brummie

Tell you what, the championship is going to be interesting next season with us, you and Sunderland all in it. If we leave Sherwood where he is, we are absolutely doomed, fucking doomed. Truly horrific today.

Check out the mighty Villa in lofty 14th place.

Thought I'd maybe go and watch us play Stoke this weekend. Log on to Villa's website, take a look at what it'll cost near where I had my season ticket. £42. Fuck the bed. £42 to watch a team which has managed a combined total of 20 home league wins since 2010 play Stoke City.

That's exactly what he is.

Looks like you will be down at the bottom with us and the mackems. The longer we leave this bloke in charge, the more likely we go down. Totally clueless.

Sherwood's goose is well and truly cooked. I can't remember the last time so many of our fans turned against a manager so quickly. Quicker than McLeish this time. He's just such a fucking bullshitter. Total chancer.

It isn't about London versus the rest or north versus south. It is about big money or no big money. Manchester United have huge amounts of money and power because they've won shit loads of silverware over two decades. Manchester City are artificially powerful because money-is-no-object arabs decided to buy them and have a bit of fun. Chelsea have loads of money because an oligarch poured it into them (after several years of a multi millionaire doing the same), and Arsenal have the same because their ground and associated operations are a money making machine. The reason Crystal Palace can compete with "bigger" clubs for players is nothing to do with some sort of magic "south" thing they have going on, it is because they, like all the other PL clubs, now have lots of money, too, and can offer the same huge wages other clubs can. Look at some of the players Stoke signed this summer and last year. Stoke City FFS. It is an evening out of the playing field. In the past, there would have been pretty much no way a player would choose Palace ahead of us or you, mostly - let's be honest - for reasons of money. These days, that is a much lesser factor, and the player is thinking "well, Palace are never going to win anything, but then again, neither are Villa, Everton, or Newcastle either" whilst thinking what it will be like being a twenty something multi millionaire sports star in one of the most exciting cities in the world. If you are not going to be playing for a title challenging club (of which there are at most four), and you're not going to be playing in the CL, there's really not a great deal in it for any of the remaining clubs, however much it hurts our pride to admit it.

I'm looking forward to this match tonight about as much as I would do to a night out in Aleppo. I suspect there will be idiotic behaviour on show again.

Had him sussed when he revealed his world view of football saying "defenders are supposed to defend, attackers are supposed to attack". Complete tosser to boot. Last week at Leicester, into the second half, and we're winning two nil but really under the cosh. So what does he do? Takes off a midfielder, brings on Ayew, a striker who is clearly struggling. I can't even begin to work out the logic behind a piece of fucking brainlessness like that. The bloke is an absolute shyster. And last week was far from the only time we've seen it. If the opposition ever change things, he's fucking clueless.

Won a total of 20 league home games in the last four seasons and three games. Last 73 home games, taken 71 points. It is amazing we get anyone to turn up with statistics like that. I've basically gone into "no mercy, no excuses" mode. I've seen enough of Sherwood to know he's a gobshite and a chancer. Next, please. And quickly.

And us.

I've seen enough. Fucking clueless. Every week baffling substitutions. Our worst start since we went down in 87. In the last four seasons we have won a total of 20 home league games. 20 in over four years. I can't think of a single worse way to waste fucking money than going to watch us. Beyond motivating people for a bit, Sherwood is useless. Tactically, he's the worst manager I've seen at our place (see last week's horror show, for which he reckons his subs weren't to blame, for an example).

The natural pessimism of the (non CL monied) football fan, I reckon. Think you're bang on for the PL clubs Brummie. The whole acceptance of the 'also ran' status has most lads I talk to from other clubs feeling much the same as we voice on here. one step away from a poor season and a relegation battle. Glasses much more half empty than full. My Boro supporting mate on the other hand is cockahoop with footy at the moment and to be honest I'm getting loads of fun and enjoyment from going to watch Stenny. Just watching a more even matched, levelish kind of playing field is refreshing. Plus the way less hype and utter media guff that surrounds it as well. That's why I hope we give the cups a real go this season. Imagine actually competing in something again. Starting the season with the knowledge that it is an impossibility to win your league, when you support a club which has a bit of history of doing well, like you, us, Everton, I honestly think that is the most dispiriting thing of all. Newly promoted fans -> Yay! We're in the top flight, isn't it amazing (Watford, Bournemouth etc) Champions league fans -> Yay! Midweek matches against your Juventuses or your Real Madrids. Recently established top flight teams -> Yay! We're midway in the table, that's about as good as it has been for years. Us, you, Everton, Spurs maybe -> No chance of winning the league any more. Not much yay there. In some ways it reduces watching football to something like watching share prices, as the extra emotional part of football gradually gets squeezed out year after year. I'm going to our league cup match on Tuesday and it'll be about the third or fourth game I've been to in the last three years. Before that I was a season ticket holder for years and years. It is surprising how easily the hope and aspiration side of football slip away.

The natural pessimism of the (non CL monied) football fan, I reckon.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen the table, and believe me, after the last four years I can easily identify a side destined to tickle the gusset of relegation, if not actually plunge into it, but I really don't think you can tell anything after so few games. There are teams who have looked better than expected so far, and there are others that have looked worse, it needs at least nother month to start to get an idea how things might pan out.

There's no way you can recover from an injury like that so quickly.

Ha ha ha I know it is horrible and you're really very, very naughty indeed for saying that, but it is funny.

I feel a bit sick seeing that Shaw injury. Him, Eduardo, Busst and Luc Nillis. Top four horrible injuries.

I am biased but he's the real deal, which is what Hendrie could have been if he'd been a bit wiser off the pitch. Great to see Grealish score, though. Looking at his face as he celebrated, I found myself thinking how nice it is to watch someone's dream come true. What a life that kid has in front of him.

Yeah, definitely a result, getting him to sign a new contract rather than leaving on a free at the end of the season. http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8NgPhFCQAAMADO.png

That came across as so natural and not at all staged.

Is gegengegen basically a self cancelling time/space void?

Don't you mean gegenhappy?

'Gegenpressing' sounds like some inhumanly cruel thing the Germans did in Eastern Europe in the first half of the 1940s. "18 August 1941: Sonderkommando S15 carried out gegenpressing operations in the Lvov area today" etc. I appreciate it's a hipster football term and probably the sort of thing Jonathon Wilson shouts when he comes (into his own mouth), but if anyone ever used the term whilst talking to me about football, I'd immediately shed my pacifist credentials and kick them as hard as I could in the face. (No offence to original poster, obvs).

I'm 47 and have watched England on the telly as long as I've watched football, 40 odd years, and I can remember a handful of entertaining England games. Less than 10. About 8, I'd say.