briny_ear

The ghost of MON needs exercising I think it will take another 24 months Oh I don't know, he's not that out of shape is he? Well people do mention quite frequently that he never took training sessions while he was at Villa, so it's quite possible... :winkold:

Yes, I guess we all know that really. :|

Yes, I guess we all know that really. :|

For Villa to be relegated this season, SEVEN out of the following nine clubs would need to overtake us in the 16 games remaining: Fulham, Swansea, Everton, Baggies, QPR, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan. For Blackburn or Wolves to overhaul us they would need to make up a nine point deficit in those 16 games. It's obviously not impossible but there is very little in our present situation that should lead anyone to say it is likely or could "easily" happen. This thread is ludicrous. As I've already said once, it's not like last season where we really were teetering on the brink of relegation, even as late as the end of March.

Good point, but I remember Houllier saying something similar last season. Somebody's got to bite the bullet at some point. On the other hand, maybe McLeish is waiting to see if Stevens/Lichaj/Baker can be introduced in an orderly fashion to tackle the main problem of full backs.

You don't mean Collins, do you - maybe Cowans? He didn't have a row with Collins, Collins is his little pal and I sometimes suspect the only reason he gets in the team is because Dunne asks especially if they can play together.

I think it's far less likely to happen this season than it was last. Houllier had us down in 17th place in the first week of January and only one point off the relegation zone at the end of march. We may have a dramatic collapse that will plunge us into trouble (McLeish is an old hand at those) but, as things stand, we are not flirting with relegation like last season and there is no justification for this thread.

EDIT: Sorry - just seen that Trent posted exactly the same thing a bit earlier.

I think you might want to have another look at this!! Thankfully Graham Turner only got one, very brief go. Graham T*$£~@# on the other hand...don't get me started!!

I've always rather liked him as a bloke. Have become less and less impressed with him as manager of my club. :|

To be fair to McLeish, he had a big injury crisis after the January window had closed and there was nothing to do to rectify it. Unlike our last season's manager who was lucky enough to be given £18m rising to £24m to buy a forward to save us from relegation.

Benítez was a loan signing costing around £800k. So that brings the total down to just over £24m, no?

I was certainly impressed at how he went for the ball leading up to the penalty incident - not really very Bent-like at all! I wonder if having Robbie Keane in the squad may have perked Bent up a bit. A bit of competition and a new companion who knows where the goal is and lives to score. Let's hope it gets better still, because Bent has been a bit useless so far in many games this season.

It's hard to compare but I would say he has more fluid movement and better instinctive positioning than his big brother. Craig was - and remains - a grafter who impresses through his hard work and flashes of brilliance. Gary just looks a more naturally gifted footballer. Sorry if this counts as "gushing". Obviously, it can all go pear shaped for him, as it does for so many promising youngsters but he looks the part at just now.

When you put in the full run of seasons, it's hard to describe this as "progress", although I recognise your intent was satirical.

Terry Venables MkII.

Agreed. We know now he's not a left back, although I applaud the strategy of dropping Warnock. It was good he was able to stay on and do better in his changed position.

Thought he made a great debut yesterday and it showed the wisdom of loaning him to Coventry to get match-ready.

The imaginary Houllier who often occupies these pages would have been great for us. Our team of smartly scouted, previously unknown, young (and cheap) continental stars would have played superb, skilful football and swept us into the top 4 ready for a shy at the CL. Sadly, the actual Houllier that we got introduced chaotic tactics and team selection, demotivated half of the squad and took us to the brink of the relegation zone. Shame, really.

I've been a critic this season but he was good yesterday. Credit where it's due & let's hope he has an extended run of form now. Think it will help if there's a competition between him and Keane for a few weeks.

I'm always happiest when the negative posting on here is of the "we won but we were crap" variety. I can live with that. The reality is that we fought and won a really tough battle and should celebrate that. I've wanted to see Robbie Keane in a Villa shirt for a long time now. It's very nearly too late in his career now but he made a fantastic first impact and was easily MOTM.

This myth keeps cropping up on this site. SHA were relegated because, after their League Cup victory, they went on a disastrous run of W2 D3 L7 - 9 points out of 36 - and converted their mid table position to a relegation slot. A couple more draws out of that lot would have kept them up, so you could easily argue they didn't draw ENOUGH matches. The performance of SHA last season is utterly irrelevent to what Villa do this season. I would rather concentrate on what we need to do to improve, not keep harping on about what our desperate neighbours did or didn't do. My point is we are not really in a comfortable mid table position yet and we need some wins to get there.

Our current league position is a bit deceptive in my view. We are about 6 points adrift of where we should be even to keep pace with last season's moderate showing. If we don't start picking up maximum points against inferior teams like Wolves we are going to drift towards a crisis. So I will be worried about anything less than a win. Time for some of our highly paid stars to step up to the plate.

No, I'm not really chuckling at that tbh. The latter IMO. How many games did he get under Houllier/McAllister, and how many good games did he turn in?

Don't agree at all. It remains to be seen whether this lad will fulfil the potential he once showed. We certainly don't have the scope at present in the Villa side to give him some games to see if he is going to make it or not - we simply don't have enough points to play with. So a loan spell seems the perfect solution to give him some game time and allow him to show what he can do and build up his confidence/match readiness. And if he doesn't develop to Premiership level, there is a good chance Leeds would take him back, I guess. Good management by McLeish I would say.