VILLAFC2000

Check this out at half. We are one nil down to City. Richard Dunne appears from the tunnel going out for the second half not with the Villa players but with the Man City players laughing his head off. What the F--K is going on there, total lack of professionalism. 8.50 in to it. He should be fined for that and his wages should go to a charity. lost a lot of respect for him after seeing that - one of my favorite center backs for Villa. To have that casual attitude in a friendly game is bad enough but to do it in a PL game against the best team is truly shocking. Before the game why on Earth are they all acting like they are gangsters from NY city, giving the city players high fives. Far too much respect shown to the Man city players. You can do all that crap after the game but not before it. They should be so pumped for the game they want to batter City to pieces on the pitch not look as though they are about to go and party with them all smiles - shocking.

Theres a second part to it as well.

Odd. It seems to have been lifted from Here Heh. I saw that too, and generously assumed VILLAFC2000 was the writer of the blog. :winkold: Ha - thats because I did write it - FACT....! "This was no more evident than when England took Emile Heskey to the South African World cup and played him up front, this is coming from a beloved Aston villa fan and take it from me you will not even finish in the top 4 with Emile playing up front let alone winning a World cup with him up front". I have not written the other articles on there, But that was genuinely written by me.

Odd. It seems to have been lifted from Here Nothing Is odd about it all. I wrote it a while back for a mate who helps to run the blog.

yes - I wrote it a while back hence the last paragraph.

Well England did not qualify for the world cup in 1974 or 1978 long before any Sky Premiership. Also England did not qualify the Euros in 1972 , 1976 , 1984 Like I said before we won it in 66 and got to the Semi Finals in 1990. Can you see us doing that any time soon in the next 30 - 40 years. Those Squad of players in 72, 76 and 84 were not overwhelmingly immense.

While I broadly agree with most of your essay, I just don't see this point so much. Until 2008 Spain had won as many major tournaments as England with a similar ratio as above. It's not like with scores of Spanish players they have a much better record until very recently. Add to that, prior to (let's say) 1990 it's not as if England were doing any better than they are now when more or less every player in the top league was British. To some extent I know the point you trying to make. I am trying to make the point that Englands lack of success is NOT just down to the manger. Dont forget we won the World Cup in 1996 and for to the Semi Finals in 1990 . The PL was introduced in 92 - coincidence then that we have had little success since the intro of it..? ( Euro 96 we have home advantage - just look at South Korea and we did not have to qualify) the question should not be which manager do we need next..! It should be what can we else do to improve our chances of success

Scrap the last paragraph thats now history...!?

