afar

I get the feeling Giggs would be a disaster as a manager tbh, I would be very happy if the Mackems went down that route. The guy just doesn't come over as the managerial type, can't see him as a motivationally inspiring person like KK was or have the intelligence and tactical aacumen of his long time former boss.

I don't know how anyone remembers their first game, I think mine was a game against Wrexham, some other team that played in red or a supermac managed Fulham, I have memories of times in the leazes end when it was little more than a pile of rumble and a pretty deserted one and also in the west/centre paddock. Just can't recall which happened first. We were definitely in the 2nd division at the time at it must have been the late 70's or very early 80's. It wasn't until the post Keegan (as a player) era that I started to go on a regular basis. That was not a great time, selling all our best players and employing people like Willie McFaul to manage the team. Culminating in a relegation.

I think as an Englishman the international break is worse than for people from other nations. I remember a time when I would look forward to the England games, even friendlies. Now there is such a detachment from the national side that really football as a whole does not exist for a 10 days or so. I haven't watched a full England game in years, outside of major tournaments I have barely cared about the results.

WTF is that, wow the amount of "it's all about us" in their Yedlin piece is staggering. I'm not about to defend Ryder but these are pretty stock questions, no matter who the player has played for before. The ironic thing is they slate him for being back up to Anita, but they know full well he would start at RB for them, who as they like to remind us are in the Premier League. That whole article is filled with negative, "poor me" shit, which sums up the state of their club perfectly.

We needed the break as a squad I feel, but my god, it's only been a few days and I'm sick of it. Getting spoiled for the number of games in this division. As far as the game is concerned, I think this is gonna be a tough one, they'll probably approach it much like Wolves did. We'll need to be better at breaking down teams at home, think that's the biggest lesson Rafa has probably learned over the first quarterish of the season.

Hardly the most inspiring list ever I dunno Dyche, Johnson and Wagner may be great picks for them. What they don't need to do is promote Clarke, he's a nothing type of guy, who's stolen a living based on a reputation he somehow picked up early on in his career as Guillet's lackey. I'm in two minds on Bruce, I think he's washed up and way past his prime but he has been promoted 4 times in his career and that's what Villa need, he could take them to the playoffs this year and he knows how to win them, if they look short term he could be what they need but if they want to fulfill the ridiculous long term aims of their owner then he absolutely not the right man.

You are talking about Elliot right in a Darlow thread ? May want to make that clearer.

About time for them, they've been miserable this season, wish we had played them during the spell hopefully we'll get them during the "still in turmoil" stage rather than "new manager bounce".

He won't get a better opportunity to get a big job imo. Right now his star is at it's highest, but they've scored 14 goals in their 11 games, been sneaking victories, they can't maintain that and when the fall off begins and they slip to mid table , he'll be forgotten about. He might have something about him but 11 games is way too small a sample size to say for sure.

Think we need to make the following additions in January to make sure we bounce straight back up: Need some cover for Shelvey, think Will Hughes would fill that role perfectly, surely he's attainable with Derby having the season they are right now. Danny Ings would be a great additional to our strikeforce, we could use one more that has a proven record, not sure if he's still out of favour at Liverpool, if he is he'll be attainable if we are sitting at the top of the league by then. If he is insistent on playing with just one up front then we have to upgrade Diame, not sure what's out there for number 10's but that the weakest link for me in the team right now. If he doesn't fancy Lazaar (which appears to be the case right now, based on one bad game) then he really should find a better option than Paul Dummet (having said that Paul Dummet playing 90% of our games is not going to be a reason we miss out on promotion if he does) Other nice to haves would be another winger (although the fact that Atsu played so well at RIGHT wing and we have Aarons coming back for a brief spell until his next injury of course means we may have enough cover there) and another more defensive midfielder to ensure we don't have to play Colback if he rests Hayden.

Eh? Massively surprising, a team which has won 4 of its last 51 league matches (a period taking in three seasons) celebrating a goal to salvage a point. What do you really expect? It's nothing to do with you, it's about being happy to get one point more than expected. It's about throwing away leads with goals past 85 minutes in 5 of the last 6 games and then finally managing to salvage something instead. As for the manager, RDM has totally lost it. Yesterday was hideous, playing five forwards and one in midfield in the second half. Totally lost it. I'd take Bruce right now. He can at least organise us. The squad is way, way better than the current position, a modicum of organisation would at least benefit from that. The way things are at the moment, it's like he's wildly changing things every ten minutes in the desperate hope things will get better somehow. You should be looking at the Brentford, Sheff Wed or Huddersfield bosses, hell even Chris Hughton. Villa are a bigger pull than all those teams, if the Doctor waves some cash in their direction one of them will come for sure and will serve you better than washed up old Brucey or fate worse than death McClaren.

