brummie

Villa's team is strong, but the squad is weak - far too small. Take out goalkeepers and we've got 17 players in the squad. It woudn't take too many injuries to not be able to name a bench. Good point that, wasn't distinguishing between team and squad. City and Spurs aren't exactly brimming with depth either though, so I figure the rankings would stay the same. Were not brimming with Depth??? Lennon Routledge Malbranque Taarabt Zokora Jenas Huddlestone Tainio Boateng Ghaly and also Bale plays there. Sadly Routledge, Zokora, jenas, Tainio and Ghaly are all shit You're right though, youve got the numbers in midfield. Bale is immensely impressive.

Nein danke. Do you want a new striker? I think Luke Moore will be on his way out in January.

Villa's team is strong, but the squad is weak - far too small. Take out goalkeepers and we've got 17 players in the squad. It woudn't take too many injuries to not be able to name a bench. Good point that, wasn't distinguishing between team and squad. City and Spurs aren't exactly brimming with depth either though, so I figure the rankings would stay the same. We've been very, very lucky with injuries so far this season. Although the facilities at the new training complex (and the training methods) might have some influence on that, there's no getting away that we'd be very stretched very quickly. He says he only wants to buy the players he really wants and is prepared to wait, but it is a dangerous game. We have no right back and only one left back (and Barry is shit at LB, so not an option) at the club, but we've got about 12,000 centre halves. If Mellberg and Gardener got injured, or Bouma, we'd be fucked. He needs to buy very well in January or it will bite us on the arse.

Villa's team is strong, but the squad is weak - far too small. Take out goalkeepers and we've got 17 players in the squad. It woudn't take too many injuries to not be able to name a bench.

Aye. Even if we look at Villa. Barry Gardner Reo- Coker Petrov Young I honestly would rather have that lot. :-[ You say that as if it is a surprise. England international Barry, former U21 captain NRC and current top form player Young? Gardner is promising. Hardly gets a start, 3 PL goals already this season. Even Petrov is producing the goods at the moment. You also forgot Maloney, who is a quality player who gets - for some reason - hardly a look in. Came on as sub against arseluck iirc (the little fella?) and looked quite tidy imo. That's the one. He's a decent player. Scored against Fulham. Fans love him, would love to see him get a decent run out

Aye. Even if we look at Villa. Barry Gardner Reo- Coker Petrov Young I honestly would rather have that lot. :-[ You say that as if it is a surprise. England international Barry, former U21 captain NRC and current top form player Young? Gardner is promising. Hardly gets a start, 3 PL goals already this season. Even Petrov is producing the goods at the moment. You also forgot Maloney, who is a quality player who gets - for some reason - hardly a look in.

No. I am from where Robster now lives. I did live in Newcastle for five years, though.

re Digger's point about the Liverpool derby, I too have heard frequently that this "we all stand together" kissy kissy thing is a myth.

You're right, but Liverpool Man U is a rivalry, not a derby. Different thing.

That's the thing about divided cities, this kind of thing is inevitable. I've been following Villa for over 30 years. My father has been a Birmingham City supporter since 1950. One brother is a Villa fan, one is a Blues fan. On my mom's side (who are from north brum - pretty much entirely Villa territory) the family are all Villa fans, and have been since the 19th century (old stories passed down through generations about ancestors), with the exception of one uncle who is a West Brom fan. My mom's more righteous family members got to me first, and I've always been a Villan. I am pretty much unable to discuss football with my father without it turning into an argument. He has only just started taking my calls again following our derby win. That's the kind of stuff that goes on all the time in shared cities. Thats why it will NEVER have the intensity of what we have either. I'd disown any fucker who was Red and White in our family. There isnt. On either side. Never will be either. Ditched a lass immediately after humping her when I found out she was red and white. Probably taking things too far but I have never and will never own anything red. Same in the rest of the family. The thought of actually living with one of the fuckers is just fucking freaky. You can pick and choose anything you like. Just not your football club. All fair comment, but when they're around you from the minute you leave the house for work till the minute you get home at night, it changes things, it is horrible. When you live in a one club town, it is different. I'm a grown, reasonably educated man, and I fucking hate them. I see them around town, I see them on the train, I see them in the pub, I see them everywhere. It creates constant tension. Having them in the family is almost inevitable at such close quarters.

That's the thing about divided cities, this kind of thing is inevitable. I've been following Villa for over 30 years. My father has been a Birmingham City supporter since 1950. One brother is a Villa fan, one is a Blues fan. On my mom's side (who are from north brum - pretty much entirely Villa territory) the family are all Villa fans, and have been since the 19th century (old stories passed down through generations about ancestors), with the exception of one uncle who is a West Brom fan. My mom's more righteous family members got to me first, and I've always been a Villan. I am pretty much unable to discuss football with my father without it turning into an argument. He has only just started taking my calls again following our derby win. That's the kind of stuff that goes on all the time in shared cities.

