jackbauer24

You might be right. There is a strong belief though that FFP doesn't have any hard and fast rules though, I can see it collapsing in the not too distant future. But if what you're saying is the hard fast rule, then there is no point a person buying a club that isn't successful anymore; basically you're suggesting FFP only allows you to take on someone else's debt and not improve or invest in their new purchase. Surely can't be right. Surely...

Nothing works so let's just go for someone we all love. Olof Mellberg, step forward and take the crown.

If that were true though then it wouldn't protect clubs from getting in to trouble, it'd prevent them from getting out of it. Imagine Club A has been run in to the ground and players are getting £100k a week in League Two. The owner has run up £100m in debt. The new owner then can't repair the previous incumbents damage. Which means they are now unsaveable as any repair investment would be punished. It wouldn't work. This wouldn't be the case so as long as there is a structured plan I believe all new owners get some leeway. If nothing else UEFA shows precident. And let's be honest, FFP is beyond broken anyway so it will inevitably come down to court arguments anyway. But this is all for a FFP thread. My view is just that Xia is using it too much as an excuse and he's yet to be any different that Lerner and is following a very similar path so far.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it a lie, but I do feel as though FFP is being used somewhat as a convenient distraction from possible real issues with Dr Xia's ownership. There are certain comparisons between Lerner and Xia; buy from a hated past owner, promise big things, invest in fan friendly PR schemes, spend huge sums on players following advice from poor footballing men and pass them to poor managers, shout about how the big bad wolf has changed everything (Man City/ FFP) and cut spending. Lerner went one step further and stopped investing completely and abandoned his toy - but Xia isn't quite there yet fortunately. As I understand it FFP allows new owners a little more flexibility than others, all they need is a plan. This slight tweak allowed, or certainly was aimed at not discouraging, new owners to invest in failing teams. Another words if you take over a failing club and have to spend 1000% times their income but from your own pocket that's understood as long as you have a plan to break even within a period agreed with UEFA. Otherwise certain clubs, certainly such as ours, would be unsellable as it would be impossible to rectify the issues caused by a former owner. It'd be like asking a house owner to buy a house but only letting them spend a few hundred quid when the house has fallen to pieces - some larger initial investment is needed at the beginning. See this article from the Guardian for more but particularly relevant is; "How do the rules now work? After prospective club owners, particularly in Italy, complained to Platini that the FFP rules made it impossible to buy a club and then invest responsibly to grow it, Uefa introduced caveats allowing new owners to put in cash as long as they can offer a business plan that shows how they will reach breakeven. Under the new rules, clubs are encouraged to proactively approach Uefa to explain that they plan to invest and show how they will eventually reach break even." I don't think we can blame FFP for our decisions this summer as much as Xia/ Wyness would like us to believe. We needed to spend money on quality in midfield and to write off a lot of money due to past ownership; it would have been easy to pay off the likes of Richards ages ago and tell UEFA these were exceptional costs as a result of buying the club. He may be media friendly. He may be fan friendly. But I'm still not sure he's anything better than previous owners yet.

If nothing else Bruce needs to demonstrate that he's willing to make changes and not be full of ego. I'm fed up of hearing the same cr*p coming out of his mouth for nearly a year now - it's away, we need to give a better account of ourselves, we need to show more attacking ability and we need to not be just waiting for Kodjia to come back. If that's all we're waiting for we're doomed anyway - no team gets up on one player alone. Kodjia would just paper over cracks over our style of play and set up. Cardiff tore us to shreds, they were direct, they were quick and they defended high up the field and were organised - we need to know how to break teams down rather than a hopeful punt forward. Personally I'd shake it up. Johnstone Bree Chester Terry Taylor Adomah Hourihane, Onomah, Bjarnason (it's his real position!) Hogan (O'Hare/McCormack/Hepburn-Murphy/Davis; someone looking to make a point) Have the likes of Whelen on the bench to close games up, not stop them ever being open. We can't score goals with the midfield we currently have starting. Whelen and Lansbury won't create or score and slow play down. We need to go the 'we'll score one more than you' route because the sitting back like timid animals until the opposition takes one bite of us and then we get slaughtered approach isn't really working for us!

Chester and Baker worked at this level. Defence wasn't really an issue last season; as they say "if it ain't broke..." Now we've lost the youth, put a massive ego in there, reduced squad depth, given the team a false sense of security that Terry can stop everything and made ourselves a target for every striker in the league to prove they're a better player than an aging former England captain. Taking away Chester's captaincy hasn't done his form any favours either. All round disaster that didn't solve our real issue anyway; scoring.

