mikeyp102

I was talking to my mate at work this morning. He joked as to whether we shall get an end of season letter as we did mid season....if we do wouldn't be surprised if it was along the lines of...

The season has its ups and downs and the loss of Bent really impacted the season just as we were gaining momentum to challenge for the top 6....he still feels that the team has done well and that we are creating numerous chances and it’s just unlucky we haven’t won more. What people have to remember is that he is setting his teams up to play free flowing football but the players just haven’t responded. People only have to look at his recent success at his previous employers to see that it is a complete myth that he sets teams defensively.

I was just wondering if anyone on here has previously used this scheme and if so whether they had any problems with it etc.

i've been accepted on it, but haven't heard anything from the club itself about my seat (I know its in holte end upper but nothing more) i also wasnt asked for my client reference at any point during the application so im eager to know if ill still receive the benefits of previous away attendances tec.

i have emailed the club, but they have been sluggish in response

Thanks guys

I did the 4 month last yr and have used the 9 month this year. Don't panic, I have had the same and it all works out fine. You'll hear from the club at a later date re confirmation of seat etc. Yes you still get the benefits of previous booking history.

I was going to say Nillis, remember seeing all these interviews how he was a great creator and thought he was going to set the world alight for us...maybe he would've that goal was something special.

Collymore would be up there as would Bent, both proven goalscorers that the team needed.

Agree with the previous about Balaban, came with such a high reputation and we apparently beat Spanish sides to his signature..too be honest he may have been good, never had the opportunity, but then I suppose it was more than one manager who digarded him so he can't have impressed in training.

Further left field, I remember when Mark Draper signed thinking that he'd had a cracking season for Leicester and that he would star for us.

6th was the very best we could have hoped for despite being in the top 4 for large amounts of certain seasons?

What a load of bollocks. Randy is to blame for a lot of things but O'Neill is to blame for not spending the money well and not at the right time on the right people.

For a while only Man City spent more than we did and 6th was the best we could have hoped for? My arse.

If only we hadn't had to replace an entire defence for the third time in as many seasons or if we'd bought actual goalscorers to help us win a game after February (for a change). We would have been comfortably in the top 4 we were that far ahead of Arsenal (and Everton who also, tediously, predictably caught us twice).

Sorry, if you think O'Neill maximised our potential and did as well as we could possibly have done you are deluded.

He had backing most managers would kill for and when all is said and done, made a bollocks of it. But yes, lets forget that and demonise the man who backed him with all those resources and not the man who squandered them. That makes sense.

Randy should rightly get bollocked for hiring McLeish, for not appointing more footballing expertise to the board, for giving O'Neill too much dictatorial control over finances and many other things I'm sure. But from 2006 - 2009 he was lionised by media and fans as something like the perfect owner. A man who let his manager have the money and freedom to operate with a free hand.

I hope he sells up because I think his time has gone with Villa now. The best chance he and we had of success pissed away because he backed the wrong horse. He needed (and still needs) better advice. Alas, it's done.

That's all I've got to say. I've already wasted more time discussing Pubehead than he's worth.

It just really grates to see Villa fans defend him when he's pretty much shafted us.

If you believe there were lots of managers that could come in and do better than O'Neill then you are deluded. Name me one manager who you guarantee would have done better, that is a realistic appointment, and I will back down but personally I think when you take charge of a club that is lightyears away from the established top four and you get as close as he did you can be pretty happy with what you've done but regret never having the chance to complete the job. He signed bad players but he signed some bloody good ones too. And as I've mentioned before, the January transfer window is not an easy time to sign a striker. Look how much we had to pay for Bent? And that was a panic buy! O'Neill desperately wanted a striker but chose to bolster his defence and midfield first, sounds a sensible approach to me. It's not like our strikers have been getting much service this season is it! You can also bang on about the squad left by O'Neill, has it not occurred to you that he would have continued to make changes? He was in charge for less than five years, if you expected more success in that time, bearing in mind what a mess we'd been in under O'Leary then you are clueless.

You write that shit and call me clueless?

He could have bought Bent but allowed him to go to **** Sunderland cheaply because he wouldn't know a striker if he fell over one.

You say he sensibly built from the back? He replaced the entire defence he himself had just bought with money that could have been used elsewhere on, oh let's say, the striker we desperately needed?

January is only a bad time to buy if you're Martin O'Neill and only shop in the UK. Or if, for an example, you haven't bought properly in the summer because you've just bought an entire defence again (at the last minute of course), plus the odd shite midfielder and forgot to buy that striker we desperately needed, so wait until January and still get it massively wrong.

Not a **** clue.

