VillaAndLoyal

So we're signing Stephen Hawkins? At least we can plonk his wheelchair between the sticks which might shore up the defence.

...and your pie-charts are a work of art!

You don't need to spend big to sign great strikers (Michu) plus, like already said, our attack isn't the problem. The reason we're in this mess in the first place is because Lerner spunked unsustainable amounts of money on transfer fees and wages so I certainly would not advocate doing the same again, not that it'll ever happen anyway so it's a pointless discussion really.

Of course they read Villa forums. It would be naive to think they didn't as it is only the click of a button away nowadays. I don't feel any sympathy towards them at all, they earn extortionate wages to play a game we'd all love to be good at. Getting a bit of stick off fans is part and parcel of their lifestyle and it has always happened. The only reason it is amplified these days is because of the internet. I can assure you if I was earning 40k a week and a few people mouthed off about me as a footballer online I wouldn't be the slightest bit bothered so these people saying 'it knocks their confidence' really need to get a grip. They are grown adults, not babies.

VillaForever1970 seems to make lots of short, snide, immature remarks without actually ever stating what his/her position is. Very odd.

Give up football? That's the best idea you've had yet... Bannan is the one player, actually alongside Stephen Ireland, who is clearly disliked by a majority on the terraces and there is still very much a consensus that he is playing in a division above his ability. There is no 'used to be' about it. No stats have changed anything, I've watched him with my own eyes in almost every game this season and he's total crap whatever you think the statistics tell you. But I guess the acid test to how good he is, will be where he moves on to next if and when we get relegated. Will it be United or will it be back to Blackpool? I know where I'd place my money.

Apathy has definitely been the emotion present so far this season but there's just been a few little signs this week that the wind could be changing and people may start turning on Lerner en mass. I've already seen a photo of a large banner for tomorrow circulating on Facebook which is directed towards Lerner, for example. This, of course, all leads to the childish: - 'You should be protesting, let's all gather in the car park' - 'F** off to Blues. You're not supporting the club' Blah blah blah. And so the footballing roundabout carries on...

On Friday night we were playing really badly and then Bannan came on from where we went from the bad to the ridiculous. The thing that riles me is the way, when he gets the ball, he drops either shoulder so dramatically. For a split second you could be watching Iniesta - and then he plays the shittest 'pass' you could ever imagine. Awful footballer and a cretin of a man, by all accounts..

Watching Friday's game from the stand was like watching a Championship game and not a good standard one either. Unless we raise our game significantly, which current form suggests is unlikely, then I just honestly think they'll murder us. I'll be supporting us for 90 minutes as ever but, in reality, this is the poorest team and worst predicament I've ever seen us in and an out-of-form Newcastle must fancy their chances. Just cannot see where the next win would come from.

Whatever you think of the Birmingham Mail, this week they have decided to stand-up for the frustrated fans in their quest to get any answers from the higher echelons of this football club. They created a big front-page lead on the Bradford debacle, sent an open letter to the Board and posted an article about six questions that they had sent which had fallen on death ears. Lambert has clearly been told, on the back of that, to ignore questions from the Mail and indeed Mat Kendrick which is exactly what he did last night in petulant and disgraceful fashion. I am surprised more people are not mentioning this as it's a farce and in ignoring one local newspaper they are also ignoring the fans. Get the hell out of my club Lerner, and take Lambert with you.

Got back at 2.30am last night and still feel numb to it all. It was like watching a Championship match last night, they were shit, we were even shitter. Paul Lambert can **** off. Refusing to answer questions from Mat Kendrick? An absolute disgrace! He is cutting his nose off to spite his face. I don't really know what else to say, we are just sleep-walking towards relegation and Newcastle will absolutely murder that team on Tuesday! Murder them. As for the actual police and occasion. It is the club and police who recreate this whole "terrifying" reputation of Millwall. The ground is designed like Fort Knox - from the railway station to the ground. And the amount of riot police must have been double that of a Second City derby. We were in the upper tier - none of them could get at us - so why the need for all those police? And then after the game being locked in a compound for 45 minutes - again, longer than we did for Blues - is just sheer idiocy. Yes, they probably do have some 'football lads' but so does every other club. They create this whole 'reputation' for themselves. We got the train TO the ground with the majority Millwall on board and we just kept ourselves to ourselves and it was fine, like at any other away day. Ridiculous policing, again.

For ten minutes or so then I forgot everything and just marveled at the fantastic memories from that famous day. It seems so long ago now and yet the memories come flooding back when you watch it. I can't actually remember the last time watching Villa made me smile.

I hit a ball boy with mine. Left him in a coma.

Yep, I've just received that email. I just don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Erm, is this not just better done in the relegation thread? But well done for correctly predicting the League Cup result after the event, very impressive!

