CrackpotForeigner

General, I don't know if this issue has been discussed much on here, but I noticed these in the Matchday thread:

So i guess 2nd half we were good too right? I saw the first half and I was just smiling all the time as I felt it was going really well, great performance.

My mate got kicked out of the ground just on half time for standing up, I didnt want to leave him waiting outside on his own for the coach so went out and thought I would see it on TV in a pub but noooo.

Was a great day out and fantastic to see a hammering being dished out from our boys.

That happened to me and my mates against Pompey. We got kicked out by about 30 stewards and coppers for the crime of standing up on a back row in the lower Witton Lane, rebels eh!? No wonder the atmosphere is shit.

Obviously we don't know the circumstances, but I hope the stewards are not being heavy-handed.

Nothing spoils the enjoyment of something more than being at the mercy of officious busybodies, whether they're poorly-recruited nightclub bouncers, poorly-recruited policemen or poorly-recruited match stewards.

I know that if I were kicked out of the stadium for anything but actual antisocial behaviour, it would leave a very bad taste, and I probably wouldn't be back for quite a while. Why should people face a scolding when they pay to watch the team they support?

I stress that I don't know anything about the circumstances mentioned in these posts, but clearly people are feeling aggrieved. Seeing as the stewards are the public face of the club on matchdays, I hope Aston Villa are doing everything they can to employ stewards who try to send everyone home happy (rather than just throw their own weight around).

I don't think we had the whole world to choose one, once you cut out players that aren't good enough to help us break into the top 4, players who aren't interested in joining villa and players that weren't for sale you probably aren't looking at a huge list.

From what we hear from the two players we tried to sign zaki and downing for around £25 million in january but their clubs weren't prepared to sell them, i think it's a safe to assume that there were probably others who were either not interested or unavailable at the time.

Heskey wasn't the greatest signing in the world but he was a physical prescence that we lacked while carew was injured. I also remember a lot of comments before that january about how poor we were playing using 4-5-1 and how we were getting very lucky and we needed to bring in a striker.

It hasn't worked out and it will go down as a poor signing from MON but i don't believe that last january we could have signed the quality that would have pushed us into 4th and instead chose heskey.

That, to me, says everything that needs to be said about the Heskey signing.

^^^

Good post srs. Hey, it could be worse, we could be in England and enjoying experiences like this:

Crap queue inside ground for food and drink, crap view of the game - too low down and near corner, couldn't see the goalposts/net at all without really leaning forward - couldn't see Ash's goal. Crap , same old, same old performance - their pen surely was not but, it seemed, Bennett may have realised the error of his ways and handed us a dubious pen to balance the books - fans went wild but Ash steps up to take it, just knew it would be saved -it was. Ash then gets a great goal apparently (not that I could see it) and then after that, same old same old again - we do nothing, they come more and more into it and you just knew what was going to happen - sure enough it did. Absolutely appalling journey home, held up on North circular road for over 2 hours, finally hitting the M1 at 12.40 am. So you can guess that it was after 3.00 am when I got home, miserable, having to work all day today. I just WISH we could be excited by Villa sometimes - I wish we had a striker who made you excited when he had the ball and that you felt there was at least a 50% chance he would score. We are just so dull sometimes. I also think people outside Villa rate MON more highly than some of the supporters. I heard a Liverpool fan on the radio this morning saying he wanted Rafa out and MON in, but some said why would MON be interested in leaving Villa for Liverpool anyway. I'm not slating MON here, I'm just a bit ambivalent about it all and feeling a bit bored and disenchanted with Villa at the moment - but hey, I'll be there on Sat and at Burnley on 21st hoping for an exciting and winning performance. :?

Anyway, my thoughts:

- As we all seem to agree, Heskey and Carew do not deserve to start.

- So we should play 451 with Gabby, or give the Fonz a go.

- The ref was a disgrace. Completely and utterly worse-than-useless in that game.

- MON's substitutions seem to defy logic.

- Aston Villa is not the best club for talented youngsters, seeing as we seem to stick with once-talented veterans no matter what.

But it's not SO bad because:

- The mighty Downing will be in the side soon.

- Our defense had a bad game, but MON deserves huge credit for getting Dunne and Colins in.

- With a ref like that, the game can go either way, even if you're Barcelona.

- Heskey and Carew are both one game closer to losing their places.

- We are hopefully one game closer to playing 451 in the right circumstances.

- Milner will be back soon.

I still stand by my sig...

What? Stratford is much better than Bramall?

This is an excellent thread. I was just wondering what proportion of a sample of message board posters would tend to be immune to logic and reason.

Looks like the answer is 5%

wow some strange comments in here. fascinating really how people can watch the same game but have such vastly different opinions.

Friedel - 9 - Very good game, apart from one dodgy save / clearance at end of first half he was flawless.

Cuellar - 6 - Linked up well with Milner in first half, looked poor in the second. Feel sorry he has been shunted out to right back berth as started season well

Dunne - 6 - Didnt win enough headers for me, but made some good commited tackles, looked solid.

