VillaChris

Ironically my main memory of Debuchy when he was at Newcastle was him getting destroyed by.....Gabby. Won a penalty in a game we lost 1-2 (Cabaye hit a stunner infront of the Holte) and was murdering him before Lambert comically moved him to the other flank and he barely touched the ball again (It was around the time of the Bradford debacle). He's better than Hutton and Bacuna but he isn't magically fly us up the league on his own.

There is plenty of investment going on, given how old some of the lines are and the state they're in. When I was growing up in the 90s there were plenty of crashes happening, Hatfield and also one outside Watford. Thankfully there has been nothing major for a long while now so that's a much needed improvement. You'd also be surprised going back to the 90s how some of the routes you take for granted now were only once or twice a day e.g. no major frequency. There is stuff that can be done better though for the investment e.g. more Wifi is all well and good on trains but people want seats to enjoy it in comfort rather than being crushed in the Vestibules so I'd say more carriages at peak times should be a bigger priority. More Electrification aswell, they were talking about this a while back...down from Brum to Bristol and also up to Leeds but little seems to have been done.

One thing I back and have done for the last few weeks is him calling out our senior players who should be sweating blood for this club....people like Gabby (who won't play for this club again under Garde but might yet again get lucky by outlasting another Villa manager given his contract) and Grealish who should know better and will hope start dedicating himself to be a proper player. Be interesting to see what happens with Guzan and Lescott now, two other people who should be giving their all for this club, I don't expect either to play tomorrow. For too long many in this squad have used this club as a holiday and retirement home which needs to stop so I back Garde 100% on this. Needs to get a few wins though soon.

It needs to be done really but as you saw won't happen until HS2 is up and running which is at least 10 years away. What is ridiculous is that places like Kings Heath and Moselely don't get stations, the line is still operational for Freight and diversion routes. We all know how congested South Brum gets even in off peak hours so at least give people the option of a train line. The biggest problem I find is lack of rolling stock. Routes North to South are fine and frequent although connections from major cities to others are lacking a bit e.g. from Liverpool but I use the Cross City and the biggest frustration is 3 carriage trains turning up at half 8 to a rammed platform. You eventually get to New Street and you see a 6 car train heading out with about 3 people on. Same with Crosscountry, 4/5 cars for most parts of the country (and one of those is first class) which makes it very difficult to travel at peak times. Also interesting to read that bit about London Midland from London as I've sometimes got the 16.46 up to Lichfield from Euston and they have been 8 car coaches on a couple of occasions so must've been connected to xmas and lack of units. Is the train service as bad as made out in this country? No balance I'd say no? Is it value for money compared to so many other counties, No chance.

Debuchy is better than what we have but he has been injured for the last 18 months, not played at all much for Arsenal. And a Right back isn't going to turn us into a winning machine...he was a regular the season Newcastle finished 16th for example.

Still a fair bit optimistic if you think a midfielder with Bacuna and Westwood as regular starters is going to win many premier league games.

His statements are always in riddles anyway so I'll probably just have a quick scroll though, shout some swear words in frustration and move on,

Blackburn 11/12. Their fans raging at Steve Kean was something else.

It really is a posionous feel around the club now and given relegation is fast approaching the mood isn't going to pick up and will probably get worse as we'll lose plenty more games before the season is out. It's a shame as I do think the fans have been very patient during the last 3-4 years. Let's face it most of us have been used to being in the top half of the league yet there was plenty of patience shown in the Lambert reign when the results were dismal and even during some of the defeats earlier this season. It's all coming to a head now though and that will be a problem getting in fresh blood, targeted players will be texting and calling existing ones here and I wouldn't be surprised if they're being warned off as how many players would want to come to a team bottom of the league and with a growing mutiny occuring. It's a vicious cycle I'm afraid. I do think a big squad turnover is needed again just to get in players untarnished with this so fans will cut them more slack and get behind them next season. Whether they'll be any good of course is another debate.

We still had a pretty good chance the next season though plus great runs in the cups. When you look back it could've been one of our greatest ever seasons. We win the Carling cup if Vidic gets sent off IMO, if we'd beaten Chelsea in the semis we would've faced a relegated Pompey in the final (although we could've messed that up given Chelsea only beat them 1-0 in the final) and we weren't far off at all in getting 4th, were level with Spurs after beating SHA on April 25th. At that point there were only two games left but then losing 3-1 at City was a symbolic defeat as you knew then it would be a long time before we finish above Man. City in the league again and so it's proving. So we could've achieved all that under Randy Lerner. But we didn't and here we bleeding well are.

