Super-Villan

Absolutely. It's just nice that you've been forced to compromise up from a mish-mash of reserve team players to a minimum of £17m, and we've only had to compromise by £1m. :winkold:

Yep, that needed saying. And whatever happens, both sides are going to claim they won to the other. Rafa and Gerrard will be pleased to get their man, the Liverpool fans will claim he's the best player ever, Villa will say they made Liverpool sweat to get to their asking price, and Villa fans will say he was overrated anyway and not worth much over £12m. Whether all this is achieved for a million more or less either way will make little difference in the long run. We've made our point. Sell now and concentrate on Saturday.

It is an awful result for Labour, but I don't think there's any chance at all that Brown will go because of it. He wanted this job far far too much to give it up so easily - and I'm not sure there's anyone in the Labour party that could replace him and turn things around again so quickly anyway. If he does go, I doubt it will be until it is far too late to make a difference.

Man Utd switched to match Chelsea's system in the second because they were getting overrun. Over the course of the 90 minutes, Chelsea deserved to win that for me, no question. That was exactly my point. Chelsea really overran Man U for about half an hour of the second half, with the last 15 minutes being pretty even. The first half Man U absolutely killed them. I make that Man U's game by a whisker.

I think it was pretty even. Man U had them for toast in the first half, and were very unlucky to go in level. Chelsea really pushed on at the start of the second half, but it became even again in the last 15 mins when Man U switched their system a bit. So I'd say Man U just edged it. And even more so because I think they play the better football.

:shock: I don't think football has every made me laugh as much as when Terry missed that penalty.

Anyone NOT read it? Still a classic. The traditional procedure is to read Huxley's "Brave New World" next, and compare and contrast. In the whole dystopia genre, my wife raves about Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake", but I haven't got around to it yet. I've just finished Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" (excellent) and "Forever Free" (so-so), and James Holland's "A Pair Of Silver Wings" (also excellent). Currently reading: Norman Mailer "The Naked and the Dead" Ian Clayton "Bringing It All Back Home" Oryx and Crake is indeed wonderful. But if we're talking Margaret Atwood and dystopias, The Handmaid's Tale is pretty hard to beat. Will get round to reading some Norman Mailer myself one day, I think. Currently I'm on James Joyce's Dubliners, which is thoroughly enjoyable and something of a relief after struggling through Ulysses without much pleasure a few years ago.

Nick Cave - The Curse of Millhaven Which has just this second finished, to be replaced on my MP3 player by... The Mountain Goats - Southwood Plantation Road

No, but Neil Young just had a spider named after him. Which is infinitely cooler.

I'd get Neil Young's After the Goldrush. It was the one everyone raved about when I asked the same question, and I wasn't disappointed. But perhaps Decade if you want to play it safe, and hear more of a variety. I often find it's more difficult to get into the individual albums if you go for a compilation first though.

Neil Young, even though I'm only really just getting into him. After the Goldrush is beautiful little album. And On the Beach isn't bad either. I never really got on with Dylan either. I've got Blonde on Blonde on my MP3 player at the moment though, because I'm sure there must be something I'm missing out on given his popularity with such diverse groups of people...

That's fine. Get your dirty instincts out of the way in this poll, and hopefully you'll feel clean, refreshed and a little bit more sensible by the time the actual election rolls around... :winkold:

I would also like to point out that, as whole, immigrants into this country provide a net benefit to the economy. That's aside from the fact that, in my opinion, we have a duty as a relatively wealthy nation to look after those who may not be as fortunate. If I have to pay a bit more in tax towards such things, and as a result me and my family have to cut back a little bit, then so be it...

I went Lib Dem, but not with any enthusiasm. I was a big fan under Kennedy, especially as they were the only party left wing enough to want to put up income tax. I'm not convinced about Clegg at all though, and I'll be curious as to which way their policies shift nearer the time of the actual election. I'm not surprised at all at how well the Conservatives are doing onhere, sadly. The BNP love-in I did not expect though. Scandalous, depressing and short-sighted in my view.

Cupid by Sam Cooke, from Live at the Harlem Square club, 1963. Awesome. Can't believe I've only just found this album.

Not me, but I hope the Villans are heroes and get the three points anyway...

I feel smug now. However, I also have this user-name on a non-Villa related forum, and I'm sure everybody there just thinks I can't spell...

To the tune of 'Too Much Too Young' by The Specials: He wants the ball, Ashley Young He'll take it round his man and stick it right inside your goal (If you can imagine the word 'goal' at the end bing drawn out like the word 'me' in the original song. Followed by lots of jumping around, obviously.) I'm also trying to fit something to the tune of Flash Gordon, which could be good. Starting off: 'Ash - A-ah...' But I haven't come upwith anything not rubbish yet.

I've just started Falling Man by Don Delillo. I'm not a big fan of all these authors who insist on bringin 9-11 into their work, seemingly for fear of missing out on a trend, but I'm a huge fan of Delillo (White Noise, Libra, the peerless Underworld) so this could be an interesting one. Just finished American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Excellent, but not quite the classic I'd been led to believe.