If Villa can stay up this season, which I think they will, then they're on the up. They've got some brilliant young players. Blues, no idea what's going on there. Right I've just seen the Championship table, oh dear :(

On the subject of Villa, it's always surprised me how no rich oil tycoon has bought them ala City/Chelsea, you think of the history they've got, they are top 4, arguably top 3 in terms of honours in England, the catchment area they have is massive and if an investor took them over there is some serious potential with them, all the groundwork is there. The fans are a bit annoying but you can't deny they're a great club. Massive club, dwarfs the likes of City and Chelsea.

Nice to hear, for sure, but the trouble with Villa is we always seem to fall short of our potential. Apart from that one glorious season (may have been 2005/6/7, not sure) when we were at the top for a little while, we always seem to aim for about mid-table and seem satisfied with that. Successive bad managers have not helped: I mean, why oh why did they give Alex McLeish the job? Hi! I'm Alex McLeish. CV? Oh yeah, well, I just got the other big club in Birmingham relegated. Sure, I think I could do the same with Villa! Where do I sign? :yikes:

And who among our team could you ever pick out, recently, as a really good player? People like Yorke, Hitzlberger, Young, Milner, all bright young talents who were sold on. Even people like Delfonseo and Warnock have been loaned out, instead of trying to get their best potential out of them. It seems once a player starts doing well in Villa he's on the shopping list, don't understand it. What we could be like now if we had kept Milner and Ashley Young...

Maybe Lambert's the man to change all that, but why isn't he playing Darren Bent? Or rather, why wasn't he: now he pulled his hamstring so will probably be out over Xmas... :(

Didn't realise you were a Villa fan. Are you from Brum?

I think you're on about 08/09, that season and the previous one Villa were great to watch. Agbonlahor, Barry, Milner, Young, Carew, Petrov... very good squad. Worst decision O'Neill made was to play the 2nd string in the Europa and kill the momentum, 10 points ahead of Arsenal at one point and then after that game they threw it away. CL football would have been brilliant for Villa.

It's not all bad for Villa at the moment though, they're playing great football. Bannan, Benteke, Vlaar and Wiemann are all as good as anyone who's been at Villa in recent years imo. They're young too, Villa are in safe hands.

Also there's a rumour regarding Bent that Villa can't afford the add-on fees after a certain amount of appearances, I think Bent has got 44 and on 50 they are due to pay an installment to Sunderland, something like that anyway. So that would explain why he's not being played.

OH and yeah, hiring McLeish was ridiculous. Terrible decision from Lerner there.

Hah, no I'm not from the UK even: Irishman here! But I got into supporting Villa when I had to pick a team having finally got interested in football around Italia '90, and the Villa team had more Irish players in it than any other, plus they weren't universally hated, like Man U, or made me feel like I was jumping on an easy bandwagon like Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. Just seemed like a good fit. Nothing too out there, no terribly high expectations and the odd compliment when they (occasionally) beat a higher-placed team.

Course, all the Irish guys are gone now, but you pick your team and you stick with them, so even if they got relegated I'd still be a Villa fan.

Yeah I hear you mate.

Can't imagine them being relegated though, would be surreal. Also forgot to ask, what's BHX mean?

Oh sorry, that's the old plane-spotter in me peeking through!
BHX is the code for Birmingham Airport. It's just easier to write than the full name! :)

Seconded. However this is no reason not to continue feverishly supporting them, my cousin supports West Ham (despite having never actually visited London before) and promised me they'd be promoted for this year, Nigel Reo Coker would never leave, Dean Ashton was going to be more important in the England squad than Wayne Rooney, Paul Koncheskey was one of the best defenders in the league etc.
Not wanting to be mean, but I really am not too impressed with the League/Carling cup as a competition. I know it still gets coverage, but up our way we do tend to call it "the mickey mouse cup". No offense intended.
Ah I do have a soft spot for the Baggies. However, my last post was just a slight dig at Birmingham's massive population ratio to top class football teams. Don't take it personally.

No offense taken mate. I'm assuming you're a Derby fan? Anyway it seemed alright for Liverpool when they won it last season. I think barring United and City, every club in England would be delighted to win it.

