BG_Villa_Fan

What a complete asshole Glaston is wow! So typical, it's disgusting. And then they wonder why people hate their club...duh!

I don't think Video replay during games would be a good idea, however, I'm all for using it for retrospective punishment. Bans for obvious dives or deliberate handballs, etc. should be harsh. As for the gametime, I really like the idea of having 2 aditions refs behind the penalty areas, like they're experimenting in this year's UEFA cup. From what I've seen it works great and makes a lot of sense, but then I guess these are reasons why UEFA will actually decide not to use it.

Way to make up a random stat to support your claim, despite multiple sources of evidence. You really can't argue with that :?

^ Nope, never said Bent wouldn't improve us, I said he wouldn't be the difference between finishing 6th or 4th, and thus not worth the price tag, assuming Harry would deal with us at all. Also, I've never said that the 10 or 15 M would be better off in the bank, since all evidence points to the fact we've never had this sum available on top of our other spendings.

but you see, thats bollox every potential signing, is possibly one who can be the difference between 7th or 6th on their own no player can lift a club from 6th to 4th single handedly this is where you need to look at a bigger picture, and think "well, if we bring him in it allows for carew and agbonlahor to dip in form a bit and us to still have a potential goal threat", which in itself isnt worth **** all. but add it to the new defensive line we signed and that young chap from leeds and that guy from boro whos injured at the minute do they all add up to a potential jump of more than one spot? i think they do, coz it covers ALL the positions that needed attention especially when you consider that delph is under 20, and downing and bent are both under 26 Fair enough, but IMO the young chap from Leeds and the guy from Boro, who's injured will not be able to put us in the same bracket as the top 4, at least not in the next couple of seasons. We lack quality and we're not in the financial position to attract that quality. Two players have proven to be able to lift a club from around 6th do 3/4th , see Liverpool. We don't have anyone that good, Bent is nowhere near as good and the collective signings' improvement is not good enough to send us there.Not yet.

You're right, of course, but I'm sure Randy is also far better equipped being 15M richer. You see, the difference of having someone like Bent in the squad is not the difference between finishing 6th or 4th, more likely , at best, it'd be the difference between finishing 7th or 6th, which is not worth the investment. That is, if Harry was into doing business with us at all. yes, having a player who regularly scores 15 to 20 goals per season would not improve us and we are far better off having the 10 million Bent cost, in the bank. in the league he has played 214 and scored 104, just under a goal per game. I haven't said anything remotely close to what you're implying...

You're right, of course, but I'm sure Randy is also far better equipped being 15M richer. You see, the difference of having someone like Bent in the squad is not the difference between finishing 6th or 4th, more likely , at best, it'd be the difference between finishing 7th or 6th, which is not worth the investment. That is, if Harry was into doing business with us at all.

I wonder where these expectations come from? Since we last won the league, we've had a couple of decent 2nd place finishes, other than that we've generally been around the top 8, but also had a relegation and a few low-mid table finishes. O'Neill, by Villa's recent standards, is doing an above average job. Then consider that he's also come to us in the era where any team not playing regular champions league football is massively handicapped from the off, so I'd say he's doing a great job. I can't remember too much of the football we played before Taylor's first reign, and I was too young to make a judgment on it anyway. But apart from Big Ron's team, most of the recent sides have played some pretty dire stuff a lot of the time - DOL was the worst I've seen, Gregory and Little's sides were great on their day but too often sent me to sleep and both really struggled to score goals. My enduring memory is endless low scoring draws. By Villa standards, I'd say O'Neill's team fit right into expectations. Basically, based on the size of our club and resources and the current benefits enjoyed by the CL clubs, I would expect Villa to be competing regularly in the top 8, anything better would be something special. I don't agree with everything he does, but I think O'Neill is doing as well as can be expected. My thoughts exactly.

