Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

shoutman

Harewood was declared injured before the match, hence why he wasn't on the bench. Petrov is a more attacking player then Reo-Coker, when you are one nil down with ten minutes to go that is the logical thing to do. If you look at the Villa bench today it wasnt full of attacking players. Villa were unlucky not to get something from today, I thought they were the better team in what was a bit of a bore match. It was very disappointing that we didnt even work the keeper on most of our chances but I don;t think it was a bad performance.

Carew impressed me with his work rate while he was on the pitch, I have been critical of the man in the past, but today you could see him chasing back to midfield and winning the ball off Man City players, City didn't impress me at all and I find it hard to see how they had such a good start to the season, young Schmeichal is not up to much really.

Unlucky Villa but I think it does go to further show how Villa need a proven striker who can convert half chances, Defoe would be ideal IMO.

I still wouldn;t be too disheartened.

DSB

Carew was very good yeah. But sorry I just can't deal with playing Petrov at any point in any game. He is absolutely awful and every minute he plays in a Villa jersey infuriates me. I'm sure having a passer like Reo Coker in the team might have helped us carve something slightly more dangerous than Petrov who just can't keep the ball or pass it.

shoutman

No one has been impressed with Petrov but I still think he has the potential to be a decent player, if we were to get a midfielder in in January I think the best thing for Petrov and Villa would be if he was sent on loan to a side where he will get first team action and hopefully grow in confidence.

I wasn't impressed with Gabby today, he did alright with the ball at this feet but some of his touchs were woefull.

DSB

Gabby has been really touch and go this season. But then again the fact remains that we don't have the sufficient backup to replace players when they go off form. Would definitely have been nice to have had Davis to bring on today.

shoutman

Agreed with the Davis point but as MON said himself, he did not want to let him go but he couldn't assure Davis of a first team spot so it was only right to let him move on.

DSB

True but we really should have brought a replacement in. Reo Coker is a good signing but he is more of a replacement for McCann.

Savman

DSB wrote:

Carew was very good yeah. But sorry I just can't deal with playing Petrov at any point in any game. He is absolutely awful and every minute he plays in a Villa jersey infuriates me. I'm sure having a passer like Reo Coker in the team might have helped us carve something slightly more dangerous than Petrov who just can't keep the ball or pass it.

More irrational postings eh? :rolleyes:
So Petrov, who was only on the pitch for 10 odd minutes, is somehow to blame for the entire team not being at the races? Bull****
Stop looking for a scapegoat just because you don't like the guy ffs.

Reo Coker did absolutely nothing all afternoon, Young hardly touched the ball, Gabby was average, Moore was anonymous, Maloney made no impact, Laursen looked shaky and Knight had a stinker. Yet somehow Petrov was awful. Please tell me how you can reach such a conclusion without sounding like you're just ranting because we were so bad we gifted a win to a poor City side. We were never in the damn game, it was a bad day at the office. So you beat Chelsea one week and lose to Man City the next, that's football.

I'm not in the mood for a heated debate in case we get found out for what we really are: bunch of irate Villa fans pissed off cos we got beaten by a lesser side. It's hard to take that on the chin, but it happens.

I'm sure we can expect the usual flurry of anti-MON sentiments (despite him being God after the Chelsea game) but personally I'd just like to forget the entire day and move on. If they play like that at VP they will be booed off the hallowed turf.

DSB

Savman wrote:

More irrational postings eh? :rolleyes:
So Petrov, who was only on the pitch for 10 odd minutes, is somehow to blame for the entire team not being at the races? Bull****
Stop looking for a scapegoat just because you don't like the guy ffs.

Reo Coker did absolutely nothing all afternoon, Young hardly touched the ball, Gabby was average, Moore was anonymous, Maloney made no impact, Laursen looked shaky and Knight had a stinker. Yet somehow Petrov was awful. Please tell me how you can reach such a conclusion without sounding like you're just ranting because we were so bad we gifted a win to a poor City side. We were never in the damn game, it was a bad day at the office. So you beat Chelsea one week and lose to Man City the next, that's football.

