gilbertoAVFC

MON's relationship with the media is a funny one really. He's still hailed as a great manager despite his blindingly obvious faults that are there for any clued-up Villa fan (not saying he's awful, but the consensus acknowledge that he is very old-fashioned, tactically rigid and stubborn). It infuriates me when our fans are slated for even daring to criticise the great Martin during games. The amount of insults aimed at us as fans by the media for booing against Wigan, although it's counter-productive, was pathetic when there were glaring negative factors that needed to be addressed. A lot of journos watch Villa once every three months and some of their research is poor at best, and thus this image of O'Neill being a great manager is kept. He'll be found out this season I feel if we go on a bad run. He's not a bad manager, just an incredibly over-rated one.

That's a massively subjective view of that squad. I personally disagree with almost all of it. You're (IMO) particularly generous towards Ridgewell, Davis, Berger (by that stage in his career), Baros (ditto), Sorensen (ditto), and Delaney was already crocked as far as I remember. You're arguably quite selective in your choice of replacements too. It's certainly not 'nonsense' at least. Davis > Sidwell Sorensen > Carson Cahill > Knight Ridgewell < Davies Baros < Carew Berger < Milner? (can't think of a direct replacement) Delaney (when fit) = L. Young Bouma = Warnock Pretty inconclusive really. It's not 'nonsense', nor is it the opposite. However, I'd have to favour Risso because the replacements cos about 5x more!

To be fair though, the goalposts have been moved quite significantly in the last year. It may be that our apparent austerity is a reaction to what's happened at Eastlands; why pour more money into a dream that all of a sudden has a significant chance of disappearing off over the horizon? Last season may have been our best chance of CL football for the foreseeable future. Until the Premier League introduce a wage-cap, it'll be forever, unless some Sheikh buys out Randy. Yaya Toure's transfer is just crushing for a team like Villa. What hope do we have?

The appeal to 'domestic competition' success last season is not really plausible in my opinion. The most difficult teams we beat in both were Blackburn and Sunderland. Not exactly ground-breaking now is it? We also played our best team in each game (which I support, yes, but other teams such as Sunderland didn't). You can point to the league position as a reason why MON has been successful, but not the cups, as we were outplayed in both of the difficult games. We've spent loads of money, and that money has run out seemingly. My answer is no, I feel we need a more pragmatic, less stubborn and generally more modern manager. I won't be upset if he stays, as MON's still a decent manager in many respect, but I don't think he can take us forward from here.

Hi General. First time poster on your thread, but I've had a season ticket at Villa Park since the age of thirteen and I'd like to think I speak on behalf of the vast majority of Villa fans (see voting thread on matter) when I say that I'd never like to see the singing-based atmosphere to change at Villa Park, and I think that with the possibility of these vuvuzelas being allowed into the ground, this could be spoilt. What is the clubs stance on the issue of the potential banning of vuvuzelas? The Premier League have indicated that it is up to each individual club to act and Spurs have been the first to do so. I'd hate to see the Villa Park atmosphere tarnished by monotonous trumpets as I feel they had a negative impact on the atmosphere of the World Cup fixtures. Thanks.

Sorry but I'm with MON on this. Why would he publically announce that Milner wants to leave unless he was certain that is what has been established? By indicating the player wants to leave, he has lowered the value of an unhappy player. What's Milner got to be 'angry' about? He clearly wants to leave, and MON has basically given him his wish providing a fee is agreed? Could this be Jimmy's agent trying to stir things up even more to make sure a deal HAS to go through?

Can I just say, from the club's perspective, I can't see how getting in the region of 28 million quid for a player like Milner could be anything but a good thing. Yes, we all know he's young and a very good player, but to get such an inflated sum for somebody who could certainly be replaced in time would be great in my eyes. I've said it all a long I think Milner is a tad over-rated. He works harder than anyone and he must be commended for that and his technical side has improved a lot so I'm saying I won't miss him, because I will, but we could reinvest that money on players like Ireland and Parker for instance and in my view that would make Villa a stronger team. 4-2-3-1 anyone with those two in it? Quality. From a personal perspective, and I don't want to jump on any 'Milner's a mercenary' bandwagon here, I can't understand Jimmy's reasoning behind his request to move other than it being to do with financial gain. I'm not saying I'd do any different to a company I have little affiliation with personally other than they are my employers, but to say that it is down to ambition can't be the case. It's been well and truly proven this season that if City don't reach at least the Top Four, the message to the manager is to keep spending until they do (as Gareth found out when Mancini decided he wanted Yaya Toure to replace him). If City fail to break the Top Four then Milner will be just the latest player to give way for a bigger star. If they succeed, they'll be able to start attracting THE very best players which means that the Kaka-type players that turned them down a few years ago due to not participating in the Champions League will be no more. Money and trophies would tempt all but the loyalist of players. I hope Jimmy continues to develop as a player from an England perspective at Man City as he has done under MON, but I don't think there's much chance of it with all the inevitable changes this time next year. He'll get his bumper payday, and just a small fish in a big pond. He knows that wouldn't be the same here.

Barca: --------------Valdes------------------- Alves Pique Puyol Abidal/Maxwell -------------Busquets---------------- -----------Xavi----Cesc--------------- Messi--------------------------Iniesta ----------------Villa--------------------- Real: -----------------Casillas-------------------- Ramos----Albiol-------Pepe------A. Cole? - Mourinho's been touted to be linked with him -------Xabi Alonso--Diarra?(several options there) Ronaldo---------Kaka------------Di Maria ------------------Higuain--------------------