briny_ear

I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that they played 120 minutes of testing football three days ago?

The alien species who abducted MON and forced him ro resign from Villa at very short notice have just sent me a telepathic message confirming this was indeed NOT the most bizarre post on Villatalk ever.

That would suit me fine just at the moment!

But probably only Fozzie Bear could misunderstand, misrepresent and distort footballing statistics in quite such an extreme fashion.

Let's just hope, if a few misguided souls do try to mount some sort of "protest" during the match, that the rest of the Villa crowd turn on them and drown them out with cheering for our team*. *(Who, it should be pointed out, will be trying to deal with the tricky little task of beating the most expensive team in the league (which includes two deserters from Villa), currently top and in fantastic form - a great occasion for our fans to start booing their own side, I don't think.)

That has to rank as one of the most pointless and meaningless statistical tables in the history of football staistics. Sad really that someone bothered to take the time to compile it!

Redknapp for me. The deftness of touch he showed in sidestepping those tax evasion charges will make him the ideal man for a job in which, for some reason, previously competent and confident coaches are usually reduced to a state of bumbling haplessness. Surely that won't happen to our 'Arry?! :wink:

Can't think of anything more pointless, pathetic or futile than these fan "protests". They invariably end up looking embarrassing.

And thay had 30 of those points by this time last year, from 25 games. They only got 9 points from their last 13 games so if anyone thinks we are shadowing what SHA did last season, we will need to engineer a spectacular collapse from now on to match them. Wouldn't put it past McTool. He has the capability. He is already working on achieving this - alienating our two main creative forces and continuing to play the back 4 that lets in goals. Even if we only we ended up with 39 points it would still need the teams in trouble to do really well - to get to 40 points and so get past us, it would need QPR and Wolves each to get 19 points from 14 games, Bolton to get 20 points or, even more improbably, 22 points for Blackburn or 24 for Wigan. Can't really see all this happening.

And thay had 30 of those points by this time last year, from 25 games. They only got 9 points from their last 13 games so if anyone thinks we are shadowing what SHA did last season, we will need to engineer a spectacular collapse from now on to match them.

Give it a rest mate Not sure why people are finding this so far fetched after the obvious dissent in the camp at Newcastle. McTool clearly hasn't got a scooby and I would probably rather the palyers self managed as they couldn't make any worse of a job. McTool has shown from day 1 that he doesn't know how to balance a side and this is probably as frustrating for the players as it is for the rest of us. One of the problems with this particular ITK story is that anyone who was actually watching the match would have seen that McLeish was constantly telling the players to get forward in the second half. Still, it's a shame to spoil a great story... 8)

Good post, Mark. Think that sums things up very accurately. Unfortunately...

That's sort of crazy but I like it!

We are in a worse position than last seaon but the bottom clubs are in even more dire straits. While last season we had 28 points from 24 games, the clubs in positions 18-20 - Wolves, Wigan and West ham - were on 21/2 points and playing quite well, so were uncomfortably close (indeed, 2 of those clubs managed to survive). This season the bottom three clubs have 16, 18 and 20 points respectively so they have more ground to make up and are all in very poor form.. Bolton are the closest with 20 points and we have the chance to settle their hash on 18 March. That really could turn out to be one of our most important games this season.

Must say I've had that thought once or twice recently. Maybe McAllister is happy just to stay an assistant.

I don't actually believe Houllier did have a plan. It was just wishful thinking on behalf of some fans that we had stumbled across a footballing genius who would lead us to the sunlight. I think he was out of his depth and floundering from day one. ****, he had to spend £18m (or was it £24m, never been clear) even to stop us getting relegated and even then it's not clear if we would have survived had Mr McAllister not taken a hand. Strangely, GMac is the one I am now feeling a bit regretful about losing.

For me the gripe is rather that he keeps his head down and has little awareness of where his colleagues are. I lost count of the times on Sunday that he got into a good position and then just blasted the ball cluelessly in the general direction of the goal. The one time he did actually pass to a colleague, we scored. He is sulky and not a team player and I think this has been a problem at all his previous clubs.

said he was happy to lose to LiverpooHe never said that. I don't know why people go on about his actions off the field that night. By far the most disgraceful thing was the performance. What he said was I can't think of a more dumb, half-arsed, thing to say given the 90 minutes of pure rubbish the team he was supposed to be coaching had just turned out. Unfortunately, his "philosophy" seemed to involve losing an awful lot of matches and teetering on the edge of the relegation zone for quite a while.

Fine: certainly a coherent point of view. But this is after all a thread called "Martin O'Neill" so it's hardly surprising people are talking about him in it. :confused: If you hate talking about MON so much, and care so little about him, maybe it would be wise to give this thread a miss? It might make you feel much better.

To be fair, I didn't notice O'Neill doing that either. True, true... :oops: :oops: I always get the cups confused because they play the fa cup semis at Wembley as well as the finals of both. Let's just revise it to "I haven't noticed McLeish getting us to a League Cup final and an FA Cup semi."

The only place I'd give him freedom to go is another club to be honest. Since he came here his football has largely been poor, his effort has been low, he has made little attempt to engage with the club or the fans and now he says he's not happy playing for Villa. Well, mate, the feeling from most fans is mutual, I reckon. Let's get what we can for him and buy a player who will make an effort.

:?: This doesn't make sense. If it's in a shorter space of time, it can't be exactly the same record, can it? Also, I haven't noticed McLeish getting three 6th places, buying and bringing on a string of exciting young English players , or getting to an FA Cup final in his time with Villa. Would I be wrong to conclude the statement I've quoted is just nonsense?

Chelsea ship a lot of goals at home these days - somthing like 16 goals in 11 games this season. This is likely to cost them dear with the increased competition for top 4 places this season.

Thank God for your O'Neill updates. Quite right, let's have a McLeish update instead. It's now 6 in 24 cf MON's 7 in 10.

More from Stan. Think he still loves us!