brummie

I'm going to become gay for the duration of the tournament. And drink twice as much. Just to make a statement.

He seems incredibly confident. I am always in awe of people like that, whichever line of work they are in, people who are just so pumped with their view of their own ability. I am the same age as him and spend most of my time undergoing a nascent mid-life crisis and thinking how I don't have half the confidence when I was 26 rather than 46, so I am extra respectful of people the same age who are the opposite. Confidence alone won't be enough, but, despite the truly mind bogglingly shit performances of over two years (and I know I go on about them on here, but honestly, believe me, if anything, I've been understating things), there isn't a huge amount wrong with this team. The squad is now pretty decent, there are decent players to choose from in most positions, and we can, when we try, do the basics quite well. We can also defend (our GD is about not scoring rather than not defending). There isn't a huge amount wrong, and that is why people got so fucking annoyed with Lambert. For about a year, we (the fans) have been saying "why the FUCK do we never get midfielders into the box? We'd find it much easier if we did", yet Lambert never seemed to spot it. Sherwood, it seems, saw it and had a word at half time, and lo and behold, we start to do it in the second half, and win. It was like finally seeing something you've missed for years. Just the simple stuff being put right. I am much more hopeful we can improve now.

I've calmed down a bit now. Come to the realisation that at least from Saturday on it won't continue to be a total re-run of almost every match for the last two years.

Football cares solely about money and trophies Quick edit for you there. Look at the teams clubs field in the FAC, and the attendances watching them, for an example of that. Your username just made me laugh quite a lot. Excellent work.

As I keep saying on here, there's a sort of Yo Sushi style conveyor belt of shitness in English football, going round and round, with managers who have achieved nothing hopping on and off and picking up immense amounts of money, and getting jobs which really should be going to significantly better managers, only to get sacked a year later and hop back on the belt. Bruce, Pardew, Redknapp (FFS), Pearce the likes of those.

I thought you had to have that licence before you could even manage in the PL? That's supposed to be the case but they've granted exceptions in the past if you're actually in the middle of the course - think it takes quite a while to do the whole thing. Lambert did his in Germany. Clearly, his German isn't up to much, as he didn't learn a great deal.

What was interesting today (well, the second half) was that, for the first time in about 2 years, we got midfielders into the box. I make no claim to know a huge amount about tactics, but that was a glaringly obvious problem Lambert had. Play two midfielders who are really the same player (Cleverley, Westwood), and another who is not hugely dissimilar (Delph) and have then stand next to each other in the middle of the pitch for 88 of the 90 minutes, making no attempt to get into the box. Meanwhile Weimann and (when playing) Agbonlahor would get sucked back into midfield, leaving Benteke alone up front, in a different fucking postcode, getting more and more frustrated. Anyone watching that, though, who wonders why Villa fans have been unhappy needs to realise, that first half, that is what we have been watching EVERY MATCH at home for the last five years under Lambert and McLeish particularly, and Houllier a fair amount. In fact, even when we finished sixth three times in a row under O'Neill, home matches were awful, as we didn't get to counter attack so just had zero idea what to do. I doubt there's another club in the top flight for whom home matches have been so eye bleedingly horrific as ours for almost ten years.

I thought you had to have that licence before you could even manage in the PL?

Yes, but I'd suggest that taking over a club in sixth place, with a squad like theirs, having already been there as assistant manager, and keeping them where they were in the first place, is really nothing to suggest he can turn around a club sat in 18th place having lost five games in a row and scored two goals in 15 hours of football If we were sixth now and he was our assistant manager anyway, I wouldn't be that bothered, but we're not, and he isn't.

He is a bit dim and clearly unqualified for the job. That's about it, really. He isn't a horrid Redknapp style crook, he isn't a mendacious turd like Pardew, he isn't a vile lizard-troll hybrid like Allardyce. He's just woefully unqualified for the job. We are in serious trouble. We've just lost five games in a row and have scored two goals in our last ten league games. And what's more, that has come after two and a bit seasons of equally awful records. If we'd just finished 13th or something, I might understand it, but anyone, anyone who thinks that a rookie manager with a shitforbrains intelligence problem who has managed a total of 22 matches in any league is going to turn around a club sat in 18th position with that sort of problem is fucking insane. Or Randy Lerner. I absolutely despair of these people, despair.