I'm not in the mood for a heated debate in case we get found out for what we really are: bunch of irate Villa fans pissed off cos we got beaten by a lesser side. It's hard to take that on the chin, but it happens.

I'm sure we can expect the usual flurry of anti-MON sentiments (despite him being God after the Chelsea game) but personally I'd just like to forget the entire day and move on. If they play like that at VP they will be booed off the hallowed turf.

I didn't once say that the team was any use today. Just pointed out that it is really really irritating that we are in the precarious position of having Stilian Petrov as our impact substitute. Other teams can play bad for long periods of the game, but the manager has the players to throw on that can create that moment of magic and save our skins. Patrik Berger would have been nice. Hopefully he is back soon. I just think Petrov is up there with the worst players in the Premiership and the size of the squad Martin O'Neill has left us with kinda showed.

And I personally didn't think Martin O'Neill was amazing after the Chelsea game. We got pretty fortunate in the sense that we were playing against a Chelsea without a Lampard and an unfit Drogba. Goals didn't really seem forthcoming for Chelsea (albeit partially through some effective Villa defending) but again against Blackburn, Chelsea showed they arent the same team at all when certain players are missing. And if a team can't score goals they can't win the game. Villa got a nice header from a corner and then caught Chelsea on the break late on.

But again the major problem that O'Neill hasn't been able to rectify is our awful form away from home. We had it last season and under O'Leary and there isn't much hope of us ever competing for anything if we can't get more than 1 point from away games against Newcastle and Man City. I'm pretty confident we'll bounce back against Everton but then against Tottenham I'm sure we'll be back to our old awful ways. It'll probably be 9th or 10th again this season. Which is a shame because we've such talent at our disposal.

Esse85

Knight was awful, his long range passing was terrible, the sooner Davies starts the better i feel.

The wide players never got into the game. The fact we didntsign a class striker in the summer is catching up with us now.

Carew is not up to it, his touch is awful, whats that 11 without scoring now.

Raekwon

Villa were very wasteful in front of goal yesterday and I think this game further highlights our need for a world class striker. I agree Zat Knight had a terrible game, he didn't look assured and made some sloppy mistakes (ie: he shouldn't have went to ground for the City goal). But I don't think it is all doom and glum, we were unlucky not to have at least gotten a point from this game and I'm sure we will improve on this result and improve as the season goes on. Another good point was the fact that Garth Barry had another great game, some of his passing was simply brilliant

Savman

Esse85 wrote:

Knight was awful, his long range passing was terrible, the sooner Davies starts the better i feel.

Since Knight's arrival he has had 1 great game and 1 poor game, he probably will get dropped next week but after that performance I wouldn't be surprised if a few others got benched too.

DSB wrote:

Just pointed out that it is really really irritating that we are in the precarious position of having Stilian Petrov as our impact substitute. Other teams can play bad for long periods of the game, but the manager has the players to throw on that can create that moment of magic and save our skins. Patrik Berger would have been nice. Hopefully he is back soon. I just think Petrov is up there with the worst players in the Premiership and the size of the squad Martin O'Neill has left us with kinda showed.

I'm not getting into the Petrov thing again, but to his credit he has been dropped and said he is ready to fight for a place. Can't ask for any more. But don't be too surprised if he's named in the starting 11 next week along with Davies, Maloney and Gardner.

IMHO the youth of our team went out against City thinking it would be a stroll in the park, probably over confident after the Chelsea game. If you look at Gabby, Young, Moore, NRC - all still young players so it was a steep learning curve about why you don't get too big for your boots. In fact, this experience will benefit them immensely because next time we get a good result we'll no doubt approach the following game with a better attitude.

Let's not release the hounds just yet, tis only one game...

