Raver50032

Well it won't be started me... i have high confidence we'll be okay... But you just know someone will...

So the fixtures have been out twenty minutes and you've already decided we'll be on a relegation battle by October? LOL and will you be so l bold to predict we won't be? I haven't decided anything - read it again... 'We could etc' and then 'On the flip side etc' And for the win, the comment about re-starting the relegation thread was meant to be tongue in cheek - apologies if you missed that. However, somebody somewhere on here (it is VillaTalk after all) will probably have that thread up and running by September's end. I think we will be in good shape for most of next season - but on paper (yes, on paper) it's a shitty start and our recent form against big opposition is not healthy as I am sure you will agree without having to jump on my post?

Best get the relegation thread re-started - we could be winless and potentially pointless up to the start of October. That really is a horrifying start to the campaign considering our plight last season and with a number of 'noobs' to blood into the team. On the flip side - if we are going to be dark horses and ones to watch, we could mystifyingly sword all of those big clubs. Most unlikely IMO. We have to believe that 'Things Can Only Get Better' from October. I just hope (beg in fact) that we win my birthday game - 14th December at home to Manure. By a quirk of fate, I have never seen Villa beat Manure in the flesh. Only on TV and that was a long time ago.

Welcome to our fine club Niklas... <off to dust off that old record 'Aquarious... Let The Sunshine In'>

Don't the Championship winners from the previous season often end up at the home turf of the previous season's Premier League winners? I haven't checked any of that of course. It seems though, that they like to keep the big 4 clashes to a special aumtumnal super-sunday weekend jizzfest anyway, so we are quite likely to get a 'big' club. We went through a couple of seasons of playing Liverpool at home on opening day, and now they are no longer Premier League material, I would hazard that might be the first match up for us.

As Obi Wan Kenobi summarised to Luke Skywalker after he fired the missile into the Death Star exhaust port at the end of Espisode IV, "Up The Villa... Always..."

Come on GarethRDR - a new gif is needed to herald this unbridled joy... Lambert as Captain Pugwash leading his band of merry young teamlings.

As Stu Francis used to say... "Oooooooh, I could crush a grape..."

Will we be allowed to take boxes of eggs into the ground for the 2013-14 season?

Raver loves you... or at least your avatar... Back on topic - excellent news about the young Austrian. I enjoy his enthusiasm when he is in the team - the committment and dedication he showed for the cause when he knocked the ball back for Benteke against QPR (was it our winning goal at the Holte) is something I haven't seen since Merson hit himself against the post in the build up to a Villa goal in the FA Cup against Leeds in 2000. Very exciting player. I bond with him more than CB as he has been here for years and really does seem to love it here.

Fully agree with you Woody. Villa fanatacism is very cyclical indeed, certainly during the tenure of my fanship of 38 years. I was very optimistic indeed when Lerner took over - I thought we were going to be the next Chelsea, with it just simply 'being our turn again.' Couple to that, the wonders of MON who was of pretty high stock anyway when he joined us. It felt as though 'this was it.' But it hasn't quite worked out that way. A much bigger fish came along and a few bits and pieces around this club and and outside of it happened and we find ourselves back down amongst the bottom feeders of the pond. The last two or three months have been very positive. I'm not sure if we're going to struggle next season per se. I don't know what to think really about that. I'm happy we are on course, and I feel much happier now than I did two seasons ago, even with all the shat that went on in between. I'm quietly hopeful rather than relaxed and jingoistic. On Lambie (!!) I depend.

We wouldn't sell for £15m to Liverpool. Off topic... AVFCforever, please go back to your previous avatar... I could sit and watch that for twenty minutes...

Lazy journalist - should be shot. Why on earth would Lambert's Villa (or Lerner's for that matter) take on a 30 year old striker as part of any potential deal between Spurs and us for Benteke? Not fitting the 'young and hungry cost cutting' ethos we now find ourselves in does it journo? Hmmmmm? Defoe would have been a great signing 5 to 10 years ago. But now, a final pay day... We're better than that actually. So sod right off and shuffle your chins in another direction. Maybe not lazy, could have happened. But given that we are trying to offload Bent and the Milner deal fresh in Randy's mind you would hope he actual laughed when the offer was put to him. Well, it's lazy journalism for me. Pretty sure somebody already mentioned a 'possible' swap between Spurs and us for Benteke involving Defoe a few days ago (pretty sure it was in this thread) and of course tongue in cheek. Smells like the Mirror Man has sniffed out our forum and made a quick story out of it. Mirror Journalist - you stink, and you should be shot and cleavered.

Lazy journalist - should be shot. Why on earth would Lambert's Villa (or Lerner's for that matter) take on a 30 year old striker as part of any potential deal between Spurs and us for Benteke? Not fitting the 'young and hungry cost cutting' ethos we now find ourselves in does it journo? Hmmmmm? Defoe would have been a great signing 5 to 10 years ago. But now, a final pay day... We're better than that actually. So sod right off and shuffle your chins in another direction.

