Rob182

Randy's jet popped into France for some frogs legs and we all think it's Houllier.

I'm not too concerned about the Friedel/ Carew issues with Houllier. Friedel is probably in his last year anyway, I can't see Houllier picking Guzan over him so we'd end up buying a new keeper next year/ January - fair enough. Carew probably has one or two years left and we already know that we need to buy a new striker partner for Gabby. Houllier is one of the best managers available IMO. I'd be happy if we got him. Though he's not a "Mourinho", he is a big manager. Also, though Houllier's made some okay/good/bad signings, I think that Randy will still say that we want to keep our British spine in our squad and also use our youth. Part of the statement the other day was to "work with the existing strengths in the squad" (or something like that)..

get it sung in pubs before away games, it'll spread quickly. thats how it gets going. I'm in the Upper Holte but I'm on the 3rd row from the front.. so my ramblings won't get heard at the top!

Excellent post Gaz. Your thoughts echo a lot of mine. Although I knew when I read it that someone would comment like below: If the above is true I would love to know who ten days after Martin O'Neill left the club, and with no manager in place, decided to sell James Milner and buy Stephen Ireland. Mark, what would you have preferred the club did? Kept Milner at Villa despite his seeming desire to leave? He then wouldn't sign an extension and we'd be offered a lot less money next year. Maybe we'd keep him again and let him go for free when his contract runs out? It's not good long-term-planning to allow your players to go for free. If the offer of Stephen Ireland & £15m+ was being offered then Randy would have been mad to turn it down. Irrespective of whether we had a manager or not.

Ronald Koeman said on BBC that Villa contacted his agent last week, but nothing further happened. If what he said is true, I don't understand why we'd contact him if we were desperate for someone with Prem experience.. Unless we contacted him and THEN decided.. "Actually, someone with Prem experience would be good". I don't know much about him personally, but I read something about the fact that he's won a trophy at every club he's managed at - unless he was counting the Peace Cup or Guardiana Cup

So you're reading and posting on the site why?? Because he normally checks the OS for his news and has had no luck refreshing it Today..

Cluckedy click That's what I call "owned". Shame I can't find any good picture of that. I watched that interview with my own eyes, thanks. Where does he dismiss hughes? Owned, please. I feel sorry for you that you believe everything portrayed right in front of your eyes. Football is all smoke and mirrors. Sooner you realise that, the sooner that feel of disappointment year after year will fade. Oh to live a life like yours Jas, you seem to have everything worked out. I wish I was as enlightened as you.

What evidence do you have of this mate? How do you know that MON didn't want Ireland? Good mates with Martins nephew. He doesn't know much else. I told people this on the day, but was dismissed. Now people continue to miss the obvious in front of them and have justified the signing of ireland without a moments honest thought. 'Miss the obvious in front of them'.... That we've sold Milner but got a lump sum of cash and an excellent player also? Who would have MON wanted instead? McGeady... if that's true then I'm glad he went.

I can't see us bringing anyone in Today but it's possible some players could leave. From the BBC Transfer deadline day feed: It could be BS, but the bit underneath about 3 people stating that is good news IMO!

Cuellar, Collins & Dunne - rotate weekly Bring one of Clark or Davies into the side for cup games. Although, I can't remember if I've seen Cuellar and Collins play together..

I predicted 1-0 in the match thread! Excellent performance by the whole team, to be honest. Downing and Warnock could have done better, but still it was a great team effort. Our defence was solid, the only thing I disliked was the lack of composure on the ball for the last 20 minutes. We kept hoofing it upfield when we should have put our foot on the ball and forced Everton to chase our passes. Ash it my MOTM as he was chasing everything down and a lot of our best attacks were through him. Friedel - 9 L Young - 9 Dunne - 8 Collins - 8 Warnock - 7 Albrighton - 8 Petrov - 8 NRC - 7 Downing - 7 Ash - 9 Carew - 8 Sub: Gabby - 8

Ever the optimist, I'll say 1-0 Villa! With our "best 11" we can beat Everton. I wouldn't mind seeing the set up from last night but with this line-up: Ash ----------- Gabby ------- Downing Ireland -------- Stan ----- Reo-Coker Warnock - Dunne - Collins --- Young ----------------- Friedel --------------- Though it's risky to go that attacking against Everton..

Our grammar's shit m'lord. Villa4Europe, I agree! We need to get a few more player chants going! Petrov and Ireland could do with one, I think.

Amen to that, brother!

Ash wont be sold, I'd put money on that. I'd love us to use the Milner money to buy Given and a striker - then put Friedel as backup to play cup games.. .. though I know I'm dreaming :winkold:

Great player! I might even get Ireland on my new Villa shirt! I agree that he'd be effective further up the pitch, but I'm not opposed to him playing centrally if we're playing a 4-3-3 like last night. It's all well and good having him further up the pitch, but if you can't get the ball through to him theere's no point him being there! In a central midfield 3 he's going to be in amongst the action for most of the game. As someone has said, we just need the other players to get onto his wavelengh so they can all link up as well as he intends! I also think that with Luke Young and Warnock as the fullbacks, we will play a lot better as they can push forward and link up with the central midfield 3 and attacking 3 (as opposed to last night, when we had fullbacks with no confidence and ended up keeping the ball in defence constantly).

I agree with your ratings apart from Ireland's. I would also rate him a 7 as he did as much, if not more, than Albrighton. I'm not completely depressed as we also exited last year and it proved to be a blessing in disguise as we got to Wembley twice. Financially it's not a problem - but it's just frustrating that we went out to Rapid again!! Grrr

I missed the offer so got 2 tickets for £15 each. Ah well, I'm putting more money into the club!

Milner saying he made the right choice going to City. One thing I think is odd, which I might be reading too much into, is that he refers to Villa as "us" and City as "they"..

I'd go.. Guzan Cuellar, Collins, Davies, Beye Downing, NRC, Petrov, Ash Ireland Gabby I hope Ireland is available for Tonight's game!! I didn't think he would be as Milner isn't available for City - but I suppose they filled up their squad with other stars..

Potato Head, give us a wave, Potato 'tato, give us a wave! I can imagine it now!

I'm going to get behind any manager that we appoint, but I have to say I'm now leaning towards the idea of getting a lower league manager. Someone like Simon Grayson would be ideal IMO. If we're talking about lower league managers that play a nice style of football and have actually acheived something, he's done quite well with Leeds (though I don't know if he's been given a lot of money to spend).

It's all on the OS mate. Mods - sorry for answering, but some questions are pointless when the poster could find them on AVFC.co.uk.

Apparantly Spurs were quoted £8.5m for him. Get him with the Milner money, then we'd have some money left over to buy a striker (or not, I don't mind if we stick with Gabby, Carew & the Fonz). Although, if Spurs are interested - he'd probably prefer to go there instead of to us.

I might be wrong, but didn't Friedel cost us around £500k? If so, then I really doubt we could get more than that if we sold him on. £3.5m Where did I get £500k from?