Raekwon

I see Gary Cahill has joined Sheffield Utd on a three month loan, hopefully the rest of our defense can stay injury free. Speaking of which, Curtis Davis came through a 90 minute reserve game last night and even bagged himself a goal, it would be great to see him on the pitch this weekend against Everton along with fit again Patrik Berger.

Savman

Yeah good goal by Davies, I reckon he could be a starter V Everton.
Cahill loan move suits everyone, but defo wouldn't like to lose him altogether.

Bounty Hunter

anybody know if there is a recall clause in the loan deal? i hope/assume so

Bounty Hunter

good news about Carson as it seems his loan may become permenent at the end of the season, and that that is what he (aswell as us) wants.

:'I am just here for the season initially but hopefully if I do well there will be a chance of me staying as when the contract was done with Liverpool it was a loan with a view to a permanent deal.'

V1llianous

Good result today over Everton.

Feel good start to the season as last year games against the 5th to 8th place teams we couldn't win and because of winning today we leapfrogged Eveton.

Looking forward to seeing the goals as Gabby's was meant to be great

Bit of a scuffle between Gabby and Harewood at end of the match as Gabby wouldn't centre the ball to Harewood in the last minute when he was clear. Can understand Harewood's frustration as that is twice in 3 games Gabby has done that - think MON needs to take him to one side and tell him to think of the team first.

Bounty Hunter

V1llianous wrote:

Bit of a scuffle between Gabby and Harewood at end of the match as Gabby wouldn't centre the ball to Harewood in the last minute when he was clear. Can understand Harewood's frustration as that is twice in 3 games Gabby has done that - think MON needs to take him to one side and tell him to think of the team first.

dont think MON will be doing that right now...

---

Martin O'Neill also quelled any suggestion of a problem, and felt Agbonlahor did the sensible thing in holding on to possession.

The Villa boss: "I see it from Gabby's view because there are two minutes to go and we are 2-0 up. Why give the ball away?

"That's what we were taught years ago and if you do that you put yourself under pressure.

"I can understand the centre-forward's thinking that he might be in with a chance of a goal, but Gabby made the right decision and things are fine between them."

---

great result though, its results like this that are needed if Villa want European football next year.

~Rebel~

V1llianous wrote:

Looking forward to seeing the goals as Gabby's was meant to be great

Just saw it, fantastic goal! Brilliant (and very difficult) first touch and a cool finish.

DSB

Great result today. Kinda expected it though. If we can get a similar 1 at Tottenham then we are definitely onto something. I have my doubts though.

Time Magazine

DSB wrote:

Great result today. Kinda expected it though. If we can get a similar 1 at Tottenham then we are definitely onto something. I have my doubts though.

You're such a killjoy. All the wringing hands before the season about the lack of transfers and look where we are. How many people would have turned down, a month and a half into the season, being one point behind Chelski with a game in hand? That's the position we're in. And it's not on basis of having particularly easy games, we've had tough games against Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Spurs, despite their bad form, are the fifth best team in the league. Imagine having £30m of forwards on the bench! At the start of the season if someone had offered Villa a point at the Lane we'd have said no problem.

If we manage a 1-1 draw against Spurs that'd be beating Chelsea and Everton and drawing at Spurs, scoring five goals and conceding one. That's an amazing turnaround in the the fourteen months since O'Leary.

Things are fantastic at Villa Park at the moment. We have a future England goalkeeper pretty certain to sign at the end of the year in Scott Carson. We have one of the most promising young centre-half in Europe in Curtis Davies. We have the most exciting Premiership winger since Ronaldo in Ashley Young. We have an excellent midfield anchor with bags of potential in Nigel Reo-Coker. We have Britains's best hope of an Olympic Gold Medal in the 100m in Gabriel Agbonlahor whose pace alone (with a sublime touch) finished the game today. That's five new players (since DOL didn't rate Gabby) that MON has brought and all have as much as ten years in the claret and blue.

Things are on the up.

Savman

DSB wrote:

Great result today. Kinda expected it though. If we can get a similar 1 at Tottenham then we are definitely onto something. I have my doubts though.

