YankeeinMadrid

My friend thinks CC wont be in the starting xi tomorrow.

My friend thinks that Walker will definitely start at RB and is unsure of the CB pairing...but it looks like its gonna be Dunne and Collins. If he tells me more, i'll pass it on.

They exist, but are unenforceable...basically lawyer speak. Along with penalty clauses, they are used to pressure a side into finishing a deal.

Back him. Nothing good could come from sacking him now. I say give him til the end of February/early March.

No it wouldn't. Do you know anything about contract law? I'll admit I don't know a lot about contract law so why don't you enlighten me? Manchester City and Aston Villa signed a Memorandum of Understanding the week before the England international stating that an agreement had been reached between the two clubs for the transfer of James Milner for a fee of approx £18m plus Stephen Ireland. In that MOU, it was stated that were any party to cancel the deal, they would be liable to pay the other party approximately £5million as a cancellation charge as well as covering the costs (legal, medical etc) that were incurred. I believe that the only circumstances in which the transfer could be cancelled without the cancellation clause being invoked was if either player were to be found to have an injury causing sufficient concern to the club's insurers as to make the transfer impossible. The MOU was signed after MON approved the transfer. I believe it was signed on the morning of the friendly vs Valencia. Now, I admit I don't know an awful lot about contract law, so which part of the above is bollocks and shows Paul Faulkner to be incompetent? MOU's and other Penalty Clauses in Sports are only to put some pressure on the parties to get the deal done quickly. I have no opinion on Faulkner tbh, just wanted to clear up the 5m bullshit

That first bit is unneccessary, for starters. Secondly, he was instrumental in the sale of Milner in as far as he assisted MON in negotiating the deal that MON wanted after Milner wanted to leave. Did he advise Lerner to stop spending? Show me.. I know very little about Paul Faulkner, but some of the abuse he gets on here is absolutely vile. I thought we, as a club and as a fanbase, were better than that. You say it's unneccessary but it's not because you either do or you don't know something about the Milner deal that the rest of us dont? Do you know whether MON wanted to sell Milner? I suspect that he didn't. If this is the case then between Faulkner and Lerner they could have stopped that deal going ahead (which is what they should have done when we didn't have a manager in place, another example of his incompetency there for you). When did Lernr tighten the purse strings? When Faulkner arrived. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sorry if you think the abuse towards him is vile but I think he deserves it. He pissed about in appointing a manager and ended up being instrumental in appointing this loser Houllier so he is therefore partially responsible for the mess that we now find us in. Houllier is a large part of Faulkner's stamp on the club to date. Wind your neck in for a second... No, MON didn't want to sell Milner. Nobody wanted to sell him. However, when you're faced with a situation where a player wants to leave, is not entertaining the idea of a new contract and there is a club interested who have a habit of spending insane amounts of money on players, you make a decision.. MON and the board made a decision jointly to sell Milner when they were able to negotiate an acceptable deal with Man City. As for stopping the deal when MON left, that would have cost the club approx £5million in penalty clauses. In fact, I'd say it would have been incompetent of the Chief Executive to call off the deal at that cost. You say we were better off before he came here? Well, Faulkner became Chief Operating Officer in May 2008. I think we've been doing quite well with him on board, up until August last year. I don't wanna let the truth get in the way of any arguments, but Penalty Clauses (by definition) in Contract Law cannot be enforced! They are only used to try to force a party into completing their part of an agreement in a timely manner. These clauses are thrown out in court. It doesn't matter what they name the "penalty clause". If it is deemed to be a penalty clause, its unenforceable.

GH is NOT getting fired! I don't think he's the next Mourinho or Guardiola, but a huge part of the blame is on the players. I repeat, he ain't getting "the sack" (lol i love how it's called getting sacked, the sack etc. in the UK).

Yes, they were both Pens...they were both very, very clear. Pires MOTM for me, seriously. Is it too late to become a Blackpool fan?

Oh poop.

What a joke.

Anything official yet?

I'm not Spanish!

I hope it's still on. This would only be my third Villa away match, if you don't count Wembley last year. The 3 matches I've seen away from VP we have 0 points. What a joke the English with "OH MY GOD IT'S SNOWING!!!" Lots of people need to man up.

