carew_villa

It is a poor draw because it is a boring game away to a boring, defensive team, but it is very winnable IMO. The game today showed that Citeh are just a one man team. Take tevez out, and they are just a big, powerful team with little attacking talent. Well maybe they do have attacking talent but Mancini thinks it's necessary to have 3 defensive midfielders against a struggling league 1 team. I don't see why so many people are so negative. We beat them last week!! And now they have Adam Johnson out. The only thing that's pissed me off about it is that it will have to be a mid-week game after all the other 5th round games.

I thought the red was harsh myself. Well from what I saw on ITV. He went in hard on the player and the studs weren't actually showing IMO.

Spurs undoubtedly play a long ball game, although they don't make the game very boring. 'Long ball' games get a lot of unfair criticism IMO. People associate it with Bolton under Big Sam or Wimbledon. Long ball is very boring when teams don't really have any intention of winning the game, just to not lose and they lump it up the front to get rid and look for a hopeful knockdown. Tottenham lump it up to Crouch but have many players around him to support him. Villa used to play quite a bit of long ball football and at times I thought it was very exciting to watch.

Just to ask, is the transfer fee £18 million or £24 million or 18 rising to 24 million and on what condition are they? 18 mill is reasonable for Bent, but 24 is over the top IMO. Doesn't really matter too much for Villa though really, we care more about wages and we've had money left over to spend from the £30 million Citeh gave us. As long as Bent scores the goals, I don't think Bent's price has too much significance, we've been crying out for a player like this for years. Also shows how bad MON was in the transfer market when he could have got him for £10-15 million. Just on a side note, I think Sunderland fans, in general, have taken the news really really well. I know for sure if the roles were reversed, Villa fans would be fuming. I just hope Sunderland don't invest the money we give them on great players, I hope Bruce wastes the money on another player like Gyan (don't rate him). Reading the start of the Bent thread on the Sunderland forum gave me a flashback to when we all first found out about Barry moving to Citeh on VT. Everybody was in sheer disbelief and refused to believe it was true.

Pienaar isn't even Everton's best player!! I'd take Baines, Arteta, Fellaini, Jagielka all over Pienaar. Maybe even Cahill as well. It's a shame for Everton, to be losing Pienaar. I think it'll the a case of 'it isn't always greener on the other side' for him after leaving Everton. And Coleman's emergence is very similar to that of Albrighton's. Both of them arguably should have had playing time well before they did and both of them have hugely benefited from a player leaving the club it looks like. Milner leaving and Albrighton stepping in Gosling leaving and Coleman stepping in (Coleman looks far better than Gosling) I thought he was a RB anyway?

Hopefully Derbyshire doesn't play. He's their only premier league standard striker yet McLeish hates him. I'm glad he does but surely that is frustrating the Blues fans. He scored 2 quality goals against Millwall yet he's not even under consideration for big games. Seems a bit like MON, ignoring NRC, Albrighton and Guzan after good performances.

Look at Bentley when he got a run of games at Blackburn. Look at the form he was in that earned him a £15 million move to Spurs. Larsson is playing regular games for Blues and not doing anything of note whatsoever. Don't rate him at all.

Bentley>>>>>Larsson by far IMO. I think Larsson is poor, all he's got is decent set piece delivery and decent crosses, but he's not even that good at that.

We're going to get Leyton Orient away, I can sense it.

If Houllier loses the next three games, the chances are that he'll still be in the job. Some fans need to get over it and start supporting him. If we win a match, it's 'papering over the cracks', if we lose, it's 'typical performance from Villa under Houllier'. A lot of the matches we have lost, we have been unlucky IMO, although there were some disgraceful performances, notably at Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City.

