Big_John_10

Completely agree jez.

Notice how everyone play well without him in the team, he comes back in and everyone's shit again going forward. He does **** all. The amount of times I've seen midfielders run past him today is unbelievable, I haven't even seen him get on the ball, which is what he's supposed to do. Central midfield is one of the most important positions on the pitch and of course it affects the players around him. Yes, it's clearly all Petrovs fault. Had that been NRC on the field, Friedel wouldn't have been beaten to the ball. Coker would win every tackle and somehow that would make carew, gabby, young and milner play superb. Don't you know how football works?

Do you actually think that? I don't believe that is true. Why do you think we are playing poorly, and have done in the past four away games? Why do you think we still can't keep a clean sheet (1 clean sheet in 12 away games now) despite spending so much money on defenders two seasons running. Why do you think we are incapable of looking like we can get even a point against the likes of Burnley, Wigan and Blackburn? They aren't exactly football powerhouses. All valid questions... Probably the same reason we can have a decent defensive record, find ourselves in 5th place and beat teams like chelsea and liverpool, it is because like every other team in the prem we aren't consistently great.

Petrov or MON? Well he is the manager so it is his fault. Just think it's funny that everyone who doesn't rate petrov is making out it's all his fault. Was never going to be easy, team fighting to stay in the prem, good home record and shit weather conditions. I don't think we will lose this one though.

petrov is clearly to blame for everyone playing poorly.

NRC is a member of the squad and unlike petrov has never proven he is one of our better players. If he doesn't like being used the way he is then he should go to a worse team were he will be picked week in week out.

If we lose and petrov has a stinker i'll be on and say MON got it wrong, but for me right now it's not that big a deal.

Me either. There were a lot better players than NRC against bolton.

Happy to play under him as captain, why do the players decide who is captain i thought that was MON? Will be a good marker to all tomorrow, play well and you will be dropped as soon as my favourites come back in! Not entirely true, but certainly an element of it. If we win who cares, if we loose.... Do you really think MON would pick a captain that the other players didn't respect? And if petrov was as wank as some on here try to make out he is i can't imagine many players having much respect for him. I think the Petrov captaincy conveniently fell into place at the time having been a consistent player last season, and MON can't really turn back on that decision now. As Barry had left, Friedel was too old, Carew went to strip clubs, Davies too young and injury prone and NRC had been unfairly shunned to the point of non-existence. Now, I think NRC and Dunne would make better captains than Petrov, and benefit the team in the long run. Nevertheless, I would play Stan today, in a 4-5-1 I think there may be better options as captain but MON still wouldn't have made him captain if he was shit, made other players around him shit and cost us points because he is one of the most unfit players in the league. All of which has been suggested on VT.

Happy to play under him as captain, why do the players decide who is captain i thought that was MON? Will be a good marker to all tomorrow, play well and you will be dropped as soon as my favourites come back in! Not entirely true, but certainly an element of it. If we win who cares, if we loose.... Do you really think MON would pick a captain that the other players didn't respect? And if petrov was as wank as some on here try to make out he is i can't imagine many players having much respect for him.

Whilst Lennon has been at Spurs we've finished 5th twice, come within 30 minutes of finishing 4th, won a trophy and made two Wembley final appearances - so that's six times a better accomplishment than anything that MON at Villa - or any current player at Villa - has so far managed. Let me know when Milner or Young or any of other wide-midfield World Cup squad wannabees at Villa can say the same thing. What in the name of God....6 times a better accomplishment? That sentence doesn't actually make sense, you're counting 'nearly finishing fourth' and finishing fifth as two seperate achievements! 2 Wembley appearances AND a trophy....was the trophy from one of those appearances? Yet you're counting it as a seperate achievement? Please tell me I've misread Glaston is pure gold. Tell us again why dos santos is better than young.

Petrov really isn't as shit as some like to make out. Do you really think his team mates would have voted for him as the best player and be happy to play under him as captain if he really was shit and was costing us points?

So you don't rate Lennon. However, Capello rates him, Redknapp rates him, Jol rates him and every manager he's ever played for has rated him. So I'll trust their (and my) judgement over your assessment "abilities", because it seems you wouldn't know obvious class if it bit you on the arse. A lot of respected managers rated heskey including the current england manager but i still think he is pretty poor. I happen to think lennon will struggle to go to the world cup, milner has more chance because he is more consistent and can play in more than just 1 position.

We've been waiting for carew to hit some form, dropping him after his best game when he was unplayable would be a big mistake IMO.