Seriously DSB do you ever change the record. I'm sure Liverpool fans have their doubts at not beating Birmingham or Portsmouth this week and I'm sure Chelsea fans have nothing BUT doubts. There is no perfect football team, there will be times you have to win and win ugly.

Your eternal pessimism gets quite boring, do you even cheer when Villa score or when Gabby take a 60 yard clearance down on his toe to slot past keeper do you just sit there and think "I still have my doubts"? :rolleyes: Seems you're just waiting for another bad result so you can chime in with your anti-MON rants, thankfully it seems you are in the minority with that agenda.

Anyway, important win today against a decent side, our home form is quite good but we really have to get something from WHL next week. Spurs are no world beaters so we don't have anything to fear.

One Cold Hand

Yeah a great win yesterday. Delighted to see Gabby with a great touch, as I felt his control had let him down in the past. Good to see Big John on the score sheet.

As for the Spurs game, it really is the best time to play them, they're quite low in confidence and playing poorly. Although they do have some great players, so if they strike it right they could wallop us!!

Anyway the first 6 game have been really encouraging in my opinion. We've only had one 'easy' match (Fulham). The rest of the teams we've played have been tough, they should be challenging for the top 6: L'pool, Newcastle, Chelsea, Man City and Everton. We were unlucky to loose to the pool (even though they were better on the day), unlucky not beat Newcastle, and had more posession than City, just couldn't create chances. Good wins at home to Everton and Chelsea. When we start to play some of the weaker teams (Wigan, Birmingham, Derby etc) we should push on up the table, hopefully!

DSB

Ibid wrote:

You're such a killjoy. All the wringing hands before the season about the lack of transfers and look where we are. How many people would have turned down, a month and a half into the season, being one point behind Chelski with a game in hand? That's the position we're in. And it's not on basis of having particularly easy games, we've had tough games against Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Spurs, despite their bad form, are the fifth best team in the league. Imagine having £30m of forwards on the bench! At the start of the season if someone had offered Villa a point at the Lane we'd have said no problem.

If we manage a 1-1 draw against Spurs that'd be beating Chelsea and Everton and drawing at Spurs, scoring five goals and conceding one. That's an amazing turnaround in the the fourteen months since O'Leary.

Things are fantastic at Villa Park at the moment. We have a future England goalkeeper pretty certain to sign at the end of the year in Scott Carson. We have one of the most promising young centre-half in Europe in Curtis Davies. We have the most exciting Premiership winger since Ronaldo in Ashley Young. We have an excellent midfield anchor with bags of potential in Nigel Reo-Coker. We have Britains's best hope of an Olympic Gold Medal in the 100m in Gabriel Agbonlahor whose pace alone (with a sublime touch) finished the game today. That's five new players (since DOL didn't rate Gabby) that MON has brought and all have as much as ten years in the claret and blue.

Things are on the up.

I agree a draw wouldn't be a bad result at all. Forgive me for not having faith in our away form though especially considering how excellent it has been over the years. And you guys are talking like I don't agree that we have an amazing first 11. But this Carew injury worries me. Hopefully it isn't serious because can we really rely on Harewood to get us goals on a consistent level for a prolonged period of time?

DSB

One Cold Hand wrote:

As for the Spurs game, it really is the best time to play them, they're quite low in confidence and playing poorly. Although they do have some great players, so if they strike it right they could wallop us!!

To be honest I'm more worried about playing them now. Sooner or later they are going to turn around and destroy some team (like they did in Europe but against a commendable team). I just hope it isn't us.

Time Magazine

One Cold Hand wrote:

As for the Spurs game, it really is the best time to play them, they're quite low in confidence and playing poorly.

They're not playing poorly. Watch them play and see they're on fire; they're just not getting results. The fluidity with which they move the ball is incredible.

Savman

Shocking result. Back to the same old ****.

