PauloBarnesi

Will Belgium ever produce a footballer as good as Eddy Merckx was a cyclist ? Who is the footballing equivalent of Tom Bonnen? And of late Franck Vandenbrouke?

Cippo looking good. Great victory yesterday for Bakelants; seemed genuinely happily and delighted by it. Nice to have the yellow jersey wearer actually delighted to talk to the press

Driven into a hedge by a car yesterday. Didn’t look, and didn’t notice. Oh well. No damage, but frankly the road is full of crap drivers and to be fair crap cyclists. The worse are the crap cyclists who then drive cars in a crap way and nearly kill you. Last week a guy drove into the bike lane; his excuse “I am late for work and I looked in the mirror”. Anyway the Tour is here. Bloody brilliant. Lets hope its a great race and exciting.

big name signings get a few hundred if not a couple of thousands of extra season ticket sales, and would have hundreds outside Villa Park awaiting his arrival. Not sure Wanyama (good player though he is) would do that.

Kirk Douglas? Nah. The father of Liberace?

I know where you're coming from, and the reasons behind your faith in Lambert. But I do think such optimism needs to be tempered by the fact that we spent the majority of last season thoroughly soiling ourselves at the specter of relegation. He hasn't done anything to justify such praise just yet, though he is certainly steering us in the right direction. A necessary evil Yes it was, and it paid off. But only just. Lambert has still to elevate us above the levels attained by the much maligned messrs Houllier & messrs Mcleish. There are signs of a great future, but they need to be realised before we go overboard with the praise. It is precisely because Lambert judged the scale of change to perfection and managed to change as much as he did while maintaining our league status that makes him such a good manager (in the literal sense) and judge. Yes it could have gone wrong, but ultimately it didn't, which means he was right; he was vindicated. We won't need to make that amount of change again un der him and he has made about 3 seasons worth of change in 1 season. I see what you're saying BOF, but I do disagree to some extent. We can sit back and praise Lambert retrospectively because he just about got it right last season. But what if Gabby hadn't got that winner at Norwich and Wigan didn't inexplicably capitulate against Swansea? There was a big element of luck in our survival, and in my opinion we sailed a bit too close to the wind. I am fully behind his management, as I was all the way through last season, but our plight could have been very different and I'm not willing to sing his praises too much just yet. You could equally say we had bad luck; late goals against us at Swansea, Baggies, Everton, etc. Dodgy decisions against us, such as that farcical penalty against the Saints. In the end doesn’t luck even it self up?

Fantastic.

Did get into such endless discussions on Lee Hendrie?

Not sure thats what Holman imagined when he joined. He’s the kind of player who would do well with a newly promoted team who had an ambition to stay up, but beyond that and where Villa want to go he’s not up to the task. He’s been given a fair crack of the whip and isn’t in Lamberts plans. Time for a move to another team.

You could live in Edinburgh, which is a truly excellent city. Live there and commute to Glasgow for training and games (it's about an hour's drive, I believe). If I had a choice between living in Birmingham or Edinburgh then it would be a simple choice. Choosing whether to play football in either the SPL or PL, though, is a different matter. Or you could live just 20 miles or so north in some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK.

Mr Magna Carta!

I read the other day in the Week that Elmbridge in Surrey (contains Weybridge, Cobham, Walton-on-Thames and Esher) population 110000, pays more in tax (average tax paid is £16000, nearly four times the national average) than Glasgow (population 600000) or Cardiff (population 400000). The article didn’t say if its the city or the wider metropolitan area, but its a very revealing statistic of the widening gaps in our society. Not sure what governments can do to change this and in the end if it should. The original article was in the http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/10068913/Elmbridge-Surrey-Life-can-be-taxing-in-Britains-Beverly-Hills.html '>telegraph Maybe one of VT’s main contributors actually lives here?

Can we please not have more about wee Barry and focus on Fabian?

Not many football’s have agents as far as I know.

That’s a bit of an over statement. How many results can you tell me from 1932-33 season, or the 1892-3 season? or the 1986-7 season. You mean it was the most embarrassing in my memory. 8-0 is our worst defeat in the PL era, if not ever (anybody help me with that one?). That would make it our most embarrassing defeat. Its the heaviest defeat, but is it more embarrassing than say when we lost at home to Fulham in the FA cup a few years back? or Doncaster away, etc, etc. Frankly when we lost 5-0 at Highbury under DOL was a dreadful dreadful low for me. The reality is that we were in dreadful downward spiral which Lambert has now reversed. People like McLeish, McNeil and DOL never did. I am sure some 80 year old Villa fan will talk about losing at home to Ilkeston Town 2-0 in the league cup in 1966* as being the nadir. _______________________________________ * never happened

That’s a bit of an over statement. How many results can you tell me from 1932-33 season, or the 1892-3 season? or the 1986-7 season. You mean it was the most embarrassing in my memory.

van den Boore played on loan at pompey as did Andres D’Allesandro. Both legends of FM 02 or something like that

I ve never heard that. That would be madness.

David Platt has left Man City. Probably so he can turn full time to eating.

The way the headlines are written you would have thought this guy was a major player for us.

No. Lambert likes grafting footballers.

I read Johnny Heitinga is on £60K a week. Signed at the same time as Dunne. Shows madness wasn’t just a MON thing!

If you don’t watch out Monkey Tripataka is going to make your headband hurt

“A glimmer”. I think its a bit more than that. It looks to me that we have finally reached the corner and the light is pretty bright. But as people say, lets wait until that large lady sings...

You have to ask the question; does he really want it? What makes Mark Cavendish the no. 1 sprinter in the world on a bike? Its not his power, because he isn’t the most powerful. Its his desire to be the best. Bannan just doesn’t have it, and I don’t think is willing to make the sacrifices. He should take a leaf out of wee Gordon’s book, go tee total and eat bananas...