brummie

It's incredible that so few on here seem at all bothered, and in fact celebrate the fact, that Ashley will soon delist the club and take it into private hands. We still don't know anything about his intentions, and very soon there'll be no transparency, very little information about what's going on. It's exciting to get rid of a crap chairman and bring in a billionaire, but it's healthy to ask questions. I guess it is a double edged sword, really. You want a billionaire owner who will invest shit loads of money in the club? OK, but you're going to have to put up with the fact that he can do what he wants with the club with practically no scrutiny. You're going to have to live with the fact that being a billionaire's play thing is something we've all wanted for our clubs, but the flip side is that you are subject to his every whim. This is great when things are going well, but it is going to be interesting when things get tense. We're still on the extended honeymoon with our new owners, your marriage hasn't even started yet, but I think that expecting everything to be rosy is naive. The only way we'll be able to judge them is on experience, and that means what happens over a few years, not what they do in the first year (look at Magnusson at West Ham, desperately trying to buy instant success and appreciation - would you want to be run like that?). Until then, a little healthy scepticism can be a good thing.

Muller. And the sponsor was the least bad thing about that kit. However, our worst ever kit was our *blue* away kit. I'll repeat that, *blue*. Villa playing in blue, for fucks sake.

Stripes are a bit restricting in terms of kit design, aren't they? I'm not having a sly pop, by the way, I've always thought that. Although you've managed to avoid ever reaching the depths we did with our green, red and black striped away kit that time.

Every single Umbro kit I've seen this summer has been horrible. What are they on? Although, controversially, that Wigan one is amongst the least bad.

He kicks people a lot. Kicked someone in the balls in our last game. Get used to it. He's shit, by the way, there's no getting away from that. People are raising eyebrows at 3.7m for Marlon Harewood, but 2m for Gavin McCann is mental. Soz

Regardless of how much he is worth or how good he is, is there a more punchable face in PL football than Robben's, especially when he does what whingeing look at the ref whilst looking for an unlikely free kick? No. That's the answer/

He's a nice lad, Darius, and a proper pro, but I have never seen a player miss one on ones with the keeper as frequently as he did.

Happy with Harewood then?!?!?! See comments on Other Clubs Signings thread.

Nice kit. By the way thanks for Jloyd Samuel! Some very good reports about his performances for us out in Korea where we've reached the final of the Peace Cup. You're more than welcome, don't big him up too much though, or he'll develop a God complex and stop trying. How's McCan't settling in?

Attitude? I wasn't aware he had a bad attitude - even the Spammers fans agree on this, and they're usually the first to start whingeing. And if our manager gave a fuck about column inches, I'd suggest we got a new one. End of the day, you've got to trust your manager to get it right.

Sorensen is solid enough - mindless flap away against Boro excepted, he pulled us out of the shit a fair few times last season. I think he's got his eye on someone else - Gordon is supposed to be decent, but 9m for a SPL keeper is fucking nonsense.

Official pics this time (from our lah di dah launch at Harvey Nicholls yesterday) rather than naughty leaks: The whole range (fucking love the 82 inspired away kit - this is the first time I'm going to buy a replica shirt in about 20 years, i think): http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/17/b7/0,,10265~3323671,00.jpg Home (ignore the slab of lard wearing it): http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icbirmingham/jul2007/2/0/D49C81B6-0A17-9CD0-100AC1D431189D45.jpg Away (as worn by one of the stars of next season, still hate that new badge, mind): width=200http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/15/b7/0,,10265~3323669,00.jpg[/img]

whinging fat bastard tbh, get shot and get Capello in Fuck Capello, you want to get that German bloke in, Ottmar Biscuitbarrel, whatever his name was.

Has Chopra kicked a ball in the Premiership though? I think Chopra at 5m actually makes Harewood look cheap. In Harewood's credit, he has said today that at Wigan he would have been pretty much guaranteed a starting spot, whereas MON made it clear he'd have to fight for his place, but it was a bit of a no-brainer choice to make. I can also see the logic that if Carew gets injured, then he gives us another "bustling" option, which is something we wouldn't get from Gabby or Luke Moore (or Defoe if we were to sign him). I'm kind of coming round to the idea.

Every team needs a shola ameobi-a-like. Offers them something different to what they have I suppose, although in this case it isnt really a good something different. MON speaking at the press conference couldn't have made it any clearer that he is a squad signing. I guess he'd be a decent stand in for Carew when he's out, and the best way to look at him is a "get an extra body in" replacement for Chris Sutton - another option to bolster a threadbare attack. If i thought he was going to be our only striker signing, I'd be gutted (don't get me wrong, though, he's shit), but he won't. Assuming MON doesn't think Agbonlahor is ready to step up to the plate this season and play up front all year. Although Ill tell you this for nothing, Luke Moore could have a big, big season this year.

Getting back to the original point about when Ashley is going to show his hand .... this is something we realised just after our takeover had gone through...... When the club was a PLC, even whilst under the Ellis junta, we got the chance to go to the AGM once a year, ask him awkward questions, tell him what a cnut he was. The club was also legally obliged to keep the stock market informed on certain issues, make information public. Now, when clubs are wholly owned by billionaires, the fans actually have less access to information than before - which is kind of ironic, really.

