brummie

We have to rely on the legal system, though. He has been through the legal process, tried, found guilty and convicted. He even had the right to an appeal turned down. Evans and another bloke had sex with a woman too drunk to consent whilst two other men watched. That is the top and bottom of it. Calling it infidelity just makes it sound like what it would be if you or I started shagging someone behind our partner's back. Evans can call it what he likes, but that doesn't mean that is what it is. Somewhere there is the victim listening to this, or maybe there are other women who have been raped and scared to go to the police about it, being put off by Evans's brushing it off as infidelity. CCTV footage of the evening apparently showed she could barely stand, she was so off her face. He might not think he's raped anyone, but the law thinks otherwise. I can't help but think that, if he came to terms with what had happened and stopped trying to minimise it, people might be more understanding in allowing him to rebuild his life. Why do we have to rely upon the legal system in this instance? I mean obviously yes, in the grand scheme of things our society has to, but when it's still questionable there's no reason to... How is it questionable? It isn't. By the definition of what our legal system defines as rape, there's no question here. Whether or not he plays again is a different argument, and I can see both sides of that, but have no doubt about it, Ched Evans is a convicted rapist, no matter what spin he wants to put on it. I can't see any situation in which there is no reason to rely on the legal system in cases like these.

We have to rely on the legal system, though. He has been through the legal process, tried, found guilty and convicted. He even had the right to an appeal turned down. Evans and another bloke had sex with a woman too drunk to consent whilst two other men watched. That is the top and bottom of it. Calling it infidelity just makes it sound like what it would be if you or I started shagging someone behind our partner's back. Evans can call it what he likes, but that doesn't mean that is what it is. Somewhere there is the victim listening to this, or maybe there are other women who have been raped and scared to go to the police about it, being put off by Evans's brushing it off as infidelity. CCTV footage of the evening apparently showed she could barely stand, she was so off her face. He might not think he's raped anyone, but the law thinks otherwise. I can't help but think that, if he came to terms with what had happened and stopped trying to minimise it, people might be more understanding in allowing him to rebuild his life.

The thing is, no matter what we might think of the case, going by what we read in the press, the bloke is a convicted rapist. He was found guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, by a jury. There's no "may be" guilty about it - in the eyes of the law, he did it. Until a legal process takes place under which he clears his name, Ched Evans is a convicted rapist. The fact that the woman was drunk doesn't in any way suggest it was any more acceptable - it is no excuse whatsoever. My problem with Evans is, every time I have seen him on tv or read stuff he has said in the newspapers, he refers to it as "my infidelity" which his girlfriend has forgiven him for. This sort of thing: "Ched Evans: cheating on my girlfriend was unforgivable" - http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/19/ched-evans-no-remorse-rape-woman It wasn't "infidelity", it was rape. There is nothing normal about this - two professional footballers have sex with a woman so drunk she can hardly stand up, whilst two other men watch. I don't have an opinion one way or the other about whether Sheffield United should have him back, I can see both sides of the argument, but I find the creeping acceptance (and I don't mean anyone here, I mean in general) of what he did as in some way not actual rape more than a little bit unpleasant.

Benteke deserved to get sent off in our game. I don't agree with "touch their face and you're off" but that is the way it is interpreted, so I understand it. The major problem i have is that, prior to that, Mason blatantly stuck his head in Benteke's face, another action which would similarly get a player sent off, but he didn't even get a yellow card. They should - by the common interpretation of the rules - both have been sent off.

We are incapable of beating anyone. We are down. Trust me, I remember 1986-7. I walked out of the first match, a hopeless 3-0 home loss to Spurs and said to my mate "take my word for it, I can smell relegation, and this club stinks of it, we're done for". And i was right. I smell exactly the same thing this season. This is a worse team than that year. Would you take relegation if it meant getting rid of Lambert and starting afresh with someone new? I appreciate I'm kind of dodging the question, but depressingly, I don't think he'd sack Lambert even if we went down. He's that fucking deluded. So I can't answer that because part of that sentence won't happen. What is so depressing is that it isn't the "if you went down" bit, it is the "starting afresh with someone new". The chairman has manifestly lost interest in the club. He's trying to sell it, he has admitted he wants out. He basically just doesn't care. Anyone sticking money on Lambert as next manager to go is absolutely wasting their money, he's just been given a four year contract. That's a manager who has lost 23 of our last 36 games. A manager who has the record for fewest home wins in a season in 139 years, and what's more, he also has the record for "second fewest home wins", too. A manager currently delivering our longest run of defeats in 47 years. At some point soon he will stop breaking our all-time shitness records, not because we'll be playing better, but because he'll run out of records to break. It isn't his shitness that irks me most, it is that the chairman doesn't give a fuck.

We are incapable of beating anyone. We are down. Trust me, I remember 1986-7. I walked out of the first match, a hopeless 3-0 home loss to Spurs and said to my mate "take my word for it, I can smell relegation, and this club stinks of it, we're done for". And i was right. I smell exactly the same thing this season. This is a worse team than that year.

