nobler

What a ball by Gabby. Fantastic.

Jesus! Excellent header

Currently Barca -0 Hercules -2. 65 mins gone. Still wouldn't right off Barca even winning this, but as it stands massive, massive upset.

So annoying when people consider Savo a bad buy. He was a good player for our club, I'll never undertand this.

Welcome Gerard

Scottish titles?! Bwahahaha! Like I said - real trophies. Ok then, what about the League cups he won? I think the general point is that O'neill is regarded as a top, top class manager without actually winning trophies of any genuine significance, like european trophies, international trophies and league titles in hard, competetive leagues.

You don't get lucky winning the champions league, it's just too tough. Whether you like liverpool or not their achievements that season winning the champions league was absolutely remarkable. The Milan team they played was a fantastic side absolutely at the top of their game, Liverpools success that day was one of the best in modern history, imo.

I don't know tbh but I am being told PT has resigned from sky The guy is an idiot and a prick. He has never given me any other impression than he hates Villa. I will be very angry if PT is let anywhere near this club. Why would he 'hate' Villa? It seems as fans we find it difficult to accept that anyone other than a supporter can criticise the club, or have the right to, even though for the last five or so years he's been employed to give his opinion. Even if what he says is right it's only repeated by many on this board anyway, I can't see where hatred would come into it. It's a suprise appointment, of course (if it's true)but he's proven to be a fairly decent coach, a winner. I think it's difficult for people to understand why somebody with such a love for another club could possibly be involved in anything else and want to achieve anywhere else. It's a huge challenge for Houllier and Thompson and one i'm pretty sure they'll both be dying to get their teeth into, as probably the last shot of success at a club of this stature. I'll reserve my judgement until a few months time when i've seen the impact they've had on the squad. It'll be interesting, anyway

I'm very much looking forward to a new era, but in all honesty I don't think we'll see massive changes. I would imagine Macdonald would be working pretty closely with Houllier, Houllier isn't stupid, he'll have done his research and would only go to a job that he feels is right and is inheriting a decent squad that doesn't need massive tampering with. I have faith that the board have listened to the ideas Houllier has put forward and feel that they make the most sense out of the other managers available. I'm fairly optimistic, whether or not tactically we'll see better football and playing a more modern game, I don't know, i'd like to hope so. I'm finding all the negativity pretty strange though, I think it's a fairly asuste appointment considering the options.

Lol. After this week we already are a laughing stock. Indeed. We couldn't possibly be any bigger laughing stock than we are at the moment. Humilated by a newly promoted team and dumped out of Europe, 2 years in a row by an incredibly average Austrian team before even making the competiton properly. No manager, Curtis Davies and everyone at the club pulling in differen't directions. A few internet rumours won't do any harm. Cheered me up a bit actually

Interesting

It's strange, I sort of just imagined that because of the way we've competed in this league the last few years, the consecutive top 6 finishes, in what is regarded as the best league in the world, I had the feeling we'd attract some attention from some pretty top managers, willing to manage us. However, it's just been massively quiet, I really do have the feeling that nobody wants the job, except the desperate ones of course, Sven, Curbishley, etc. I'm sort of starting to think that some people reporting in the media may be right. Some good points on the ownership aswell, this is the first negative point i've ever made about Randy, but I get the feeling that the people at the top actually have no idea how to act at this moment in time and just do not have the knowledge to choose what they would consider the right man for the job.

Petrov's comments after the game were interesting. It's just crazy how much we need a new manager right now. At the moment it just feels like we are still stuck to the O'Neill era and won't let go of it. Macdonalds body language seems to sum up the relaxed attitude of our defence in particular, we came out the second half thinking that we had already won the game. We need a new personality, someone has to stamp authority on the squad, a completely new start, just some sort of lift as we won't be buying any new players. The lack of any sort of backbone and how easily we are rolling over at the moment is scary and i'm actually quite worried.

Gutted, really gutted. Fed up of this club ripping my heart out and stamping on it as hard as possible. Fed up of us faffing about with stupid team selections and disrespecting this tournament. We don't have the right to treat this tournament the way that we do, it's just arrogant and stupid. Doesn't matter anymore anyway, that's the end of our European nights for an extremely long time. Very annoyed right now! Gonna just ignore all football for a long while.

Interesting fact! Beye, Heskey, Cuellar and Petrov all played in a uefa cup final

Just an update, if anyone cares. Had chance to play it a lot the last few days, so far 4 bosses down and a giant demon god. After the initial shock of the first two levels, it seems to get easier as you develop your character, when you get used to dodging and rolling, it really isn't particulary hardcore, you just have to stay focused or you'll get annoyed at restarting levels after dying. All in all though i highly recommend it if anyones looking for a proper RPG challenge, had some really frustrating moments on 'fire lurker' boss, but felt great when i finally got him. The Demon gods look absolutely incredible, they are so huge. The character leveling is interesting too, there's virtually infinite ways to mould your character to how you want it. Haven't had a look at PVP yet, still got shit loads of soloing left.

Team announced. 4-4-2, Reo-coker at right midfield, hmmm

I finally got hold of this. After reading various reviews and knowing how hardcore it actually is, nothing prepared me for how brutal this game is. Ha! Seriously, it's insane. It really doesn't mess around, i've died about 8 times on level 1 so far and each time you start straight back at the beginning and have to kill everything over again. It's almost like the old Ghouls'n'Ghosts games. You just cannot rush anywhere otherwise you'll be ambushed and virtually one shotted. After saying all that though, it's so intriguing, I wanna get back to it. Great stuff! It already feels majorly rewarding, just slowly advancing. I'm sure taking down huge bosses and really advancing your character will definitely sharpen up gaming skills and reflexes.

Dear god. As much as you are perfectly entitled to your opinion, I just cannot understand this. We aren't a club on the brim of relegation, who need Big Sams thuggish Kevin Davis style hoofball to stabilize us in the league. We have a decent squad, capable of playing some pretty damn good stuff, as proven against West Ham. We've had enough hoofball the last few seasons to last a lifetime. This sort of appointment or ambition is not 'taking us forward'.

Yeahy, what the hell could they do for an encore to top that?

Man commits suicide on stage Imagine seeing that happen in front of your eyes. Scary stuff.

A really important result and performance today. You could tell the media were waiting in the wings to rip us apart if we had lost today. We played without shackles, some great football and a huge lift after a horrible week. I'm really happy with the players and fans today and looking forward to the see what unfolds over the next few weeks. Feeling very optimistic tonight!

If he did start it would be interesting to see how he performs and what his body language is like. edit: ..and if he wears sky blue boots

Milner's been named in tomorrows squad

beause he virtually states in every single interview that he wants to come back to the prem Right, but to a club who are doing exactly what he was moaning about less than a month ago? Why not just wait until a better job comes along? If he wins this season with Ajax, he'll be up for the Man City job when Mancini doesn't get top four. Personally, I don't think he'd sit around waiting for the Man.City job to crop up and considering where they want to be, i'd have thought Man.City may aim higher than Jol. We're an established top 6 prem club, it's a job that doesn't come along too often. A good job. You may be right, I dunno, but i really think he'd have a very long hard think about it and it's definitely worth pursuing