brummie

I don't think Ashley has had a poxy season, far from it, but I'm surprised he gets all the plaudits when I'd say Luke Young, Martin Laursen and Barry have all been better for us. Ashley is the most exciting player we have, though. I actually rate Downing, he owned us at our place this season. Young's better, mind.

Bring back the old style A-Z pitch side scoreboards giving the scores at all the other games. Technology? Pah, i SPIT in your face.

I was reading some of the stuff Llambias said in these interviews, and that bit about wanting to adopt the same model as Villa in particular. But he then goes on to say the Dennis Wise / manager / DoF style seperation of roles works very well. Ironically, probably the main reason Lerner and MON have done so well at Villa is because there is a chairman who trusts his manager's judgement 100 percent and makes the money available, and lets the manager get on with running the club. Having complications like Wise will never let that kind of situation flourish.

Yeah, but only for one half. Wheels? Nah. Rotate the stadium.

That's fucking enormous!

To be honest, the thing that would throw British football into most turmoil would be Platini carrying through with his talk of reducing the number of CL places. We only talk about a big four now because there are four CL places, and that is what creates the financial differential in the first place, but more importantly perpetuates it. Even having shit loads of money and spending it freely isn't enough - as Man City have found out - as players will still use the excuse that they want to play in the Champions League. It is a chicken and egg situation. Good luck to Man City if that is the route they take, but I think Lerner and O'Neill are going about it the canny way, in building something more sensibly and sustainably. If Lerner walked away right now, the club would be in an infinitely better position than when he took over. If the City sheiks did that after a few seasons of crazy spending, the club would be fucked.

It always makes me laugh when people moan about foreign owners being in it for the dollar As if people like Doug Ellis, Peter Swales, Ken Bates, Martin Edwards were feeble minded philanthropists. That's a good point, but the extremity of capitalism in US societies has refined businessman who not only know how to make a significant return on their investment but how to ensure the growth and prosperity of a business, in the case the club. That's fair enough. I'd say that Lerner is playing it quite shrewdly. He's been the absolute ideal chairman so far in every way i can think of (and I'm a cynical type by nature), but at the end of the day he clearly saw an undervalued asset when he bought the club, and was astute enough to recognise it, and forward thinking enough to invest. He's a fan, I believe that much (even got himself a tattoo), but he's also a very good businessman

You're entirely missing the point. "Glory"hunters. Where is the glory in choosing to support Newcastle? or Everton? Or Villa? or lots of teams. When i see people walking around where I live wearing Chelsea tops, I really do want to vomit out a significant part of my lower intestine. These are the people I'm talking about. Their parents need to take a very long, hard look at themselves. Did you see a Didier Six inspired Villa twatt Man Urinal 3-0 in 1984, on ESPN today Brummie...your Paul Birch avatar reminded me,as he was playing. Fuck! What time was that on? I was at that match. When we came out, we were convinced that Six was going to be a legend for us. :-( Paul Birch, RIP. 46 is no age.

Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against out of town support. For example, we get a load of support down the M5 corridor, places like Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcestershire, as well as areas like Staffordshire, Warwickshire etc. My beef is with people who choose to support Man United / Chelsea / Liverpool - teams that consistently win stuff. It is just so fucking easy. Show some civic pride, choose a team nearby, choose a team your family has a link with. Can you imagine what it feels like for a Newcastle fan to win the league? or a Villa or Everton or Man City fan? Then think about what it is like for someone who just chose Man United when they win the league? They can't possibly know what it would really mean, they chose a guaranteed route to success. If they have no natural familial or local connection, why do these people not choose Mansfield Town? Or Notts County? Beause they know that they have a short cut to success. All fair and good, good luck to them, I just don't want to talk to them about football, their opinion to me is meaningless, I dont want to hear it - they've just opted for the easy route. I also wouldn't be quite so extreme on the subject if there weren't just so fucking many of them.

You're entirely missing the point. "Glory"hunters. Where is the glory in choosing to support Newcastle? or Everton? Or Villa? or lots of teams. When i see people walking around where I live wearing Chelsea tops, I really do want to vomit out a significant part of my lower intestine. These are the people I'm talking about. Their parents need to take a very long, hard look at themselves.

It always makes me laugh when people moan about foreign owners being in it for the dollar As if people like Doug Ellis, Peter Swales, Ken Bates, Martin Edwards were feeble minded philanthropists.

I've heard that, too, that they budget for averages of 40,000 and no CL income.

