DrUnKeNbUm

1 minute ago, sne said:

And still the main reason for keeping Bruce seem to be "stability" despite building teams for 1 season at the time.

With this strategy it will always be a rebuild, every season.

Let's try building something long term, using players who are not on their last career contract and on huge wages.

It's OK we have different views on how we should approach this.

I agree, a different approach is needed. 

I just feel we have the basis of a decent squad now compared to the utter dross we have had over the last few years. A couple of shrewd additions would be enough and I feel a promotion challenge would be a reasonable expectation. 

2 minutes ago, sne said:

TBF the expectations this upcoming season are completely different compared to the 2 previous ones are they not?

I'd be amazed if we go on to fight for the title regardless of who the manager is.

It's about rebuild, half of the squad from last season is gone. Among them Terry and Snoddy who likely played huge parts in the much improved team spirit.

I keep seeing the word rebuild used... but isn't that what we are/were doing under Bruce?

The dressing room seems united for the first time in about 5 years, we are actually winning games on a regular basis and we have the basis of a decent squad. The majority of that is down to Steve Bruce. 

As fans we expected promotion last season and missed out. The expectation shouldn't change for me. 

We have lost Terry, Snodgrass, Johnstone, Onomah, Axel and Grabban.... honestly the only players I would like to have kept out of those 6 were Snodgrass and Johnstone. 

As a club we seem to just default to "rebuild" every couple of years. I would like us to see Bruce try and complete his rebuild. 

I can't see why a lot of people assume Henry will play attacking football. 

Personally I think he will be that desperate not to lose and the press following his every move that we will end up a defensive counter attacking team. 

Christ on a bike! This would be worse than when we appointed Di Matteo!

Fingers crossed this is a load of rubbish and we aren't seriously going to appoint a manager who has zero managerial experience?!

25 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Spurs itks are convinced this is going to be announced tomorrow!

Apparantly that has come from a post on the spurs page on reddit.

The post is where someone's cousins girlfriend is a coach at WBA and is meant to have spoken to Jack who told them all this info.... take it with a grain of salt

Am I honestly seeing people suggesting Moyes as an option for our next manager?! 

It's not that bad yet!

Right 2 tickets sorted! Can't wait.

Whats The best option to get there on the train? My brother can't cope on a coach.

7 minutes ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

Reference plus postcode or surname

Brilliant!. Haven't a clue about his postcode, but know his surname

Thanks

Quick question, if anyone can help.

A mate in work is giving my brother his reference to get tickets on Sunday..  is it literally just the reference he needs or do you have to add addresses etc?

My work mate isn't on social media and I haven't got his phone number if we need to add his address.

Thanks

1 hour ago, villanmac said:

They'll be 1000's going to general sale.

 

 

I hope you are right mate. 

I want to take my dad, I qualify but he doesn't. He is getting on a bit now and you just don't know how long it will be till we next get to Wembley.

We're not in for Bogle according to his brother. 

18 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

Not really one for ITK stuff so take this with a pinch of salt.

My mate and his dad are part of the Mariners Trust (Grimsby) and they are playing Wigan in a friendly. Apparently Omar Bogle who is a bit of Grimsby legend after only a few years there was due to play but has been told he isn't allowed  because of interest in him.

It's between us and QPR. Apparently will cost £800k which also means Grimsby get no sell on money.

Does tie in with reports of him being transfer listed......

I'm good mates with his brother. I've just text him to see if there is any truth in it. 

25 minutes in and neither of our strikers have won a header. 

Elphick asks for the ball off the keeper and immediately hoofs it up to no one...

**** off

Big Sam or Bruce are decent appointments. But personally I wold like Rowett. He has been brilliant for the knuckle draggers

Just got back. First half we played quite well, then on 35 minutes we just stopped playing. 

Other than a couple of flashes in the second half we didn't do anything, but kept Brentford contained. I can't remember Gollini having a serious save of note during the game. 

On 80 minutes it literally went to pot. Every player in a villa shirt panicked as soon as they got the ball. 

The only player to come out of the second half with any credit for me is Westwood. He was the only one who was trying for close down Brentford and was the furthest player forward on a number of occasions. 

This 4-2-4 doesn't work, play the players in the right positions and results will change

I would be very concerned if Xia even considered sacking RDM at this early stage. 

Our club has been poisonous for the last 5-6 years and we badly need some stability in this moment in time. 

