VillaRob

New season, new kit, new money.  Footie is greed

Back in the day I would have played Gardner ahead of NRC so I regret selling him.  We should have fought to keep Cahill, we could see he'd come good for us.  The others should have gone when they did for the good of their careers. It was the right thing for them and us.

Not looking forward to seeing their banner asking who our saviour is gonna be.

We need to win, badly, I just don't see where it's coming from so another defeat for me - unless their new french players don't click.  Here's hoping

Could back fire that one, what if we get beat by a div4 side at home?

Then the players know they will get picked to play. Win-win!

_{The thing that concerns me is that should we get past Bradford and meet Chelsea in the final, they will already have mentally beaten us. This is why they kept going when 3,4,5,6,7,8 - 0 up.}

Gabby protects the full back where Bent doesn't. A simplified view but I think there's some truth in it.

Exactly, he puts a lot of work into doing this too.

Lescott seems out of favour at the moment. Any value in going for him or would his wages break the structure?

They might, except I believe he is a Villa fan so that may go some way to reducing them...

FWIW I think Redknapp would be a good fit for Chelsea and not us. Why? He spends money. Lots of it. Chelsea accept this and we don't.

I will add my voice to the Houllier was not a bad appointment call. At the time I remember we wanted a move away from one style of play to another and H was as good a choice for that as anyone else. We were looking forward to free flowing football with skilled foreign players. This didn't happen overnight then:

It was Houllier's health that was the big problem, things were picking up at the end of that season.

McLeish was a disaster waiting to happen but again I think he was asked to catch a ball with his hands behind his back.

Reminds me of that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm - where Larry's divorce lawyer loses his mate the Dodgers.

I think Randy was working on the basis of "Build it and they will come". Effectively he built it but we stayed at home. Hence why we aren't getting shiny new North Stand and cutting cloth to our budget. I agree that this has been all too quick and our balloon has been well and truly burst.

Mikey, I saw Gareth Barry (and Gary G both in the posh seats!!). It was a good crowd. Hope everyone who went enjoyed it

There is a Stan Petrov charity game between a Petrov XI and Villa Lions and Legends at the mighty Halesowen Town ground on Sunday. Stan , Gareth Barry and James Milner should be there and all proceeds go to Pedal For Petrov

http://www.ht-fc.com/matchday-a-news/latest-news/2164-stan-petrov-charity-game-sunday-18th.html

If you can make it, it would be great to see you at the Grove, then maybe come along to watch the boys - on a non-Villa day of course!

And West Ham...

More positively, I'm loving the team spirit among the team. Pats on the back during the match when players tried to do good moves. Bannan did this a lot. Possible future captain?

Holman does an important job for the team and does it well. For every Sid you need a Bremner; for every Beckham you need a Keane. For every Messi you need an Mascherano. Ok they are different levels of player but they are at a different level of play!

Sadly it's the only way to join them. If you try and nurture a team to grow into a challenging team, the current big teams just pick off your best players, as we have experienced, and are left to rebuild for it to happen again. I hate it but there is no other way to achieve. Therefore we have to be happy to finish 6-16th, with decent cup runs, the occasional upset when we topple a giant which is why it's important to play attractively as there is nothing else now for those non "elite" clubs.

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Im sure if QPR come in and offer him the wages he desires he will be off

Everyone one woud though if we didn't offer them what they want to stay

Just remember this is phase 1 of 4

Phases 2-4 will see better players come aboard

I haven't read anything about phases. Is this an ITK? What are phases 3 and 4 and where did you find this information?

We seem to have a reputation for giving managers stick. Why is this? I know Houllier got a lot of stick (most of it unfair IMO) but McLeish hardly got any, and even the bit that he did get was well deserved. The media are to blame for this. They make out that we were on McLeish's back from day one.

TBH I thnk we do, DO'L got stick, GH did and AMc, we were on his back before he got here!

How about Ian Holloway? He'd be vibrant and would deliver a compelling team. I'd be happy with that

I'd be delighted with Ray Wilkins. I think he's got everything we need to become an attractive team again.

Glen Hoddle would be fine too.

The only worry is that they've not been involved for a while but neither was Kenny Dalgish and, I think, he built a good team that the new gu there will benefit from. Hmm Kenny Dalgish? I don't think he'd come but would be good, not young though so perhaps we wouldn't go for him.

AVB? I'd be amazed if we got him, and not sure he'd be able to do it here with our supposed budget constraints, but he'd get bums on seats.

FWIW Both CI and villabromsgrove are right. He never stood a chance but yes, we all thought he would deliver an attackless team which he did. I do feel sorry for him with the injuries resulting in a team whose midfield are all defensive minded leading to very few attacking moves but it's not like we were pulling up any trees before the injurues started. I guess I'm saying we'd have still been poor but less poor.

lmarhsa. I love what you've done with our badge on the white kit. Classy

To be fair George, we were saying similar of Barry, Young and Downing etc. Fans get bitter when players leave. Looking at the stats above it's not like he has not performed for them.

What's not to like? 27 years old; 50 odd international caps; may be about to win the league. And he can do all that whilst playing in a much maligned Macron shirt. Bargain!

He is total lowlife scum, no way