brummybloke

cant argue he is effective when used correctly. we dont use him correctly and dont have the players around him to make him effective.

for us he has been on a par with the likes of fashanu as s signing, we great for other people but ultimately was shit for us.

another piss poor effort and shit team selection.

another pile of shit excuses from the normal people.

oh sorry, we should all be happy we get dumped out of a competition we played all last season just to get into, the same competition most of the sheeple said put us above the likes of man city and spudz for players who truely want to do something rather than going for the money.

isnt much more to say really, im becoming almost disinterested at times with how things are going.

a clear sign that this season we will be midtable as everyone including the sheeple dont expect the top 4 and we are hardly going to be fighting for 5th or 6th are we, it means **** all to MON.

no one better complain though just incase he throws his pc games out of his pram.

What we should also remember is that a majority of our players are getting paid above the average annual salary every week to be professional footballers in the best league in the world, I didn't see anything tonight to suggest that a majority of them should be playing above league 1...

What a ridiculous thing to post.

Lets moan about losing a pre season game because they get paid lots of money and therefore should of course win every game they ever play in.

These games are there to get players up to match fitness, if we win great if we don't who cares.

Do you think barcelona or real madrid fans are worried and slagging off their players because they earn loads of money. I saw £80 million ronaldo jog around against shamrock rovers doing a couple of flicks every now and then, should madrid fans hammer him for not scoring goals and earning the large amounts of money he is being paid?

The reactions in this thread show once again how much some villa fans just love to have a moan.

isnt it odd how some people seem to read what is written completely differently to others?

i read it as parrotandglue wishing the players would show more commitment and basic footballing skills, to try their hardest and show pride when they put on the claret and blue, even in a pre season friendly, just as any fan of the club would do if given the chance, not

"moan about losing a pre season game because they get paid lots of money and therefore should of course win every game they ever play in"

4th or higher, it is possible if you take advantage of situations, lets hope for once we dont **** up in the transfer market.

oh and also i also expect any competition we go in for to **** play to win rather than treat the fans like shit by using a team of reserves and then use excuses such as tired squad when a transfer window has just ended and we sign **** all apart from a fat useless twonk

may have missed it, sorry if i have.

are you entering the fantasy football league on here? or are any of the others like Randy?

sorry if it has already been mentioned but would aston villa consider a few times per year, having 'testamonials' type games for 'fallen' villains?

i appreciate that to even hold a game at villa park costs alot to fund, however if maybe at the start of each season, a parade and fund raising event to show off the summers new captures in the transfer window, to show off the new seasons footy kit and a 'testamonial' match were all included and any 'profits' were given to selected fallen villains?

bully has posted a fund raising event for paul birch ( a vil a hero of mine in the 80's and early 90's) who has tragically got cancer.

there must be several players who in years gone by, played and gave their all for the club, especially in times where pay was certainly not what it is now.

im not talking of these matches for players who gambled fortunes or snorted fortunes, but there are several heros who have fallen on hard times.

i know aston villa is not a charity, however for the enjoyment past players have given thousands upon thousands, to celebrate their efforts and to reward them in later life or dire financial difficulties, maybe it is an idea which could be run passed the big guy? ( no i dont mean paul mcgrath).

i liked the tony daley song, although i forget the exact lyrics i will give it a go.....

tony tony daley

tony tony daley

377 pages down, just thought i would say thanks to Randy and Co for so far.

about 15 years ago, there was an open day at villa park which culminated in the villa team 'playing' against 200 young villa fans which wa on the full pitch.

the whole day was great and im sure converted several of the locals who supprted liverpool at the time.

are here any plans to have a 'local' week in the summer time? maybe a week of events is far too costly but im sure with the lack of proper footy this summer now we are not in the euro cup, possibly to coincide with the new kit launch?

at the moment most of the youths local to villa park are either man utd or arsenal fans, however these can be converted and are part of the future support of our club.

maybe even some kind of summer 'soccer school' which would keep kids off the streets and also possibly unearth talent which would not get the chance through more conventional methods?

just a quick one, i see you have volenteered your services for a day as part of the premiership charity event.

very commendable thing to do.

thankyou for respresenting our club.

