jack_bauer87

Lmao Gotta say this guy has taken the mick out of us as a club He wasn't wanted where he was but didn't have the bottle to say no to being a make weight in another deal so we end up holding the baby, literally. I respect him even less than Unsworth I'm astounded by this.. What has he done that's "taken the mick out of us as a club"? He hasn't once badmouthed the club, the manager or his colleagues in the press. He has turned up for training when asked to, he has trained with the reserves and youth team when asked to. He signed for a club in crisis, with a caretaker manager and was nothing but complimentary about the club when he signed. He WANTED to come here. It was a culture shock to him, leaving the club he had been at since the age of 15 but he WANTED to sign for us. He refused to sign for Sunderland and Everton and signed for Villa. The only thing that he is guilty of is poor performance in the few games he has played for us. There are mitigating factors but people on here have decided that, since he's not James Milner, he's shite and a waste of money. When he signed, everyone knew he was of fragile character. Everyone knew he was a confidence player. So, why was it so surprising that his performances dipped when his manager castigated him to the media? When his manager told him, to his face, that he was not wanted at the club his performances suffered. Why is that a surprise? He refused to request a transfer, because he wants to stay here and earn his place in the team. He was told 2 weeks ago the club did not want him to go on loan, that there was a clean slate awaiting him when his knee injury cleared up. After hearing that news, he was elated. Overjoyed. Chuffed to f**k. Finally, he was able to start the ball rolling on moving permanently to the midlands. His missus, who has been waiting nervously for confirmation of where they would be living for the next 3 years, started making plans to move to the midlands. Now, that's all scrapped and they have to move up here to Newcastle until May. 60k a week is all well and good, but when you're being dicked around and lied to no amount of money makes you feel better about it. However, in spite of all of this, he has told AVFC that he wants to come back to the club in the summer and try to change his manager's mind about him. Now, tell me PLEASE, what has he done to take the mick out of AVFC?? Shock you're sticking up for him...he has blatantly taken the mick out of us. Everybody has a bad game every now and again, fans understand and accept that but Ireland is guilty of putting no effort in what so ever in games that he has played in...he looked about as interested in playing for us as I am interested in the royal wedding...60k a week and no effort in return is a complete piss take!

No it wouldn't. Do you know anything about contract law? I'll admit I don't know a lot about contract law so why don't you enlighten me? Manchester City and Aston Villa signed a Memorandum of Understanding the week before the England international stating that an agreement had been reached between the two clubs for the transfer of James Milner for a fee of approx £18m plus Stephen Ireland. In that MOU, it was stated that were any party to cancel the deal, they would be liable to pay the other party approximately £5million as a cancellation charge as well as covering the costs (legal, medical etc) that were incurred. I believe that the only circumstances in which the transfer could be cancelled without the cancellation clause being invoked was if either player were to be found to have an injury causing sufficient concern to the club's insurers as to make the transfer impossible. The MOU was signed after MON approved the transfer. I believe it was signed on the morning of the friendly vs Valencia. Now, I admit I don't know an awful lot about contract law, so which part of the above is bollocks and shows Paul Faulkner to be incompetent? I would be happy to enlighten you on contract law but Yankee has already done so a few posts prior to this, Firstly, I don't want you to think I'm knocking you personally or trying to sound condescending so I'll just tell you that everything you have said there is bollocks...whilst also saying I appreciate you might have been told this by somebody else and you're repeating it in which case I will ask you where you're getting this information from. There is no way that a memorandum of understanding has anything to do with contract law nevermind a football transfer deal. Seriously Gaz, where have you got this lead from because it's complete bollocks.

