Ashley17

I wonder if someone has brokered a deal to buy them and sounded Fat Sam out for the job, with a sizeable budget? Would instantly get the fans on side

The other night he made about ten routine saves and one or two outstanding ones, but the commentators were painting him as some sort of unbeatable machine. He's good but I think all keepers in a shite team look better than they are.

Aye I think Villa will be better next season, although they finished 13th it's clear that Bruce has had some bad apples to get rid of (McCormack in particular) as well as get an almost entirely new team to gel. A pre-season with no shenanigans around players leaving will help no end but that Dr Tony character seems a bit of a loose cannon.

Didn't Dier boot off a while ago about playing right back because he wanted to play centre half? Seem to remember him opting out of Under 21 duty or something because of it.

To use a very lazy example, we got Hayden for a fraction of that price. Would he have been any worse than N'Dong? You'd probably say they have a similar amount of potential. If he had £20m to spend I think he could have spent it better. Whether he had 100% input in to those two signings is another matter.

As with everything they do, the number changes depending on the point they are trying to make

Sick of hearing that Moyes was dealt a shit hand. Like somebody made him spend £12m on Didier N'Dong. They've had a lot of injuries, granted, but is it really unlucky if Victor Anichebe is injured for 3 months? He's a player with a long history of getting injuries which Moyes took a gamble on and would you believe it, he got injuries. If they had no money anyway I don't know what Allardyce would have done with them, but he probably would have brought in a better centre half than Djilbodji or loaned somebody better than Jason Denayer after Kaboul had to go.

Thought Neville was saying yesterday it was John Terry joining Carragher this week?

Doubt a single Villa player give a flying fuck about us. Lansbury?

Assume Jesus will be recalled for this?

A few weeks ago I was watching some old MOTD's that my Grandad had recorded from the 95/96 season. Back then they only had main highlights of 2 or 3 games at most so we were on every week just about. Bearing in mind Beardsley was mid 30s by that point, he was absolutely sublime. Not just with the goals he scored, but his effect on the team in general. In one game he ended up playing pretty much left wing back, he just did everything Keegan asked. Gary Lineker, who was still a pundit at this point, made a great point in that the consistent thing about Beardsley is that whoever he plays up front with scores loads of goals (including himself obviously.) It's a shame he's on Ashley's side and all that but he's hardly going to slag off his boss, but I don't think anybody can slag him off as a player. If he gave the Kop the thumbs up in 1987 that's a pity but fucking hell, I think he made up for that.

Sanchez plays once in the next 3 gameweeks and it's Liverpool away. Binned him so I can bring in Aguero for their double week next week

Wonder if we'll rest Ritchie for this. He's on 9 yellows and Brighton (followed by Huddersfield) is obviously a bigger game

Seemed fucked from the outset tonight to be honest.

Hubba hubba

I heard nothing of that from our fans like

Fucking hell, you know what I mean

Yeah had Bolton beaten Palace they were going to show Palace vs Man City instead of Man Utd/Wigan

Is it not just the FA refusing to sanction a change in date/kick off time after they had already been set?

He hadn't played a competitive game for 2 years, it was always going to be bleak. Anyway, the people of Oxford were very friendly pre-game, seems like a nice club frustrated by the owner being a bit dificult over the fourth stand. It looks pretty ridiculous having nothing behind one of the goals Oh and here's the pen, for no real reason other than the fan next to me who took it really well.

The difference between Rafa picking this team and the various other idiots picking a second string is that we made 5 clear cut chances and should have had the game won by half time. Pardew would have been clinging on for 0-0. He picked a team that should have been good enough to win the game, if players like Curtis Good aren't good enough against Oxford then I'm glad we found that out this way rather than paying him to do fuck all.

Just stopped at a services on the way back. Still 3 hours from home having watched us get beat 3-0 by League One Oxford. Magical days.

Something minor that pleased me today was leaving 2 men upfield when defending a corner, hate to see all 11 back in the box

You sit there pre and post game, you've got seats in the stands during the actual game. I see. Thanks. It's going to look mint if the camera is facing that stand. They'll all be licking the glass windows and the stand will be empty