brummie

I hate them all, but in particular Liverpool and Man United, because of the 1970s and 80s, basically.

Did he bring that prick Clemence to you?

Oh the glory days of the big diagonal cross field punt from the keeper for Elmo to head / chest forward and then lash it out of play the other side of the pitch in the hope that at some point in time, someone will get on the end of one of them.

I see Ahmed El Mohammedy has been released by us *knowing look*

Heaton is never going to get in ahead of Martinez (who is brilliant) and although I think he's too good to sit on anyone's bench, he's got more chance of actual games with Man United and their much more demanding season than he has here, so I don't blame him. Was really unlucky here. I believe he did his ACL in the same match against Burnley in which Wesley did his. Not a great day for injuries.

BT Sport ATM showing FA Youth Cup final. Villa kids currently ripping Liverpool's a new arsehole.

Benteke was absolutely brilliant with us, frequently 'unplayable'. Since then he's been 'unplayable' in a different sense of the word.

Sky's response to the ESL proposals was laughable - as if they're not a big part of the problem themselves.

"When you're playing against these big teams.." That used to fuck me right off when he said it here. It's so weak minded and surrenderist.

Absolutely abysmal after a few good performances. You won't find a single Villa fan who wants to keep him. I'd have sent him back already TBH.

To show how these things ('big 4/5/6') are a 'moment in time' thing, look at the member list of that G-14 European superclubs thing which they introduced at the turn of the century. Doesn't include Man City or Chelsea or Spurs. Originally didn't include Arsenal. Includes Ajax, PSV, Marseille, Porto. Oh, and included the modern day goliath that is Bayer Leverkusen.

Seems like holding a gun to someone's head but then opting not to blow their brains out is 'saving them'.

I thought exactly the same. 'Stakeholders'. That just says it all.

Of course not. We've just stood up for the existing band of gutless, money obsessed weasels against another band of even more gutless, money obsessed weasels. End result is better than it might have been, but we're still in the kingdom of the gutless, money obsessed weasels.

Yes. 1. Win your league to enter it. 2. Commentary from away ties to be done over landline phone, barely audible. 3. Sub-teletext style team line ups which align diagonally top left to bottom right pre match. 4. Ties in countries formerly behind iron curtain to be played in full 100,000 stadiums where 90% of the crowd are in military grey. 5. Occasional match in black and white. 6. 50% of ties to have no television coverage at all, all fan access to events to be limited to local regional newspaper sport pages almost 24 hours later. 7. All English teams playing in it to have at least 4 Scottish players in team. 8. Prior to away match in Europe, obligatory tabloid photo stories featuring players from English club dressed up as questionable, often inaccurate national stereotype of country visited (ie Bryan Robson and Norman Whiteside dressed in ponchos and sombreros prior to away game in Bilbao) 9. Immediate 300% increase in outbreaks of police violence at away games (some countries clearly never moved away from this in the first place) 10. Barry Davies. There you go, fixed.

Woah! Are you suggesting Sugar doesn't really like football?

The Spurs one is the best one. Levy genuinely said this: "“We regret the anxiety and upset caused by the ESL proposal. We felt it was important that our club participated in the development of a possible new structure that sought to better ensure financial fair play and financial sustainability whilst delivering significantly increased support for the wider football pyramid." That conceit alone tells me that this can not end here.

I am starting to think this Super League might not happen.

Indeed. Spurs, 60 years with no domestic title, and they've only ever won it twice.

When they let you into the ground again, remember: cabbage. It worked for us.

That's the one. Absolute fucking chancer. The only 'billionaire' to run a global conglomerate with no web presence or evidence of people working there.

Thanks mate. Yeah, we weren't laughing quite so much 2016-19 in the Championship. It'll happen for you, he will fuck off eventually. Look how close to the edge we got, almost into administration, saved with days to go. It was looking pretty grim then, so can change quickly too.

Since 2010, we've had 6 years of clinging on, three years not even in the top flight, an one year in which we stayed up on the last day. Honestly, I will take finishing mid table and not feeling unhappy constantly I am very optimistic though - we have really sensible, minted owners, who are running us like a proper club, finally. Our previous owner has been in prison in China, lest we forget, that's how much of a chancer he was. Decent squad forming, and hooking the better players into longer deals, it is just so, so nice to have pleasantness abound. For a bit.

Tbh we've looked exactly like that for weeks now, so it was a sensible concern!

I doubt that very much tbh. We're more concerned about finally showing a bit of form again. Or at least the ability to grind out a result. Was starting to get a bit worried.