leffe186

Check out the Swiss Ramble, Baba: http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2012/03/aston-villa-prophets-and-losses.html A few issues, but essentially their wages went crazy under MON and the transfer fees weren't much better for players who were often mediocre. He would then treat them idiosyncratically. Apparently Lerner questioned why MON had all this money sitting on the bench or in the stand, and suggested that if he wanted more he could offload some of his junk to pay for it. MON threw his toys out of the pram. They have a great youth set-up and scouts (poached a couple of foreigners and players from clubs like Watford) but with a couple of big injuries (Bent, Petrov, Dunne, Cuellar) they have been forced to play more kids than they'd like. The last match was instructive - kids like Weimann, Bannan, Lichaj, Herd, Gardner, Baker are all good but are still at the stage when they should be introduced two or three at a time max. You could see it in their play; some nice football but still learning the ropes and unable to step up the gears. They were getting muscled-out. If they come through this they'll have some good experience, but if they have to play three or four more matches together then Villa will be very, very nervous.

I seem to remember SId Cowans taking a penalty, your keeper saving it, Cowans netting the rebound, and the keeper kicking Cowans' legs from under him! If you did that these days, you'd get a 10 match ban. I don't think he even got booked. Happy days. I mentioned that game a while ago on here as the reason I've never been a fan of Barca. I remember seeing it on one of the midweek highlight shows (Sportsnight?) as a kid. As well as that fantastic penalty foul, I distinctly remember a Villa ball over the top that the Barca CB just jumped up and caught with two hands. Did he get sent off? Oh, those innocent childhood days when I supported all the English sides in Europe (apart from Arsenal, obviously). There's a bit of it here - a lot of faffing about, but check the pen at about 4:30:

Speaking as an outsider, I'd probably agree. I dare you to post that on RAWK.

Not seen the whole match yet, but from what I could see the main problem was with the linos. Ref wasn't great though.

I just envisage the Politburo.

I love the threatening posts: Then you look back through the previous posts and think...eh? Do they actually have any ban guidelines? Particularly like the petition about the "touting" fan: http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=291774.0 That club is going to eat itself, with any luck.

Sorry lads. Well thank fuck we don't have to play Swansea again. Lovely team, it's always uncomfortable playing against them. Good job we had a bit more threat going forward. This is going to be a cracking end to the season. This week sees you lot having a tough game [Edit for Dave], then we have a tough one [Edit for Dave], Chelsea [Edit for Dave] (surely they'll win that) and then [Edit for Dave] come on Man City *washes mouth out*.

Pretty much all they have left now. If Wigan et al keep picking up points they will start to look very vulnerable.

I hope we get to play against this Villa team in a couple of weeks. So many kids.

They look pretty keen, tracking back, working hard, good running off the ball. Sitting back a little (defence is usually fairly deep) and trying to hit City on the break, but more positive than they have been recently. City look nervous and anaemic, and Silva just looks knackered.

Isn't the lesson from Lawro and Merse's posts more that they just don't care. Lawro will always think the sun shines out of Liverpool's arse, and Merse will keep phoning it in as long as he gets paid.

We're all presuming it's to make sure we get some money for him. That said, I'd be happy to have him as a squad player on a commensurately reduced rate.

I have to confess, I was at the Arsenal Villa game when the Villa fans sang the song about Heather Mills and Eduardo, and I absolutely pissed myself. The indignant reaction from the assorted glory-hunting middle-class twats around me made it even better.

Best thing to happen to football in my lifetime. As a younger'un, if I'm watching an old game and they do it, it's like "What the f***'s he playi- oh yeah..." Even as an old'un, I occasionally do the same! Also do it with some tackles. The first thing Gerry Gow does in the 81 Cup Final (maybe it was the replay), like, after about 20 seconds, is kick Ardiles up in the air. Nowadays, he'd be off before Ossie hit the ground. Every time I see it now my instinct is "that's a red".

Naaah, they're great. Even better are adult mascots. I think that's a massive missed opportunity - you too could pay a wodge of cash to walk onto the pitch holding hands with Shola, then have a kick-about on the pitch with someone like Vuckic. I'd fucking love it.

No-one ever wants to come to Pennsylvania. South Carolina doesn't have anything PA doesn't have like. ish. I actually didn't realize you were in PA, Dan. Where are you?

It's mint. You need to see the full build-up though.

Well as alexf's reaction suggests, many people thought that he'd said "disabled people will go to hell". I don't think it's an interesting theory at all, it's clearly nonsense, but it might have been consistent with his worldview. The main issue with it is if he subsequently ill-treated anyone with some form of disability. Either way, like most, I think he'd do a pretty good job as a tactical manager, but not this Summer. It's all fairly irrelevant though until we produce better footballers.

...and then you can just point to the league table, and/or the amount spent on transfers and wages.

Best thing to happen to football in my lifetime.

Camera phones back on the terraces would have been great.

I tell you what, this Chelsea ref has been great.

Thank fuck for that.

Well made by Torres there, did them up like a kipper.

Not many people on this board watching your game mate. yeah I know, just keeping you updated, MJ stylee.