brummie

Great example of the horribly cynical one-way relationship between clubs and fans these days, that.

+1. It's just football at the end of the day. It's not worth potentially destroying something far more important. I think you're right. OK, television it is then.

A team is meant to be supported through thick and thin. You left them when the going got tough, Brummie. Even if you got a ticket, do you deserve it based on what we know? That's the thing, though. You've got a point there. I bailed for the season. It is biting me in the arse. I've come to terms with that part of it, and it is pretty ironic, too, that it has turned out that way. So now I am also thinking - and this is the same logic here - "ah well, I'll decide not to do it, and we'll lose, and I'll think 'thank fuck'" Then in the next second - "but what if we actually do win it? And I had the chance? ANd I threw it away for the sake of 500 notes" Followed by "but it isn't just the money, it is her indoors, too" I should add that for Villa fans, the cup is a massive thing, won it seven times but not once since 1957. I appreciate I am in a fertile place when it comes to not winning things, but with the exception of the UEFA cup, it is the only thing I've seen us play in but not win. I almost feel like, if we won it, and if i was there to see it, I would be mentally released from this whole fucking football torture thing. It'd all get easier for me. I went to see David Byrne five years ago, at the Symphony Hall in Brum, an amazing venue, to see my favourite artist of all time, and we were in the second row, at just below stage height, right in the middle. When we came out, I said to the Mrs, I never really need to see another gig again, because whatever it is, it'll never be as good as this. That's the way I find myself thinking about this match. But I still feel bad about even thinking about doing it. We've been together 16 years. I've grown attached to her. Fond of her, even.

Incidentally, all the above, part of me thinks "you fucking deserve this" for deciding to not go at all this season in the first place.

After my well publicised (on here) flounce out of putting up with the shite from Villa any more, I've only been to one match this season, and that was the FAC semi final. And I even got that as a freebie in the club wembley seats. So basically, after having a ST for about 20 years, and going home and away for most of them, after the last four years of wanting to pull my eyes out during matches, of sitting in the cold watching us be shite, I've managed to shoot myself in the foot by picking the season we reach the FA Cup final for just the second time in almost 60 years as the one I give up on qualifying for a ticket before the season starts. As it happens, this is the most broke I have been in about twenty years, too, with a set of circumstances leaving me with next to no income for the last few months, and having to justify every expense to the Mrs, who is a fucking guard dog of extreme savagery when it comes to the finances. Anyway. I can see that I can go to a ticket agency and pay somewhere between 500 and 600 quid and secure myself a ticket. In what would be a cheapest-tier ticket for the match, ie a 45 quid ticket at a gigantic mark up. I've spent the last week mentally to-ing and fro-ing, trying to decide if I can bring myself to do it. Not to actually spend that much for a match ticket, but to do so AND more importantly, to hide it from the Mrs (I'd tell her I'd managed to bag a freebie again). On the one side, it might not happen again in my lifetime. And we might actually win. In fact, I am genuinely starting to think we will win. On the other side, if I did, and she ever found out I'd spent that much, she'd probably leave me. And I am not exaggerating. She doesn't "get" football at all. So there's zero point trying to explain to her what it means. Football to her is something that occupies too much of my time, and annoys her. And costs lots of money. I am driving myself fucking NUTS trying to decide what to do. Advice?

That's an argument I will never, ever understand. Towards the end of the Lambert reign, lots of our fans were calling for all sorts of f***ing stupid stuff - "get Pulis in! He'll keep us up!" "Try to get Allardyce in", and whenever challenged, the answer was always "better than Lambert" Utterly meaningless, in that situation and in this one too. Almost everyone on here believes Carver is absolutely useless and hugely out of his depth. That alone means that "better than Carver" is a totally worthless justification. If Carver is as s*** as he seems to be, how is being "better" than him a meaningful argument? Wouldn't it be possible to be better than Carver AND still be absolutely f***ing hopeless? Why would anyone want that? Man ... Sherwood is looking like he has something about him. You guys are so fortunate. I hate you! Sherwood has proved very little so far. A blind man on a galloping horse could spot what Lambert needed to change to fix it, and Sherwood has done just that. However, he is still a manager with less than one season of management behind him, one who has never had a transfer window to work in. Basically, I am steeling myself for him buying all sorts of past-it, hopeless former Spurs dross. Livermore, Huddlestone, Dawson, that level of crud.