Well I'm just back from the game... So I bought my Season Ticket and 'enjoyed' the first game of the season where we collapsed under any pressure and offered nothing in attack other than Samba! Then I paid for a SkySports Day Pass and 'enjoyed' watching us collapse under any pressure and offer nothing in attack. Then I decided to go to my first away game of the season and watch a team devoid of any ideas or attacking threat. I'm kinda sick of wasting my money week after week to watch the same turgid cr*p with zero positives to take in to the next game. If anything, we're worse this season than last. If I could get my money back on this season I genuinely think I'd have to consider it. It's beyond awful. 270mins of football and I think maybe 15mins have been of any decent quality. Even that might be optimistic. Given up.

What were people expecting?! Our problem last year wasn't the defence it was scoring goals. So what have we done? Bought two defenders in (Terry/Samba), a defensive midfielder (Whelan) a box to box midfielder (Onomah) and one winger (Elmo) who is arguably no better than Adomah. No focus has been given to our actual problems - weak midfield and impotent attacking threat. Nothing's changed. Miles off Promotion, playoffs or otherwise.

Tranmere definitely. Cup Finals certainly. But none of those I saw in person. So as a 16/17 year old travelling to matches an hour and a half away by myself (as all my mates were Liverpool/Man Utd fans) I remember going to my first European tie against some random team I'd never heard of. It started appallingly. 2-0 down with 7 minutes left... Other notable games have to be 'Merson's Everton winner' and 'Young's Everton winner' games. Oh and definitely that Boxing Day turn around against Arsenal - you know the one where Santa tried to kill himself...

Wow I started a thread I didn't start... I answered my own question anyway; according to the OS this game IS free to all ST holders. So whatever the official attendance is this year will also be our number of ST holders!

Do we still get the first cup game free as ST holders? Not got far enough in recent seasons to get a home tie and see!

As much as it's against the flow of opinion, I haven't seen anything to suggest Bree should be starting ahead of Hutton yet. I feel Bree is put in most teams because he's not Hutton rather than what he offers. Besides, Hutton was one of our best players in first half against Hull. Furthermore O'Hare is not ready to be an automatic starter. Promote him to the bench yes, give him a lot more game time certainly but let's not overhype yet another kid. He played ok/well in spells against a very weak opposition. That's all 90% of the fan base have seen of him! And in addition I certainly wouldn't want so much inexperienced youth as our sole attacking options - Green is far away from a finished article. There are calls for LB signing to cover Taylor but more pressing is a starting LM/ Winger as we currently have no-one reliable there. So with that in mind, assuming all fit (probably more a 4-1-3-2); Johnstone Hutton Chester Terry Taylor Adomah Whelen Onomah Hourihane Hogan Kodjia With bench made up of likes of Steer, Green, O'Hare, Lansbury, Bree, Gabby and Samba EDIT: I completely forgot about Elmo. Sod it, too many midfielders. Let's just have a team of midfielders...

Not overly fussed about what transfer fee we do or don't get for him, think it's much more important that there is a good sell on fee for the next transfer. Of all the players we've sold (and that includes Benteke) in recent years I think he's likely to go on to some great things. There is a really really good player in there and if the injury doesn't hold him back we'll be seeing a lot more of the lad on the world stage.

The weather was the same for both teams, the pitch was the same for both teams. Colchester can feel a little bit hard done by with that result, we were largely outplayed but definitely outfought. Horrific performance and shows how weak our squad is. Steer is definite no.2 keeper now, maybe should be pushing Johnstone. Sell Bunn? None of the kids are ready for a start but O'Hare is closest. Bjarnasson is going to have an awful career here if he's given limited game time and then in the wrong position - yes he was awful but easy to see why. Bruce's tactics stifle/ ignore midfield and we'll not see best from Hourihane either. Hogan's finishing is poor. If we ever have to play Samba then all is lost, awful performance in his position. If we've replaced Baker with Samba and Amavi with Bjarnasson then we're in big trouble. More evidence that we're miles away from a promotion side. Great result, awful game and bad signs.

The weather argument; is it not raining on Colchester players?! And don't say it affects us more, we pass less than most teams! Or are we losing the ball in the air as we get rain in our eyes...

