brummie

I feel sorry for Jol. He's dropped a few bollocks this season, but many of them have been dropped under the utterly fucking absurd pressure put on him after the first day result at Sunderland. Spurs are a bit of a joke. He gives them 2 consecutive top 6 finishes, after none (or was it one) in 16 odd years, and all of a sudden they think they're Real Madrid. They embody pretty much everything which is wrong with football these days. Wanky 'director of football' position causing friction? Check. Absurd splashing of money in desperate attempt at success? Check. Overinflated view of own significance? Check. Consistent failure to stare facts in the face? Check.

Jesus that was quick.

The date of the name change from the "First Division" to the "Premier League" is an arbitrary date from which to start your statistical comparisons. It is a 'much beloved' date for some people. Often these are people who think that football was invented in 1992, and was invented by Sky! I am not saying that you are one of those, but there are plenty of them around, and this is just pandering to their seeming beliefs. The game has a lot more money in it now and the formation of the Premier League helped in this, but it would probably have happened anyway (unfortunately, in many ways). There was no tangible difference between the last season of The First Division and the first season of the Premier League - so why do you start your analysis at that arbitrary date? Normally people would look back and analyse issues over (say) the "last ten years" or the "last twenty years", or the last 30, 40, or 50, or whatever. Often mentioned, but I have yet to see anyone like this. Seems simply a stock insult tbh. Take it you don't watch Sky then? *winky thing*

Spot on, mate. Randy Lerner may be American but has shown more care and done more for Villa and our history in just over a year than Ellis did in 30. Wenger is having a laugh - as someone said in this thread, stuffing your side with foreigners and charging 60 quid a pop is somehow OK, but having foreign owners is losing the soul of the game. As things stand now, I can't think of a single dodgy foreign owner in the English game. I can think of plenty of dodgy English owners from the past, though

You're going home in a rocket powered ambulance Your spacecraft, your spacecraft is fucking shit ....

I wouldn't bet against any of them, to be honest. I would!! As I say above - "We are in a very competitive rich-mans league now (the names you mention, plus Abramovich etc) and you have to ally this new-owners-thing to any other natural advantages any of these clubs may already have (think about OURS) to estimate who will be the most successful." I'm still not getting it. Money is an enormous leveller, hence Portsmouth having transfer clout. The downside of this kind of new owner is that if they decide they've had enough, we're fucked. The clubs which have the biggest natural advantage are without doubt the London clubs, purely because of where they are. Waving a huge amount of cash at a foreign player and his club is one thing. Doing that and then saying "come and live and work in the most exciting city in the world" is another altogether. Hence why West Ham are probably the best placed of those mentioned.

I wouldn't bet against any of them, to be honest.

The thing is, you could say the same thing about Thaksin Shinawatra, Bgorgolfobiscuitbarrel, Randy Lerner, ENIC, Gaydamek, and whoever eventually buys Everton. Billionaire owners are going to become the norm rather than the exception. Right now, there are an awful lot of clubs with very rich, ambitious owners. Have you got the much vaunted "five year plan" yet? If you haven't, I bet you do soon. It seems a must for every recently taken over club to have one. There are going to be a lot of disappointed billionaires soon, when they realise we can't all win the league.

Shall i tell you what I've seen my team win? *saucy, winking emoticon here* Serious point - I don't think Villa win win anything else in my lifetime, either. We're never, ever going to win the FA Cup again, certainly. Seven times, last one 50 years ago this year. Football is now getting to the point where the biggest clubs will protect their businesses to the point at which it will be impossible for others to win stuff other than the odd Carling Cup EDIT bring back the Simod Cup! Bring back the Watneys Cup! Bring back the Leyland Daf Cup! EDIT EDIT actually, I'm 39 and have seen plenty of silverware, but I was thinking (at our match) last night that the 10 year old kid who was sat behind me will probably never ever know what it is like to see us win something**, yet he (or his parents) is forking out a massive amount of money to watch that futile pursuit. ** unless he was gestating at the 1996 LC final, obv

Beautifully poetic, Parks. PS - don't forget that 50 notes. He's good, but he's not that good. Phoned my mate in Leicster this morn. [Possible place for wink/] *grumble grumble*

Beautifully poetic, Parks. PS - don't forget that 50 notes. He's good, but he's not that good.

If Sam has even mild success (ie gets you challenging for, or in, European positions) over the next couple of years, don't be surprised if he ends up in the England job.

