Villarocker

I agree with you Jon. I'm not saying that Warnock wont get picked (he almost certainly will in fact) I just think its wrong, its a big weakness of O'Neills this and one of the things he had said that he was going to address (using the squad more) Yes, Shorey has had his crap moments, even this season against Wigan he was shocking, but the last three games he has played arguably his three best games for the club, i struggle to see how Warnock could improve on those performances and I think dropping Shorey would send out the wrong message. throwing a guy into the derby on his debut is also a dangerous game imho Could Shorey's last 3 performances have had anything to do with the fact he was looking for a move away? Pompey said they couldn't guarantee him regular first team football and that's why the deal was supposed to have collapsed. I think Warnock will want to show the fans what he is made of if he makes his debut and I would prefer taking a risk on him than seeing Shorey in a possible sulky mood, over his failed moved back to the South.

I know it's having a new look defence with 2 fresh faces but what a way to win the fans over hey, with a clean sheet and derby day victory over the noses!! Warnock and Dunne would also be eager to impress on their debuts.

This ^ would be my starting line-up too! They will surely play 4-5-1 and we would need to pack the midfield to compete against them. I think we will win 2-0 or 2-1 in a scrappy, boring game!

Mellberg, no doubt about it.

Hi General, I would also like to take the opportunity to say thank you for the generosity shown by the club to the fans who attended the Vienna game. I will make sure that I shout myself hoarse when cheering on the lads against Cardiff! One last thing General. I sent you a pm yesterday and just wondered if you have had chance to take a look at it yet. Up the Villa!

General, speaking from a fan's point of view, where do you expect the current Villa team to finish this season? As a fan of Villa, I hope and pray that we can break into the top four. But, the realist in me thinks that we will finish in 7th.

Hi General, Sunday was a much better overall performance from the lads. Back to the 4-5-1 formation meant Gabby getting stuck in a bit more and causing no end of trouble for the opposing defence. I also noticed Jimmy and Ash were changing wings throughout the game, good to see! I thought all of the lads played well but would just like to give a special mention for Ciaran Clark. The young lad may feel his chances will be a bit more limited with the acquisitions of Collins and Dunne, but I for one hope to see Clark make more first team appearances over the course of the season. He looked like he was making his 100th appearance, not his first! I would also like to point out the throwing of "missiles" by the Rapid fans. One landed close to where I was sitting in the Lower North stand, just after we scored our first goal. I didn't make anything of it because it didn't appear to have hit anyone. However, if English fans had done this abroad, we would be hauled before UEFA and labelled thugs! One last point if I may! I have noticed that stewards at Villa Park only seem to want to get us to sit down when there is a small away crowd that they can control. The Fulham fans' attendance was mediocre and easy to control, hence the stewards trying to make the Villa faithful sit down a lot more throuhgout the game. But, when teams sell out the away end and stand for the whole game, the stewards don't bother with us. This is obviously because they can't control the away fans and make them sit so they decide they have no argument with our fans. This doesn't seem right to me General. I understand the health and safety issue behind this but surely the Villa fans have a right to stand if the away fans are allowed to get away with it? That's why Rapid totally outsung us last week. Because they were all stood for the entire game and yet stewards were trying to get us to sit down. This, I feel, is one of the main reasons for the poor atmosphere that we sometimes encounter at VP. It is a fact that people will sing and cheer more when they are standing at a football match. I know it's a bit of a dodgy topic because of the safety regulations that the club have to adhere to. I just think that the stewards should make sure the away fans are sitting before they try to enforce the same laws on us Villa fans! Keep up the good work General. Only 12 days to go until we get our next 3 points!

The General's certainly right about Laursen, he was immense and a legend. I reckon that the General wouldn't have minded taking a person like Laursen into Vietnam or Iraq with him!

I have som reservationa regarding his tactics, team selection, transfer deals etc but we just cannot deny that we are a top 6 side again and he is the manager that took us their. For that reason alone I say keep him.

Hi General, Thanks for your response reharding Laursen and Barry. I guess opinion is divided their but to be fair to you, we have yet to see Downing and Delph has only played a couple of games. I guess I was thinking more of here and now and not 6-12 months down the line. I will say that it was refreshing to see Delph getting the ball and running at defenders when we played Vienna, something we have lacked in that central area for a long time IMO. It would be great if Downing and Delph could shine for Villa and prove to be better players than Barry. Do you have any idea what the attendance is looking like for tomorrow's game? I sincerely hope the fans wake up and start getting behind the lads more. It must be like playing in a cemetary sometimes for our players!

