brummie

I'd like to temper this post with the news that I am exceptionally drunk, but for all this talk of spending beyond our means etc etc, worth remembering that our transfer record is still only 12m pounds. We've benefitted from a supportive owner, but it isn't as if we've done anything outrageous. He's put the money into transfers, but more importantly he has also put it into the infrastructure of the club, and is starting to unravel some of the torpor which set in in the final Ellis years. I went to my first match over 30 years ago, and it has been a roller coaster ride the whole time until the early part of this decade, but Lerner has changed the club from top to bottom in the space of three years, and he's only just begun. I don't care if Man City are the richest club in the universe, I'm just happy to have an owner with a few bob who quite clearly, despite being an American - and thereby fucking up the slightly xenophobic bias of the press of late - has clearly "got" the history and culture of the club far more effectively than Doug, a local businessman who was the major player for the best part of 30 years, ever did.

I don't think he is shite, but he is emblematic of what is wrong with Liverpool. He's solid enough, but entirely unspectacular in pretty much every respect. He makes Milner look like Michel Platini. Liverpool just ooze averageness. If you took out their (admittedly high) peaks of Torres and Gerrard, they'd be a below average side. Given their current parlous financial situation and leadership, the elevated chances of one of those two (at least) leaving means that things are looking pretty grim for the redscousers.

Our rearranged LC Semi tomorrow at Blackburn, and I've managed to get a ticket (returns from the cancellation last week), yay! Blackburn only sold 11,500 apparently, which is not really very good at all. They wouldn't let us have more than 5,300, for reasons which were initially said to be "police objections" but now turn out to be Blackburn wanting more of their fans in the ground, but that looks to have backfired somewhat spectacularly. I understand the poor attendances for early FAC rounds, but a LC semi?

i could imagine yossi benayoun would do well in the villa side tbh. I would go with that, too. He's the kind of crafty weasel player we could do with.

When we moved Milner central and put Downing on the wing, we started playing some really good football. That also gives us the option of moving Young, Downing and Milner around as required, which gives us options. It is just a handful of games thus far but looks promising. What we really need is the chap in my avatar. Or at least someone who can consistently pick a pass.

I have to say, Coloccini was the worst defender i saw in the league last season. Not only was he shit, he patently didn't care. Final whistle against us on the last day and he was down the tunnel like a rat up a drainpipe.

Ashley Young was awful for us from Feb last year (when he was sent off at Sunderland) till about 2 weeks ago. Gareth Barry was anonymous for us for about 5 of the 9 months of last season. Fans who watch teams day in day out have a much better overview than journalists or part time supporters, both of whom - esp journalists - fall back on the obvious cliche all the time. Mate that link is from Bluemoon forum. Those are fans that are commenting... I know, I'm not commenting on that, in fact I'm supporting your view that the fans know best what really goes on. I would temper that, however, by saying that I don't care what he did with City towards the end, I'm only bothered with what he does for us, and so far it has been exceptional.

When we bought him, I was f***ing flabbergasted (and this is after watching MON prviously buy Heskey, Harewood, Zat Knight, so it isn't like I should have been surprised). Same with Collins. 10m, though, for that pair, good deal. MON is the most infuriating manager ever. He really is. That's unfortunate. From an outsiders perspective, I love the man. Despite the months when we drift into awful football mode, despite the mental transfer policy (three of his last 45 signings have been from outside the UK, apparently), despite the bizarre substitutions, despite lots of things, I can't help but love him. I always feel a warm glow when i see him interviewed as our manager, and for all the bollocks he drops, he pulls some rabbits out of the hat. For all the Knights, Harewoods and Hekseys, for all the refusal to buy bigger names, he gets results. The fucking weirdo.

Ashley Young was awful for us from Feb last year (when he was sent off at Sunderland) till about 2 weeks ago. Gareth Barry was anonymous for us for about 5 of the 9 months of last season. Fans who watch teams day in day out have a much better overview than journalists or part time supporters, both of whom - esp journalists - fall back on the obvious cliche all the time.

When we bought him, I was fucking flabbergasted (and this is after watching MON prviously buy Heskey, Harewood, Zat Knight, so it isn't like I should have been surprised). Same with Collins. 10m, though, for that pair, good deal. MON is the most infuriating manager ever. He really is.

Whenever I've seen Dawson this season, he's looked excellent. Whenever I saw him prior to this season, he looked like he'd suffered some traumatic head injury or been starved of oxygen at birth, he was so shite. Goes to show, players change, especially when given a change of scenery (in the case of Dunne).

Leads the back line, aggressively attacks the ball, weighs in with a few goals. Sounds like someone we lost last year who I thought we'd struggle to replace.

Richard Dunne has been nothing short of brilliant for us this season. I don't care what he did in the past, but this year he has been superb. I've not seen all your games but from what I have seen I agree - you'd like to think that Citeh dropped a bollock when they bought Lescott for £millions and let Dunne go The trouble is that Citeh are so rich it doesn't really matter. I'm not too bothered about City to be honest. Although if they'd had Dunne playing instead of Lescott, they'd be further up the table. I just care about what he has done for us, and he's been superb. So, incidentally, has James Collins. Another CB signing i scoffed and blushed at, but MON was right. Even Cuellar is starting to look superb. We;re alright defensively, we lack a creative MF and a striker, though

Take those two out, and Reina will be off pretty sharpish too. Lose those three and they're barely top ten.

