bobzy

Exactly this. Decent short term signing in a position we've got nothing going for us. Same as Bertrand on loan, same as Holt on loan. For a January window with not much cash (supposedly), these are all decent short term signings. I've always thought this was the way we're going, though; a) Sack off high earners Replace almost entire squad with cheap, sustainable squad c) Add cheap quality into squad where it's lacking d) Inject more expensive quality into self-sufficient club It's a long term project, which most people (I think?) have accepted and it looks as if we're slowly shifting away from the utterly shit part of it.

Even the United match we were in it early on - but then conceeded and collapsed. There's been an interesting transition in Villa from generally conceeding late on and losing points to, now, generally conceeding first and having to fight back. Anyone else noticed this or am I completely wrong?

We're quite obviously improving. People are just being negative for the sake of being negative. Sometimes I think it's just to save face. If they're negative and we turn out to do crap, they "win". If they're negative about stuff that may/may not happen in the future they "can't be wrong". That said, I have no idea why you wouldn't want to look at the positives when supporting a team - it baffles me.

ITK? Lambert seems to be talking about him as competition for/with Benteke/Holt/Agbonlahor which suggests he sees him as a striker.

Looks like an "A" grade word removed with that shit celebration and constantly doing the finger to lips thing too.

Houghton hasn't been great, but following Lambert was always gonna be an incredibly hard challenge. Back to back promotions and entertaining high scoring football is hard for a defensive minded coach to follow, so they probably dislike him for more reasons than just Hoolahan. Have I missed some sort of in-joke where we all call Hughton "Houghton" instead? I think this transfer will happen. It's all the usual bollocks r.e: transfer requests being turned down = inevitable transfer

Claimed the most "crosses" last season in the Premier League by over 30 odd. Immense.

Or, perhaps, he sees people posting all this crap about "just say it already!" and people like Pilchard just waiting for a fall and thinks.... ..."y'know what? **** that". What? :/

Most of the things BJ says are pointless

Disagree, personally. He was seen as a stalwart of our midfield but he simply did nothing. Dallied on the ball too often, was often robbed of the ball in a more defensive midfield position meaning attacks were straight onto us. Experienced head, nice guy but overrated (again, in my opinion).

Petrov for me I'm afraid - certainly in recent times. An awesome bloke and did a job for us but didn't warrant anywhere near the praise he got.

Concrete is probably made out of Stig Tofting to be fair.

Just looked on the BBC match report - the Stevenage player wasn't even booked. Superb stuff ref

Osman is like 32 isn't he?

I just don't understand that mentality at all. I understand mistimed challenges, but going out of your way to deliberately hurt a fellow player? **** up.

It was a soft penalty against Liverpool, but I'm sure Guzan won't be pleased with himself. It was a rash decision and he gave the referee a call to make. Out of character really.

I read this and thought "that sounds like something a shit manager would say, but this is League One - surely that doesn't go on?!" Then I looked at the table and saw where Stevenage are. Turns out, it's just something a shit manager would say.

Which is why he should wear **** shinpads ;P

Not sure they're pointless stats. He's a striker, we need him to be involved, hold up the ball and be a threat. He kept the ball 5 times and won 1 header. He attempted more passes, had more touches and won more headers than Agbonlahor. Who would you rather have in the side?

I've never, ever, ever seen Emile Heskey show any sort of technical ability as per Holt's cute flick against Liverpool. Creating that sort of space for someone to run into alone is valuable enough. I was impressed because I thought he'd be much more immobile. I love the pointless stat quoting by the way. Did you see that Holt had more touches, won more tackles and committed less fouls than Gabby did against Liverpool?

Impressed by his work rate and touch on the ball - thought he was more of a lump than that. Good cameo performance, promising.

I'm not sure anyone has ever said we have a maximum of 2 million to spend - we're just unlikely to pay more than that for a 31 year old? #staynegative

Although it's 2 domestic loans innit. But yeah, I think Holt was loaned from Wigan. Do they play in the Championship still?