This is one that myself and Mafiavillain have worked on since the Rapid Vienna game. It's to the tune of That's Amore by Dean Martin! When the ball hits the net it's not Torres or Bent it's James Milner, When one goal won't do and we've subbed John Carew it's James Milner, Holte end sing Ashley on the wing Ashley on the wing and we'll sing Reo-Coker, Delph will play so will Habib Beye so will Habib Beye and we'll cheer Carlos Cuellar (ugly fella!), When the Villa need to score 'cos we don't want a draw it's James Milner, 'Cos he's got two quick feet and a cross that can beat centre halves, When we need two or three and it's not Heskey or Delfouneso (sung as Del-Fon-So), It'll be number 8 because he's **** great it's James Milner, James Milner it's James Milner. The censors could change **** for Bloody if they want copyright of Mafiavillain and Villarocker. Any unauthorised licensing of this material may lead to prosecution and a fine of up to 10 bottles of Bud per license holder

In addition to my previous post General, I would like to say that it was a shame to see such a small turnout to watch the lads last night. I am sure there are lots of reasons why, such as finances, midweek game, the Moscow debacle, not progressing very far in previous cup campaigns etc. I will say this. The Rapid fans support of their team last night was brilliant. The Villa faithful had no match for them, simple as that. We tried to out-sing them down in the Lower North but we just couldn't because there wasn't enough people singing. But, having said that, do you think that the rapid fans would have been so colourful or vocal if they had to sit down like everybody else in the stadium? I know you say it's an health and saftey issue but I really do think that this is taking the fun out of going to football matches. It seems like people will only sing when they are standing but that's hard to do when the stewards are constantly telling you to sit down!

Hi General, It was a decent performance last night but unfortunately we couldn't see it through. I think Rapid were the deserved winner's overall and could possibly have won more comfortably. The worrying thing for me, is that these are not a top European outfit, nowhere near in fact. We went into the game knowing that we would need to score at least 2 goals to go through and after 35 minutes of the game, the giant screen showed that Villa had 0 shots off target and only 1 shot on target - the missed penalty from Young! Although we went on to create a few more chances and score a couple, Rapid had the best chances to score last night. The change of formation and team selection had myself and a lot of other fans baffled, even before kick-off! Maybe 4-4-2 was correct from the start but it was clear as day that Rapid were more attack minded after we scored our second. Everybody around me thought that we should change the formation to 4-5-1 and bring the pace of Gabby on up front, but this didn't happen and Rapid got the goal their play deserved. I also have to say that I feel really sorry for Curtis Davies and what he is having to go through due to the lack of numbers in defence. Before last night's game started, the screen showed highlights of last seasons victory over Ajax, the highest profile opponents faced during our most recent "assault" on Europe. The two Villa goals that night were scored by Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry, our two "best quality" players in my opinion. I wondered who, out of last night's Villa team, were up to the standard of those two players. This is where I think Villa's problems lie General. I do not think that we have managed to replace our two "best" players. Not only were they quality but they were also the main leaders of the team. I am not being critical of the players that we have signed, no way. I just simply believe that we have lost the best quality that we had. MON said over 12 months ago that we need a player of craft and guile. We still don't seem to have found that player and it concerns me. That type of player does not come cheap. We were reportedly offering around 70k per week to keep Barry. This is the kind of money we will have to offer to bring in the same quality, simply because you get what you pay for. I know you say that MON has his idea of player that can fit into his team and style of play. That's fine as long as his style of play gets us to where he and the chairman wants us to be. However, there are only so many gritty and determined players you can have in a squad. To mix it with the big boys you need to have your fair share of flair players too. Players that can do something different and change a game in an instant. I am not against MON and I sincerely hope that he can take the club where he and Randy want it to go. I am just concerned that he makes some very frustrating and strange decisions regarding player recruitment, team selection and formation. I hope that now we don't have this competition to worry about, we will be able to concentrate fully on finishing in a League placing high enough to qualify us for European football next season. This is going to be very difficult though, especially as we now have the extra competition for places from Spurs and Man City. I am hoping that MON gives the remaining 2 cup competitions HIS fullest concentration, as this may well be our best chance of playing European football next season! Up The Villa!