I personally couldnt care less if you "back down" or not but it's pointless talking managers because you would only say "we wouldn't have got him" or whatever. But I do not agree, nor will I ever, that Martin O'Neill was the best man for the job or the most capable. If you'd gone to a lot of the best managers with a billionaire ready to plough tens of millions into a project you honestly think they wouldn't be interested? But Randy had to work with him as he'd just been appointed (no doubt with Randys blessing).

And please spare me from the great squad buiding work of O'Neill from the dark days of O'Leary (who was a clearing in the woods). As if splashing millions on players is a difficult task. He still inherited some of the best players from O'Leary and managed to do no better in the league (6th). Big **** deal.

The truth is that due to his lack of foresight in buying a defence (he bought Shorey on Sidwell's advice for **** sake!), his inability to buy a striker even though lavished with a huge transfer budget and his uk only myopia in the transfer meant that, unfortuantely for us, he was not the ideal person to be spending the money we had. Money that if better used, would have put us in a very strong position then and now.

Yes, he bought some good players. It's not really that hard. Good players tend to be quite obviously good.

But he also:

- Spent £5m on the hopeless Sidwell and gave him £50k p/w

- Heskey for £4m on £60k p/w :shock:

- Beye on 40k p/w

- Bought Marlon Harewood

- Bought Shorey on a recommendation of a player he hardly used.

- Sold Cahill and bought Davies at twice the price.

- Bought a winger with a broken leg when we needed a striker.

- Left everything to the last minute.

- Could rarely win a game after February.

This is really the best we could have hoped for at Aston Villa? I think my expectations are higher.

2 Great Posts Mazrim

Nobody seems to have mentioned Petrov's performance on Saturday.

Let me start by saying that broadly this season he has been one of our better players (admittedly not sayin much). He is experience is essential to our midfield and we miss him when he's not there.

However his performance was really really bad on Sat. On at least 5 occasions I say him walking back towards our goal as the Arsenal midfield streamed past him. He was also walking when Gibbs got in for the first goal.

For a centre mid that is inexcusable -

Now Father Abraham said he saw him limping heavily after the game which would explain the performance but the fact is if he was injured what the **** was he doing on the pitch.

These are my thoughts as well. He should win player of the season, just for his general consistency (always around the 7/10 mark).

Saturday was possibly the first time I have seen him put in a really bad shift (which if mentioned above he was injured then understandable).

Was so surprised to see Herd come off from holding midfield and Gardner put into that role. In my eyes it would have been better leaving Herd on, Gardner as the advanced midfielder and Petrov to go off. It even looked as if Petrov thought it would be him going off. Started to move towards the dugout when the board was produced, only to then see Herd's number appear.

Whilst I don't know any "facts" on the matter. I have read in the past that clubs have paid wages for players who have left. Think there was a big story about the reason that Leeds got into so much debt when they dropped down the leagues was because they were paying part of wages for some players who had left and joined another club for less wages. Can't see how it would illegal if legitimate contracts were in place

Holteexile good point in the main . However, I actually don't think McLeish has handled the integration of the kids that badly. The only one who can feel hard done by really is bannan who was playing well and then was dropped because of his driving exploits (fairly), but then hasn't really had a chance to reclaim his place.

Gardner has been brought through well, albrighton hasn't shown enough even when given a chance, herd has taken his opportunity and Clark was in the team before injury.

Ok the tactics may not suit the abilities best but I still feel that the youth have been handled fairly well

I rang on tuesday and was told only 30 left in p8...

People always use that Utd team as an example...but even then there were a lot of experienced signed players in there team...bruce, pallister, schmeichel, keane, cantona, mclair, irwin were all mainstays of that side.

Yes it had some exceptional players in, but since then how many "world class" players have Utd produced from their youth team? Answer none

I'm proud of the youth team and how many players are in the match day squad, it's no mean feat and I can't believe people are moaning because we haven't produced world class players.

Not heard of the bloke or seen him play so can't comment on that. However, he has international and european competition experience so may be very benefitial to the squad. Also hitting a good age where we may see the best of him. Also would appear that his wages may be low(ish).

Kudos for the club and McLeish for actually making an early signing. Means he will have a full pres season with us to get to grips with the pace in England and also to know his team mates. It's about time we started making early signings.

Noticed Wiki (yes I know not the most reliable but hey) has him down as a second striker, would this maybe mean that Ireland isn't wanted?

This site never ceases to amaze me, people slating the signing when they know nothing about the player, but know which manager chose him...so he must be bad...incredible...

Anyway good luck to the lad.

Away kit based on away kits the 1960's

Home kit to go with it

Any joy with the replica tie up shirt?

I think the problem he's had since the driving thing is that he only has small chances to impress & regain his spot - and when he's on the pitch he's over-ambitious with his passing in his desperation to try to make his mark.

