Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: JJ-AV on November 14, 2010, 11:48:58 AM
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Talking about MON's departure now.
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What did they say?
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What did they say?
Said they knew nothing about MON leaving until turning on the tv, no players were celebrating.
Also laughed at the article about him starting a revolt because of GH taking over.
Spoke really well of the club.
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Nothing interesting really, Friedel was saying how it was a shock and all the talk of arguments within the camp were compeltely untrue and the players weren't happy.
Said he hadn't spoken to him pre-departure and gave the impression none of the players suspected it.
Laursen just said 'I can't take Manchester City seriously'. Quality.
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"I cannot take Manchester City seriously" - Martin Laursen 14/11/10 - Legend!
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get in there martin,class act all the way!!!!!!
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
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"I cannot take Manchester City seriously" - Martin Laursen 14/11/10 - Legend!
Excellent, top man, nor can I, like some sort of grotesque circus act with a manager who is a grade A pratt....
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"I cannot take Manchester City seriously" - Martin Laursen 14/11/10 - Legend!
Excellent, top man, nor can I, like some sort of grotesque circus act with a manager who is a grade A pratt....
and did Barry get booed yesterday when he came on for Tevez?
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Nope they were booing Mancini for subbing Tevez.
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Or, perhaps the reason he said there weren't arguments and no revolt was because it is the truth. Have you considered that outlandish possibility?
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Laursen: wouldn't say no to coming back to Villa one day and one day might go into management.
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Friedel talked about the promise of the youngsters. They both seemed like really good guys.
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Or, perhaps the reason he said there weren't arguments and no revolt was because it is the truth. Have you considered that outlandish possibility?
I would imagine that privately some players were very happy, and others might have been shocked/upset. MON's selection policy will have polarized the camp, and I think I've heard Laursen even suggest that in an earlier interview. One would assume that you would be quite happy to see the back of him if you were Davies, Sidwell, Reo-Coker etc, even if it is a bit far fetched to suggest they openly popped corks.
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Or, perhaps the reason he said there weren't arguments and no revolt was because it is the truth. Have you considered that outlandish possibility?
He's probably got more sense like most of us
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Laursen: wouldn't say no to coming back to Villa one day and one day might go into management.
There's something great about Laursen. He was quite simply immense for us whenever he pulled on the claret and blue.... I'd love to see him at the club in some capacity. The comment about Man City is priceless!
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Or, perhaps the reason he said there weren't arguments and no revolt was because it is the truth. Have you considered that outlandish possibility?
He's probably got more sense like most of us
You didn't see it did you?
He mentioned about how he'd been in touch with MON since. He wasn't lying, wasn't working to an agenda like silly sods like you do he was just giving his honest take on the situation.
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Exactly right.
Bannan (who is perhaps a little green in these matters) commented on the fact that a number of players felt something wasn't right pre season as MON had been less involved. He even went as far as to say that he felt it was something to do with the Liverpool link.
None of them were tripping over themselves to offer fawning tributes when he left, which might have been expected. Particularly from the first choice XI who he ran into the ground at the expense of others. Even Petrov spoke about how the players were delighted that Kevin Mac had got the gig and how they were pleased to be instructed to play "not just on the counter."
On a (vaguely) related MON theme, I found it interesting that both Everton and Tottenham were booed off this week. Tottenham after having the audacity to only draw with Sunderland at home and Everton after losing to Arsenal.
In Tottenham's case little over a week after their CL encounter with Inter Milan. If anyone might have a reason to feel insulated from criticism it would be Moyes at Everton too. Eight years at that club and he's delivered CL qualification, a cup final and regular top 6 finishes.
Yet neither 'arry or David Moyes saw fit to put the boot into their own fans in an attempt to deflect attention. Funny that.
Good manager is MON, in many ways. Despite what has gone on I can still say that. But I don't miss him at all.
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On a (vaguely) related MON theme, I found it interesting that both Everton and Tottenham were booed off this week. Tottenham after having the audacity to only draw with Sunderland at home and Everton after losing to Arsenal.
In Tottenham's case little over a week after their CL encounter with Inter Milan. If anyone might have a reason to feel insulated from criticism it would be Moyes at Everton too. Eight years at that club and he's delivered CL qualification, a cup final and regular top 6 finishes.
