brummie

Personally, I would rather compete for trophies, but there is no getting away from the fact that the top four these days is the holy grail of football, so it distorts matters, and normally logical people do illogical things. I don't like it, and I genuinely wish it wasn't like that, but it is. My argument is that you shouldn't blame people like O'Neill (who effectively is judged on how close he gets us to the top four), but people like the FA, UEFA, Sky and all the clueless fucking buffoons who, step by step, are turning the game into a spectacle with the sporting value of Gladiators and the integrity of the bird on her knees at a bukkake party.

*deleted* Tell you what, I don;t even what to give you the benefit of seeing myself sink to your particularly low level.

I'm not questioning your right to comment on it, just why you are getting so indignant about it, that's all. It's not like it has had any impact on you, is it? He played a weakened team in the competition, we got eliminated. End of. And there isn't even the "devaluing the competition" nonsense to fall back on, as UEFA have done that by inflicting the truly absurd, television-pleasing structure which took a decent competition and turned it into something people treat like the Carling Cup in the space of a few years.

Haven't explained it very well. Yes, brilliant signing, make no mistake. However everyone was amazed at how much he cost. I'm sure you could have got him for cheaper, regardless of whether or not he's proved to be worth it. That extra (say) £2m you could have saved could have left you with a bigger squad. Actually, I barely understand what I'm talking about. I'm sure it made more sense when I first thought of it half an hour ago. Actually, I kinda know what you meant, it was a very risky move at the time, which has worked out, but had it not, would have been another example of overspending. I know that you mean. However, there are plenty other examples of actual, proper money wastage I can supply you with ;-) (Salifou, Routledge, Maloney, Harebrain, Cuellar, Davies, very possibly Sidwell)

re the Barry letter: Some comments on today's letter: 3 years ago, only Portsmouth wanted him, he's now an England regular. That's going stale for you, is it? Yes, because we were going to play you in goal, weren't we. No, I bet there wasn't, he just slid the calculator over the table, you worked out 100k x 52 x 5 years and there wasn't much of a decision to make. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/boltthrow/gif/4Chan20080125004400.gif

They'd go if they got offered the stupid money Citeh will offer, and they'd pay the stupid money you'd want for them, as well, i reckon. The City story has got an awful long way to roll yet. This will be a weird summer.

Don't follow the reasoning with Young. The manager thought he was worth 9.65m. He proved to be worth it in spades.

His problem is he dithers in the transfer market, and his obssession with English players means we pay over the odds. Knight for 4m i have no problem with, for a fourth choice CB at the time, he was as good as we were going to get. Sidwell for 5m and Shorey for the same, also about right. NRC for 8.5 was too much, and 12 for Milner was too much as well. The difference is, Milner has looked quality, so I'm not too arsed about us paying over the odds if the player performs. Young for 9.65 at the time was called mental, but that looks an absolute bargain in retrospect. Davies was the most overpriced of the lot. Like I said, we need to drop this obsession with English players, they just cost far too much money. Incidentaly, transfer market is easily MON's achilles heel, I don't want to give the impression from the above that I am stating otherwise, because I'm not

Barry had no defensive quality at all. The main problem was that he and Petrov were exactly the same type of player. We can cope with just the one of them so long as we get someone decent in to replace him. Shorey and Young at full back, an experience CB alongside Davies or Cuellar, and things are ok there. No point getting Mellberg back, he was on a downward curve for a while before he left (love the bloke though I do). We need an experience CB (ie not Bassong, as good as he may be), a creative spark in midfield and a decent goal scorer, plus then squad-growing depth where we can get it.

I have no idea, mate. What I do know is that we've known he was going to go this summer, so we should be along the line to getting someone else in. Rumours about Steven Defour from Standard Liege, but I don't know if there is much truth in them. Our central midfield looked gash all year, to be honest, something wasn't working, so the replacement needs not to be a carbon copy of the type of player Barry was.

Unless Man City decide they want Lescott and Arteta.

I went to that game. Zilina's fans were brilliant. Best fans I've seen in the last few years was when we (Spurs) went to Besiktas. Everything a support should be. I went to Ajax V Zilina and the Zilina fans were non existent! I was gutted our match against Ajax was a home tie. Aye that would have been a great trip, the game against Zilina was a bit dead, very sow and boring game of football but it was good to visit a new stadium and get to see a game of football that was totally unpanned, even if it was half empty there was a reasonable atmosphere created by the Ajax fans. It was a right pain in the arse trying to get tickets mind, we were told by the staff where we were staying that you couldn't by tickets at the stadium and had to get them at certain shops but we only decided at about 6pm that we wanted to go to the game and all these shops were shut, took a gamble and went to the stadium and there was a massive ticket office!! Friend of a friend is a steward at VP and said that the Ajax fans did a fair bit of damage - smashed bogs up, ripped seats out, managed to actually twist a load of the steel bars that hold the rows of seats together. Quite impressive in a "pining for the 70s and 80s" way. They were excellent though, best we had at our place all season. Had a great song which they sang over and over which seemed to just be "aayy aaay aaay aaay Ajax Amshterdam* ay ay ay ay Ajax Amshterdam" * * "h" added for effect.

I went to that game. Zilina's fans were brilliant. Best fans I've seen in the last few years was when we (Spurs) went to Besiktas. Everything a support should be. I went to Ajax V Zilina and the Zilina fans were non existent! I was gutted our match against Ajax was a home tie.