Collins - 8 - Has looked better than Dunne so far, seems to have better distribution (some lovely cross field passes / through balls) and better in the air while being just as commited. Looks a bargain.

Warnock - 7 - Played better than last week and will get better as he settles. Impressed so far.

Sidwell - 7 - Nothing amazing from him, but we saw his usual workrate and closing down and didnt lose the ball when he had it. He stepped in up in the the latter part of the game when it looked like Pompey might conjure something.

Petrov - 8 - Looked knackered again by 70th min but held us together in the middle, lots of clever play and started most our good moves. Good to see him egging team on like a proper captain should.

Milner - 8.5 - Fast becoming my fave villa player. Much better than last week, looked our most dangerous midfielder and was showing some lovely touches. His workrate & energy level is for me best in the league.

Young - 7 - Better but still has been a while since we have seem him at his best. He needs to bulk up abit like gabby has to handle the double teaming better. His set peice delivery much better, and still had a good game overall. Has picked up an annoying habit of ignoring the obvious option / pass and trying to pick oen thats 10 times more difficult and doesnt pull it off.

Carew - 5.5 - Very poor game. Didnt seem on the same wave length as his team mates and made some poor, often baffling decisions when he had the ball at feet. Bound to be rusty though, hope its just a one off.

Gabby - 9.5 - One of the best games Ive seen him have for us. Worked his arse off, and his first touch was exceptional! His goal was a beauty and he should have had an assist wehen he crossed for Carew. This kid constantly surprises me. When he broke through I thought he'd be another Vassel. Then after a whileI thought he'd be world class. Then after the 2nd of last season I thought he would he would be mid-table quality at best, not enough for a top 4 team, now after another blistering start I think he will be great again. Good to see year on year he is still improving. Hopefully his confidence and performance wont dip like last year if he hits another drty spell.

What rubbish! "Vastly different opinions"??? I agree with your ratings completely :winkold:

(I didn't notice Petrov having quite such a good game, but other than that I couldn't agree more.)

And GABBY! We always knew he was fast, and normally a good finisher, but now he seems to be developing excellent crossing, vision, generally good passing, and his workrate is good as well. I admit I had a few doubts (which I kept to myself btw ), but now I think it's possible that he will turn into an actual WORLD CLASS player.

Hearing the Holte sing the Gabby song before kickoff couldn't have done his confidence any harm. He clearly is a confidence player. A lot of people have said how good he is in training. To me this is a sign of somebody with real talent, that will get better and better as his experience and confidence grow.

It wasn't an amazing team performance, but as many have said, if we start to play as well as it looks like we can, we will be a bloody frightening team to play against. And the brilliant Stewart Downing still to come.

Happy days!

Brian you're completely wrong on this one. Teams can still spend large sums of money BUT wages need to be paid from actual revenues. The point of the new rules are to have clubs as sustainable if a rich owner cuts off the money. So if a team gets 100 mil from an owner to spend on players that is allowed, as long as their revenues can pay the wages.

I think it's a good idea, it means clubs earnings have to service their debt too. It'll benefit Villa, we are a well run club and because of that we'll stop more City type takeovers jumping ahead of us in the league.

Firstly let me say that I don't claim to understand the proposals completely, BUT:

I think you are wrong, CVB. This proposal is about 15 years too late. The Champion's League has become a cartel. Our revenues are now miniscule compared to, say, Man Utd's. Man Utd's shirt sponsorship cost more than our CLUB ffs.

So that means we will simply not be able to compete at the top, ever, if these proposals are implemented.

Personally I would rather risk seeing a Man City overtake us than accept that we are never going to have another 1981-2 ever again. Wouldn't you rather be 3rd in a race that was still going on, than 2nd in one that was finished?

It sounds like UEFA are claiming that this will level the playing field. It will, if you think that "Level" means the clubs who have done best in the last few years should always be the most successful.

Bof, in my opinion, Petrov offers us nothing though, because Delph on the ball is just as good, Petrov doesn't get forward that well, not great defensively, whoopedy doo, he can pass a ball to a decent started, but he's no Gareth Barry. 4-5-1, He's fine because other people help get forward and defend, but in a 4-4-2, he doesn't do anything that others can't.

I agree up to a point. Obviously Petrov has a lot to offer in the right situation, but Delph really has amazing ability. He is the long term replacement for Petrov imo. And some replacement he will be.

Can I ask how crazy a midfield diamond would be with Delph forward and NRC behind? With hard working wingers like Milner and AY, it could work very well if we MUST play two strikers.

Cuellar 6 A couple of bad mistakes early on, anonymous later

Loved reading through this thread, but am baffled how our CB who witheld attack after attack during the game could be classed as anonymous.

That was me, btw. I resisted the temptation to see what others wrote before rating the players. This was just my impression. But being anonymous is not necessarily a bad thing for a defender!

