brummie

I suspect Boro to you are as Coventry City are to us. They absolutely loathe us, but I am yet to meet more than a handful of Villa fans who give a flying fuck about Coventry.

The way forward for them is by looking to the future, not digging stuff out of the past and hoping it works.

I think it is also because it's easier than admitting the brutal truth about where the problems lie.

I noted this on RTG, and it seems to be a recurring topic over there: There seems to be a widespread assumption that the difference between the MON they have, and the one Villa had, is the absence of John Robertson, as if he is the missing piece of the jigsaw. He isn't. Robertson would do even less than Walford at Villa - it was described, by someone who knows, as "standing on the sidelines, smoking, and shouting at people occasionally". Down here the players nicknamed Walford and Robertson "Bibs and Cones", to reflect their input on the training ground. If the return of Robertson is what they're waiting for, they are barking up entirely the wrong tree. The one difference between what he is doing there, and what he did with us, is money. Here, he had shed loads of it, year after year, and just bought enough players until - by weight of numbers, and probability - he got enough of them to be able to do something. At Sunderland, he's got a much poorer choice of players. People forget, when he came to us, he had Sorensen, Mellberg, Barry, Cahill, Laursen, Agbonlahor and Angel. Not world beaters, but at the very least the spine of a reasonable side. All he had to do was throw millions and millions of pounds at it to make it start to work a bit better for him. With us, the endless giving it to the wingers and getting it into the box was helped by the fact that Ashley Young and (at the time) Stewart Downing were decent wingers who could deliver. At Sunderland he's pinning his hope on Adam Johnson, who really isn't very good, and, I suspect, Larsson, who is nothing like as good. That isn't working at Sunderland, so you'd expect him to move to Plan B. The problem is, the only Plan B Martin has any knowledge of is the one you see on MTV. On top of that, the football world has moved on even more. Setting his team up to play exactly how they did at Leicester in the 1990s was already showing its age in 2006 when he joined us. Nowadays, it is ancient history.

Reading are pretty poor. They made us look like Barcelona for long stretches on Saturday. Having said that, there's zero point sacking your manager at this point in the season. As a fan of a team with, well, certain relegation concerns, I can only say this makes me feel safer in that we now only have to dodge two relegation slots.

I'm really not exaggerating, either, I honestly think Sunderland are in that much trouble. I've seen what MON's sides are like in March, and it's not pretty.

Optimism We're starting to play again, as we did prior to that Chelsea drubbing. I think we'll be fine. We can't defend very well, but we can score ok. I am actually convinced Sunderland will go, Reading are practically there, and Harry's QPR bullshit machine doesn't fool me for a nanosecond.

Sunderland, QPR, Reading.

have you scored from a corner at all this season? If i recall correctly, our own shocking record of not having done so in the league for something nuts like 18 months was only exceeded by yours, which was slightly worse.

He was a passing thought in my mind in January, especially after his transfer request. How much did Villa pay for him? What transfer request?

We will have a job to keep him if we stay up, there is zero chance if we go down. I also don't think he's going to go anywhere based on money, he won't need to, he'll have options which make huge sense football-wise, too.

I love him. He won't be here long, though. He's potentially - potentially - got everything needed to play at the very highest level. Some of our old weaknesses - mainly defensive - on show again yesterday, but also some of the change of style. 25 passes or so prior to a Reading touch and then our second goal. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between Lambert and McLeish's approach.

I've never really seen anything like it. I do think that much of it is to do with what we went through last season. A lot of people have spotted that there's a huge difference between this year and last. Last year, week in, week out, we were a humiliating defensive mess, playing in the only way our manager at the time knew. This year, the results have not improved, but in spells of matches over a decent period, we have played very well indeed. I think people genuinely realise there is a difference between not getting results because you're negative from the off (last year) and not getting results, but trying your best to play a bit (this year). Second goal yesterday was a good example. Twenty odd passes before a Reading player hacked it in the air, before we scored. We've seen lots of flashes of what might be this season, and by and large, people are supportive. The powers that be did the club a huge, huge amount of damage at the start of last season, though, and it'll take a while to turn that around, on and off the pitch. I also think that - going back to the other post I made above this - a lot of us realise that the kids have all been thrown into this far too quickly, far too often, and don't want to add to the crisis of confidence by getting on their backs ourselves. One other thing, that drives me nuts, is commentators talking about how quick we were to turn on McLeish. That is utter bollocks. None of us wanted him here, some of us made a show of ourselves on SSN, but the majority of us were prepared to give him a chance once he was here and there was nothing to do about it. There was barely even a whisper of dissent against him until well into the new year.

