Davkaus Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 I miss that badge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Right sport That's very clever that is. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cizzler Posted December 1, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted December 1, 2013 Southampton: A team who are not willing to sell players, who are looking at how it might be possible to win the league, who are forward thinking. Villa: A team who will look to sell their best players, who are looking at how to survive. The last time we sold our best players? Probably Ashley Young and Downing in 2011. In 2011 Southampton sold Oxlade-Chamberlain. Philosophies transform over time. Southampton's discernibly has and so has ours. It is obvious, to most, we hit a ceiling. We were the 6th best team under O'Neill but we weren't challenging 5th. Since then we have taken stock and stripped back - I firmly believe with the intention of pushing on again. The "Villa shoudn't be mid-table", "Villa shouldn't sell our best players" diatribe is such a boring, and crucially irrelevant, rhetoric to beat our current regime with. I think they'll be ahead of us this season, I imagine they'll be 8th or 9th, they've heavily outspent us. They had an exceptionally easy start to the season and are finally being tested. They've won 1 of their last 5 (at home to Hull, including losing to Sunderland in the cup). Their fans are embarrassingly arrogant at this whiff of success. Average players like Lambert, Fonte and Rodriguez won't be able to sustain their form over a season. Also, for every good player they've bought, they've pissed away money. Wanyama and Lovren look astute buys - but Ramirez was awful last season and I'm not impressed by Osvaldo. Even if they have "£200 million to spend" in the next couple windows, it's not enough to "win the league". You can't attract the players who will win the league from their position with that money. It is so difficult to bridge that gap between Top 4 and also-rans. Just look at Spurs. You can contrast our club's two differing ideologies if you wish, but it's ridiculous to suggest they "won't sell their best players" - who has been bid for? Southampton haven't had players that have interested the 'big boys' until this season. If they can hold onto Shaw I'll be impressed - but personally I think he's Cole's replacement at Chelsea. It's also laughable to suggest they are looking to win the league. They're as close to winning it as us. Which means they aren't close to winning it. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Short of oil money you aren't competing for the league unless you were already an established top club like arsenal/united its that simple. Saints are doing well now but it wont last forever and they definitely have a ceiling of 6th at best like us a few years ago. They had just better hope the owners and manager doesn't get bored and piss off. I also think most clubs fans get really arrogant with even the most modest success, ask swansea fans if they are bigger than us and everyone will say yes because they have a few very average season whilst we've had a few poor ones. Even some of our own were incredibly arrogant when we were doing well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 What happened to these guys? Weren't they supposed to be the next big thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 (edited) Yes and now they welcome City to Saint Mary's... :-) Edited December 4, 2013 by AVFCforever1991 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 yeah just said in the ratings thread, we've had a harder start and played nowhere near as well yet at the moment id fancy us to be level on points come sunday night something tells me the rags wont be waxing lyrical over that - or roy coming for our players anytime soon - or have ray Houghton rub himself raw over us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 We did get a bit lucky with this match actually very lucky. 3 shots all game isn't a recipe for victory. In my opinion, Southampton has a good team, but they were never going to continue floating around the top 6. I feel like we are at about the same level. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 We did get a bit lucky with this match actually very lucky. 3 shots all game isn't a recipe for victory. In my opinion, Southampton has a good team, but they were never going to continue floating around the top 6. I feel like we are at about the same level. Doesn't that show what Lambert is doing with what he has at his disposal, as their team is far more expensively assembled than ours and their manager seems well respected. To be roughly on par with them and other teams in our vicinity shows we're overachieving if anything. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Those who were so happy to text are now strangely... silent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 A few injuries and they haven't got the depth like everyone bar probably 4 teams in this league. I still think they'll finish top 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Goodbye Saints, it was fun while it lasted. Wenger says hi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 To think there was genuine talk of top 4 when they were in their good patch, they are a good team and they will have further good patches but like i said earlier in the thread they will have a ceiling. I do love the hilarious over-reactions when a team stars doing well though like spurs winning the title last year eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 For all that praise in the media they're now only 3 points ahead of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted December 5, 2013 For all that praise in the media they're now only 3 points ahead of us. With Man City on the weekend whereas we have Fulham. Not an outrageous shout to say we'll be level come Monday morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Lot of bitter saints fans on saintsweb, I always have look around other forums to see what the opposition makes of us, quite a few "how did we lose to villa, we should be rolling teams like them over" comments and they have very short memories of where they were just 36 months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Lot of bitter saints fans on saintsweb, I always have look around other forums to see what the opposition makes of us, quite a few "how did we lose to villa, we should be rolling teams like them over" comments and they have very short memories of where they were just 36 months ago. or even 6 months ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oaks Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 For all that praise in the media they're now only 3 points ahead of us. With Man City on the weekend whereas we have Fulham. Not an outrageous shout to say we'll be level come Monday morning Not just that game look at the next 5 when the table balances out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 This is where our good run comes into play, bar Man. United (and even that's debatable) we have loads of winnable games right up to new year while the likes of Newcastle and Southampton will be playing each other and have tough schedules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted December 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted December 5, 2013 To be fair to the majority of the Saints fans most merely wonder how they lost that game, a question 99% of us would be asking if the tables had be reversed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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