brummie

Bit of a result. Stick that up your anal passage, Tottingham Hyperspurts.

New contracts for us signed over the last week and a bit by Ashley Westwood (who looked great towards the end of the season), Matt Lowton, Ciaran Clark (who needs to be played in midfield, not at CB, but hey ho), Andi Weimann and Nathan Baker. Good to see we're making sure they're all on long, improved deals, they all deserve them.

Single handedly stopped the unthinkable - Birmingham City winning the FA Cup - from happening, and did so with a broken neck. RIP.

There are already enough factors out of the control of FIFA doing their bit to kill off international football, but FIFA also seem pretty determined to do it themselves.

barclays are scum also, he's objecting to only one, why ? You can't compare Barclays and Wonga - they are two completely different businesses Wonga are a horrendous company and it was a sad say when they were announced as our club sponsors and I don't care for how much money. Newcastle was once a proud club MA has turned it into one of his cheap shops. Cisse is making a stand, forget what the papers say, this is more a morale stand than a religious one. It's an absolute joke the club have allowed it to get to this point. Is it too much for the Club and Wonga for that matter to show a little respect and say fair enough as a gesture of good will we'll allow you not to wear the shirt. Wonga would have had some 'good' publicity out of it and everyone would have been a winner. As it stands the club is in a mess, more bad publicity and a VITAL player unhappy and potential out of the door. And for what? And Barclays, on the other hand, are cunning, LIBOR fixing wankers who have done far more damage to our economy than Wonga ever will. Wonga are reprehensible scum, but sadly, Barclays are too.

Done deal.

Makes me laugh how people are able to pick and choose what elements of religion they like but they still hold the high groung in your eyes. Isn't being religious, almost by definition, in a society likes ours today a matter of picking and choosing, though? That's largely how, if you take away the influence of insane fundamentalists - of every religion - religions survive? to a point, the problem being if you pick and choose you have to be consistent with what you choose. Quite right. I chose to ignore all of it. *drinks booze, gambles, lends money, eats pork, beef, draws cartoon of Allah* Oooh I'd like to see that. (madras in get rid of non-nufcers off the board attempt) (only kidding brummie ) It's ok, I'm going to post a series of them on RTG

And that's what matters at the end of the day. Latter half of last season I really enjoyed watching your lot. It is all a big roundabout. The entire season before that, I'd rather have undergone root canal without anaesthetic than go to Villa Park.

Makes me laugh how people are able to pick and choose what elements of religion they like but they still hold the high groung in your eyes. Isn't being religious, almost by definition, in a society likes ours today a matter of picking and choosing, though? That's largely how, if you take away the influence of insane fundamentalists - of every religion - religions survive? to a point, the problem being if you pick and choose you have to be consistent with what you choose. Quite right. I chose to ignore all of it. *drinks booze, gambles, lends money, eats pork, beef, draws cartoon of Allah*

Makes me laugh how people are able to pick and choose what elements of religion they like but they still hold the high groung in your eyes. Isn't being religious, almost by definition, in a society likes ours today a matter of picking and choosing, though? That's largely how, if you take away the influence of insane fundamentalists - of every religion - religions survive?

They already were to a point last season I thought, aided by having a gash defence in this aspect though. Very direct but not just long ball style. Reminded me a bit of us under Hughton but with a bit more pace. A team that knew it's strengths, eventually, and played to them well. They'll do well next season if they keep Benteke, if not then obviously it'll depend on how he is replaced. We at least tried to play football last season. Look at the likes of Agbonlahor's goal at Reading or Weimann's at Anfield, that was proper, passing football. I actually went out and bought the season review DVD and watched it, thinking "fuck me, we scored some cracking goals". When you consider we finished 15th, that says something. There was certainly absolutely nothing even remotely long ball about us. We struggled a lot, and the defence was shit, but honestly, I can barely remember a Villa manager getting such levels of support before, it was pretty amazing. That's because people realise it's a risk that he's taking, but they've bought into it. It was never, ever boring. We played some cracking football, we had some nightmares, we had some enormous tactical fuck ups, but it was never for a second anything less than totally watchable all season. It is also a reflection of the McLeish year that came before it. Honestly, I know I have tried to explain it properly on here before, but I just can't do justice to how monumentally depressing and embarassing that was. It was horrific, just horrific. I am shaking a bit now, trying to explain it. This season could be a nightmare, we might finish 15th again, we might finish 8th or so, I have no idea, genuinely, but it is at least not going to be boring. I don't even give too much of a shit if Benteke goes. I trust him to spend the money well. I am really looking forward to it, and so is every single Villa fan I know.

Cerulean? Check out the new man credentials on Haris Vuckic. I bet you know the Farrow and Ball stock number for that off by heart.