Yes, you're right, it is, but you forget, these are the brainiacs who appointed Alex McLeish. Try and imagine if McLeish, with his tedious anti football had been Sunderland manager, and had got them relegated whilst acquiring a reputation as the most depressing, negative manager in the league. Then try and imagine you'd just finished 9th in the league after a very difficult season, but one in which you'd started to play some good football. And then imagine that McLeish had just got Sunderland relegated, literally a few weeks before, and you'd gone out and made him your manager. These are the fucking idiots we are lumbered with. We are basically fucked until these people go. I don't give a fuck how much money new owners have, I honestly do not, I just want them to have a. a brain and b. be prepared to not just throw their toys out the pram and fuck off home, taking the ball with them, at the first sign of things getting tricky.

He's an absolute bell end and I am aghast at his latest job, but really? Thoroughly reprehensible human being?

You broken Brummie? The parallels between us, sorry, the current NUFC incarnation and you are uncanny at the moment. I agree wth the sentiments that he will keep you up, but he seems thoroughly unlikable and this appointment seems rash in the least. Truly awful appointment. Basically, we are like you, in that until we get a change of owner, we are shackled to a world of mediocrity. I bet Lerner doesn't even know who Sherwood is. Awful appointment. He's like a mini Pardew FFS. This doesn't seem to be going down well with the fans. I give it less than a month till he starts putting his foot in his mouth, the dimwitted gobshite.

so how long until he rules himself out? Seconds, I hope. On the bright side, if he turned down QPR over personal terms, I seriously doubt he's going to like Randy's idea of largesse better than Tony Fernandes's

I watched our League and European Cup winning team get turned into a relegated side in six seasons. Mostly it was Ellis's fault, but to a large extend it was down to Graham Turner and Billy *spit* Fucking McNeill. When I see Sherwood I think of the arrogance of McNeill compared with the "out of his depth cluelessness" of Graham Turner.

If they appoint Sherwood, then to be honest, that's me finished with this club, at least until Lerner fucks off elsewhere. Absolutely fucking brainless. Strangely, over the last month or two on a few occasions, fans have posted pics of Sherwood at our games. It almost sounds like they're been actively grooming him. Which would be like plying Sonia from Eastenders with champagne all night in order to try to get in her knickers.

Pearson comes across as being mental. And not a nice, likeable, "oh, what you are LIKE?" kind of mental, I mean a proper "stabyourfacein" psychopath mental.

It is offensive bollocks. He has had almost zero stick at the actual matches for 2.5 years, until Hull the other night. It was the odd bit of post-whistle booing and a few chants a week or two ago. I struggle to think of a sacking in recent times which has been less about fan power. I would list the records for shitness he has broken (highest ever defeat, lowest points, longest without scoring etc etc etc) as reasons he's been sacked, but I've said it all before.

What? Benitez? You must be joking. I just think they can and will probably attract a good manager who will significantly improve them because their board will not restrict the manager's role as we do (and will pay more). As clubs, we should probably attract a similar profile of manager but given a choice, they will be a more attractive proposition. I only mentioned Benitez because it keeps being reported that he wants to come back to the Premier League and as far as I can see, his options of clubs are severely limited if that is the case and Villa like us should be challenging for the top 8 if they were being backed properly by their owner. Lerner interviewed Benitez after Houllier went (or was it McLeish, can't remember). It became apparent that Benitez was interested in the job (hence the interview), but was expecting loads more money to spend on players, hence Lerner cutting the interview short So, basically, no chance.

We have a squad which is far from earth shatteringly good, but is easily good enough to not be in the bottom six, let alone the bottom three. A decent manager would have ensured that. That's what has done for Lambert, it's nothing to do with failing to live up to the expectations of years gone by when we spent more money, it is the fact that he has not got anywhere near the best out of what he has for the last few years.

Hmmmm: http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3873528,00.html

He looked broken in his interview last night. I have very little sympathy for him, but I can see that it has all taken its toll on him. So I think you have nothing to worry about, he'll be needing at least a year off to get over it.

I think we need to make an interim appointment to keep us up, and then take it from there. Just removing Lambert from the mixture improves our chances.

*punches air* So proud, so proud. Even if you are prepared to overlook the many periods in his first two years when he should have got the bullet, this year alone he should have gone months ago. And, one thing I would like to point out, despite what the media might say about football fans being short termist or fickle, Lambert has had *immense* support since he has been here. At the end of his first season he had done badly enough to have fans on his back, but he had almost total support. It was genuinely only last night that the fans really turned on him. The first time we've seen a banner. And that is after him being here almost three entire seasons, managing us for 102 games and losing 51 of them. The bloke has had an immense, truly immense amount of understanding and patience, he really only has himself to blame.

I'd rather we just concentrated on staying up and then made a big decision in the summer. However, in the meantime, I am like this. http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/339790/david-pleat-o.gif