ColonelBlimp

Even I wouldn't wish Allardyce on you.

What are you after? Someone who can get you promoted this season so FFP is a non issue?

Or someone to give you a style but might take 2 or 3 years to get there, maybe utilising more of the youth in your ranks to keep costs down?

I don't think the manager who ticks both boxes is out there.

Has Henry got his badges?

If he picks the right team to help him I reckon it could work, he's an intelligent guy.

Steve Bould is well respected isn't he? Plus you'd have the 'Lampard effect' whereby he would be able to attract the players he wants and have the pick of the loanees from Arsenal amongst others.

Just now, Jareth said:

Can't get to it here but TheTrees who used to plane spot Randy's jet says on Twitter Henry's only coming if Wenger is DOF. Not sure how he knows this from working in an airport...

You think Henry and Wenger's wages would keep you within FFP or don't they count towards it?

1 hour ago, John said:

Did you put in a buy back clause like that when you sold Tom Ince and Will Hughes? Thanks for your considered opinion from all at cloud cuckoo land.

Nope, by the time we get there they'll have retired!

Anyway, just a reminder, I don't come on here to troll or anything, i have skin in the Villa game as it were. My eldest son (25) is a Villa fan and I have accompanied him a few times in the Holte End of your crumbling but magnificent stadium.

29 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Hello colonel. Long time no see. Remember what I said Derby always bottle it and you got all worked up? 

Anyway you are probably right about Grealish. 20m is about right. 

Pretty sure i didn't get worked up about that, only the erm 'Formatting' issue.  I'm pretty sure i expected us to tank in February/March as usual.

oh and hello    

getting £40 million for Grealish? Cloud cuckoo land.

If you get £20m plus add-ons consider yourselves fortunate. Might be worth inserting a buy back clause though if you get back to the Premier League in the next 5 years.

Well, my son has successfully got his play-off ticket so i hope he enjoys the big day out.

I wish you well, i'm sure it will be a cracking game of football. 

i think the bookies have you as slight favourites don't they? I don't think it means very much anyway.

In 2007, West Brom were favourites and yet despite being outplayed the whole match, we beat them.

In 2014 Derby were favourites and dominated the game, yet we lost.

The point? Don't stress about it, enjoy the day. It's a Cup Final at Wembley after all

Evening all! Been a while since I accurately predicted Derby's fall down the table, quite a few pages back.

Nice to see Tuesday v Cardiff has given you an outside chance of 2nd and bolstered our confidence as well, all good.

Those stats giving you a 1/100 chance? Stats don't lie but this is when players get nervous and anything is possible, I'm sure if you go back a few years you'll see plenty of teams failing at the last when the pressure is on so you have to keep putting it on.

Tomorrow is not the game to rest players, not while there's a glimmer. Last game maybe.

I think you'll beat us tomorrow and I don't think Cardiff will beat Hull, work out what you need from there, last day of the season could be a belter!

The boy will be in the Holte tomorrow with his mate so I hope it goes well.

If we beat Barnsley we should just squeak in 6th, after that, playoffs are a lottery.

I think Fulham will do it and I hope they do, them and Wolves are too classy.

So, hopefully, Cardiff v Derby and Boro v Villa, which may bring the final nobody in our house wants, Rams v Villa.

Even then, anything can happen, just look how one sided the 06/07 final was, and yet....

Good luck!

1 hour ago, Deisler123 said:

I found this forum accidentally and at that time I wasn't a Villa fan. I didn't come on here to troll or be provocative, same as you. 

Then when I came here every single day to talk to people, I technically became a Villa fan.

I can see you are being converted, without you noticing that. 

You do know that you cannot convert a football fan right?  Good/Bad, Success/Failure, Joy and Sadness, these trials and tribulations are what it's all about. 

Doesn't mean you can't like other clubs though, and i quite like Villa. 

I despise Leicester though, more so than Forest who are more deserving of sympathy given the state of them.

Oh, and Demitri, each to their own eh? I quite like browsing other teams forums, particularly after a game against them, to see how they view it. Can get a bit insular otherwise, unbalanced.

LTLF, the Forest forum is always funny though, for me. 

37 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Hook, line and sinker!

Is it true you have gone 24 games without a defeat? Pretty impressive.

Ive only see you against us and you were the better team on the day although we were on a bad run and really missing a stable back 4.

Bugger. Noob error. Like a Keogh slip at Wembley.

