Ashley17

Incidentally, does anybody know why some of our players have no arms? [insert "they're 'armless" joke here]

It's an absolutely horrific likeness

Found my collection of Corinthian figures the other week, made a display for Keegan's 95/96 squad. Then I realised you could get a Keegan, so I ordered one off eBay. No idea how he passed me by as a child. He's with Rafa now

Nobby was at right back, Pattison left wing

We have three games in 8 days, it's all about getting minutes in legs rather than playing our strongest team. Rafa said as much on Thursday night.

That run of goals he went on was ridiculous. Ended up more than Mackems top goalscorer that season. I think the real thing that killed us in 96/97 was the injuries to Shearer and Ferdinand in November and December. Shrearer's goal record that season was excellent considering the number of games he missed. Was watching some VHS back of clips from that season the other night. The fact we played our best 11 in the UEFA Cup every warmed my heart. Keegan was questioning the desire of the squad after a couple of the early defeats, could tell it really rankled with him. Particularly the loss at Halmstads, even though it was irrelevant

Rafa was really good value, not just with his insight but he's actually a really funny bloke too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He's going to Derby afterall

Have to say I'm a bit happier about the situation reading those quotes. If we have a budget then Rafa himself probably doesn't want us to pay over the odds knowing it will impact other deals. Unfortunately I'm sure Keegan probably made very similar noises and we all know how that ended.

Who the fuck cares? It's a two hour flight Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No doubt he's a useful player to have when he's not injured but *holds microphone to crowd* He's always injured!

If anyone has an urge to re-live the 1995/96 season and all the misery that goes with I was a guest on Alive & Kicking 90s podcast this week discussing it:

Concrete links? This Lejeune character has been set to sign for about a month according to just about everyone. Even his current club aren't expecting him back

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