brummie

The thing I always remember about Bobby Robson was how, in the run up to the 1990 WC, the tabloids have him absolutely relentless stick. It was unbelievable - certainly more vitriolic than Graham Taylor got with the turnip stuff, as it went on for longer. I remember we played a few friendlies against poor opposition prior to the WC, and they were really laying it on even that late. Even when the tournament started and the group matches were largely turgid affairs, he was under massive pressure and copping huge stick. We then did well in the knockout rounds and the press did a total about turn. How he managed not to fall to the temptation to publically point out this hypocrisy is beyond me.

Surely Kinnear's not going to be allowed to talk about money, is he?

Oh, and good to be back on the MON ranting, too. I've missed that.

As an outsider, and no matter how shit a season you had last season, I genuinely fail to see how anyone could suggest that their recruitment over the last few years has been even on the same planet as yours has, quality wise. They've given a manager - Bruce - a shit load of money to buy a whole new team. He then did that, the fans got on his back when - miraculously - this whole new team didn't gel really quickly, so he got sacked. They then appointed a new manager, MON, who didn't fancy half the new team Bruce had only just bought (always problematic), but rather than use his budget wisely to get in enough decent players to use instead of the ones he didn't fancy (not to mention maybe selling some of said unfancied players), he went out and wasted a gigantic sum of money on a handful of "anyone who reads the tabloid sports section could have suggested them" massively overpriced, underwhelming British players. Having then sacked him, they've appointed a total fucking nut job who will want to get shot of most of the players signed by both Bruce and MON and bring in his own. It has been a total circus of a transfer policy for a few years now. I will be genuinely surprised if Sunderland do not go down next season. Incidentally, it is this sort of short termism, chopping and changing that was a large part of the reason Villa fans didn't get on Lambert's back last season - we'd had a pretty good indicator of how that can worked out in our plummeting from sixth three times in a row to three relegation battles in a row.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4814612/Radio-sensation-super-tramp-gets-makeover.html He looks like Mark E Smith after the makeover.

I think there's a general level of stupidity in society which is reflected in football supporters as it would be in any other group of people with a shared interest. I don't know so much about racism any more amongst our fans, as one thing I have noticed over the last 5-10 years is that we are finally getting a significant number of Asian fans at our matches, where for years, despite being in an area which is almost entirely Asian these days, we'd get pretty much none. I genuinely can't remember the last time I heard racism amongst our fans - and I sit amongst some particularly fucking stupid people. I remember a couple of seasons ago, walking to the ground and there were a bunch of pissed up away fans in front of us, think it might have been Stoke fans possibly, I genuinely can't remember, and they were singing "town full of pakis". I was pretty gobsmacked, really. I suspect that is down to regional variations - in racially mixed cities, you're way, way less likely to hear stuff like that than you are from people from more homegenous areas. What I do notice, though, is a quite staggering level of stupidity where some other issues are concerned. So, for example, whenever we play Liverpool or Everton, we STILL get the Holte End singing that tedious "you'll never work again" bollocks, which, as well as being about 30 years out of date, is moronically short sighted when you consider that both in the 1980s, when the chant became popular, and in the current economic meltdown, the West Midlands is doing just as badly as Merseyside. The other thing that really, really makes me cringe is homophobia, and the fact that so many people think it is still OK. So you'd never hear the Holte singing racist songs, but you'll still hear them chanting about how Upson takes it up the arse etc etc. It's pretty pathetic, really. I don't think you can say fans of one club or another are more stupid than any other, though, really. Oh, apart from Albion fans. They make Birmingham City fans look bright by comparison.

Aston Villa XI as they phrase it. But yes, the youth team. Unlike the side we put out that lost 2-0 at Luton last week. That was the first team.

I would usually agree..... but 82m is insane and they can rebuild a better team with that money. And knowing Tottenham they would actually reinvest that money. I don't entirely buy this. Who would come, who would be that much better than what we have - given that we're not in the Champions League? Sure, we can throw money at a couple of people, but with PSG, Man City, Chelsea et al hoovering up the best too, I'm not convinced we'd get value for money. Everyone will know we're loaded. The point is to win things. It's about glory, as someone once said. We could take the money now, but why not just go for it this year? I get that teams like us have to sell players from time to time to progress, but we just had our name and kit plastered all over Times Square, essentially thanks to Bale. Well fuck Real Madrid. Fuck that whole echelon of clubs. Fuck that attitude that certain players are meant to play for "CL" clubs, and somehow we are holding them back, or letting football down, if we don't let them go. I was disappointed not to get Benteke because I wanted a striker, but part of me was genuinely happy that a (at least recently) smaller club had not bowed to pressure to sell. Well, not without giving him a fat new contract, but you get what I mean. If we get Soldado in, and still fail to get CL this year, then so be it. I would expect to see Bale go, and still expect us to get a shitload of cash for him. The rumours are that AVB and Paulinho had been assured Bale would stay - and keeping him would send a positive message to them. One player is never bigger than the club, but this isn't just about one player. I entirely understand what you're saying, and in parts, I agree with you. However. £86m? Its not the usual "sell him or keep him and go for it" offer. It's the highest amount EVER paid for a player. He's a great player, there's no getting away from that, but that is utterly insane money. I could understand anyone doing the deal at that sort of stupid cash. The other thing is, in situations like this, people often say "he'll spit his dummy out, he won't be the same, his head's gone" and sometimes they're right, but sometimes they're wrong. The problem here is that the other club is Real Madrid. There is massive, massive likelihood of Bale losing his head over this. I think the argument that that sort of cash puts him up with Ronaldo and Messi, which is company he doesn't deserve to be in, is largely right, but it doesn't really matter. It isn't up to Spurs to provide "value" in the transfer market, and the fee should be about how much he is worth to Spurs, not some reflection of his worth on the market. I just don't see how he can be worth more than that to you.

