so to speak. It would take an astronomical offer above from Villa above what Sunderland are offering to keep him down in this neck of the woods.

And, knowing how MON likes to give obscene wages to UK talent, us exceeding that isnt very likely, is it...

(Am I allowed to use a MysteryMan famous: ! now?)

I don't think the sale of the Browns has to mean were going to spunk $920,000,000 on Messi for it to benefit Villa.

Perhaps it will just increase our wage allowance slightly?

Perhaps our transfer war chest will increase by ten million per window?

Perhaps a some money will be used to redevelop the hideous North Stand?

And perhaps this will mean we can have a nice sponsor link with Acorns again? I really dislike Randy going against his moral fibre with Genting Casinos just to get money through the tills.

The point I'm trying to make in a roundabout way I suppose is that our owner having more money cannot help but benefit us. Be it hugely or slightly.

Ps: I will quite literally WANK MYSELF INTO OBLIVION if we buy Lionel Messi.

The best job in international football has to be the USA job. A decent team that's a virtual lock to qualify for every World Cup, with such a low degree of pressure that it verges on total anonymity.

I will counter your choice of "USA! USA!", with that of the Aussies. Also a guaranteed world cup starter, but also one of the favourites for the regional Asian tournament, (do USA play in the South American or Central / North American tournament?). I think the US have more potential to actually succeed though on a global scale, so perhaps you just about shade it.

1-0 down already, what a rubbish start to my day!

I also don't mean to be disrespectful but I think our first team is quite close in terms of quality but our youth academy is far far far superior to Villa's.

Big boast my friend.

I think our academy is up there with the best in the UK and, on the basis of last year's Next Gen series, the best in Europe. "far, far, far" may be stretching it!

That doesn't really mean a lot. UK youth academies are generally very poor and the Next Gen series are an invitational tournament. Feyenoord rejected participation so that our youngsters wouldn't be in the picture as much of UK teams.

We have lost so many players because they cannot sign a contract until they are 16, it's quite ridiculous. In the last 2/3 years we've lost Bruma and Ake to Chelsea, Rekik to Man City, Ebecilio to Arsenal and Van la Parra to Caen. English academies pinch these youngsters so that they are counted as home grown because they cannot teach young kids how to play. They give their parents a cleaning job for 60k a year, pay the kid a few 100.000 a year and only have to compensate us 50/100k.

But still we have 16 of our 27 first team squad from the academy. That is not really boasting...but facts (Rafa Benitez style)

And I wansn't even mentioning recent departures like Castaignos (Inter Milan), Wijnaldum (PSV) and Fer (FC Twente) who left the club a year ago after coming through the ranks.

It's quite the contrast if you come up with Albrighton, Clark and Agbonlahor.

Well put.

I utterly concur. I believe the term "owned" is correct. Our Youth system gets widely lauded by our own fans, but I dont see many of our youth prospects playing for any teams of high quality in England, never mind across Europe.

Hopefully the more dealings we do with Feyenoord, (who I may adopt as my Dutch team now, why the devil not?!), the closer links the two teams will have.

Spurs signing players when they haven't got a manager? Thought only we did that?!

And Chel$ki!

He must talk the talk pretty well in those situations, but often does not walk the walk.

this is my biggest gripe with him...he's a world beater in his head....

there is no way he should have been on that penalty list...

we would have more success IMO if penalty takers were picked on their mental strength and calmness under pressure....

look at Pirlo...there was no way he was gonna miss that penalty and to score it the way he did just epitomises his calm mentality....

Gerrard, Parker (shouldn't have been taken off), Milner, Rooney and Hart should have been the penalty takers

Why on earth all the full stops?

Ooooh, I forgot about Cahill. Did he come all the way through the ranks? As a Champions League winner, I "suppose" we can say he's been a relative success!

Im still not sure as to why the McDonald love-in?

Can understand the angst if the Youth Development honcho of Crewe Alexandre, Man Utd, Everton (Rooney, Rodwell, maybe Barkley), Arsenal at a push (Wilshere) decided to upsticks and move on, but the youth players of Villa are hardly setting the world alight.

