bannedfromHandV

Is this a serious question? I should imagine Mascherano will be setting his sights a little higher than Villa big chief. Though whilst we're on the subject, would anyone take Torres and Gerrard?

ok then so you'd rather risk losing the best young striker in the country? What we pay him now makes no difference to whether he stays or goes. If he's attracting attention in 2 years we'll offer him the money then. Paying it him now when no-one's particularly interested is madness. if he leaves in 2 years and his reason is "Villa didn't pay me £50k a week for the past 2 years" then he can **** off anyway. Well I've seen reports recently saying that Everton will offer Jack Rodwell 50k per week and he's the same age as Delfouneso and a lot less potential imo, it's called looking after your best assets or risk losing them It's actually reported in the mirror (best actual link, so hardly concrete) that it's £25,000 a week, and he also has played 47 games for Everton and 11 for England under 21's, so Delfouneso is less experienced than Rodwell. apologies, I thought it was 50k, I never said he didn't have more experience, I said Delfouneso has more potential which he does No, he really doesn't. Jack Rodwell can play in central defence, at full back, in a holiding role, in central midfield, in the hole and probably up top too, he can tackle, pass, score goals, win the ball in the air and hasn't looked out of place once since making his name. He's also scored big goals in big games. Jack Rodwell has all the attributes.

I'd argue against that. A.Young Agbonlahor Carew Outside of that I can't think of anyone else that would be on circa 50K, unless when you say circa you mean anything within 25k.... no I meant around 45k-60k , I'd put my life on Dunne, Petrov and Heskey being on those wages Shall agree to disagree as we'll never know........

I'd argue against that. A.Young Agbonlahor Carew Outside of that I can't think of anyone else that would be on circa 50K, unless when you say circa you mean anything within 25k....

How can you say "Sturridge as the goalscorer"? Yet another example of the myth becoming bigger than the man through not actually kicking a ball..........he's barely played and certainly has not shown himself to be a proven goalscorer! A good looking prospect yes but to expect him to score 20 odd goals a season based on what he's achieved thus far is ludicrous.

I agree he'd be a good signing, i bet he's on stupid money at Chelsea though. Shame KP Boateng crocked him the other day, because he's angry at the Germans. He's a free agent this summer, unless he signs a new contract with Chelsea. I think he wants to stay though and they'll probably offer him a new deal. I think it's not too unreasonable to assume that Herr Ballack will have bigger fish to fry than Aston Villa.

I think they're as random as they can be aren't they? My understanding of it is that they randomly generate a set of fixtures then liaise with local authorities and police etc to determine any changes to the fixtures to help with motorway and street traffic congestion, not to mention of course the obvious examples where Spurs and Arsenal, Villa and Blose, Liverplop and Everton etc cannot be at home on the same day. It's quite a deep process though when you think about it, they have to ensure for example that Villa and Blose don't both play away in London on the same day, all kinds of shit, pretty complex little project I'd imagine each summer.

Stephen Carr Does anyone else genuinely think this guy might actually be imbalanced, I don't mean this as a joke but as a serious point. I've thought this for a while now but Sunday just confirmed it for me, not even really his gesturing toward us in the Lower North but his all round demeanour, he's got the mannerisms and body language of a psycho, someone with way too much nervous energy, the type who might just go a little too far one day and set fire to the nearest large object, just for funnies. The gesturing on Sunday was the icing on the cake but the guys a loon and probably shouldn't be allowed out in public let alone playing professional football. I really would love to know if he's ever been evaluated and what the outcome of the evaluation was, my thoughts would be a danger to himself and others.

I agree

Manchester City have multiple goalkeepers on their books. Manchester City also have a reserve and youth team, what is the point in having a reserve and youth team if not for back up to the first team players, are they trying to say they literally have no other goalkeeper available? That this Nielsen guy has, for the past few months been both reserve and youth goalkeeper, I think not. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a travesty if they're allowed to sign someone and/or force Hart back, but it would be another sign of how weak the Premier League actually is, particularly in the face of super rich arabs.

It really, really doesn't. He signed Dunne becasue Distin chose Everton. Don't forget he only signed Milner becuase Bentley chose to go to spurs. Great signings granted, but lets not get ahead of oursleves. People really do think he is a genius don't they? :shock: And you actually KNOW this to be true, beyond all reasonable doubt? I find that hard to believe sorry.

:oops: :oops: To be fair I might have said the same!

The trouble for me is if we finished fourth I would not be confident of progressing into the actual Champs Lge proper, they've made it particularly tough now I believe in the qualifying matches and it's likely that you'll come up against someone of comparative quality.

3-1 Villa, Gabby brace and a rare pearler from Stan....

Janes Addiction - Been Caught Stealing

I think it'll be a draw, 2-2 again though IMO if anyone's going to win then it's more likely to be them......we never really got to grips with them in last seasons fixture and I fear the same might occur again. I wonder how important us letting them score that 3rd goal in the 93rd minute last year has actually been for them and their development?

