brummie

Sebastian Deisler was another one. He didn't top himself but he had a lot of bother with depression. We don't know if that's what this is about yet but we tend to look at footballers as if they're super human. Ultimately they're just people like the rest of us. By coincidence, I am currently reading the biography of Robert Enke, the German national team goalkeeper who threw himself under a train. You're right, they're like the rest of us. In fact, as mentioned above by someone, I've never been ashamed of a manager of my club as much as I was when John Gregory spouted his ill informed opinions of Collymore's depression. Another coincidence, Collymore posted this on Saturday morning, which gives a pretty good (and I say this as one who has had recurring problems with depression and anxiety himself) idea of his condition. No amount of zeroes on the end of your salary is going to make this any better

Depression is a horrific illness, it tears lives apart, it tears families apart, and it makes people do things which seem utterly inexplicable, and the majority of those people live with the illness in silence, putting a brave face on what is a horrible thing to deal with. I see Stan Collymore has been talking again this week about his own depression, too. It makes you wonder how many people - footballers or not - are struggling with the disease. The best tribute to Gary Speed is probably not going to be a minute's silence, or Colin Murray or whoever talking about him on a Sunday night, it is that we start to understand depression better and make sure that there aren't too many more wasted lives like Speed's.

He should be in our first team, not Coventry's

Gary Gardner has scored inside ten minutes in his debut for Coventry on loan. Remember - future England captain.

I'd get shot of Heskey, play Cuellar at RB instead of Hutton, stick Herd in the middle with Petrov, and play N'Zogbia.

The problem is that he sets up the midfield to defend, not to provide for the strikers. Agbonlahor has been absolutely superb this season, but he's having to do so much work because the 9 men behind him are largely about defending rather than giving him the ball. As for Albrighton, he had a massive dip in confidence at the end of last season. 'Zogbia has taken a while to settle but against Norwich was excellent, which makes his dropping in favour of a midfield including Heskey and Hutton all the more annoying. McLeish is going to get himself sacked if he does that too often.

In 35 years of attending matches, he's the worst full back I have ever seen play for us. Gormlessly dives into tackles, gets pulled out of position easily, gives away free kicks, seems to have a proclvity for hand balls. Fucking rubbish. And, really, that is in no way an exaggeration. He's absolutely terrible. I find it hard to believe we paid 4m for him, but the thought he went to Spurs for 9m is just beyond belief.

Honestly, I hate football. It has a net detrimental effect on my life. I could put all the "that made me happy" things in one column, and all the "that made me really sad" stuff in another, and the latter column would be fucking enormous, whilst the former would be barely visible to the human eye.

For the last few years, we've been "top six, try to push to move on" We've now, in the space of a little over a year, become "middle of the table, maybe a bit higher if we're lucky" I can put up with that, if it's entertaining in the meantime. But not if it is dross to watch. Incidentally, even under MON, when we were frequently very good to watch away from home with the counter attacking thing, for the last three years, we were fucking dreadful at home. Then we had last year's rubbish under Houllier, and now this. The result is that for getting on for five whole years, we have been truly terrible to watch at home. And that's not an exaggeration, I hardly miss a home game, and I would struggle to list half a dozen exciting home matches in five years. No wonder the crowds have plummetted.

He has played Heskey in midfield a lot this season. Needless to say, you can imagine the reaction from the fans. It is utterly inexplicable. Monday's line up and approach was beyond belief. We played for a draw from the kick off, and to keep the score down after they took the lead. That sort of thing is the quickest way to get himself hounded out. Also, although I think N'Zogbia (who had his best game against Norwich but then got dropped for Spurs) and Given are fantastic signings, Hutton is the worst full back I have ever seen at Villa Park. lerner is clueless. We lost 8,000 season ticket holders over the summer. Eight thousand. And that was for a reason. After god knows how many years myself, if we carry on like this for the rest of the season, I am seriously thinking of jacking it in myself.

Perplexing is the word. I still can't really believe it. Lerner's been a great chairman in terms of spending money, but he knows absolutely zero about football, and whatever he knew, he seems to be in the process of forgetting.

To be quite honest, in many senses, he's a bog standard manager from the same pot you get the likes of Pardew, Hughton, and many others, so it really becomes about how he gels with the club. I didn't sign up for all that "he used to manage the shit, so we hate him" nonsense at all. I don't care if he was their manager. I care that his record there was so mediocre, though. What i will say is that - certainly on our forums - discontent has been growing with his negativity, and since Monday it has gone into overdrive. The words "embarassing" and "humilaiting" have been used a lot, and I think they're appropriate in that case. In 35 years watching us, I have seen lots of really, really poor performances, worse than Monday, but I can't think of very many where we went out so shamefully negative from the start. There are actually quite a few Villa fans prepared to give him a decent chance. He's a likeable, affable bloke, who often talks sense. The absolute worst thing he could do, though, is start to play the sort of football that made even Birmingham fans want him out. Monday night was a real slap in the face, the first warning that that is actually what he really intends to do. He might have got away with it at Blues, but he'll get murdered if he tries it with us.