I don't know this, how do you know it? What has he done that is so incompetent? Well I know you claim to be Ireland's best mate or ITK or something like that so you probably think that gives you some insight into the club that the rest of us don't see. You tell me this though, what has Faulkner done for our club? Be instrumental in the sale of Milner and the bringing in of Ireland , advise Lerner to stop spending, be instrumental in the appointment of Houllier. All of that IMO is incompetent. We were far better off before he arrived at our club. That first bit is unneccessary, for starters. Secondly, he was instrumental in the sale of Milner in as far as he assisted MON in negotiating the deal that MON wanted after Milner wanted to leave. Did he advise Lerner to stop spending? Show me.. I know very little about Paul Faulkner, but some of the abuse he gets on here is absolutely vile. I thought we, as a club and as a fanbase, were better than that. You say it's unneccessary but it's not because you either do or you don't know something about the Milner deal that the rest of us dont? Do you know whether MON wanted to sell Milner? I suspect that he didn't. If this is the case then between Faulkner and Lerner they could have stopped that deal going ahead (which is what they should have done when we didn't have a manager in place, another example of his incompetency there for you). When did Lernr tighten the purse strings? When Faulkner arrived. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sorry if you think the abuse towards him is vile but I think he deserves it. He pissed about in appointing a manager and ended up being instrumental in appointing this loser Houllier so he is therefore partially responsible for the mess that we now find us in. Houllier is a large part of Faulkner's stamp on the club to date.

I don't know this, how do you know it? What has he done that is so incompetent? Well I know you claim to be Ireland's best mate or ITK or something like that so you probably think that gives you some insight into the club that the rest of us don't see. You tell me this though, what has Faulkner done for our club? Be instrumental in the sale of Milner and the bringing in of Ireland , advise Lerner to stop spending, be instrumental in the appointment of Houllier. All of that IMO is incompetent. We were far better off before he arrived at our club.

I agree wth the sentiment of your email. However, you've sent it to the wrong man. That fooking tool Paul Faulkner is just as big of a problem as Houllier. Randy looks to Faulkner for support/advice and we all know Faulkner is a fuckig idiot who couldn't run a bath never mind our football club.

General, I do wonder whose words they actually are in the managerial message to the fans? I suspect it's just PR spin by the club.

General, this is disgraceful...all the hard work that has been done and the progress that we have made since Randy came aboard is fast becoming undone. Simply not good enough. Actions speak louder than words.

General, with respect, that isn't really much of an answer. Unless you know something we don't , the Milner-Ireland deal wasn't anything to do with MON. He wasn't at the club to sanction it which is what my question was...who sanctioned it? Yes, it might be old news, yes it might have been discussed at great length over the summer but it really does appear to be haunting us and costing us at the moment so I think we the fans have a right to know who took it upon themselves to sanction the deal. It clearly wasn't MON and it clearly wasn't Houllier. Was it Randy or was it Paul Faulkner? I suspect the latter. I understand that you're not in a position to comment on whether it was good or bad business for the club so perhaps that was a bit unfair of me to ask you that but surely a straight forward answer to the question who sanctioned the deal isn't beyond your realm?

General, hope this message finds you well. I would like to make an observation on the Milner/Ireland deal. Taking into account Houllier's comments about Ireland after the Blues game last week and the starting line up today where we are down to our bare bones and Ireland hasn't even made the starting line up I can only say that the whole thing has left me baffled... Milner was outgoing and Ireland was incoming, both at the same time when we had no manager. Surely it could have been foreseen that any future manager may not like, want nor rate Ireland and it now appears that it has happened and we are left with a player not wanted by the manger. General, as I'm typing this very message Nigel Reo Coker has just been injured and Ireland still hasn't come on!! He clearly isn't wanted by Houllier! What a terrible bit of business by the club, who sanctioned this move General??? We've been left short changed General, short chnaged big time, let's just hope we can recover the cost somewhere....

General, what is your opinion of Gary Cooke?

General, just a quick one about the impending NFL draft...I see that Tebow has visited the Browns, what a draft pick he would be for them! I know he has his critics but I really do think that Tebow could be big news in the NFL and his marketability aspect would be huge for whoever picks him. What are your views on Tebow and would you like to see him at the Browns?

I really do think we're going to win this! Wonder where the squad will train though if they're off down there today?

Who is the ref tonight?

It really is a joke that the General is getting nothing but grief on the ticketing issue for the cup final...get a grip everyone, if you've got a ST you're guaranteed a ticket so what's the big deal? This thread just reneforces my belief that a large amount of members on this site are muppets. Great job General, I really appreciate everything that yourself and Randy (and the rest of the backroom staff) have done for my beloved Aston Villa, cannot and will not fault you in any shape or form! I want to buy you a beer when I come over to America to celebrate St Patrick's day! Get yourself down to Savannah, GA for the parade and all your beers will be on me!!

We were singing it at Doncaster and it's definitely "he used to be shite". Doubt he cares anyway, most people will acknowledge that he used to be shite.