HanoiVillan

Nice summary, thanks for the link.

Sorry, but that collar looks stupid.

Well, it isn't particularly true, is it? He's been training with the youth team, per briny_ear's link. That's not the same as 'being on holiday'.

Yeah you are repeating yourself, and it's still nonsense. Thanks for your telling insight. Luckily I can remember when Villa defenders were lauded for, well, being defenders.....not just better than 2 youngish players we have, who are out of their depth. Or for 60 good minutes in a World Cup group game. Throw yourselves at the feet of King Ron if you like, but I'll venture 2 things......he won't be making Team of the Tournament nor will he leave ( if in the unlikely event he does leave ) for a top 6 club. Nobody brought up the Team of the Tournament except you. You're arguing against straw men, so of course it's easy to demolish them. If people on here were saying he was one of the 3 or 4 best defenders at the World Cup, then of course it would be easy to ridicule. But we aren't. All that is being said is that the World Cup is putting him in the shop window, and that we will be a lot weaker if he leaves. You still haven't explained how being left with Senderos, a guy coming back from a year-long injury layoff and two youngsters you've said are 'out of their depth' wouldn't majorly weaken the team.

Just like us, they've replaced a ton of over-priced cloggers with a ton of under-priced cloggers. And just as with our own situation, the likely ineptitude of the new bunch shouldn't blind us to the fact that they were going nowhere with the likes of Wade Elliott, Darren Ambrose and Peter f'in Lovenkrands stinking up the place. They may even be marginally less rubbish next season.

There are 1001 things I blame Lambert for, but this ain't one. He's coming back from an incredibly serious injury. It makes sense to be careful with it. There's no scandal here.

I suggest you review his Sunderland career again. Just reviewed it, granted just on Wiki. The Sunderland entry ends with Keane’s harsh management style was not appreciated by the Sunderland players, who were reported to have celebrated when they heard he had resigned. This was with Sunderland in 18th place in the league. I certainly can't find anything in there to make me warm to the man or the manager that is Roy Keane. Whatever his role may be at Villa park, I don't want him here, he is a bully and really would not give a crap about the club. I can't think how his appointment would help in the long term. Not that I'm completely disagreeing with you, but it doesn't seem like we're thinking about the 'long term' in any way at the moment.

That's what I mean. I don't think he's that serious about selling. But I'm also adding, that you can't sell if there's literally nobody interested in buying.

Everyone drops their asking price if they're serious about selling. Ashley hasn't become one of the richest people in the country by being a moron, no matter what Newcastle fans think. The problem is much more likely to be that there's simply no-one who wants to buy the club.

He isn't....honestly. How exactly is he just average? I'm struggling to think of many PL defenders outside of the top 7 that are better than him, and I can think of quite a few in the top 7 that he's better than too. Well obviously it's all opinions isn't it, but off the top of my head, defenders who I think are better than Vlaar.... Caulker Shawcross Huth Lovren Colloccini (spelling?) All from outside top 7.....I can think of any number of top 7 defenders better than Vlaar.....but like I say, opinions obviously. I missed out Curtis Davies because most Villa fans I know don't rate him - fair play, but I think he was one we let go in error. I disagree with you, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter anyway. Reality - we score far fewer points, and concede far more goals, when he's out of the team. Reality - World Cup's put players in the shop window, and he's a starting CB at one of the tournament's better sides. Whether or not you think he's 'average' or 'good' or 'bad' or whatever, losing him is hardly going to improve the team - in fact, it will catastrophically weaken it. After all, you're surely hardly claiming that anyone currently at the club is as good?

I'd rather go out without a biter than through with one, and that's no lie. Who does he think he is?

It would cost us our PL status so £8m is nothing for me. This. Letting him go for free next summer - by which time we might have been taken over - would be infinitely better than the chump change we'd receive for him this year, which wouldn't even be used to strengthen the team anyway.

Think there was a thread on here about Poccognoli, but I don't know if there was ever any actual interest. That one died down very quickly.