General Krulak here:

1. The move of the kit to 4 October and the issue of getting kits at "remote' locations are all tied together. As I explained a month or so ago, we signed our contract with Nike late in the manufacturing process. We signed late because we had to wait a period of time to get out of the Hummel contract. The fact that we signed late put us at the end of the queue for manufacturing of kits. As a result, kits are first being sent to the Villa Park and Center City stores to fill inventory at those locations. As more kits are made, they will immediately be sent to other Nike outlets and stores that sell Nike gear. The delay in the away kit is caused by this same issue...everything has been backed up. At the end of the day we had to make a decision....go with Nike and accept the delay or ramain with Hummel for another year. We felt that in the long run, going with Nike was the best thing for the Club. Yes, we will lose some money over the year but we felt that the quality and the brand (Nike) were "worth" more to the Club and Fans than the lost revenue for the year.

2. I have notified Craig Gardner about the thread...he will be pleased.

3. Printing on shirts...at a Club shop...is not unusual. It is done at locations where other printing services are not available. When I was at MBNA, we had a

? i was getting quite into the printing story but it just cut off?

the shirts are great although i cancelled my away shirt order due to the delay and went just with the home one for me and my son, and that red polo shirt.

are there any plans to have concessionary outlets in the midlands department stores? or any plans to have a retail outlet in the merry hill shopping centre?

well as of now our squad is weaker than last year when we got 11th. teams bellow have strengthened, a couple havent so 11th would be a good season for the squad we have got.

i also am playing by the rules o this thread and so am quite suprised that people think with a worse squad than last year we would finish better?

we may or may not have been turned down by Barton & Parker. if so. take it on the chin, we aren't Barcelona all of a sudden

and neither are west ham, however at least 1 of the 2 is going to them.

i really cant understand the logic of koumas? just because he is playing well in the chumps league does not make him a super talent for our team now we have the investment and management team in place.

if we use this logic that because he is good in the chumps league, we should also scrap any plans for darren bent an try and snap up kevin phillips.

koumas has been given the chance in the premiership and blew it, be it his attitude, his talent or what ever, he blew it.

we MUST be aiming for higher profile, more talented players if we go for people of koumas age, they have to be players who are ready made, who will go straight into the first team. and as for koumas as a squad player? so we sell someone like davis and replace him with someone older , more expensive, higher maintenance? no thanks.

koumas is what we would have been aiming for 3 years ago, before MoN, before Randy.

we should have put pressure on teams like charlton in january for darren bent, when we had the money and no other team did.

this season will be unique, a one off for a handful of teams to close the gap on the big 3.

the teams willing to gamble big on star players and decent sized quality squads will reap the rewards.

this season coming up will have 2 main sorts of team.

teams willing to gamble to make the gap up between themselves and the top 3 ( look at wet spam, they have started buying players, improving their squad, bidding for other players, hustling, getting their name linked to quality players)

and teams like the knuckle draggers, they wont buy loads of players, they will try and borrow players and hope to make money this year by merley staying in the premiership and then next season buying some players.

just a side issue, but will it make a difference who we sign by the way we deal with the agents?

that program by panarama has reminded me how managers like harry redknapp and big sam managed to get loads of players in who were of a decent standard. however, as we are normally 'whiter than white' to quote a corrupt polititian, do people think it will hinder us in out bid to sign some of these top european players?

after all, most clubs will now have the money to spend, so there needs to be a 'deal breaker' in most cases to tempt players. i know in a perfect world we would only have players who wanted to bleed claret and blue, however, in the real world a good deal of football players will be in it for themselves and will go to who pays the most and who their agent earns the most from the deal.

