brummie

Worst captain ever. Fuck, that was a penalty and a half, Baptista.

Come on Roma! Double whammy this for us. If we finish fourth and Arsenal win the CL (which they won't, but hey ho), we get no CL. We're also not going to finish fourth, so it probably wont matter in any case, but I want them out anyway.

I was surprised to see that Blackburn result. I've always been in the "at least worse teams than Newcastle" camp, but results seem to be going against you at the moment. Still, there's a lot of football left to be played.

We've got Mirandinha / He's not from Argentina / He's from Brazil / He's fucking brill. I saw him in WH Smiths in Eldon Square once, with his Mrs. His Mrs looked a bit like Little Richard.

That Everton home kit looks like a maternity dress.

Fucking awful side. We were so in control on Sunday until the last 4 minutes when we switched off.

Stoke are worse. I can't believe we dropped two points to them by switching off for 5 minutes. They're the worst side I've seen at Villa Park for years.

I think you'll draw (or lose). f***ing hell villa. The best we've played in a long time. We thought we had it in the bag. We were wrong.

Fantastic couple of results for us today for Liverpool and Arsenal. Now watch us go and lose tomorrow.

Good to see the club acknowledging an issue and doing something about it (something realistic, not like refunding them their money) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1157736/Dinners-ONeill-makes-meal-fielding-understrength-UEFA-side.html?ITO=1490

Think you'll find most of us did last week when the tie was chucked away (along with a load of Spurs' fans money). That's ok then *wink*

I'm talking about on here, KD.

The point being that having rested so many players this evening, and currently being fourth by six points, we've given ourselves a better chance of not finishing fifth. There's no givens in football, we're doing well but there is a long way to go - there's also no given that we'd have reached the final. There's a huge, huge difference to being in the CL and the UEFA Cup. We might end up not in the CL and we're not going to win the UEFA Cup, but it is a gamble. He;s having a go for it, and I think he is right to do so. Trust me, I've seen pretty much all of our games this season, and we've not got the squad (particularly given current injuries) to progress in the UEFA and finish top four. We've got two fit centre halves, Bouma is still fucked, Heskey is carrying an injury, NRC has been out for a while, Carew now has a back injury again. It is all well and good saying "have a go for it", but i'm guessing it isn't quite so simple when you are the man making the decision.

Isn't that the proof of the pudding, though? You were fourth for a long period and wound up fifth - kind of makes MON's argument, really Also, nobody seems to be having a go at Spurs for doing similar?

Im sure it does *finger pointing, winking emoticon*

Sounds like a great idea to me.

But Arsenal have better resources than we do - that's undeniable - so the point at which they use their kids is lower down the football food chain than where we use ours. You mention Guzan, he's actually played in every UEFA Cup game this season, so probably not the best example. The defence (other than keeper) we put out tonight is pretty much the starting PL defence, but there was no point him risking Ashley Young or Barry in a fixture like this - we're struggling with injuries already, we just can't take the chance. MON's job isn't to test us and see what we can do on all fronts, it is to get the best result at the end of the season for the club. If he gets us in the Champions League, that will be an outstanding achievement. He obviously thought that we didn't have the resources to do both, and if he felt that way - can you blame him? Football these days is all about the CL, the difference between the clubs who are in it and those who are not is immense. I don't like that - I prefer winning trophies, you get to put them on your honours list, something you don't do with a fourth place finish - but that's the way football is these days. There's also one major difference between Everton's CL appearance and ours (should we get there, which lets not forget, is nothing like certain). Everton financially didn't have a pot to piss in, they couldn't invest the money to build the squad prior to their CL year. We do have. It is an excellent opportunity, and he's done the rational thing (although I acknowledge the emotional arguments to the contrary)

No offence, but that's nonsense. Oh, hang on, you mean Arsenal who routinely put out their kids if it suits them? We're in with a good chance of CL football, which we didn't expect, but we've a small squad, and we've been playing matches since last July. Arsenal play their kids when they feel they need to rest first teamers. We've done that, but not having their squad depth, we've had to do it in the UEFA cup rather than the Carling Cup. He's had to make a pretty difficult decision today, but he made the right one. We just do not have the squad depth, something had to give. If we were 8th or 9th now, it would have been different, but we're not, we're 6 points ahead of Arsenal in fourth and staying there is the most important thing. Incidentally, I've been to all the home UEFA matches this season, and all the Intertoto games before that, so I've probably got reason to moan (thought not as much as if i had gone to Moscow), but in the long run, it is the right thing to do.

I agree but i want to know who the fuck is Barry Bannan? Kid just out of the academy. Very highly rated. Marc Albrighton did fantastically today too. Great experience for the two of them

Possibly too soon, but it'd accelerate the development of the club. Our midfield has been the problem all season, we just dont look coherent at times and give the ball away too much., Bizarrely, we're doing much better in that regard in Moscow at the moment.

To qualify for the CL, there's a big difference. I still think it's a bit of an insult to the UEFA Cup when Villa have a perfectly reasonable chance of winning it. On a sidenote, do you think you'd cope with the CL? Do you have the financial capabilities to improve your squad in such a small period of time? I dont know if we'll cope, or strengthen enough, but if we don't strengthen, it won't be due to lack of money. He's got pretty much an open chequebook, it will be about getting the right players in. He's done it the right way so far, buying players to improve us in steps, i just dont think he expected to be challening for a CL place this season, so it has caught him on the hop.

To qualify for the CL, there's a big difference.

CSKA reneged on their agreement with Five an dupped their demands last week, in the meantime O'Neill announced he was leaving almost the whole first team at home, so they told them to stick it. We've actually looked alright so far. I am surprised.

That Justin thing.

Good first 25 minutes by the Villa youth team in Moscow. 22 Guzan 02 Young 15 Davies 16 Knight 21 Shorey 45 Albrighton 26 Gardner 17 Salifou 04 Sidwell 46 Bannan 14 Delfouneso