tom_avfc

This is just nonsense. You think everyone here wouldn't be delighted if the Scottish version Iniesta with the best crossing in the league came through our ranks? Any perceived celebration is over the fact that an arguably overpaid footballer with what would seem to be a bad attitude who has proven to be very inefficient at fulfilling his role of creating and scoring goals whilst on the pitch might be leaving which would free up space on the wage bill for one of PL's new signings By that I mean a player on reasonable wages who is interested in the success of the team and can actually perform well in games. He played a part in over half of our league games last year and is believed to be on about £20k a week. We have bent on at least 3 times that who played nowhere near as much. I wouldn't put bannan in the top 5 overpaid players at the club. Both bannan and bent have been replaced by better players lambert has bought (Westwood/sylla and benteke). Why does bent leave with our blessings but bannan is a dirty little hobbit?

Don't mean to accuse you of anything but there are posts in here calling him a dirty little hobbit and a dirty little turd amongst other insults. Is that an attempt to prove silly statements by con wrong? I think almost everyone accepts that it's time for bannan to go but are we now going to abuse every player that doesn't quite make it?

I'm not arguing that it isn't time for a move. It's more the posts celebrating the fact that one of our academy players hasn't quite made the grade which I find sad to see. I wish him all the best anyway. He always seems to give his all and it wouldn't surprise me if he has a decent career. I certainly see more potential in bannan than lichaj who left without the celebration of fans on here.

This thread makes for grim reading. A player who's come through the academy and played a decent amount of games for us gets this amount of abuse. Lichaj and albrighton have played a lot worse at times so why were they not given the same treatment? For what it's worth, I don't think he had a disastrous season and still think he'll make it at a premier league club in the future. He was by no means as bad as some on here would like to believe. A move is probably best for all parties. The 'support' of the crowd for bannan recently probably doesn't help a creative player realise his full potential.

I don't think a 1 in 3 ratio is bad in a struggling side. I've always been convinced that given a run of games he'd score a fair few goals. Never really had a fair go at it for me. Mind you I don't see him in training so can only trust the managers that do.

7 goals in 18 starts isn't a bad return for the lad in all competitions. Would be interesting to see his minutes per goal stats. Not arguing that he's good enough for villa but using 10 minute sub appearances will distort the stats.

To be fair Coventry were 3-0 down from the first leg. I'd hardly call that in the balance with 3 minutes of injury time to play. Not that I'm sticking up for people going home early. Just saying the 2-0 win is more like a 3-2 loss.

On a side note, if Fabio Capello's England had had the same amount of possesion over a tournament as we did in this one he would have been slaughtered by the press. In a similar way to how Sven was treated despite getting to quarter finals and losing on penalties/ a lucky free kick having played much better football in three tournaments.

Isn't that what puts England in perspective? Ye but nobody expected us to win the tournament anyway. I just don't buy that Italy were that much better than us tonight. You can quote stats all you want but out of the 30 odd shots Italy had, aroung 20 were Cassano/Balotelli cutting inside and shooting from 30 odd yards out. Italy lacked creativity as much as England did and thats why the game went to penalties. Portugal, Spain and Germany have shown far more in the tournament than both sides tonight and thats why two of those three will be in the final next week.

Don't quite understand the overhyping of the Italians. For all the ball they had they created one clear cut chance which De Rossi volleyed wide. Wellbeck and Johnson both had good chances in the first half. I don't think this Italian side is much better than England. Fully expect the Germans to contest a good final with either of Portugal or Spain. Actually quite fancy the Portugese now. An on form Ronaldo (clearly the player of the tournament this far) could for me be the difference in a tournament which has been low on defensive talent.

For the guy who said who the **** was booing Milner, why shouldn't people boo him? I'd argue there's more reason to boo Milner than to boo Barry. I wouldn't boo Milner myself but I can understand why people would. On the other hand Barry served our club admirably for many years and finally got his chance to go and play for a club who could match his ambition. Milner gave us a year and then **** off and now is considered some hero. For me Gareth Barry is a far more influential figure in Villa's history than Milner. In fact you could put Ashley Young (who also got booed) ahead of Milner also. I don't buy this Milner hype. Good player yes definitely but used us as a stepping stone definitely. At least Young had the decency to give us a few years of top quality stuff. Aside from that, the sooner McLeish is out the better. Hoping we can beat one of Wigan or Blackburn as we'll be really in the shit if we don't.

