brummie

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.

i think its a villa top, wank colour scheme like west ham. Its ok for a villa top, but its still a villa top. Honestly, shurrup.

Is the subtext of the original post actually "Fuck! Look at how little we've spent compared to everyone else! We've got a really rich owner, so why aren't we spending loads more??"? I ask because that is the way Villa fans are talking at the moment. Although we've let a load of players go, too.

4m on Steven Davis is potentially money well spent. I've got a feeling that might come back to haunt us.

Reading about that on Wiki the other day. Weird. Scored a belting goal to win the 1977 LC final on the second replay. Good player, he was. The side Saunders built in 1977 was better than the side which won the league 3 years later, but I digress ... .. although, having apologised for digressing, I'll point out that we won the league using just 14 players. That's another of my favourite football facts. Anyway, sorry, as you were ...

Another surreal event, involving one of my favourite players, although I wasn't there, was Chris Nichol (a defender) scoring all four goals in a 2-2 draw between Villa and Leicester.

Incidentally, our new kit is getting its official launch event on Tuesday at .....Harvey Nicholls'. Now I know football truly has deserted the working classes.

Proper pictures of the one we've all been waiting for. Well, down here, anyway. I like it, nice, simple, colours correct (you're lucky it is impossibly to get black and white wrong), and I like it in long sleeves. Even the execrable badge looks OK. Due to change again next year, as we change sponsor from the shitty 32 Red. Rumour has it the next sponsor will be Cadburys (consider it an act of local pride). I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere. http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/9107/villaea5.jpg http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/6029/villa2zq5.jpg

We've sold 22,000 compared to 11,000 at the same time last year, apparently. That 19k figure is the figure we squeaked up to with half season ticket offers etc. Going through the prime ST buying months last summer with Ellis, O'Dreary and no money was absolutely crippling to us.

Also that list was made just before he made $2 billion from the floatation of Sports World, which doubled his personal fortune to $4 billion. Which would put him up to number 214 (of course some other billionaires may have increased there fortunes significantly that year as well..). However, we're owned by the Lerner family trust, which manages the wealth of Randy Lerner, his sister and his mother, who all are individually worth pretty much the same amount, so you can triple that figure and ya booh sucks. That means we can fail to sign players who cost at least double the players who can fail to sign. Yay! Oh ....

His assets are 200 BILLION? I think that's somewhat exaggerated. Britain's richest 1000 people together have assets worth 250bn, according to Forbes.

You neglected to mention Villa in your list of recently taken over clubs. We've spent fuck all either, 2.5m net or something I think. Mind you, we're all getting jittery as well.

No he hasn't, the revenue and customs are doing their best to fuck him up. Good.

I may be wrong, but i was under the impression he was pretty average last season, but that he is now seen as some kind of junior Maldini for having hobbled through that U21 match. As I said, I may be wrong. I think he's alright, mind. Although every time i look at him I think of that hilarious "OMG! I'VE JUS BIN SHOT!!!!" thing he did against us.

Just as well Doug Ellis was never particularly litigious. I'd be amazed if any club chairman anywhere, including the fragrant Mr Shepherd, got the kind of comments he got on some of our boards.

I think the big four and spurs will take the top 5 places. I don't hate Spurs like most Newcastle fans seem to (although I do loathe their undeserved media adoration), so can say without any real prejudice that they are a good year *at least* ahead of Newcastle and Villa. But after that, Villa, Newcastle, Everton and possibly Portsmouth are going to be fighting for the following places, and could finish in any order. Of those four, Everton are the best equipped to finish top of the group. I'd throw Citeh in there, but I think they're a bit too fucked to be competing at that level next season. Whatever happens mate the £50 is coming this way. In your dreams! You've only slightly more chance of finishing above us than you have Arsenal. Seriously, a quid a week between now and end of season will almost cover it for you. Get squirelling away

I think the big four and spurs will take the top 5 places. I don't hate Spurs like most Newcastle fans seem to (although I do loathe their undeserved media adoration), so can say without any real prejudice that they are a good year *at least* ahead of Newcastle and Villa. But after that, Villa, Newcastle, Everton and possibly Portsmouth are going to be fighting for the following places, and could finish in any order. Of those four, Everton are the best equipped to finish top of the group. I'd throw Citeh in there, but I think they're a bit too fucked to be competing at that level next season.

Especially unfair if you signed that plank Heinze, yes.

He's playing for 4th at a struggle. If we signed him, Heinze an equally good RB & Deco then i reckon we've got just a good a shout as Arsenal at 4th spot. Nah, they've got a manager who has been in the job for a decade and knows the club inside out. You've got one who has just arrived and has a shit load of work to do before you can think about getting 4th - unfair expectations on SA imho.

We (ie Villa) appear to have struck it lucky. 8 times in the first batch, but most impressively, 5 of our first 6 away games are on live. Could it be better than that (for me, I mean, obviously)?

I forgot to add that if the player in question is currently playing for a London club (or, under some fucked up vision of a Greater Greater London anywhere within an hour's drive, Reading, for example), then he gets linked to Spurs and Spurs fans speak at length of how the player "wants to stay in London", that, of course, being the driving factor in how footballers make these decisions.

I love all this shit. I really can't wait for next season. Allardyce at Newcastle, Sven at Citeh, Villa sweeping all before them, Birmingham City getting relegated before Christmas, can't wait!