50% Villa: Assou-Ekotto on not becoming us

[olaftab]

Harsh..... but true.

[Mister E]

What this player is really saying, though I doubt he has the intelligence to know the full implications of what he was saying, is you will finish up like Aston Villa (who are going through a period of retrenchment ahead of uncertain economic times).

If I owned a premiership club at the moment my first priority would be to see that the club can survive the economic firestorm which is blowing across europe.

Italy has a national debt of 1.7 trillion dollars.   What do you think is going to happen to Inter and Juve and Roma if Germany turns off the bail out tap?   And if Italy goes Spain will be right next in line.   Cesc Fabregas would be left dreaming of those golden days when his salary cheque did not bounce.

Players like Assou-Ekotto can holds forth like Joey Barton reading a volume of Pam Ayres poetry about clubs and ambition but what he really wants is the gravy train to keep on rolling.

Yes.

[timeoutbigbar]

The only reason Spurs have got even half a chance of getting into the CL is because of Arsenals poor run this season.  If they start to rebuild the squad a bit more and get a few players back from injury, then Spurs won't even have that.

[avfc_1874]

Meh. Stating the obvious.

[Monty]

I can't disagree. We're not exactly looking the hottest thing on the menu right now, are we?

[KevinGage]

And the hits just keep on coming.

Didn't Scholes have a pop at us during the summer too?

Maybe we are entering a lengthy period of transition/ regression.

Maybe - like Tottingham have done for many, many seasons since the 60's- we'll find a nice, comfy position in mid-table and make it our own.  Who knows?

But a player who is a long way from being World class might want to wind his neck in a bit.  He could end up at Sunderland, Everton or even -shock!-   Aston Villa in little over 12 months.  Stranger things have happened.

[dave.woodhall]

And the hits just keep on coming.

Didn't Scholes have a pop at us during the summer too?

Maybe we are entering a lengthy period of transition/ regression.

Maybe - like Tottingham have done for many, many seasons since the 60's- we'll find a nice, comfy position in mid-table and make it our own.  Who knows?

But a player who is a long way from being World class might want to wind his neck in a bit.  He could end up at Sunderland, Everton or even -shock!-   Aston Villa in little over 12 months.  Stranger things have happened.

Or maybe his club will heed the warning, continue to improve and even, with luck, have their first title challenge for half a century.

[The Left Side]

As mentioned on here I cannot disagree with him but it would be nice if this was posted at Bodymoor Heath and used to kick start our season, sadly I don't think it will get the desired reaction though.

[Dante Lavelli]

I wonder whether Randy will get to read this and what his reaction would be?

[Gulf Villa]

Cant realy argue with him, Randy either looks at getting new investment onboard, or it will be Bannon, Albrighton and Bent next summer, because they are the only players that would command a decent fee.

[Ross]

Cant realy argue with him, Randy either looks at getting new investment onboard, or it will be Bannon, Albrighton and Bent next summer, because they are the only players that would command a decent fee.

Decent fee for Albrighton?  Have you seen the guy play in the last 12 months?  The only member of the squad who we'd get more than £10M for now is Bent.

[PaulTheVillan]

This comes from the player who doesn't like playing football, he's only in it for the money.

[supertom]

Cant realy argue with him, Randy either looks at getting new investment onboard, or it will be Bannon, Albrighton and Bent next summer, because they are the only players that would command a decent fee.

Decent fee for Albrighton?  Have you seen the guy play in the last 12 months?  The only member of the squad who we'd get more than £10M for now is Bent.

We'd get comfortably over 10 for Gabby. Not that he'd want to leave or (I hope) we'd consider selling him. Never know though. Hopefully Randy's balanced the books enough with the sales of Milner, Downing and Young. But unfortunately, we're not a club with a particularly big fan base, so operating within means is difficult. To do that basically means, we can't spend a lot on transfers and big wages because we'll never break even.

[Lambert and Payne]

He's right, but why the need to slag us off. Didn't hollaway cause much grievance by saying similar?

[Legion]

I think he referred to us as 'a half-assed place that used to be famous'.