DSB

Didn't see the game so I can't really comment much. Playing Petrov says enough for me though. Martin O' Neill doesn't seem to take this competition seriously. Which is ridiculous. Because I don't think we'll finish top 6. I really hope so though.

Savman

Did not see it either, but don't need to. Listened to the live commentary, got the vibe we were just not up for it.
I usually defend MON but I think his starting 11 left a lot to be desired. No Carson, Laursen, Young, Gardner or Moore instead he throws in Davies, Petrov, Osbourne and bloody Harewood.

We don't have a strong enough squad to "rest" players, so I wanted to see a better team out tonight to show we were takinig the damn game seriously. It should be noted that due to Bouma's injury Barry played LB and we have always missed his influence in midfield. And why pair Knight & Davies at CB, a totally untested partnership? Lunacy.

Time Magazine

Shocking result.

Though Savman I have to say, Davies hadn't played yet so any CB partnership would be "totally untested" by default. Wouldn't complain about resting Laursen though, hate to get him injured against Leicester like.

I guess we can expect a big performance in our next game after that.

DSB

Harewood kinda had to play since we don't really have backup for Carew otherwise. Petrov and Taylor though, I just don't understand putting them in. It isn't like they are young players that O'Neill is blooding. Are players that tired in late September already that they need to be rested? This competition was probably our best chance at Europe next season and O'Neill has completely ****ed it up. We'd really wanna come out of Saturday with an against the odds win now to justify this policy of O'Neill's.

Time Magazine

Taylor's a decent player. Played very well against Liverpool.

Savman

Why not "risk" Laursen in games like this? It's our best chance for Europe next season so I do not welcome the overly cautious approach. Laursen and Davies might have worked, but Knight and Davies was a very strange selection by MON.

I'm a bit old fashioned in the sense that I'd prefer to give players a token run in the side when we are 2 or 3 goals to the good. And if players like Young are tired already then I'll eat my hat, he shouldve started, period.

VILLA: Taylor, Barry, Mellberg, Harewood, Agbonlahor, Davies, Knight,Petrov, Reo-Coker, Osbourne, Maloney

If that's our best starting 11 then we're in for a relegation dogfight.:mad:

MON wrote:

"This is a competition we wanted to do well in. I know I changed the side around a little bit and maybe I'll learn from that.

Damn right you will, Martin.

Time Magazine

Making a few changes, my team would have been

Taylor
Barry
Mellberg
Davies
Gardner
Young
Reo-Coker
Osbourne
Maloney
Agbonlahor
Harewood

AKA drop Petrov and Knight, bring in Gardner and Young. Too much of a change by MON I feel.

Sav, I'd rest Laursen because I'd see the tough matches over the next month as more important. It's important we get some consistency in the Premier. It's disappointing to be knocked out of the cup, but I'd put the league first. And I think the team above would destroy Leicester.

DSB

Patrik Berger starting even would have been nice.

Time Magazine

Dead right. Forgot about him. Hopefully he'll play more of a role ahead of Petrov.

Savman

Carson

Mellberg - Davies - Laursen - O Halloran

Maloney - ReoCoker - Barry - Young

Agbonlahor - Moore

There's a balance of youth and experience. Davies and O'Halloran thrown into the deep end, yes, but at least they're next to 2 big players and stalwarts in Mells and Laursen. It also keeps Barry where he is most effective in the centre of the park and with Maloney & Young we've plenty of skill and pace going forward.

Personally I wouldn't introduce Harewood or Petrov unless we are a goal or 2 in front because although both need games, neither contribute anything serious. Gardner would be ahead of both in the pecking order because at least he plays with some fire in his belly. Berger just coming back from injury, so other than a cameo role there's would have been no point starting him.

I, and seemingly a lot of other fans, think MON got it wrong.

DSB

I know in saying this I'm going to sound like a broken record, but Petrov doesn't need games. He has had so many chances to prove himself. He needs to leave at the next possible opportunity.