I must admit I didn't actually watch the video Just saw the title, and it's very misleading he's not promoting the likes over PArdew or Howe over Wenger and Ponc... like it's suggesting he's promoting the need to keep old English players in the game, which is fair enough although I really don't care if Lampard or Gerard are going to have an easier time to get their coaching badges !! Who on earth is 'Ponc'? I can't bloody spell his name, the Spuds boss

Sissoko could win a medal there, well done Spuds, don't like them but credit where it's due. They're also probably one of the few teams that aren't sad to see us not up there this season, unlike Sunderland, Arsenal and Man Shitty, we always take points off them.

Aw man please happen. That would be truly awesome. I bet he fancies it too.

One of the things that I would imagine is great about being in this division, is all the trips you get to make to relatively close Yorkshire. I remember with a lot of fondness trips down to Barnsley, Shef Wed and Leeds, when we were in our prime during the KK years. I live in a city now that is about the size of the whole of the northeast and where it's 500 miles to the nearest city of any size, England is a pretty amazing and unique place, I miss it dearly.

Bollocks. This and WTF, I know nothing about this so called night club incident. I'm just of the opinion Elliot is just fat and useless, got nothing to do with conspiracy theories of nightclubs or anything.

He's highly competent, which makes it bizarre why we gave Elliot an extension. Sels may be the better keeper over time but right now, Darlow should be the number 1.

I'm not so sure. His record has suggested with a good squad he'll achieve the minimum expected of a club, with a poor squad he's not been able to elevate them to anything beyond their level. Witness last season, Hull just barely got promotion through the playoffs, they had finished 3rd bottom the previous year, so they should have been the favourites to go straight back up. Not so sure Villa have even a good squad, right now, couple of good players but honestly it's pap. Politically the wrong choice with his Birmingham back ground, feel like he's washed up now bit like Mick McMakem.

This one will be tough, Brentford playing well, I think the international break will actually help us here, gives us time to re-evaluate things, give Rafa more time to plot, think that's always a good thing.

As a Parent, I'm appalled by their language !

We only have 22 points. Think you mean 22 from the last 27 available which is still an impressive haul especially when you factor in 2 cups on op of that during the run.

He was ok at times in the 2nd half, but still overall a disappointing game for him. Thought Rafa should have went with Mitro and Gayle. Gayle was barely in the game today, with Mitro playing alongside him, I'm fairly certain we would have created a lot more and won much more comfortably than we did. Rafa is showing this division too much respect at times.

I know I'm being a little obsessed now but one thing I always look at as an indicator just how good teams are really doing is GD, we are far ahead of anyone on that score, which when you factor in the QPR and Reading results it's hardly surprising. What is a little though is Huddersfield and Norwich only have a +6 difference, despite winning 8 and 7 games respectfully . That suggests they are just sneaking one goal wins, that kind of form is far harder to maintain. Huddersfield's 14 goals score is woeful for the lead club, that's barely over 1 a game and Forest, Burton and Wolves amongst others have scored more than them. We are top scorers thanks largely though to 3 games.

Looking around us, Brighton really flying right now, great result today beating Sheff Wed (whom themselves have been on a great run). Brentford being held at home by Wigan was a bit of a surprise and stunted their recent progress. Bristol City and Birmingham winning yet again to keep the presurre up. Leeds are on a great run too and Preston are another side on the rise after a poor start. Norwich just keep winning it's relentless by them, despite not always playing great from what I've read, lets face it they were awful against us and very fortunate to even be in the game despite nearly winning. I don't know what to think of Huddersfield, they seem to be another team that just always seems to do enough, that home loss to them may be a huge blow to us come May. One thing is certain , this time around is going to be much tougher for us and we absolutely need to invest in January.

I honestly thought they'd be doing a lot better. 1 win in 11 games in the Championship so far. Weak. One thing often gets glossed over is, they weren't just relegated last season, they were adrift at the bottom, their season was calmintous. There was a lot of rebuilding work to do there, and they chose the wrong man to do that kind of job. A big problem they have is all the other teams see them as a big scalp, remeber they are the self proclaimed "biggest ever club to be relegated out of the PL", and like we saw today the smaller clubs riaise their games when they play them. They don't have the quality to overcome that. I think they will be lookinging downwards rather than upwards this season, I predict a finish around 12th at best. Keane had similar start with the mackems (not to this extent, but a similar rebuilding job), they still went up as champions. Didn't Keane start winning pretty much straight away after being appointed when Quinn did terribly? I honestly don't recall, you may be right, they did have an awful start to the season Keane ended up winning the division in. The one thing I would say though is Keane is more of a person you want rebuilding the Di Matteo. Keane I'm sure didn't suffer fools there, I'm not really sure what Di Matteo's qualities are as a manager but he did somehow win the CL !