They need to stop polluting the Europa League with Champions League early exiters/failures. Such corruption. If you've shit yourself at Europe, that should be it. You're out. Chelsea spawned their way to ECL glory last time - no way should they have won that match. John Terry nonced his way falsely into all of the post match pictures creating the illusion that he played in the game. Chelsea shit themselves out of the ECL again this season, and nonced their way to victory in a tournament for which they didn't actually qualify. And John Terry nonced his way falsely into the post match pictures, creating the illusion that he had played in the game. Anyway, I digress. I would agree, we are the biggest club in England so far not to have enjoyed ECL football - despite having finished both 2nd and 4th during the Premier League days. Victims of changing goalposts and favourable coverage of the 'top teams.' We have to beat teams like Bradford if we want to even clear the first hurdle on our roadmap to renewed European glory.

Looks delicious Tastes like fried chicken...

in view of the fact that another golfer had already used the same slur / insult What other reasoning, besides race, would Garcia have to associate Tiger Woods to fried chicken ? I don't really follow golf unless it's Ryder Cup time, and had not heard of the other golfer's previous reference until yesterday. In terms of Garcia's reasoning, who knows? I certainly don't. Reeling off my list of barbecue wares had I been hosting him, I would probably have fallen into the same trap. But now, I am educated and so my dalliances with fried chicken are no more. Still frustrated as it shouldn't annoy me, but it does. It is, all to easy to play the victim. And he, an alleged role model too.

I've boycotted Dairylea since 1997 for my own personal reasons. From today, I am boycotting Kentucky Fried Chicken, just in case it offends certain love cheat United States golfers. What a load of old cack. Instead, I shall be buying only Bernard Mathews turkey fayre.

Meh... it's all to easy to play 'that' card. Personally, I'd never heard of the fried chicken thing. I bet KFC are shitting themselves. And, hypothetically (and without me knowing), had I thrown a fried breast of chicken onto the pitch in the direction of Rio Ferdinand (to use a topical example), I could be charged with not only throwing a missle onto the playing area, BUT also charged with a racial hate crime. I guess with certainty that he would take to Twitter to make some disparaging remark that only 'he' could get away with. Does it become different then if I throw the fried chicken at Bradley Guzan? Can you even buy friend chicken at Villa Park? If not, is this why? Maybe Randolph is offended by it. What a load of cack. What next? The throwing of a sporran in the direction of Barry Bannan makes him feel inferior? I would bet ten quid to Villa Talk and ten quid to Acorns that he would just laugh at you. If I invited Lambo round for dinner and told him that I was serving haggis because he's a Scot, is that equally deemed to be a racial hate crime? There's only one person in all that to look silly - and that's the love cheat golfer with the inferiority complex. <off to the other thread now about businesses and products people boycott>

I get pissed off by love cheat failing golfers who cry 'racism' when somebody has the gall to mention 'fried chicken' as part of an a la carte menu being considered for a social gathering. WTF is that all about? Since when has friend chicken been used as a racial remark? Grow a set Tiger you overpaid, cheating, slag. And on this matter, any references to 'roast beef' being used to define an 'Englishman' or a 'whitey' like me. Water off a duck's back - I'll just laugh at you. Move along.

For where we are right now, he really is too good for us. We just have to make sure we get something decent (even if unproven again) as a replacement. In Paul then, I trust. Our recent history is all about selling our best players sooner or later, one of the reasons we are where we are. I seem to recall (though happy to be called out on it) that in one window, we lost Friedel, A Young and Downing. IMO, we can't really afford to lose CB, AW and Bent. I have faith in the club that this won't happen. Wenger or not - if we're not looking to break into the Sky 4 places, then we are back to blind loyalty, going to football out of habit, and controversially, just turning up to watch the opposition. You have to believe that we can... We have to believe it. Sooner or later, some day, it will be our turn again. or damn you all to hell. Sorry, I got quite beside myself there and went all Shakespeare on you. FWIW, I think Spurs and Arsenal will be the teams to watch next season. Another shake up at Chelsea, and big time changes at United and Citeh - it's all to play for at the top. It would have been a good opportunity for a club like ours to get in amongst it. But we are not currently in the race. It would be great to see CB here next season, but if not, good luck to him, and good luck to Paul in finding a suitable replacement.

Crewe sounds like a good dart...

Nice one Richard... I actually had a nightmare last night where Aston Villa got relegated, having actually beaten Wigan up there, but not by a sufficient margin to secure safety. Benteke amazingly missed a last minute penalty by taking it from the half way line. The referee failed to spot the error and waved play on. United won 3-0 at Albion. And I woke up. Need to lay off the Disoronno.

Yeah and Europa League is a joke, if they'd really care for secondary cup/tournament then there wouldn't be anykind of group-phase and certainly not losers from Champions League and up the prize money to something more reasonable. Off topic I know, but the two major European competitions are both as daft as each other to be fair. Last season, Chelsea won the Eurpean Champions League (spawny bastards) having qualified for the tournament without actually winning the English Premier League - besmirching the very name of the competion... 'European Champions League.' It isn't the 'European Rich Clubs Domain Shut Out Club Trophy.' Then this season, Chelsea (really don't like them) won a tournament for which they didn't actually qualify - other than by association of being failures in the competition they had originally entered. And they want Rafa out? What a crooked safety net of money European football has. Better to be in it, and I would love for us to be involved in it. Unlike boobs... better in than out... And John 'word removed' Terry (he knows what he is) - frauding his way into the post match winning photographs, Chelsea shirt blazing... What an utter fraudulant 'word removed.' For the second season running as well...

I went 2 - while my heart says more, I just don't see it being allowed by the owner. Not if we still have a lot of overpaid shite to clear like some suggest.