Savman

Some damning self criticism from Curtis Davies...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_7010000/newsid_7015400/7015489.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm&news=1

"awful"
"I didnt contribute anything"
"worst performance of my career"
"rubbish"
"I don't deserve to be in the team"

You have to really respect his honesty. I hope the rest of them are listening carefully.

~Rebel~

Wow, fair fcks to him with his honesty! Never heard a player talk that honestly about a bad game before, ever i think.

Time Magazine

Seems refreshingly professional for a high-profile expensive young signing. His honesty is a great sign, shows great potential.

Bounty Hunter

everyone talking about Petrov remember he didnt even make the bench against Everton and last night was being given a chance to play his way back into our Prem plans, which he failed at. Laursen has been playing far more regularily than ever in his Villa career lately and like it or not this was the ideal time to give him a rest and Davies a debut. Villa were not good enough and are out... o well. I too would like a cup run but atleast we will have less games from now on in comparison to other Prem clubs. and regardless of which changes we would of made to the starting line up the fact remains that the players MON sent out are good enough and should have beaten Leicster, that is if they had performed like they are capable of.

being a villa fan is never easy is but it aint dull either.

Up the Villa

Savman

For the benefit of anyone who hasn't heard the interview:

avfc.co.uk wrote:

Curtis Davies pulled no punches in a brutally honest assessment of his senior Villa debut, conceding: "If I'm not honest with myself, I'll never improve as a player." The on-loan defender was extremely self critical after the 1-0 Carling Cup defeat against Leicester City and insisted his lack of recent match action was no excuse.

Davies partnered Zat Knight in central defence and felt Villa fans did not see him at his best on a collectively frustrating night at Villa Park.
He reflected: "It was my debut and I was awful. I didn't contribute anything to the team. I've been bigging myself up saying I was ready and obviously by last night's performance, I'm not good enough to get in the team yet.

"I don't know what it was. I feel fit, I feel fine, so I'm not using any excuses like that. It was just on the day I choked.

"I wasn't nervous before the game and I wasn't nervous out there, it's just I didn't do anything right. It just seemed like it was going to be one of them nights.

"Obviously when you come off losing it's highlighted, whereas if you win the game you can sort of get away with it.

"But I know my personal performance was probably my worst ever. That's how I feel right now. The team I play in is a good team and the performance wasn't up to the standard of this team."

Davies, who has not played a competitive game since March, added: "In training I've been doing well with everything. But last night I think my passing completion was about five per cent. It wasn't the best performance to start my Villa career.

"I hope I will feature eventually, it's just last night was my chance to go out there and show exactly what I've got. I showed exactly what I've not got. I did nothing right, so come Monday if I'm on the bench or even in the stands, I'll accept it.

"I've been saying I want to push the players in the first-team to take their place and the way I was last night, I wouldn't have pushed the youth team lads. I'm honest with myself in every performance and that was unacceptable.

"I set my standards high. Playing against Leicester City I thought it would be a good game to come back into. For me it was nothing to do with my fitness. I'm not using any excuses at all. It just wasn't my day.

"You can't pull the wool over people's eyes when you have a bad performance. If you're not true to yourself, you're not going to improve. If I don't come out and say how poorly I've done, I'm not going to push on and do any better."

Good head on his shoulders this fella.

Bounty Hunter wrote:

being a villa fan is never easy is but it aint dull either.

I wish I had your outlook. That was Villa's worst result under O'Neill.

shoutman

Yes the league cup is a shot at playing in Europe but I think people are reading too much into losing last night.

O'Neill purposely sent out a mixture of first team and not so first team players. He wanted to give players chances. (DSB I'm not talking about Petrov here) Villa still had the quality in that team to beat Leicester last night and I for one back O'Neill's decision to do that. If we had drawn or won the match no one, except maybe DSB would of been complaining about the line up.

