leffe186

I think we're definitely in the mix for 4th. Don't think you're as good as those six. I just hope we beat City in the first game. If they get going early I think they'll be pretty damn good. Liverpool will only have a good season if everyone stays fit. It's going to be an almighty pile-up.

Well it sounds like quite a few have said Newcastle will stay up... Someone needs to pull all the predictions together. I would say that most of the predictions I've read have you staying up - as does the poll in this thread.

Bradley was due to go anyway - the Brazil friendly was supposed to be a last hurrah.

He's nowhere near world class, but more than good enough for a mid-table Prem side. Would be an excellent signing tbh. Jones is more the level of a good Championship side. How often have you watched him? He's got terrible composure infront of goal and a poor footballing brain. Just because he scored a couple of pens at the WC doesn't make him a world beater. Would get about 7/8 a season in the Prem at the very most. Probably about 10-11-ish times last season, I keep up with Rennes 'cause Tettey is there. And I'm in no way judging him by WC form. Kaiz, man, take your avatar off. I'm sure I didn't actually read any writing on the previous page.

Hasn't changed for me. Still can't see us staying up in any way,shape or form unfortunately. Still think there's enough dross around for you to stay up. Your away support is fantastic (which could be worth a point or two) and you should pick up a few home wins. I'm a little nervous about our new season because we're in a position to be shot at and I'm still not convinced by our forwards. If we beat Young Boys I will look forward to it.

Mattis has lift-off.

Is that a slag heap behind one end of Stanley's ground?

Any worse than it is now? Part of me wants them to win just because it would be an empty victory. So you had limitless money and won the league? Oh. Well done.

I rather think that adds to our charm

Might just be his age - I believe he doesn't have to be named in the first 25.

He hasn't impressed me much (apart from the obvious) and I'm a little surprised he's still here. May end up being a jack-of-all-trades as we've played him pretty much everywhere. Reminds me a little of Milner (not good at anything in particular but works hard).

The non usage of the squad players that he bought in favour of running the same team into the ground whilst yet again burning out at the end of the season was bizarre. It was so depressing hearing the exact same starting XI read out, with the exact same tactics which don't work at home, week after week. Particularly as every once in a while - usually through injury - the team would line up 4-5-1 and play really well. NRC in particular must have been unbelievably frustrated. I'd been told that he modelled himself on Clough...and it all fits. My wife (Villa) is chuffed he's left. I'd be gutted if you got Jol, mind.

Drinking buddy? GOt a bet on?

Given your financial position, where is all this money coming from?

I was going to ask if you were joking, but I've just had to remind myself how far we've fallen since I was pointing out o'Neill's was totally unproven as a top quality manager. I do think he's someone who can consistently achieve that top ten/UEFA hole with virtually any club, and that combined with his particular style as a manager mean it might not actually be a bad move for us just now. Still don't like him and don't much want him, though - would be happier to press on with Hughton. Same! Been waiting for something to laugh at Villa about since the horrible c***s acted like small time c***s about us going down. Hopefully they flog all of their best players and plummet. Don't count your chickens - unless Lerner's lost interest, which he hasn't really so far as I'm aware, I'd be over the moon if I were them and this could be the best thing to happen to them since o'Neill was appointed. The timing's pretty horrible of course... but nevertheless. Why the f*** would you be over the moon ? Are you insane ? The bloke totally transformed a strugglling prem club into one of the top clubs 8 clubs in the country, there's nothing better out there available for Villa right now. Randy Lerner transformed them. Any manager in the league could take a team that changes from one of the lowest budgets in the league to one of the highest in Europe from the bottom half to the top. He's still finished no higher than every Villa manager I can remember and looked clueless has to how to take them further. What is this nonsense about Liverpool ffs His tactics and transfer policy (What is it, 3 foreign signings ever?) belong in the bottom half. He barely bought anyone as he was brought in just before or after the window had closed, took over a team that had finished just above the relegation spots and suddenly they were top half of the table. He's worked wonders with the likes of Agbolohar (sp?), Milner and Barry. Lerner had a part to play in all that of course, but it's his manager that's transformed thm. As a side note, Lerner's Cleveland Browns have been one of the worst franchises in the NFL for as long as Lerner has been in charge, he's not thought of in great light on this side of the pond. Lerner is the man who has done most to transform the club, far far more than MON has. Anyone who thinks otherwise is talking nonsense, I'm afraid. Or appreciates the influence on the team on the pitch better. Look at us, we were backed to the hilt and probably beyond our means by Freddy, put a crappy manager in there like Souness and your strggling at the wrong end of the table. Have fun without O'Neill, you'll miss him more than you think, if Lerner doesn't get the appointment right, and trust me he doesn't always hit a home run with his appointments at other organisations. Look, who appointed o'Neill? And why did he do it? Because Lerner thought he was the best guy to approach at the time, and it wasn't too bad a move. I'd say his biggest mistake - especially if the money really has dried up, which I'm under the impression it hasn't - was showing too much loyalty when he first got disturbed by o'Neill's inadequacies, especially in spending the huge pots of money Lerner was apparently positively asking him to spend. Appointing managers isn't easy, but Lerner's short track record suggest he'll go about it in the right way, and even more to the point, everything else he'll do will be totally conducive to the success of that appointee. Our failure, along with that of other clubs/chairmen, is not so much found in picking the wrong CV from the application pile as from asking any new/prospective manager to work in f***ing nightmarish conditions. Moyes should go for it if he gets offered the chance, that's someone who deserves a chance at the big time and I think it could be a nice match. I don't know enough about the manager market and Aston Villa's position just now, so I don't know if they could make an obviously better appointment. Moyes has got better things going on at Everton, Villa would be a sideways step in my book (apart from having some money to spend, not alot). I'd disagree, with money being the single biggest factor. Like I say, I'm unclear about Villa's financial position just now, but I'm pretty confident they've still got a lot more around than Everton and even more flexibility. Also, as I was sort of saying about, the general atmosphere that Lerner has created seems to be great - intelligent management and ambition. Unless things will change at Everton any time soon, I think Moyes has taken them as far as anyone could, given the rest of the league (Man City, Spurs, Villa all spending big alongside the usual). I think he's shown he can spend big money, little money, can be tactically flexible, get the best out of players and generally keep all this going in very difficult circumstances for many many years. If Everton hadn't been in a mess overall, I think he would have had them in the Champions' League at least twice, and obviously quite probably far more afterwards as once you're in it's hard to get you out. Only bad fortune saw them drawn against a good Spanish team which was able to beat his unimproved team of over-achievers in the qualifiers after they finished 4th a few years back. LOL Lerner did not appoint O'Neill, it was the guy before him Ellis. Oh and Moyes, the big time You're kidding right ? Everton are just as big if not bigger than Villa, why would he move from the place where he's built up that is short on cash, to another that he hasn't built up, that are also short on cash. Might agree with you on Everton, but you're wrong about O'Neill - his appointment was OK'd by Lerner as a manager was needed there and then and the takeover was still going through. I think that Lerner has more potential than Bill Kenwright as a chairman, but it would take more than that for Moyes to move. I think there may be some parallel between Redknapp and O'Neill here. Both managers were used to running the show, both managers had been indulged by their chairmen but when Lerner said enough, it looks like MON may have bolted. Levy did likewise and Redknapp may grumble but he gets on with it. Villa's wages/turnover ration ain't great.

