meregreen

He's actually a pretty average player. Without his pace he wouldn't have much to offer. His first touch is woeful , doesn't make many intelligent runs, one on one he is the worst I have ever seen. Simply being a Villa fan is not enough. . He came off yesterday, and the player who replaced him was more effective and laid on the winner. Sentimentality is fine, but it needs to be balanced by a sense of realism. In my opinion , with a few isolated performances scattered over the last few seasons, he has been in a slow decline. Others may disagree, fine.I've never been one to have my opinion of a player clouded by sentimentality.

He's doing a job for us at the moment. But if we truly want to improve next season, we need a better player. Let's hope the club provide the means to do this.

Heard him speak a couple of years ago. Even in his eighties he was a tremendous orator. His final message was that every generation has to refight the struggles that previous generations have fought. Have to say, in today's world those words were never truer. RIP Tony, and where's my tin hat.

Quite often, a very small proportion of his membership voted for those actions, even if those actions were wrong. And that has what exactly to do with the man himself? Some people didn't vote, thats Bob Crow's fault? I'm no big fan of trade unions at all but I can't vilify a man for doing the job he was paid to do So it's alright to support one group of people and to hell with the consequences of their actions on everybody else? That's what I keep telling people who vote Tory

A great union man who took up the challenge of defending his members pay and conditions, and showed that if you're prepared to stand your ground together, and fight, you can win. Would that we had more like him. RIP Bob.

From the late 19th century right up too the second world war, before working men had the time or means to travel long distances for a football match, our average attendance have usually beaten and often dwarfed theirs. There are and always have been more of us than them in the city's boundaries Deep down they know it, it just hurts too much to admit it.

No that's not true. The IMF reported a structural deficit of 5.2% Compared to US 3.3%, France 3% and Germany 1.1% We were in a worse position than most of the major economies, The average structural deficit for the last five year of the Labour Govt was 5.3% as opposed to the last five years of the previous Tory Govt of 5.8%. By November 2012 after 2 and a half years of this coalition it had increased to 68.5% A greater net increase than the whole 13 years of Labours tenure.

As far as I'm aware, the current "bust" was caused by private debt ie the banks. Public finances were relatively robust and debt to GDP was better than the previous Tory Government had managed prior to Labours election in 1997. Doesn't quite fit the myth does it

Ah. If you can't debate the point , shoot the messenger. As for private versus public. Well the USA has private hospitals and the cost of treatment there is absolutely horrendous. If we're arguing about the phrase selling off the NHS how about we change it to selling out.. There, I gave my opinions without calling anyone scum.

So you agree that overall since he arrived at the club he has been poor.

He didn't play too badly against a poor Norwich team. But looking at his performances overall in his time at the club, he's a pretty poor player. We need to replace him with much better if we are ever to break out of this depressing cycle of relegation fights.

Wonder how the Daily Heil will pin that on Milliband.

. See your point. But just imagine how they would feel to see their grandkids wearing Villa tops. It would be so sweet.

**** em. Public health would improve immeasurably if they were exterminated from the face of the earth.

You're not alone with your opinion of Ahmadi John. Simply running around a lot hardly merits any accolades. The guy is very limited. Benteke was the great difference between the two sides. Thank God he's found some form, were gonna need him at his best. Not safe yet, but breathing a little easier.

Brilliant.So his inability to control the ball, pass or head is down to Lambert?. If a manager surrounds a good player with a pile of shit, don't be surprised if he starts to be affected by it. In a better team Benteke would thrive. Sadly he might need to move to achieve this.

Yes

No, he's a striker. Some of us know he simply isn't a very good one.

A large majority of people wanted Lambert. I was one of them.I was wrong. Any manager stands or falls on results , and his are with a few exceptions, bloody awful. We are categorically not making progress where it counts, on the pitch. Like many others I was happy to see him appointed. He has however drained me of any enthusiasm for his continued tenure. A new manager may be no better, he would certainly be inheriting a pretty poor squad of players with which to work with. But I'm prepared to take that chance rather than continue watching the club I love flounder any longer under this managers clueless tactics and worryingly poor transfer dealings.

The Tories use the term "benefits trap", and completely miss the causes of this so called trap.Low pay and shortage of decent jobs.Instead of offering real help to the unemployed, the vast majority of whom desperately want to work, they seek to demonize them. That we put them in the tender care of an incompetent twit like IDS simply beggars belief.

Who gives a **** what they do who they sign or where they're going. Why do we have a thread on the vomit stained inbreds on a Villa site. Do you think they have a thread about us on their site that is discussing our team line ups. First and most definitely last time I ever visit this nauseating thread. Rant over.

. Simply not true.Labor did shut many pits' you are right about that. But it was done in a carefully managed way , with full consultation with the NUM. Heavy investment was put into the remaining pits, so that within a few years Britain had the most efficient deep mined coal in the world. We were actually self sufficient with the coal stocks we had, the only way foreign coal could compete was by importing from countries that either paid their miners a pittance ie Poland and China, or was mined cheaply by strip mining from opencast mines, the most environmentally destructive. Germany always took the attitude that coal mining was a strategic industry and so warranted subsidies to support it, that's why coal mining still exists on a fairly substantial scale there. We still have enough coal stocks under our feet in this country to last 400 years. Tory industrial vandalism means that unfortunately it will stay there.

That is a very shallow, right wing attitude to take, Ajax. Things are rarely that black and white. I'm sorry that I don't share this ridiculous idea of legalising drugs. In my opinion not enough is being done to fight it or punish it. Some very senior police officers would disagree with you. No one is saying that drugs should be freely available on the street, but if you provide those drugs through the NHS to registered drug users then there would be no need for many of them to comit crime to feed their addiction, and the organized crime that currently controls their supply would be destroyed. Its not an easy decision to make. But many people who have been fighting this curse for years do advocate this.

I think he was recommended to the club by Petrov.

He's always been regarded as the most talented of the two. Injuries have blighted his career, so it would be good to see him given a chance. Just how bad would he have to be to be any worse than our current mediocre midfield.