briny_ear

Well that was inevitable the way we have been playing. We could have won this if we had taken the game to Liverpool more.

Oh give it a bloody rest can you?

Doubt very much if we will get anywhere near 12th. I said a few weeks ago I would take 17th as long as we stayed up and got hammered for it. It's not looking so absurd now.

How about an "Occupy Villa Park" camp?

You have. No "IF" about it.

That good hey :cry: give him a chance eh? (suppose you've already forgotten, he scored one and made one in the first leg?) typical over-reaction :!: Why give him a chance? Let's start slagging him off now and continue it when he actually arrives. Then in January he can be sent out on loan and people can start posting about how much the team is missing him.

Can you just note down the good things he has done that give you hope for the future?

Sorry, but that hardly adds up to a player revolt. It's just niggles that are par for the course. Now if we had a player going to sulk in Argentina for months, after the manager has said he'll never play for the club again; one who fights with his team mates on the pitch and who the manager says he can't trust; the manager and captain openly disagreeing in the club website...etc. THEN you would have something worth posting about!

Good to be reminded that there are one or two even more crap than we are at present. Can someone please make sure this is placed before Alex McLeish as he mulls over his "realistic" tactics against what he maybe sees as an "elite" team.

Our youth set up has been pretty good for quite a while - at least 20 years - and I don't see that it's any better or worse now than it was in Before-Lerner times. I'm not aware of him having done anything specific about the youth set up but no doubt someone will leap to correct me if that's not right.

What source are you using for that? Sunderland have taken 8 points from the last 18. Sunderland are 11th in the Last 6 Games league (as you say, 8 points from 6 games) and 10th in the Last 8 Games league (11 from 8 ). They are 4th in the home form league but that's OK, they are playing away against us! Mind you, it doesn't do to look too long at these form tables. Villa - 5 points from the last 6 games (17th) and 6 from the last 8 (18th). 19th in the home form league (5 from 5) and 9th in the away form league (5 from 5) - I suppose that last one is marginally OK news.

Ahhh...those "What-ifs"... (This one solely for those old enough to remember "Dallas - The Dream Season" )

ditto. I might consider a move to Sunderland tbf

I'm losing the plot here. On your second set of figures, that would end up Bolton - 38 points Wigan - 36 points QPR - 34 points Blackburn - 34 points. So why do we need 42 points "minimum"?? (not that I would object to us getting 42 points of course :winkold: ) Don't forget as well that, unless there are some extraordinary scorelines, we effectively have a point over our rivals because our goal difference is so much better. So, if your second set of prognostications is right, we could most likely stay up with just one more point - not that I would encourage the manager and team to test it out...

their are three things ive got a problem with 1) people saying he's a good striker when he's basically worse than Julian Joachim 2) Making someone who cant think or talk on the pitch captain 3) Him coming out and been two faced in the press Hmmm. If you're going to come out with arsey and pompous statements about people being able to think or talk, I suggest you sit down with a grammar book and have a good look at your point 3.

I think a lot of fans have been thinking that about their own attendance this season - probably more will next season!

Exactly. To my mind he disqualified himself as a fit manager of the club with thoise remarks - and he had said something similar after the home defeat to Man C. If he communicates that feeling to the players no wonder we are struggling.

It's fair enough. I just didn't see much evideence to suggest houllier was the right man. He managed to finish 9th. Cant see that happening this season. he didn't finish 9th because he didn't finish the season and had delivered a poor performance on the games he actually managed. Out of our 48 points last season, KMac and GMac got 15 from 10 games between them. Houllier managed 33 from 28 games which is barely better than McLeish has managed.

I'm assuming you were trying to quote my post (the bits in black) and then make a comment on it (the bit I've highlighted in blue)? As for Lerner's "gamble", that is not a good approach to business. Suppose Lerner had been honest and said at the start: the plan is to spend for 4 seasons at a level that can't be sustained. If we reach the CL, establish ourselves as a regular top side and can regularly make the CL group stages then we will generate some income that will help replenish the team but if we fail there will be several seasons of severe disinvestment, selling off our top 4 quality players and settling for mid table survival? Are you absolutely sure Villa fans would have backed that foolish approach? Whether MON blew it or not would also have become irrelevant because I doubt he would have taken the job on such risky terms. Even if by some magic we had transformed in 2 or 3 seasons into a regular top 4 side, the level of income generated by the CL alone would not have been enough to keep us there.

What about £12 million paid out to MoN and houllier? Money paid to blues as compensation? Pay rise to Mcleish? Why are the browns shit? Is that MoN's fault as well? Correct me if I'm wrong but the Browns have always been shit, and Cleveland is a shithole that probably doesn't even deserve and NFL franchise. I have no idea why O'Neill got compo, Houllier was a little unfortunate. Why he went for McLeish I have no idea and I said up until that he made some decent decisions. It's the wages of the players that we can't shift and don't use (O'Neill even didn't bother using some of them) that has done the most damage. Even if we accept for a second (and I don't) that our current financial woes are all down to O'Neill signing mediocre players at vastly inflated wages on ridiculously long contracts, the fact that Lerner didn't apparently have even basic financial controls in pace that could work out the simple equation of [number of players]x[level of wages]x[length of contracts]=[vastly more than Randy Lerner can afford], reflects abysmally on him. We are in the dire position of the moment not because MON left us with a load of duff players but because Lerner sold off all our star players, couldn't afford to replace them, and appointed two duff managers in a row.

Well. 18 points from 11 games is 1.6 points per game and 8 points from 5 games (which is what GMac got) is...1.6 points per game so I think we did finish just as strongly without him. Recent manager's performances: 2009/10 - MON Pl38 W17 D11 L8 Pts64 PPG=1.7 2010/11 _ KMac Pl5 W2 D1 L2 Pts 7 PPG=1.4 GH Pl28 W8 D9 L11 Pts 33 PPG=1.2 GMac Pl5 W2 D2 L1 Pts8 PPG=1.6 2011/2 - AMc Pl30 W7 D12 L11 Pts33 PPG=1.1 Well done McLeish on being marginally even more shite than Houllier was.

his cv looked shit before we appointed him relegated with hibs took motherwell from 2nd into 2 relegation battles 3rd with rangers longest ever winless streak with rangers in spl longest ever losing streak in old frim derbies relegated with birmingham twice That is just such a stupidly distorted summary of his career, I really don't know why people bother to post stuff like this.Problem is, even when you add in his successes it still makes for horrible reading.In that case it would be easier just to tell the truth, wouldn't it, rather than sift stuff out to make it a lie?

his cv looked shit before we appointed him relegated with hibs took motherwell from 2nd into 2 relegation battles 3rd with rangers longest ever winless streak with rangers in spl longest ever losing streak in old frim derbies relegated with birmingham twice That is just such a stupidly distorted summary of his career, I really don't know why people bother to post stuff like this.

I'm not sure anyone does think he isn't getting games but for the record in Olympiakos's last 8 games he has played 4 full games, started and been taken off twice, come on as sub once, and did not play once.

I think the "wankfest" (there's an ugly word if ever there was one) is going quite well now...