He was starting to look good when he had a run of games early in season, but I don't think he's had 2 starts in a row since The Incident. I'd have him over Albrighton right now, even if wing is not his natural role. He's got a good delivery and I think he could combine well with Ireland & N'Zogbia given a bit of time together. Would definitely improve our threat from set-pieces also.

Spot on

Not the real kits but 2 more away ideas

They are both class well done......could you do a mock up of the old mitre lace up top please?

Will do one tommorow

Many thanks

Not the real kits but 2 more away ideas

They are both class well done......could you do a mock up of the old mitre lace up top please?

With Wolves getting tonked 4-0 at the moment, and making Fulham look like Real Madrid, I think AMc will be safe in his job until the end of the season by default. By this I mean that RL will probably think that the likes of Wolves, Wigan, Blackburn, QPR and Bolton are that bad that they won't overhaul an 8 point (plus massive GD) advantage to send us into the bottom three, so why risk a change.

Having said that, he better be drawing up a shortlist for the day the season finishes and none of this bollocks about not going for someone that's already in a job!

Whilst I don't want McLeish, surely the example of wolves at the moment will indicate he wont be sacked unti lat least the summer. No Decent manager will leave their position to come to us at this stage of the season.

He could be our Bellamy.

The way he plays, is more like kuyt

Just said on midlands today out for season

After the qpr game I thought we had turned a corner, but we seem to have gone backwards. Just did the bbc predictor and get us finishingm on 36 points in 15th place, level with wolves. Our worst points haul in the prem?

We really are laughable at times, we speak about buying over the hill has beens on high wages (which we have) and covet bringing in young promising players (like Delph) and then cannot wait to rip into them.

This kid is talented, he has been misused, abused and ruined by three successive Villa managers. If this kid had gone to Wigan, or Swansea, we would be casting envious eyes at him. Some teams can put these players in and stick by them as they develop and make their mistakes. At VP, we are like the Sun, we set them up for the fall.

I watched this kid run the game against Fiorentina on his debut, the talent was (and maybe still is) there. We just used it poorly.

My thoughts entirely, we can't have it both ways.

Yep, agree with most of that. We also have to take into account that the lad has had his career put back almost 12 months as he was just getting into his stride, it has not exactly been ideal for him at VP

I just wonder due to the way Delph has been treated here and his subsequent loss of form, would that discourage other talented youngsters coming to the club?

Oh yeah it's like he's been treated like a slave.

Bloody hell you been sniffing that jet fuel? MON is by far the better manager when compared to the two that Randy has employed since!! People seem to forget that he didn't drop us in it by leaving he was actually constructively dismissed by Villa (i.e. sacked by Randy)!Anyway the squad is not that bad and would be doing far better under a more competant manager but how are players surposed to be motivated under such a bunch of managerial buffons.

Do you know that to be FACT? Just asking as far as I was aware nothing had been released to say this. Just because a payment was made doesn't mean that he was dismissed.

If he had simply resigned why did Lerner agree to pay out before it went to a tribunal?

Employment tribunal's can be costly matters for both parties. Unlike other civil cases, employment law means that the losing party is not responsible for the other side's costs and therefore it is sometimes more cost effective to settle pre tribunal. Plus he may have to been owed certain payments, bonuses, etc. Without knowing the full details of MON's contract and the full details of the settlment it is impossible to state either way whether he was dismissed or not.

Bloody hell you been sniffing that jet fuel? MON is by far the better manager when compared to the two that Randy has employed since!! People seem to forget that he didn't drop us in it by leaving he was actually constructively dismissed by Villa (i.e. sacked by Randy)!Anyway the squad is not that bad and would be doing far better under a more competant manager but how are players surposed to be motivated under such a bunch of managerial buffons.

Do you know that to be FACT? Just asking as far as I was aware nothing had been released to say this. Just because a payment was made doesn't mean that he was dismissed.

Next home game we should sing...ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!!!

If he were to go now, it would need a big name to come in, someone like Capello

It would be pointless appointing another mediocre manager such as Curbishley Shteve or Sven.

OFF TOPIC but - Capello - SERIOUSLY? The bloke didn't like England or the nature of football here, despite his success at clubs avroad he would be awful english club manager (and we couldn't afford him).

ON TOPIC - As for McLeish he has some good players and should be inspiring them to play better. I beleive if we started games with the intent to attack, rather than leaving that onus to the opponent, we would be a far greater position.

His tackling is bad......still looks as if he will injure someone else or himself.....

McLeish has promised him the world to come to villa, maybe the captain's role has been talked about too!

Can't see Petrov being stripped of the captaincy

Would love to see Keane stay longer though. Can't see it though why would you give up LA for brum?