VillaChris

to be fair, era for era and level for level Villa have signed some really big players !! Yeah, to me it seems that you're equaling exciting and big players with players from outside of Britain. Merson, Saunderd, McGrath and a few more I'd call big players. But big players from outside of Britain we haven't had that many, that's true. But we got Nilis, and he was both a great and foreign player. But I guess he's the only one. But in terms of excitment the likes of Merson, Saunders and Mcgrath aren't the same as when a team like Newcastle signed Owen and Shearer. I'm not saying you haven't signed players with good reputations, but as far as I can remember you've never been a club that has signed the truely big names of the era. Mcgrath turned out to be an awesome signing for you, but he wasn't one of the stars of world football when you signed him. You've signed plenty of excellent players and done well as a club, but in terms of head turning signings, they've been remarkably thin on the ground for some reason. Other clubs of similar stature do seem to have signed much more eye catching names. Shearer and Owen for example were not only starters, but seen as star players for the national team when Newcaslte bought them. Whilst the likes of Merson were really just good squad players at international level. But as you say, it's more evident with foreign names. I the grand scheme of world football someone like Luc Nilis is a bit of a nobody. Yet a club like Boro signed Juninho and Ravenelli, who at the time were huge names. I couldn't believe it when they signed Juninho and the press coverage was huge. There doesn't seen to be any Shearer, Owen, Lineker, Asprilla, Juninho, Ravinelli, Klinsman, Davids, Gullit or Weah types signings in your history. Basically no really big names from abroad or star players for the England national team. It hasn't done you any harm over the years, but for some reason you've never signed any of the big names of world football. It's the same with Everton. Well we did sign Peter Schemichel, one of the great goalkeepers in the modern era imo......but not for us. :x And also Ginola which must rank as an awful transfer deal as he was shite for us and you sold him the summer you signed Rebrov! :shock:

I think the injury has worked in our favour, think Bent will still be here come the start of the season. If he'd gone off to the euros and scored a few goals, his stock would be high here and in europe and I doubt he'd have been thrilled to come back for another mid table season.

Bolton have a good run in compared to those three so I think they'll end up on 36 or 37 points.

I've said all along 35 points will be enough...with our goal difference teams below us need 36 points. I really can't se QPR, Blackburn or Wigan getting to that figure with their run ins.... Blackburn Liverpool- D Swansea- L Norwich- W Spurs- L Wigan- D Chelsea- L 33 Points QPR Swansea- D WBA- D Spurs- D Chelsea- L Stoke- W Man. City- L 34 points Wigan- Man U- L Arsenal- L Fulham- L Newcastle- W Blackurn- D Wolves- W 35 points That's how I have it to pan out in the run ins...Wigan to pull off another great escape on 35 points. Does it look that unrealistic?

Liked him beating a couple of players in that run before the penalty....in the workmanlike squad McLeish is creating it's vital for there to be a player or two who has a touch of flair.

Had a difficult second season. He's still shown glimpses this season, that spell against Chelsea, a good run of form over Xmas/new Year. Too early to write hm of methinks.

Hughton class manager, end of debate. Be interesting to see what would've happened if McLeish had stuck around there. I predict out of europa at the qualifying round and him sacked in November with them 12th in the league.

Blackburn are getting relegated. Poor result for Bolton but I still think they'll just have enough. Will come down to QPR and Wigan.

Really like this kid, think he's going to make it. Played left back today so that's two good performances in a week in different positions against good opposition.

It certainly makes sense to offer him a new deal. A) As he's a pretty good CB. He can also play the full back positions which Dunne and Collins certainly can't. In a smallish squad and when you're trimming the wage bill, having a player who can play in more than one position well is pretty important I'd say.

Djalo come on for Benfica...wasn't he supposed to be coming here on trial before xmas?

Depends on who the replacement is imo. If it was say Curbishley, Bruce or Martinez there would only be a small increase. This is a bit like when people were assuming that when Doug went, they'd be sell out signs at VP from that very moment. In reality our attendences the next season were similar to the season before. It was only in 07/08 when we started to get in the top 6 that we got regular 40k attendances.