Copped for a bad injury, not been the same since. He's a clear confidence player, and his is shot this season, can see it a mile off.

Bingo. The kids are not all world beaters, but they are not all "not good enough" either. Nathan Baker is a good example. He's looked really good at centre half for most of this season, and ideally, he'd have been the one playing alongside Vlaar for much of it, with Clark in midfield. He's been thrown into it, week after week, with a defence which usually consists of other kids or younger players. Yesterday, he was playing at left back. If you look at how they have done this season and judge them on that, you're totally missing the point, which is as Leffe said. Too often, we have been forced to field too many of them at the same time. They've had next to no time to learn, and had precious few more experienced players to turn to for help/ Pre the drubbing at Chelsea, they were doing ok, but after that 8-0 hiding and the two fixtures after that, their confidence dropped massively. When normally they'd have looked around the dressing room for a Petrov style character to lift their heads, there wasn't anyone, because the rest of them were also inexperienced. I expect that, at the start of the season, Lambert also thought he might have Dunne available at the back. Now, he's got his own faults, but he's at least a wiser head. Instead, he's been out all season. Several times this season, we have fielded our youngest starting 11 since 1992 when football was invented. In a few matches, our most experienced player in terms of PL appearances was Barry Bannan. Sometimes it was Ciaran Clark. Neither are exactly children, but they're 23, so relatively young, still. It's a bit ironic when someone points at us this season as evidence of the faults in young player development in this country, when actually, the thing that most indicates the problem with it is that they get written off in exactly that style, far too easily. FWIW, I think lots of clubs are going to have to get used to the idea of relying more on self-produced players in the near future, so this will be something we see more of. Interesting you mention Walker, Leffe. That's a great example. Spent the year before last on loan with QPR and then us, and did brilliantly for us. Would he have been a first team fixture for you without that experience? Quite probably not. Our kids have not really had that experience.

That's because he's an average footballer. Desperately average. Another overrated Villa youngster - just like that Albrighton a couple year ago, Delfouneso, Bannan etc. Even Agbonlahor. If you're going to pick on one of the younger playres we have and highlight his averageness, you've picked on totally the wrong one. Weimann has been superb for us at times this season.

That lot, on the whole, can't write, so don't be expecting to find internet chatter from them.

I didn't post it there, one of them copied and pasted it from here. They were all calling me bitter. Amusingly thus season on there I have seen a couple other Villa fans make *exactly* the same point there.

What is his thng about midfielders at right back? He was obsessed with it at our place. It was Gardner, Reo-Coker, sometimes Milner even at RB, and then when he finally bought TWO right backs (one of which he then never picked) he started playing a centre back there (Cuellar). Also ninety percent of his 75th minute (Sidwell on) substitutions would include changing things at right back. It's like a nervous tic for him. He can't help it. All the things he did with us, he has done for them. Except the winning lots of matches thing.

Truly pathetic defending for our own goal. We can play some decent stuff and have scored some belters this season, but defending like that means we are always up against it.

Is your car clean, mate? It's been scrubbed back to its primer. Just four wheels and an engine left of it.

Here I am. *waves* Like I said, Martin pretty much never got any results in March for us, and I can see the same thing happening for Sunderland. They are not in as much trouble as we are, but they are still right in it. seen their upcoming games ? I hadn't, actually, but have now, and I can see them getting next to nothing from those. Say what you like about MON, you might like what he does, you might not. I liked some stuff he did, but there were a lot of things I didn't like as well, and one of those was week after week, teh same starting side, and the yearly knackeredness in March and everything going to shit. He will never, ever change,

Here I am. *waves* Like I said, Martin pretty much never got any results in March for us, and I can see the same thing happening for Sunderland. They are not in as much trouble as we are, but they are still right in it.

And breathe ....

I think I might have to turn it off. I am absolutely shitting my pants. Shitting it. stay on , and give us commentary- while we watch qpr vs the idiots. No, I can't. Shaking like a shitting puppy. Can't be doing with 45 minutes of this. Am going to wash the car.