He's from Stafford and a lifelong Villa fan apparently, so I'm accusing his agent of leaking this load of rubbish to try to get his client the move he wants. Tell you what, though. I wish we'd f****** BUY SOMEONE. Just not him. Indeed he is. The truth is Snoop's another Bramble, he can defend really well and then he'll have a lapse of concentration and another goal goes in. If we sold him on the strength of his performance against Henry, anyone would happily pay £10m for him, but he's not like that all the time. In the current market he's probably worth £3 or 4m but it ought to be the Fulhams or Wigans of this world who should want him. I'm staggered that either MON or SGE are even contemplating the idea tbh. I'd be amazed if there were any truth in the MON interest - we're well covered at CB with Mellberg, the absolutely superb now he's not injured all the time Laursen, the extremely promising Cahill and Ridgewell in that position (assuming Ridgewell stays, I can't see why we'd sell him and buy Gardner). We need a fucking right back. In fact, we need two RBs and a LB, we only have ONE full back of any description at the club, we've got enough decent CBs. Sorry, I shall calm down now.

Crouch did a speech at Lee Hendrie's "Now fuck off and don't come back, you orange-faced mutant" dinner at VP the other week, in which he apparently said that if he were to leave Liverpool, he'd definitely come back to Villa. He never really got a chance with us, to be honest. Still, 20m is absolute fucking madness. If it is about warding off interest, why not just say "he's not leaving"?

He's from Stafford and a lifelong Villa fan apparently, so I'm accusing his agent of leaking this load of rubbish to try to get his client the move he wants. Tell you what, though. I wish we'd fucking BUY SOMEONE. Just not him.

Luke Young at that kind of money would represent an excellent signing. As a fan of a club which currently has no fit right back (Delaney is an excellent player but perma-injured), I would be very, very happy if we were to spend that kind of money to acquire Young. I suspect the same factors go for you - even if viewed as back up or squad depth, 2.7m is peanuts.

Aye, very good article, that.

I see where you're coming from, but I'd only really be able to agree with you if what you're suggesting were demonstrated by actual events. Yes, there are lots of Americans playing in Europe, but then again there are lots of Venezuelans or Ecuadorians. Who are the big American names in the PL? (Incidentally, I'm not one of those 'Our league is the best in the world' delusionists). I take your point with the competitive league thing (Brazil possibly an example which fits your argument, but their players play in the best teams in the best leagues in Europe). The MLS at the moment (and I am sure this will improve) isn't just 'not one of the biggest leagues', it is an irrelevance. I really think this situation will improve, but think there needs to be a little realism about how long it will take, and how far off being a top league it currently is.

The reason we have no presence at the Olympics is due to the fact that we enter the Olympics as Great Britain, but are seperate countries as footballing entities. And Olympic football doesn't actually matter in any case. We don't actually need government intervention to produce decent players through academies - why would we? The clubs have enough money to do it themselves, and are doing a good enough job. The US may produce talented youngsters, but can you give me a few examples of such youngsters who have made it in established leagues?

No chance. If the US improved 50 percent and England declined by the same percentage, we'd still be a far, far better team (and that is acknowledging the fact that England are shite), and that is never going to change until the US gets a decent, competitive league. Here's how bad the MLS is - Juan Pablo Angel is currently the joint top scorer, despite joining the team late. I've watched him consistently fail to hit a barn door from ten paces over the last few years. Some of the defending over there is league two / pub team standard. The US has a very, very long way to go, and shipping in Beckham won't even scratch at the surface of it.

Billionaires become billionaires because they're good with money and they know how to make it turn into more money**. I think that the assumption that a billionaire owner is going to pour huge amounts into a club is a dodgy one - they're not altruistic, they're in it for a reason, they think they can have a bit of fun and make some money. Much more fun that running a chain of sports shops or a credit card company. Has Ashley bought Newcastle because he used to stand on the Gallowgate as a kid? No. Did Lerner buy Villa because he remembered the 82 EC winning team? No. Abramovich bought Chelsea partly as a life insurance policy, an entirely different agenda to the other PL billionaires. Expectations are now linked to the Abramovich factor, in that although we all know there will never be another spender on his level, we all like to think our owners will want their spending to "look" impressive by comparison and will thus spend money with a diminished regard to its value. This is, in my opinion, naive. I'm not saying that having a billionaire owner is nothing to be pleased with, it is, I'm saying it will be interesting to see how they act over the coming years, and that the assumption that just because they've got shit loads of cash they're going to spaff it on players every year is a dodgy one. ** or they inherit it, obv. EDIT incidentally, the whole focus on 'how much will we spend' is wrong from the start. It matters *who* you buy with it. How much would Jagielka, Smith, Richardson, and Harewood cost in total? Not far off 20m? How much do Spurs want for Defoe? 18m? That's a lot of money but I'd be equally as fucked off with my club if it spent its money like that as I would if it spent no money at all.