Mattansell

They seemed to have made an error by repeating Clarke's description for Vlaar

That's the Mirror at fault - here's the link to the original tweeted image

https://twitter.com/mrokanenas/status/455351148195893248

To be fair, The Mirror and in particular James Nursey have been right in top of things for the last few months.

Personally I'm not sure I care who he signs. I trust him to know what he is doing and to get the best out of the players. Certainly, this summer at least, he deserves and will get from me at least, the slack to sign who the feck he wants

Echo those thoughts. People might want to remember that Mcleish was looking at Karl Henry and Leon Best!

Lambert is on a rolling contract - less comp to pay out.

My two pence for what its worth..

From the evidence available to me I am quite confident that AM will not be the next Villa Manager.

This is from a mixture of what in my opinion are sources I would take over what I am told by the media Circus, the same media circus who in the last 2 weeks alone have at some point guaranteed 1 of at least 5 managers with the next 24 hours etc.. the fact is they don't know there arse from their elbow when it comes to this board and they build up on what little snippets they can get until it spills over and people start to take it as gospel, FFS you only have to look at the number of players at team get linked with in the papers and how many actually happen for an example of this.

Love your optimism my friend but can I have a bit of what your smoking?

And now this statement from the BCFC board just makes me think it's even more unlikely, it's just not the way that this board works what the **** have they done in the last 5 years to deserve such vitriol? do you think they have had a mental breakdown and suddenly have no clue what to do? The appointment of GH may not have panned out as planned, but you could see the logic to it and it met all of the criteria mentioned in the statement tonight.

That leads me on to statements the only things we have heard officially are in regards to Martinez and Interviewing AM, the first of these were driven by Whelan mouthing off to the press who in turn make up their own story which suddenly is stated as fact on talkshite, SSN, so we make a statement which rubbishes all the shite that the media had been pedaling by clarifying that it was decided days ago that we were not even meeting Martinez, if whelan hadn't mouthed of none of these facts would be in the public domain and people would still be of the mantra he turned us down.

Tonights statement in my opinion was made due to the constant moaning and whining of the want it now generation and is very carefully worded are we the **** going to employ AM, if you go back and read it again the whole statement is a contradiction to them employing AM as he meets none of the aforementioned criteria GH did , the only reason he is mentioned (right at the bottom I may add) is because the BCFC chairman has come out and mentioned us (similar to Whelan) other wise I think that paragraph would not have been on there and it would just have been a statement to appease, finally the reason they do go into detail is to show that the fact he has been at BCFC should not stop him from being able to apply and be interviewed and rightly so, thats all it doesn't say he has the job, that is the medias take.

There has never been anything official on Hughes, Ancelloti, Jol, Mclaren, Benitez, Moyes all anyone is going on is what the media have drummed up, maybe there are some grains of truth in what has been said about any of the above candidates the only way we would / will ever know is with official statements.

Personally I fully expect David Moyes to be the new Villa manager come 1st of July

It's like you read my mind - perfect.

How can the board not even consider Mark Hughes (told Fulham we didn't want to speak to him etc) yet we ask Wigan for permission to speak with Roberto Martinez?

Do the board really think that Martinez > Hughes ?

Problem with Hughes is he would be gone within 2 years. The bloke has absolutely no loyalty

Ask Swansea fans about Martinez' loyalty. If he came to us and was moderately successful and was then approached by Valencia, he'd be off like a shot too.

(To be fair he might not BUT he doesn't deserve a loyalty badge!)

after reading that http://tinyurl.com/68lvt6p

I feel a little bit harsh on mclaren

we are so quick to make a decision without thinking it through.

pay compensation (reducing transfe budget) for Martinez or get mclaren for free.

cant help but feel we have made our own bed we will have to lie in it.

martinez or mclaren?

if they were the two what would you do?

True BUT they aren't the only two. In fact, there are numerous better candidates!

General Krulak here:

1. I am going to say something as a Fan, not as a member of the Board...of course the media cannot seem to tell the difference. I spent 35+ years in the Marine Corps and went to war three times. Now I know the Forces are not football so please bear with me. When my Marines put on their uniforms and the emblem of the Corps and went into battle and things got tough, the did not fight for their Commander, they fought for their brothers-in-arms...the men wearing their uniform and emblem. When a player puts on a kit and wears the Club badge, I would expect the same. We have VERY good lads who know how to play with passion. We have all seen them do it and have cheered them on. They are professionals who have given 110% in many games. What we need now is to quit pointing fingers and everyone look at the Claret and Blue of our kit and the badge they are wearing and go out and kick the crap out of the next teams we play until the end of the season!!! That may seem simplistic but that is how I have been raised. At the end of the day, they are on the Pitch and they can do it....do it for the uniform on their backs and the badge on their breast and the Fans in the stands! That is how I feel in my heart. I believe they can do it! YOU all can help by cheering them on...let them know that they represent a great and glorious Club. UP THE VILLA.

Nice analogy but at the same time i'm pretty sure that if you as an army were in a difficult situation you wouldn't remove your battle hardened, senior soldiers replace them with inexperienced rookies and then send them out disorganised. Again, fighting for each other is good but without tactics etc. a football match or a military battle will result in a lot of home casualties.

Where has the thread with the blues fan with massive tits gone?

Check out football365 thread: http://tinyurl.com/5s67suc

You're in for a surprise.

Or not if you know what a typical blues following female looks like (that first picture was VERY flattering!)

I was only speaking generally but tbf Downing is in the 'fashion parade'.