Richard Dunne has been nothing short of brilliant for us this season. I don't care what he did in the past, but this year he has been superb.

A good agent who found the only muppets willing to pay him that much, job done. Man City have acted incredibly short-sighted with this transfer, do they now not need De Jong or Kompany? Oh, I really hope poor Gareth doesn't find himself with splinters in his arse. Especially with this being a WC year and him having - bizarrely - cited "the chance to play in my best position week in week out" as so important when he moved. Thank you Brummie. Certain people on here (Kezman and firetotheworks to name 2) didn't want to believe me when i was desperately trying to inform them what type of midfielder he is. Even went as far as to say i was 100% wrong (firetheworks anyway) and was apparently laughing at my description. Don't read too much into that statement, I was pointing out the bullshit nature of Barry's whining in the press rather than making a statement of where he plays. Just read the thread posted above, though, and you're correct in your assessment of how he plays. He has zero pace and tends to be lazy so you won't find him charging up field much, so his game is always going to be about picking a pass, and he usually does this from just in front of the back four. The issue we had with him last season was that we played him alongside Petrov in the middle, and they're both very similar in many ways - leading to a one-paced midfield, which is exactly how Man City have looked whenever I've seen Barry alongside De Jong this season.

There must be a family sized amount of schadenfreude amongst Everton's support. Good on them.

A good agent who found the only muppets willing to pay him that much, job done. Man City have acted incredibly short-sighted with this transfer, do they now not need De Jong or Kompany? Oh, I really hope poor Gareth doesn't find himself with splinters in his arse. Especially with this being a WC year and him having - bizarrely - cited "the chance to play in my best position week in week out" as so important when he moved.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_5842645,00.html Hopefully that's the end of that. I'd like Keane but not at the expense of losing Carew.

very surprised by this.. looking at the Villa forum it seems that some of them even prefer Heskey :/ Well, I'm even more suprised, as I've pretty much never come across anyone who rates Heskey above Carew. Carew is loved by the fans here. Heskey is tolerated, at the very best. Carew's problem is that he blows hot and cold, more hot than cold at home, more cold than hot away from home. One thing he pretty much always does is he does very, very well when he first changes club, which is why I can't imagine MON wanting to see him go now and give a boost to a close rival.

Poor fucker.

I like Craig. He gets stuck in, has a mental mad-eyed stare on him, and has a really ferocious shot on him (esp from free kicks and volleys). He's not going to get much of a look-in with us, so I wish him well, but just wish he didn't have to soil himself by going there. As a local lad from a big Villa family, I would imagine he's pondering the badness of it himself. From what i've seen , Gardner looks like he contributes more in a game than Sidwell does tbh. Absolutely definitely. To be honest, I reckon I contribute more to our games than Sidwell does. In 30 years watching Villa - actually, 35 more like - I can barely remember a player who managed to be so totally anonymous for such long periods. The number of times I've only noticed he was on the pitch when he got substituted is scary. He's absolutely useless.

I don't think you'll finish above Man City, they've got many more gears to go to after January. I don't think there's much between you and Aston Villa. I agree, unfortunately. Was hoping that Hughes would stay. My main hope is that City's defence keeps its vaudeville traditions. There's an awful lot between us and Villa in terms of the style of football we play, but their defensive set-up is very strong. It's a comparison between a counter-attacking style and a possession style and it's difficult to say which will come out on top. The game at Villa Park was indicative - Villa barely had a kick in the last hour, yet Friedel and Cuellar did really well to keep us out and we needed a dodgy goal to equalize. You say counter attacking style, but that's too easy to fall back on. At times this season we've played very good football. At times we've played awful football. The difference is this year we're far less reliant on the counter attack, despite what you read in the lazy media. Maybe you have more of the ball than we do, but what would worry me if i were a Spurs fan would be the familiar thing (of Spurs sides for every one of the 30 years I've been watching football) of seeing them have lots of possession but not really doing very much with it. The game against us was like that, in the second half you had all the ball, but Friedel didn't really have a great deal to do. A draw was about right, three points for you never really looked likely. I watched your game at Old Trafford in the league cup, and you had almost all the possession - it was quite embarassing to watch at times for Man United - but you did nothing with it and ended up losing 2-0. We went to Old Trafford, took the game to them, and won, as we did at Liverpool and at home to Chelsea. Bar Liverpool on the opening day and Man City, I can't really remember Spurs beating any of the stronger sides - you've done well against the weaker teams where they let you pass around them, but the results don't look that good against decent sides with a bit of resilience. That's where I think you'll struggle. Our problem is the converse, we do well against decent sides, but struggle against dross (Wigan, Stoke, West Ham).

I like Craig. He gets stuck in, has a mental mad-eyed stare on him, and has a really ferocious shot on him (esp from free kicks and volleys). He's not going to get much of a look-in with us, so I wish him well, but just wish he didn't have to soil himself by going there. As a local lad from a big Villa family, I would imagine he's pondering the badness of it himself.

There's a pretty shocking lack of quality and consistency in the league this year. If i were a gambling man, my money would be on the usual four taking the CL places yet again.