As long as we do it a second or two before full time. Yeah. Seriously though. If we get an early goal, i think it'll make for a fantastic game. Hopefully we won't defend as deep as Villa afterwards. We weren't defending deep, we couldn;t get the ball off them. It was as simple as that. Although in the second half, they couldn't get the ball off us. Get in to them, close them down, rattle them, don't give the ball away - cliche but if they don't have the ball, they can't cut you apart with their passing. Let them pass and they'll murder you. Unfortunately, we waited 45 minutes before realising it, and it was too late. Is Hleb playing? He was awesome, just awesome. Best individual performance I've seen at our place for a decent time. We had to get Carew to kick him off the park, so maybe he'll miss this game.

Going to uni may mean like nothing to you but i for one am extremely proud and happy ive achieved it (especially considering half the people i know dont go). Would be even happier if i achieve a good grade I wasn't having a go at you, mate, I was just going off on one in a general, Meldrew style.

And on the other hand, if we score first, it could be a f****** mint game. Very true Was for us. Best game I've seen at our place for a fair while. Even if you get beaten, you get to watch some fantastic football from Arsenal.

And with the religious / nationalism aspect thrown in, it is unique.

It is different - not necessarily 'bigger' - but different when it is all within the city. For example, I would never walk through the centre of Brum in a Villa scarf or shirt, not even on a non matchday, for fear of trouble. Would you think twice about walking through Newcastle on a non matchday in your Toon shirts? Sharing a city with your rivals is totally different. We share ours with two rivals, which makes it worse. West Brom is 3 miles from Villa Park, Blues is probably closer. That's why we had so much trouble a few weeks ago, and that is why the police here are trying to make us play derby matches at 10am on a Sunday morning. For my money the nastiest (not, nastiest, not biggest) are the Manchester and Birmingham derbies, which i think are slightly worse than the Newcastle Sunderland one for the above reason, and because in both one club has been massively in the shadow of the other (sorry Dr Spec), which is a breeding ground for arrogance on one side and hatred on the other. Although the Newcastle - Sunderland and Villa - Birmingham derbies do have the added attraction that they are punctuated by periods of absence as either the mackems or Blues are out of the top flight. The biggest is a no-brainer - the Glasgow derby by an absolute mile.

Let's be honest, going to "uni" these days means jack shit. I frequently have to look through CVs of graduates to come and join my merry band of wage slaves, and most of them are almost entirely illiterate. It all started when they made A Levels piss easy and promoted this stupid notion that everyone should be able to go to university, rather than limiting it to those demonstrating some indication of intelligence.

I can understand the discontent after recent performances, but if you did lose on Wednesday, and SA was sacked the next day, what do you think would happen (think would happen, not want to happen) after? And in what kind of time frame? That's what I can't get to grips with here - sacking a manager at this point of the season means the rest of the season is a cast-iron, guaranteed write off. He might be struggling now, but give him the rest of the season to make progress - if the alternative is still a written off season, I don't see what is to gain. At least that way he gets a reasonable chance, too.

RVP is out for a few weeks, Fabregas may be back, and Big John Carew put a firm end to Hleb running things on Saturday, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he missed the match too.

Keane is a decent player, but there is something about him .... I'm struggling to think of a footballer with a more punchable face.

That's nice of you to say, Mr Nyt. We're quite well run at the moment, which after decades of Ellis neglect, is nice. Got to admire the move and finish on Adebayor's goal, nothing you can really do with quality like that. Hmm, Knight was stood motionless in front of Adebayor, and Mellberg was stood watching him. They were fantastic in the first half, but we owned them in the second. they owned you much greater in the first half. their first half owning warranted about 4 or 5 goals. your 2nd half "owning" warranted A goal. the result was reflective of the WHOLE game. Their performance in the first half would have owned any team in the league. The last time i saw an away team play that well at our place was Juventus in 1983. And I didn't say they didn't deserve the points I just pointed out that we were the better team in the second half. Being able to take such a huge positive from a defeat is a good thing.

That's nice of you to say, Mr Nyt. We're quite well run at the moment, which after decades of Ellis neglect, is nice. Got to admire the move and finish on Adebayor's goal, nothing you can really do with quality like that. Hmm, Knight was stood motionless in front of Adebayor, and Mellberg was stood watching him. They were fantastic in the first half, but we owned them in the second.

That's nice of you to say, Mr Nyt. We're quite well run at the moment, which after decades of Ellis neglect, is nice.

Totally unrelated but someone told me that Villa have started playing music when they score, is this true brummie? Chelsea Dagger Yesterday, after Gardner swept the ball past the helpless Almunia, I was jumping around like a lunatic, when I realised - to my abject horror - that the PA was belting out Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis. First time it has ever happened. I could not believe what i was hearing. Anyway, today, our boards have gone into meltdown. As you may know, General Krulak (Lerner's right hand man on the board) posts on all our boards, and today on every one of them there was a wave of "what the fuck are you doing, never do it again" posts. By midday today, he posted this: (FitzGerald is our CEO) Thank fuck that has been stopped.

Jesus fuck. I stop watching the match and keep an eye on the scores, Spurs are winning, no need to bother checking again, they wont come back into it, then I look again and find this has happened.