slabsquare

Totally agree with the first post I suspect that age plays a part in jading one's view but I have felt myself steadily falling out of love with the game for a number of years. Ellis' dithering, self-interest and Victorian business values meant that that we missed the boat when Sky first came on the scene, and it's been down hill ever since - Murdoch's millions, Champions League carve ups, the Russian Mafia laundering its ill-gotten gains all meant that we fell further and further behind the big boys. When Randy came along there was that brief hope that we might start to catch up but the Oily Sheikhs and a resurgent Spurs seem to have ruined any hope of us being in serious contention any time soon. Maybe it's worse for a club like Villa? Most teams know that they have no real chance of ever competing in the league and aspiring to Europe - Villa, like Newcastle, Leeds and perhaps Everton, know that, in a game which has become all about economics and market forces, they should be getting some of the action, but past errors and the good fortune of some others mean that they have no way to bridge the gap. Do I care? - yes, but the die has already been cast and I don't care half as much as I used to

Gibberish. Theyre highly paid professionals and he is the boss - they should shut the f#ck up and do as they are f#cking told. And you'd think that they would revel in finally getting the chance to try and play some football

Gibberish. Theyre highly paid professionals and he is the boss - they should shut the f#ck up and do as they are f#cking told. And you'd think that they would revel in finally getting the chance to try and play some football

he pushed the other guy in the face. even though it was soft, and didn't really need a red card, the rules do say red card, so its fair enough i think. Two sitters missed, countless passes mislaid, countless stupid free kicks given away. And then, aged 33, he gives the ref no choice but to sent him off by acting like a 4-year. Bloke's a liability whom O'Neill bought 7-8 years after he passed his best because it suited his obsession with the long ball game. Hope he never wears a Villa shirt again

Bit of common sense amidst the hysteria. Dog and Duck were in our half 3 times in the entire game, Gabby and Young looked very sharp but we lack a cutting edge in front of goal. And if the FA have one testicle between them then their Stig of the Dump fans will have them thrown out of the tournament tomorrow At least one new striker and at least one new centre half in January. And Cuellar in for Dunne immediately. O'Neill left us in the lurch and you can't legislate for the injuries. We will turn this around.

jesus christ I think I need to lie down and drink a camomile tea we're crippled with injuries and were screwed over by that nordie word removed walking out 5 minutes before the season started what do you expect of houllier? hes not a **** magician who can heal by touch Some folk don't follow football to enjoy it or to be happy. We're playing infinitely more attractive football in spite of the squad limitations and injuries, and some of the kids are looking the real deal. A bit of luck and a cutting edge up front and we could be a decent team. Ludicrous to blame houllier for problems that MON created and then ran away from

Grow the **** up! Dont tell me how to act or behave..i dont need advice from someone like you! Yes you do

Nail on head for me. Journalists are by nature lazy morons who will happily retread each others' opinions rather than doing proper research, and who only pay proper attention to Villa when they absolutely have to. That's why a bandwagon has grown up around Milner in the last few months; a VERY good player, much improved and incredibly hard-working, is being portrayed as a GREAT player, when frankly he isn't. If Citeh or the small club near Fulham want to throw silly amounts of their dirty money at him, at a time when we clearly haven't got huge amounts to spend, then we should probably cash in. It's not that i want him to leave, but he's not irreplaceable. and we need to be realistic

The key bit of the original post? Another big man for set pieces It's all part of the bigger debate which Villa fans are having at the moment, albeit some with more consideration and a greater grip on reality than others Is MON 2-dimensional tactically? - all high / long balls and pace on the break? Yep. Is he also stubborn about selection, and erratic / eccentric in the transfer market? Yep Given the resurgence of Spurs and Man City, almost entirely related to their superior financial clout, would any other manager have achieved more for Villa (a final, a semi-final, reasonable challenge for that 4th place) this season? - probably not It comes down to asking whether you want Villa to claim their rightful spot in 6th / 7th / 8th spot whilst playing a slightly more attractive brand of football than they do now. You decide. In the meantime Cuellar will continue to be our first-choice right back, and modern football will continue to be a bit of a predictable disappointment

learn the lesson villa - it is not possible to beat 12 men at Wembley, don't even bother next time

fear factor that clubs like Chelsea and Salford Utd instil in the referees - big game, big call against the big clubs, and they'll bottle it nine times out of ten

