El-Reacho

It's good that Villatalk do a thorough due diligence exercise on potential signings before we sign them. We've covered his footballing ability, value, fluent languages, nationality, religious beliefs, and dress sense. Does anyone know if he has a decent looking bird? :-)

Can anyone shed light on the physical effects Ramadan can have on a footballer at this level. Have his performances dipped in previous years?

Steve Bruce signed an Egyptian defender for Sunderland a while back and was asked if the player would be fasting during Ramadan - he said he'd no idea what it even was.

I reckon Makoun's current situation re. Villa is his own choosing. Wouldn't be surprised if he asked to leave after Houllier departed hence the loan move and now Kendrick's quotes.

Cool - An open discussion with reporters about transfer targets before we've actually signed them. I wonder did he give those quotes from the gates of Bodymoor in his Range Rover?

I learned a new word. I never knew they were called a rabona. How that has escaped me I don't know. #EveryDayIsASchoolDay.

On a similar note, I only learned last week that that drill where you stand in a circle and pass it around, with 1 guy in the middle trying to intercept the ball is called a "rondo"

I thought it was called 'piggy in the middle'

lol.

It's called 'squares' when there's four people with one in the middle.

I know absolutely nothing about him so I guess it's exciting at least.

Isn't a poor man's Nigel Reo-Coker, just Nigel Reo-Coker?

The thing is at that stage we weren't the poor man, hence we paid about £8m for him IIRC?

Then played him as a slightly awkward right back.

Juan Pablo Angel.

South American, long hair with alice band, 8 figure club record fee.

Our first (and maybe last) foray into exotic signings - thought we were finally catching up with Utd/Arse etc. with that signing.

If he was brought up in Holland there's a good chance he speaks some English I think.

There's more chance of him being a success here under Lamber than under McLeish, O'Neill or even Houllier. Think it will be a big year for him IMHO.

Their contracts won't run out, as they're on 1 year rolling deals.

So what they run on an on for ever?

Rolling contracts are either permanent 365 days contracts for which you've always got 12 months remaining or they are 12 months from one date and renew on that date each year.

Nobody knows which these guys are on but personally I'd suggest that it is the later which is why I think things will become clearer on or around the 1st.

As it stands I don't think we want to pay compo to Norwich when they will soon be out of contract or be able to exit before the renewal and I don't think Norwich want to terminate their employment.

So as I said, come the 1st July which is the normal date that contracts within football end or renew, we will I think see things happen.

Seems a bit odd though. The compensation due would be negligible as there's about a week left on their contracts. NCFC would be behaving like children if they made the two guys see out their contract just for the sake of it, particularly with their own new management team in charge.

I reckon PL is still looking for the right guys and Culverhouse and Karsa might not be the ones.

Yes it is odd but clearly relations between Norwich and Villa aren't the best at the moment and you've got people with points to prove/settle and you've got a man in McNaulty who seems to want a fight.

As for the compensation due, it doesn't automatically follow that the amount of compensation due decreases with the weeks that pass of the contract. For instance the contract could state that there is a £1m exit/compensation clause at any point the contract is broken. We just don't know.

As for Norwich acting like children, I wouldn't quite go that far but they've not conducted themselves very well. They had a manager with a clause allowing him to speak to us and they refused, they should have known they couldn't do that, they should have known they were making things worse for themselves but seemingly they didn't. If they had just allowed Lambert to talk to us they would have got their compensation.

Norwich have already replaced the pair, they won't be staying at Norwich I'm sure and they will end up here. I just don't see Lambert recruiting a new team its just a case of when they join and my guess is it will be around the 1st July.

I hope you're right Trent, as they seem to be a big part of Lambert's success - but I'm still not convinced. If their contract runs out at the end of June as is being speculated, and they know they're going to Villa, Villa know they're coming to Villa, and Norwich know they're coming to Villa - then why keep them and hold out for compensation when they're never going to get it - as Villa can just suffer the inconvenience of waiting a week. That makes any compensation irrelevant IMHO - and Norwich are being very petty, particularly when they are innocent bystanders in this. Hypothetically, if Lambert in fact didn't want them at Villa, and they no longer have a position at Norwich how can McNaulty justify not releasing them?

Have they definitely been replaced by Norwich? This makes it a pretty strong case for constructive dismissal surely? It's not their fault that Lambert left and NCFC appointed new coaching staff.

Like I say - hopefully all will be resolved come July.

Their contracts won't run out, as they're on 1 year rolling deals.

So what they run on an on for ever?

Rolling contracts are either permanent 365 days contracts for which you've always got 12 months remaining or they are 12 months from one date and renew on that date each year.

Nobody knows which these guys are on but personally I'd suggest that it is the later which is why I think things will become clearer on or around the 1st.

As it stands I don't think we want to pay compo to Norwich when they will soon be out of contract or be able to exit before the renewal and I don't think Norwich want to terminate their employment.

So as I said, come the 1st July which is the normal date that contracts within football end or renew, we will I think see things happen.

Seems a bit odd though. The compensation due would be negligible as there's about a week left on their contracts. NCFC would be behaving like children if they made the two guys see out their contract just for the sake of it, particularly with their own new management team in charge.

I reckon PL is still looking for the right guys and Culverhouse and Karsa might not be the ones.

Paul McGrath's performances for Ireland at Italia 90. The hype around Ireland and that WC was my first real memories of following football - logically just followed McGrath's club side thereafter and have done ever since.

Wow, that Landis interview is proper head in the sand stuff.

Everton are usually pretty slow starters aren't they?