Could be applied to the Midlands as a whole in fairness, however in recent years if there is one city that's brought success to the Midlands, it would be Birmingham. I know what you're saying though. The North West has a plethora of football clubs as does Greater London but there's not really much in Greater Birmingham.

BBC Sport - Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers sets his sights on a top-two finish

The gift that keeps on giving. Liverpool have been a fantastic source of comedy for a while now and it doesn't look like ending any time soon.

Brendan needs to keep his mouth shut to the media regarding everything.

Player performance, team selection, contracts, transfers, just shut up, these snippets he's come up with for team perception or whatever he things it is it always comes out either sounding overly negative or borderline delusional.

I like what he's doing with the team, but stop with the soundbites.

:beer:

Agreed.

QPR got their first win, bit annoyed at that as I want them to go down.

Well, at least we beat the mighty Liverpool! And at home... hah hah! Doesn't help my FFL score though...

PS good to see the kitty's growing big and strong... :thumb:

Bah, told you Villa would be alright.

If we can't win against QPR then we'll be in a downward spiral for the rest of the year, Tiote will be off to the ACON and the manager probably won't be backed in January...the only possible replacement will be Joe Kinnear, again.

I didn't see the score until about 70 mins in, coupled with those comments on Friday I couldn't believe it. Great win for Villa.

Unbeaten in 6 games now, Chelsea game will probably be a write-off on paper but if all the players play well I don't see why they can't get something. Should be aiming for 4 points from the next 3 games imo.

See brendan? This is why you don't talk about aiming for the top two.

Allen is useless. Benteke brushed him off like he wasn't even there in defense and I've still yet to see him do anything going forwards, why keep him on when we're 3 goals down?

Yet again it highlights just how much we need someone who can just put the simple stuff into the back of the net. We need to win the next three to have any hope of enticing anyone good here. Fulham, stoke, QPR....maybe....just maybe.

Hey, you'd have to wonder about Fellani though wouldn't you? I mean, THREE TIMES in one game and he doesn't get caught! AND he looked to see where the ref was before he hit Shawcross! That's premeditated, and he should be getting a few games' ban. I say this even though he's on my FFL team... and Rodgers complains Liverpool can't buy a penalty! What about Stoke huh? Glasses for the ref?

I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get fellaini done for assault if only on the open palm face slap and not the others. What an idiot.

Credit to shawcross though, he just got on with it, even though that's one time when we would support a football player going down clutching theirface.

I thought Moyes' interview after the game was very good, he looked absolutely furious and said Fellaini deserves whatever punishment he gets.

Each one was worthy of a 3 match suspension, for me he should be done for 9 games at least. Always felt he was a dirty player but the comical hair somehow puts him under the radar. He certainly likes a swing of the elbow every time we play them..

Can we now draw a line under this and admit that Kean wasn't to blame, and really neither is Berg: Blackburn are just ****. Their fans crucified the previous manager, as if the fact they were losing and playing like idiots was his fault. Of course the manager has to take some, sometimes all of the blame --- that's just football. But I must admit to a sneaking grin that, having ousted Kean, they're now playing just as crappily under Berg, and no doubt it will soon be HIS head that the fans are calling for, instead of just admitting their team is ****e.

Fans, huh? :rolleyes:

League Cup ties look good. Chelsea/Swansea and Bradford/Villa.

Worst round of fixtures all season. Wigan/Arsenal, Chelsea/Villa and United/Swansea look alright because of possible upsets but other than that there's not much to write home about. You'd expect Chelsea to hammer Villa but I can see a score draw at Stamford Bridge, Villa are starting to look very confident going forward but Chelsea will obviously be more than capable of scoring. 2-2.

I'd like Newcastle to beat QPR today also.

Watching Fellaini sticking his elbow into somebody or stamping on them is one of the great sights in Premiership football, the game needs nasty players to the liven the game up.