That's an argument I will never, ever understand. Towards the end of the Lambert reign, lots of our fans were calling for all sorts of fucking stupid stuff - "get Pulis in! He'll keep us up!" "Try to get Allardyce in", and whenever challenged, the answer was always "better than Lambert" Utterly meaningless, in that situation and in this one too. Almost everyone on here believes Carver is absolutely useless and hugely out of his depth. That alone means that "better than Carver" is a totally worthless justification. If Carver is as shit as he seems to be, how is being "better" than him a meaningful argument? Wouldn't it be possible to be better than Carver AND still be absolutely fucking hopeless? Why would anyone want that? Because the alternative might be Carver? Point taken, but if the argument to support a particular manager is "better than Carver", then really, there's lots of potential there to appoint other managers who will fill that requirement but also be fucking clueless. Surely the thing to do would be to sack Carver and appoint someone who knows what they're doing? I think part of the reasoning that goes on is that clubs like you and us have been conditioned into having expectations so low, that we start to idealise the appointment of managers that, in years gone by, we would run a mile from.

McClaren's style isn't pretty either (by anyone's definition) and he won the League Cup and the Eredivise. So what? I'd argue that McClaren's style is far prettier than Pulis's. You should hear Albion fans going on about the way they play - negative, cynical, lumping it long. If you appoint a manager like that on the basis of him being likely to keep you up, you then have to realise that you're going to be stuck with him for another three years - Pulis or McClaren are never going to sign up for a few months alone and then dutifully fuck off afterwards. Getting someone like Pulis in to keep you up is like (what I imagine) shagging some ropey bird you've picked up the night before. It's all good and well while you've had a few drinks and you're getting your leg over, but not so much the next morning when you wake up with a crushing hangover, and you've got a rough minger lying next to you in a pool of blood, shit and semen because she's still there

That's an argument I will never, ever understand. Towards the end of the Lambert reign, lots of our fans were calling for all sorts of fucking stupid stuff - "get Pulis in! He'll keep us up!" "Try to get Allardyce in", and whenever challenged, the answer was always "better than Lambert" Utterly meaningless, in that situation and in this one too. Almost everyone on here believes Carver is absolutely useless and hugely out of his depth. That alone means that "better than Carver" is a totally worthless justification. If Carver is as shit as he seems to be, how is being "better" than him a meaningful argument? Wouldn't it be possible to be better than Carver AND still be absolutely fucking hopeless? Why would anyone want that?

...because (a) they're now safe and (b) they haven't got one point in 30, or whatever it is. I also think it is because the media don't really give one tenth of one single shit about Sunderland. That's mostly because they're not in London or the North West, and they don't win stuff. What they like is the "manager starts blubbing" angle of it.

Obviously, I'm joking (with the "even" bit).

Maybe even your lot?

What I don't get is why Paul Clement would go to Derby. Surely, if he wanted a manager job over here, he'd have a chance at a PL side? And maybe a decent one?

And he can leave Sunderland pretty soon, too.

Fucking Arsenal can't score unless it's a world class goal.

They've had their fair share of luck tonight, but they've also defended very well.

I hope Ozil starts in the cup final. Somewhere along the line he's turned into an expensive Gavin McCann.

Have to say, I agree with you.

I love passing football and playing the game the right way as much as the next man, but that fucking endless short passes around the area, as if you're only prepared to score after at least 20 passes gets right on my tits after a bit.

Come on, Arsenal. Although let's also see some long term injuries picked up along the way, please.

That Billy Jones bloke runs like he's got orthopaedic shoes on or something.

The presence of John O'Shea is like Arsenal having an extra man.

You'll be alright. It isn't going to be a particularly enjoyable day, mind.

Good signing. 2.5m Can't complain