This is beyond a joke tonight. Spurs have beaten Arsenal and Liverpool this season and haven't lost in the league since August. What did people expect us to do. Yes we could have lost by 3 or 4 ( probably should have done better with a couple of chances ourselves) but just about any team in the league would expect the same at White Hart Lane. Spurs will more than likely finish 3rd in the league. It's all well and good saying we should have gone for it and lost 4-2 but we'd probably have lost 10-0 if we'd played an attacking team today. Move on and concentrate on a tricky but more realisticly winnable game away at a good footballing side like Swansea. The gap between the top 7 and the rest of the league is now at 7 points and theres a good reason for it. Those sides ( with the possible exception of Newcastle are a mile ahead of the rest of the league). Well done Spurs on a very efficient performance but who was expecting us to get anything tonight really?

Ethan Moore Last paragraph of that. Is having a good time of it there by all accounts. Scored a great goal earlier in the season and has been scoring well at youth level. Mate at Uni is a big Robins fan and is hoping for him to break through nicely next season.

I think he's mastered cloning. Trent: December. SGC: We have to be honest, when has SGC ever been wrong. To be fair he can't actually be offered a contract this season as his registration is still held by Villa (this also means he can't play first team games). He is considered a bright prospect at Cheltenham amongst a few fans I know and looks likely to be given a contract over the summer. Hope he does well to be fair.

Isn't that a fair way from the ground? Taxi from there is it or walkable?

On the topic of pubs in Manchester I'm coming up with the girlfriend for the game and we'll be in Manchester fairly early. Any away pubs/recommended pubs where there'll be a few Villa around?

Season ticket holders are getting priority though. It won't go down to people who have not got a season ticket. It is only fair to distinguish between season ticket holders by away games and in cup games obviously cup games previously are going to be taken into account. Having only done the two away games and waiting for season ticket holders with both cup games, I'm hoping there will be tickets available on 9th November. Doubtful though I think.

Its 15% I thought we were entitled to by cup rules. Giving us four and a half thousand tickets. Either way this is going to be one hell of a night. Win this one and get Baggies in the semis and this would be my favourite cup run. 9 in a row by the end of the season anybody?

Michael Bradley and Asamoah Gyan are two players who should be nowhere near Villa. Both would be considerable steps backwards in terms of what we already have. To say that Gyan is better than Agbonlahor is ridiculous. His finishing is inconsistent at best and at the World Cup he has scored two penalties and other than that done absolutely nothing. I'd take Boateng definitely. Looks a class apart from any other player in Ghana's World Cup team and has proven at Portsmouth that he can perform in the Premier League even at a sinking ship like Pompey were.

This season's been a successful one already for me. It's been years since I've been able to get as excited about as many matches at this stage of the season as this year. We had the cup final and a Wembley day out, could have won it if the ref had been competent and we now have the chance to get back to Wembley again on Sunday. I voted top 7 with a good run in the cups so for me this year has been a good one watching the Villa. We're moving forwards.

Formation was hugely flawed for me. To line up with just Petrov and Milner in the midfield against Song, Denilson and Diaby(who I thought was influential and has been whenever I've seen him) was naive. Yes, we played the same at Old Trafford but that was a much weakened United midfield. I think it was asking for an unbelievable performance from the two, particularly with little cover in the midfield battle from Young and particularly Downing. Substitutions were also a little dodgy. However, if we played a 4-5-1, we could easily have got turned over in the same way and one game of questionable decisions and poor performances doesn't make us a bad team. Defensively we look immense at the moment and until that Fabregas free kick went in I was thinking a 0-0 was possible. Just hope that that midfield battle hasn't left us looking too tired for Liverpool, a game which we could easily take the 3 points judging by their performance against Wolves. Well done Arsenal. A lesson in passing football and taking your chances.

Decent performance from the Villa last night, particularly first half. The criticism the players are getting for this performance which was a lot better than many games we have won this season is ridiculous. Terrible refereeing cost us this game. Never a penalty for the first Beye booking and first goal. Also second booking looked harsh, albeit at the far end of the pitch from us and the resulting red card cost us the game with a lack of numbers on the right side leading to the winner. If we were United Bennett would be facing disciplinary action for complete incompetency. Only other point is with the Villa fans. Yes we all know our away support is superb and loud but it is annoying how some players can do no wrong and some can do no right with the fans. Carew has been by all accounts abysmal this season and is still supported by the fans. However, Heskey playing out of position was slaughtered by the Villa fans around me despite playing for me one of his better halves of football in a Villa shirt. Had O'Neill left the team the same at half time I feel we would have looked more threatening in the final third and perhaps taken the points ourselves.