the pros and cons for going for bellamey or bent

randy and co appear to like the family, tradition side of football. they appear to like people with honesty and integrity, who can represent their companies without bringing disrepute.

who is going to be the better ambassador for aston villa?

mr littleman angry bellamey, who courts controversy where ever he goes? who is now coming up to 29 years old and who hasnt consistantly hit more than 12 goals per season ever. or darren bent, club captain, younger, stronger and more versitle.

darren bent record

Overall career totals

Apps As sub Goals Yellow Red

Total (Club) 219 (28) 91 6 0

League 192 (19) 78 6 0

FA Cup 9 (2) 5 0 0

League Cup 13 (3) 7 0 0

European/Others 5 (4) 1 0 0

bellemy record

Overall career totals

Apps As sub Goals Yellow Red

Total (Club) 345 (37) 119 54 2

League 276 (29) 92 42 1

FA Cup 12 (0) 5 3 0

League Cup 20 (3) 9 5 0

European/Others 37 (5) 13 4 1

both have decent records, however bellemy is the same sort of player we already have in moore and gabby, a fast pacey player who can score.

we donthave a player who can play upfront on his own and still bang the goals in, darren bent is just that player. he has played for 2 teams, ipswich and charlton, both are shit, ipswich only finishing in the top 10 once, charlton didnt while he is there i think.

bellemy has played for liverpool, newcastle, blackburn, norwich, celtic and coventry.

you would expect him to have a far better goal record than bent as he has played with better players, in better teams with more attack minded players, however bents goal record is far better than bellemys.

a no brainer for me really, the stats, the newspaper headlines, the team moral, the future, the longevity of bent compaired to bellemy, the image we want to portray.

everything adds up to bent.

i just hope we can get a player of his quality as i would expect newcastle, liverpool, spurz and arsenal to be some of the clubs fighting for this sort of quality in the summer.

and looking at the bookings also although as a forward it isnt the main priority but

darren bent has 6 yellow cards in 192 league games

bellemy has 42 yellow cards in 276 games

Scott Parker is the absolute epitome of the average Premiership footballer, and not the kind of player we should be signing.

And who on earth thinks Liverpool are going to want to sell Finnan, who has been one of their most consistent players this season? And more's the point, why would Finnan want to leave a CL semi final (at least) club for a mid table one?

well as liverpool have been tracking daniel alves for quite some time and are also rumoured to be after another right back, i cant see finnan being the number 1 choice.

scott parker, would that be the same one that when fit, gets picked for the england squad?

at first reo coker and bellendamy were players i wished we could sign, that was in DOL's last season.

my expectations are higher then players like them now, be it unrealistic or otherwise, neither of these players make me think we are moving forwards.

players we should be capable of getting this summer include the likes of

Yakubu

Wayne Bridge

MGP

Parker

Finnan

Greg Halford

Matt Murray or some goalkeeper that everyone is saying we are getting

although i have never seen him so cant really comment.

we also need at least 1 good centreback

i think we need at least 2 STAR players, by that i mean players who people would think " ooh, hang on, how have they got them?" type players.

1 should be a centre half, the other should be a midfielder.

but we should be aiming for the above list or higher in my view for this coming season.

Jez: Newcastle are alone in the class really, they are a hopeless club with a hopeless owner, management and scouting system

Too bad Woody will sign for Boro, what the hell will he achieve there?

well while mclaren is manage of england, he knows he will be guarenteed an england squad place, he is also carrying out his life long dream of playing for his boyhood club.

some people moan about players being money grabbing and so on, this time it appears that like alan shearer before hand, a player is following his dreams rather than chasing the money.

no doubt he will also get paid shit loads of money but that is the luck of the draw.

thought angel named his child geronimo or something?

how long was paul mcgrath at villa for? it wasnt 10 years, he was good but did just as many stupid things off the pitch that hendrie did.