No, it's not right, not at all. I'll simply repeat a post made in the post-match thread which summed his game up to a tee: "He worked his socks off all night, forced a very good save from the keeper in the first half, had a goal disallowed, put a sitter on Bentekes head just before half time, got into a great position in first half but delph blasted over the bar instead of putting him through one on one, Second half he came closest to scoring outside of Weimanns goal, harrassed players to the final whistle and was committed....its hard to pass it more than 5 yards with no movement around you." This myth about him putting in no effort is exactly that, a myth. He was unfairly dropped earlier this season and has had to watch far inferior midfield players being picked ahead of him, and **** up in the process, on a weekly basis. Name me one other Villa midfield performance that has been better than when Stephen ran the show up at Newcastle? There hasn't been, simply put. He is massively inconsistent, yes, but that is not surprising given the way he's constantly thrown in and out of the team with little logic or thinking behind it. Continue to beat him with a stick because of his wages if you like, but Stephen Ireland on form or not is the best technical midfielder we have at this club and we should start playing him and judging him fairly on his performances, rather than his pay packet given to him by this club which has proved itself to be clueless at best when it comes to wages. Like I say, many people have an unhealthy agenda.

CI your grudge against Ireland has been unrelenting and unforgiving. Certainly nothing 'unbefuckinglievable' about your post, just very, very boring and predictable.

See you then! Enjoy your Sky subscription, which of course will still be bankrolling 'modern football'... *shakes head*

KHV pretty much summed it up then. The mis-management of this club has been catastrophic from the very moment Lerner bought the club and decided he could run it without football people high up behind the scenes. It was a recipe for disaster and we have fallen into a gradual, but consistent, decline. The trouble is now we're stuck with a crap manager as well as this major problem with the owners and I can't see any way out of it. Relegation seems an inevitability now and we have sleep-walked into it. The club is rotten to the core from top to bottom.

It's really interesting seeing how this thread has developed over the years and certainly far more people now seem to be realising the real problem at our club. But I still find it fascinating, and depressing, at how many fans still 'don't get it'. And I really don't mean that to sound patronising but there's no other way of phrasing it. Someone tried starting a 'Randy out' chant at the end of the game last night and it received little support. It perplexes me as to why this guy still escapes so much critisism? If Ellis had presided over Lerner's reign there would have been protests outside the ground against the owners far before this point. Maybe people just cannot see the point in protesting about an owner who rarely even visits the club these days? I honestly don't know.

Precisely. But unfortunately that is the mindset of many of our fans.

Well, would you believe it! Just walked to the shop and stumbled upon a £150,000,000 pound note lying on the floor. How lucky is that!?

One of our best players yesterday, played with plenty of composure and commitment and still you had morons critisising and abusing him inside the ground for the full 90 minutes, even when he made good passes (see the post match thread). It pretty much sums the situation with Stephen Ireland up - he will never win with some people purely because of the wage the club agreed to give him. Shame, because he's a good player, and certain fans certainly have agenda's against him.

Agree entirely about Lambert. It was desperation from him and he completely lost the plot. We could have played extra time with that 'formation' (if you can call it that) and we'd have never got the third goal, let alone the fourth.

Thank you for backing my point up Stevo. The fans are not in any way to blame for this mess we're in, and it is understandable how quickly people are turning now, having to watch that dross week in week out. But, this was a one-off cup-game, and I posted before the game how (if we were to have any chance) we'd need loud vocal support for 90 minutes to roar the lads on. I think we're only kidding ourselves if we say we even got close to achieving this. We were loud at points in the first half, but even then as Stevo says we had idiots moaning at certain players instead of putting their efforts into supporting the team and club. Then, as i've already said, when Bradford scored it was like a light switch flicked in the ground and everyone went back to their bickering, negative best. Disregarding how shit our team and manager are, how were we supposed to turn it around in the last 30 minutes with zero vocal support and just lots of moaning and negativity from the crowd? I tried to keep the songs going, along with a fair few others, but the appetite had gone and that confirmed to me that the game was gone. It also confirmed to me that we perhaps didn't deserve a trip to Wembley. Bradford have gone through far more bad times than us in the last decade and their support over two legs was first class, ours was not. There are also certain fans in the ground, as well as on here, who choose to berate certain players for the sake of it. In the second-half, the ball was played to Stephen Ireland and it initially looked like he was going to lose it. So out came the "f*ck off SI you ******" blah blah blah from the same couple of dickheads next to me who were abusing him all game. It turned out, despite their foul-mouthed tirade, that Ireland managed to pass the ball on and keep the move going. So he got slated for making a good pass, that makes sense, right!? Anyone watching that game last night with a clear head would see that Stephen Ireland had a decent game, and was fully committed to the cause. Sorry if that doesn't sit well with certain people's agenda.