colleh

We have a midfield full of guys (Bannan, Ireland and Downing) who struggle to impose themselves at this level.

Okay but I've never seen anything that says he's a 'very good left back' apart from the fact he used to play there and is now a great winger...so people just make the assumption in my opinion.

His incredible form started at left back, he was rampant.

He's still very destructive from there though and offers way more as a left back than Bouma ever could.

Bale is a very good left back and a world class winger, that's why they play him out wide.

Yeah. Well even if you put Bouma of 07-08, to Bale now. Bouma is arguably a better left back. Simply because Bale's good work is done far up the pitch.

No chance.

Another good one was when Villa were linked with Forlan a few years back and people said he wasn't good enough for Villa - now he's probably going to be voted one of the top 3 players in the world when the awards are announced....

When Villa fans said Bouma was better than Bale

Feel free to add more, but that one seems pertinent tonight.

How is Foster on Clark not a penalty??

That has to be practically the worst central midfield that Villa have ever fielded in the top flight?

It's just devoid of anything and everything when going forward.

Bit late for the dutch to be taking the moral highground over heavy tackling after their performances at the world cup.

Heskey's had his one moment for the match anyway, time for Carew to have his.

Downing can do nothing esle all game if he gets a goal and an assist every match.

He never got an assist though.

Warnock crossed it.

Yea, thank god MON has gone, now Barry 'the new Lionel Messi' will get his chance and inevitably lead us to the title.

At least we'll get some foreign signings now.

Director of Football?

Laughable.

No wonder MON left.

GH spent 80 million net in 5 years compared to MONs 90m in 4. He won an fa cup,league cup and uefa. Also finished top 4 more than once and one season 7 points off winning the league. Let's look at his positives and give him a chance hey?

You can't compare money spent 10 years ago to money spent recently - you got more for your money back then, players cost more now.

Sorry if this has been asked already, but....

Who authorised the signing of Stephen Ireland?

Calling it 'gay shit', misses the point completely and displays fanboy-ism.

This is essentially what it boils down to.

It's sort of a shame because it creates a "Us vs Them" mentality from some 'boxing only' fans against MMA, which is ironic because that's what MMA was created as; an arena where techniques from all professionally contested combat disciplines are allowed in order to allow practitioners to compete against each other.

I can appreciate that some people prefer standing fights but it puzzles me that they can in no way appreciate that a world class boxer can be so easily dominated in a fight, whatever techniques are used.

Another thing is that I can't really see how boxing can be someone's outright favourite sport. What is so detestable about kicking (or kneeing and elbowing) that stops them from favouring kickboxing (or muay thai)?

I can appreciate the way Toney was dominated. I'm a boxing fan that accepts a MMA fighter would beat a boxer in a street fight/MMA fight 99/100.......but it's boring how they do it.

Favouring MMA over boxing is like favouring the decathlon over the 100 metres or gaelic football over football.

Why does he bother crossing the halfway line? He's useless in attack.

And when he does go forward, he can't be arsed to get back and do the job he's half decent at.

And he fouls too much.

That fight is one of the reasons I prefer MMA to boxing. Don't get me wrong, I love boxing, but it is just one discipline. In MMA you need to be well rounded in order to even stand a chance, and that takes some talent.

That fight showed why I prefer boxing.

Go watch Toney - Jirov, then watch Toney - Couture. 36 minutes of brilliant boxing vs 3 minutes of gay shit.

So that's them two guaranteed a starting place in Oz.

Bell will come back to replace Morgan, and england will start with strauss, cook, kevin legend pietersen and collingwood all struggling for form. And thus the ozzies will regain the ashes.

Who should we pick instead of any of those players then?

Hate to say it but i was told Southgate is in the frame -God forbid!

I don't even want to consider that

People need to start realising its going to be someone they dont like.

God i would hate Southgate, but he might be crackin we dont know!

I'd rather have MON's nasal hair in charge than Southgate.

We lost 7-1 with MON last season.. so stop talking about him please

To the champions Chelsea, not Newcastle

Who needs MON eh?

Harry Kewl doesn't even play for us.

Young Clark will handle him as well.

Blues will be after him.

I firmly believe we have players who will look better now because of the formation we will play and the confidence that MacDonald / new manager will give to the fringe players.

Sidwell for me is a prime example of someone who should benefit from it and suddently 4 or 5 players become real options for us .

The squad needs tinkering not a major overhaul .

Ireland and Keane were all we need this season in my opinion .

Is that taking into account Milners leaving or not out of interest?

I assume so given Ireland but worth asking....

Yes we lose Milner then Ireland replaces him . I |just don't think there are many better players we can go for out there at the moment who would make a real difference . Keane would be ideal for 2 years before someone like Weimann fully develops.

MM, where do you think we stand now on the whole "sell to buy" issue?

I think I'm slightly losing the plot on transfers - do we still want to offload a bunch of expensive fringe players or has that now all changed?

They would love Heskey to leave I asked about the Sunderland rumour to be told if only ! Randy likes Luke Young and felt he was treated as a scapegoat for the Chelsea 7 1 game so doubt they would let him go .

Not sure if they will let anyone go at the moment and allow the new manager to make the decisions . We do need though to move a few off the wage bill and my gut feeling is Heskey / Davies / Beye are the likely most candidates .

It worries me if our board are deciding who they'd like to let go and who they'd not. Lerner shouldn't have an opinion on things like this, he should leave this to the manager.

Someone posted earlier with stats that Ireland was among the top tackling defenders in the 2008/2009 season. He can track back and tackle too.

Forget stats.

Ireland is not a proper central midfielder. I will say now that he can't play in a two man central midfield.

He's more of a second forward.

He'll thrive in a 5 man midfield, but flounder in a 4 man midfield.