briggsy

4 hours ago, Pilchard said:

Alan John Frank Hitchins

That's probably why he's failed the test and has been removed as a director

Very happy with Clarke as No2

Hopefully our sister club will pay us millions in 'consultancy fees' like Man City's do!!

I'm surprised Brendan Rodgers's name doesn't come up more in this thread

Got Swansea promoted and established them in the prem playing good football

He'd be my choice

Has any other team in premier league history ever been points adrift at the bottom of the league and not made a signing in January??

I'm surprised we're not in for Jordan Rhodes

He would definitely come and we would have the championship's most proven goalscorer to fire us out the league next season

Could maybe get him a bit cheaper than the £11m Middlesbrough were going to pay by giving them Gestede back on loan for the rest of this season as well

Guzan

Hutton Richards Clark Amavi

Westwood Guaye

Vertout

Ayew Sinclair

Gestede

Come on Louis, match the bid and steal him from the bindippers!!!

The system I think would work best would be 1 similar to Major League Baseball's luxury tax where there's a set wage limit of say £120m and clubs are allowed to go over the limit but for every pound they go over they have to put the same amount into a central pot which would then get divided amongst the teams that don't go over the limit

So the 2 Manchester clubs could keep their £200m+ wage bills but they'd pay for it as would Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs at a guess and the rest of the league would benefit

It could be applied in each league across Europe with maybe smaller wage limits for smaller leagues

Why are people suggesting Fat Sam? He's building something quite good at West Ham and they're flying.

Because he's from Dudley and wants to visit the zoo again like he did when he was a young boy

I Think big sam would jump at the chance - we may have to wait until the summer though...

I completely disagree, everyone's saying he's out of contract but he's certain to get a new deal after the season they've had, plus he's already built a decent squad and he'll have more money to spend at West Ham, and theres the chance to lead them into the Olympic Stadium

Why would he swap that for a club that the owner wants to sell and where he'll have to build a team from scratch with a limited budget

5 years ago a West Ham manager would of jumped at the chance of being Villa manager but not at this moment

I think he's been promised the captaincy in the summer when Vlaar leaves

 

There was a showbiz feel to Fabian Delph announcing his commitment to Aston Villa directly over the big screen that, no doubt timed to spread a feelgood factor around the ground, was distinctly out of keeping with the majority of the season to date in this corner of the West Midlands.

However, after Aston Villa had caused yet another shock in this weekend of FA Cup shocks – they scored; they won – Paul Lambert predicted that the England midfield player can become the driving force for the club over the coming years.

The Villa manager also anticipates that Delph, 25, is a future captain of the club, although Lambert may hope that time will not come too soon as he wants Ron Vlaar, the current captain when fit and whose contract also expires at the end of the season, to follow suit and commit to a new deal.

It is thought Delph, Villa’s reigning player of the year who signed from Leeds United for £8m in 2009, becomes the club’s highest earner on £55,000 a week in a deal that takes him to June 2019. “I’m delighted he’s staying,” Lambert said. “I think it’s right for Aston Villa he’s staying. He is an England international with his whole career in front of him.

“It is brilliant for the football club. It would take millions to replace him. What’s he worth, £15m? We couldn’t do it. He will be a big driving force for this club for years to come. It is a great coup for us for him to stay. He will go from strength to strength. He is a captain in the making and has that personality and a driving force and hunger to succeed. I think he would thrive on the responsibility of it.”

Delph, who made his senior England debut in September, was paraded on the pitch at half-time as Villa milked this rare bit of good news, although more was to follow as they got their scoring boots back on in the second half when Lambert was rewarded almost instantly for an astute tactical change by switching Carles Gil to wide on the right and seeing the £3.25m acquisition from Valencia curl in a sumptuous opener on his full Villa debut.

Lambert has no doubt that Delph, who was unavailable because of an achilles tendon injury, has not signed simply to enhance his transfer value should Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur firm up purported interest at the end of the season, when his contract had been due to expire. “There’s no way that’s going to happen, no chance, [considering] the sort of person Fabian is,” the Villa manager said.

“The England thing is major for him and he was doing well breaking into the national side before his shoulder injury. There’s not too much loyalty in the game these days but Fabian before my time here had a really big injury and the club looked after him. He’s a mature guy and his loyalty speaks volumes for the guy.”

Villa’s confidence is so fragile that within half an hour of Delph announcing his news to the crowd to big applause, the pre-match adrenaline burst had dissipated in little more than the manner of a sugar rush. In ever-decreasing circles, it is as if this club was being pulled towards the plughole. Gravity calling.