OK, so he's a yank but let's lay off the americanisms, it's a shopping centre. (note spelling of centre) Yank is someone from the NORTH. Rebel is someone from the SOUTH. It really annoys me how ALL Americans all refered to as Yanks. Thanks for your time and consideration. Lichaj for president (if Emile can't run because he's English )! To Foreigners, a Yankee is an American To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner To Northerners, a Yankee is a New Englander To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter To Vermonters, a Yankee is a Southern Vermonter To Southern Vermonters, a Yankee is one who eats apple pie for breakfast (at least etymologically) (and for the record, as Lichaj is from the Chicago area, he qualifies as a Yankee under your definition... ) Vermont Maple Syrup. Yum Yum

I have the feeling I'm outnumbered (yankeeinmadrid hurries to book flight out of the UK and home)

Oh God, not the "American" refers to everyone from The New World argument. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Lichaj would agree with me

OK, so he's a yank but let's lay off the americanisms, it's a shopping centre. (note spelling of centre) Yank is someone from the NORTH. Rebel is someone from the SOUTH. It really annoys me how ALL Americans all refered to as Yanks. Thanks for your time and consideration. Lichaj for president (if Emile can't run because he's English )!

Think you are totally wrong. He's not flash, but I don't want my fullbacks to be flash. He is solid, quick enough, gets forward when he can and he's learning. He will replace Luke Young within 18 months. I've also seen him a few times and I think he will do OK. Change 18 for 6 and I agree with you. I wouldn't mind him replacing Young already, if he's the RB of the future why not start now?

First half looked pretty even, WBA had more chances. Second half we looked very good. Friedel- 6 Nothing to do really, don't think he made a save. Warnock- 4(first half) 7 (second half) What kills me about Warnock is that he is deceptively quick, reads the game well and anticipates passes...but he's just so damn inconsistent. He's 29 now right? Don't know if he'll ever become a consistently good (see 2nd half) player. Collins- 6 I don't see where all this hate is coming from. Light years better than previous matches. Collins is what he is: Excellent in the air, poor quickness, gets turned too easily and has so-so positioning. He got turned badly once, besides that he was excellent in the air. So many people get confused with him being brave and good in the air and think that makes him a great CB. Sorry, he ain't...but good match today. CC- 7 No nonsense, several very good tackles...indirectly at fault for the goal, but made 1, count that, 1 mistake all match. Very good...with some more matches under his belt he'll only improve. I'd love to see him paired with Clark. Btw CC is a much better RCB and should always be on that side. Lichaj 6.5 U-S-A U-S-A!!! He was very good, had a lot do deal with defensively but held his own for the most part. Love the throw in. There's not much between him and L.Young...Lichaj is 22-23 and Young is 31, lots of upside for Lichaj, give him a run in the side GH. Don't feel like rating the rest, too lazy. Hogg looked good again. Heskey does the small things very well. Wins lots of headers, holds the balls up, etc. He works very hard. I'm a fan this year!! Delfonz is a joke, looks lazy...send him out on loan somewhere. Young and Downing very good, especially downing. NRC isn't match fit quite yet. 3 points are lovely!!!!!!!!!!!

woohoooooooo, happy to be wrong today. must have been a last minute change!!!! UTV!

I don't want to score points and I'm not a grammar-nazi. I physically squirm when I read anyone's post where they don't know the difference between 'of' and 'have', and I don't think I'm the only one. It's completely up to AVFC-POB if they choose to ignore my advice or not, but to me it's the equivalent of writing all in capitals or putting 'LOL!!1!one!' at the end of every sentence. I'm only trying to be helpful and I'd just like to be able to read TOP's posts. This is a debate for another thread so I'll not say any more about it and apologise if any offence was caused, as it was meant in the best possible way. OKOKOK sorry buddy, no hard feelings.

I'm very anxious to see if Lichaj gets the start.

Relax with the grammar nazi-ing buddy. AVFC pride makes a lot of valid points, including that one. No need to score points by correcting grammar, it's not constructive.

I see your point. GH DOES limit access to mobile phones and social networking during certain times of the week. Fact.

That is probably the only positive thing that could come of today. I really do admire your optimism, however I think they've had more than enough time to do that. I think any other team under sane management would have had one of them gone by now. I also believe YIM who says Cuellar is 100% fit. I wouldnt be surprised if Houlliers not impressed with his facebook account tbh. He does like 100% professionalism. Even if he doesnt display it himself. His FB says nothing negative whatsoever, it's like a fan site basically. H e has another account but with another last name, not gonna mention it on here, but even that one says nothing negative whatsoever. Cuellar is 100% fit. Talked to a mutual friend who believes at the most maybe he can play at RB as a sub (even though he doesn't want to play there). Dunne and Collins starting.