brummie

It does reflect a bit poorly on the bloke, and I absolutely see the situation from Dr Spectrum's position - he's got a bit of a nerve to expect anything, given the circumstances of his departure. Excellent player in need of a manager who'll give him a good slap around the gregory peck and get him in line.

Rod Little is a dreadful, dreadful twat, and best ignored.

Nope. Heard that there is another team that are doing this - Wigan selling STs at £13 a game was it? Thats for all the shite seats too - The ones in Wigan. *slaps thigh* theirs are 250 quid a season, and that's to watch a team which has both Emile Heskey and Titus Bramble in it. Actually, that sounds highly entertaining.

I sit in the expensive seats in the Trinity Road. I want them all segregated and a long way from me

Demolished within 2 years, apparently, but even so, it is an interesting move. I think we sold out 7 games last year, and although season ticket sales are apparently up 350 percent, which will help, it is still interesting to see the board do something which is almost visionary in approach. Even if it is a short term gesture, I wonder what impact it will have. I'm almost certain it will practically be a sanctioned standing area.

I think it is fair, they certainly are shite seats. For a few games last year against clubs who bring a taxi load (Blackburn, Bolton, Boro, Fulham etc), those seats were punted to our fans at 15 quid, and we just gave the away fans the overflow part in the lower Witton, and they were very popular tickets. 200 quid a season means a touch more than 10 pounds a match, which is awesome value. 50 quid for kids is a near negligible amount per match, which says something about trying to get future generations hooked (something which is difficult these days given prices)

From next season, Villa have moved the away fans from their usual spot behind the goal in the lower north stand (those of you who have been to games as an away fan at VP will know, these are fucking awful seats, next to no leg room and a poor view of the pitch) to the corner section, upper and lower, of the Witton Lane stand, so Villa fans will be behind that goal next year. What is interesting though, is that the club are announcing on Monday that they are punting season tickets in that section at 200 quid for adults, and *50* quid for kids. Apart from the fact that these will be easily the cheapest STs in the PL, this raises an interesting thought - firstly, the availability of exceptionally cheap season tickets concentrated in one part of the ground might lead to that part of the ground becoming more edgy / atmospheric. Secondly, is this the first indication of a premier club taking a German style approach of flogging tickets cheap as chips? The pile them high, flog them cheap approach, if you like? Thirdly, given that those seats are so fucking uncomfortable, and that pretty much the only way to put up with being there is to stand (as done by almost every set of away fans there last year), and given that the stewards take a pretty lax approach to standing in any case, is this effectively a tacit approval by the club of standing from home fans in an area where they specifically expect it (although the upper Holte mostly stands anyway), with prices pitched appropriately? Apols for the non Toon content, but I thought it was interesting. Oh, and don't bother with the "maybe you'll fill the ground every game then" comments, either, just in case you were thinking along such lines.

This. When Roman first went to Chelsea, they did similar to us, signed some of the best players from outside the big clubs (Duff, Bridge, Geremi, Johnson, etc). It wasn't until they signed Crespo & Makelele though that people realised something huge was happening there. That's what we need. Just one world-class flair player (we need creativity anyway), that shows we're serious about winning things. Otherwise, Allardyce might as well have stayed at Bolton and continued what he was doing there. People forget that Chelsea's building program was under way ages before RA arrived on the scene, even they did things gradually.

Not wanting to be patronising here Brummie, but he would be an ideal player for Villa because his pace and running could drastically change your side offensively which I feel is where your major problems lie, until you can go out and get a much better all-rounder for the long-term. We already have a potent attack, what we now need is a Bellamy in midfield, someone who will drastically change how we operate in there so the already excellent forwards can really flourish. Oh, I agree with you in terms of his game, he is without doubt what we are missing. I worry about his temperament, though, and whether he'd unsettle what is a pretty settled dressing room. How much did he go to them from Blackburn for? 6 million? That's a pretty spectacular price hike in 12 months.

Bellamy is being punted around at 12m, apparently, which strikes me as a tad over the top. I really don't know what to make of the bloke. We've been linked with him and opinion is divided over him, as I guess it would be at pretty much any club he was linked with.

