heystally!

I like some Pole on Pole action.

El-Hadji Ballbag is an absolute word removed. I could not care less if bad things happened to him.

are awesome.

I'm managed to sight a 'gator in the lake out of the hotel window too, which was extremely exciting. Though sadly my friend failed to wrestle one as he promised. Was also in a sports bar when Florida beat Georgia in overtime. Amazing scenes.

YOUR FACE IS FOUR DAYS!!!!!!

So accurate.

What's with this?? I'm not saying I could only do it in four days! Me and friend spread it out so that we could do other things, such as watching bands (the reason we were there) and drinking cheap US lager (gotta love PBR). Chill out kids. It's all tactical.

For the romantics among us, The Killer Inside Me.

That's not even the worst part. It was four days because that's how long I was there. Under normal circumstances, it's two weeks! Not even a challenge! But I guess for that bar it's all about getting the money in.

Hey, I'd like to see you drink twelve small glasses of whiskey in four days. Tough challenge there, hardly for a pussy....

So getting this back on topic, I went to Gainesville, FL in October for The Fest 9. The most recent time a photo of me was taken: And I won this t-shirt for drinking twelve glasses of whiskey:

I'm pretty sure I haven't heard of any of these bands. On another note, Explosions In The Sky have a new album coming out. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is is out on April 18th. Track list: 1. Last Known Surroundings 2. Human Qualities 3. Trembling Hands 4. Be Comfortable, Creature 5. Postcard from 1952 6. Let Me Back In

I was bored and so scanned through the history of this thread. Came across this picture. Thought it was relevant. So Selly, what was Andy like off camera?

Hi General, Regarding the club anthem idea, many people have suggested a full version of the song Holtenders In The Sky. Now don't get me wrong, I love singing "Holtenders in the sky, Yippee Yi Yaaaay, Yippee Yi Ohhhhh" as much as the next Villa fan, but if you have read the Project Anthem thread you'll realise what the full lyrics of that song relate too. Now as you said the club would fully support an anthem, would that include one with lyrics that would (in my opinion) most likely show off a negative image of our club and supporters? I certainly want a decent, original song to be belted out by the Claret and Blue Army, but is this particular one a no-goer? Best wishes.

Still not convinced by Houllier. But last night went a long way towards myself, and I'm sure others, changing my mind. He's got some O'Neillness in the way he's playing players out of position. I can understand the benefit of having a speedy left winger in Gabby, but he's been played there since Chelsea on Jan 2nd and has pretty much been shit every game. Last night was a bit better, but he's not getting into the channels enough, and that's where he's best for us. I thought Downing had a good game in midfield, but I'd rather seen Reo-Coker in there. Maybe it's good to give Reo a rest but now we have Makoun as well so in my opinion he should have played. We're lucky that Man City weren't on top form, because we had to do a lot of chasing which is what Reo does best. If they had have been on top form, the result could have been much different. Overall though, the major difference was the passion and commitment, particularly from the back. Like under O'Neill, those players looked like they would give everything to stop a goal, and under O'Neill that won us a lot of points by itself. We need to see that every week. Also we actually looked organised for once. Everyone knew which players to mark, who to close down. Very rarely did City get a man completely free inside the box, which is a credit to the players and management. Wigan will be a big test though. After we got the point against Chelsea, everyone thought the corner was turned, but then we were absolutely dreadful against Sunderland. We need some consistency, a similar type performance on Tuesday. I'd like to see us go 4-4-2, with Gabby or Heskey supporting Bent. It's ok to play five in midfield against a City midfield five who will own the game, but we should be going all out against Wigan. They're a poor side, as shown by just how dominant Arsenal were. We need to be like that, aggressive and committed. Here's hoping for that sort of display. Up the Villa!

Well well well, things are rather interesting at the moment. And by "interesting", I mean "**** awful". And really, there is no doubt that Houllier is at the centre of these problems. People can look at Martin O'Neill's squad and suggest it wasn't strong enough, but there was not this much resentment when we finished 6th three seasons in a row. The team we have is good enough to be finishing at least mid-table. Under Martin O'Neill, a team with Friedel, Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Young, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Downing, Heskey, Agbonlahor would have filled us fans with confidence pre-game. Add to that the emergence of Albrighton and Bannan, our first XI looks pretty decent on paper. Right now it fills us with dread. Sunderland was a prime example. Just days after a good showing against Chelsea, both in performance and result, suddenly everything is back to the shower of shit we've witnessed for the last month and a half. Our attacking options were totally mixed up. Agbonlahor on the left was non-existant, Downing was repeatedly having to cut inside to feel comfortable crossing. Ashley Young was having to come deeper and deeper, and then wider and wider just to get involved in the game. Then when we were chasing a goal, we had Ashley Young and Stewart Downing in defence, and Richard Dunne and James Collins up front. I have no problem putting a big man up front to win some headers, but two? And to leave two of our most creative players back was pathetic! We needed those two trying to latch onto headers from Dunne. And I think the most telling thing about Houllier that night was the fact that Barry Bannan was not starting. Sure he's inexperienced, but he came off the bench and in a single minute showed more creativity than any player on the pitch. He must be showing similar class in training, yet when we have no creativity on the pitch it takes too too long to bring on a player who could make things happen for us. Aston Villa was limited under Martin O'Neill, there is no denying that. If the season was August to December, he would be world class. Unfortunately he was clueless in managing an entire playing squad and using them effectively. He set up a Plan A, and his Plan B was simply Plan A recycled. He bought some average players, on large wages, and never played them. It was the right time to leave. And now we've put in place a man who is even more tactically inept than O'Neill, a man who has managed to suck all of the passion and determination out of a squad who last year would have given everything to get the smallest of victories, a man who will get this club relegated if something doesn't change. And for me, that change has to be the manager himself. But I think we all need to be realistic and face the truth, and the truth isn't pretty. Gerard Houiller will not be sacked in January, or February, or even before the end of the season. In fact, we will only see the back of Houllier this year if (or maybe when) we're in the Championship. And the reason is because our board, for whatever good they have done in their first four seasons at our club, are too idealistic for their own goods. O'Neill was a great manager for them, in the model of the great Brian Clough, running the team in the "perfect way". And after him, they wanted a man with a similar footballing ethos. And I don't doubt that Houllier has that. But unfortunately, more important than a club's philosophy regarding the way it is run and managed, is having a manager with footballing knowledge. Houllier is past it, and has been since leaving Liverpool. Since taking over at Lyon and bringing in his own players, the legacy he left has seen Lyon no longer the dominating French side. He doesn't have the energy to be a top manager in a league like the Premier League. And right now we've just got to suffer this situation. And suffer we will.