That's the point, isn't it, they always do to one degree or another, it is just a question of degrees. Chelsea being the obvious worst. PS - Villa in 1981? No expensive players there and only 14 used all season (however, that kind of reinforces your point, as it was so long ago)

When Ellis left the club for five years, we won the league and European Cup. He returned and four years after the EC, we were relegated. You can't really say much worse than that about a chairman. We've had spells where we've finished second or threatened (Sir Graham Taylor, Atkinson, Brian Little's spells) but that was always despite Ellis. In Ellis's favour though, he saw through George Gillet when he tried to buy us and the Anyone But Ellis brigade were begging him to sell. Bullet dodged. He then sold to the best man he could have. For that he deserves credit.

Man United are far, far stronger than us, there's no chance whatsoever of us winning the league. I honestly don't think Liverpool are much better than us (people talk about us riding our luck, but Liverpool have ridden theirs far more). Where Liverpool have the edge is that they - collectively and individually - have the experience which we don't. Top four - anywhere in it - and I'll be delighted. Fifth and I'll be very happy. Sixth, and I'll still be relatively happy, but will reflect on what might have been. A little under 2.5 years ago we had DOL, Doug Ellis, finished 16th and were staring at absolutely certain relegation. Lerner and O'Neill have worked miracles to change things so quickly.

It hasn't come this season. Whilst the fundamentals of our game haven't changed (pace, counter attack), we've had to change our shape a fair bit (5 in midfield while Carew was out, and we only had Agbonlahor up front, for example). He changed things a fair bit in the run-in last season as well, playing Young in a free roaming role behind the strikers, which worked very well. Plenty of teams have actually already worked out how to stifle us - stick ten men behind the ball. The one thing we lack right now is someone in midfield who can unlock defences when they come to Villa Park and do that (Wigan and Fulham were good examples). Currently we do better against teams who have a go, and attack. That's why we won at the Emirates, and why we really should have beaten Arsenal at home too. I think the key thing is that this is the start, and we're over-achieving. I said at the start of the season that I really wanted us to establish ourselves as the best of the rest, that would have been an achievement. It is looking better at the moment, but even if we finished 5th, it'd be a very good season, as we've seen flashes of what we can do. Much rather get consistent top four finishes rather than do it once then burn out and fade Oh, incidentally, also makes me laugh when (not on here) people say we've had no injuries. They've clearly not noticed our Dutch international left back out for the entire season so far, Martin Laursen currently out for three months, and John Carew missing for almost three months (and although not through injuries, but due to Shorey's shitness, Luke Young being played on the wrong side of the pitch and NRC, Gardener or Cuellar beimg played out of position at RB).

Bit too early to talk about top four finishes for my money, but nice sentiments, ta!

The difference with Chelsea is that they were a pisspot club with zero history until Harding came in and waved his money around, and subsequently RA did the same. I'll admit, I don't like Man United, but that's more about things like Steve cunting Bruce and seven minutes of extra time than it is the club itself. I don't mind Man United fans from the area. But what I really absolutely fucking loathe are gloryhunters. I don't just mean Man United gloryhunters, but the lot, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool. Once I hear someone with a west country accent talking about how they're a Chelsea fan, I just turn off, they're dead to me, they are the absolute lowest of the low. I would rather my son became a Birmingham City supporter than supported Liverpool or Man United. People (in Britain) who just "choose" a successful club from a city they have no connection with - they're really the lowest of the low, they are the modern day equivalents of quislings, treacherous weasels whose opinion on football matters not one fucking jot to me, because it is a false one. What do they know about being a real football supporter? It'd be like me suddenly latching on to Pittsburgh Steelers or whoever it is that wins that funny American sport all the time. *rant ends*

Good result for us, that. Would have been better had they beaten Arsenal, but mustn't grumble.

Although in fairness, I've seen us do spectacular things in the past, I've seen us get to the precipice of a real breakthrough and then suddenly piss it all away so many times, too.

Good to see Luke Young in there, he has been brilliant this season, and consistently so. Surprised no shout for Curtis Davies, mind.

Fucking joke if he gets a cap like. The lad couldn't trap a bag of sand. When we had him on loan we knew him as Can't Control.

Getting better. I John Robertson was a slow, unspectacular winger but knew how to put a cross in. He's obviously been doing something with him. I'd consider him a right sided midfielder rather than a winger, in any case, if that makes sense. Also in his favour may be the fact that we have Young on the other wing sticking the crosses in, so he's not the only player we can turn to for balls in to the box.

In the England squad. Really dodgy start with us, has done very, very well since then.

We've now won seven away games in a row. Thirteen match unbeaten run. Milner had a blinder today. And we've actually started playing well the last few games, too.