Given and Friedel are about the same imo, as others have said both are excellent shotr stoppers but both are average at coming off their line and both are also guilty at parrying the ball too often back into the six yard box. Friedel has looked very good for Spurs but remember he isn't facing 10-15 shots a game anymore (well unless they're playing Arsenal away!) The thing with Guzan is that he isn't even 30 yet which is still young for a keeper and in his first sustained run in the team he looked good so I think we'll be losing a potentially good keeper once he gets a run of games.

Holland?

What's Hamburg's run in like? Dunno why but I usually get a rush of excitement whenever a big club in europe flirts with relegation (apart from us obviously!) Hamburg going down would be massive wouldn't it, former european cup winners and regular in the top league (sounds like someone else dosen't it). Mind you Bremen and Stuttgart were close to going down last season and both in the top 6 this season so who knows. The Bundesliga is beautifully mental.

I'll be honest, I wanted Houllier gone this time last year. But not for one second did I think the alternative would be McLeish. If I knew that then and his health would've been o.k, I'd have given Houllier another season. Again at the time I criticised him about his treatment of some of our defence but again he was spot on in that respect over Warnock and Dunne.

Valenica has scored. Blackburn have played their hearts out but I still think they're going down. Their last 3 games are Spurs and Chelsea away and Wigan at home. I can see them losing all three games. That's actually a point people are missing, the penultimate game of the season is Blackburn v Wigan. I really can't see a way the loser of that game is going to stay up.

Where is he now? I'm not advocating him as a saviour of the season, just wondering where he is? Correct me if I'm wrong but we recalled him early from his loan due to Bent's injury and since then he's failed to make the bench? Is he injured? Has he played for the reserves recently? I think it's fair to say he'll be sold in the summer. Be interested to see what sort of career he makes post Villa.

I wouldn't mind his brother back at this club.. I don't think we would do all that badly with Craig and Gary in the middle. I didn't rate Craig when was with us initially, but he's turned into a fairly good player at Sunderland. I know we can probably do better than Craig but we can also do a lot worse. Gardner should've been kept, I think it was an error to sell him in January 2010. At that time it was like Cahill with him wanting to play every week which was fair enough as Milner and Petrov were the first choice central two. But Sidwell was ahead of him in the pecking order and he left within a year...and you also had NRC in the last 18 months of his deal and who had fallen out with MON. It's ridiculous how quickly our central midfield options have declined in the last two years....we had Milner and Petrov as the first choice two with Sidwell, Gardner and NRC as back up. Now we have Petrov, Ireland, Delph (often injured) and then kids like Herd and Bannan learning the game. If you can't get your central midfield strong enough to compete in premier league games, you're going to struggle to win games as this season has shown.

Same for me. I don't hate Lerner as he did all I ask of an owner for his first 4 years here, e.g. back the manager in the transfer market, goodwill with the fans etc. However since the day MON walked out the decisions have been a complete disaster. The sad thing is he must sack McLeish in the summer but I don't have much faith he'll come up with a superior alternative.

Makoun has apparently played the last 8 games for Olympiakos for those who don't think he's getting a regular game there.

David Craig is the North east correspondent for SSN so it's normal you'd get a bit of bias in that situation. I too can't remember much of the media having a go at us when we were challenging the top 4, maybe a few of the pundits like Marcotti who were questioning some of MON's signings and the football we were playing in comparison to what Spurs have played this season. In hindsight who was right?

Also....McLeish gambled on Delph being amazing for us this season and also staying injury free. He did alright first 2-3 games of the season but soon slumped in form. At that point I'd have liked a Makoun to come in for Delph and give us a more solid look with Stan in the centre. Of course we had Jenas for this...well from November who lasted 5 minutes before being injured.

If so, he must be a disappointed man because GH barely played him. Houllier played him at the start, he then got sent off at Blackpool and lost his place as others came in and played well like Delph. Remember when Ashley Young first came in, people were doubting his quality and he soon dropped to the bench but a full pre season and he was brilliant the next season. Foreign players need time to settle in, why don't people get it? Henry took 14 games to score for Arsenal, Angel took an age to score for us. I'm not saying Makoun's a world beater but he'd have been better than some who've played in midfield for us this season.

Don't forget when he went on loan to Leeds he played mostly at left back so we have the option of binning Warnock aswell as I do think Hutton has slightly improved recently.