brummie

I'm not one for this ITK shite, but apparently - and this is from a source who pops up now and then on Villa sites and posts 'ITK' that turns out to be true with an impressive regularity - Villa and West Ham have both agreed terms with Chelsea for SWP, and it is up to him where he goes. The interesting factor is that Villa are apparently offering 45K a week, and West Ham are offering a rather desperate 75k, so it is going to be that kind of decision. Still, it worked with Ashley Young. Obviously, Spurs are also linked with him late on, as it is THE LAW that 95% of players thought to be close to joining Villa, Newcastle or Everton MUST be also linked with Spurs

I can not believe anyone would seriously think that 1. Marquez is crap, and 2. Wouldn't be an excellent signing for any second tranche PL team. He's won pretty much everything going, he looked one of the best players at the last world cup, he'd be brilliant in this league. I know football is all about opinions, but in mine, anyone who thinks he is "crap" is mad.

Shouldn't think so. We've suffered enough long-ball dross already. You're barmy if you think he's going to play the same style at Newcastle as he did at Bolton - you cut your cloth according to your resources. Similar to when Sir Graham Taylor took over at Villa - ooh, he'll have them hoofing it up the park every ten minutes, just like he did at Watford. Except he didn't. I hope he doesn't, as the football Bolton played against last season us was the worst I remember seeing in years. I understand why he had them playing it though. And it worked, as you won. I just don't think he'll need to play that kind of game any more, and won't do so.

Marseille was an escape from the dross served up at the Reebok every week. Please try to keep up. You were dross in Marseille IIRC. Who did they blame for that? *cheeky whistling emoticon* That's the thing, I don't remember many blaming him at the time but having had a quick look at their board they blame him for everything! Very bitter indeed. Yep, that's the nature of football fans, really, we'll be totally rational people in real (non football) life (well, most of us) but when it comes to football we'll argue whatever suits our agenda, whatever the weight of evidence against it. Like West Ham fans who swear they've done nothing wrong in the Tevez saga, or Chelsea fans who reckon they were the biggest club in London pre the mid 90s

Marseille was an escape from the dross served up at the Reebok every week. Please try to keep up. You were dross in Marseille IIRC. Who did they blame for that? *cheeky whistling emoticon*

I don't really understand the Setanta site, the pricing part is very vague. If it is 9.99 a month for the whole 9 channel deal, how much is it just for the channel that shows the football, or do you also have to have all the other shite? Either I'm small of brain (entirely plausible) or it isn't massively clear.

Indeed. He had a bad time last season, but seemed to carry the can for their whole team being awful. Anyway, this is the same fucked up club which played Bobby Zamora in preference to Tevez for large chunks of the season, and thought Mascherano wasn't up to snuff, so I really wouldn't read too much into that.

God knows why, considering last season every match we were in on telly was dire (Everton at home excepted).

Strange figures, total (Setanta and Sky) number of appearances in this first list of fixtures: Manchester United 9 Liverpool 9 Aston Villa 8 Newcastle United 8 Sunderland 7 Tottenham Hotspur 6 Manchester City 6 Chelsea 6 Portsmouth 6 Arsenal 5 West Ham United 5 Everton 4 Fulham 4 Blackburn Rovers 4 Middlesbrough 3 Reading 3 Bolton Wanderers 3 Derby County 3 Birmingham City 3 Wigan Athletic 2 Interesting to see Arsenal with so few games, considering they're the team the neutrals apparently loved watching last year. Also suprising = Chelsea with only 6.

That's quite possibly ruled me out of going to that one. I absolutely fucking HATE 5.15 kick offs.

Normally, I'd say it is a great shame to see a club in this kind of trouble, but I can not find it within me to feel any sympathy for these wankers. Having seen them kick off at VP on a number of occasions, and having seen them throwing bottles at families and laying into blokes with their kids at the 96 LC final, I personally shall manage to hold back the tears if they disappear and never come back.

Have you never noticed how many pyjamas are stripey, Vic? Thought not.

The villa made a new emblem, and they made a contract with nike.. thier shirt looks better... but look, the shirt is the same.. but the style of hummel changed to the style of nike.. It is nothing like the Hummel one, which has chevrons and a blue panel down the side on it for a start.

Not the away kit, which is white with pinstripes (EC winning shirt style), and not the training top either - new Nike kit hasn't been released, old deal expired, so Nike have knocked something up to parade players in. Apparently, it is a Racing Club Lens away shirt plus badge and sponsor logo slapped on it.

