brummie

Spookily similar to our boards this last week on the subject of players like Harewood. All you can do is trust in the manager's ability, and the will of the board to back him, and hope that he is getting such players in because he wants them (which is almost certainly the case) rather than that's because he can't afford better.

Over the last year, our new lot have built a new 14m pound training centre, spent 4m restoring the derelict Holte Hotel (pub at the back of the Holte End) to its original Victorian state (and I have to say, it looks fucking amazing), pulled off the shirt deal with Nike (Bob Kain of IMG is on our board, I suspect he was heavily involved), and ponied up a decent amount of cash in January for players - the year has generally been good news followed by good news, mustn't grumble on that front. We know the money is there for big signings, but we're going to have the same problem you are, in that having big money is great, but the best players want Europe, and they want it now. So one thing we've seen is this "why aren't we signing Huntelaar or Sneijder?" thing all the time, when the big question is why they'd possibly want to sign for us *as things are at the moment*. What is really, really annoying is my original point about the creeping culture of unquestioned loyalty. What makes it more visible for us is that General Krulak, Lerner's right hand man, and a board member posts regularly on our four main forums - he has his own thread basically, where you can post questions to the board, and he tries to reply. At first it was great - he genuinely does help, and there have been several things suggested by fans which the club has done (this would never have happened under Ellis), but the downside of it is that with him as the board's 'cheerleader', people moaning about, say, our horrible new badge, get accused (by other fans, not by him) of "moaning for the sake of it" or being ungrateful. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we could have been luckier than we have been so far with Lerner, they have been great. That doesn't mean they're infallible, though (Doug Ellis was our saviour in 1968, and he really did save the club, and look how that turned out), and it doesn't mean we should never criticise when we think we need to - and that's pretty much the point I'm trying to get over re Ashley (or indeed any new owner).

The fact that Ashley is carrying out a thorough review of the club as a first step might lend some credence to the idea of Mort being brought in on a temporary basis, surely? He's a lawyer, isn't he? And a close confidant of Ashley, so therefore the perfect kind of person to conduct that review, I'd have thought. Doesn't mean he will be temporary, but suggests that it is a possibility.

Couldn't agree more with this, however, the buck always stops at someone. Now it is the owner. I don't know if Ashley will be your chairman or will appoint someone else, but Lerner is ours, so strictly speaking our chairman can't be sacked. He doesn't report to anyone but himself, has no shareholders to consider, and does what he wants. For us, Ellis did the same in practise, but even with his sycophant and relative-stuffed board, and other shareholders, there was at least *some* element of control. With people like Ashley or Lerner, I don't think we have any real reason to be overly suspicious of their motives. The worst they can realistically want to do is make money ... and to be honest, in our case, any Villa fan who doesn't think that the first thing Lerner thought when he started buying the club was "fucking hell, that's way undervalued" is naive. What is now apparent in our support, and I am intrigued by your situation, is that further down the line, we now have a situation where we're so fucking relieved to be rid of the old guard, and the new guard are looking excellent in (almost) all they have done, that there is a culture of "how dare you complain, how fucking ungrateful" which surpresses anyone criticising or questioning the new regime, however valid or constructive that criticism. Faith is excellent, blind faith is naive and dangerous, and that, for me, is why we need to maintain this healthy scepticism.

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.