MrDuck

16 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Replays are shit anyway. I don't really mind that they're scrapped. I suppose it's a shame for smaller clubs who get a pay day from a replay at a big club.

Totally, waste of time.

I'd scrap all replays, and extra time. Extra time is nearly always painful to watch - pens after 90 mins for me!

I love Christmas these days... time off work to spend with family, kids super excited and happy, loads of cricket on tv, a break from trying to get the kids ready for school every day. Pretty ambivalent when I was in my twenties, but these days - for me - there's very little not to love.

12 hours ago, Zatman said:

 

Incredibly he has played at a World Cup

Did well too!

1 hour ago, imavillan said:

 

Thanks.

I love watching The Big Bash.

For me, it's far better than the IPL and streets ahead of the T20 in the UK.

Love the sell out crowds and the fact there are so many families and youngsters there. It's a great spectacle.

Yeah, the competition is just really good all around. Been to a few games, even the missus and my two girls love it. Super competitive league as well, only a handful of games each season that don't go to a close finish.

I think a big part of why it's so far ahead of the English version is the stadiums. Australia has so many brilliant modern stadiums for cricket, which helps create an excellent atmosphere and which look great on tv.

Problem is that it generally wipes out my productivity, as for 6 weeks i end up doing nothing every night other than watching T20!

2 hours ago, imavillan said:

The Big Bash League starts in Australia today, Wednesday 19th December.

 

Looking forward to sitting down to the start of this shortly with a few beers. Brilliant competition

You can stream it here: https://tv.7plus.com.au/the-big-bash-league-on-7

But I suspect you'll need to have a VPN connection to do so from outside Australia....

35 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

I'm not sure if those are football teams or cheap discount beers.

$8.99 a six pack from Aldi, this week only!

The son of a family friend is currently in Sydney, and playing for the Sydney Uni cricket team. He played against Steve Smith's club side the other day, and got Smiths wicket with a great delivery. Dad suitably proud!
Curiously Smith is so far averaging notably less in club cricket than he did at test level. I wonder if he'll every get back to where he was pre-sandpaper?

4 hours ago, Hornso said:

I think Di Matteo's name has to come up in regards to managers. Won the Champions League with Chelsea (regardless of how much of a hand you think he had in that) and then lasted about 13(?) games here.

I was excited by Houllier but unfortunately that fell apart due to health reasons.

Houllier was just a dreadful choice. Had already had heart problems, been out of management for years and his best days were well behind him. Plus he still seemed far more interested in Liverpool than us.

55 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Who did he play for after leaving us or did he just retire as pretty sure someone said he wasn't far off earning 20k a week with all the contracts.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/04/26/remember-moustapha-salifou-the-cult-icon-has-spoken-about-aston/

Quote

Now the Aston Villa cult hero is playing his football for German sixth tier side Turkspor Augsburg, after stints with Saarbrucken and 1860 Rosenhelm.

19 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

I honestly think that 90% of managers do absolutely naff all apart from pick the team and gee them up a bit at half time.

Pfft. Shows what you know.

Forget about Bruce, there is only one ex-captain for this job.

Roy Keane.

38 minutes ago, Genie said:

Wins:

Mourinho 58.3%

Fergie 59.6%

Just dropping in to say that I love beer, and even more so I love English beer.

Just one of several things that sometimes makes living in Australia really tough.

Cos I'm now middle-aged and without any shame or coolness whatsoever, I'm now allowed to write and release a Christmas song without feeling even remotely embarrassed by the whole thing:
https://thegatheringtide.bandcamp.com/

On 11/12/2018 at 02:18, TheAuthority said:

Blimey I always thought the majority of musicians were chill, easy going folks.

When you have to organize them to do anything they turn into the biggest bunch of whiny, moaning babies in the world. I hate contracting.

As someone who has been a leader of a band trying to organise musicians for over 25 years, I must say that this is completely and utterly untrue.

No wait, the other one... completely and utterly correct!

5 hours ago, Dave J said:

Curbishley surprised me as I thought he would have a good career in the game - maybe too long out of it now though

Was a weird one that... did a very good job for Charlton, then was doing well for West Ham before resigning/forced out... then nothing. That was about 10 years ago now? As he sued West Ham at the time, I wonder if there was something he did that was never made public knowledge, but put off future employers?

12 hours ago, villalad21 said:

 

 You don't see all time greats like Zidane, Xavi and even Pep Guardiola calling out Lampard or Gerrard when talking about english footballers, it's always Scholes.

The most common names I've heard over the years mentioned by great overseas players when talking about English players they loved are Hoddle, LeTissier and Scholes - all of whom were criminally misused/underused by England.

32 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Savo Milošević?

I’m always surprised at how many goals he actually scored for Villa (about 1 every 3 games I think) but, as Brian Little’s big international signing, somehow he never became the spearhead for our attack he should have been. Too much of a stop-start player.

So much talent, so hot and cold. That goal against Leeds in the cup final was sweet

People saying Mellberg was overrated are mad. Sure he wasn't McGrath, but he was a very, very good defender.

13 hours ago, Dave J said:

 but I do honestly believe that Laursen is not far behind him - I count my blessings to have witnessed two genuine world class performers in a Villa shirt 

I loved Laursen, but I'd have placed Sid and He Who Walks on Water alongside McGrath - well, standing behind him - as the top 3.

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

For me Smith has made Villa fun and enjoyable to watch again. Sherwood was similar but I think Smith has a much higher ceiling 

Sherwood fluked it, Smith planned it!

We've had a fair few top class centre backs in my time - Laursen, Southgate, Ehiogu, Evans were all absolutely brilliant, but McGrath was undoubtedly a step above them all.

No, Shane MacGowan.

I read somewhere that Hughes has now earned over 15 million quid just in compensation from his various sackings. Nice work if you can get it!