And now Terry takes out our best player and only gets a yellow - funny that

Two of the biggest c#nts in English football, playing for the most illegitimate and grubby little club in the history of the game, huge slice of luck when we have managed to be the better team. I despise everything about them. And now ITV bloke is creaming his jeans, makes me sick

Absolutely hate Alan Green-type knee-jerk ref bashing, the cowardly refuge of the angry fan, they're no more or less likely than anyone else to make a mistake out on the pitch, they're only human etc etc BUT How the hell are we in a position where twice in a matter of weeks in big Wembley show pieces against teams with far more money than us the crucial moment could be an absolutely inexplicable refereering howler? The imbalance between the top 3 and the rest is already big enough without this (not suggesting there's a conspiracy by the way, it's just bloody annoying)

1656 posts suggest otherwise Yep, dead clever, well worth a smiley emoticon (a useful modern invention which beats entering into an articulate debate any day of the week) Except of course that maybe he meant that most of his 1656 posts were from ages ago, that maybe, like me, he got bored of trying to converse with sneering, semi-literate knuckleheads, and found something else to do with his time. Just maybe

It's not just this site, it's the human race. Have had a spurt of posting today for the first time in ages but reading posts from angry people who have no perspective, no patience, and only a tentative grip on the reality of the modern world gets very boring after a while

Wise words indeed This Yeah, I'm so embarrassed that we're thinking ahead that I can barely show my face in public for the shame. Is this thinking ahead though or just thinking about today? We're in the midst of another very decent season and it's likely that provided we don't force him out that MON will be our manager for the next couple of seasons at the very least, quite probably for longer still. In fact, if we're looking ahead I think there's a fair likelihood that provided there are no total disasters O'Neill will be here until Lerner goes or until he retires. And do you think we will ever make 4th or win anything in that time? Because personally, I don't. I think MONs style of play is just to limited in todays football. Maybe I need to lower my expectations and except that 6th is as good as it gets, with a couple of cup runs thrown in - I shall work on it and then maybe I can join the contented Villa fans that find threads like this embarrassing. Nobody is denying that today is a bad day, and that MON has some work still to do (more expansive tactics, bigger / stronger squad to rotate for a start) but some of the reactions on here are hysterical, and the expectations of a lot of people when you look at who is above us in the table are far too high. Sorry if you lack perspective at the current time - but most clubs would love the players we currently have, and would love MON as their manager. We have found our level in modern day football, simple as that, and this thread is embarrassing

Wise words indeed

Next manager? - a collective of the kind of negative, knee-jerk Villatalk contributors who start threads like this - their's is the kind of narrow, blinkered vision we need if the club is going to move forward Get real - today is a horror show but the current Villa squad is the best we've had in years. We've simply been overtaken by other clubs who have more money than Randy ever promised to us, and that's what counts. Villa and Everton are the best of the rest, and the table isn't lying

Chelsea's very existence in the upper echelons is fundamentally unjust and invalid, a morally and financially bankrupt, grubby little club bailed out by the mafia. Roll on platini's financial restrictions Can't be arsed getting upset. We were always going to finish 7th or 8th this season - Randy is great, an infinite improvement on old man Scrooge, and has never hoodwinked the fans about what he could do financially - but Spurs and the grubby-as-Chelsea Man City have now usurped us - that's football today, built on financial status alone - we're a lot healthier than most on that front but there are 6 (maybe 5 if Liverpool continue to plummet) who are significantly stronger than we are when it comes to spending money and building competitive squads. Today may have been a nightmare but it's born of the fact that we have maybe 13 or 14 truly top class players and, in trying to compete with the rest, MON has run them into the ground

