brummie

He looks like he's added some kind of loose wavy perm to his hair, the cheeky monkey.

And obv, seeing that turd Downing fail so miserably has been brilliant. Second choice left back. ha ha ha.

Last season was truly horrific for me, but I can honestly say Liverpool were a beacon of entertainment for me - i had way, way more fun laughing at Liverpool than i did watching my own club. The fact that they desperately needed more options up front, and couldn't muster up another 2 or 3m for a decent player who had clearly set his heart on playing for them, to the extent of going on strike, is brilliant. FSG's only financial input since buying them has been arranging a commercial loan of £30m for them. The lean times are here for a good while yet.

The scarf sellers outside our place often have them, and I've always wondered the same thing. I don't see the point.

And another thing, I fear Paul Lambert is also a serial offender.

Fucking well tell me about it. Almost as bad as people who say "Can i get?" when ordering coffee at Starbucks. I was most gratified to hear Sean Lock moaning about that the other day, too. Fucking annoying.

True fact. Aston Villa have not scored from a corner for almost 18 months. Not at all last season, not this season yet, either.

Spurious definite article there from Adkins, as he refers to "the football club". I hope he's not going to prove a problem with that this season, it does my nut in.

I absolutely loathe Manchester United and have done since the mid 1970s, but really, you have to tip your hat to them - how many times have you seen Man United come back in matches like this and claim the whole three points when you think they're going to get none? Remarkable.

Think it's a lovely kit though. Wish Umbro were our sponsors. It's a nice kit, but disrespectful of history.

One thing I do like about newly promoted clubs is when unlikely, lower league players who have done well for them continue to do well in the top flight (Grant Holt, Rickie Lambert).

Spot on brummie I think its blow back from the transfer window tbh I honestly think it is more likely the anxiety that this season will be a case of "after the lord mayor's show" for you, which is understandable in the psyche of all football fans, but really, it's three games of the new season, it is of infinitessimal importance right now.

I have no idea what the match was like, I didn't see it, I'm only going on what I've read on this thread and a couple of threads on Villa fora. It sounds like we've at least continued trying to keep the ball and use it. To be entirely honest, that's all I want from us at the moment, even more than actual results. We'll pick up enough points over the season, but I really, more than anything, want us to continue trying to keep the ball, pass it, work hard and do things properly. It's like an exorcism of bad habits engrained over several years. Houllier started sorting it, but then McLeish took us back four years. To read you lot moaning about your team, though, honestly, you'd think you were moaning about a team that had spent the last year poking around the arse end of the table, rather than at the top end. You've had three "meh" performances. You're still a very good team with an exciting mix of talent. Just as the people tipping us to go down with two or three games gone are massively jumping the gun, I can't help but feel there's a certain amount of excessive panic and criticism on here for what is a more than decent team.

Ha ha that's a fantastic story. I love stuff like that. It's exactly the sort of thing I'd have done in that situation, and I'd have thought the same straight after.

I know what you mean, but really, the UEFA Cup was a cracking competition. Why did they have to f*** with that? (Well, money, obv). I'm a traditionalist, mind. I'd bring back the CWC too. The CWC was a cracking competition, great memories from it for Barça fans... It also made winning the Cup a bit more special since it was the only entry point, as winning the league was also the only entry point into the EC. But when they created the CL with the top 4 clubs getting in... it gave UEFA their cash cow but it cheapened everything else. The biggest chunk of hypocrisy in football is a "Champions" League where you can finish well off the top of your league and get to enter. It is utter bollocks. It produces a mad situation (see above) where finishing fourth is seen as more of an achievement than actually winning silverware.

The CL drop outs thing is the most cynical of the lot. I felt sorry for Fulham the other year, having started in the EL in July, to play what seemed like hundreds of games, only to then have the likes of Man City dropping into it. It's just wrong. Television screws up everything in football. It fucked up the format of the EL (and, ironically, doesn't even work, as the competition attracts sod all TV money anyway), and fucked it again with the CL drop outs. It's all so cynical. I honestly think I preferred football in the late 80s, when people thought you were nuts to go to matches, the government hated us, and it was never on the telly.

