pacbuddies

We need more than a just a striker!!

What is it with Villa and conceeding stoppage time goals!!

Stupid free kick to give away and we have been running around like headless chickens trying to cope with the northern football shit that Blackburn play.

We are in for a long difficult season unless several quality signings are made in January.

Never known Villa to have so many injuries either.

The kids were brilliant. If anyone wonders why we can't hold a lead then look no further than the MON mentality that is ingrained in the squad and needs coaching out. His negative measures meant that the team would revert to 'backs to the wall' tactics when leading with 10 minutes to go. This is still evident but eventually it will go. The fool had 4 years to brainwash them so it will take GH some time to get it out of their heads.

Great victory over Manure today. Nice to see the sad Manure fans faces at the end.

I'm not that young - I've had plenty of exciting moments and a long memory. But when was the last time you can remember two youth team products combining in such a way to produce a goal like that? It was extremely simple, but a technically brilliant goal. The last Villa midfielder I can remember with an eye for a pass like that is Gordon Cowans.

Like I said, the beauty of the moment was not only the quality of the goal, but the hint of things to come. Maybe you should read all of a post before responding with a snide remark.

My apologies, it was a snide remark to make. It was a good goal and I had the pleasure to watch Gordon Cowans many times. I did read all of the quote. I just haven't got too excited about our youth as they will probably be bought by someone else as soon as we start to rely upon them.

If Albrighton's goal was possibly one of the most exciting moments as a Villa supporter then you are either extremely young or have a short memory span.

Yet again our inability to score and our inability to defend until the final whistle has cost us another two points.

We are going further and further backwards and the absence of Heskey (who hardly ever scores) and the lazy Carew cannot be used as an excuse.

This situation has to be addressed in January. We cannot go through a second successive transfer window without signing anyone. That is not progression it is regression.

Loads of possession, very few attempts on goal, no goals scored again. Yes, it doesn't look too good.

Yet again we have lost to a very average side. If Houllier does not address our attack in January then we are in for a very mediocre season. There is no point having the majority of possession if you don't do anything with it.

So much for progress over the last few seasons. We are no better now than we were a few years ago and a top 6 finish is looking unlikely.

Well we have played some crap teams (West Ham, Newcastle, Stoke and Bolton) in our opening fixtures and managed a paltry 4 points. The only half decent team we have played were Everton and we were lucky to win that.

At times in the Bolton game it looked as though Villa were the away side looking to hold out for a draw.

God knows what will happen to us when we play the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City etc.

This is an absolute disgraceful start to the season and I just hope Houllier is the man to sort it out quick or we are in for a long, hard and disappointing term.

23rd April 2011 will be a good day. This is the day that shit Stoke side visit Villa Park and get beaten and it will be another nail in their relegation coffin. Send the long ball hoofing one dimensional scum to the Championship.

Ruined my **** evening again. What a bunch of wasters!!

A combination of incompetent refereeing, boring dross football and a manager with the inability to see beyond Heskey as a way to win the match has costs us 3 points against what can only be described as relegation fodder. 2 very winnable away games at Newcastle and Stoke have been thrown away too easily. What an absolute disgrace.

Houllier has to be better than MON. I keep hearing that GH plays defensive counter attacking football. Well at least his brand worked and hopefully I won't have to walk away from Villa Park regularly having seen us lose or draw. Houllier's record over the 6 seasons he was at Liverpool returned goal differences of +19, +21, +32, +37, +20 and +18. By contrast the crap served up by MON over 4 seasons at Villa returned +2, +20, +6 and +13. Looks like we might see more goals, better defending and more wins then!!

On the sub theme of the General's temporary leave... I can't say it's that big of a deal. The thread is 99% sycophantic pandering to his ego or, at the opposite end of the scale, inane ranting.

The General never provides particularly good answers to the big questions, perhaps because he can't, and shouldn't. Fair enough. It's not a big loss if thats gone, unless people are desperate for placation to such an extent that having the General repeat 'We'll get the right man' for a month is enough. The big questions he either tended to avoid (he has recently point blank ignored some pertinent questions from a few members, and downright ignored a good post to him that was somewhat constructively critical by Risso, for instance) or simply not answer with anything other than PR, and at times recently has verged on the rather offensive to fans.

The more inane stuff, like problems experienced in the ground or with ticketing or so on, he was more useful, but thats such a small amount of the threads worth it's no great loss (and for the record, people, if theres an issue with tickets of any sort, call Nicky Keye, and tell her the General sent you).

I personally believe, even if his break is temporary, it's no great loss. He initially was here to smooth fan/owner relations, and has kept it up spinning the line the club would like, which sometimes is accurate and sometimes, I would consider, is a bit of a rosier outlook than it might otherwise be, for 4 years. His thread has probably served it's purpose.

I really appreciated the General's posts and hope they will be back soon.

Next time round the mods need to do a much better job of sifting out the lunatics, whingers and bad-grammar merchants

Few if any clubs have a channel directly into (and out of) the power base of the club - shame that we've lost that through the actions of a few

Maybe we need to introduce IQ tests before you qualify to post

Yes, let's have some censorship. Heaven forbid that we allow free speech!!

Why do some people think it is necessary to say that other people's posts are 'a load of shit really'?

Surely it is possible to have a contrary opinion without resorting to such defamatory comments.

It is noticeable to see that the top four every season consists of teams that have skillfull passing players with good strikers and good defences like Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal etc. and these are the teams that make good progress in the Champions League too. More direct teams like Stoke, Hull, Blackburn and Bolton (when managed by Allardyce) are unlikely to ever break the top four and therefore unlikely to ever play in the Champions League so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out which brand of football (and therefore which type of manager) is the most successful.

To echo the sentiments of some other posters, we had over 20 years of the Doug Ellis regime and that has made us very suspicious and wary of spin. The current regime has only been in place for 4 years so whilst we are not doubting its intentions we reserve the right to remain a little cautious about what we believe until such time as the proof is in place.

I want a Villa to be proud of and I hope that RL and crew can deliver that.

General, you would make a good politician (but you would have to curb your swearing).

As fans we wait in anticipation of a sound managerial appointment and we hope (without holding our breath) of playing staff improvements.

General,

Please just answer the following two questions:

1. Do you expect to have a competent Manager in place before the end of August?

2. Do you expect the club to sign any new players before the end of the transfer deadline?