brummie

Paul McGrath's autobiography.

Mate, just search the site for posts including "NE5" and "Mick" You'll squeeze at least an MPhil and possibly a phD out of that.

I get the SKy+ Multiroom thing. Not sure what it costs, £50 or £60-odd quid. But Multiroom is a MUST if you have kids. Little remote-thieving gets. Me too. Sky + is the one home gadget I honestly couldn't live without.

Yup, you can wear colours in there. Didn't go in this time but have done in the past and I've never seen any problems. Cheers mate!

Sorry for bumping this, but did any of you lot go to this match and sit in the "neutral end"? We're down there in a couple of weeks, and I'm toying with sitting in there, as i can't get tickets for the away end. How "neutral" is it? Does it mean supporters of *neither* club or supporters of both clubs? Is wearing colours in there a problem?

This has been done to death here god knows how many times. But I will pick on the small budget thing - one of MON's achievements was to go to Scotland and overturn the best part of a decade of total Rangers dominance with a budget which was pathetic in comparison. He also got the same team of pretty average players to the UEFA cup final as well. Not to mention winning things with Leicester on a shoestring budget. This is the first time he's ever had real money to spend.

Errm, right You're saying he can get you to compete with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U? Don't be daft. The only way any club is going to do that is via a combination of money and a very good manager. Well you now have one, and imo you don't have the other. Who's better in the PL? Outside of Wenger, Mourinho, SAF and Benitez? Jol and Hughes. Edit: And Allardyce (sp?) And if I was really sticking my neck out, I would rate O'Neill along side Jewell and Coleman. Mark Hughes better manager than MON? Now I've heard it all.

Errm, right You're saying he can get you to compete with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U? Don't be daft. The only way any club is going to do that is via a combination of money and a very good manager. Well you now have one, and imo you don't have the other. Who's better in the PL? Outside of Wenger, Mourinho, SAF and Benitez?

Errm, right You're saying he can get you to compete with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U? Don't be daft. The only way any club is going to do that is via a combination of money and a very good manager.

Errm, right

There's not a villa fan around who doesn't think MON is the right man for the job. We also said at the start of the season that top half would be a good finish with the inherited DOL squad. He'll start building his own team in the summer. The important thing is he gets the backing and the environment from the chairman to do it in. He'd never have got that from Ellis.

.. sorry, I forgot my point in the above post. 6 months ago we were as downhearted as you lot were, facing a lifetime of Ellis and no sign of improvement whilst other clubs overtook us. The situation we have now seemed a million miles away, and our situation was every bit as grim as yours is. You might find yourselves getting shot of FS sooner than you think, these things can just happen, and in your case probably will happen.

He's been true to his word so far - he's so low profile as to be almost hermit like. He doesn't even like sitting in the directors chairs in the exec section of the ground. Sits there on the steps with his kids. FWIW, he's been exactly the same at the Cleveland Browns, too. And more than that, so far he has delivered on absolutely everything he has promised. You really can't argue with that. He just gets on with it in the background. He's just bagged us a 25m, 5yr kit deal with Nike, whereas Ellis had us playing in cheap Hummel rags. Ellis shut down work on the new training ground. Lerner has got work going again, improved the plans, and we're on the way to getting quite possibly the best training facilities in the country. He's sitting on a family trust worth 6bn dollars, put his hand in his pocket to finance transfers and said quite clearly that he hasn't set a limit on how much he'll spend. Best of all, he understands the game, and has stressed over and over that he understands what football means to people's lives, having lived in England for years. You won't find him calling Villa a "franchise". For a man who has been at the club for only 6 months, that's not bad. Compare this to Doug "I'm Mr Aston Villa, me" Ellis, who took absolutely every opportunity to hog the limelight, and failed to deliver. If that's what these so-called suspicious foreign owners are line, they'll do for me.

We can't believe how lucky we are. So far, and it is early days, we appear to have bagged the absolute perfect owner. The man has just been magnificent.

So, Toon fans judge Newcastle as a massive club mainly on the fact that their attendances are so impressive, yet Schalke, average attendance 61,000, is in some way a tiny club? Kind of ironic. do birmingham fans judge other fans based on what one sole fan might happen to say (despite others in the thread saying otherwise), or is that just you? I'm judging what Parky said, and pointing out the contradiction in what he was saying. I didn't suggest that all toon fans would agree with him. that's better So, Toon fans judge Newcastle as a massive club mainly on the fact that their attendances are so impressive, yet Schalke, average attendance 61,000, is in some way a tiny club? Kind of ironic. do birmingham fans judge other fans based on what one sole fan might happen to say (despite others in the thread saying otherwise), or is that just you? I'm judging what Parky said, and pointing out the contradiction in what he was saying. I didn't suggest that all toon fans would agree with him. that's better I thought he was joking at first anyway, but then saw the reference to Spurs, thought of the general tension between you lot and them, and thought maybe he was actually serious.

So, Toon fans judge Newcastle as a massive club mainly on the fact that their attendances are so impressive, yet Schalke, average attendance 61,000, is in some way a tiny club? Kind of ironic. do birmingham fans judge other fans based on what one sole fan might happen to say (despite others in the thread saying otherwise), or is that just you? I'm judging what Parky said, and pointing out the contradiction in what he was saying. I didn't suggest that all toon fans would agree with him.

So, Toon fans judge Newcastle as a massive club mainly on the fact that their attendances are so impressive, yet Schalke, average attendance 61,000, is in some way a tiny club? Kind of ironic.

Explains it all! Does start of the century or 30 years ago really make any difference? It is all history and over and done with. Except for stuff won in 1981 and 1982 which remains as relevant today as it ever was, of course.

Arsene Wenger - "I didn't see it"

Shevchenko isn't going to move to Newcastle. I don't mean the club, I mean the town. He isn't going to leave London unless it is to move back to Milan or somewhere similar. And as for Dyer being of a similar value to Shevchenko (who remains an excellent player, just one who can't adapt to the British game), I've just laughed so hard, I spat one of my kidneys out.

It gets worse. Having said he wants to player players in their best position, and mentioning that this means he wants to play Barry in midfield, not LB, he then plays Phil Neville there, where he never usually plays, then brings Barry on, then takes Neville off and moves Barry to LB. He does not know what he is doing.

Nor me. He is at best an average, bog standard player. For a big bloke, he is poor in the air, and unable to get any height without climbing all over people. If he is the best we can do, then English football is fucked. Oh, look, here comes Stewart Downing. What a fucking joke.

He's an idiot, wasting away his career. See also Wayne Bridge.

Clyde Tildesley and his absolutely endless mentions of "that night in Barcelona" when commentating on Man United in the CL.

How do Aston Villa live beyond their means? Last year was the first in ages we made a loss, and since then we've only had one transfer window in which Lerner could spend money, and we only spent 8m on Young and 1 on Maloney. Hardly spending to excess. I don't doubt it will happen in the future, in fact i hope it does, but to suggest it has already happened is a bit amiss, tbh. In fact, Villa live less "beyond their means" than Newcastle do, judging by the size of your debt. I'd also say that, yes, Portsmouth have spent more than they earn, Chelsea are absolutely in a world of their own.