Where do I start? I guess the beginning is always a good place. As we all know the last time England reached a Tournament final was the infamous 1966 world cup final. Since then England have competed in 15 international tournaments with little success. Just why is it that we fail on the big scene and could Euro 2012 be the one…? Perhaps Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrence could unlock a deep and meaningful question. Just why do the England team fail when it comes to a large Tournament? Alan Hansen, Lee Dixon and Mark Lawrenson have won just about every trophy on the domestic front that is worth winning and have over 40 years of playing experience between them. Add to that 20 years of footballing punditry on the BBC, charisma, personality and wit that Ricky Gervais would be proud off – wait a minute scrap that last point…! Time after time through my football generation England have played and failed in Tournaments, the best view point of footballing philosophical punditry that Alan and Mark can offer is “England just aren’t good enough”. Well, well, well no SHIT, thanks guys for an outstanding contribution to English football. What a wonderful use of the planet’s fast-depleting oxygen resources. Now that’s been dealt with can we move on to more important footballing matters such as did United’s grey kit really cause them defeat against the saints all those moons ago and was Bruce Grobbelaar really jealous of Lawrenson’s moustache? The Premier League was introduced in 1992 with many arguing that not only would this create one of the most exciting leagues in the world but it would immensely benefit our national team. Just how wrong they were on the later. Evidence clearly states this. England in 92 & 94 under Graham Taylor failed to qualify and GOSH “Did I Not like that”. There is always an exception to the rule and at Euro 96 they reached the semi final although we did not have to qualify. We had one massive factor in our favour – Not penalties, but home advantage. France 98 saw another famous quote from one of our English managers Glenn Hoddle stating that Michael Owen was not a natural goal scorer (Owen did not start the group games). Needless to say we did not win our group and we were knocked out in the last 16. Fast forward 12 years and not much has changed, England failed to qualify under another English manager Mclaren for Euro 2008 June 27th 2010 in South Africa, England V Germany Before the match there was clearly going to be one winner according to Alan Hansen “England have got the better players and if they play they will win, the Germans are an average team and are eminently beatable”. 90 minutes later England could not escape the Brutal reality; Germany had torn apart England without even breaking sweat. “Average and eminently beatable”. Alan do the BBC actually pay you….? If you compare our League to the Spanish league it’s not overwhelmingly difficult to see why we fail so easily. Premier League there, 270 players, 33% English (one player in every 4 of our big clubs are English._ La Liga 279 players = 71% Spanish There just isn’t the Talent to choose from in the Premier league. This was no more evident than when England took Emile Heskey to the South African World cup and played him up front, this is coming from a beloved Aston villa fan and take it from me you will not even finish in the PL top 4 with Emile playing up front let alone winning a World cup with him up front. The top Goalkeepers from the top Spanish leagues Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia they are all Spanish. Take the top Goal keepers from Manchester United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arseanal and only one of those is English. The story is similar when you look at the number 9 strikers. For United their Number 9 striker is Berbatov, City – Tevez., Arsenal - Park chu Yeung, Liverpool Andy Carol, and Chelsea – Torres. So out of our top 5 clubs we only have one English number 9 and I am sure any Liverpool fan will be able to tell you although Carroll has a distinct physical presence he lacks the technical grace that Messi, Villa and Suarez and have demonstrated time and time again. Carroll hardly has an attitude and starting record for Liverpool that the previous players would be proud off. There would be many that would be quick to point out that Wayne Rooney is a World class striker and number 9. I would argue that Rooney is more of a number 10, he plays far deeper that a number 9 for England. - The actual number that he plays in at old Trafford is 10…! Let’s look at the numbers. Spain Uefa qualified coaches = 24 000 Germany Uefa qualified coaches = 28 000 Holland Uefa qualified coaches = 16 000 UK Uefa qualified coaches = 3 000 From a grass roots level it obvious again to see where we fall short. There are over 24 000 qualified UEFA coaches in Germany and Spain there are just over 3 000 in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As a youngster playing football I was bought up playing 11 –a side on a full size water logged pitch where the emphasis was based on winning the game. Hardly the foundations to improve your technical skills. The 24 000 + Uefa qualified coaches in Spain are teaching their youth to concentrate less on winning and more on technical ability. It was reported that Fabio Capello was amazed at one of the first England training sessions that he had to physically show David James how to throw a football out of his hands to another defender. On the previous 8 attempts James had kicked the ball out of his hands 50-60 metres down the full size pitch straight to the opponents every single time, giving away possession. Everybody knows you can do little in Football without the ball – just ask the Spanish, Dutch and Brazilians. The point is that these are not stats that the Premier League and the FA should be proud of. The PL has show a complete reluctance to help our national team by reducing season fixtures. Indeed, it is seen as prohibiting revenue streams and a winter break can simply not be fitted into such a chaotic structure – That old chestnut…! The Germans (and most of the big nations) have adopted a winter break and look at how their national teams plays. I am sure they suffer less Metatarsal injuries then England do when it comes to World Cups and the Euros. The Premier League fixtures calendar is brutal and relentless. The games are played with an abundance of pace. Accordingly, the physical strain much more so than in Seria A, Bundlasliga, La Liga and other leagues across the world. Injuries and tiredness are inevitable especially at the end of a long season. We set ourselves up for a fall, do we really expect our players to come through 38 competitive league games played at a ferociously high intensity, with a run of probable champion’s league and FA cup games without injury or any fatigue. A few weeks later we then expect our top players to peak their performance for their national team at the Euros or World cup. Not a single English or foreign premier league player looked at their best at last year’s world cup – Drogba, Torres, Rooney, Ferdinand. Gerrard the list goes on….! The pressure and expectancy that we put upon our self as a nation does not help matters. Time and time again. All I seem to hear is Harry Redknapp, Terry Venables and Ant & Dec saying that this is the year we are going to win it…! Along with the bookmakers we are always favourites or there about. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to putting pressure on selves and I am sure it does not help us. At every tournament we are genuinely expected to win it, which evidently means if we do not win it we are failures. There is so much room for failure and yet little room for success. We need to change this mentality. The Manager Over and over I hear that the next England manager should be English and this is one of the main reasons for our underachievement.A number of highly regarded pundits have tipped the next manager to be English: Alan Curbishley, Steve Bruce, Harry Redknapp, Paul Jewell or Stuart Pearce. Between them they have only won one FA cup not even a PL title..! Are we really forgetting Graham Taylor, Kevin Keegan, Howard Wilkinson and Steve McLaren so soon? Are we really saying we would stand a better chance of winning a world cup, or Euros with Alan Curbishley or Stuart Pearce just because he can speak English than we would do with Jose Mourinho. I simply do not believe that this is the case. Until we admit the problem is far deeper than the manager then we will fail to knock down the barriers that are in front of us. All in all English football is living in the ruins of a castle build on sand, until we address the basic fundamentals of grass roots football, the Premier League, media and expectancy levels we can stand little chance of success. The Future Despite all of this cynicism from a long suffering England fan, I believe that there is a chance that we can achieve a Semi Final spot at this year’s Euros. Fabio Capello made some surprising decisions at last year’s world cup. Most notably his team selection decreed that Shaun Wright Phillips now of QPR would be more fitting than Ashley young down the flanks and that Rob Green or David James (now struggling to hold on to his place at the mighty Bristol City) would both be better first team choice than Joe Hart. Of course hindsight is a wonderful and it’s very easy to say what decisions should have been made after the world cup. I am hoping Capello will have learnt from these past mistakes. England’s midfield and defence against Germany looked embarrassingly immobile. I Believe that Wiltshire, Millner and Gerrard if fully fit can offer us more speed, technical ability creative chances and goals. With width being provide by Young and Johnson, just maybe after all the previous year’s hurt through failing to qualify through, penalties, metatarsals, red cards, freak goals, disallowed goals and tabloid scandals the team can pull together and rally performances that will make the English fan proud of. Keep the faith.

