claret75

I wouldn't mind seeing Sven in charge, I'd rather him than most that have been mentioned.

So would I Mr S.

Has anyone else thought it possible that Ireland still being in the Milner transfer package could mean we already have someone lined up for the managers job and they have said yes to the signing?? Probably isn't happening but you never know.

I can't wait for that one, I could really do with fist-punching face emoticon right now. Zigic will be shit and the loss of Joe Hart will lose them a few points, plus, i really doubt they'll play as well as they did last year.

Has just joined Wolfsburg. Can't see him moving now, nor Villa paying the compensation that would be required. :oops: Oh, and there was me thinking he was still at Twente. Would rather rob Wolfsberg for SM than Fulham for MH, anyway. I forgot he'd gone to Wolfsburg too. Wouldn't be a bad shout otherwise IMO. I'd prefer him too Bradley, Allerdyce and Curbishley, but prefer: 1. Jol 2. Moyes 3. Eriksson 4. Klinsman I don't really want anyone other than these.

I've been impressed with Klinsman from the couple of interviews of seen of him recently, plus he's obviously played in the PL.

Maybe those financial constraints only applied to MON after his waste in the transfer market, and a new guy = new conditions? Just a thought. There was a strong suggestion that the board wanted MON to sweat the assets he's aquired, so to speak. Either by making do and playing them more or giving him the freedom to trade them. In the end he wasn't up to it/ didn't fancy it and bailed. But those conditions wouldn't automatically apply to a new manager/ coach if he spotted a weakness at, say RB or CM and wanted a fair opportunity to strengthen that dept. Don't swallow the 'little Aston Villa' lined being peddled in the media by some of the more Pro MON elements. They always had more regard for him than they did us as a club. It was always an anomaly to them that he pitched up here in the first place. Don't be under the illusion that we aren't an attractive proposition to a high profile candidate either. The two previous managers were in that bracket (as much as DOL turned out to be a bellend) and took on the job with far less favourable conditions. Jol was very complimentary about us back in 2008 when we were drawn in the same group as Hamburg, has often stated his desire to return to England and -seeing as that's unlikely to be Chelsea/ United or even Citeh- a club who have been in contention for fourth for the past two seasons (and backed their previous manager to the tune of £120+ million) might hold some appeal. Realistically we are probably the best he could get if he wanted to return to England, and he probably knows that. It's all about just how keen he is to come back, to what extent is he prepared to burn his bridges at Ajax. He was also present at our greatest night in Rotterdam -in the Villa end of all places- so you can imagine how that would be spun if he pitched up. Sometimes we don't need the media to do us down -our own fans are more than capable of that- it seems. I also thought the sell to buy might go out the window with a new manager. I'm very much in favour of Jol taking charge.

Good article, covered all the main points of MON's time in charge i thought.

I think the same minus Bradley, who i think is a good manager but would be more of a risk.

No hoofing though. Actually I though we did fine tonight. Tried to keep it on the deck, play it through the middle, and down the wings, all in all a positive run out. Yeah, we kept it on the ground nicely and some good play. In fact, funnily enough, the person looking for the most through balls was Reo-Coker and 1 or 2 came off and the one too Heskey was very unlucky. Oh and Ashley Young's through ball to Heskey was great, wrongly flagged. We don't have the player that makes clever well timed runs upfront. Gabby. Heskey and Carew aren't really cut out for it.

Everyone looked bright enough. could have been a lot worse, signs are not too bad, though difficult to tell from a friendly.

I disagree, a big improvement from him. His final delivery wasn't up to scratch but his all round play: movement and passing were great. Agree with SV. Everything was good but his crossing.

:shock: Not filthy enough for the likes of you I would have thought. Too right ;-)

XXX Jellybean will be performing a live show on Ustreams at 10.30 tonight XXX

oops

The small, triangular patch of hair on my chest makes me feel particularly masculine.

My gf did mine with a bic once, but it looked weird and i felt like a clearing in the woods, so i never did it again. Made her laugh though. Nowadays i trim about 3 times a year, to keep it looking beautiful.

