brummie

I have a lot of time for Stan and admire the way he's built his radio career, and think he's quite a natural, but he doesn't half speak some utter bollocks. Ask any Villa fan about the irony of SVC talking about Villa taking big risks on expensive striker signings, and see what they say.

That or they showed him the training ground (jumpers for goalposts, watch out for the dogshit and needles, down the local park).

"Wear - Tyne"? Their very fussy about things like that. Quite an inferiority complex. I'm sure you get the same from that little club next to you who play in blue ? Yes, we do. It normally takes the form of "Blues are the club of people who live in the city, Villa of yokels who shop in the city"

Oh god, there's always a downside to every positive thing.

"Wear - Tyne"? They're names of rivers. Ha ha ha. Cheeky scamp!

"Wear - Tyne"?

Because - and people keep ignoring this - Lerner did not tell MON there was no money, he told him to shift some of the players soaking up wages and never getting used. Like Curtis Davies (10m, 30k a week or so?) now on loan at Leicester, Steve "15 mins at the end" Sidwell on his 40k a week, Habib "32 years old, 40k a week 3 year deal" Beye, Nigel "already got a stupid middle name" Reo Coker on his 50k a week. Every manager in the league, bar one, has to manage his wage bill, when MON was asked to do something, he didn't fancy it and flounced off. Ignoring the football merits, given the amount of utterly unmerited shit that has been thrown at Lerner since August - see Paul Hayward in yesterday's Observer for a recent example, with his "the chairman lost the passion long before MON did" bollocks - I hope this deal causes some people to think again.

Two things strike me about this deal. Firstly, I am flabbergasted that Sunderland are prepared to sell, at any money, when you consider their league position and the fact it is January. Secondly, something must be very seriously wrong for Bent up there if he's submitted a transfer request.

Agreed. Ireland, maybe. Downing, no chance. Downing, along with Albrighton, has been our best player this season, so that won't be happening. There are some good points on this thread about Bent not being able to play in a partnership with anyone, interesting stuff. To be quite honest, the "he only scores goals" thing is very pertinent too, as someone who just does that is precisely what we need right now

Rumours that the intiail 18 = 10 plus Ireland. Result if so.

Sunderland

'Class' player is a bit strong. Guy can barely strike a football cleanly. He's effective though. He always scores, always reaches double figures in the league, he could play for any club in the country imo. No chance. He'd look like an alien in your team for example. Wouldn't score half as many goals for Arsenal. Perhaps with the system we play but i think any club that's willing to play in a way where he stays in the box and he does get a lot of support from midfield he'll score and there is no doubt Villa will do that with Young/Downing/Petrov. This won't be the end of Young will it Brummie? I don't think so, no, but I woudl say that Ashley hasn't really performed for about 18 months now, so he needs to start delivering, too. I'm so glad that this signing will be a gigantic "fuck you" to all those media tits with their "selling club / chairman lost interest" bullshit.

Absloutly spot on.... Getting rid of a manager who finish you top 6 for three years in a row and hire a clueless one and then buy him a striker for 18 million.... madness... Because if he'd given MON that money, he'd had bought Aiden McGeady and Kevin Doyle, that's why. And we didn't "get rid of" him, he walked out on us. I would walk on you lot as well..... I am sure something fishy happened behind the scene..... Well, if you're "sure", that concludes any argument. I accept your version of events and concede defeat.

No, it's the end of John Carew.

It'll also stop all that "selling club" / "chairman got bored, pulled the plug" bullshit, too

If he's got a problem with poorly attended derby matches involving frequent violence, then someome needs to have a word with him ...

Absloutly spot on.... Getting rid of a manager who finish you top 6 for three years in a row and hire a clueless one and then buy him a striker for 18 million.... madness... Because if he'd given MON that money, he'd had bought Aiden McGeady and Kevin Doyle, that's why. And we didn't "get rid of" him, he walked out on us.

Because, as i have been saying since the summer, MON was not told he could not have more money, he was told he had to do something about the unused dross on high wages that MON signed and was not using. MON agreed to, then decided not to, then stropped off. The press bought into this "selling club" / "lost interest" bullshit because the vast majority of them were so keen to suck MON's cock over it.

We desperately need someone who can score goals, that's the main failing with us at the moment (as a view of the match yesterday will tell you). Bent will do it. I see RTG is down.

It's a bit annoying to see that, having only let us have 1500 tickets on police orders, they've left the other 2.5k empty. Despite the badness of last time, I'd have been up for this. Instead, I'm sat watching it on the internet, shaking like a shitting puppy every time we give the ball away.

What about West Ham?

This is weird. He couldn't work with the easiest going, most wallet friendly chairman in the league, but he can go and work for Pornodwarf and Mr Tumnus? There's also absolutely no way he'll get 100 percent control there, and it will be days until Sullivan says something to fuck him off enough to make him think about leaving.

Not long back from injury. Looked ok at first, then utterly shite for the last couple of games. I'm pretty sure he's out of contract in the summer. If Makoun goes through, he must surely be on his way out. Two problems with NRC. 1. He's a niggly, awkward fecker who can break things up in the middle. Useful. He's just like Makelele, except, when he wins the ball, he routinely fails to pass it five yards to a team mate. 2. He makes surging box to box runs (at least three times a season), only when he gets to the end, he passes it into touch or hits a feeble shot which is going nowhere. 3. He thinks he's much better than he actually is. 4. He does that "captain material" thing of pointing his finger and looking authoritative a lot. Except he's not. Sorry. That was four, I said two.

He's been on trial for the last two weeks.

He isn't, apparently, Houllier rubbished it this afternoon. Still, it's nicer than getting linked to Aiden McShitting Geady or Kevin Doyle every window.