The new batch of Herd, Lichaj, Clark and Weimann may well be top notch, but there hasnt been much from Albrighton, Bannan and even Gabby to justfiy the revelry of Macdonald. Also, his tenure as manager was not pretty.

Sure he's a very nice guy, and the players love him as Jack Grealish said. But as others have said, theres no room for sentiment at AVFC.

Folk need to stop getting hysterical,KMac did a tremendous job with the youth/Reserve Team,at First team level he was never going to be part of PL plans as he will bring in his own staff.

Its all well and good having an all-conquering Youth / Reserve team, but whats the point if they dont produce very good First Team players?

Forgive my ignorance, but who have we actually brought through from grass roots that makes McDonald's work so fantastic?

If you were to have a dbl at the bookies on these two games tomorrow, which way would you go?

FM legend.

True. That.

Going to watch this in Kiev fanzone

Was in Kiev for a few weeks last summer, what an amazing city, have the best time mate.

Also, if you get a few spare days, head west to Lviv, another cracker.

And, on topic, Russia to walk the group. Dzagoev is my fantasy team darkhorse!

What's the equivilent of ITSOTP for a manager, not a player?

HASIFOTH

Holding A Shirt In Front Of The Holte?

God dang, I worked that out really quickly! Pass me The Da Vinci Code...

Where has all this Laudrup / Laursen talk come from? An ITK? Or another ri-donk-ulous run at the bookies?

FWIW, this would be an appointment of orgasmatronic proportions!

Ahem, i'll get a room.

Has anyone been watching The Bridge? I absolutely loved the first series of The Killing, (season two was a bit of a let down mind), so wondered if The Bridge was something similar?

Cheers guys and gals!

The more I think about it, the more I suspect that Villa had done all their research, put OGS as number one. PF puts out a statement saying they'll be looking for a young, vibrant manager knowing full well he'd just described OGS and then hey presto, the board deliver the exact manager they said they would and everyone loves RL/PF again.

Only it went horribly tits up and now they've realised there aren't any young, vibrant managers around who would actually manage Villa and they're screwed.

There's now only two scenarios

1. Venglos II - we've no idea who he is and it doesn't go well

2. McLeish II - we do know who he is and it doesn't go well

Utter tosh. It could be...

1. Wenger II - weve no idea who he is and it goes sensationally well.

2. Pardew II - we do know who he is and despite initial protestations, all signs point to an inspired appointment.

I'm all for VT's flagrant love of negativity, but at least chuck a little bit of perspective in there as well.

So the board are doing things on the quiet, i'd rather that than Whelan up North. If in the end they appoint McCarthy, go nuts with finger pointing, but at least give them the opportunity to **** it up before lambasting them!

A couple of summers ago I was in Belgrade as part of a back packing trip around the Balkans, and managed to catch a Partizan v HJK Helsinki Champs League qualifer. The atmosphere was excellent, the fans partizan (wahey!) but well behaved and the game was excellent, no problems at all.

Im also off to Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and a few other places this summer around that area, so will see how it goes there.

Have I missed something here?

We have a proven to be ITK, Gazton saying, or as good as, that Faulkner, (my surname coinicdentally!), en route to Norway.

We have OGS in a meeting with his boss, discussing what not one of us know.

Yet people are assuming weve dithered about appointing a boss, lost out on OGS, and KMAC will be the new manager?

Im confused.

Hes gone!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

He isn't even that good of a player to justify these actions.

It couldbe a player with the ability of Messi and it still wouldnt justify those actions.

This is probably one to ask of the mods, but, has there ever been a topic in the history of VT where every single fan wants the same thing and has the same opinion? Its Insania!

I just hope this is true. If it is, I am:

Looking forward to that feeling I havent had all year "Optimism"

Looking forward to swapping the cockney infested dump that is "Wembley" and going back to my home of football "Villa Park" again.

Looking forward to replacing my kids Barca strips with Villa ones again.

Looking forward to Saturdays again.

If it wasnt too many characters, i'd copy and paste that stick it on twitter. Sums up my feelings exactly. Good work Macandally.