Are we trying to use all our luck for this season in one go?! Debatable first goal on a few levels, probably okish but easily not given. Green touches it like he intends and he's offside too. Rubbish defending results in saved penalty, penalty at perfect height. Really unfortunate own goal for Colchestrer. Very pleased, but don't use up all our luck!

Not sure if it's the same with company cars but I was told, as a private buyer, that if you've got cash these days you DON'T tell the dealer. What you do is get them to work their arses off getting you great discounts etc on finance which you sign up for.... then cancel within the 14 days and pay in cash. But personally I'm fully sold on the lease method now, can't see many positives to ownership especially for newer cars.

Trying to figure out how we could be 10pts ahead already at this stage and how we can get 3pts vs Colchester... but yeah, good outside the box thinking...

Nice guys are just wimps that don't pull all the crap that bad boys do but half secretly wish they could get away with it but don't because either they lack confidence, looks or let their morals control them more than most. I'm a self-proclaimed nice guy because of all three!

I am another idiot still playing this game, but more in the background as if I'm walking somewhere I'll put it on to gain km. Although really there is no point as there is nothing left to get that requires km for me. I had 1 left to get then they released Gen 2 so I carried on. Then I got all them so it went on back burner again. But then I went abroad (US) so got all region specific of those, Florida is particularly useful in that respect. Then today I hear Kangaskhan is available in BIRMINGHAM (also unowns) so have to get that to. I can't figure out raids so the legendarys are beyond me and I don't count them! I don't care about battles or raids or good CP etc, just want them all! I didn't even like Pokemon as a kid, only played because my nephews wanted me to join them (and have long since stopped playing) and yet I sit on 237 caught out of 238 seen and am half tempted to book a flight to Japan to get that bloody Farfetch'd because I'm so OCD about completion!

I've been very much on the fence with Bruce but yesterday he scared me so much with one decision that it really pulled in to focus my fears about the coming season. Bringing on Samba as just a big guy to lump it to shouted of a lack of any tactical nous at all. If you're going for that desperation then why take Hogan off who would benefit from any trouble caused by the big guy? It is arguably the worst decision I've ever seen a manager make at Villa Park. I've disagreed with substitutions before but that's normally because I think we should be going for it or adding players to the midfied to regain control but putting on a massive clogger of a defender as a striker in the first game of the season is frankly laughable. If he'd put on a defender to play for the draw I'd have been annoyed but it's at least a valid decision, if he'd putan attacking midfielder on (Hourihane) I could see the argument due to lack of options. But Samba is a striker is marginally better than bringing on Bunn in that role! In itself it's not a reason to call for Bruce to be sacked but it has amplified fears that he doesn't have a clue how to get the best out this squad. Suppose we'll know for sure in the next few games.

Much as 16/17. Loads of chances, none taken first half. Sat back second half til they inevitably scored whilst fans are screaming for Bruce to make a change. Proceed to then mentally collapse for 20 minutes and look like we'll be slaughtered, before a far too late attempt to gain extra points wth hoof ball tactics. Strong defence that won't let in many goals - exactly like last season Poor midfield that goes missing under any pressure - exactly like last season Impotent strikeforce - exactly like last season Ridiculous, late substitutions - exactly like last season. I think you get how I think our promotion chances currently stand. We'll be fighting very hard to get even a Playoff place with our current setup.

I often think this. Is it just an individual thing or just a bloke thing; does everyone have thoughts about female friends that are a bit more than platonic even if you don't react to them? I've had a wandering mind or a dream (genuine dream - not daydream!) about good looking female friends even if 100% committed to my relationship. It's probably just biology that the human race tries to pretend doesn't exist.

I read it on http://astonvillacentral.com/squad/contracts/ but certainly didn't double check facts!

Terry, Samba, Hutton, Gabby, Bunn all have 1 year (left) contracts. Onomah and Johnstone are 1 year loans. Going to be an interesting summer next year depending on what league we're in! As for Onomah, I watched the obligatory YouTube video of him playing for England in another thread and am not sure I quite get the excitement. He may be good at what he does but he seemed to be yet another deep lying, defensive midfielder. In the Whelen/ Jedinak role. He collects from defence then smartly plays the ball but little in terms of attacking runs, or taking players on etc. I openly admit I know nothing of the player but does he normally play in a different role than this as this doesn't look like the Grealish/no. 10 replacement we need as it stands.