brummie

The problem for Liverpool is that there is no obvious answer in terms of spending which iis both realistic, and s going to push them appreciably closer to the top clubs. They're living with a new reality, and struggling to come to terms with it. They'd be better of spending the 18m wiser, on more than two players, and not sticking all the eggs in so few baskets. If you think about, say, ten years ago, and how many Liverpool players you'd have in your squad, there would have been quite a few. How many are there these days? Suarez? Agger? Not even Reina any more

Apparently we're looking at getting Harry Forrester back. Came to our youth team from Watford a few years ago, acted Charlie Big Bollocks, got turfed out, got a trial at Ajax for their youth team, got accepted, turned it down as his mom got seriously ill and they couldn't guarantee him time off to visit her, chose to move to Brentford instead, and is doing quite well there. I'm all for buying in young players, and using self produced ones (six Academy graduates started on Saturday, and two more on the bench) and some of ours (Baker, Clark, Bannan) are seriously starting to look the part, but we really need to be buying in some experience this January, not more youth alone. It's sod's law (and awful) that the player we miss the most now is Stan Petrov. We couldn't half do with him back.

I was at that game. What a talent Atkinson had, didn't make anything like what he could have of it. I fucking loved Big Ron's side. I'm sure I watched that live - Was it on TV Brummie? I doubt it, but may have been. I'll never forget that match, as it's the longest it has ever taken me to travel from my home to a football match in the same city. What a horrific ground that is to get to.

I was at that game. What a talent Atkinson had, didn't make anything like what he could have of it. I fucking loved Big Ron's side.

Liverpool in recent years have been fascinating. Although I think Rodgers needs to be given time, and has as good a chance as anyone of getting it right there, the delusion of their fans, and the sheer scale of their inability or unwillingness to face up to where they are nowadays is far more interesting than anything they do on the pitch.

From their thread about Christian Benteke: Ha ha ha ha, I think I can guess the answer to that one.

Don't be, we are still way, way early in the process, we still put in too many atrocious performances.

Football is weird. So many games this season we've had 60% plus possession, and got nothing. Today we must have had about 30, yet put in a superb performance and thoroughly deserved to win. We'll still have ups and downs, it is a long term project and it isn't going to happen overnight. The fact pretty much 99 percent of our support gets this makes me happy. Our youngest team in PL history today, average age 23. Oldest player Guzan at 28. Six academy products starting. It is a risky strategy relying on kids that much, but it's nice when it works. I like what Lambert is trying to do. I like his style (keep the ball, pass, play through the middle), but the thing I like most is the "fight like fuck to get it back when you don't have it" ethos. Our second goal today was after an 18 pass move, and the finish was blinding. Don't worry, I will be back bemoaning how shit we were pretty soon again, but the green shoots are definitely there, and so long as we're not relegated, I am more than happy to give the manager time.

I'm really not trying to troll you here, Brummie, but was it really worse than you were at WHL last year? That was one of the most abject performances I've ever seen. Nothing was worse than that, but I am expunging that "performance" from my memory. That was the most embarassed I have been of a Villa side in 35 plus years of watching. That's the thing I most hate McLeish for.

I honestly think Reading and QPR have zero chance of staying up. QPR because they've created themselves too much instability and short termism behind the scenes, and Reading because they are absolutely dreadful. We put in as bad a performance as I've seen in years against Reading, and still beat them, they're awful

He genuinely looks like he's just realised he's really at risk.

Wenger is looking a bit confused.

Disco, I just like the fact we've got a manager who is trying to do something what i want the club to do. Let's not forget, we're 17th this evening, so it's hardly sunshine and roses, but Lambert seems to have the support of the fans in being a bit patient with what he's trying to do. It's not going to get great overnight. Aston Villa last season were the most embarassing I've seen us, and I went to my first match in 1973. It's a long way back from that. I'm just glad the manager has good ideas, and is getting the time to do it.

Seriously, in patches this season, we have been truly, truly awful, but in other patches, we've played some of the best football I've seen us play since Big Ron's side (a side I enjoyed watching even more than the league / EC winning side). We need to manage an inspired peformance when it matters in the semi final. Although we won at Man City and at Norwich in this competition, so it's not as if we'd had a piss easy route, like when Blues won it.

Good result for us. Fair play, Bradford. Wenger has abused this competition for years, to see him finally realise he needs something from it, and to then get knocked out by Bradford is marvellously ironic.

Well done the Villa boys tonight, an excellent performance by all accounts.

As an outsider (and yes, I know, I haven't seen you as much as, err, you), I honestly think that whilst you're right to be somewhat concerned, it is too early to be talking about relegation. Also, that record mentioned above is pretty horrendous, but it'd me much more horrendous if there weren't many / any other sides with an equally poor record. The standard of the PL this year is dreadful, truly dreadful, and there are a lot of teams with not much to seperate them, and a lot of teams sufficiently bad to be thinking they might wind up in a relegation scrap. Take the point about your last relegation season, but didn't you change manager every ten minutes that year? This season, you've got more continuity and solidity behind the scenes than most teams, and although Pardew rightly gets a slating on some things, that stability is often the issue which seperates the strugglers who stay up and those who don't

Sorry to bang on about him, and I know I sound bitter, but did anyone hear Neil Lennon on 5 Live on Sunday talking about what Celtic have done in the CL this year? He said that after MON left them, the club had to seriously tighten their belt regarding transfers, and that only now were they starting to come out of it.

It's nice to see Michael Owen involved with football again, though

*blows imaginary smoke from end of imaginary gun* *cries*

How we smiled and laughed as the big man penned his 3.5 year 65k a week deal, aged almost 32.

I don't care if it's not true It is true, I remember much talk of it at the time. In fact, when asked about it in a press conference, MON joked and said, no, "I think we'll be shopping closer to home". He was offered Falcao by the same agent who brought us Juan Pablo Angel

Bingo. That is spot on. It us interesting that, if you look at Lambert, a man who played for MON and still respects him a lot, his tactical approach is light years ahead. He. Doesn't believe in wingers, thinks the two banks of four thing is history, and is trying to exorcise that style of play from the club. That is what Houllier tried to do, too. The good managers change with the times. Absolutely. I also like Lambert apart from the fact his goal celebration is straight out of MON's catalogues of gay skipperty jumperty's. Oh we'll, at least it doesn't get an outing very often :-(

Bingo. That is spot on. It us interesting that, if you look at Lambert, a man who played for MON and still respects him a lot, his tactical approach is light years ahead. He. Doesn't believe in wingers, thinks the two banks of four thing is history, and is trying to exorcise that style of play from the club. That is what Houllier tried to do, too. The good managers change with the times.

Basically - he was told to clear up his mess first, and sell the players that were sitting in the reserves on big contracts. He was asked several times to move some of the big wage players he wasn't using on - basically, to manage his squad like every other manager does. He kept saying he would but then didn't. He kept asking fr more money from Lerner, which he got, but still didn't move players on. The final argument was because Lerner wouldn't let him spend a huge wad on Aiden McGeady until he'd moved some players on *first* That's specifically what he walked over. Incidentally, his media backers saying Short hasn't backed him despite him spunking 25m on just two home market players sums up everything about the bloke.