villaglint

Hmm maybe some smoke in the Senderos rumours. That Mirror reporter saying we are going to announce a new defender signing and it made him wince! Remember the glory days when we were minutes away from getting bought by Larry Ellison. Yeah.. these ain't those days.

My 10p is on Steve Clarke. Don't see him getting any other Premier League offers any time soon and I think he'd be interested in proving himself by being part of a big turnaround project with a big name club

Yeah I like it and also like the slim fit. The fit on last years shirt was gash

I actually like the idea of having the WC in Middle East so I'd vote for that over Australia. However the corruption in FIFA really sickens me, bearing in mind the size of the sport there can't be many bigger organisations that get away with such blatant illegality. Qatar was a joke from day 1. So from me it's hell no to Qatar but I'd like to think there is a way to make it work in that part of the world

Yeah agreed I think Froch was edging it and you always felt his experience would see him through. That said Groves was looking strong in the last couple of rounds and it was looking set up for a tight finish. It was a good fight, compelling but not quite the war of last one

Yes a big possibility

Thing with Rooney is that it's the type of performance we've seen from him several times before which is why everyone jumps all over him. In my eyes he is a player who needs to be 100% fit and match sharp to have a big impact. At his best he is still one of our best players so we need to invest the match time in him during these games to get him to that point.

I'm going to go with Froch too but on a hunch more than anything. Hope it lives up to the hype because I massively enjoyed that last fight

Con - I hope you're within earshot of Roy so if things don't go to plan after 10 mins or so you just scream non stop profanities at him about why he isn't playing Barkley as a false 9

I predict a sparkling 4-0 win, Sterling to be the new great white hope and expectations of a World Cup win to start building from here. Based on that prediction I have just invested in 4.5 million St George flags which I shall be selling out the front of Asda's across the country

I think the papers are as keen as us to get a lead on this. It would not surprise me in the slightest if that story was lifted from this website. All that aside though I would welcome Villa Park being filled with prostitutes on match days. I think after the last few years we deserve a bit of excitement

Pretty sure Sturridge scored plenty while Suarez was out injured or suspended at the end of last seasons and beginning of this. Sorry Con you are a Jekyll and Hyde poster in my eyes, some interesting points and plenty of others made just for the sake of controversy. I suppose its good to think out of the box but it is difficult to know when to take you seriously.

I'd imagine you will always have the choice Tony so no need to lose any sleep just yet. I also enjoy driving but there are times usually when hungover when I would love to have a sleep in the car on the journey back from somewhere. This amazingly engineered bit of kit might fit that ridiculous need rather nicely!

Yes very true and I'm sure you stuck your ! on Bob Rich didn't you?

Be interesting to see how we reacts to the main source of passes he receives being bobbled knock downs from the big man.

I'd go for this but as Stevo says Sterling behind Sturridge. If we are going to do anything in this tournament we need someone young to announce themselves on the world stage similar to Owen and I think Sterling is the only player with high enough potential to do that. I would also give consideration to putting Barkley in that Wilshere spot.

Just for the fun of speculation. If Doyen wanted to do a similar thing in Premier League and own a team to make that happen. I can imagine ensuring how that would work "ie third party ownership" in different leagues and importing them into an owned entity in Premier League would be quite a complicated process and take a fair bit of working through with the lawyers and league etc. Maybe why we get the extended period of "no news".

Yeah he is which I think is probably wise. Like all showman ITK he obviously got told something credible at some point (i.e. the Culverhouse stuff) but he has stretched the good will he earned from that way past breaking point now

Can I add this to the comedy gold on this thread. Admin has reared his head on TBAR again and unfortunately I think signed the death knell for his rapidly dwindling credibility. Admin wrote: Hello again, The name I heard earlier is Donald Sterling (LA Clippers owner). As I said, not a name that's shown up on my radar until now. Another source has said he's heard the name but could add no more than that. Where Sterling fits into this and how far down the track he is with it I'll try to find out for you but it looks like a deal WILL be completed this summer (cue jokes about the UK summer being 8 days) As I'm sure you've read over and over, info coming out of Villa at the moment is extremely limited but I'll keep you updated when I can.

Odd isn't it, given people were banging on for ages how we were sold... its almost like they were making it up and there wasn't a buyer in place at the time of Randy's statement. I fully expect Lerner to still be around come the start of the season. Bloody hell Trent - you really are depressing, usually because you are right.

Two ways to look at this. If we get taken over in the short term (ie this summer) then surely a new owner would be looking to invest in the team. In that case I am confident we could replace Albrighton with a better standard of player. If we don't get taken over in the short term and we lose Albrighton to Leicester or whoever then that is a real blow. He was clearly one of our better players and it will mean another head to cover with an already stretched budget

I watched a minor league game in Vegas and it was very boring. Not a home run all game, little to no atmosphere. Felt like what I am sure Yanks feel when they watch cricket over here.

TT's first comment came at 2.28 so that fits with the timeline we are working to. Phew...glad we got this all wrapped up

Well there have been plenty of leaks/statements so looks like Dave was wrong on this occasion. Doesn't he work for the People or Star or something? I imagine it wasn't the first time.

@ Gentleman He did say he was gone but in another message also said he wasn't sure when this would be announced. I still don't think that is unlikely to happen. @ StanBalaban - Yes of course it is easy to say it will happen one day. I think Admin is saying it will happen soon and certainly in this close season. That is a definite statement we can test. Trent hasn't said anything that contradicts that. So as I said right now they could both be in agreement as in "Lambert will be gone this summer" although they are putting out different statements about the current status of Lambert. I just wanted to be clear on what I meant and I know this is talking about posters which will irk Trent among others but it is really about establishing the credibility of information we are hearing on the takeover. And all in all I reckon that is still all pointing in the right direction.