brummie

The Chinese have a saying ; 'It is better to keep one's mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open it and prove the point beyond all doubt'..... I reckon you have just verified the truth of their saying...... Wasn't that Mark Twain?

http://www.dlwp.com/images/newsletters/HarryHill/harry.jpg Who's the best out of Tottenham and Wigan? There's only one way to etc etc etc

He's like a taller Nigel Reo Coker.

Interesting site, that. The reason the tabloids are all down the bottom of that transfer accuracy league is because they have a market that demands to read that kind of stuff every single day, so they're more likely to run stories on the flimsiest of evidence. Personally, I read the Guardian, and only turn to the sports pages after I've finished reading the fascinating Society G2 supplement. *knits yoghurt*

The bad news. Shorey is f***ing gash. He's absolutely no physical presence, no pace *whatsoever* and no idea what to do when he does get forward. Put it like this. MON prefers to play Luke Young on the wrong side of the pitch, and NRC or Cuellar at RB to avoid playing Shorey. When Freddie Bouma comes back, he'll have even less of a prayer Please, please, please take him. Actually, if he did go to you, it would make much more sense of the N'Zogbia rumours. He knew enough at Reading to make him have pretty impressive assists stats for a fullback Assists 07/08 Fabregas 17 Young 14 Barry 10 Kalou 10 Rooney 10 Shorey 9 Bentley 9 Berbatov 9 Elano 9 Nani 9 Wow no Ronaldo on that list but Nani?! No Duff or Milner?! Milner as in the lad who couldn't cross to save his life? I think Milner has 5 assists already this season, and 3 goals. I've not been too convinced since his return, but the statistics look decent.

Rumours (skimpy ones, mind) that Villa have signed Fabian Delph from Leeds for 6m. I know nish about him and it probably isn't true.

I can't go on what he did at Reading, I didn't pay much attention to him there. But I've seen him here, and the general impression has been very, very poor indeed. And it isn't just me, ask any Villa fan.

I'm just going on what I've seen. Also: Gavin McCann played for England. MON bought Marlon Harewood.

The bad news. Shorey is fucking gash. He's absolutely no physical presence, no pace *whatsoever* and no idea what to do when he does get forward. Put it like this. MON prefers to play Luke Young on the wrong side of the pitch, and NRC or Cuellar at RB to avoid playing Shorey. When Freddie Bouma comes back, he'll have even less of a prayer Please, please, please take him. Actually, if he did go to you, it would make much more sense of the N'Zogbia rumours.

We'd never accept a 65% loss on him tbf. This and the supposed value City place on Shay show how the other clubs view our situation though. They think we're desperate. Aye £2mill and £3mill are just insults, we paid £5.8mill for Joey and he is woh about £4mill even with his past history, as for the £3mill offer for Shay one of the best keepers in the league City should be told to fk off no matter what they offer now. Players are worth what people are prepared to pay for them, and nobody is going to pay near what you paid for Barton, given events since you signed him, regardless of how good a player he potentially is.

This was reported today, fucking hell, how does he get away with it? He also said Villa had made the biggest offer for Defoe, but MON swore blind last week (in response) that we hadn't offered anything for him, and he wasn't interested. Clearly his game was "look, ours is the only offer, after all". He was doing the same thing with Downing. Why even speak to the media about the fact you're interested in a player?

Has surely to be Harry Redknapp. Not only do we get him conducting practically all of his transfer dealings through the media (too many examples to cite, here), but check out this little beauty. I honestly think he's having some sort of nervous breakdown. Regardless of whether he is or is not a better coach than either of those mangers, or the best coach in the world, what is wrong with the man? Is he incapable of keeping his jowelly gob shut for more than ten minutes? http://www.tribalfootball.com/tottenham-boss-redknapp-im-better-coach-oneill-ferguson-221474

I know what you mean. The weaknesses in the squad are evident, ie everyone knows where they are, he just needs to sort them out this month. The squad is a lot deeper than it was last season, but as you say, the UEFA cup complicates things for us. Having said that, he's not really too worried about the competition so far (as seen by his selections in the group phase - do as much as we need to, no more). I think the longer we linger in the echelons of the top four, the less he'll worry about the UEFA.