To be honest, that's a very interesting map, but one that provokes more questions than it answers, such as 'which is the country that makes the difference between the top 2 groups'? and 'which countries give Afganhi nationals a visa upon arrival'?

Yes, that won't happen. The 'Iraqi Army' largely consisted of poorly-paid Shia soldiers fighting a long way from home, who had the option of running away to somewhere safer. The Kurds are on home soil, and it's fair to say they're not for messing around with. ISIS may take more land to the south, but I wouldn't bet on that either.

Two questions I'm inevitably going to regret asking, but here goes nothing: 1) Do you think all feminists are misandrists? If no, what's the difference in your eyes? 2) What, specifically, has Harriet Harman actually done to suggest that she hates men?

I'm certainly not claiming 100% effectiveness but I'm extremely surprised that some people are willing to disagree with the idea you can tell just by what they wear, and how they behave some people are gay. That's not to say I'm saying gay people are freaks who stand out. You can often tell when someone is Spanish rather than English, but that is not because the Spanish are freaks. For example, Spanish people on holiday, apart from often being more tanned than English, often wear jumpers around their necks whereas the English tend to wear their jumpers around their waists. I'm so, so, so glad that this thread was bumped, because I honestly don't think my life would have been complete without learning of Con's Theory Of Spotting Spanish Men By The Way In Which They Wear Their Jumpers. I'm having difficulty typing this because I'm having to pause for giggling fits.

I stick with my prediction that he will be gone by christmas The fixtures have all but sealed his fate unless we get 6 - 7 points from our opening 3 games a must really considering the games we have coming up for the 2 months after Who would come manage a club with no money to spend and a owner that wants to sell? Why risk coming then 2 months down the line be out of work again with new owners? We will be stuck with Lambert for the whole season if there is no take over. A nice pay off. loads of managers I would imagine. Yes - this is one problem with clubs who sack their managers too often - you start to get a reputation as a place a guy can get 3 years salary for 6 months work.

Utterly bizarre post of the highest order. The fans in the stadium will be supporting him and giving him a chance. If he does make a mistake then he's not going to be lambasted any more than any other player that makes a mistake in a football match. Simply not true. Villa fans place players into a "shit" or "not shit" bucket early in their career and then view every incident that happens on the field through the lens of what bucket the player had been placed in. If you need a great example, look at how KEA has been treated on here despite being solid most of last season. Most had him in the shit bracket way before he signed, are we now supposed to rate him because he plays for us?? This is the key point, isn't it? It's just delusional to walk around telling people that Player X is hopeless, and then turn around and claim that you're not going to judge Player X and he's probably a good signing for this this and this reason when X joins the club. He hasn't been a 'good signing' for either PL team that have owned him before, it requires a very charitable viewpoint to suppose he'll buck that trend here. Nevertheless, no matter how rubbish he is, people shouldn't be planning to boo him FFS, how silly and counterproductive is that?

Im kinda hoping he will - He's having a stab at trying to sell the club as is - but perhaps August time he may realise it isn't happening, and realise that the club is more saleable with Vlaar on a decent contract....... but as i keep saying this is the man who thought Alex Mcleish was the answer to our problems... I'm clinging to this hope like a drowning man to be honest, that if we reach mid-August and nothing's happening or likely, we might see some contract renewals and a couple of purchases around the £4-5m mark in crucial positions. I daren't hope for any more, because it feels like I'm hoping for the world already, but there it is.

Rod Liddle is obviously ten times more loathsome than either of the others . . . he's a Millwall fan.

I completely agree that it was, but I have to admit I'm not in a hurry to watch that episode again especially.

He has some good points. It'll be a lot easier to like him when we've finally finished clearing up the mess he left behind at our football club. He'll probably be retired by then though.

They lie. It only gets darker and then you die. I wanted to pull up on that saying as well. Not related to Villa especially, but it's flatly untrue that it's darkest just before dawn. It is trivially obvious that it's darkest in the middle of the night. How did it ever become a saying in the first place?

You're right, it's not quite that simple, but at the end of the day he's the only world-class player in the squad. Of course we're going to miss him hugely.