brummie

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.

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.