That's all very well in the abstract, but the concrete reality is: (a) Villa's transfer strategy this summer is dead in the water until the situation is resolved, because otherwise you won't even know for sure whether Mllner needs to be replaced and you won't - it seems - have lots cash to spend unless he is sold. ( If he isn't sold now, his price will likely drop for January or next summer, and in the meantime you'll be left with an unhappy, frustrated player. To be honest, City have you over a barrel. They could sign anyone out of plenty of alternatives to Milner if needs be, they know you could do with the cash, they know Milner wants out, they know his price will drop if not sold this summer, they know the damage the situation is causing to your transfer strategy ... so they don't need to hurry. I don't imagine it would bother them in the slightest to keep stringing you along until the very last moment, and then pull out altogether and sign someone else instead. Holding out for 30m is very risky and I'd guess you won't get it. As much as I hate to say it, you're spot on with your analysis mate. it's my opinion that we need the money more than they need Milner. It wouldn't be so bad if we were in the psotion we were in a year or two, where the outgoings of the club covered the wage bill, but now that isn't the case, and it's clear we have to reduce the wage bill, then I'm afraid we're not in a very strong bargaining position. I'd give them Milner for £12m and Stephen Ireland. That way, we get rid of a player who doesn't want to be here, we get £12m to buy a decent striker, and we keep Ireland out of the clutches of teams like Spurs, who I think he'd be superb at under Harry Redknapp. I agree with this analysis also, but i doubt Villa think they'll get £30m, they'd probably settle for something like £27m.

Missed the game, so can anyone tell me how the midfield looked ?? CM in particular.

What do you make of the commentators comment 'he's very left footed...' I'll say "Watch the goal :)" No, he is right, I'm always looking to get it on my left when I have the ball, although if the ball falls to my right for a chance, I'm just as confident as I am with my left and feel just as good too. I jest! I watched the vid, you pulled off some sick skills at one point, beating 2 only to run into a third. Good stuff, it's just a shame you played for the scum. 8) Is football just a hobby now then? Without boosting, I'd say that was one of the worst games I had. It was quite a slow tempo, the 8th game of 15 minutes no break, alot of us were pretty tired by that stage. At one point in the semi final, I did that flip-flap trick through someone's legs which would of looked good on camera ha. The person I ran into on that little move is a very good player, was at Cheltenham until last year but got released aged 18. Currently a hobby. Play with my mates on saturday in midland com div 1 which is ok. I'm still small physically, not height but like bulk wise. I've had a couple people ask me about going to redditch who are like conf north/south but I know right now, i wouldn't play much at all mainly because of not being able to properly cope with the physical side of the game so i'd much prefer to actually play football every sat rather than go to a team to just train and then not be on bench and waste my time. I don't know if I could go higher. I will always believe I have the ability to do so at lower league football but whether i'm actually good enough is completly different. I don't expect too and am just trying to go into coaching. Only 17 still so plenty of time yet hopefully. If you really want it, i'd say stay off the beer, get in the gym and stay focused. In my experience it's not necessarily the best players that make it, more the ones that want it more and are smarter/try harder. I'm being hypocritical here, because i did none of the above and ended up giving it up.

Yes, i think he can. Young isn't as good as Yorke was at his best, but he's still only 24 (i think), still to reach his peak.

If played in the hole all year, I think Young could score 10-15 League goals for us. Trouble is, it might prove costly if it takes a bit of time for the formation to settle. I'd probably stick with him on the wing and play him in the hole every now again when we need something different, although MON doesn't seem to keen on changing things around, lol.

Young's not strong enough to play a Yorke role. I'm think he'd do as well in the hole as he does on the wing though.

If he was fit all season and was more focused/arsed, he'd have a chance of scoring 20, but i doubt he'll be either of those. I'd like to see us either buy a better scorer or go 4-3-3 and have him coming off the bench.

I'd be a happy man if we sold him tomorrow, i'm getting sick of the whole thing. We have many other players around the same level as Milner and as someone in a previous post said, we're not a 1 man team. Let's sell him for the value of £25m and be done with it. I'm slightly worried that Man City know we're going to need the money from the Milner sale to buy players and i'm hoping they don't hold out too long, we need players.