Ireland is a shirker, ultimately. Did better than most under McLeish - not saying much - then slipped back into his old ways. One thing Lambert absolutely won't be putting up with is anyone who won't pull their weight. It's not surprising ireland is on his way, and even less so that Richard Dunne managed to make that mystery injury last an entire season.

That's probably the closest to the truth. To be entirely honest, if he just sees Bent as a back up as he's not his natural style of striker, then it's daft to be spunking those sort of wages on someone who isn't your first choice.

That's a load of bollocks, as well, the "glad to see the back of him" thing. You'd probably find most Villa fans would choose to keep him if it were up to them. I'd also point out that we paid 18m plus extras for him, so unless you know what the extras were, 24m sounds somewhat over the top. See, we were desperately short of goals and looking like going down, so we went out and broke our transfer record, and bought the goals to stay up. And we stayed up. What your lot would have done is poke around the arse end of the market, get nobody in, and go down without a whimper whilst whining on about how your play proper bostin football and it ay fair and what not. Still, I'd expect it is at times like this that Albion fans' utter obsession with us shows through and they really prove themselves to have their finger on the pulse of things at Villa, so I'll bow to your more informed analysis of the Bent situation.

I kind of see what you are hinting at, and I think Lambert chucking Bent in to train with the kids is treatment Bent doesn't really deserve. To be fair, there haven't been any rumours about Bent being in any way troublesome as a person, it has entirely been about the sort of player he is. it is often forgotten, but Lambert actually made Bent captain at one point last season.

Without getting in to the wider question of Cisse etc etc, to label Bent as "not deemed good enough to play for Villa" is kind of missing the point on him. There's a reason he's not playing for us, and its not because he's not good enough, it's to do with the kind of player he is. Whether he's the sort of player you could us or not is a whole different question which I don't really feel qualified to get in to, but the "not good enough to play for Villa" thing is an inaccurate misconception.

Precisely. It's a pathetic situation, which lots of people raised before the decision was made, yet the decision went the way it did purely because of money. And the weather thing is only one of the problems - there's then the whole mountain of questions about playing the tournament in such a repressive country.

But then again, if that were the case, they'd want you to reduce the money they were paying for the sponsorship as a result of it. I actually don't think Wonga would go for that anyway - if there is a Newcastle match on telly, and people are asking "why is that striker the only one not wearing the sponsor's logo", it's like a nationally televised reminder of how Wonga are unacceptable to a lot of people. I don't think this is a situation which would be easy to fix in any way other than selling the player concerned - even though it's mental to find yourselves in that situation.

Yes, they are, but that's not the point discussed here, as we're talking about them within the context of Cisse's objection to wearing the Wonga logo. If a person objects to Wonga and Virgin on the basis of money lending being morally wrong, then ultimately, they're two very familiar beasts, as that is what they both do. If the objection to them is discriminatorily high interest rates charged vulnerable people, then they're too very different beasts. Good point made by madras, too, about the Barclays logo. Barclays too are pretty despicable, on recent evidence.

Exactly. It's sad, really, it'd be nice for a footballer to at some point do something on a matter of principle and have it accepted as such, but looking at Cisse's thing, it's hard not to find yourself thinking that it sounds like a convenient - if implausible - excuse to get more money or a move.

That's the thing. If I were the player in question, as a non muslim, I would be far more likely to object to Wonga as a shirt sponsor, on the grounds that they're are a company which lends money to desperate people at obscene rates of interest. They're pretty much the sort of loan sharks you'd find in depressed towns, except on the internet. Virgin Money, however, I wouldn't have a problem with. They're money lenders, yes, but I don't see credit cards, mortgages and loans of the type they offer as morally questionable. Or online gambling companies, either. That's because it is my frame of reference, which isn't a religious one (not that that really matters). With Cisse, however, his objection to Wonga is said to be on the basis of his religion. His religion finds money lending FULL STOP objectionable and unacceptable, so if he's using Wonga as an example of an unacceptable company to have on his shirt, then surely he must also object to any other commercial lender, and that wasn't the case for him last year.

It'll probably mean nothing. Like when Benteke didn't go to Germany with us last week. Oh.

I can't believe for a nanosecond some of you seem to think Leon Best would be a better bet than Bent. You're utterly, utterly nuts if you do. Seriously.

Richard Dunne signs for QPR. I am going to miss that guy. I loved the way, first day of the season, he'd be increasingly massively overweight, without fail. Also, I note he went an entire season on our books but with a "mystery injury" only to play for Ireland days after the season ended. Funny, that. Still, we've had an Irish centre half with a similar "injury" before, if I recall.