That's all he should be, Carew's back up! The two of them shouldn't be playing alongisde each other because they are too alike, apart from the fact Carew knows how to put the ball into the net!

Thanks for looking into my idea for a "12th man" message board General. I will send you a pm so you can take a look at how it works for the England cricket team!

Hi General, You may or may not be aware that England's cricket team beat the Australians to win back the Ashes on Sunday. To give my support to the team, I logged into the official England website to leave a message on their message board which is called the "twelfth man", which is shown to the players. I basically wished them luck and gave a few words of encouragement. I was wondering if it would be possible, or advantageous, for Villa's official site to have something like this, so that the fans could leave messages of support for the boys pre-match? If you didn't want to make it a permanent fixture that got in the way of the normal pre-match routine, maybe you could use it for the higher profile games where the fans could try and gee the lads up just a little bit more. I think a "twelfth man" message board would be a good way of showing the lads that the fans are behind them, by us offering words of encouragement, and make up a little for the booing that's been going on of late! Just a thought - UP THE VILLA!!

I am a season ticket holder, together with Mafiavillain from this site and CharlieTheCabbieFromEastendersVillain and Homer"Simmo"Simpson(MyMumIsTheRealMarjSimpson)Villain who are not affiliated to this site!

Hi General, A couple of things I would like to point out if I can. 1) Around midnight last night, I trawled through page after page of Liverpool fans rants on one of their fans sites that is similar to this one. Believe me General, they were just as unhappy at losing to us as we were at losing to Wigan. Claims that the club has no money to spend and questioning whether or not Benitez can take the club any further. I also read things like "Stevie G was sh*t tonight" and "Stevie G was f**king useless" etc etc. This is the same Rafa Benitez that managed them to two Champions League finals. The same Steven Gerrard that single-handedly won them the Champions League against AC Milan! The same board that bankrolled the £25m? signing of Fernando Torres! This is football for you i'm afraid to say. It leaves us with massive highs and lows and in the emotion of it all, good AND bad performances are remembered and forgotten in the blink of an eye - or the scoring of a goal! 2) Together with a lot of other fans on here, I believe that your reply to Pilchard's post deserves to sit along his as a front page article. After all, a lot of people agree with your reply just as much as people agree with what Pilchard wrote. So, with that in mind, have you considered the stance that Pilchard mentioned taking in his post? What if you decided that, due to the site not meeting your requirements and feeling like you are not receiving the service you would like etc etc, you would no longer decide to interact with the site any longer. That's the kind of stance Pilchard was suggesting wasn't it? To not make an appearance because he was dissatisfied with the service he was getting! The site thought that his view on things deserved "top billing" so maybe that's the stance you should suggest taking. Maybe then your reply would get to be placed where it belongs, alongside Pilchard's! I have to say General, that I think you have far too much honour than to take this kind of stance just to get your message across and I think that WE as fans should learn a thing or two from that! UP THE VILLA!!

I love that highlighted part of your post General I agree with your comments about making a statement with your feet, it just isn't the way to help the club, unless your finances aren't able to meet the requirements of course. It certainly won't help the club push on as all of the big clubs already have a larger fan base than we do. But I do think it may have helped for the players to know that the fans won't accept such below par peformances as the one they dished up against Wigan. The day we all start settling for performances like the one against Wigan, we may as well give up any hope of challenghing the big boys. At the same time, the players should realise that it was them who set such high standards for the fans in the first place so they should know that they are very capable when they put the right amount of effort in, as shown tonight!

Awesome performance tonight General. Full of passion and spirit and the players definitely showed a lot of character in that showing. I think the kick up the backside certainly worked wonders and hopefully MON has realised that we are a much better organised side when we play 4-5-1, the formation we played when so successful for most of last season! You passed on the negatives from the Wigan game so please let the lads know just how appreciative we all are to see them back to their very best!

In addition to my last post General, I would also like to point out that some of the fans concerns are due to what we have all witnessed in the past. We have seen our club rise to the top and not sustain it, by failing to invest whilst we have been their. I guess that a lot of us are fearing that we may be witnessing a case of deja vu, which would be a shame given the amount of investment that Randy has put into the club so far.

