brummie

I notice those little scrotes are wearing Stone Island. Does anyone who doesn't see themselves as a wannabe hoolie or a Danny Dyer in the making wear Stone Island these days?

FYP

Massive Blow to Los Ches. Failure to qualify for the CL means this was inevitable sadly. That's one reason I hate the CL.

It is when managers constantly talk about players needing to show loyalty and honour their contracts if a bid comes in. Yet when the manager wants rid as he feels his team has outgrown a certain player, managers like Lambert resort to those kind of tactics. Actually this is something that can't be aimed at Pardew, he doesn't treat players in that fashion and is very good in that respect. I don't really know why Lambert is doing it, either. Apparently, they (the group of players he has sent to train with the kids as he wants to sell them) refer to themselves as "the bomb squad". Basically, it is Bent, Given, Bannan, Ireland, and Alan Hutton. Hutton was interviewed recently and said he had no problem with it, and understood what the manager wants. I also can't see in a million years Given being there for having been unprofessional. Or Bent. I think he just doesn't intend to use them, so doesn't want them training with the first team. If the players themselves are fine with that, that is fine and dandy, but what I do not get is why do this when it can only have a negative effect on the value of players we are trying to sell. Someone else on here noted that Brum, doing what Lambert has done (seems the players are ok with it, well understand the reasons anyway) can only damage the players selling value. It just seems a bit odd to me, can't fault Lambert for much else tbf. Basically, anyone after Bent or Given will now just bide their time, safe in the knowledge they can dive in whenever and get a decent deal.

It is when managers constantly talk about players needing to show loyalty and honour their contracts if a bid comes in. Yet when the manager wants rid as he feels his team has outgrown a certain player, managers like Lambert resort to those kind of tactics. Actually this is something that can't be aimed at Pardew, he doesn't treat players in that fashion and is very good in that respect. I don't really know why Lambert is doing it, either. Apparently, they (the group of players he has sent to train with the kids as he wants to sell them) refer to themselves as "the bomb squad". Basically, it is Bent, Given, Bannan, Ireland, and Alan Hutton. Hutton was interviewed recently and said he had no problem with it, and understood what the manager wants. I also can't see in a million years Given being there for having been unprofessional. Or Bent. I think he just doesn't intend to use them, so doesn't want them training with the first team. If the players themselves are fine with that, that is fine and dandy, but what I do not get is why do this when it can only have a negative effect on the value of players we are trying to sell.

James Milner is a brilliant player. When used correctly.

Of course they are. His agent will be eyeing up his own slice of the pie if he moves his client on, too. This is what happens in pretty much every transfer. It is what happened with Benteke the other week, too. His agent gets in his ear, he can do a deal, get him a move, agent gets big chunk payment, player gets more money, bigger contract etc etc. The problem you have is that the club is Real, so players are more likely to want to push through a move - they're the biggest club in the world, arguably - and they have a proven track record of always getitng what they want. Even if what they actually want sometimes turns out to be a bit daft. You need this sorted one way or the other very soon, though. He's such a good player, but he's so important to you, if you are going to have to try to replace him, you need as much time as you can get to do it. There's a kind of inevitability that he's going to end up going, unfortunately, as that sort of thing is what fucks up football. I reckon it's in your better interests to take the money now rather than wait weeks and get another 5 or 10m or whatever out of them. The figures spoken are ALL utterly immense in any case, and there's no point having it burning a hole in your pocket until January.

They're doing a bloody good job at attempting to overtake us as a national laughing stock. Thanks Liverpool. Of all football clubs in this country - including the one I support - Liverpool are the one who have given me the most pleasure the last few seasons, they're just been so utterly hilarious, so frequently.

His problem is that, now he's read a few books, he has started to see himself as some kind of James Dean style character, where his major weakness is him being "different" or other people not thinking on his level. As you said, his actual major weaknesses have been violence - and in that occasion, against a child - alcohol abuse and arrogance. The problem is, he will never see it that way - not when there's an "easier" way out for him, like ascribing his problems as due to the weaknesses of anyone else but himself.

I agree there are some concerns about whether he's the type of player we need, but Darren Bent is certainly not "fucking shit" Indeed he isn't, and someone is going to get a bargain. It needs to be a team set up to play to his strengths, that's definitely true, but some of the stick he's getting on here is getting a bit daft. He's not "fucking shit" at all. He might be a poor signing and not suit the way you play, that's true enough (and that's why we're selling him, too), but that doesn't make him shit at all.

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.