The title race is by far the most boring thing about the Premier League IMO. Every year I couldn't care less who wins the league. It's just not competitive enough and when it is, it is down to a club spending an absolute fortune. The 5 clubs with the biggest budgets are in the top 5. Boring! Teams like Blackpool, Bolton, Blackburn, Everton.... teams actually being competitive is actually what makes the league IMO. It pisses me off how the fools on MOTD only ever talk about the title race. I don't really see all the anti-Man City stuff here, because we all know they will win it, just a matter of time. I think that in a way must be a very hollow victory when they do come round to win it as they will have known that they just bought it. A bit like a kid finding his Christmas present before Christmas so he's ruined the surprise on Christmas day, it's not just as good knowing what the present is. Citeh fans may deny that, but I think deep down, they all think that. Although, I think Manchester United have won it already. No other team looks as strong as them.

I'd play that team as well. League is most definitely priority now and FA Cup could be seen as a distraction.

I think Petrov and NRC were more pissed off that Villa were losing. And anyway, what players are ever happy when they are taken off a football pitch?

When he was appointed, I wasn't a big fan of him, but after what I've been hearing..... about the players and what he is doing at Villa, I 100% want him to stay. I think the majority of all of this is the players fault. And this is all a hangover from MON's departure. He's done it at other clubs, IMO to make MON look amazing. He does well at a club, leaves, and then the club suffers afterwards. Leicester went down after he left, Rangers dominated the Scottish League after MON left, and Celtic were in a financial mess afterwards. The poor 'behaviour' of the squad is another problem MON had, but refused to address it. I get the feeling that MON is in it to make himself look good, but Houllier is actually employed by AVFC to improve the club and help it achieve its aims and that Houllier actually has the long-term interests of the club in heart.

Back him!!! Randy and Faulkner obviously like him and see him as a long term appointment, and barring anything disastrous, he'll still be at the club next year IMO. We should support him.

This is the first game in a long time where I'm actually looking forward to the match.

I sort of agree with you with the point about Delfouneso sometimes being indecisive but I think that's because he's a bit nervous and maybe feels a bit out of place in the Premier League and I think, given a run of games, he'll sort that out. It's just that he is never like that when he plays for the reserves.

I was starting to like Man City now that I've realised that Citeh are a major force now and Barry and Milner leaving to Citeh is no different to them leaving for Chelsea (which we all would have been OK about) but I looked through one of their threads about Villa and whether they feel bad for us. I wasn't expecting them to feel sorry for us, but the amount of Citeh fans who think they have a divine right to success because Citeh played in the 3rd division has really pissed me off. You'd think they were the only big club to have played in the 3rd division.

What exactly do you base that on? He's barely played for Villa and everytime he plays he looks dangerous. He scores a lot of goals in the reserves and I seem to remember he scored a good goal vs Zilina on his debut, scored against Hamburg and has scored against teams in the FA Cup and also scored 2 against Blackpool. I just don't see how you can say that when he has scored a few goals and in the games he hasn't scored, he hasn't had one chance apart from the Fulham game but that was probably just because he was nervous on his Premier League debut. He has also scored a very good poachers goal against Portsmouth last year.

As long as we don't lose by a margin of more than 2 goals, I'll be content.

Yeah I thought Dzeko really isn't needed. Although he is a beast in the air. Any decent delivery from Milner, Johnson or Silva and it's more than likely a goal. Although Johnson can't cross and Silva always plays it to feet and tries to jink through lots of players. He doesn't really strike me as a player who will fit in at Citeh, he'd fit in more at Spurs or Man Utd although I suppose Mancini wants a different dimension in Citeh's play.

Citeh fans aint glory hunters. Although I'm sure they will have a fair few in the future. The annoying thing about todays 'match' was that City didn't even do anything whatsoever to win the game. We handed it to them on a plate. We conceded 2 needless penalties, Friedel messed up for Balotelli's goal and well Lescott's goal wasn't actually a goal. I don't know how the linesman saw the ball cross the line. I told you yesterday that today will be the easiest 3 points of the season and I was proved correct. Games against Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool and now Man City we have just handed them 3 points.

I thought Weimann spoke English very well considering. On the Christmas vid, he's just speaking German isn't he? I thought he said Merry Christmas to Villa fans in German.

I think a lot of the time Delfouneso isn't confident enough to shoot when he's playing for the first team. When I've seen him play for the reserves, you can't get him off the ball. He just seems very greedy in the reserves so I think it may be a confidence thing.