I think every club has its certain large amount of die hard fans General, that will go to cheer on the boys no matter what, and Villa are no exception. There will be some that may stay away for various reasons. Some might not be able to really afford it and choose to be a bit more careful with there money and maybe watch it online instead, other's may just not wish to travel so far to see what they believe is a team that's not as strong as they think we could have had under a different manager. Whatever the reasons, that is the prerogative of those individuals. However, I know that there are fans that would be their come rain or shine, through the good times and the bad. I think what matters most is that ALL of those people will still be supporting Villa, whether in attendance or not. Anyone who chooses to stop supporting a club can't really have had that club in their heart in the first place. There should be a thread on here where fans tell their stories of how they attended games when they should have been somewhere else that probably should have held an higher importance. My Dad did just that when we played Everton in the league Cup final of 1975. I was in hospital as a 3 year old having an operation and he was at Wembley watching the boys. I vaguely remember him calling me from London before the game to see how I was. I fully understand the reason he went to the game, given the fact that my operation wasn't for anything major. I paid £100, to a friend of the family, for a ticket to the 2000 FA Cup Final against Chelsea and ended up sitting in the Chelsea end alone (got split up from my brother), with my face painted, wearing a Villa shirt, a Claret and Blue wig, and getting endless amounts of abuse. We played terrible, lost and the day cost a fortune, but would I do it again? Of course I would! The Villa is a way of life. There are fans of clubs out their that go through a lot more turmoil than we do, some without any sign of a bright future too! Let's just hope that MON can work his magic and surprise a few people hey General!

It's The Villans for me!

Hi General, I hope you and your family are well. I would like to add to the list of people asking you not to be offended by the comments addressed to you after yesterday's result. We all appreciate what you do here and everyone knows that your job has nothing to do with the playing side and the results that we achieve. The result was no doubt poor and could easily have been worse. However, I do look at the bigger picture and realise that it could also have been a lot better had we taken the chances that we created. I think people are missing the fact that Ashley Young missed a very good chance and that Cuellar had a great chance to nod back to an unmarked Gabby but headed wide instead. I agree with an earlier point about our defence. MON inherited some very good defenders in Laursen, Mellberg, Bouma and Cahill. Our defence is now poor in comparison and the reason for our poor results in my opinion. Maybe MON likes to wait 'til near the end of the window in case of any injuries to key players but the defence situation has been clear to all since January. I can't help but feel that any player we now show interest in is going to cost us even more because of how desperate the situation is. Selling clubs will be holding us to ransom but MON has no choice but to pay the inflated price simply because we have no cover and the players currently out their are not of the standard to realise the ambition of the owner. That may sound harsh but it is clear for all to see General. Championship players such as Wheater or Huth will be a big mistake. We need players that are highly experienced, not ones for the future, because by then it may be too late! We need real quality, tough, experienced centre backs and ones that can fit in quickly. The likes of Upson, Hangeland, Distin are all out their and would probably jump at playing for last seasons 6th place club. Next season we may not have that pitch to sell to players so let's do it now why we do have it! It is often said that football is a results business and the last 19 games have generated 2 wins. If we don't turn this poor form around then we are going to be struggling at the wrong end of the table and that's why the fans are so worried, because that form statistic is one of a relegation-threatened side. My hope is that Petrov was short of match practise due to injury, Beye was still getting used to his new teammates, Gabby was lacking a pre-season and Milner too, although i thought he was our best performer today. Hopefully Delph was just finding it a bit diffcult adjusting to the rigours of Premier league football, although his performance was one that showed promise. I can't help but feel that Ashley is trying too hard to impress the England manager. he is doing too much with the ball and just needs to keep it simple and play for our manager and not England's, the rest will surely take care of itself! I cannot find any reasons for the other players though General and that is the most worrying factor for me. One last point I would like to make. James Milner shone like a beacon on the left against the world's 3rd best rated country on Wednesday. Why on earth don't Ash and Jimmy swap wings throughout the game? Ash struggled all game against some pretty solid marking and yet he only moved to the right wing once Albrighton came on. This baffled me and all of the people around me as Albrighton has been performing brilliantly on the right! If MON wanted to try Ash on the right, why wait for the young lad to come on and then play him out of position? MON's tactics are being severely scrutinised by the fans and quite rightly so. I think a lot of us get frustrated with some of his decision making. I know you can't comment on a lot of this General, I am merely trying to point towards the reasons for the negative comments surrounding the manager. We are not a bad team overnight but we are a team that needs leadership and needs it soon, before a potential rot sets in.