Also a 'Merry Crimbo' to all Villa fans:tramp:

All Villa fans are now :shycouch: Jesus! Eight effing nil! A dark day indeed.... :(

Can't believe I said I could see a draw :o:

That looks like a correct prediction to me :afro:

More like it. :( I think we converted confidence, gained during the defeat of Liverpool last week, into complacency, and paid a terrible price. Worst Villa performance in living memory...

Great day of football for the neutral. The United game was very good, thought Newcastle were excellent. Michael Carrick is sheer class, I can't believe Woy didn't take him to the Euros.

Bad result for Villa that. 12 goals in 2 games, no goals. Must win game for them next and as I've typed that Lambert has said the same on MOTD.

Why didn't Arsenal play today?

Oh and I cannot stand Stoke. Would have preferred the scouse win today and I'm not particularly fond of scousers either.

Villa just get worse. I know Lambert was playing it down, but the bus must've broken down on the way to the stadium. Maybe if we'd turned up we might have had some chance, but giving away the ball so cheaply, defending so badly, we deserved everything we got. Way to fight back guys!

Oh, and Arsenal's game was cancelled? Weather maybe? Aren't there places over there where it's flooded?

On another note: do you think any other manager (whether he was in the right or not) would have got away with haranguing the officials the way Fergie did? He wasn't even sent to the stands! Can you see Harry or Rafa or AVB getting away with that? **** Ferguson, he's a ****. Can't take it when decisions go against him. Had that been a goal for them, and ruled in, he wouldn't have had a problem with it. He's a hypocritical ****.

Oh was that it, makes sense actually as I know a gooner who said he was annoyed he couldn't watch Arsenal today. Assumed it wasn't on TV or something.

Yep, Ferguson really showed himself up today. He knows what he's doing though, you can't knock him for it, he really is a wily old fox. Same thing with the recent RVP comments at Swansea. He knew what he was saying would get attention, so instead of people talking about Rooney being diabolical (see his passing Goofle? :p: ) or the fact United lost 2 points over City, everyone was focused on his comments. United are now 7 points clear. That's why he's so successful. Today he put pressure on the refs, he's bending the rules and trying to get any advantage he can, he's been doing this for years with the mind games too. It's like with Barcelona if you watch Spanish football, one of the reasons they are so hard to stop is because one of their little unsporting tricks is if the opposition are on a counter attack, they'll pull their shirt/trip them, give a free kick away and then stand in front of the ball so the opposition can't take it quickly, then by the time the opposition can take the kick everyone is already back in position to defend it. It's very, very clever. Ferguson should be punished though, yes.

I really don't get why he wasn't sent to the stands. They must be scared of him. Great manager, **** of a man.

Ferguson is no fool. You're right about his rant over the Willimas/RVP incident being a smoke screen. Although, I'd say he did it to deflect the attention away from RVP's reaction as opposed to Rooney's performance.
And privately, he's very probably a decent bloke.
When it comes to managing a football club, players, games, other managers and yes, referees, he'll do what it takes to achieve an advantage.
That doesn't make him a ****. In my opinion, that makes him good at his job.

He doesn't always get away with it either. He's been banned to the stands on countless occasions. In reality he's no different from any other manager worth their salt. Certainly no different than Mancini striding the full length of a football pitch to confront the ref screaming, "was goal, was goal" in his face. Or any other managers antics, most of which pass without comment. When it's Fergie...out come the ABU's.

I'll give you a prime example. Had Ferguson been in charge of a football club who were 2 -1 down and were awarded an extra 8 minutes injury time...there would have been outrage!
Add to that a red card against an opposition player whose a well known dodgy individual and there would have been shouts of "fix" and "conspiracy".
Throw in the fact that it's a title decider and they come back to win 3-2 ...and you'd never hear the last of it.

Good post.

Agree with the ABU's focusing on decisions going in United's favour. That's football fans for you mate, they're all twats and biased as fhuck (well most anyway.)

Yeah I didn't mean specifically the Rooney thing, just any negatives from the game. Like you say Ferguson is a smart man. And I agree he's just good at his job, I happen to think he's a **** for other reasons, mostly his backing of the Glazers but that's a whole other can of worms. Then there's things like banning journalists from press conferences if they dare ask about anything negative.