Now although the results haven't been as we would have all liked, this is a brand new team with most only playing 4 games together, plus our football is already a hundred times better than anything we played last season and we have outplayed 4/5 of the 6 teams we played in the league.

I have no doubt at all that the results will come very soon and I will feel a bit sorry for the team it does click against.

Now Xia is saying that being unlucky can't be used as an excuse, but today we were unlucky we could have easily had 4 goals at least today and I hope Xia realises that football isn't always cut and dry. However football is about results. 

I have to admit though, for the first time in years I am really enjoying watching the Villa. 

Sometime in 1989 against Millwall and Alan Mcinally  bagged a hat trick. 

I was hooked. Spent most of the game sitting on random people's shoulders to watch the game as they could see my dad was struggling after 20 minutes. 

Still have the program for the game in a frame! 

7 minutes ago, NoelVilla said:

and he is expected to score 30 goals this season.

AND save any penalties we concede.

Got to take my dog to be put to sleep in an hour and have no idea if I am going to be able to go through with it. 

She is 16 and in fantastic shape for her age but her kidneys are failing, there is the option of surgery and loads of other stuff but I honestly don't think it's fair to put her through that just for my own selfish want to have her with me for a bit longer.

It's amazing just how much you can love a pet and how big a part of your life they become. 

She has been fantastic with both of my kids since they were born and I genuinely couldn't have wished for a better animal to make my family complete.

As it stands I am utterly broken. 

42 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I tend to approach martial arts from their usefulness in a fight, I appreciate that the learning of the arts is more than that, and that the discipline etc is as much a draw for many practitioners, but my viewpoint is definitely from it's use in defeating an opponent.

And taekwondo strikes me as not the best approach for a fight. It seems to promote flashier moves than effective ones, it does't seem to have much of a defensive methodology (seemingly largely relying on the opponent's attacks missing, and moreover, their moves not hitting in a permissible way). It almost feels limited. It also doesn't help that, as a casual watcher of the Olympic tournaments, it seems obscenely 'scrappy' - theres very little grace to it, there doesn't appear to be much strategy you'd find in something like boxing or wrestling (where you can manipulate your opponent by strategy or technique to overcome him), it largely appears to be almost like tag - waiting for a moment to hit an opening or trying to counter.

I absolutely appreciate that tournaments (and certainly the Olympics) tend to force combat sports away from their combat basis into more obvious 'sports', and I know the likes of judo have in their basic tenants, I believe, that the discipline is less about fighting and more about competition, which can neuter them. Saying that though, a fighter with some judo training would probably find that useful in a fight, whereas a fighter with taekwondo training, from my perspective, would probably supersede that training with another more effective discipline - this has happened a few times in MMA where some fighters began in taekwondo as kids then shifted to other arts.

Certainly I feel like were you to put a pure taekwondo fighter in a fight with, say, a muay thai fighter, the taekwondo fighter doesn't walk away looking better the muay thai practitioner.

I'm not a practitioner of any martial art, though I'd have liked to try a few out, but am a fan of some combat sports and it just seems that taekwondo is very much in it's own sphere, for it's own sake. Doesn't take away from it's benefits and uses for it's adherents though, and I could see the appeal.

Dude I appreciate a well thought out and reasonable opinion. 

The Olympic method of Taekwondo is different to your normal competition Taekwondo and they have tried to 'glam' it up this year by making the head kicks and spin kicks earn more points. 

Normal competition Taekwondo is better in my opinion as punching earns a decent amount of points and makes for more varied bouts. 

I don't know how old you are but honestly martial arts are for all ages. Have a look into it mate if it intrests you. 

Again I appreciate the honest reply

3 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Taekwondo is one of the stupidest martial arts around.

What gives you that opinion? Genuine question.

My wife is a brown belt in it and seeing the hard work and dedication she has put in over the years is amazing. 

In order for her to earn her black belt she has to learn mandarin. 

I've done judo and jitsu to a decent belt level but none come close to how hard taekwando is as a discipline

We've scored!

Gestede! 

I'm watching the little ticker thing on bet365. We have had 30% possession according to that and haven't really got out of our own half.

However Rotherham have only had 1 shot and that was off target. 

4 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Short cameo but I liked what I saw. Lot's of energy, got into good positions, very industrious. 

Yeah I agree, 

My only concern is that twice he won the ball on the edge of our box and passed it square putting the receiver under a lot of pressure. That can be easily ironed out though