bannedfromHandV

I'd hazard a guess that the majority of our 1st XI is on circa 50 k

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 hazard a guess that the majority of our 1st XI is on circa 50 k

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....

In the absence of us signing the player we should always have signed in the first place, Darren Bent, I would hope we try and buy the player we should have bought second.......

Daniel Sturridge.

Young, hungry, and has it in abundance !!.

The issue is that over the last few months, Ancelotti has started to blood him slowly but surely. However, the signing of Torres could change that is a millisecond.

Bog off Heskey, keep Carew and Delf. Gabby as the hold up player (rotating with Carew where necessary) , Sturridge as the goalscorer, blooding Delf along the way - and we would be virtually there up front for the next 6 yrs !

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.

OK, I realise that he is a cheating, dirty bad sport, but I would love Villa to sign Michael Ballack. Yes he is a right tool, but his presence and ability to dominate midfield, as well as score the odd goal, would be brilliant for our midfield.

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 hope the fixture *cough* computer *cough* (does anyone actually think the fixtures are random any more?)

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 think loans between teams in the same division should be stopped.

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.

Shows that the manager does tend to know best!

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.

None ot these any improvement on Zat.

: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?

Go on then I'd go:

Friedel

Young Cuellar Dunne Warnock

Downing Milner Petrov Young

Carew Gabby.

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!

I'm a none of the above as my rationale for a successful season is simple.

Qualification for a European place CL or Uefa whether by league position or winning a cup

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.

I'm a none of the above as my rationale for a successful season is simple.

Qualification for a European place CL or Uefa whether by league position or winning a cup

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.

Now that the League Cup has gone, either the FA Cup, or 5th place and above.

No cups and 7th place = time for a rethink at the top I reckon.

What does that mean?

There are just too many options in that poll!!

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:

Whoops clicked wrong box.

Can you take mine out of winning the FA Cup, and put it in the win the cup and top 7 finish !.

Personally, I'd put another one in

Top 4 - or , top 7 with a cup win - thats what I am looking for (although I think the backlog of fixtures is going to cost us in the end.)

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.

I'm gutted.......was kinda hoping yesterday was just a bad dream.......

This should still be a strong enough team to beat a team in the relegation zone of the league below.

Yet a near full strength side wasn't good enough to win in the original game?

Palace are only in the relegation zone due to the ten point reduction without that they would be pushing for play offs.

Tough tie this and I want the manager to pick the strongest team possible

I'm fully aware of the ten point deduction however the Championship is such that there is a fine line between the decent teams and the shit teams and the fact that Palace have lost three of their last four would suggest to me that in losing Victor Moses they would appear to have lost the defining factor which held them slightly above that fine line of being decent instead of shit.

They're now shit.

Can't believe so many are considering Davies!

I think the lad will come good but to throw him in against a Championship side could cost us and potentially wreck his confidence.

"but to throw him in..."

I'm sorry to rain on your parade n all but we're not talking about a 19 year old who's made a couple of sub appearances here and there.

If Curtis plays tonight it will be his 200th professional career appearance.

That's more than Gabby.

I personally, for the record, would go with Clark and Davies. I personally would look to rest the entire first 11 if possible, it won't happen but if it were to this is the side I would go for:

Guzan

L. Young Clark Davies Bouma

Albrighton (if fit) Sidwell Salifou Delph

Delfouneso Wiemann/Collins

Choose subs from a selection of the Reserves and youth players to include Gary Gardner.

This should still be a strong enough team to beat a team in the relegation zone of the league below.