Jon

id imagine the people most delighted about this ban are the newcastle united players....

Joseph Barton will have to use his undoubted intelligence and sophistication to go and find another weapon to gouge out his teammates eyes with....

i am also looking forward to the ban!

he'll just resort to the trusted glassing i'd have thought!

Roll on July 1st. I've been waiting for this ban since I first started going in pubs/cars.

WooooHooooo!

Martin came back from holiday last week

Been anywhere Nice Risso? :winkold:

A cheap and injury free kewell would be well worth a go IMO.

sadly, i think his days at the top now are either limited or over, simply due to the injuries.

maybe we could get him on a pay as you play basis? :wink:

Horland Oates, Ste Ledan, Areo Speed-Waggan, Nas Arath and Godlian Cream. All cheap and available.

How much advance booking would these lot need though?

some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth too.

maybe try for some younger blood like Owias Is?

, Steve Sidwell (although he might be a Chelsea player by the time you read this!),

yep!

FWIW I think barry is this man.

The way he was controlling central mid towards the end of the season spoke volumes for me.

I think we might well see Barry and Stan dominate the 2 central midfield positions this coming season.

Noses are nowhere although they do have the potential to be bigger than everyone barring us.

can't agree with the 1st bit there Bri, but definitely can with the highlighted bit.

history, whilst important, is just that in the garnd scheme of things: history.

SHA don't have a history as such, but as Bri says, they have the potential, and are back in the premiership again.

Wolves maybe run thema close-ish 3rd.

But SHA have been out of the premiership once in what? 3 or 4 years? :?:

So at this particular moment in time, how people can't have SHA as 2nd in the pecking order is beyone me, unless you are approaching from a biased POV that is.

EDIT: sorry - misread initial post as it referrs to "Biggest Clubs" rather than current pecking order, which are 2 very different things.

SHA are still up there with the best of the rest though, IMO, albeit quite a way behind us.

Aaron Hughes, for me can certainly pass and play, I just feel that he doesn't do enough to stop crosses coming in.

That's my gripe too with Hughes.

he seems relatively comfortable on the ball, and can pass and cross.

But defensively he's been weak IMO, especially as you say in letting his man "do" him and/or get crosses in too often.

2. Re. the West Ham issue: The Club will support the FA position...for many reasons that would take pages to articulate. Simply said, the (FA), have an established procedure for issues such as this. That procedure was agreed upon by our Club and that procedure has been followed. To go against a procedure we have previously agreed upon would not be a good thing. This does not mean that we have not discussed this issue at length with many parties.

Well that, if you do not mind me saying, is a disgraceful cop out. The Premier League has abused its position, and as a shareholder in the Premier League, we have a duty to speak out.

Still never mind, it's only Sheffield United eh?

seconded.

This looks like a cop out by AVFC in my humble opinion.

We should be standing four square behind Sheff Utd on this, and i am not happy with the club's stance on this ....

Lawrie Sanchez quits NI and is installed at Fulham permanently, I guess the first thing he will do is sign Davis and Hughes.

5M for the pair.

rouhgly breaks down as £5.25m for davis and -£0.25m for Hughes, I'd guess? :winkold:

i seriously doubt the scousres would let Sissoko go but if they did i would move hell & high water to bring him in if i were MON.

having said that, i think other areas of the side are possibly higher priority?

I slagged off the previous one because it contains stripes, this one does not and contains all the elements I voted for including AVFC

It is different and a bold step IMHO, it shows we are no longer playing safe, something I and many others had been calling for years

Ste, there is no design that would have pleased everyone

roughly my thoughts too Ian.

It is a bold move, this re-badgeing. It's a bold new crest too, IMO - a big departure from the past and one that signals a new intent.

I believe and hope that this new badge will be a grower on people.

Am 26! the fear of getting old is here. I see no one has voted for 60+ yet, will they know how to log on to VT?

Malc has been banned, that's why! :winkold:

How can there be 2 best ages? :?

anyhoo, all the threes for me ......

Nice report Pete - was good to met up again - decent boozer we came across to :-)

I agree with most of the ratings. Pretty much everyone deserved a 7 i'd say, with Barry, Laursen & Carew excelling so maybe going beyond this.

My ratings:

Tommy - excellnet display apart form the bizzare attack on Vass for the pen. Thought it was harsh at the time but in the cold light of MOTD, was clearly a pen - you can't run through a player to get to the ball i'm afraid - could have cost us a result - 6

Bardsley - OK defensively - 7

Boomer - ditto - 7

Mellberg - not the same player as a few years ago - not in same class as laursen - did reasonably well - 6

Laursen - excellent - nothing got past him - MOTM 8

Stan - got more & more into game - kept & passed well - 7

Barry - great display - shackled JB quite well & was everywhere 1st half - 8

Young - In & out of game - good cross for goal though - 7

TINA Gardner - hard working display as usual - augmented the midfield well - 7

Gabby - worked hard - 7

Carew - physically immense with some great touches - looked like he went off with a slight injury - 8

All in all a great display & great day - Citeh were largely sh*t though.

They didn’t sign him because West Ham wouldn’t sell him; the cause of one of the longest sulks ever recorded

he should play off against baros in a sulking contest. Wouldn't like to pick the winner from that one .....

reo-cokey

sidwell

barton

wouldn't mind either of these in our engine room next season.

at a push i'd probably go for NRC. Sidwell i'm unsure about still, and JB is a bit of T*sser all things considered. Good player though

If we're up for this game, we will win IMO.

Citeh are a club in a little bit of disarray at the moment, similar to where we were this time last season. They have nothing now to pla for (other than the Man U game next week) and may not be fully up for this game.

If MON can get the troops focused big time on this match, we can win it.

If we can dominate Barton in MF, that's half the battle won. Big IF - needs a big game from Barry and Stan.

When our opponents think of Aston Villa right now they are not sitting around figuring out ways of shackling Gareth Barry.

you know this for sure?

maybe they should be ......

The Telegraph and Students - Not a mix - see how much you are out of touch

Seriously though one day I hope to meet up with Tony and compare passport stamps :-) (and I may even buy him a beer)

bitter? 8)

I shocked that i've not yet met "villain" (not sure what you rname is either?) even though she works about 50 yards from where i do. :shock:

in fact, i may have done but i don't know what she looks like, so i would be none the wiser.

hopefully meet up at a NW game soon!

I think you should card yourself Bri for such a poor showing

Woke up next to a naked female this morning...good times.

were you sleeping in a coffin? :winkold:

I reckon I'm up at 25 + now

are you trying to show off?

Rantin, Dont _do _it_ Doug and Richard.

you've been absent for a bit, Wendy (is it Wendy or am i totally confused?).

where have you been hiding?