AVFC-Prideofbrum

On Lapal's point, isn't that sort of what they did? I'm sure I read somewhere that they had took hundreds of the exact same penalties and they all knew where exactly they were going. Young was inches away from perfection, a penalty he's probably scored in training 95% of time but given the pressure and tiredness he got it just ever so slightly wrong. Young's penalty to me seemed definitely one of confidence of knowing where he was going before hand and what he wanted to do. =Cole tried to take exact same penalty as CL final and simply it wasn't as accurate. How do you explain not being as good at penalties?

It varies but friday, Chip shop as it's the only day it opens on lunch when I'm working. The rest, just try and stick to pasta/chicken etc.. I like a big lunch though as never apart odd occasion have breakfast.

Funnily enough, I just clicked on the thread about that Moroccan guy we seem to be signing. I saw a comment from Richard, 'as long as Lambert rates him then it's good enough for me.' It still hasn't sunk in yet. It shouldn't be like this!

Howdy, I hope all is well. Credit where it's due to McLeish, he's the one who's helped me most in finally laying off VT, I've only checked the main forum once since the very end of last season.

Being the last person my Grandad smiled at before he passed away with Cancer 6 years ago. Then way below that, just football really, any of; 1. being top scorer at tournament in Italy when I was 13 with teams like Juve, Inter Milan etc.. 2. Late winner, screamer away vs Man Utd under 16's 3. 7 goals vs walsall under 12's 4. winning midland com player of the year the other year voted by other managers/captains Not really achieved anything in life yet though.

Well his season finished the other day, good to see him with some great performances for Argentina in last two games. Finished with 82 goals and 34 assists in 69 games for club and country this season. Just wondering what do you think of Ballon D'Or for 2012? I know it's early yet but I saw on one bookmakers that Ronaldo is favourite, on another Messi is favourite. Surprised me a little? Has he moved any steps closer to best ever player or should that question only ever come back up in say 5 years towards the end of his best years. How do you think he'll do next season? He can't go past his goals tally that's for sure. Oh and he is becoming a father it seems, to a little boy. Who will probably always be little.

Ditto ^ Said the same before and got 'attacked' on here for saying it. He is shite and he really does not give a shit. Puts 80% effort in at most and for one excellent pass he does about 5 shit ones per game. Get rid off him. Prefer Bannan to be honest :bonk: Bannan better than Ireland. Yeah that little guy that knocks 60 yard passes to the opposition. Good call I'm no Ireland lover - imo shit is a bit extreme but so are the calls for our team to be built around him. As for Bannan Championship player at best He's our best player/most technically gifted, why would you not want to build a team around him?? Because he hasn't proven anything in Villa colours for 2 years. To build a team around such a player, it's a huge call. You said earlier about giving him no position etc..and let him roam. He has scored 1 goal and has 3 assists or something in his 2 seasons at the club! Clearly he has improved but do you put the whole teams attacking and defensive structure around a player who has yet to prove he can do it. We'd need 10 goals, 10 assists and consistently our best player over the season, is he that man? I don't know. Let's not forget his wages, we're a team trying to reduce the wage bill and build a strong competitive squad on a budget, his wages could see two really smart players in our team for example a Mark Davies and Stuart Holden wages both together would come to around what Ireland is earning by himself. I think that is something to take into account.

I hope he gets moved to right back, he's decent CM but not sure he's an all round good enough player to play there. Would have no problem in seeing him and Lichaj battle for that RB position next season witth Hutton sold/put down.

For me, Ireland is a difficult one. Clearly he is Technically a good player but the main question is, is he worth the wages he's on? If we're going to build a competitive squad on a budget we can't pay players £60 who aren't going to have a huge impact for us. 2 seasons he's been here and apart from 4/5 games, he's not shown his worth. Without doubt improved this season but still I don't think enough to warrant a status as 'key player' so to speak. I don't mind either way, I think maybe under Martinez it would be a better idea to keep him over say Lambert. If he stays, he has to be brilliant for us.