TStuart Pearce lol someone remind me of how far he took the talented England youngsters last summer Rhe problem is deeper than the manager. The press say we need and Englishmen and its down to the communication problems of the language. What are we going to do if we play awful with Arry as our coach - who to blame then...?

Too late - he did that when he got rid of O Neil and thought that in the PL you can make a profit and you can achieve success without spending. Not impossible but implausible. Mind you for those fans that wanted the wages and transfers fees kept under control - they should be pretty happy now they have got their way. Now you can have your cake and eat it.

Hi Folks, I currently don't know a lot of people who have been made redundant. I am not saying that I know the whole of the UK, I know a few people here and there not loads. I know quite a few people in the building trade and they seem to be stacked for work. Plus the few people who I know who have been made redundant have found jobs straight away. A few who I know in the factory manufacturing who export to the EU who still have stacks of work and demand has increased. This seems contradictory to what the media are saying. Surely there are positives. Does any one you folks know many people who have been made redundant and who are finding it difficult to get a job?

AWOL are you for Europe or against..?

Say for example I bought 10 k in gold and silver 2 years ago. How much would it be worth today..?!

Any one got any data so see how much the prices have gone up by in the last few years..?

of just gold and silver...! Say for example you invested 5 k what is the likely hood that is could devalue..?!

What are the advantages and disadvantages

Hi Folks, With the collapse of the dollar and Euro. Are the prices of gold and silver set to go through the roof...?! Just wandering through from an investment point of view. Up the Villa

Just a shame it was uttered by Milliband. Nothing he says really comes across as being cutting or witty, owing to the fact that he is a huge gimp. Do you mean muttered. Dont you mean you wish he was a gimp...! (shudder)

It was a beauty - Scamerons could not believe it.

Whos ahead in the polls Pony..!?

I see Scameron and the blue noses are still not ahead in the polls....! latest prediction shows Labour short of a majority by 2...! Good start to the year for EM.

Very simple. Board with not enough money = : - - Get rid of one of the best managers around. - sell best players, attract none. - Appoint average manager with limited capabilities. - decreased wages - put all eggs in a basket and relay on a few promising but highly overated players who are nowhere near going to be the next Gerrard, Lampard, Owen and Rio ect ect. - Unsatisfacroty transfers if lucky. Put all the above together and you have the recipe for AVFC. -

Alan F------G Hutton

we will get stuffed.