P3te

That approach bothers me very much. Obviously hard work is important but we need to move away from this kind of style. We need to adopt a more progressive game that relies on passing and movement rather than just running your socks off. We're going to have to adopt this style eventually, so if McLeish loads our squad with a bunch of hard working cloggers then we're going to have to undertake another massive clear-out once he finally goes. Also, we know that McLeish and flair players just don't work. Randy needs to learn that he can't just throw money at the problem to make it go away. He needs to act and get rid of McLeish and get the right man in to replace him. Exactly, McLeish's approach to football and building a team might have worked back in the late 60s but now in the year 2012 it just doesn't cut it. the thing about that approach is that it does very much set the club up for the future, assuming a decent appointment is made post mcleish building the aforementioned "break their bollox for each other" team. that team would be built on a very controlled budget, meaning we'd have finances under control and perhaps even have a bit of spending power again. we'd have a solid core of hard workers with engines who are willing to give it their all on a constant basis, and assuming they're not coached into nothing but hoofing (which i don't believe they are any more, we try to keep the ball on the floor more often than not), then it means 3-4 quality additions from a decent, adventurous manager could really propel the team back into the upper end of the league unhappy and all as i am with mcleish, if this is the thinking then i'd be inclined to agree with it. big if though

the toronto maple leafs just issued the following statement to supporters apologising for their performance this season. it'd be the decent thing if villa could follow suit, accepting that performances on the pitch haven't been good enough and promising to do whatever it takes to get us back on track however i cant see that happening any time soon

why is he clueless for saying that? of course we're aiming for europe. it's not realistic, but that's the aim. it wouldve been the aim at the start of the season, and it wouldve been the aim at christmas

im basing it on the likelihood of it happening. you don't get points for bad refereeing decisions where do you see wigan getting 8 points more than us (not 8 points, 8 more than we manage) from united, arsenal, fulham, newcastle, blackburn and wolves exactly? they'll get nothing from united, arsenal and newcastle, barring a miracle. they'll probably beat wolves on the last day, but do you see them also beating fulham and blackburn? that's if we lose every game too, if we draw 2 more they'll need TEN points from all those games that's not going to happen and if it does, we'd also need 2 of the other 3 to pick up 8/7 more than us (depending on the team), but blackburn play wigan, which they can't both win I dont see where they will get them from but at the same time where do you see Blackburn getting points from? Your analysis says that if the remaining 6 fixtures were played out 10 times, Blackburn would finish above us a whopping 8 times out of those 10. I just have absolutely no idea whats behind your thinking here? blackburn have far and away the easiest run in of the bottom 6. perhaps i was a little bit too optimistic on their behalf saying they'll get 8 more than us from those games. but i can see them drawing at liverpool, beating swansea and norwich, losing to spurs, beating wigan and losing to chelsea that'd give them 10 points - they need 8 more than us to get past us, so if we only draw 2, which we might do, they should sneak past us

im basing it on the likelihood of it happening. you don't get points for bad refereeing decisions where do you see wigan getting 8 points more than us (not 8 points, 8 more than we manage) from united, arsenal, fulham, newcastle, blackburn and wolves exactly? they'll get nothing from united, arsenal and newcastle, barring a miracle. they'll probably beat wolves on the last day, but do you see them also beating fulham and blackburn? that's if we lose every game too, if we draw 2 more they'll need TEN points from all those games that's not going to happen and if it does, we'd also need 2 of the other 3 to pick up 8/7 more than us (depending on the team), but blackburn play wigan, which they can't both win

7 points clear with 18 points to play for for us to go down, 3 of these 4 things need to happen: wigan to get 8 points more from united, arsenal, fulham, newcastle, blackburn and wolves than villa get from united, sunderland, bolton, west brom, spurs and norwich - likelihood: 0% blackburn to get 8 points more from liverpool, swansea, norwich, spurs, wigan and chelsea than villa get from united, sunderland, bolton, west brom, spurs and norwich - likelihood: 80% QPR to get 8 more points from swansea, west brom, spurs, chelsea, stoke and man city than villa get from united, sunderland, bolton, west brom, spurs and norwich - likelihood: 10% bolton to get 7 more points from swansea, villa, sunderland, spurs, west brom and stoke than villa get from united, sunderland, bolton, west brom, spurs and norwich - likelihood: 50% we're safe we might finish 17th, but we won't finish any lower

ireland is miles ahead of everyone else on the pitch, the problem is that he's so far ahead of the rest he's usually ineffective. stick another smart player in there with him and we're looking a lot better

much as i dislike mcleish, i dont for one second buy that it's his aim to do anything like that i do however believe that it's a case of a group of players with absolutely no confidence who shit themselves when they go ahead, trying to hold on to what they've got to get 3 points

he is on less than collins and dunne. for that reason alone (although there are many others), he should be the one we want to keep. ship off collins instead and we'll be stronger and have less spent on wages than keeping collins and letting carlos go we wont even get a transfer fee for cuellar, while we might get a couple of million for collins it's baffling

it'll be an absolute shambles if we don't offer carlos a new deal. he's the best of our 3 senior centre backs, and i assume he's on less money than either of the others too

You seem to have a fetish about Peter Crouch and corners! The way we defend corners,Peter Crouch scares hell out of me, he might get his first hat trick against us ( all from corners ) :oops: crouch is one of the last players id be worried about in the air tbh, he's dire for a big guy

isn't the usual length of treatment for this condition 2-3 1/2 years? the guys career is definitely over unfortunately, even if he beats it and comes out as health as he was previously

a captain needs to be able to motivate and lead by example being at the club the longest doesnt magically grant you these abilities we dont have a great many leaders or motivators in the squad, but gabby certainly isnt the man for it

gabby's not captain material

you mean our star players who were dead cert to leave, refusing to sign new contracts, and wouldve left on free transfers had we held onto them for another season?

if we do manage to beat them we'll be closer to them than we are to the relegation zone

jesus. this is what happens when you look back with the claret tints on. our passing has never been close to barca-esque, because our movement has been non-existant for the last 10 years

that means nothing we wouldnt be the first club to sign a player on a pre-contract bosman and change manager

we'd need 3 of them to keep that form up to drag us down look, none of us want mcleish here, but can we stop with the relegation nonsense. the bottom 5 aren't going to keep up champions league form

its not a given that the gap will be smaller. blackburn have united on monday and west brom at the weekend, bolton have fulham at the weekend, wigan have chelsea and qpr have united if we lose to liverpool we're unlikely to be any closer to the bottom 3 points wise

pay no heed, we have a fair few fans with the scouser "everyone hates us" mentality

i see game **** their uk employees in the ass the very same way the **** the irish - no redundancy or payment for notice period and this time they waited til they had everything boxed and sent back to tell them. classy.

check the date

of course it is. it's very firmly in our own hands. we stay up if we can pick up no fewer than 5 points less than QPR and wigan. that's the very definition of it being in our own hands

nor is it to work out a scenario where we go into may safe