Barton is a disgrace. Balotelli is entertainment, he doesn't actually do anything that is that bad. Barton has history of assaulting people and general being a word removed. He managed to elbow someone in the face, knee someone in the back and tried to headbutt someone in the space of 1 minute and worse of it all, you just know he doesn't give a shit that he nearly let his team go down because of it and somehow thinks he's done nothing wrong at all. He's not entertainment. I hate him

Or Redknapp, O'Neill, Moyes etc...depends what examples you want to use!

Best day of the season.

West Brom really dislike us. I don't really have a problem with them, was bought up into a very heated Villa-Blues rivarly really as first seasons remember was time Blues came up so WBA never figured in my mind.

I think this and as much as I like him, I'd remove Milner for Lampard personally, not sure Milner has done enough to warrant a place and he's not good enough out wide for me. I'd maybe take Lennon as a winger also instead of one of the Arsenal duo.

Probably because he knows if Martinez goes, Wigan will most likely go down.

Gutted he's going. Love the guy and think he's a good defender to go with it. I don't see how financially we'll find a better deal. He could be a 1st choice CB on what, £30-40k a week, (on top of the fact we don't have to pay a fee for him) but instead we're going to keep both Dunne and Collins? When Dunne definitely is on more and Collins I imagine similar. We could get fee's for those two as well!?

I don't get it. He's almost turned into a Carew without the goals. For 90% of the season (both this and last) he's shit, goes down way too easy, ball bounces off him, can't control or pass a football, constantly makes bad decisions and quite frankly should never be anywhere near this standard of football. Yet last couple weeks and if you were to have never seen him play before and watched him vs Spurs yesterday, you'd have said what an excellent performance it was, determined, made sure everything both into his chest and into his feet stuck. In difficult situations where usually he'd simply lose the ball, he was turning away from a player and finding a midfield option or winning a throw in. It seems to be motivation at times, most the season, he just never looks like he wants to be there but recently, he's fighting and scraping for every ball and looks physically dominant as well as a very tidy footballer. Unfortunately, as said, you can't just do it for 3/4 games over the season. He needs to go, we all know that. Really, he hasn't give us much to be thankful for but I guess people don't really have a bad word against him as a person and hard working professional and that counts for something.

Come on Dude, get the badges!

I also really want to do it, do I deserve a go?

There is no way he can improve on his goal tally. Maybe arguable his all round performances were more consistent last year and that's an area to improve. The last 15-20 games or so has been absolutely ridiculous for goals but he struggled in the earlier parts of the season away from home. Again, only scope for improvement. Again, depending on what stats are correct, he has 28-30 assists for the season also. That's over 100 goals directly contributed from a single player. With Guardiola gone though, I don't think we'll see quite see this amount being struck again but I do think he'll level out around 50 with 20-30 assists per season. His hat-trick goal was beautiful by the way.

