brummie

If Gerrard gets Klopp's job from here, then he will have done a pretty extraordinary job here, so I'll accept that. Think of some of the utter, utter gash that has managed us and you the last decade or more. Those are the facts we're having to deal with. Some of our most recent managers have been Tim Sherwood, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert and Steve Bruce. Fuck me. All of those should have felt lucky to get a job in an Amazon warehouse after their showings with us, let alone Liverpool.

Gerrard isn't getting things sorted with us through being motivational. We are clearly 10 times as well organised under him than under Dean Smith, way more organised. Not only that, he understands the concept of game managements and using subs to change the game. We have way more defined shape, a way of playing, and he has turned Marvelous Nakamba into a really decent footballer, and all in a few weeks. I was decidedly not a fan of his appointment, but his backroom staff (Beale especially) clearly know what they are doing, and he has retained the members of our staff who knew what they were doing. He's really impressed me so far. He's also clearly used to winning and has a winning mentality. Five defeats on the bounce to three wins and a creditable defeat to Man City is impressive, but it is down to far more than new manager bounce.

Even if Konsa had touched that, there's clearly a Leicester player on the far post playing him well onside.

That part of Gateshead has the largest orthodox Jewish population in the UK outside London, it's so weird, so totally random. It was 1988-89 I lived there, and believe me, it was absolutely rough as nails. Lived in an end terrace on Osbourne Terrace and had kids throwing bricks trying to piut through the side window on the second floor. Mate had a decent Fiesta XR2 - first day we were there, neighbours knocked on door and advised us to not leave it there as there was no chance it would still be there in the morning. Walking down that main road towards the station one time, can't remember what it's called, there were a load of high rise flats which aren't there any more (we went back there 10 years ago), some bloke comes running out of the grounds carrying a big telly, vaults the wall without dropping the telly, then turns around and just throws it at a copper chasing him. At 9am. We used to drink at the Five Wand Mill, proper locals boozer. We were probably the only students in a 3 mile radius. We'd enter the pub quiz and win it every week to the point that the one night, the gaffer advised us to leave as the locals were getting fucked off with us (they'd started shouting stuff about 'the little fucking professors') It was rough as fuck but I wouldn't change it for anything, happy times.

Loved. If he had added consistency, he'd have been one of the best strikers in the world (and therefore prob wouldn't have played for us). He's always going on about how we remain his team since he left, so he's remained massively popular. Also scored in that 5-1 demolition of Birmingham and celebrated by picking up that ball boy in front of the Holte End. Good times.

Oh, I didn't even know Agbonlahor was involved in this, I didn't look that back in the thread. I dislike that cunt intensely. Makes himself out as Mr Aston Villa, yet spent years here masquerading as a 2 goal a season striker, and the absolute poster boy of the lack of any form of standards that saw us achieve a comedy relegation in 2015. He's an absolute fucking bell end and the vast majority of sentient Villa fans would agree with that.

Birmingham is a great city. Great pubs, world class music venues, excellent restaurants, loads to do. Yes, it has all the benefits of a big city but that comes with all the down sides too. As for that documentary, it's like judging Newcastle on some rough-arse boozer in Byker* * I haven't lived in Newcastle since 1990, so apologies if Byker is now like Islington. I was going to refer to Bensham, where I lived in 1989 for a year - one of the most terrifying years of my life - but obviously, someone would raise the obvious contradiction that it's in Gateshead, not Newcastle.

Gerrard doing alright with us thus far, I'll admit (as a confirmed sceptic of the appointment). He clearly has us playing with way more organisation and direction than we have had so far this season. We've had plenty of flair in patches but no really shape or form. He has also managed to get Marvellous Nakamba (who is really not marvellous at all normally) to look like Makelele for two games running. So much of football is about confidence and organisation.

These "Can i have your shirt please" people are worse than cancer. Face cancer.

Paul Lambert brought a 49 year old Grant Holt in to play for us for a season. When he joined, Lambert said to the press "He's a real man". We all looked at each other quizzically, with a sense of "this guy is fucking nuts".

Norwich are unstoppably going down, but Dean Smith will bring them straight back up again, no bother.