Sting - sorry, but how very pompous of you. You are just another punter on just another website - most of what you write (or me, or anyone else) is barely read by anyone else and, if it is, is quickly forgotten. Don't take yourself so seriously. I rarely write on here myself anymore but I do vaguely recall something recently where you appeared to be writing for effect / to wind people up - if you dish it out then expect to take it back and get over it. Most of what you wrote in your 'Last Post' makes some sense. However as I wrote earlier today (and no-one has responded, how dare they ignore me, I'm off!) I don't believe the solutions regarding changing our playing style are that far out of our grasp - MON may not be a tactical genius, and longer term we may need to make a change, but destabilising the team right now by getting rid would be non-sensical. In a league where Man City and Spurs have, for different reasons, somewhat stolen our thunder in terms of challenging the status quo, I would be very surprised if we don't finish top 7 - anything else will be a bonus and we need to be realistic. More attractive football? - I agree. But wringing of hands and overeactions to our current pretty healthy position - definitely not

Without the ball we were superb in fairness. Agreed - we now have a more than decent back four with very decent cover, plus a midfield that, whatever its other failings, can put a foot in when needed, plus the team generally seems to be up for a fight and, even when playing rubbish, their work ethic / desire cannot usually be questioned. But that simply isn't enough, particularly when playing a team like Spurs (who IMO will unfortunately be the likely fourth place team this season) who have plenty of flair and will use the ball effectively when you keep gifting it to them. Defoe could have had another hat-trick yesterday but for a combination of good luck and backs-to-the wall defending but we cannot keep relying on that if we have serious top-four ambitions - we got away with it for the first half of last season then got found out as the luck ran out and, though we are better set up defensively now than then, we will keep getting found out in a competitive league if we persist with this approach. To me there is a potentially reasonably simple solution whereby we sign (just like that!) a creative, ball-playing central midfielder to mix it up alongside one of of NRC / Petrov / Sidwell / Delph etc etc and a more skilful, goal-scoring striker to compliment the obvious strengths of JC and Gabby - not making any recommendations but then I'm an early forties fan with 2 left feet rather than a well-paid PL manager. Suffice to say that this would enable us to use our current strengths of strong defence, pace, width, height, athletism and hard work, whilst expanding the variety in our game enormously

Yep. On that showing I think Carew has shagged his wife. He may not even have a wife actually, given that fact he was up Lennons arse all day. We didn't deserve to win, but their goal shouldn't have stood. Awesome defensive display against one of the leagues best attacks. Perfectly good refereeing performance, made a marginal call for their goal, why does it always have to be the ref's fault? We played a pressing game, looking to break when we could, against a team who, once they got their acts together, were always going to be equipped to outpass us. Our midfield is simply not creative enough which means this is always a risk, nothing at all to do with the ref - stop listening to Alan S#dding Green

That liability got 2 assists tracked back and worked really hard. Im becoming a little tetchy with the growing Ash bashing, yes he is hardly on form, but he is still a very important player to the team, and is getting assists when not playing his best. Comes from people who don't really understand football (or life for that matter), and in a society which has grown to enjoy nothing more than putting the boot in at every opportunity, and for whom the evidence of the past is just an inconvenience best ignored when it comes to forming an opinion. If you believe the media at the moment Rio Ferdinand is suddenly a sh#t player, as opposed to a world class footballer who has just had a couple of poor games. I suspect with Ash it's a case of him not being quite as good as he was built up to be (i.e. not "world class"), and hitting a spell of low confidence - as long as he ignores the knee jerk bashing he'll be back on form sooner rather than later

Superb. Two outstanding home performances against the two most sordid teams in English football. MON left it (unnecessarily) late in the summer but this squad is really starting to come together. Defence looks more than solid and Cuellar will be unlucky to lose his place to L Young at the moment. Still need a more creative / ball playing midfielder, both to give us more options going forward, and so that we don't rely so much, as we did today, on sheer hard work and pace on the break to hold on to a game. And we still need an out-and-out goal scorer up front. That aside things are looking good and I would cautiously say that we are relying less on backs-to-the-wall luck than we were this time last year. Back four + Gabby, Milner outstanding today. Just a pity that we lost (deservedly) to two very average teams along the way and blew Europe just when were looking equipped to cope, otherwise we'd been flying right now