If collins was fit i'd still play collins i think. Keep NRC over petrov.

Great performance and we've finally smashed a team and entertained. Carew showed why he needs to play even when not on top form, today he was immense scored 1 and played a big part in 2 and won a pen. Thought sidwell was better and it was nice to see 2 very good full backs on either side of the pitch. Cuellar played well. The fonz had a shot with his first touch which is more than heskey has done in 9 appearances, i hope this kid becomes our 3rd choice striker.

May I ask what is wrong with Aston Villa? Or is that another topic? its too late, and anyway if you watch the games and don't know I'd find another hobby. Probably best to find another hobby if you can never take any enjoyment from it. Even when we win you focus on things you think should have been done differently and tell us it's just papering over cracks. I pity you, if i spent the money i did following villa home and away and could never find enjoyment from it i'd be gutted. hope....thats what keeps me going. blind faith....never. you're not in jail, you're supporting a football team.

I'd love to be in the top 4 but it's not a realistic goal. 5/6th is the best we can hope for so at the moment i'd enjoy that.

May I ask what is wrong with Aston Villa? Or is that another topic? its too late, and anyway if you watch the games and don't know I'd find another hobby. Probably best to find another hobby if you can never take any enjoyment from it. Even when we win you focus on things you think should have been done differently and tell us it's just papering over cracks. I pity you, if i spent the money i did following villa home and away and could never find enjoyment from it i'd be gutted.

I think the history the manager had with heskey played some part in the signing. I really don't think we had brilliant options though. If a player was real quality chances are they are at a big club and happy or at a small club and want to leave but most clubs don't want to sell their best players in the middle of the season. The player has to be available for sale, has to be the right quality and has to be interested in joining aston villa at that point in the season. I can't imagine the list was endless of players meeting that criteria, also signing someone from abroad would have been a big risk and wouldn't have solved short term problems as those players usually require a period to settle in. Heskey was playing well for wigan, back in the england team, added a physical prescence we missed and the manager knew him as a person, it hasn't worked out but it also wasn't the stupidest decision in the world.

Ok there have been worse players signed but given the timing of it and given how we changed our formation to accomodate him and barely won again he has to be up there. We were top four and O'Neill had the whole world to choose from yet he signed Heskey as the answer to us sustaining a top four push, what a joke of a decision. I don't think we had the whole world to choose one, once you cut out players that aren't good enough to help us break into the top 4, players who aren't interested in joining villa and players that weren't for sale you probably aren't looking at a huge list. From what we hear from the two players we tried to sign zaki and downing for around £25 million in january but their clubs weren't prepared to sell them, i think it's a safe to assume that there were probably others who were either not interested or unavailable at the time. Heskey wasn't the greatest signing in the world but he was a physical prescence that we lacked while carew was injured. I also remember a lot of comments before that january about how poor we were playing using 4-5-1 and how we were getting very lucky and we needed to bring in a striker. It hasn't worked out and it will go down as a poor signing from MON but i don't believe that last january we could have signed the quality that would have pushed us into 4th and instead chose heskey.

He has to be up there. He just isn't suited to a club in our position. For england when he is surrounded by world class he can do what he does and his lack of goals goes withouth punishment and at smaller teams he seems to do ok without scoring goals because he is better than most other players in the team. At villa we have better and he clearly isn't of the standard required to help us progress. Best to admit it didn't work and move on, it will be better for us and for heskey.

But is that realistic, the top 4 have had years and years of spending big money and have reputation that allow them to sign players. Is 3 summer transfer windows enough to catch up with that level of spending and building that the top 4 have had? Everton have finished above us the last 2 seasons, spurs have spent similar to us over the years and man city have spent a fortune over the last 3 years so why should we even expect that our level of investment should have us finishing above those sides? I think after what happened with roman at chelsea many thought having a billionnaire owner would see us become a super power again but in reality the level of investment randy has put in is required to just get into the uefa cup. I can see why people think a new manager would offer different things to try and get us in the top 4 but regardless of who is in charge i think expecting top 4 finish is too much at this time in the randy era.

IF Roman or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan had bought us we would have won the league by now! Did 4-4-2 or heskey on the left make the ref miss a handball and make carew decide to shoot instead of gift gabby with a goal? I think mistakes were made during the game by the manager but there were other factors that led to the defeat.

I don't think players were jumping at the chance to sign for villa after a 16th and then an 11th place finish. Spurs have always had money and we only had one season over man city before they got money so not sure we had a massive window to outspend all these clubs.