We still should be aiming for a top ten finish at the very least and I don't think yesterdays performance will have an impact on morale etc, if anything it will help our premiership campaign as we wont have our players playing too many games.
Also Davies attitude is top clas, fair dues to the lad.

Time Magazine

I'm a good bit more pissed off about the result this morning that I was last night.

I hate to see players dropped and young lads not getting their chance but there needs to be another clearing of deadwood and some proven quality coming into the side in January and at the end of the season. Hopefully, at the end of the seaon, the best side can look like this:

Carson

Right-back Laursen Mellberg Bouma

Young Reo-Coker Barry Maloney/Agbonlahor

Carew Defoe

Subs:
Taylor, Davies/Cahill, Berger/Gardner/Petrov, Agbonlahor/Maloney, Moore.

I have a lot of faith in Shaun Maloney and I think he's good enough (if he gets going) to knock Gabby out of the team. So I think a dog-fight between Young and them for the two winger positions will be good. Davies' attitude last night was top-class so I really think at the moment he's great potential for improving. If he manages it, it's bye bye Cahill. I think Mellberg should be retained at CB for one more season with Laursen. We need a right back. In January. We need a forward who will score goals. In January. I'd love to see Defoe come in.

But we need more quality in the side now and not be waiting for the likes of Davies, Gardner and Moore to perform. Hopefully we'll see Defore and a right-back (watched Bosingwa against Liverpool and don't think he's worth anywhere near £15m). Also, we're being linked with Pedro Mendes, who I think is probably surplus to requirements.

DSB

shoutman wrote:

If we had drawn or won the match no one, except maybe DSB would of been complaining about the line up.

Only if Petrov played;)

Bounty Hunter

Savman wrote:

I wish I had your outlook.

it isnt hard really, only once in the past 5yrs has a team other than Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool won the league cup and only three teams other than them even got to the final in those 5 years. put Simply i didnt expect expect Villa to win that cup and in going out they have just saved themselves a number of fixtures down the road, keeping the layers fresher for the league.

also when everyone else is so negative its not too hard to seem positive. i mean why is it that non-Villa fans seem more optimistic about how we will do this season than us? didnt we just beat Chelsea and Everton by 2 clear goals and dont most people expect them to be playing European football next season. These results also came while we dont have a recognised RB or argueably RW so im also optimistic that we are still going to get better in the second half of the season (post Jan).

Villa have a mean defense (despite the fact that its still getting used to each other), a very young squad with big potential, a top class manager (my opinion atleast) and the cash is there if needed. whats not to be optimistic about? although now that ive said all this Spurs will prob trounce us tommorow.

Savman

Bounty Hunter wrote:

it isnt hard really, only once in the past 5yrs has a team other than Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool won the league cup and only three teams other than them even got to the final in those 5 years. put Simply i didnt expect expect Villa to win that cup and in going out they have just saved themselves a number of fixtures down the road, keeping the layers fresher for the league.

also when everyone else is so negative its not too hard to seem positive. i mean why is it that non-Villa fans seem more optimistic about how we will do this season than us? didnt we just beat Chelsea and Everton by 2 clear goals and dont most people expect them to be playing European football next season. These results also came while we dont have a recognised RB or argueably RW so im also optimistic that we are still going to get better in the second half of the season (post Jan).

Villa have a mean defense (despite the fact that its still getting used to each other), a very young squad with big potential, a top class manager (my opinion atleast) and the cash is there if needed. whats not to be optimistic about? although now that ive said all this Spurs will prob trounce us tommorow.

Actually Villa V Spurs is on Monday

Bounty Hunter

Savman wrote:

Actually Villa V Spurs is on Monday

thanks that will help me when im searching for a stream of the game, as im in Chicago for the next couple of weeks.

DSB

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_2763437,00.html

When is he going to give up on this waste of space and admit he wasted money on him?

Savman

Have to agree, Petrov doesn't contribute anything. I'd give him until Jan or maybe end of season as we do need squad cover.
But after that I won't shed a tear if he goes. Thing is, who would take him?