10 years nowdays is almost unheard of, however he has actualy been at villa alot longer than 10 years, he was a villa player aged 15 or even younger.

he was promised a testamonial, now bearing in mind i doubt anyone bar gareth barry, will ever come close to doing 10 years at our club again, it may be a very rare thing indeed.

i would like to see players from dwight yorke ( grrr), paul mcgrath, bosnich, kevin gage ( the real super kev), sid cowans, ian taylor ( hendries debut he sent taylor clean through to score in a european game), benito carbone and other legends and semi legends.

to some hendrie will never be a legend, however people always go on that we need a nasty b@stard in the middle, well he was a semi nasty b@stard with a fair bit of skill to link up play.

always seemed to be in the team when ever we had our most successfull periods.

he wont play for us again, ever so i would like to go and see him play 1 last time in a match which would be upto hendrie what happens to the money, im sure his accountant would advise him that it worth him giving 50% to charity or something.

it will be an emotional night, infact if the new board offered hendrie £100.000 to NOT have a testimonial, im sure he would turn it down, in order to play 1 last time for his team.

now THAT would say alot more about him than any swipes at his off field activities.

if you asked again in 12 months time, im sure people would be amazed that there was any question over the ridge and cahill, i voted laursen and the ridge but laursen wont be around next year,. we will see the emergence of the two young guns and they will do us proud for a good long time.

that huntalaar's agent appears to be mooting him around, hinting that he would prefer an english team.

he is apparently the canines testicles, however also appears to be a costly player.

on the other hand, is there and feyanord players who are any good? now they are out of europe.

im hoping the liverpoo take over doesnt happen just yet, otherwise it is yet another club who will have more of an advantage over us. we need to make our financial advantage count now before it actualy counts for nothing.

chelsea splashed loads and loads, but they got the players they wanted to get, why is it any different for us? we have money, splash over the odds if it means we get sthe players MoN wants now. what is to say they would come in the summer anyway, we could be in the position of waiting until the summer, then the player doesnt want to come anyway, which would leave us again, with no players. or more likely, all premier teams have extra money, this makes buying ANYONE from anywhere in the world a more expensive proposition.

speculate to accumilate is the old saying, enough people wanted it when the last chairman was here.

i thought MoN was saying 2 weeks ago that we needed more players, more help for the youngsters, more help for the squad, this wasnt 2 months ago, this was 2 weeks ago.

And the three players released have been no help at all

but they would have been available if called upon.

they may not be great players but they are players who are employed by aston villa, do you count laursen as not an aston villa player due to his absence through injury? what about delaney? well they are still classed as in the squad, yet are not available if called upon. same for luke moore, not been available for best part of 3 months.

most teams who have a reasonable sized squad will have players that never get a game, they are there for emergencies.

i thought MoN was saying 2 weeks ago that we needed more players, more help for the youngsters, more help for the squad, this wasnt 2 months ago, this was 2 weeks ago.

we are also 3 players down.

MoN started the season with the squad, he has let players go out on loan and got rid also.

of the players available to MoN from the squad, we have 3 less to choose from, no matter how many games they may or may not play.

this is the player action since the summer, when we finished with a small squad.

INCOMING

Stilian Petrov Celtic £ 6500000 30-08-2006

Didier Agathe Celtic Signed 12-09-2006

Chris Sutton Birmingham Free 03-10-2006

Gabor Kiraly C Palace 13-12-2006

Phillip Bardsley Man Utd 08-01-2007

OUTGOING

out on loan

Patrik Berger Stoke 23-11-2006

Eric Djemba-Djemba Burnley 12-01-2007

got rid of

Didier Agathe 11-01-2007

Mathieu Berson Levante 01-08-2006

Kevin Phillips West Brom £ 700000 22-08-2006

Ulises De la Cruz Reading Free 25-08-2006

Pete Whittingham Cardiff £ 350000 11-01-2007

Gabor Kiraly C Palace 13-12-2006

i would be extremely disapointed if we did not get anyone in before feb, even if it is for cover, and if it is for cover, what would be the point? we have people out on loan or sold who were cover.