To be fair, I don't think it's ridiculous what he says, they've had a great season but if we were to bring in 2 very good central midfielders from wherever and a decent left back then our team is strong. Newcastle defensively in terms of individuals are weak, Williamson, Simpson, Perch/Santon I believe it's been. Collocini main stay in their team who is fantastic but the others are not great, great seasons, yes. Great defenders? No. We've seen that Cuellar Dunne Collins Warnock under the right management can equal one of the best defences in the league.... using players we have or sign etc...I don't think say Herd Cuellar Dunne and then a new left back is really any worse than what Newcastle have. Cabaye and Tiote is where Newcastle are way ahead of us, Petrov can compete to a lower level but not far behind but the rest of the players we have aren't that quality, obviously with Petrov's condition, a couple central midfielder definitely needed so we can start controlling games and also giving the defence a lot more protection. Going forward, under McLeish we are poor but with the right guidance, we can be great. Again Agbonlahor has the potential to be a very good player in this league, so does N'Zogbia, Ireland also and we all know how lethal Bent can be with the right service. Cisse is phenomenal but he's not going to score like this next season, I don't think he's a flash in the pan but I don't see him scoring 25+ premier league goals over a full season. Bent may not be as all rounded in his finishing as Cisse is like he'll never score some of the goals Cisse has been but we know Bent is a predator and can score 20 league goals if the service is right and you could even argue over time, Bent getting chances inside the 6 yard box regularly is more likely to find the net than Cisse trying his luck from distance more regularly. Including myself here, I think we all tend to overlook the ability and potential of players when we've gone through a bad season. The right manager getting the best out of each individual which is pretty much what Pardew has achieved, he's getting the maximum out of his players, not just a couple. Really, as CI says with 2/3 very strong midfielders players (hypothetically on a par with Cabaye and Tiote) and a good left back alongside players like Given, Cuellar, Dunne, Ireland, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Bent playing at their very best. Ireland creating, scoring goals, setting up attacks. N'Zogbia from Wigan, going past players, beating men scoring and creating goals. Gabby from O'Neill's reign or even the first months of this season, regularly beating players for pace, scoring 10-15 goals in a season and a prolific Bent with 20 league goals in the season, these players who do have it in their locker, can't compete with the Newcastle side we see today? because although over a consistent period of time they've been far better than us, we played them earlier in the season twice and they weren't THAT good, to me they seemed quite vulnerable defensively and won the game through a simply brilliant finish. We (again myself) are all very quick to condemn the players not being good enough like N'Zogbia, Gabby or Bent but really if we are able to get the right leader and management team in place, this Aston Villa team has plenty of potential if we are at least willing to invest £15 million or so into the squad on 3 or 4 players, as well as Brett Holman, Jean Makoun coming back.Let a few go, Heskey, one of Collins/Cuellar/Dunne and then probably one of the full backs. To do what Newcastle did or compete with the Newcastle we see right now (because I certainly don't believe they will be top 5 or so next year) then we are going to need a manager who gets the best out of players individually, as a team and a scouting team who are able to identify the best fits for the team and a board willing to invest in the squad, doesn't need huge sums but 3 players worth £5 million or so and we could improve no end on what we've seen this year. Problem lies within the fact we currently have a terrible manager, no scouting team and a board that gave the terrible manager a chance to manage and continue to manage. The start of change is with the right manager choice. Who that should be? It's hard to say, who'd have said Pardew would have done as well as he did, who thought AVB would have failed as badly as he did? Personally, I'd like to see Martinez given a go, I think he's respected, people like him and players seem to respond to him. He's worked with N'Zogbia and got the best out of him before, a player who's essential if Villa are to progress into a top 8 side. We'd pass the ball around, Makoun coming back from loan, Stephen Ireland already in the squad, a lot of young players at Villa who are footballers more so than physical brutes. His biggest cock up's do seem to be in being able to buy strikers but thankfully we have Bent and Weimann coming through, both natural goalscorers so that's done for him! Importantly as well, I think the fans can back him and would like him, bring something fresh, positive and just an extra buzz of excitement around the place. He'd certainly get more far more interested in what I see now and get me back to VP far more often than I go at the moment.

From the Prediction thread.

Lambert's named was mentioned regularly after Ged, it probably wasn't first choice for most because we did realistically believe the likes of Moyes would be interested. I think a lot of people also mentioned wanting to see how he did in the Premiership first and given the squad and club he has, wage bill etc...he's done nothing short of a miracle keeping this team in the division, never mind happily sitting in mid-table for almost the whole season. Back to back promotions and a comfortable season in the Premiership beating plenty of the big boys along the way is a fantastic achievement, one that should allow Lambert a chance at a bigger club like ourselves.

They are **** idiots. Everybody knows that you should have a few speculative efforts from 35 yards in the final ten minutes of a game where you are getting humped so it makes the stats look a bit better in the morning. To be fair, we did dominate the first 49 seconds.

This may strange but I'm guessing to look at the ball!? Would be funny though if a keeper did what you said and turned around and the ball hit him in the face.