Where exactly does this 'spent too much to not be in top 4' approach comes from? We haven't spent nearly as much as the top 4 clubs, and we've started from a much lower base to begin with. Let's list the team with the most expensive MON signings ( rough numbers ) : Friedel - 3M Young - 6M Cuellar - 8M Davies - 10M Warnck - 7M Young - 10M Milner - 12M Petrov - 7M NRC - 8M Carew - 6M ( swap deal, assumed price ) Heskey - 3M ( instead of Gabby ) A grand total of about 80 mil. Meanhile, let's take Man C, for example : Robinho - 35M Tevez - 25M Lescott - 24M ...enough, that's already more than our most expensive 11 in 3 players. Just about a year ago Man U spent a fortune on two totally unproven serbian youngsters ( about 17 million if i remember correctly ). And I'm not even going to start talking about wages because we might be in the bottom half of the Premiership table in that department. So how come people would accuse the manager of not being good enough to take us into top 4, when he has to work on a much much smaller budget, and has started from a ridiculously low point to boot, compared to these teams. I think people are just too impatient and unrealistic in their expectations.

Yea, thought so. Is it safe to conclude that you've never had anything good to say about any Villa squad and manager you've watched? No, is the answer to your question. Wouldn't be a Villa fan for some 40 years and counting if i thought that. Rather than spending the next 20 minutes telling you which Villa squad and managers i did admire, please refer to AlienVillan's post! True martyrs, the two of you. I've always enjoyed being a Villa fan, there's more to it than winning every weekend. The need to slag off everyone from your supposedly favorite team is alien to me, but fair enough.

How ironic, words escape me.

Yea, thought so. Is it safe to conclude that you've never had anything good to say about any Villa squad and manager you've watched?

What a load of bollocks 'Stevo.' We would be in the same predicament as Liverpool, in the top four, but no chance of winning the league, as our present squad is just as bad as Liverpool's. There's is maybe slightly better as they have Benayoun, Mascherano, Johnson, Carragher and Kuyt. We have, well, imm, Young and thats it. The rest of our players come under the headline, Distinctly Average! So, you only rate Young,yet in the thread about selling Young you said : 'I would sell him for less than 24m. He is too limited in his play and too easy to stop!' Surely a contradiction. Do you actually have anything good to say about anyone at the Villa?

IMO this was because we didn't use him properly and Citeh aren't either. Again, IMO, I would love to see Barry in a Plop type set up with a DCM (Mascherano/Essien type) plus an attacking CM (Gerrard or Lampard type) with GB as the playmaker (Alonso or Pirlo type). I think that this would be the optimal formation for Gareth. This is not the optimal, this is the only position he thrives in. He's nowhere near the level of Gerrard, Torres, Alonoso, etc.

agreed Voted for Southers. Laursen would be my 2nd pick Totally agree and said much the same earlier in the thread. Southgate comes second only to McGrath in the list of defenders I've seen in our colours, superb player. yep. I think the fact that it looks like he isn't going to make it into the first 11 in our team is a sad indictment on us fans. Before condemning all Villa fans take a look at what the poll is about. I doubt you would have liked Southgate's contributions to Villa in this decade. Mellberg represents the 00's for Villa,and not just the defensive line. If not for him we would have been in the fizzy pop league. Excellent and underrated player due to the cack he was surrounded with. True legend.

Milner works very hard and I think he's wonderful, but Ash is a match winner and he's shining in our team because we're severely lacking the type of players who make things happen out of nowhere. I'd compare Milner to Barry - both excellent players, who work hard and help a team, but then you need players like Ash to work their magic. Bottomline, there are way more players who work hard than players who are match winners.

I'd never even consider changing the colours, we're the original claret and blue, however, the new badge is terrible.

Agree with most of this bar the extreme hatred towards Crouch. Crouch should of been bought and just used in the reserves until he was ready for Premiership football at a big club IMO. But the team should of been built around Juan Pablo, the best thing DOL did was notice this and get him back to somehwere near his best. The man was class and could of been playing in the champions league, we **** his career up and he never complained - and was just a gentleman about it. The same goes for Mellberg, he had 2-3 seasons where he could of been playing in the champions league when we looked like doing absolutely **** all, but thats another topic. I wish Juan was still here, even if it was just as cover - but I guess after his loyal service he couldnt be denied the chance for one last pay day and to be a hero and score regular goals again. I agree wholeheartedly! Mellberg and Angel were the two bright spots on a very bad team in a very dark period.They both could have left but sticked to Villa because they loved the club and I will forever be grateful to them. Both heroes, without them we would have been playing championship football. Also you could argue anything about Angel's ability, but you can't question his desire and his love for the club. That's good enough for me as a fan.