Why, when it's become patently clear that we use Cuellar at right back primarily for games against sides who go for a direct/physical approach, would we change it and bring in Young for a game against Stoke, the new architects of the direct/physical approach? I think if all are fit it's fairly obvious that Collins, Cuellar and Dunne will all play, and rightly so too with them fooking throw-ins!

Would that not fall into the 'finishing top seven with a good cup run' option then? I know top 7 doesn't guarantee you entry into Europe but it's likely each season that the League Cup and FA Cup will be won by members of the top 6 in the Prem, hence 7th qualifies for Europe? Purely because 7th doesn't guarantee it. Exactly. For 7th to get a Europa spot the League Cup winners AND both FA Cup finallists would have to finish in the top 6. 1999–2000 Chelsea 1–0 Aston Villa FA Cup 2000–01 (1) 2000–01 Liverpool 2–1 Arsenal FA Cup 2001–02 (1) 2001–02 Arsenal 2–0 Chelsea FA Cup 2002–03 (1) 2002–03 Arsenal 1–0 Southampton FA Cup 2003–04 (1) 2003–04 Manchester United 3–0 Millwall FA Cup 2004–05 (1) 2004–05 Arsenal †0–0 † Manchester United FA Cup 2005–06 Liverpool †3–3 † West Ham United FA Cup 2006–07 (1) 2006–07 Chelsea †1–0 * Manchester United FA Cup 2007–08 (1) 2007–08 Portsmouth 1–0 Cardiff City FA Cup 2008–09 (1) 2008–09 Chelsea 2–1 Everton 2000 Leicester City 2–1 Tranmere Rovers 2001 Liverpool † †1–1 *[A] Birmingham City 2002 Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Tottenham Hotspur 2003 Liverpool 2–0 Manchester United 2004 Middlesbrough 2–1 Bolton Wanderers 2005 Chelsea †3–2 † Liverpool 2006 Manchester United 4–0 Wigan Athletic 2007 Chelsea 2–1 Arsenal 2008 Tottenham Hotspur †2–1 † Chelsea 2009 Manchester United † †0–0 * Tottenham Hotspur 2010 Manchester United 2–1 Aston Villa Not exactly that unlikely though is it, thanks.

Would that not fall into the 'finishing top seven with a good cup run' option then? I know top 7 doesn't guarantee you entry into Europe but it's likely each season that the League Cup and FA Cup will be won by members of the top 6 in the Prem, hence 7th qualifies for Europe?

The poll has so far confirmed what I thought anyway which is that, in my opinion, 50% of our fans are quite realistic whereas about 20% are living on another planet and a further 20% are setting themselves up for disappointment - in my opinion, just because I've written this doesn't make it so, I could be wrong but the poll results thus far don't lie. 50% of people have gone for option 6 or 7 which is actually the most realistic one and is the one that at least guarantees us a shot at playing in Europe most seasons which should be our aim ultimately. Now bear in mind that the point of the poll was to try and get at what people expect, as a base requirement for our targets to be, anything below that would therefore be a failure, and so 20% of people have gone for options 1,2 and 3. To have expectations of winning the league is farcical, to EXPECT the club to qualify for the Champions Lge is just setting yourself up for disappointment, paticularly in a time when we're competing genuinely with 4 or 5 teams for 1 or 2 places, and all of those other teams have an advantage over us bar Everton who you would like to think we are a more attractive proposition than. To EXPECT the club to win either the League or FA Cup is, in my opinion, ridiculous. To expect to win a Cup is like expecting to win a bet on the horses every single time - it just won't happen and to expect as such each season is just setting yourself up for intense disappointment unnecessarily. For all those who voted for the last option, I'd be intrigued as to what you're expectations are, I felt as though I'd kinda covered all the bases with the options but perhaps not? This isn't meant to make anyone's opinion out as being wrong, afterall the poll is anonymous and we each have no idea of who has voted for which option, but with around 50% of people EXPECTING us to either lift a cup or the league or qualify for the Champs Lge each season it should indicate just how difficult a job MoN actually has in satisfying everyone, I would suggest that there isn't a manager in the world right now that could come in to the club and satisfy everyone.

What does that mean?

I wanted to try and cover all the angles, otherwise you end up with people moaning that their preference isn't an option etc...... Who'd have thought being thorough would back-fire on me!? :oops:

That option is already in there big chief?

I wonder what actually does constitute a successful season for you? I mean this of course from a claret and blue point of view and not in wider footballing terms. For me at the moment it's finishing top 7 with a good crack at at least one of the cups, which we have already achieved, finishing above SHA is mandatory whilst having players in the England squad can be an indication of your clubs stature though perhaps not as pertinent as in years gone by. For me, it feels sometimes on here and amongst our fans in general that there is a real lack of realism in expectations almost to the point of delusion, but is it actually that my expectations are ridiculously low? Is it wrong for me to consider finishing top 7 as being successful? I don't know, but hopefully a nice little poll might just help to see where we're all at in terms of our genuine expectations. Please keep in mind that this is a poll for actual expectations not hopes or aspirations, and I am aware that more than one of the options would constitute success but which one most applies to what you would like to expect to happen each August, thanks.