MLS is the standard of a European "second tier quality" league tbh. i.e. Scando leagues, Scottish league, Ukrainian league and so on. IMO. It's Henry that's playing cack. I'm aware of what standard the MLS is, to say its second tier quality is generous, perhaps the top players are, but teams overall, not too sure. Ljungberg had his one decent game a season today. I watch the MLS almost every round due to being a nocturnal b******, and I also watch the odd random European league match-up from time to time because, well, it's football. Combined with watching the Scando leagues often I'd no doubt say the better MLS teams would slide in easily. The lesser teams would probably struggle. The issue with the MLS and overall player quality is that they have very small squads in the first place, which usually means a mixture of say, 30% good players and 70% filler. I dare say you know all this already, but yeah. On topic though, Henry have been nothing but shocking since he came over IMO. He should boss the league even on the decline. Saw both his games - or parts of games - in the friendlies (Spurs and City) and thought he looked class. I'd heard he played a blinder in his first game as well. Has he really been poor?

Excellent. Reminds me, I wonder if the entire Chile v Italy World Cup match is available somewhere. We only ever see the same clips, and the build-up to the punch-up always adds a lot.

Not a chance he'll come to us - Gomes is rated, we've got Cudicini as back-up and Pletikosa is supposedly about to sign. Arsenal makes much more sense. There aren't too many top tier teams who'd make him number one, possibly Villa?

I do. My gut tells me it's wrong.

Good luck with injuries = staying up, just Bad luck with injuries = going down (regardless of what happens in January).

Really liked the ball in for the first one as well. Yeah, but Schelotto does those free kicks for fun. We score a lot of goals that way. My brother-in-law lives in Columbus and knows one of Schelotto's next-door neighbors. Every time he gets home he tells him another story about football in Argentina. He loves being able to live a normal life now; in Argentina the players had to live in high-security compounds.

He does, but the US doesn't have problems with box-to-box midfielders - they need some class out wide (both at full-back and on the wings).

Knew there was a thread on here somewhere! What an absolutely fantastic goal that second one was for Crew. Just brilliant.

Columbus Crew score our typical goal (free-kick from Schelotto that a big guy heads in) then a pathetic dive by Le Toux somehow convinces the ref to give Philadelphia Union a pen. 1-1 at halftime. I know how desperate you guys are for MLS updates *cough*.

I'm not at all convinced by the Parker story, and this guy thinks the same. http://thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.com/2010/07/strange-coincidence-of-unsigned-5-year.html I suspect that Brummie can enlighten us on the general trustworthiness of Sullivan et al.