Like he would at Villa, like he would at Villa, and like he would at Villa. It is all about the first one of those points. This'll go on all summer now, wait and see. One of the worst things is that i find myself forced into actually agreeing with Michel Platini. It's like waking up one morning and finding yourself with a hard-on thinking about the UKIP manifesto.

We offered him 80k a week, apparently. Now, they must have offered him a much better deal than that, purely by dint of the fact that he hasn't even waited to see if Liverpool come back with his "dream move", he's off and the season finished, what, two weeks ago. I reckon he'll be on 120k a week. If he is, then the game is going to hell in a handcart, it really is beyond redemption. "I didn't need long to make up my mind" he said earlier. What he probably meant was "I didn't need to engage in any verbal interaction whatsoever, they just sent me a spreadsheet".

In the summer he said he wanted to go to Liverpool and it was purely about wanting CL football, nothing to do with money He's just gone to Man City, who won't be playing any type of European football next season, without even seeing if the Liverpool interest materialised again. I wonder what could have changed his mind. What kind of reception will he get when he comes back to Villa park Brummie? A much, much worse one than he'd have got if he had gone to Liverpool ("I only want to leave for CL football, it isn't about money, were it not for that, I wouldn't be thinking of leaving"). That and even when he wanted his "dream move" he didn't have the balls to put in a transfer request. I was resigned to him going to Liverpool, and would have understood it, as would most of us, but this has really, really got my goat. That's all to do with him, the man, though. I still think Petrov was miles better than him last season, and something needs changing in our central midfield, so from that perspective, I'm not too worried. It is just the duplicity of it all that annoys me. I also think there will be an awful lot more of this going on with regard to Man City this summer.

I went to that game. Zilina's fans were brilliant. Best fans I've seen in the last few years was when we (Spurs) went to Besiktas. Everything a support should be. Yes, they were very good. I saw that Spurs game on the telly, and was iumpressed by Besiktas

I'm in an exceptionally bad mood this evening, David. i got my head sunburned today, Fat Arse has shown his true colours, i spent the entire day at work listening to witless wankers, the Mrs gave me grief about mowing the lawn, the traffic on the M6 was fucking awful, and I drove about 3 miles at 70mph in the M6 50mph average speed check section before I realised, despite doing that route every day. I'm now going to feed the cat (it'll be dead, no doubt), and make myself a nice cup of tea (the milk will be curdled).

What right do you have to be quite so indignant about it? What's it actually got to do with you? I went to every home match in the competition, and the Intertoto qualifiers starting back in June, I spent a lot of time and money on the competition, mainly watching us play Slovakian metal bashers and Icelandic postmen, and I thought he made the right decision at the time. We looked at that point to be pushing for the top four, we patently didn't have the squad to do it (as subsequent events showed), so he made a tough decision. It didn't work out, but at the time it was right. I hope you'll be calling for all those clubs who play their under 12s in the Carling Cup to be barred, too. All this over a couple of poxy banners. Jesus.

In the summer he said he wanted to go to Liverpool and it was purely about wanting CL football, nothing to do with money He's just gone to Man City, who won't be playing any type of European football next season, without even seeing if the Liverpool interest materialised again. I wonder what could have changed his mind.

Barry was never a leader. Any Villa fan will tell you that. Laursen definitely was, though. Barry had a lot of responsibility on the pitch though. A lot of your play went through him. I meant it more from that standpoint. I would agree that Laursen was more of a leader though, definitely. Any news on who you might be bringin in to replace either of them? Barry goes missing for games on end and always has done. When he's good, he's great, but the game bypasses him with far too much regularity. Defour from Standard Liege is the rumour which has been around for a while. No idea about Laursen. We really need an experienced CB there to bring the best out of Davies. To that end, someone like Scharner at Wigan would do a good job (assuming someone like Hangeland is not an option)

Barry was never a leader. Any Villa fan will tell you that. Laursen definitely was, though.

2/10 She's an Albion fan.

I'm annoyed because he made that hoo haa about "I would only leave for CL football", but to be going to Man City, it can only be about money. On the other hand, I've said on here for ages and ages that Barry goes missing for great chunks of the season, and has for as long as I can remember. This season, Petrov alongside him has been much better and more consistent. Our central midfield doesn't work, something needs to change, and so long as we rape Man City on the price and get a good deal (I like the look of Sturridge), I'm not really that bothered. Football is really dying though, with people like that crew at Man City. I bet they've offered him 150k a week or something absurd.

I don't know what you were like, because I wasn't there. Season before you were quite noisy, but understandably less so after our equaliser given the way the match turned. One thing I will say, though, is that the best fans I saw at our place all season were Ajax by a country mile. Only about 1200 of them, but they made as much noise as most clubs who brought almost three times as many, and never stopped going the entire 90 minutes. Disappointing: the obvious (Boro, for example, Fulham, Wigan etc), but also Everton and Liverpool (the first sat down the whole 90 mins, which has a limiting factor on how much noise you can make, the second consisted mainly of jester hat wearing Scandinavians), Man United (who are usually amongst the best). Generally I find that the ranking goes like this: 1. Non top four (except Man United), sell all the seats, stand up all the time clubs 2. Newly promoted clubs 3. Foreign clubs in the UEFA. Even MSK Zilina were quite good. 4. The rest. There's no such thing as a club having support who are always noisy, though. Human nature being what it is, everyone gets downhearted and quiet when things are going badly. I do get a bit uncomfortable when supporters go on about how good their away support is (and ours are as bad as anyone at this - in fact, pretty much everyone does it), it makes me think of Albion supporters, who do nothing but big themselves up. It is all a bit small time, really.