It would be great to be totally un-anonymous (!) in a Martin Laursen way, but failing that I'll take anonymous every time.

I do like Cuellar, and I didn't mean to have a go at him. He did get done a couple of times early on, though.

Maybe I mis-rated Cuellar, but I was spot on with all the others

Shorey's corner for Davis's goal was absolutely brilliant. The player we sold to Man City was really not very good at corners imo. Glad we got rid

Friedel 8 Brilliant after early fumble, if only he could catch

Beye 7 Nothing spectacular, but no shockers either

Cuellar 6 A couple of bad mistakes early on, anonymous later

Davies 9 MOTM Those shoulder steroids did the trick

Shorey 7 Some dodgy moments, but goal line clearance and good on the ball

Milner 7 Usual hard working performance, without doing anything spectacular this time.

NRC 8 Some great tackling as expected, and some unexpected good passes.

Petrov 7.5 Composed, reliable and some great interceptions

Sidwell 7 Some very timely touches, and generally looking a more confident player.

Young 7.5 Great free kick, brilliant penalty, but his usual failure to pass when surrounded by three players. Should have scored from late chance.

Gabby 7 Didn't do much as a striker, but won lots of corners and put in some good crosses. Never had great service to be fair.

Heskey 7 Did well, usual competent display, usual lack of goals

i think our rivals have strengthened a lot more than we have so far - of cource this could change before 31st

but as of now we have slipped behind 1 or 2 in terms of quality and depth so i think 8-10th this season

I'd say the top four are weaker this year.

Chelsea - Pensioners

ManU - No Ronaldo

Liverpool - No man to pull the strings

Arsenal - Lost best defender and striker (debatable)

Everton will probably lose Lescott, weakening them.

If you want to count Spurs as a rival, then i'd say theyve remained the same.

Man City are probably the only team thats strengthened, Sunderland too but i dont see them as a rival.

This.

We are stronger this year, imo. Downing and Delph are both Young/Milner calibre signings. Laursen is a big miss, but we are going to have a LOT of threat in attack, especially with the awesome prospect of Albrighton's crosses thrown into the mix.

If the transfer window shut tomorrow I'd still fancy our chances of improving on last season. Some of the crap written on this thread is quite unbelievable.

Would like to see Curtis and Carlos start both games at centre half, see how they get on as a partnership.

Whaddaya mean BOTH games? You mean all four, I think

OK, cheers Yillan. General, I'll assume that latecomers like me can still send messages to

postbag@avfc.co.uk

Hi General,

Further to Phumfeinz and nik986's posts:

Is there anywhere we can leave "Thanks and all the best"- type messages for Laursen?

It's not like Villa fans to agree on anything, but we pretty much all agree that he was a fantastic player and a great guy. We miss him, and some of us, I think, would like to show our appreciation for the way he played and generally conducted himself during his time at the club. A lap of honour round VP doesn't do enough, in my opinion, especially for those of us who are overseas!

I read that Lichaj has a monster throw like Delap. This true?

James Milner hates people replacing his name with chuck norris in many quotes.

James Milner hates people telling other people what he hates.

Oh. Ooops.

James Milner is W*nk

Gosh, what an amazingly funny, clever, insightful, accurate, helpful and well-explained comment.

James Milners ready to play in 4 positions at once in our preseason games.

8)

Thank god. I thought our squad was looking a little thin for a moment there.

James Milner is not impressed with the ad for Tennis Manager at the bottom of this page.

Tennis Manager ffs.

How 'bout we stay in the FA cup, then? And beat Chelsea as well, obvously

A better option, but how about we get a point against Chelsea and stay in both cups?

Difficult brstard. 8)

No deal. Let the cards fall as they may.

I think that going out of both cups would be far too high a price to pay for 3 points particularly as the effect of doing so on our confidence would be likely to also cost us points after the Chelsea win.

The odds of us ending the season outside the top 4 and without a trophy would be much higher if all we had left to play for was a top 4 place.

Maybe, but playing in both cups is surely too many games.

How 'bout we stay in the FA cup, then? And beat Chelsea as well, obvously

We really need to be finishing 3rd or better, not 4th. How are we going to sign top players if we could so easily go out in the TWO qualifying rounds before CL proper.

Beating Chelsea would be a huge step towards 3rd or better. We can go for it in the cups when we have packed the squad with quality signings attracted by the CL.

The UEFA cup is just too many games for too little glory imo. Doesn't even get you into the CL.

Obviously a win in either cup would be great, but getting CL football is more important, and we can't do both...or can we?

The words are:

There's only one Emile Heskey

One Emile Heskey

He played for the shite

But now he's alright

Walkin in a Heskey wonderland

But they were sining He used to be shite, not happy about that personally

Agree, why would you knock the player in his own song?

Cmon Holte Enders, it's "Played for the shite"

Get your votes in for Heskey, Villa fans. Only 128 more needed.