They couldn't risk having promo shots with players who might leave (like Barry last year in the white kit). So when they selected shots from last year to edit the kits on they would leave out Milner, Young and Carew.

corn + rows

Be warned though the Indian curry recipe above takes 2 - 3 hours and really stinks your house out. This Thai recipe is REALLY quick (30-40 mins) and tastes completely authentic. Just one word of advice DO NOT sniff the fish sauce, it is disgusting but tastes ok and is used in Thai cooking like a soy sauce from Japanese.

Thai Red Chicken Curry

Ingredients

* 1 small onion chopped finely

* 1 stalk lemon grass

* 1 tbsp vegetable oil

* 4 tsp red Thai curry paste

* 4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

* 1 tbsp fish sauce

* 1 tsp brown sugar

* 4 freeze-dried kaffir lime leaves

* 400ml can coconut milk

* 20g pack fresh coriander

* 4 cloves of garlic

* Medium Aubergine

Method

1. Peel onion and cut in half from top to root. Lay the cut sides flat on a board and thinly slice. Very finely slice the lemongrass, starting at the thinner end, stopping towards the base when it gets tough (often described as 'woody' and white in the centre). Crush and chop garlic. Cut Aubergine into chunks.

2. Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan for a couple of minutes until the oil separates (it looks more liquid at this point). Add garlic and onion. Fry for 3-5 mins, until soft and translucent. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 1 min, stirring all the time.

3. Add chicken pieces and stir until they are coated. Add the fish sauce, sugar, kaffir lime leaves, aubergine, lemongrass and coconut milk. Bring slowly to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 mins until the chicken is cooked. Stir the curry a few times while it cooks, to stop it sticking and to keep the chicken submerged.

4. While the chicken is cooking, strip the leaves from the coriander stalks, gather into a pile and chop very roughly. Taste the curry and add a little more curry paste and salt if you think it needs it. Stir half the coriander into the curry and sprinkle the rest over the top. Serve with Thai jasmine or basmati rice.

For all the curry requests this was taken from a thread from a while back. It is the closest to a restaurant style curry i've ever tasted (outside of a restaurant!).

Indian Chicken Curry

Ingredients

2 medium onions sliced

5 cloves of garlic crushed

5 table spoons of olive oil

2 green chillies chopped (1 if heat problem!)

3 tomatoes chopped

500g Passata

2 tea spoons of salt

2lb chicken (breast) cut in small cubes

2 table spoons of curry powder

1 tea spoon of mixed masala

Fresh corriander for garnish

Method

Put the olive oil in pot on a medium heat, add the sliced onions and

crushed garlic.

When the onions are a golden brown add on the chopped tomatoes, chopped

green chillies,

2 tea spoons of salt and half a cup of water.

Leave it on low heat for about 15 – 20 minutes.

When the mixture looks very thick add in the curry powder and stir for

about 10 minutes,

add the small cubes of chicken. Leave on low heat until the water of

the chicken dries up. Add 250g of passata.

When the water has dried up add the garam masala and stir it for about

15 minutes.

Add in the fresh corriander (finely chopped), half a cup of water and the other 250g of Passata and turn up the heat,

when it reaches the boil turn the heat down and leave to simmer for

about 15 minutes

Please note when making the curry if at any stage the mixture is too

dry and starts to burn, just add some water.

On the whole Browns / Villa thing: do you think you could devote a page in the programme to the Browns and vice-versa? Showing results, standings, key players etc. It's got to be worth a go - people might start to take an interest then.

Agree on the survey - no room for comments.

I wanted to put that I would probably stay around after to hear/see MOTM and MON's post match conference on the screens.

30

Further on the the Browns questions, do you think there is any mileage in giving a page of the programme of both clubs to the other. I'm sure that a fair few Villa fans might start looking out for the Browns more and you never know we might start gaining some interest in Cleveland if they could read a short 1 pager on our exploits.

Got to say I really agree more bins closer to the ground would be a good thing but always assumed it was a security measure not having bins anywhere near the stadium?

General is there any mileage in trying to get a bigger crowd at Villa park watching the blose match on TV screens than they can get into their crappy ground?

Couple that with the Albion solution and everyone's happy!

Don't know if any of you were at Man City yesterday but someone there tried to release various balloons and all that happened was that they got in the way 3 or 4 times. Balloons only work and have the impact (IMHO) if there are LOADS of them and they are helium filled.

MON and Ian Storey-Moore flew out to Spain this afternoon on a scouting mission. Alleged destination Madrid for the Real v Seville game.

Where's that story from sir?

The 'story' is from staff at Bodymore Heath - I wouldn't get too excited though I guess they take in hundreds of games! Just passing on what I heard.

MON and Ian Storey-Moore flew out to Spain this afternoon on a scouting mission. Alleged destination Madrid for the Real v Seville game.

I'm pretty certain that Copell dropped him as soon as it was finally clear he wasn't going to sign a new contract - give someone else a chance to prove themselves.

Just a quick couple of questions general:

• Are there any plans to upscale/revamp the Claret & Blue magazine? It is currently issued quarterly, and only from the club shop. When I walk into my local run of the mill newsagents I see b*mingham c*ty's monthly glossy effort alongside glossy productions from Manu and Chelsea. If I go to WH Smiths (a larger magazine chain) in Solihull I see monthly magazines from several other teams and feel that we are missing out.

• When the website is updated can you take a look at sites like www.inter.it which has daily batches of photographs from the training ground with players practising, fooling around etc.

cheers