The_Steve

"We kid him along. There's banter. 'When are you off?' and that kind of stuff. And he says 'You probably know more than me.' 'And I say 'But, I don't.'

Utter bollocks in my opinion.

Why??

More fun to believe the conspiracy theories that we're going to sell him.

:winkold:

Zog has offered more

:shock: . He's been shite.

Zog has been excellent the past few games. He tracks back better than Downing - who is a one trick pony who always cuts inside for his crosses. At least N'Zobgia isn't afraid to tackle. They are very different players.

7th July 2011 : Aston Villa: Stewart Downing is NOT for sale - Alex McLeish

http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-sport/aston-villa-fc/aston-villa-news/2011/07/07/aston-villa-stewart-downing-is-not-for-sale-alex-mcleish-97319-29010346/

Villa are adamant they have no desire to sell Downing who cost £10 million, rising to £12 million, when he arrived on crutches with a fractured foot two years ago.

“He had a magnificent season last year and really came to full maturity as a top player,” said McLeish.

“I understand why there’s teams interested in him and that is what happens when you play well consistently.

“His performances last season were top drawer.

“That’s why he’s NOT for sale."

15th July 2011 : Stewart Downing signs for Liverpool

Difference is Downing put a transfer request in. Bent hasn't.

Its pretty relevant given how Sunderland are now already above us in the league and we are down to 13th .

Well expect Fulham to overtake us soon .

I'll worry about league positions at the end of the season. Should we just give up now and appoint Megson?

MON with a poor Sunderland squad with crap strikers = 4 wins in 6

McLeish with a decnt squad with one most prolific Prem strikers ever = 5 wins in 20

Again, outside a fluke win at Man City, they've beaten teams around them or expected to get relegated like Blackburn and Wigan. Judge his performance at the end of the season, using each win to score points is really trite. MON's left, get over it.

Agreed! Amazing we paid people to tell us to get Mcleish and then paid compensation to get him!

Meanwhile O'Neill has four wins already at Sunderland.

Thanks for the updates on his win loss record. Really informative.

QPR, Blackburn and Wigan are hardly a challenge. Man City was a fluke and won with an offside goal. It's a point difference. Big deal.

Utterly shambolic that fat Frank wasn't sent off. Chelsea were incredibly lucky today.

crying out for Craig Gardner...!

When will you learn Alex Mccleish...!

He's at Sunderland :winkold:

Its is embarrassing he has won nearly the same amount of games as McLeish has done all season already.

Before today, it was wins over QPR and Blackburn. They played well today but let's not get carried away that he's a miracle worker.

It was observation of how poor we have been rather than how great MON is.

Fact is he has won 3 games in 5 matches including one over the best side in the league in Man City today.

McLeish has won 5 games ALL season.

Sobering reading. We've been poor for two seasons now. At least we are 2 points better off then we were last season at this point.

Its is embarrassing he has won nearly the same amount of games as McLeish has done all season already.

Before today, it was wins over QPR and Blackburn. They played well today but let's not get carried away that he's a miracle worker.

It was very much offside. Sunderland park the bus and MON gets a huge stroke of luck. Let the media suck fest continue.

Brilliant performance by him, its time like this that make me a proud villa fan, surely we've produced the most young English talent over the past few years?

Anyway, I'm happy for him, great début performance, hope he keeps it up, better now than his brother has ever been.

We really do get over excited don't we about our youngsters?

I'm excited by Gardner, I hope he gets the chance, apparently he could become a bloody good player but it's embarrassing labeling his performance vs Chelsea, "brilliant" .."great debut" he played what, 12-13 minutes and touched the ball 4/5 times!

Or maybe people are just happy to see our biggest youth prospect finally make his competitive debut. It's great we are bringing through our younger players: Albrighton, Clark, Gardner, Herd, Bannan wouldn't get half the opportunities they would if MON was still in charge. I think it's great to bring through some many young players.

Everton were incredibly lucky to nick 3 points today. Nice team selection MON.

I wouldn't wipe my arse with The People so I'm highly sceptical of anything they write. Shit tabloid trying to generate news. I didn't realise Alan Oliver was a body language expert.

Anything is an upgrade on Luiz though.

Still can't believe they paid 25 million for him, when he spent so much of his Benfica career at left back. He's positionally awful.

Different player to Barry. He had the vision to pick out the early passes. Stan is better at ball retention and going forward with a far better shot than Barry.

What a biased MOTD. Still won't wipe my smile.

Oh, thanks Lampard for setting Ireland off for the final goal.

It was a quality pass. Just before Petrov scored we had two really good shouts for a penalty, the bizarre booking of Cuellar among others showed how poor Mark Halsay was today. Luckily, it didn't cost us.

Lets hope he makes more sub appearances in the future.

Some key points real quick reading through:

358. Mr Suarez's account of his admitted use of the word "negro" changed several times. He

seemed unsure of when the admitted use took place and what triggered it. His account

seemed to change in an attempt to fit in with the video evidence.

356. Mr Suarez's pinching of Mr Evra's skin was not an attempt to defuse the situation. On the

contrary, it was an attempt to aggravate Mr Evra and to inflame the situation. Mr Suarez's

admitted use of the word "negro" when speaking to Mr Evra was not conciliatory and

friendly. It was unfriendly and was used as part of Mr Suarez's attempt to wind up Mr

Evra. The whole tenor of the exchanges was confrontational and argumentative. Adopting

the words used by the Spanish language experts, Mr Suarez did not use "negro" with any

sense of rapport or in an attempt to create such rapport.

361. Mr Suarez told us that he said "por que, negro?" in response to Mr Evra saying "Don't

touch me, South American". At one point in his interview with the FA, Mr Suarez said that

Mr Evra used the words "Don't touch me, sudamericano". In his evidence to us, he said

that Mr Evra's words were "Don't touch me, South American", all in English.

364. We found that Mr Evra did not use the words "South American" when speaking to Mr

Suarez. The language experts were not familiar with its use as an insult, Mr Evra's denial

of his alleged use of it was plausible, we found Mr Suarez's evidence unreliable in many

respects, and we found Mr Evra generally to be a credible witness.

In total, Mr Suarez used the word "negro" or "negros" seven times in the penalty area. On

each occasion, the words were insulting. On each occasion, Mr Suarez breached Rule

E3(1). Accordingly, the Charge is proved.

Great finish today, had a feeling he'd score.

Another big positive today.

Gary Gardner made his league debut. I hope we see more substitute appearances from him in the future.