Coventry will fuck him up no doubt. I went to Spurs on Monday and it was the most depressing moment following Villa for a good ten years, no doubt about it. Next day I went to watch the youth team play Ajax in the NextGen series, they won 3-0, Gardner scored a hat trick, and the kids were brilliant. It made me feel like maybe things might get better.

We've sent Gary Gardner to Coventry on loan. I have absolutely no idea why, he should be in our first team, not theirs. He;s the best youth product I've ever seen at our place. In fact, I reckon he's a future England captain, he's that good.

Stoke really are a pox on English football. Last time we played them at our place they were time wasting from 30 mins onwards (their goalkeeper booked for it in the first half), and the most cynical, horrible bunch of arseholes I've ever had the misfortune to see. If they went down, I doubt there'd be many neutrals who would mourn their passing. Horrible.

I've never been convinced of Agbonlahor, but this season he has come on leaps and bounds, and today was absolutely unplayable.

I shudder to think of 5,500 of those utter mongs defiling the beautiful city of Bruges tonight.

It's why I admire Gus Poyet calling them out recently. The fact we employ pundits just because they played professionally doesn't suffice when they refuse to even do the most basic of research. As an Aston Villa supporter, i can tell you that O'Neill has not got the first fucking idea of any footballer playing outside the United Kingdom. Football doesn't exist overseas for him.

Our American owners seem unimpressed. http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2485202,00.html

Excellent bit of non celebration from him today, too. He's a good lad, Milner, I wish him the very best.

Well, why don't you stop talking about it and rebuild Anfield / build a new stadium and increase your revenue that way (or even, you know, qualify for the CL again) rather than looking for a quick fix in grasping as much money as you can from overseas and as a by product fucking up the majority of the premier league in the process? You might have increased your revenue in the last two years, but you clearly haven't done it enough if you have to resort to this kind of thing. It makes a small amount of sick come up in my throat when I hear people go on about things being done "the Liverpool way". Having read that article, it is going to make me vomit my head off my shoulders in future. Fucking hypocrites, you really are becoming as utterly classless as Chelsea.

The ultimate expression of self interest and fuck everyone else. Liverpool are clearly faced with Man City settling into their top four, money-syphoning position, and no way to even begin to compete financially. They can't afford to build a new ground, they don't want to share one with Everton, they can't increase their revenue beyond the Sky deal increasing in value, and they're watching the likes of Man City easily overtake them, and Tottenham catch up with them. Say what you like about the dynasty that Man United built, but they earn so much now because they did it by incrementally improving their ground and providing the on-pitch success to do so. Liverpool don't want to build a bigger ground because it costs money (why can't Henry put his hand in his pocket?), and can't get the on-field success to do the same, so they want to do this, take the short cut and fuck the cost. Corny thought it is to say it, Bill Shankly truly would be turning in his grave to see this kind of self-serving, low rent behaviour. Some of the quotes in that article were the most blatant, obvious examples of the financial arrogance which is currently ruining football. How anyone can think that even beginning to approach the Spanish league model is a good thing is beyond me. My initial thought was that this is the thin end of the wedge, but it isn't, that was the formation of the premier league. If this happens, in a few years time, we'll hear "why should we share the Sky money with the likes of Blackburn or Bolton?", you can bet your house on it. It has always been a big factor, but the game now is entirely about money. The likes of John Henry aren't getting involved in the PL because they have grand philanthropic notions, they're doing it because they think there's scope to do this type of individual deal rather than sharing the wealth the way they have to in US pro sports. I'm just surprised he's managed to let the cat out of the bag so soon. If the likes of Bolton and Blackburn (and, let's have no illusions about this, Newcastle, Villa, Everton et al too) aren't good enough for them, then they should fuck off an play in a European league. They can't have it both ways. Good luck having the Monday morning banter about the match with all those PSV, Benfica and Roma fans, though.

You'd lose your £20 million striker though. Obviously, without Bent in it. Gareth Barry's going right up the front, mind.

I wouldn't take Carroll. He's not good enough. There, I said it. Mind you, this should be viewed in light of the fact I care about England so little, I'd happily stick the squad in a bus and have it driven over a cliff.

Buy mercenary, cold hearted, self obsessed cash addicts = get lumbered with mercenary, cold hearted, self obsessed cash addicts. I for one will shed zero tears.