GarethRDR

Hopefully the same way fiorentina did last year Not cool! :x

Last time I checked this was a Villa kitchen though. I wouldn't go into a Spurs kitchen and shit in the chef's stew.

Coming to soon to chemists in a ghetto near you; Jay-Z's Thrush Relief Cream, 99 problems but an itch ain't one.

CL or EL?

Nowt wrong with that KAZZAM.

If you've a spare £125 lying about maqroll, this might be the closest you'll get.

Je ne regrette rien. Bonjour Gerard!

Too true. But I for one sure as heck wouldn't mind going on one of those lucky cup runs, especially if we end up actually winning something.

>Enter "You make your own luck/can only beat the team in front of you" rhetoric here<

"The Bannan" is only small because all Immortals stop growing when they encounter another Immortal for the first time, it's basic Highlander lore.

Thanks for the insight chaps, I'm always happy to read purported insider gossip no matter the quality. Makes sense as well, thinking about it. It's going to be an intriguing season, this club should come with a health warning though.

Wonder how much moolah Houllier (if he does indeed become our new les gaffér) will get to spend in January/next summer? Like him or not, an appointment of that profile would no doubt require some cash to be made available to tempt him into the hot-seat.

UNKLE - Nursery Rhyme Breather

Would I want to sit down and have a pint and chinwag with 'onest Emile? Absolutely (certainly more so then the commune of c*ntery that is "modern footballers"). Would I then invite him to join my Sunday league team? No chance. I still hold the faint hope that he might have a Zamoraesque goal-glut of a season at some point, alas it is the faintest of hopes though (and ever-fading).

We need a manager, not a gardner!

More hypocrisy. MON gutlessly walked out on Villa just a few days before your season began. Not wanting to get dragged into the firefight here, but I have to point out on this that there is a difference between leaving a club financially crippled and teetering on the brink of relegation and (as much as I think he's a prick for doing it) walking out on us as O'Neill did, when all we have to worry about is trimming/re-assigning the wage bill in a few key areas. A good friend of mine (and all his brothers) are Spurs fans and (as appreciative as they are of what Redknapp has done for the club) they all think he's dodgy as **** and are glad that Levy seems to have the balls to keep him in check. On the flip-side, I don't think your transfer activity could be labelled a failure; you needed defensive cover, preferably experienced as King and Woodgate are both a tackle away from injury and you've brought in Gallas for nowt. Pletikosa is a very capable goalkeeper and good cover if Cudicini does another Evil Knievel impression or Gomes has one of his 'flappy' periods. Then there's Van Der Vaart. Whether or not you need another attacking midfielder shouldn't detract from how good a signing it is (especially at the alleged price). He may not be in the pantheon of the truly great Dutch midfielders and the Premiership can be a harst test for any player but there's no denying the talent. If you're honest (and my aforementioned peers agree), the one thing that would have topped the letter to Santa would have been an out-and-out goalscorer. This hasn't materialised for whatever reason, I think you'd be lying to yourself if you said you weren't a little disappointed but as I say, I wouldn't brand this summer's ins and outs and White Hart Lane a failure by any stretch of the imagination.

Coincidentally, I only wound up watching the film because I was channel hopping and though the Mike Judge cartoon was on. I'm with you on María Valverde though. Watched Scott Pilgrim at the weekend and I can definitely see why people would be underwhelmed. I did enjoy it, but it seemed to take forever getting started. Having not read the comics, it's slightly unfair to draw the following comparison but I did come out of the cinema feeling like I'd just watched a severly watered-down live adaptation of FLCL.

Only one more planned this year for me now, Sky Larkin at the West End Centre in Aldershot towards the end of the month (with Dutch Uncles supporting). It's a tiny venue, so it should be a good 'un.

Ireland just needs to get a full pre-season under his belt, he's only just coming back from being out of action for good long while. Hang on a second...

Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Shakhtar Donetsk from neighbours Metalurg Donetsk for around £5m. I'll put my non-existant reputation on the line and say this kid is going to be something quite special. Armenian international (capped at all levels), captain of Metalurg at the age of 21, attacking midfielder who can thread a pass and has a very impressive goalscoring record. Followers of the Republic of Ireland's U21 team might recognise him as the hat-trick scorer in Armenia's 4-1 decimation back in the 09/10 Euro U21 qualifiers.

**** that for a game of soldiers.

Really? I assumed DJ stood for "Deserting Jackass" what with Downing's propensity to go completely AWOL in matches. At least with Heskey we know he's on the floor somewhere, Stewart Houdining's vanishing acts are baffling.

If you like that you should listen to Gee Moore - Dolphin (Picotto Mix).

Oh Aston Villa. You do put my heart through the mother **** wringer, don't you?