Of course he will succeed - it just depends on the exact definition of "succeed". The only issue is the number of second level clubs who now have good managers and wealthy benefactors, all of whom are expecting the same thing.

No, but listen to this on the BBC site, Curtis Davies "I was rubbish": http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/sol/newsid_7010000/newsid_7015400?redirect=7015489.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1 Remarkable interview, don't think I've heard a player be so frank ... "I was rubbish tonight, really rubbish" "My pass completion must have been 5 percent" "I've been bigging myself up recently, but that was a rude awakening" "That's the worst I have ever played" "I looked like a pub team player" Bit of an eye opener. I actually though he looked pretty good.

That was quite a surreal experience. First, it was a total waste of 15 pounds, which i could have spent elsewhere. 20 quid for non ST holders, so it could have been worse I suppose. Secondly, I've never known such a shit atmosphere - quite clearly nobody cared. 4000 Leicester fans didn't even make any noise, and our fans were awful. Thirdly, we were halfarsed and not really bothered, Leicester were woeful and scored with their only shot on goal. Fourthly, although that is a possible route to Europe gone, you could see, noone really cared.

*cough* Goodnight Irene - Bristol Rovers

Poor the gays. Maybe they should stop playing in their own tournaments and announce their sexuality and play in normal leagues. How do you think that would go down? Homophobia, not funny. Oh, and Le Saux was labelled gay because he liked reading books, read the Guardian and went on a camping holiday, The fact that this gets you labelled "gay" says all you need to know about footballers. And I believe the most renowned piss taker was that erudite, free thinking libertine, Robbie Fowler.

At least it takes your attention away from his hideously deformed potato head.

Population figures are misleading. For example, Birmingham has a population of around a million, but is at the centre of a conurbation of 3m. However, in that conurbation are lots of teams - Villa, Blues, Albion, Wolves (who with one exception are all big clubs), Walsall, out to Coventry (which is practically in the same urban sprawl as Brum). When you get to the edge of that sprawl, you find yourself on the edge of other catchment areas. Villa Park to St Andrews is probably less than two miles, I think the Hawthorns to Villa Park is even less. Blackburn's situation within Lancashire is the same as above, really, there are an awful lot of people, yes, but there are an awful lot of football teams to choose from. Given that, as Keefaz said, the low population of Newcastle (city of) doesn't really have any connection to the attendances.

Think Agbonlahor could have gave a ball to Harewood that would have got him his first league goal for Villa but instead went on himself and missed or something. This is correct. He does tend to make bad decisions like that, Agbonlahor. At your place, he shot from an awkward angle instead of squaring to a sure-to-score Reo-Coker. I'll forgive him yesterday's bad decision though, for that exquisite piece of skill in bringing the ball down so brilliantly from a 70 yard punt and despatching it.

I think Chez is right, Bates would have had to agree to make an offer to the creditors, which the administrators accepted, otherwise surely Leeds wouldn't even be playing?

I always think it is awful for fans to go through that sort of thing with their club, and generally wouldn't wish it on anyone, but I'm afraid that in the case of Leeds, I've got no sympathy at all, and just hope it gets worse for them. The stuff I've seen from their scum fanbase over 30 years means I for one will shed the most microscopic, saltiest tear, should they implode totally. Ahh come on, they are a classic british side with a great pedigree. There are loads of tossers at every club. I'd rather see Leeds in the top division than fucking Reading. A nasty, niggling, unpleasant pedigree, whichever way you look at it. I doubt we'll agree on this one, i just loathe them. Reading are a decent club from a decent town (and very much a boom town, one for the next century), who are up there on merit. They don't have the history of, say, Bolton, but I'd take Reading over Bolton every day.

I always think it is awful for fans to go through that sort of thing with their club, and generally wouldn't wish it on anyone, but I'm afraid that in the case of Leeds, I've got no sympathy at all, and just hope it gets worse for them. The stuff I've seen from their scum fanbase over 30 years means I for one will shed the most microscopic, saltiest tear, should they implode totally.

Blackburn at least have a fair bit of history. Boro, for my money, offer absolutely nothing to English football.

I don't think "class" could ever be used to describe Wes Brown. If he played for someone like Boro he probably would never have won an England cap Hello. I went to see my lot against your lot today. Was quite disappointed with your lot, very blunt up front. What on earth is Yakubu doing on the bench?