Spot on, Keefaz. If we finish 9th next season, and atleast maybe pushed for a European place, i'll be chuffed. Would be interesting to hear his thoughts - but i doubt Brummie is too displeased with Villa's final position, in spite of the potential they showed at the start of the season. Considering that they were a team that would inevitably have gone down sooner or later. I've mentioned it before, but if you'd asked our fans at the start of last season what we'd have been happy with, we'd have said mid table. The club was so incredibly fucked up after years of neglect, and we had no chance to move in the summer transfer market other than Petrov (who Lerner paid for before he'd even completed his takeover). We had a fantastic start, a dreadful middle, and a really brilliant close to the season. Optimism is sky high now, we're apparently going from our worst season ticket sales in years over last summer to the best in years this summer (up 350% compared to the same time last year, apparently). If we can continue improving, I'll be happy. A little optimism changes an awful lot and builds momentum. The really fantastic thing is that the club over the last year has gradually been changed from top to bottom, out of all recognition. We were - and to some extent, so were you - a frustrating basket case which needed picking up and given a hard fucking shake, everything was wrong, from the marketing dept stuck in the 1970s, to the small-time corner shop thinking of the board, the lack of ambition, the wasted potential. I'd say you've got problems of your own, different problems to ours possibly, but things that need sorting. A new manager and a new owner are going to need time to sort them out, so demanding top 6 finishes in year one is short termist and mental. You can do it one of two ways when you come into big money. The West Ham way, which is reckless, risky as fuck and at times bordering on desperation. Or you can use the money sensibly, change the club around at every level and look to evolve gradually. I'd much rather this and build for *consistent* ongoing success rather than spaff 50m pounds in one summer in a desperate gamble at instant success. Villa and Newcastle both have managers with strong personalities, characters, who are only going to get real success if they shape the club in their own image, they're the kinds of manager who'll want to build their own dynasties. The sensible thing to do is back them with the money, and let them get involved at every level. I know MON has his finger in absolutely everything at the club - right down to stuff like shirt design - and I strongly suspect you'll get the best out of SA if you let him do the same, he's that kind of manager too. All you can do is back him and give him time, it won't happen overnight. Seriously, all rivalries apart, football in this country needs clubs like Newcastle, Villa, Spurs and Everton to close the gap. The first three have got a chance now, but whilst one of them is obv much closer, none of them will do it overnight.

Let's hope they don't show FA Cup highlights on Turkish telly, eh? ;-)

Fulham are buying their kit through Nike's third party supplier. That is how Walsall wear Nike gear too. The only clubs supplied directly by Nike are Man U, Arsenal and Villa. I feel duty bound to point that out. Apparently at the last PL chairmen's meeting, much respect was accorded our people for getting Nike to go for a club which had just finished 11th in the table.

Firstly, he's obviously not realistically available. Other than that, he is wasted at full back, he's far better left side of midfield. Actually, he's been excellent centre midfield towards the end of the season. And 5m? I think not.

PS: a decent game against a totally-not-arsed Brazil XI and against a bunch of Baltic no-marks does not equate to a man who can do it against the big teams.

It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect someone who is getting paid 25m pounds a year to actually turn up and do his job, though, does it? Personally, i think he shouldn't be picked. He basically threw away any football credibility he had left when he agreed to go and play in a pub league because his wife likes it over there, and he gets to hang out with Tom Cruise. A serious case of getting his priorities fucked up. And as for all those people saying what a superhuman colossus he is for bouncing back ... he got dropped, he found some form, he got recalled. Big deal. He's hardly beaten cancer or something.

Any minute now, someone will gripe about picking up free transfers now there's plenty of money to spend. He'd be an excellent signing.

I doubt very much if the bulk of footballers money is paid PAYE, tbh. Footballers may be dim, but they tend to have decent accountants these days.

Fucking hell, I can't believe he even opens those shite FW! FW! FW! emails, let alone prints them off to inspire people.

God, what a s**** new badge that is. *hollow, nervous laugh* Yours is worse Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooosssshhhhhhhhhhhh. You too, alexharrisonnufc

God, what a shite new badge that is. *hollow, nervous laugh*

Young's only problem is that he is sometimes too easily muscled off the ball, but he is a great prospect. He looked fantastic for the U21s the other night. I think Ridgewell will be sold, probably to Derby, tbh, but you are right about the rest. I'm excited about Gardner too. I like the fact that him, Moore, Agbonlahor and Osbourne are all local lads, too. We've got another Brummie born lad who has just signed a contract, who is 15 (or just turned 16) and a regular in the reserves, called Nathan Delfouneso, who is supposedly more promising than any of the current crop at his age. I reckon he'll get a game next season. Having loads of money is great, but I'd much rather invest plenty of it in the youth academy rather than turn into some pathetically desperate basket case of a club like West Ham are becoming.

Up front, in the middle, possibly playing off Carew, but I'd like to see his development slowed down a touch, he played too many games last season tbh. He broke all our goalscoring records as a youth, and scored over 50 goals in a single season, he has got real promise, but he needs to be handled carefully. His goal against Sheffield United was absolutely superb, if you can find it on a well known video site somewhere.

Howd'you work that out? He's played a hell of a lot more first team games than any of that lot! Except none of them were in the Premier League. He has a scoring record of 1 in (roughly) 3.5 in the lower leagues. Agbonlahor has played almost every match this season having only made a few sub appearances prior to that. He has scored 10 goals in 40 games, despite being played out of position wide right for 4/5ths of the season, a scoring rate which is only slightly worse than Nugent's lower league rate. For all we know, Nugent may turn out to be a modern day (yet less prolific) Guy Wittingham.

That's funny, but I was just thinking the same thing. If McClown got the bullet, who would the FA go for? SA and MON are either just appointed (SA) or barely started and already overlooked anyway (MON). They ignored Hiddink, who is doing well with Russia. They pissed Scolari off. We'd probably end up with Stuart Pearce, god forbid.