You lot go on about Bruce and how awful he was here, and how depressing the whole episode was. We had him in the Championship, which meant he used to roll out - three times a week - his catchphrase, "That's the Championship" (message being: I know the Championship). Shit. Just coughed up some sick thinking about it.

I am already sick of it. It was like this with Houllier - the love in - only at least with him there was no prospect of him going there as he'd already been there. I can come to terms with the appointment, I suppose, but it is a bit deflating. What is notable is that you and us, both clubs with plenty of money to spend, wound up looking at the same underwhelming cast of candidates. If it were just us, I'd worry about lack of ambition, but it wasn't. I dunno. I guess if he gets in with a shout of the Liverpool job any time soon he'll have done very well here. Unless it were some sort of absurd OGS style fuckupathon.

BTW. If I were a betting man - which I am - I am hearing enough about Graham Potter to make me think it is worth a few quid. Which I have done. That’s a “think this may happen” not a “want this to happen” thing. Don’t bet your mortgage on it, but worth beer money.

I'd bet everything I own they have someone ready. Craig Shakespeare, the assistant, has also gone today. If there was nobody lined up, he'd be into the caretaker role. All this is very sad. At the end of the day, he joined us 18th or something in the Championship, won 10 in a row, got us promoted, got us to the LC final, kept us up, got us into a decent mid table slot, is a Villa fan through and through (lost his Dad this year, who was a steward at the club for years). I can't ever remember thinking that a sacking was the right thing to do, but also feeling so sick about it. Brian Little is the only possible comparison for me. I do think, though, that with big money and investment as we have had, comes bigger expectations, and although he effectively played a bit part in saving the club (that's why Villa fans worshipped Graham Taylor. Not because he got us second in the first division, because he literally saved the club), it has been really clear that he is not capable of taking us further at the current time. Compared to that shallow fuck Bruce, it was night and day.

Said he thought the time was right for him to move in a management role somewhere and that if he stayed on, he'd be misleading the club in terms of what he wanted to be doing. I'll be totally honest, before Terry joined us as a player, I hated him, like all non Chelsea fans do. For obvious reasons. But in the time he spent playing with us in the Championship, he was absolutely magnificent - yes, of course he was the best centre half in the league, but he was a leader, and his attitude was absolutely spot on, when a lot of players in his position would have just come for a final pay cheque. You saw from his attitude alone why he had had such an incredible career as a player. He will always be about Chelsea, but he absolutely gave the club nothing but respect, and totally won over a cynical fan base. When he then went into a coaching role, he got the defence playing extremely well, and was clearly a belts-and-braces coach - ie, totally in. No half measures. I am aware of all the arguments to the contrary in terms of his character and the shagging and racism stuff but he showed in a single year playing for us, the difference between the top clubs and the way their players are, and the rest of us.

Rodgers is a good manager, but i can't ever quite get over the fact that he got comprehensively bamboozled by 'Tactics' Tim Sherwood when we beat them in the FAC semi final.

That's alright man, I hate my mother in law but I still love the Mrs.

Turned out it was like 1981/82 for us given who came next.

definitely. The defence has gone to total shit.

We were dog shit all season, arse end of the table. Then he got ill, Gary Macallister took over and we finished ninth. The football under houllier was getting better. It was his constant talking about Liverpool (including tapping the This is Anfield thing on the tunnel when we played there), that was the problem. Nauseating.

There’s zero chance of Nuno. too much local complication. I actually think Terry would be more likely than Gerrard. I think I’d prefer Terry. Two reasons. Firstly, I still get sleepless nights over the last time we appointed a British manager with the “Did really well at Rangers” justification. Secondly, I’ve also only just got over the horrific Liverpool love-fest we had with Houllier. It would be way worse with gerrard.

probably not, on balance.

I agree with that. Won ten games on the bounce after we de-Bruced, got into the play offs, won, kept us up, consolidated, but looks like not the man to take the next step. Am sure he'll get a decent job elsewhere without too much trouble I am just glad, given his long links with the club, it didn't reach cabbage-throwing abuse levels.

Our head of recruitment / DoF is Danish. Could be some truth in it.