We are rumoured to be talking to Marco Capuano, who apparently is a central defender. Having seen our failure to keep a clean sheet extended to 32 games now - all pre season friendlies plus everything right back to the first week in December 2012 - I find it very easy to believe we want to strengthen there. Our defending at Luton the other night was hideous for both goals. I can't believe Lambert sees Clark as a CB (where he's hopeless) rather than a midfielder (where he's miles better).

I had totally forgotten about Darius's blog. It's interesting reading, although he sounds extremely depressed. I always liked him as a player. Although the fact he's the least reliable striker EVER in a 1 on 1 with the keeper is perhaps a fault he never got over.

It's utter bollocks. We won't be interested in him, for starters, we're OK for strikers. Maybe if we'd flogged Benteke, yes, but we didn't.

Played on the last day of last season. Played 23 times last season.

You can point to things like his willingness to wear a Barclay's logo, or his fondness of gambling as evidence of possible hypocrisy, and there is always the chance this is about engineering a move or more money or something, but ...... wouldn't it be genuinely impressive to see a player do something out of moral conviction for a change, rather than just for more money? Appreciate that you'd prefer it were at someone else's club, but you get my drift.

Franny Lee. Actually proper fat. Never a problem with him. Cruyff smoking on the bench. That sort of thing. That's what we need back.

Agbonlahor bulked up on his upper body and lost pace. He came back from a summer break built like a brick shit house, and it definitely had an adverse effect. I understand Lambert told him to stop doing so much gym work at the start of last season. By the last third of the season, he was in excellent form. I know you can debate the causality, but I think you're right, it definitely had a bad effect on him.

I HATE IT

Given that when he moved here, Bent built himself a gigantic new house in Cambridgeshire (where he grew up, and where his family live), if I were to put money on where he'd want to go, it'd be somewhere as close as possible. If it comes down to Fulham or your lot, I reckon he's more likely to choose Fulham in a straight choice. I've just had the strange feeling I've already posted this.

He was actually crossing the sponsor's name out. Doesn't believe in promoting charities.

"Which one you going to? Fulham or Newcastle?" "You'll have to wait and see" Anyone needs any help translating what the kid was saying, give me a shout.

He's become Steve Lomas's assistant, according to SNN a few seconds ago.

Dwight Yorke left us for Man United, so I'm not too sure that's the best example, to be honest. I don't like the way football is, no, but if it's going to be like that, I want things to be as good for us as they can. I'm also not convinced Spurs are one of those big clubs just yet, either....

If he has a good season and then a good world cup - and neither of those are scenarios which are completely unrealistic - he can take his pick of destinations next season. That was going to be the case whether he signed a new deal with us or not. It's good news for us, we didn't expect it, plus we've signed Lowton, Westwood, Clark, Guzan, Baker and Weimann to extended deals this week, and that's all good. It's especially good when you consider that from 2006-2012, we spunked away money willy nilly on the most short term signings possible and paid no attention whatsoever to growing the value of the squad, and actually treating it like an asset which needs to be managed correctly. We are finally starting to run things sensibly.

On the other hand, he's signed a new, extended contract and there are still six weeks to go until the window closes. Maybe he wasn't in such a mad rush to get away in the first place? Am loving reading on the BBC site the comments of fans of some clubs desperate to make it sound like a bad thing. Had we flogged him, we'd have got crucified as a selling club. We've kept him, and we've kept him probably the same way Spurs kept Modric another year, by offering him more money, yet somehow that's some kind of big deal? It isn't, that's how football works, sadly.

didn't see that one coming Effectively signed a one-year extension which doubles his pay to 40kpw. Villa had all the cards with Benteke on a long-term contract and it being a WC year. Benteke was never going to win, at least for now. That's the thing, his agent played it totally wrong. Hence last week us saying "he can leave if someone offers us enough", "enough" being a stupid sum. Well done, Lambert, played a bit of a blinder on this one. Nobody expected us to keep him after a second good season and a decent world cup, anyway. Do you come from the future? If so, who should I bet for in the CL? He will be good enough, if he has another good season with us, I reckon to go to a top, top level club. The reason this whole Spurs nonsense came up is his agent - who, by all accounts, is an absolute nightmare - trying to shoehorn in another move before then. The thing about next season is over whether there's a release clause or not, ie really, we knew it'd be tough this summer keeping him, but also knew that if we did, it'd be for another year at most, assuming he continues to improve. If he improves as much as he has the potential to do so, he can go anywhere. I've a feeling he'd opt to stay in England, though, and it wouldn't surprise me if he went to Arsenal. That's a totally different move for him - who is going to go to Spurs when you've got the chance of Arsenal (and especially given he gave an interview last seaosn about how much he loved them as a club, in any case).

didn't see that one coming Effectively signed a one-year extension which doubles his pay to 40kpw. Villa had all the cards with Benteke on a long-term contract and it being a WC year. Benteke was never going to win, at least for now. That's the thing, his agent played it totally wrong. Hence last week us saying "he can leave if someone offers us enough", "enough" being a stupid sum. Well done, Lambert, played a bit of a blinder on this one. Nobody expected us to keep him after a second good season and a decent world cup, anyway.