tomav84

i agree, i dont fancy them over 2 legs as apparently we can no longer win at craven cottage but i would definitely fancy us at wembley...35k noisy villa vs 25k (30k max) quiet fulham fans. dont ask me why, but i can just see us rising to the occasion

not going to happen is it

bruce has admitted he should have freshened it up a bit but hindsight is a wonderful thing. had we still dropped points of course questions would have been asked as to why the team was changed big weekend this one before 2 weeks off...cardiff have another tough game and i expect bruce to get a reaction from the players

yeah - it's almost on par with what klopp said about us when they dicked us after we had given up...you do have to feel for them. under RDM i feared that would be us too and sunderland prove how easily it can happen assuming no injuries and an extra day's recovery (not that it's needed after tonight) that'll do just nicely going into saturday

derby is...for now

in MON's defense, real life isnt football manager - managers don't make the bids, it's the DOF/MD/Chief exec/owner going back to Bruce vs RMc i would be amazed if any manager doesn't do due diligence on any player that the club is about to shell out multi-millions on. RDM probably just thought he could handle him. or maybe RDM isn't as well connected as bruce, and bruce might have been told when he arrived by one of his chums elsewhere "get rid, the lad's poison"

including him in the matchday 18 would be at the expense of someone like o'hare or RHM. could you imagine the slating bruce would get if he did that? the aforementioned youngsters are much more deserving of a place than RMc

I dont see how scoring a few penalties and free kicks in a league with the standard of 3rd or 4th tier over here says "ok I messed up - can we not start over". In fact from interviews i heard he's come across as "i like it here, can i stay?" rather than "i really hope brucie is watching as i'm desperate to get back in the villa side". i'm with TRO on this and i'm quite surprised that so many are willing to give a chap who could have given less **** about the club a chance yet gabby who in his few sporadic appearances for us over the last year or so has at least looked like he cared and still says the right things on his social media regarding the villa is slated and no one wants to see him in a villa shirt again (not saying i want gabby in the team FYI, just using as a comparison)

with the weather coming in, any chance of the game being postponed?

for some unfortunately that will always be the case

spot on apart for the slightly inaccurate bit highlighted

was he? i have plugged into google "bruce 1 game from sack" and similar and the only thing i can find is an article quoting redknapp saying that bruce thought he would be sacked if we lost to barnsley and another article (from the star...enough said) saying following reading away he was 3 games off the sack. hardly reliable sources, and certainly nowhere i can see that indicates a loss to boro and he would have been gone. regarding your point on Xia not being totally sold on him, the fact that he has kept him in through the 2 quite sticky patches you indicated shows that he believes he is the right man to take us forward for me

this all along has been my reasoning for keeping him...i'm less keen on entering that lottery personally. for us to drop out of playoffs now would mean something has gone seriously wrong and the dressing room has been lost (or a 3 month long flu bug has hit B6 and ruled out most of our first team, which i could forgive)

interesting point...i can see you being in the minority if we don't go up. for me it would depend on the circumstances, if we just drop to playoffs, and lose playoff final unluckily i would say keep him. a total capitulation where we don't make playoffs would be somewhat unforgivable however

My mrs is going in sept for a few days and looking for good food ideas and things to do. already been and done the more touristy things so looking for other things to do...any input appreciated, thanks!

you really didnt miss much...one of the bigger disappointments of paris IMO

Absolutely loving shadow of war at the moment...quality game

hmm not so sure - i think they're catch able

Its things like this that make people believe folks have an agenda...too many people just dont like him. criticises fans? the same fans that have at times made personal insults including his appearance and weight (he has mentioned social media, so he's seen them). so i for one have no issues with him sticking the proverbial 2 fingers up at these people after a victory that the very same people were convinced we would lose

yes and wasn't exactly inundated with job offers until then, which was only last year if i'm not mistaken

i agree we were in very different situations when bruce and garde came in but i believe there are definite comparisons to be made, certainly with regards to morale both with players and fanbase. christ me and my chums were genuinely fearful of back to back relegations before RDM was sacked...now look at us. yes, money has been spent, but bruce has to deserve credit for at least showing glimpses of a turnaround. it might be a turnaround resembling that of the QE2, but a turnaround nevertheless. would we have gone down from the prem anyway had someone other than garde come in? probably...but there are plenty out there that would have made something of a fight of it, rather than capitulating the way we did. IMO, garde was useless for us and shares the 'shittest manager since MON' award with mcleish for me

I tend to find folks like that are either overcompensating to get their view across or simply trying to get under the skin of bruce-outers. there are extremes on both sides of the argument as i've seen real hatred towards him on FB therefore i dont find FB to be a true reflection...but then i've said that about villatalk too! my group of pals say keep him on even if we dont go up...but i know such opinions aren't welcome here

elphick has got too many mistakes in him in spite of his good performances of late. we looked solid at the back before he got injured - terry back in for me. or drop chester?

Blues - 3x mid table finishes, 1x relegation (then promoted again following season) Wigan - 1x avoided relegation, 1x mid table Sunderland - 2x mid table Hull - 1x avoided relegation (+ FA Cup final), 1x relegation (promoted following season) is it really that laughable? OK it's not a record to shout from the rooftops about but when you consider the teams...

if it was anyone else i would have chuckled at the obvious joke...it's getting a bit sad now