I likes, I likes. Proper shade of claret? Check. Claret body, blue sleeves? Check Nike instead of Hummel? Check

I got Setanta sports and i must admit ive been pretty impressed. Not sure what the commentary is gonna be like but lets face it, it cant get much worse than andy f****** gray I think Andy Gray is brilliant Andy Gray was my boyhood hero (well, behind Brian Little). I can't belive what a f****** c*** he's turned into now, though. See also David Platt. c***. Why's he a cunt? Which one of the cunts do you mean? Andy Gray or David Platt? Andy Gray is the embodiment of Sky hype and the belief that the only thing that matters in football these days are the "big four". I could go on on this point ad infinitum, but I'll stop. He also treated my club and the greatest manager we ever had with contempt. I for one was glad when we sold him to Wolves, and then conveniently went on to win the League very soon after, replacing him with a journeyman striker we bought from you lot. David Platt is the worst co-commentator in the world, with ne'er a good word to say about the club who plucked him from Crewe and in three years had him as one of England's best players at the World Cup. AND he's such an ugly cunt as well, he has one of those "suffered a severe head injury" faces. Cunt.

Oh and as mentioned above, Steven Taylor taking a bullet in the stomach in the same game, absolute quality You can't beat it when two really mediocre teams meet in a pointless match like that and fantastically surreal things start happening. Brilliant.

I got Setanta sports and i must admit ive been pretty impressed. Not sure what the commentary is gonna be like but lets face it, it cant get much worse than andy f****** gray I think Andy Gray is brilliant Andy Gray was my boyhood hero (well, behind Brian Little). I can't belive what a fucking cunt he's turned into now, though. See also David Platt. Cunt.

This. Funniest thing I ever saw, anyway. http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/04/04/brawl_wideweb__430x328,1.jpg

Good one for me to miss Right. Outside, NOW, bitch

Sounds good Nah, sounds bad to me, I was looking forward to a lunchtime session THEN the match, not the other way around. Still, better than not starting till the Sunday or the Monday.

I've heard the first live game is Villa v Liverpool at 12.45 on the opening day.

Not being a good penalty taker won't be a problem, we've got Gareth Barry to handle those. Seems a slightly harsh criticism of him, to be honest. Put it this way - he's replacing Gavin McCann. If anyone can tell me that doesn't represent siginificant progress, I'll eat my hat. And yours. Ha ha my £50 get safer by the week. No chance. Put a few quid aside every week then you won't feel the pain so much.

What, like Joey Barton? Another temperamental but promising midfielder with a dodgy rep? Fact is that this summer there were three midfielders moving around at (very roughly) the same price - Barton, Parker and NRC. I said a while back I'd have been happy with Barton or NRC, they're both good players. Reo-Coker was playing at an absolute basket case of a club last year, so it is very hard to judge him on that. He got a lot of stick from their fans, but then again, to be honest, a five minute glance at kumb will tell you all you need to know about West Ham fans. These are the same fans who told us that the reason Ashley Young chose Villa over West Ham (despite them apparently offering him something like 10k a week more) was that he had a major problem with the dressing room politics there, and that the main problem was NRC in particular. Something which clearly wasn't borne out during the U21 championship when you could tell they were obviously close (post match interviews, body language on the pitch etc) Anyway, I'm just glad we've signed him. Apparently, SWP is currently choosing between us and them, too, so hopefully he'll come down on the side of the righteous as well. I really can't stand West Ham. And yes, the fee is a little on the high side, but what's the point in having these billionaire owners if you don't get them to push the boat out every now and then? You are giving NRC far too much credit to mention him in the same sentence as Barton IMHO, and i said the same before any of the 3 moved clubs, and nothing has changed. He has a big chip on his shoulder ATM, and even when thats gone the talent is only worth about half of the money Villa have paid. I still think he's a good player in there, but he's a long way off Barton's standard, and right now out of the 3 clubs trading, NUFC got the best deal, and i honestly think WHU came in second by a country mile getting Parker in and NRC out for daft money. Can't agree, I'd have been much more worried if we'd bought Parker. As for Barton ... as I said, I think he's a good player, but perhaps Dr Spectrum would shed some light on what he was like last season (as we're talking about NRC having a poor season last year).

You're right about lacking depth, but to say the defence is fragile is wrong. Only 5 teams conceded fewer goals than us last season - hardly that fragile, and if we can get a right back in, we're sorted. Our problem was at the other end of the pitch.