mjmooney

Spurs is after Wesley Sneijder now...

Where did you hear this by the way?

Here http://tinyurl.com/246ylx

Bad news for us, if true. Martin Jol is Dutch, Tottenham is in London. Could well swing it.

Me on the left, with Andy Gray and Dean Saunders at the Sheff Utd game...

Are you being JPA?

Or Steve Foster?

MON might have looked at and dismissed both Van De Vart and Sneijder.

True. After all they don't play for Celtic.

Suggestion:

Titus Bramble (Newcastle) - out of contract and available for free

Great defender with a sublime vision and concrete tackling. Would be somewhat of a sensation if we got him.

(Just kidding)

Too late, I'm afraid. SHA have swooped for him.

Yeah, we should just dismantle our scouting system and go for the players who are good on a computer game.

I must admit it does feel weird when Villa actually sign somebody that you have "signed" in FM. Way, way back in the days of CM93 I "signed" both Mark Draper and Julian Joachim way before the "real" Villa did. And more recently, I had John Carew up front in my virtual Villa.

Unfortunately, all three of them were massively, unrealistically better than the real thing. Draper I ended up selling to AC Milan for a huge fee, and Carew got 35 goals in his first season (went off the boil in his second though, so....)

OK, sorry, back on topic.

A virtual pint for anyone who can tell me where it was taken...

You're in Biarritz.

Stick my pint in the post.

[bigfatron]

Spotter's badge to chips'n'gravy

[/bigfatron]

I'd go for Owen Hargreaves, could be leaving Bayern in summer, and I know he's into playing premiership football.

Consistent,great tackler, and does have an eye for the ball. Should keep away from injury though. Doesn't make a big fuss of himself like Barton either.

Is that the Owen Hargreaves who was effectively signed by Manchester United six months ago?

Fuckinell, I'm in the 4% ("Dad's age") bracket.

AND I know how to work a computer....

Why the hell do people want Luke Young?

Well, like Chelsea collect players called Cole, we can collect players called Young.

Me and Daddy Plums, 1972.

My Dad was 26 in this pic. Cravat and cardigans were cool.

I thought you might have posted one from the "Dicky Plums calendar".

February for example.

Sheffield United have joined Wigan and Aston Villa in the race to sign Hull City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill. (Daily Star)

http://tinyurl.com/cyuz

Well I suppose we could look at it as having been an extended loan deal. Anybody know how much we sold him for in the first place?

I think he could be invited to join this lot:

http://tinyurl.com/2oqf45

Best bit:

"Infectious Lass is withdrawn and seems to suffer from a mild asthma-like condition and sounds permanently congested. Her powers involve creating an infectious slime, but it seems limited to creating a quick, mild cold".

A virtual pint for anyone who can tell me where it was taken...

I voted for Brummie Reds being worse. At least the Noses support a local team.

I might make an exception, e.g. if it's someone who was born in Brum, but to a family of Mancunians who have supported United from way back when they were shit. Otherwise, no, they're gloryhunting clearings in the woods.

Yes they do. Excellent.

Indeed it was!

Another from me... Bought the kids a Butterfly Garden for Chrimbo and our caterpillars have just cocooned. Quick pic before I transferred him into the net where he can safely emerge. Will then set him, and his siblings, free in our garden.

totally fascinating process and none of the trauma we had with our ant works ( they dug a solitary tunnel and then proceeded to die en masse in it... )

Is it just me that finds the above rather gross? Like something out of an "Alien" film.

Older readers: remember Don Revie? Picked Brian Little ONCE for England. He came on as a sub, played a blinder, set up the winning goal... and was then dropped, never to be picked again. I hated Revie with a vengeance.

Well, I hate McLaren even more.

So I've voted "no". I'm not at all interested in England games while he's in charge.

Utter, utter rocket polisher. I hope they lose every game until he is sacked.

Mike

Yes.

Just.... yes.

Mike

Bond is not known for the books

He is to me. I read all the books (in publishing sequence) before I saw any of the films.

OK, I realise that I'm in a minority here, but for me the films are (post-Connery at any rate) irrelevant. The books are where it's at.

Mike

Can't believe that anyone would vote for Moore. Hopelessly distant from the character in the books, comically untalented as an actor, and generally about as unsuited to the role as George Bush is to be a professor of moral philosophy. He has two expressions, face at rest and face with one eyebrow lifted. He has one pitch of voice. he came to prominence because he's tall, and has regular features which appeal to some in a matinee-idol way.

Connery is the business, and Craig can outdo him if given the chance. Some of the others weren't bad, but Moore is the Doug Ellis to Connery's Randy Lerner; out of place, out of depth, out of time.

absolutely 100% spot on Peter.

I am quite shocked by some of the posts here in support of Moore.

he is nothing at all like the Bond Fleming created. He's a wooden comical cartoon version of him, who got the part thanks to his outings as Simon Templar in the Saint.

Moore was not helped by the increasingly comical scripts for his Bond films, but i've yet to see Moore excel in a serious acting role, and the Bond role is (or at least should be) a serious role.

Agree with you both.

Daniel Craig has the capability to become the best overall but at the moment he is certainly reviving the franchise.

Add me to this camp. Connery the best, by a mile. Moore the worst, also by a mile.

How could Roger Moore ever hope to be James Bond? Everybody knows he's THE SAINT.

Haven't seen the new one yt, but Craig looks quite promising.

Mike

Fantastic Malc, chimes with my memories of The Great Man exactly (although I never had the privilege of meeting him).

I still get goosebumps remembering how pumped up I felt when he did that interview with a journo who reckoned that Ipswich had the league title sewn up - the look on his face as he growled "You wanna bet against us?" made me so proud to be a Villa fan, and at that moment I knew we were going to win the trophy. Because if he could inspire me like that via a TV screen, what must it have been like to be a Villa player in the dressing room?

All I can say to the younger generation of Villans is "You should have been there".

Mike

How about this one from the BBC:

"606 gossip: Mr_stewart is "99% certain" he saw Chelsea's Shaun Wright-Phillips at St James' Park with Newcastle coach Terry McDermott".

SWP at St. James's, eh? Hmmmm....

Mike

Slightly OT, but we were having a chuckle about the Upson saga earlier. This little gem from the Grauniad deadline watch made me laugh:

"Steve Bruce was insisting that Upson should do the "honourable thing" and see out the contract he signed. Steve Bruce. Seeing out contracts. Honour. It's so relaxing when you don't even have to join the dots..."

Mike

Ashley Young: "With the new training facilities and the investment in the team, there the ambition to be a top-six club and I believe that's what we can be".

I referred to this quote over on the AY thread, but thought it was worth mentioning here as a nod to the General and the rest of the Board.

Note the reference to the training facilities. Payback already. Well done fellas.

Mike

Punk came on top of hey, The Bay City Rollers (the kids'll really love em - oh dear)

Well, yes, but there were always "teen idol" acts, whether it was Mark Wynter, or The Osmonds, or The Rollers, or Westlife. They got on my nerves a bit, but by and large I could ignore them - their audience was always 10-year-old girls, who have as much right to have their own music as the rest of us.

I think we have to compare "like with like": The Pistols and clash weren't really replacing The Rollers, they were replacing (or trying to) the likes of Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, etc.

Ironically, all three acts I've just named are still around now (although for my money they WERE washed up by the time punk came along).

I liked the Pistols and Clash singles, but they couldn't really do albums. I liked the progressive bands much more, but they mostly did their best work on their first three or four albums and then went stodgy.

Mike