briny_ear

My theory is that some people find it easier to dwell on the past than to face up to the reality of the present, which is that we have a chairman who has no vision for the club except to disinvest in it, and has appointed two woeful managers in succession (who have actually continued to spend quite a lot of his money for very poor results). Given all that, who would want to talk about the present, even less the future?

On the example quoted, Davies was out injured long term and Cuellar was playing week in week out at right back at the time that Collins and Dunne were bought. So I would be interested to know what you think MON should have done about the centre back positions at that stage.

I think you need to be realistic about playing teams like Arsenal. (BTW, shouldn 't this thread title be changed now we know it's this season, not in "Premiership history"?!)

Its confusing; previous interviews have been translated as he doesn’t know the club well, not that the club is not good According to a Dutch mate of mine, "Daar wist ik van. Ik ken de club niet heel goed, maar de interesse is mooi” translates as ""I knew about it [Villa's interest]. I don't know the club too well, but it's good that they're interested" So, F off Talksport.

I give up. Photobucket has defeated me - can either post a massive image or a tiny one but apparently no middle ground. Soz.

Shaun Maloney :shock:

Ahh...no, it's certainly not, because Muamba had a cardiac arrest, not a heart attack. It's important to know the difference. Click here for an explanation of the difference.

Managing Villa was a TOP job

SirGaryCahill is...??????? :shock:

You laugh now, but I'm hedging my bets and keeping a dinghy under my bed just in case. Unlike s&c however, mine will have a lesbian-inclusive policy. 8)

They got twatted at the Albion and Ewood Park whcih would lend support to your arguments. I think we'll give pube heads side a good schillacking myself. It will certainly be the pits if MON brings a rubbish Sunderland side, that a few weeks ago was heading for relegation, to Villa Park and beats us. It would be a poignant comment on our recent history. A few weeks ago? Think you mean months. As for the Sunderland side, they're not actually that bad. Some decent players in there. Bruce is just a crap manager.OK, let's stop trading colloquial phrases. To be precise, 14 weeks ago. I can't think MON's success compared with our relative failure is made any better by the number of weeks he's been there Sunderland's 1st choice XI is decent enough but there's not much depth in the squad to cover for key injuries, as they seem to be finding at the moment. If we can't beat them at VP it will be the pits.

They got twatted at the Albion and Ewood Park whcih would lend support to your arguments. I think we'll give pube heads side a good schillacking myself. It will certainly be the pits if MON brings a rubbish Sunderland side, that a few weeks ago was heading for relegation, to Villa Park and beats us. It would be a poignant comment on our recent history.

Presumably Bannan had also been having a "harmless" beer or three when he crashed a car, under the influence of drink, at high speed, with no licence, on the M1 and ran away? I really hope the club have made clear to him he is on notice to clean up the drinking act. If not I can see this ending badly.

I doubt he does believe this but what else he could have come out and say "Nzogbia hasnt really played as well as I'd hoped." Theres no doubt had he said that someone would have picked up on his negativity or putting of someone down in public. Indeed. N'Zogbia for one would immediately be off tweeting about how unhappy he is... :winkold:

@MMFy. Just before we get too carried away, a point of information is that Gary Gardner, one of the three subs who combined for our goal against Fulham, is not as far as I know implicated in these tales of drunkeness. I hope you will withdraw that allegation. Secondly, if the behaviour described above is your idea of having an "occasional beer", I really really would not like to bump into you on a night when you were really on the lash. :winkold: (Oh, and to those explaining this as natural St Patrick's day celebrations by lads brought up in Ireland, have a thnk about the nationality of Bannan and Weimann...)

This discussion has taken an odd sort of direction now but what this shows is how MON managed to lick the squad into shape and make it more effective in his first season. That match 28 squad went on to achieve W4 D5 L1 for the rest of the season. Sure, MON had money to spend to strengthen the squad (don't recall any complaints about that at the time) but he had also brought on previously underperforming players and had found a better mix. McLeish has had a decent amount of money to spend- £3.5m on Given, £9.5m on N'Zogbia - as well as starting off with a much stronger squad, and arguably he hasn't made as much of the resources available to him as MON did. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe McLeish will end the season as strongly as MON did, in which case I will be the first to change my judgement. But as things stand, it looks as if McLeish started off with a stronger 1st XI than MON in 2006/7 (after a pre-season that MON didn't have), has been able to spend to strengthen the squad, and hasn't taken the team as far as MON did in his first season.

I think we'll beat Sunderland. The initial MON-inspired euphoria seems to have worn off a bit and they have a few injuries affecting a squad that is quite poor in the first place.

The fact that they are a tight knit group is only a positive if we see the benefits in the football they play. If they express their closeness by going out and getting pissed a lot, I regard that as a bad thing. I'm more worried at the suggestion that Weimann and Clark are part of the drinking club as I've half written Bannan off as a future Villa star but have more hopes for the other two.

"scenario". It's a nasty foreign word.

This is the bit of the argument I never can get. I don't see how we are getting into decent financial shape. We have sold off all our top stars, haven't replaced them adequately, and are changing into a mid table club with little ambition,unadventurous football, lower crowds and probably less attraction for players looking to move to premier league clubs. That may be shaping us to survive at the levels Lerner is now prepared to invest in the club but how is making our finances decent?

Not the topic of the thread, I know, but the most interesting thing about that is what you think will happen at the top. Man U to win it by 6 points? :shock: I don't think so.

Hmm. Barry on for Balotelli.

Have you ever glanced down at his sig.?What's that got to do with anything?Oh, sorry, nothing. The fact that Mark is pointing out in his sig that McLeish is as useless Houliier was obviously has nothing at all to do with a question about why he doesn't criticise McLeish the way he does Houllier! I take it you don't read Mark's post. Even he himself admits he criticised Houllier a lot more.You may not have read his post. He's saying they are equally poor but he's realised there's a deeper problem with the board of which they both Houllier and McLeish are symptoms. However, this discussion really really really should close.

Have you ever glanced down at his sig.?What's that got to do with anything?Oh, sorry, nothing. The fact that Mark is pointing out in his sig that McLeish is as useless Houliier was obviously has nothing at all to do with a question about why he doesn't criticise McLeish the way he does Houllier!

Have you ever glanced down at his sig.?