Seen a few Newcastle fans slagging off Villa's crowds. This attitude of 'our attendances are better than yours' has to change in English football if fans want any power back. It was fine when games were £2 on the gate but not now, supporters deserve to see something back from their money, some sort of accountability for poor performance. This attitude of turning up out of 'loyalty' is just giving people like Lerner and Ashley licence to take the piss. At a certain point around 1992, the relationship stopped being "club and supporters" and became "club and customers". We stopped being an integral part of the clubs, it became a business relationship, and that meant them treating us no different to the way M&S treat their shoppers. This whole thing was entirely of their making. if people don't turn up week in week out to watch a load of offensive shit, then that's a direct result of them changing the relationship, with all the enormous price inflation that meant. They can't have it both ways.

I think your crowds are freakishly good. There's plenty to admire in that. However, I just know too many people who are of exactly the same opinion as me and have had enough. This is the year we get relegated, I can tell. I saw it happen the last time and all the same signs are there.

But Lambert has just, apparently, been on Sky Sports and said we were "excellent".

38% possession against a side as poor as Spurs, and just the one shot on target.

Another new record smashed today. Longest run of defeats for 47 years, which takes it just outside my life time.

Incidentally, Spurs are the worst team I've seen at Villa Park this season, and that possibly includes even us, they were truly feeble. The fact we let them win is just staggering. That Mason is an absolute cunt, mind. He had his head right in Benteke's face, and the minute he reacts, he runs straight to the ref. What a cunt. Benteke was fuckign stupid and was always going to get sent off, but Mason should have gone as well.

Last 36 games - lost 23 of them. Goal difference = -34. Safest manager in the league.

Mason had his head in bentekes face then the minute benteke touched him ran straight to the ref.

Two shaky defences. If we win I expect Lerner will give Lambert a three year extension on his new four year deal. Possibly commission a statue of him to have outside his house in NY state. Maybe make enquiries to the people at Debretts regarding getting him ennobled, a baronetcy, say.

"We're Aston Villa, we score when we want" - the Holte End. Football gallows humour is ace.

The worst thing about the game these days is that someone like Clough - who I genuinely think is the greatest British manager ever - would not be able to achieve anything like as much. Aye, even doing what Keegan did with us is pretty much unthinkable these days unless you've got some serious money behind you. Someone sent me a link the other day, it was a clip on youtube of an entire episode of the local news here in Birmingham from june 1981. I sat down and spent half an hour watching it, purely out of nostalgia, not even thinking about football. At the end, it was the sports news, and the main story was "Ron Saunders is understood to have turned down the vacant manager's job at Manchester United. Saunders said he was not intending to leave champions Aston Villa". All of a sudden, the half hour spent looking at the outdated fashions of the presenters, the awful graphics, the ancient looking presentation was totally trumped by a little snippet like that that made it feel more like 100 years ago.

In fact, Clough in the modern era would be like seeing Lennon and McCartney rock up on the X Factor, trying to convince Louis Walsh they're worth a spin.

The worst thing about the game these days is that someone like Clough - who I genuinely think is the greatest British manager ever - would not be able to achieve anything like as much.

The thing is - and I hate myself for saying this - if you were Randy Lerner or Ellis Short or Mike Ashley, and you were looking at the Premier League as it is now, and thinking "well, I can sit on my arse, not invest myself emotionally, not spend too much money, leave the club ticking over, finish somewhere between 6th and 17th, fluctuating a bit season on season, or I can spend £250m and make a concerted effort at CL football, which might actually turn out to end after two games" what would you do? The horrific thing is that I too would probably settle for ticking over. And that's the problem There's no point you, or me, or leffe, or Neil, or that Man U fan who comes on here* even thinking about things like winning the league any more, because we can't, it can't happen unless we get someone in as chairman who is a multi billionaire (remember when you used to just need a multi millionaire, or a billionaire?) with some sort of mental malfunction that makes him want to do this sort of thing. That is the depressing thing. When I was a kid in the 1970s, I remember Leeds then Derby, then Forest coming from pretty much nowhere (I honestly remember thinking I'd never actually heard of Forest before the first time they won the league) and winning shit. I even remember my own team winning pretty much everything except the FA Cup. All that now can not happen, it is just impossible. I haven't been to a single match this season, and I am not going to until something changes. I went to my first match in 1973, I've had a season ticket most years since then, I went almost a decade missing one or two matches home and away at most a season, my family have supported this club since it started. And do you know what? If i go tomorrow or don't go, it doesn't fucking matter to them, because, even after 20 years of fans mattering not one fucking iota, it is getting worse, attendances matter less and less. They don't really give a shit if 30,000 people are there tomorrow or 40,000. Why should they? The people who watch on telly in Asia are way, way more important, and it will get more like that. Very good point about Everton and Spurs, incidentally. I've noticed that among our fans recently. In recent years, we'd lost to the top four and people would say "well, they're the top four". Now we get effortlessly brushed aside by Everton and it's "well, they finished in the top five". It'll only be a matter of time until we're beaten easily by the likes of West Ham, and people will be saying "well, they're in London" (or some other nonsensical excuse), we can't possibly hope to compete. Meh. It really is a load of utter nonsense when it comes down to it. * obviously, the Man United thing was a joke

