briny_ear

Didn't a chap called Harry Redknapp have a few problems with him as well?

Sadly, it's looking like 13-17 atm. Depends a bit if we do anything in the transfer window.

Oh dear.

Hutton. Not doing his job.

Oh well, we are gonna get stuffed now I expect.

Hint to Villa fans at VP. Don't boo Downing, it wil just make him more determined to score.

Yes, well done to the two newcomer lads. However, I find that team and bench rather scary. We could be in for a pasting here. Having said that, now they will probably put on a storming performance and win, and Heskey and Delfouneso will form the perfect striking partnership we've been searching for.

That's what I love about him. Loved his goal against Chelsea last week - the way he pulled up & just let the ball bounce gently into the net and then just looked down, sort of "this is just routine for me, scoring against Chelsea". Also loved his shoulder goal against Norwich - here We don't have enough genuine eccentrics in the PL any more. More power to his elbow (apols to his team mates who are going to have to take a few beatings/darts in the head in the cause )

Summed up nicely but totally wrong so far as the 2nd part is concerned.

He was pretty good when he was with Leicester and in the early days with 'pool, to be fair - definitely someone you'd want on your side, not your opponents, but that was getting on for 10 years ago.

That's a big ball park! Young's fee was around 20% higher.

Don't think many think he is "so bad" just that he has not been good value for an £8.5m acquisition on £50k+ p.w. and was the weak link in a midfield with Young, Milner and Downing or in a CM pairing with Barry. They are all top players, acquired for not dissimilar money (with the exception of Barry obviously), and now playing at big clubs (in the PL era) challenging for Europe. I don't think any of those aspiring clubs would have come in for Stan at any point. He has looked better this year in a more advanced role BUT still lacks the pace and energy, IMO, to be a complete PL CM'er, particularly in a two man CM. Don't know where you got the £8.5m from. The generally published figure is £6.5m, potentially rising to £8m (We don't know how much of the extra has been paid of course*). So, your "Not dissimilar" transfer fees are in fact S Petrov - £6.5m rising to £8m A Young - £8m rising to £9.65m J Milner - £12m S Downing - £10m rising to £12m That's not exactly my idea of "not dissimilar" sums of money! (* or maybe someone given to poring over the AVFC accounts does!)

Is "half decent" the same as "bog standard", then? Both underestimate what he has brought to the side IMO

Must say that Heskey this season is looking like a shadow of the player we bought - and even when we bought him he was on the way to becoming a shadow of the player he was in his prime. Given that he often gets put in midfield these days, I would much rather see a concerted effort to get Bannan settled in the side.

Thank heavens we've had him at the club over the past 3 seasons. The absolute bedrock and centre of stability amongst slash and burn chairman/chief executive, doolally/out of depth managers, glory-hunting/ship-jumping stars etc. He's one of the main reasons it hasn't all been disastrously worse.

quoting some highly selective stats is a bit sneaky and not the sort of behaviour to be encouraged on Villatalk IMO. Who is it who hates Houllier BTW? Do you not get that whole point I was making, firstly, it wasn't all that serious, hence the wink rather than a very serious comment.. Sunderland, 1-0 down to Blackburn at half-time, won 2-1. "Houllier would never win a game like that" His very first game, 1-0 down to Blackburn at half-time, won 3-1 ....do you not see the slightly funny side to the original comment. think you took it all abit seriously .. Cripes, if you think I take any of this discussion about Houllier seriously, you really have not been getting the point of my my posts. Let me steer you back to my original response to your post, which included a very early outbreak of Did that not give you any hint about my state of mind when posting? He would have then taken the metro to St James Park, raced to the players' tunnel and kissed the black and white scarf above the entrance...

He looked a bit more lively and made an effort. Wouldn't say his football was very good quality though, still passes and shots going astray. Some much bigger tests for him coming up if he stays in the first XI

More than that, some complete disasters, e.g. Connoli/Jol; Grant/Mourhino.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the current bottom 3 ends up as the final bottom 3.

If Houllier had taken over as Sunderland manager, you can almost guarantee he would have lost that game. Eck would have gone for a draw, and after Sunderland went behind, his plan would have been to keep the score down. Just like Houllier's first game where we were 1-0 down to Blackburn and won 3-1 ... or first league game, 1-1 and scored a late winner at Wolves? It gets a bit less rosy if you go down the fixture list beyond that, though, doesn't it? (Good to see there are still some stubborn pockets of Houllier love around the place, though.) The key thing for Sunderland fans, I guess, is that they would surely have lost if Bruce had still been in charge, so O'Neill's appointment brought an instant reward.

if was so passionate about the game he wouldnt have walked so close to start of season and would have got on with a shoestring budget if he really did have "passion" Unless maybe he'd had the goalposts moved on him one time too many?

Very definitely shaping up as Petrov's replacement - a welcome development.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that Sunderland's come back was down to two well judged substitutions made by MON at 75 minutes. And of course we all know he NEVER made substitutions at Villa unless it was Heskey for Carew. :confused:

Woo-hoo! Stoke 2-0 up. Scott Parker and Kyke Walker having 'mares this evening.

Just thought wanting Sunderland to lose just to spite MON was a bit that way. TBH, given the predicament we are in, a 0-0 draw with 3 sendings off each and bad injuries to a few key players on both sides would have been the best outcome for Villa.Not really. The Villa fans that hate O'Neill are entirely justified in doing so after what he did.I don't think hatred can ever really be justified. it is a thoroughly regrettable emotion. But which bit of what he did is worth hating? The consistently higher league positions and the fact that we were challenging for top 4 in each of his 3 last seasons with us? The cup appearances at Wembley? the players he brought to Villa, like Young, Milner, Downing, and the ones he brought on to star quality, like Barry, Agbonlahor? Frankly, I'd gladly take all that back.