31 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I agree. Not enough leaders in your team. You'll bottle it as always. 

utter tripe, particularly this season,as i tried to explain. You think Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone, Joe Ledley are bottlers?

Which particular season did we bottle it? How does that team compare to the current one? Researched it or just made a pointless comment to garner some likes?

Or just prodding me for a response? I can take it.

40 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Nice, although from where i'm sitting you are still very much dangerous in my opinion.

Tell me the same thing when we have a 9 point gap with 3 games to go and I may just believe you. This league is going to be very tight this season.

Yourself (If you're representing Derby) and Fulham are just as much in with a shout for 2nd as us.

However, I disagree with your logic that we can attract better players cause of our parachute payments. 

- FFP rules have not allowed us to really do any big business this season unless it's loans or free signings. Steve Bruce was given a transfer kitty of £1m in the summer - hardly going to bring Sergio Aguero here now is it .

Steve Bruce has also had to offload in a large quantity to enable us to bring any type of quality in, whether they be sold or loaned out off the wage bill, and what he has achieved combined if we make 2nd then that in itself he deserves manager of the season for imo, so it's not like we will have 'brought 2nd place' but more managerially master minded on a shoe string budget with astute quality, sensible signings.

Hopefully the quality will prevail.

To clarify, all clubs in this division have to sell to buy, unless you're Wolves. What i'm really saying is that you have greater pulling power. As for manager of the season? Not Bruce, look lower down to Burton/Bolton/Brentford. Wasn't that long ago a good chunk of you wanted Bruce out and Dean Smith in.

1-0 to you lot. We are also in a bad run of form and have some injuries to key players.

Me and the boy are coming up for this one, in the home end. 

My turn to squirm as we did the opposite at PP back when you had RdM and we had Pearson. No surprise it was a dull 0-0.

Guys Guys Guys (and Gals)

Calm down a bit eh, enough of the wrist slashing. 

You've got good players, you have a good manager. All you have at the moment is a bad run of form. Every club in this league has it, there's 46 games. Have a look through every club's results and, maybe apart from the top 3, all have had runs of 5 or 6 games where it appears the wheels have fallen off.

I know this, I'm a Derby fan, happens every year.

You'll scrape a win in the next week or two, then a draw, then a win and so on.

50 points is the accepted cut-off target for staying up in this league, you will get 14 more points easily.

If you could just start collecting them from sunday onwards I'd appreciate it, ta.

My first go at this, hope it's done correctly. Good luck to all. Come On You Rams!!

1 hour ago, NoelVilla said:

Loved this stadium on my visit. We are not a finished article yet and Derby is quite good so not lose is what I guess but hope for a win.

Have to disagree with the quite good bit. Pearson hasn't settled on his favourite formation yet and the players are struggling to adjust after 3 seasons with 4-3-3.

We haven't bought anyone either yet, he's still assessing the squad.

I would take a draw right now.

Me and my son, who is a villa fan, are coming up from Sussex for this, his birthday present to me and yes, he will be in the enemy end, south stand upper, sshhh!

12 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

What?

Are you talking about villa or Derby?

Both. I'm saying someone like Barton would be a good fit for Villa in the short term. I'm saying Pritchard would also be good but maybe not at 8m. I'm saying that depending on how RDM plays then you could do worse than look at taking back Wiemann or going for Russell etc. I'm saying, as a Derby fan, that we don't know if Pearson is going 4-4-2 or not, historically he has. Derby haven't played that way for a long time. We use 4-3-3 with Martin as the 'pivot' If we go 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 then attacking players become available for purchase.

Will you play a system that requires wingers? Overlapping fullbacks? Pack the midfield? One up front? a front 3? Variations of 4-2-3-1 as at Chelsea? or 4-5-1 as at WBA?

Could Kozak be your pivot? Could Gestede? 

Pritchard has been excellent for Brentford and would probably make the step up to Premier League. Worth a punt at 6m, though 8m is a push.

Hughes owes us a full season and he's Prem quality all over so it'll be a final season at Derby and move to a Prem club if we don't go up.

Trouble is, at the moment none of us have any idea of which formations RDM or Pearson are going to play do they? We have been 4-3-3 for ages but Pearson's history suggests 4-4-2 which would mean we would be looking to move on a couple of wide forwards like Blackman/Weimann/Camara/Russell etc.

Haven't seen any mention of Alan Judge on here yet, another one maybe worth a punt.

Getting an older DM like Barton is definitely the way to go, he made the difference for Burnley. Not sure how many like him are around though.