Don't think for a nanosecond I don't get your argument, because I absolutely do, and I have been mentally driving myself nuts thinking about it. However, Lambert doesn't deserve my support. I don't support Paul Lambert, I support Aston Villa. Right now, I firmly believe the worst thing for Aston Villa is the continued management of Paul Lambert, a man who has broken every single record for shitness this club has ever had. This is the man who won fewer home games in a season than any other manager in our 139 year history. That includes the early days of the league when we'd only play about 10 home games, too. Then the next season, he broke his own record again. Those who remember my ramblings at the end of his first season will recall that I, and most other Villa fans, was totally behind him even after his first train wreck of a season. Since then I've seen ineptitude of the absolutely highest order. I've seen a manager who reminds me hugely of Billy McNeill - a manager who quite clearly was not only incompetent, he didn't care. A man who relegated two teams in one season, and Lambert looks worse. We are going nowhere under this man but down. What the lads and the club needs is to be rid of him. I entirely get your point (although, the SUPPORTer thing is a bit sledgehammer, mind), it is a very difficult thing to get your head around, as I said, I hate finding myself thinking like this, but I just do. I do not support Paul Lambert or Randy Lerner, I support Aston Villa, and I want the best for the club, which has been demonstrated very clearly to mean moving this manager on. Oh, and you know what the most depressing thing is? The bloke is bulletproof. Absolutely fucking bulletproof.

That Ronaldo stat is absolute bollocks. It is actually 21.

*wine through nostrils* Very good. Particularly like the fact you've given it enough thought to decide on a specific form of destructive farm machinery for him to fall under.

That's the thing. Raging vs four wins on the bounce. That's why I am thinking whether I'd like us to win or draw versus lose by 5 tomorrow in terms of the bigger picture. Wanting the team I've supported for 40 years, and which is in trouble, to lose heavily. f***ing hell. yeah, some SUPPORTer you are I know it isn't an easy think to come to terms with, I've spent enough time thinking about it myself, but: Lost 5 games in a row, fail to score in any of them Beat Spurs That sequence then sets us up for another 5 game losing streak being acceptable because we got one good result. One match in the wider scheme of things means nothing. i don't want the utter, utter mediocrity our chairman and manager think are OK to go on any more. What kind of supporter is our chairman if he thinks failing to score for nine hours is acceptable? I wouldn't want to have one of my fingers cut off, either, but if I thought it'd stop disease from spreading to the rest of my body, I'd lop the fucker off myself. I absolutely guarantee you, if we keep this manager, we will finish 15th or below AGAIN this season. And he'll still be our manager next season, even if we get relegated. Who the fuck would want that?

Our incarnation of the last four years is one of biding time until we go down. Not because the owner is a cunt - he isn't, he has spent a lot of money. The problem is that the owner is two things, uninterested and utterly, utterly incompetent. What is shocking, too, is seeing the gradual wearing down of expectations of the fans. "Maybe we can nick a point at West Ham", that sort of thing. FFS. Honestly, I think I hate almost all our supporters. Passive fucking sheep. In fact, that probably counts for most football supporters full stop these days. I think you'll find it's the best league in the world, so good that 12 teams are battling to stay up and nothing else. Fucking pathetic - getting to the point when I look forward to the bubble bursting. When the money just for being in it is so big, and when the gap between those who compete for the CL and those who don't is so big, it just becomes a great mass of clubs who are happy not to get booted off the easy money roundabout of the PL. That's one reason why we have this sort of football management equivalent of eating at Yo Sushi. There's a belt going round and round with utterly fucking mediocre managers on it, the likes of Pardew, Lambert, Bruce, Harry Fucking Redknapp, these people who are basically fucking frauds. They get taken off the belt, do an OK job somewhere for a few years (i.e. not get relegated) then get sacked, get back on the belt, start going round and round again, get taken off again by some other total mug of a chairman. From one million pound a year job to another, and most of them have never even won anything. I don't care about top players and managers getting top money in this league. It isn't the likes of Rooney and Yaya Toure getting 200k a week that worries me, and it isn't the thought of people like Mourinho getting paid obscene amounts of money, it is the huge numbers of truly mediocre players on 40k a week, and managers who are basically just media figureheads without the first idea of coaching or actual management, picking up 20 or 30k a week on long contracts, getting sacked, then getting their contracts paid up. So many utterly shit "professionals" just on a never ending easy ride.