You've got some belting away trips. Bruges is one of my favourite places in Europe. It's a stunning city.

I know what you mean, but really, the UEFA Cup was a cracking competition. Why did they have to fuck with that? (Well, money, obv). I'm a traditionalist, mind. I'd bring back the CWC too.

Very good. I didn't enjoy it much when we were doing well in it, mind. We'd got to a decent point, had drawn CSKA Moscow, and MON decided finishing fourth was more important, and decided to play the youth team. It's a bit sad when finishing fourth gets seen as more important than European silverware, but the worst thing is, I thought he did the right thing at the time. That problably says a bit about what's wrong with football these days.

That's the M.O. of the Pozzo's; Granada are built exactly the same. They just buy a crapload semi-promising players on the cheap and send them over the teams they own. They currently have one in Italy's top division, Spain's top division and England's second tier. It's a player agency on steroids. I had no idea they had a team in Spain, too. It's all a bit too sinister for my liking.

Absolutely. Almost as bad as Villa fans, in fact It's alright, we're used to being in the top flight.

A lot of our fans use him as a piece of evidence in the prosecution of Martin O'Neill, and to be honest, they've got a point. He cost a lot of money and hasn't done much, but he's been incredibly unlucky with injuries until now. He and El Ahmadi look decent in the middle, they keep hold of the ball well. I just wish Delph would break forwards more often than he does. One thing I don't like - and i saw this against Tranmere in the week - is he still has a tendency to put in really rash tackles. if you're interested in that kind of bet, I'd say if you stuck a quid on Delph to get booked or sent off every week, you'd finish the season well up. El Ahmadi is a player I rate. Doesn't Bannan get in your team lately? He's a player I rated, true that sometimes he doesn't make the best decisions on the pitch, but I think he's got great potential. I have to watch you more often this season. I think you'll end up somewhere with your current project, hopefully not the Championship. We're not going to go down. I am as pessimistic as they come, but there's a right load of old bollocks being written about us at the moment, with dickheads like Robbie Savage tipping us to go down. We've played two league games. One, at West Ham, we had 65 percent possession, and they scored from their only chance, after spending 90 minutes lumping the ball long at us. The other was against Everton, who scored out of nowhere after 2 minutes, then got gifted one by Given. We were never going to come back after that. Lambert wants us to pass the ball, you can see the change in the way we are trying to play even after two games. It isn't going to happen overnight, though, it'll take time. El Ahmadi is a very decent passer of the ball, he's impressed so far. Vlaar always looks to play the ball out of defence rather than hoof it as James Collins would have done in the past. What we are doing now is trying to fully throw off the bad habits we were left with when MON flounced out (incidentally, read some of the Sunderland fans comments about the way they played today, they're doing the same), with a young progressive manager who will look forward not back. So no more playing with wingers and whipping hopeful balls into the box continually. No more lumping it out of defence. It isn't going to happen overnight, it will take a long time, and we'll continue to pick up some piss poor results along the way, but I genuinely do not care, so long as we make that change, it will be worth the short term pain. Bannan is a decent passer of the ball, and will get plenty of games. My main criticism of him is that he looks for the Hollywood ball a bit too often when he should just keep it simple,

Well, we've got three LBs. Stephen Warnock, who is shite, and is training with the kids until someone takes him away. Enda Stephens, who is a kid. Joe Bennett who we signed last week. We played Nathan Baker there last week, but he'll be in his natural position at CB tomorrow as Ciaran Clark is suspended. Baker is very impressive.

Genuinely, no, I don't. The novelty wore off pretty quickly when we were in it. Although we did make it easier the last two years by going out to Rapid Vienna in the first round :-/ It's a ridiculous format for a competition. The only thing I did use to like about it was the fact that I've always liked night games, and was working in central Birmingham at the time, so it was convenient. It's good when you play Ajax or some mental Eastern European team you've heard of before, but ties against the likes of FC Harfardhahahaha of Iceland or MSK Zilina aren't really that much of a draw. It really is the format. It just goes on and on and on.

Isn't it on Sunday because you're involved in that Europa League nonsense on Thursdays?