Fucking hell, look at the state of his hair.

I'd rather they won it than Liverpool. People talk about our luck, but fuck me, we've played better than Liverpool for most of this season, and they've been incredibly flukey.

Technically they should be, but I'd be interested to see how they cope once the UEFA Cup comes back in. They're not playing at their best but I'd argue they can't play consistently well. There's no doubt they're getting a lot of breaks. It'll be interesting to see how they respond to a few injuries, a few bits of bad luck etc. Carew has been out for ages, he's a very important player for us. We've played 10 UEFA cup matches already (and we largely play the reserves in those games). Getting a few breaks is fair enough, but we're not third because we've been lucky. Also our remaining fixtures are looking pretty good. Our next five games for example Sunderland (away) Portsmouth (away) Wigan (home) Blackburn (away) Chelsea (home) We know where we've got deficiencies in the squad, and we've got the money and a month to sort it. I think he'll fix it.

I don't think we will be challengers for the big prize, but you've hit on the really important point there that a lot of people don't seem to realise. We've been without Carew for a couple of months now. He's not a prolific goalscorer, but he shapes our play enormously. We've been playing five in midfield and Gabby alone up front as we've no other realistic options up front. We've also been conducting a European campaign at the same time. I'd say 70 percent is possibly a little generous, we've been playing well within ourselves. I can only think of Ajax, Slavia Pragua, Spurs away and good spells of today when we've looked anything like playing near our best, but we're still getting results. It bodes well if we can put together a run where we really do play as well as we can.

Benitez was right in his points about Ferguson, but he's quite clearly got to him. Liverpool will bottle it.

In fairness, there were five defenders, Carson and Agbonlahor in the area. One of them should have made a move towards him, at least. It was Carson's fuck up for the goal, but ultimately, the shot wouldn't have gone in had the defenders done their stuff. Carson made a few other excellent saves that stopped us sticking considerably more than 2 past them, though.

Finally started to perform in patches today. Should really have been further ahead in the first half. Never really felt threatened by Albion. They did exactly what i thought they would - pass ball around midfield impressively, then lose it - for 45 minutes, then brought on Bednar who created far more trouble for us, but they were never going to get anything. They need to learn. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with being more direct. They can outplay Liverpool at Anfield for most of the game like they did recently, but they'll get fuck all if they don't score more goals.

Vile scrote joins vile club.

Don't see how it would suit us, Shorey's crap. This.

N'Zogbia: "I want out of Newcastle, what are you doing about it, what are you doing to earn your money Mr 10 percent?" Agent: adopts panicky facial expression "I am in talks with some clubs about you at the moment" N'Zogbia: "Who?" Agent: randomly chooses clubs "Villa and Spurs. Arsenal might be interested too" N'Zogbia: "Ah, so you really are doing your job then" Agent: "Phew"

I can't believe we'd be in for him, for the following reasons. 1. What for? He'd be behind Ashley Young on the left wing. 2. We're supposed to be punting the woeful Shorey off somewhere else, so maybe it is to play him there. But he's not a LB, so what's the point in getting a LW in to play LB when you know he's not really that good there, and doesn't like it? 3. Everything I had ever seen, here or elsewhere, about him tells me that he is a stroppy, mardy arsed cunt. That doesn't strike me as the sort of player MON likes to sign. No truth if you ask me.

On a wider point (ie football in general), is anyone else who remembers the time starting to think that the 80s weren't actually that bad after all? There might have been 15-20,000 in grounds on a frequent basis, but at least they all gave a fuck and weren't just doing something to keep little Jonty and India entertained for a couple of hours before the theatre.