briny_ear

Welcome on board, Brett. hope you're ready for a bit of booing first time you play and cahnts of "You don't know what you're doing" if McLeish brings you on as a sub . Probably best to stay away from the message boards as well.

At last! I noticed 2-3 weeks ago that I was on post 9999 and I decided that I wouldn't do number 10000 until I could celebrate a victory. Didn't expect to wait this long... Been away for the weekend, so just got back, watched the game on Match First and now it's time to party! :notworthy: Thought it was a decent enough game - we played well in midfield and defence. Ireland, Hutton and Cuellar stood out for me, and Petrov and Herd look a good combination as DMs. Good to be able to celebrate a home win and a clean sheet although, let's be honest, we very nearly didn't make the win. Lack of a killer instinct in front of goal was painful. I think most other sides would have had a game they dominated so much in the first half wrapped up by 45 minutes. Still, it was very pleasing that we kept playing positively until the very end of added time. I reckon we are free now of any mythical worries there ever were about relegation. Was disappointed that some "fans" started jeering and booing. On the "You don't know what you're doing" commentary on McLeish's substitutions, well, I think it was Game Set and Match to him this time, wasn't it? Because the goal came as a result of excellent play from his three substitutes. So I guess he, er... DID know what he was doing. I've seen the comments about how N'Zogbia shouldn't have been taken off but all I can say is they must have edited most of his good bits out of the Match First highlights. There were a couple of good passes and tackles but for most of the game he looked to me as half baked and uncommitted as normal. Towards the end of the game, we were pushing up and a couple of times got booed for passing back to Given as a way of keeping possession and not risking a Fulham break away. This got booed and I thoght that was depressing but not surprising - Villa crowds have done this for as long as I can remember. It is pretty dumb to start booing your own players though. Final word to Andreas Weimann. I was so pleased to see him score and the way he went for the goal showed a real predatory instinct. I'm not sure that Bent or Gabby would have scored from the same position. There's a long way to go for him but for the moment it's nice to imagine that we have a real predatory striker here who will grow into a freescoring forward who will solve one of our striker problems.

Anything less than top 10 is down to pathetic, turdgid management and is not 'fine' by me! But with a very naive board that seems to have lost the plot and a timid manager who seems scared to let us play attacking football except against the very bottom clubs, (OK, OK, I know, Chelsea... ) you may have to get used to something way below 10th. I just want to stay up.

Top 17 - including No. 17 - is going to be fine by me this season.

That's either going to be a BIG kitchen or VERY cramped sharks! :shock:

Not that it's at all important, but if you read what I actually said, I never claimed MON was better than Little. That was an argument Mantis appeared to be having with himself. :winkold: Little has always been one of my heroes and I won't hear a word said against him. However, even his biggest fan would have to admit that, while he was really good for two seasons as out manager, he was desperately poor in the 1997-8 season and he bailed out with Villa in 15th place in late February 1998, 6 points off the relegation zone. Sound familiar? I agree with Mr Duck's post. Little managed the club in very different times and faced different challenges. By the time MON came to the club, a "top 4"of clubs had built up a massive wealth and powerbase fuelled with CL TV revenue and massive investment of the like Villa just hadn't seen. The fact that he got a club that had been drifting around mid table to challenge consistently for the top 4 and for trophies is to his credit, although obviously it's disappointing we didn't ever make the top 4 or win a trophy. For those who gloat about his departure, however, it's surely galling to see the chaos our club has been in since he left, and our mediocre achievements; also to see Sunderland now getting the benefit of his motivational and tactical skill.

Well, since GH rarely played him during his spell as manager, I can hardly imagine there was any great bond between them.

Right, so we've now moved from comparing him with Delph to comparing him with Adebayor. Just so long as I know where the goalposts have been moved to... :winkold:

Don't know. Do you really think he did? :confused:

Shoud it be renamed 'The ex-managers who failed to fulfil their potential thread'? Or "Managers who did better at Villa than Martin O'Neill thread" Good idea but of course you'd need to go back well before John Gregory to find one of those. If people really want to talk about JG and the like, how about "Managers who disappeared with hardly a trace after managing Villa (unlike MON)"? :winkold: Personally I think Gregory did a better job. However, even if you don't agree with that, Little undoubtedly did a better job and he came right before Gregory. Brian Little is one of my favourite Villa players of all time. Yes, as our manager he did well for a couple of seasons but not so well in his bail-out season of 97-8. He would also qualify under my alternate suggested title for the thread.

As a matter of interest, Olly Mellberg scored his 2nd this season for Olympiakos a couple of matches ago.

Really? If failure to organise your team to win premier league and cup matches with increasing regularity, inability to work with experienced players, and utter failure to organise an effective defence are qualifications for the Villa post, I guess he's a shoe-in. He reminds me a bit of Houllier.

Shoud it be renamed 'The ex-managers who failed to fulfil their potential thread'? Or "Managers who did better at Villa than Martin O'Neill thread" Good idea but of course you'd need to go back well before John Gregory to find one of those. If people really want to talk about JG and the like, how about "Managers who disappeared with hardly a trace after managing Villa (unlike MON)"? :winkold:

Petrov has scored 4 this season so I'm not sure which two you have disregarded in counting his goals as a "couple"? Just for the completeness, he has two assists as well.

So this is now the John Gregory thread? :confused:

I think that is realistic and it means that all of QPR, Blackburn and Wolves would need 20 points from their remaining 13 games to get past us (or Bolton 21/Wigan 22).

Wow. Excellent post Joey. Not so sure it will get a great reception on VT but there is a great deal of truth and good sense in what you say. Tactical/personnel changes during a match always seem a bit of a gamble to me. Like any gamble, sometimes they come off and the manager is duly hailed as a tactical genius. But so much depends on the quality and attitude if the players. All the tactics in the world will come to nothing if the players aren't good enough.

As far as I know, Andreas Weimann is NOT going back to watford on loan, so why give me a heart attack by bouncing a thread about his loan spell there back to the top? (Now's the chance for someone to point out I've missed something important and he IS going back...)

Another thought. When Lerner sells up do you think he will have anything to do with Villa ever again? I've been impressed at how Dougie turns up to to so many games. Maybe he really does love the Villa after all. OK, maybe he believes he's still running the club and this is just deluded behaviour but it says something about him.

As did MON. Something must happen on the training ground where they both look better :? I though that was just because MON prefers to play a centre back in the RB position and Cuellar has more ability to play there than Collins ever would have.

Anyway, it's laughable rubbish. The back 4 haven't played in a disciplined straight-line formation like that all season

The main point about this season - as others have said - is that the clubs in the relegation zone are doing so much worse. This time last season we were only 5 points above the bottom club and it was all very tight, with all the relegation-threatened clubs doing much better. This season we are nine points clear of the bottom club and it would need all three of Wolves, QPR and Blackburn to gain 8 points on us for us to go down. We are more comfortable this season but mainly only because the teams below us are doing worse.

Do I really have to choose? By the end of his reign, Ellis nearly managed to destroy my love for Villa and now it seems Lerner is doing his best to repeat the trick.

Anyone wanting Gregory back should peruse his entry on Wikipedia - click here We'd really be living the dream under his stewardship.