I just want a manager who I'd be fairly confident would mount a promotion push next season, it's now beyond whether a manager would be capable at premier league level as we won't be here for much longer. Are we all still confident on here Remi will be winning us 20 + games next season as that's what I will be demanding. Even to stay up in the championship you need 50 odd points usually so you need to win that number just to be well clear of relegation. I have to say I didn't want Nigel Pearson when Sherwood was sacked as something is bugging me that away from the environment at Leicester he'd get found out. But that was in relation to keeping us up. Being in the championship, the dynamics change. He's regularly finished in the top 6 in that league (3 top 6 finishes in last 6 seasons). It wouldn't shock me now if he's our manager at some point in the next year.

Ha Napoli will bottle Seria A I'm afraid like the others. Can't quite believe Juventus are going to win it yet again especially after the awful start they've had. Seria A is a decent league to watch even if it dosen't have the star names like in the 90s. Sasusulo were excellent today at Inter for example.

Five years ago next week we signed Bent. I was buzzing that night we signed him, big signings can do that sometimes as much as a crucial win as I was the same when we signed Young and Carew on the same day. One of the last times we acted like a big club in this league aswell in that at the time we went to a club who were higher than us in the league, paid what they asked and got their star man. It made me naively believe that even though we were having a tough season Lerner hadn't given up and would give the top 4 another go, I was swiftly withdrawing that opinion 6 months later. The Bent signing is a big what if. Surely you sign that type of player as a missing link to fire you into the top 4, not just keep you up. I'm not saying he would've done that but he'd have been more useful to achieve that than Heskey was. And of course we signed him at the time when Downing and especially Young's times at the club were drawing to a close. That was the start of our abysmal recruitment really, thinking Albrighton and CNZ would be enough to replace those two.

Too many empty seats for all that,,,will be lucky to make 30k so how much noise can a 2/3 stadium really make as they'll be large gaps in all stands. In any case for anyone who went to the West Ham game...that to me in the 2nd half was the best atmosphere all season. And still the team couldn't win.

Is there some law being passed that means Leicester can't win the replay? Vardy and Mahrez will probably play in that one.

Probably....BT pick although not sure which of them has first choice. Man. United would've been a certainty if they hadn't scored last night. I just don't like watching lower teams playing away from home as they just defend and struggle on the big premier league pitches. Leicester-Spurs round 2 is well worth another watch as Leicester will probably put a stronger team out.

Accy...........?

lol Kane was on for about 10 minutes and gets interviewed, don't tell me they gave him MOTM?!

Fantastic game that...there have been some crackers this weekend. Would imagine that would be the replay pick ahead of Liverpool and us.

Has to be one of the best in play bets in football....a penalty to occur in the last 10 minutes and be the last goal of the game, usually a 25/1 shot if you bet around the 80th mark. Had it tonight and in the Man. United game last night (not mentioning the hundreds of games when it dosen't occur!)

Could be a BBC policy, London club and they have plenty of Spurs in their presenting ranks, Lineker, Jenas etc. Full credit to Leicester, I know some say it's down to confidence but this is far from their first choice 11 and some of these players like Bellahoune or whatever he's called haven't played much this season at all yet there's little difference to how they play in the league. Plus they're still pushing men forward. If this was us 2-1 up at Spurs we'd be now parked on the 6 yard box.

I would be surprised. If they beat Sunderland on Wednesday they'd go 8 clear of them. They then have a home game v Watford. And in the run in the have Southampton, us and Norwich all in a row as home games. There are worse teams down there for me although surprised they gave Curtis the job until end of the season as we've seen many caretakers do alright and then the results nosedive when they get the job full time which he sort of has.

He supports Bristol City. And has a soft spot for us.

Looking online, it will barely scrape 30k as plenty of seats available in all 4 stands including plenty in the Holte End which has been pretty full for most games this season. Not sure Palace will sell out either, the drop in temperature will put off people this week aswell. I thought that's why it's odd they're planning a protest for Tuesday rather than the Leicester game but then again there was similar attendance for that Bolton game and that was very posinous as was the Sunderland mid week game in Houllier's season.

Double like button should be made for posts like this!