Phil McNulty blog: Can't argue with what he's said, other than one comment:

And even then we didn't play as badly as we did last night.

I voted no. I wanted him to succeed. But last night, combined with the last few performances, did it for me. It's not even the whole "he loves Liverpool more than Villa" stuff. It's not even results. It's performances. Last night was so so tragic. We never played as badly as last night under Martin O'Neill. So whilst O'Neill may have had his flaws, Houllier is not the solution to our problems, which are now seriously mounting.

Hi General, I haven't posted on here for a while, or even thought about doing so, which would suggest that all is well at the moment. However, after the last few performances, I feel the need to echo the comments of most others on here. Most would call it a knee jerk reaction, but it's clear that there is something fundamentally wrong at our football club right now. I can't say for sure whether it is the manager, or whether it is the team. For now, I am personally laying blame with the manager, because what I see going wrong is mainly tactical issues. We suddenly seem to have lost all knowledge of how to play as a football team. Our defence may as well not turn up at the moment, given the amount of ball watching rather than man marking they are doing. Our midfield may be ravaged with injuries, but I feel we still have more quality than putting Ciaran Clark, trained as a defender, into the middle of midfield, despite the two decent goals he scored against Arsenal. Personally I'd rather see him in central defence alongside Carlos Cuellar right now, doing the job he knows. Our strikers do not seem to understand where a striker plays. For large periods of last night's game, both Gabby Agbonlahor and John Carew were drifting far out onto the left wing, giving us extremely little threat in the middle (credit to Nathan Delfouneso when he came on, he seemed to at least try and do a striker's job). It is an utter shambles General. And this is effectively the same team (minus the odd individuals, such as Barry and Milner) who have been finishing in the top six for the last three seasons. What has changed? Because our defence is still the same as those hailed as warriors the last two years. Our striker force is still the same old outfit, and we even have some great youngsters coming through in Marc Albrighton and Barry Bannan. Now we find ourselves fighting a relegation battle. Call me ridiculous for suggesting it, but based on our first half against Arsenal, large periods against Blues, and the entire game against Liverpool, we are going to struggle to beat anyone in this league at the moment, unless something drastic is done to reverse our performances. People can blame injuries and bad luck, but that has nothing to do with what is happening now. I can take a defeat. If we lose at Anfield 3-0, so what? It happens, lots of teams lose there. Chelsea lost there. But it's when we show no signs of a performance, no signs of turning a defeat around, no signs of getting a win next week, that things look bad. I was there five years ago when we lost 3-0 at Doncaster under David O'Leary. People said that was the most tragic performance of maybe a generation. Since then, I do not think we have performed nearly as badly as that night in 2005, until last night against Liverpool. Under Martin O'Neill, I cannot remember such a gutless, clueless and pathetic performance as what I saw last night. So thanks to Gerard Houllier for making his comments about how great the Liverpool fans were. I'm not even that bothered that he failed to congratulate the Villa fans who travelled for over five hours in total to see their team get demolished without a fight. But what I wanted from him was an apology. An apology for the complete and utter waste of time that last night was. Something needs to change General, and soon. We may struggle to beat West Brom and then Wigan, but once Christmas comes, we have a three game run of Spurs, Man City and Chelsea. Not an easy task for any team. If we lose those too, we'll have lost nine games in a row. And that is surely unacceptable for any side. Best wishes, heystally!

I'd like to think that Klinsmann would do a decent job, and again like Sven, he probably would fit the bill for what they're looking for. But it'll get repeatedly mentioned that Low had a massive part to play behind Germany's 2006 campaign. So is Klinsmann really good enough for the role?

Just because you keep saying this, it doesn't mean its true. It sure doesn't. But it's nice to throw around conspiracy theories. Realistically though, by not getting in a manager before the transfer window closes, I think we've probably shut off a few avenues that might have been open. Some managers would want that time to get some new faces in, but obviously that won't be possible. And if that hurts the club, and we then we're chasing after poorer managers, that would piss me off. But of course we'll always get told that whoever comes in will be the right choice, whether they we're first choice or not.

Sven fits the bill for what the board would be looking for. Has Prem experience (just a year but still experience), has had success at club level, managed England too. Would depend on the money of course. And whether he'd be willing to join after the transfer window has closed.

Who would be signing these players? The only reason the board included Stephen Ireland in the Milner deal is because it was more convenient for City, and it meant a replacement for Milner was immediately sorted. Not a chance that we'll see any more transfer activity at the club, unless Spurs can magic up £30m from somewhere and convince the board to sell Young.