The new joke, as VillaNil found themselves being outplayed by the Championship leaders, was that Delph would reappear on the big screen during the interval to announce he had changed his mind. This is a team who had only scored once in their previous six games – and then against Blackpool – and not for eight hours and 42 minutes in the Premier League; this is a club that has finished 15th in the past two seasons.

Supporters had turned on Lambert at the end of recent matches against Blackpool and Leicester City but after his signing of a new four-year deal after a fine first month of the season, there does not appear to be any appetite to change manager. Anyway, who would Villa turn to? Or be able to attract? It was not so long ago they could turn to a so-called smaller club and lure Lambert from Norwich City but would someone as proven as Steve McClaren trade an upwardly mobile Premier League hopeful such as Derby County for an ailing giant such as Villa?

Such negativity was deferred, however, as Villa could celebrate scoring more than a single goal for only the third time this season. The first bred the second; suddenly Lambert’s side started playing with belief. The passes zipped around with first-time conviction instead of the multi-touch ponderousness of many recent games. This was exemplified when Leandro Bacuna pinged in a wonderful pass behind the full-back for Alan Hutton to cross first time for Andreas Weimann to turn home adroitly.

Despite Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time goal for Bournemouth, Villa could breathe several sighs of relief. With Arsenal and Chelsea next up, it is a good job but upturns have to start somewhere.

 

From the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jan/25/aston-villa-fabian-delph--bournemouth-fa-cup

After seeing Lambert's comments here does anyone else think that Delph's been promised the captaincy in the summer when Vlaar leaves and this has probably been a major factor in him signing a new contract

The thing I can't get my head around is that if she was too drunk to give consent to sex with Evans then surely she's too drunk to give consent to sex with McDonald as well

There's CCTV footage of her swaying all over the place and falling over in the kebab shop so surely she's too drunk to give consent to sex with MacDonald as well

The jury deem that to be a fit state to consent to sex with McDonald yet despite not consuming any more alcohol, a few hours later she's in no fit state to consent to sex with Evans

Do the jury really believe she was in a worse state than in the kebeb house???

Out of interest how many other premier league footballers do people think have done something similar? People like John Terry, Ashley Cole, Kieron Dyer,Jermaine Defoe, Gabby?

A special player, the guy oozes class, how many centre halves in world football can light up a game when they get the ball like he does?

If he stays injury free, by next season he'll be as good as any centre half in the prem apart from Kompany

He's destined to go on and play for a huge club at some point but i hope he stays with us for at least another 2/3 years and doesnt screw us over too early

His tackle today wasn't a good one but am i the only person who thinks it should only have been a yellow?

Yes it was late and he lunged a bit with his studs showing and gave Mike Dean a decision to make but his foot was quite low and he didn't catch him badly, i still think it was only a yellow

For me theres probably at least 10 tackles every week in the prem like that, McAuley's tackle on Gabby early on wasn't much better

I think this is FIFA's biggest mistake yet

Now everyone will demand that the whole report is published and everyone will see exactly what they've tried to cover up

Not saying a total reform will happen but a few heads will roll

It'll be interesting to see exactly what the full report said about our own bid compared to what FIFA said about us this morning

Amazes me how many people's opinions of Pulis are taken from the media's intepretation of him rather from actually watching his teams

Last season i didnt see Palace hoofing balls left right and centre i saw players like Puncheon and Bolasie running at people trying to make things happen

Sam Allardyce is also labelled with the same tag, would we not be happy playing the way West Ham are this season??

Pulis in 2 months made Palace a better side then Lambert has made us in over 2 years

For what he's achieved in the prem Pulis deserves a go at a bigger club and we should give him that chance

If we dont get him soon 1 of our relegation rivals will and that team will probably end up finishing above us

Lolz at all the blouse fans saying Pulis, like he would even consider going there

Sorry if this has been asked before, i have an android tablet and i want to stream live football, i'm struggling as i can't download adobe flash player properly as its no longer supported on android, how do i get round this??

Since the start of the premier league a lot of things have changed that have ruined football but for me if we get to a situation where half the teams play 19 home games and the other half play 18 then its one of the biggest nails in the coffin of all

How long before there's a scenario where 2 teams like Hull and Southampton are battling each other for relegation, they play out a half paced, jet lagged 1-1 draw in Beijing in November then in the return game in April at St Mary's Southampton have the crowd behind them and win the game, Southampton finish on 38pts and stay up, Hull go down on 37pts with the extra home game having a major influence on who gets relegated

Leicester

Man City also have 2 sell 48000 seats not 42500

Chelsea

The shooting's quality on the demo

What a difference a decent CEO makes

He's got more done in a couple of weeks then Faulkner did in the last 12 months