Sorry but I don't agree (and yes, I AM a member of ABU, despite having RVP in my FFL side!) --- ANY other manager who had thrown his toys out of the pram like that -- twice: he even kept going after half time! --- would not only have been sent to the stands but possibly punished further, but Fergie gets away with it because he's Fergie. Can you honestly see Mancini or AVP, or Lambert or Redknapp getting away with that? The refs are afraid of him, afraid of the power of United, and it's totally wrong. It's why so few penalties are awarded against them at home and why they get so much extra time.

I can't quote examples, and I'm sure you'd refute them RT if they're wrong -- I don't have that sort of brain for footballing trivia that remembers the score from the '94 FA Cup semi-final or whatever, so I couldn't back any claims up --- but in watching Man U play it's obvious that they get more extra time than any other team (so much so that they coined the term "Fergie time") and it's only ever when they're in danger of losing or drawing an important game. That can't be coincidence. And then Ferguson moans when it happens to him, the odd time. Can't stand the man.

He's a great tactician, certainly, but a man of his age and experience should be setting a better example, even for younger managers but if not then for kids, many of whom idolise him. That sort of behaviour is unbecoming, unacceptable and should not go unpunished.

But of course it will. Cos he's Fergie.

Last time I checked the rules both teams are allowed to score in added time.

^ Boom.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...mncmancini.png
"We're not going to come here next season."

:laughing:

I'm still buzzing and will be until Saturday.

I believe I've already addressed this point. He doesn't get away with it.
He's had countless touchline bans and been disciplined by the F.A. on numerous occasions.
And he'll probably get another one following the incident you refer to.

If they are so afraid of him, how come the goal wasn't disallowed. Make your mind up. Honestly, if they were so afraid of him he wouldn't have to rant as much as he does. You can't have it both ways!

On penalties awarded...My Football Facts & Stats | Premier League | Penalty Statistics
Google really is your friend, or in your case...your enemy? Hope this puts your mind at rest?

As for "Fergie time". This phrase was coined following the Champions League final of 99 when United reversed a 1-0 deficit to Bayern Munich in injury time. Of which there was only 3 minutes awarded btw!
Since then United have made a habit of scoring late winners in injury time. So what?

Maybe it's called Fergie time because the opposition think they are not allowed to score in this period??? Now there's a novel idea, huh?
Or should the match end after 80 minutes to give the others a chance, perhaps?

Like I said. He probably will be.

Keep sucking the lemons.

Referee Kevin Friend also came in for some flak from Mancini for failing to spot a blatant foul on Pablo Zabaleta in the build-up to Adam Johnson’s winning goal.

“I am unhappy because of the referee, like in the last three or four games.

“I don’t know what they have against us. It is impossible for the referee not to see what happened with Zaba,” he said.

“Then he gave two yellow cards at the end of the first half, to Vinny and Yaya, for a foul that was not a foul.

“After that it makes it more difficult to play with a yellow card against your name.

“Maybe he ate too much for Christmas and was not on good form.” Manchester Evening News

Compared with;

Ferguson hit with FA fine and ban

Ferguson launched a stinging attack on Wiley's fitness on 3 October
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has received a two-match touchline ban for his comments about referee Alan Wiley's fitness.
The Football Association handed the 67-year-old a four-game ban, with two of those suspended until the end of the 2010/11 season.
Ferguson has also been fined £20,000 and warned about his future conduct.
He made disparaging remarks about Wiley's fitness after his side's 2-2 draw with Sunderland on 3 October.
Ferguson apologised to the official for any embarrassment caused and pleaded guilty to the FA's charge of improper conduct, but requested a personal hearing.
Peter Griffiths QC, chairman of the FA's four-man regulatory commission, said: "Each member of the commission recognised Sir Alex Ferguson's achievements and stature within the game.
"Having said that, it was made clear to Sir Alex that with such stature comes increased responsibilities. BBC SPORT 2009

Will Mancini receive a similar punishment for the same thing?
I think not!
If anything, Ferguson got his punishment for his stature in the game.

You Manchester clubs just need to learn how to behave when playing us.

Less of the excuses lads, yeah?