Bruyneel is exactly the same. AT Lance's press conferences during Le Tour he would stand at the side of the room taking notes on what journalists would ask LA. Anybody asking anything that would put LA under any pressure particularly with regards to PED's, that person would be banned from all subsequent press conferences. So no one wanted to be banned from the LA press conference so everyone basically told him how great he was.

I find it incredible to hear Phil Liggett & Paul Sherwen talk about him in such glowing terms without ever making any reference to the allegations.

That's an incredibly depressing diagram. Carles Sastre could end up as one of the most successful TdF riders of recent time if you take away all the guys with a big ? over their head.

When you think of it the UCI actually made their bed with the Contador case because they batted that back to the Spanish Authorities rather than dealing with it themselves. Therefore they have to take the USADA's verdict which will implicate them. Messy....

I think the witnesses are the key aspect. Their testimony would have been part of the federal inquiry and was then handed to the USADA. The question is was it handed over to USADA and the federal inquiry closed because they didn't think the evidence was strong enough to convict Armstrong and others, or was it because they concluded that it was 'just taking drugs' which wouldn't be enough to make a criminal conviction?

What is the USADA's remit here with regard to the UCI's races and prizes? If the USADA conclude that Armstrong is guilty of everything they've charged him with can the UCI simply ignore it and say they disagree?

Have just noticed this topic.

Where do you guys think this will go from here?

I reckon the USADA must have a strong case or else they would have left things were the Federal inquiry did.

Armstrong and his legal team must be deciding whether to fight this, which if he loses and is found guilty would mean losing everything and possibly inviting the Feds to reopen their case as he could be accused of perjury. It also brings the UCI into the picture re. the Tour of Switzerland 'cover up'.

Or else he could try and do a deal with USADA and come to a settlement with them over when he was guilty. They might take his last tour victory from him and then agree to move on?

I'm more annoyed at the fact the children's shirt doesn't have the acorns logo on as sponsors. Seems a waste to just have nothing there, and I think it looks better with a sponsor.

Good point. It wouldn't hurt the club to offer a free Acorns print on each children's shirt bought from the club, or a free Acorns print on a children's shirt bought elsewhere but when paying for badges/numbers/names printing at the club shop.

I would imagine that Genting would probably resist this. They're sponsorship is basically buying them the 2012-2013 shirt as it's own entity. They won't want to share or dilute that in anyway even if it is just the kids shirts. Just as you won't ever be able to buy a jersey without the sponsor's name on it (except the kids ones obviously).

I wanted to buy an Ireland jersey like the ones the players wear (with no sponsorship) but you can only actually buy the jersey with the '3' logo on the front. The only Ireland jerseys that don't have it are the actual players' jerseys because FIFA must prohibit sponsors from international jerseys.

In the end I'm glad I didn't bother buying one.......

Totally unprofessional if playing while 10% fit !!

Let the reserve keeper have a look in shay

I agree with this.

There were shades of Packie Bonner against Holland in '94 about Shay last night.

The problem is that Shay is determined to play every game for Ireland when really Trap should have put him in for the qualifiers only. If he's even close to fit he will play even in friendlies, so Ireland rarely have given their reserve keepers a run out, which is why everyone is so desperate for Shay to be fit.

Trap should have made sure Westwood got as many games under his belt before the Euros rather than letting Shay top up his caps count.

That way we would have been happier for him to come in against Croatia to give Shay more time to prepare for Spain and Italy.

The descriptions of Brett lead me to believe he is a similar player to Stephen Hunt. Does this sound right?

Agreed, I'm concerned about this too but I'm quite confident that at least we'll go out there to try to win these games and we'll definitely be more exciting.

A part of me worries that we may have resorted back to familiar territory in terms of an approach and tactics and that we missed an opportunity what with players already having been let go and the wage bill being a bit more manageable, it might have been a really good time right now to bring in a manager who changes our style into something more attacking and possession-based.

I'm not having a go at Lambert before he's started, I'm happy we have him. But I'm still just a little concerned, especially since Swansea seem to be close to appointing Michael Laudrup who I was quite keen on for us.

I'll back Lambert though and time will tell.

I feel the same way too. I'm not expecting us to go to extremes and start trying to emulate Barcelona but we do need a drastic change in strategy at the club.

Lambert's a very good manager and I have no doubt that he won't get us top 8-10 eventually but will he do it using the same methods as MON? As I keep on saying, we need two things:

a) Change in style of play and start using the ball more. We don't have to be like Swansea but we're so poor at passing and moving that it's embarrassing.

Scout abroad as well at home. Not as important as changing our style of play but still vital.

The two points you've outlined there go hand in hand.

The only player MON brought in from abroad just so happened to be a 6'6" battering ram who was lethal in the air. Other than that he bought UK bred players who fitted his classically British way of playing. Full backs who are there to defend not attack. Destructive midfielders who are capable of getting the ball to pacey wingers who are there to attack on the break and supply early crosses to strong forwards.

If we alter the way we play we should go to were players that fit that style of play are. So if we're after attacking full backs, ball playing midfielders, and creative attackers to suit a new way of setting the team up then we will (hopefully) look to where they are brought up that way.

I know I'm generalizing alot here....

With candleface rumoured to be on his way out of WHL, could be a good time to pick up some spuds players.

Fingers burned....

Is he a left back? Would rather we spent money on a good young left back as Lichaj looks superb IMHO. It's also worth pointing out that the outstanding right back performance of last season came from Chris Herd who could provide cover rather than Hutton. Would prefer to try and get a left back of Naughton's equivelant ie. young with lots of potential and PL experience. Maybe the Swansea LB who's name I've forgotten?