Yet neither 'arry or David Moyes saw fit to put the boot into their own fans in an attempt to deflect attention. Funny that.
Good manager is MON, in many ways. Despite what has gone on I can still say that. But I don't miss him at all.
You didn't read the papers then on Wednesday.
Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/8122308/Harry-Redknapp-hits-out-at-booing-Spurs-fans-following-draw-against-Sunderland.html)
It left the Tottenham fans bemoaning another two points dropped in the league, on the back of a 4-2 defeat at Bolton at the weekend, but just a week after they stunned Inter Milan in the Champions League at White Hart Lane.
"What have they got to moan about? We couldn't have done any more tonight; we couldn't have tried any harder," Redknapp said.
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I stand corrected, said the man in orthopaedic shoes.
Lets see if he brings it up at regular intervals over the next few weeks even if not prompted.
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I stand corrected, said the man in orthopaedic shoes.
Lets see if he brings it up at regular intervals over the next few weeks even if not prompted.
That I doubt although you never know with Arry. I haven't seen his remarks after the 4-2 yesterday which would have been a time to rub it in if he was going to.
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I stand corrected, said the man in orthopaedic shoes.
Oi Oi, i used that one not long ago on here...not that it's a particularly original joke but still! And of the players glad to see the back of MoN, i'm sure Reo-Coker was top of the list. He has been up there with Downing as our best players so far this season.
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I love Laursen's quote about Man Citeh, what a legend!
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Laursen: wouldn't say no to coming back to Villa one day and one day might go into management.
There's something great about Laursen. He was quite simply immense for us whenever he pulled on the claret and blue.... I'd love to see him at the club in some capacity. The comment about Man City is priceless!
There was some discussion on here recently about what makes a Villa legend. For me, Laursen proves that longevity isn't necessarily an issue, as he only actually played for us properly for about three years but, in my eyes, is undoubtedly deserving of legend status.
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TBH I'd struggle with the legend tag being applied to a player like Laursen.
I take the point that it doesn't automatically need to be based on sheer number of games played.
But we'd be getting into Bluenose territory if we suddenly start acclaiming players who have played so few games for us as legends.
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Without wanting to drag up the debate again, I think Laursen has contributed enough to be considered in some way legendary. Granted, he's not at God/Sid/Morley status or anything, but certainly a player I think many of us will remember with a degree of legend-like reverance.
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Well he is certainly the best CB we've had since God
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Do I think Friedel could have been telling the truth when he said what he said on Goals on Sunday? Yes.
Do I think he was? Probably.
If the truth was different, would he admit it? No.
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I don't think it's any accident that he was part of a very good AC Milan squad early-mid noughties.
And we had a spell from him that was as good as any Villa CB since McGrath. I'd go as far as to say that during that spell he was as good as anything in the country.
But that's what, less than two calender years?
That's part of the frustration for me, he could have been a big part in a really successful spell for the club. Would we have gone on to qualify for the CL in 2008/09 with him ever present? No one can say for certain, but we'd have stood a far better chance.
It would also have probably meant that we'd have had the guts of £10 million to invest elsewhere in the summer prior to 2009/10 as the Laursen/ Davies partnership looked solid and there would have been little need to sign Collins and Dunne. All ifs buts and maybes.
But I don't see approx two good seasons and 84 games in total as befitting legend status, esp with no trophies won or tangible success. Just my opinion.
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Friedel is an experienced guy, even if there was arguments etc behind the scenes with MON or a revolt against GH coming in, he'd hardly admit to it on the TV, would he?
Or, perhaps the reason he said there weren't arguments and no revolt was because it is the truth. Have you considered that outlandish possibility?
Yes. I never actually said I thought there was any arguments or revolts. Did I?
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I don't think we'd have qualified for the Champs League should he have stayed fit, it wasn't as close as that.
We also had 2-3 games without him that we won (and kept clean sheets) despite being under the kosh.
We were too one dimensional, sucking up pressure and hitting teams on the counter wasn't gonna last.
Not beating Arsenal at Villa Park in the 2-2 was what cost us I think, beginning of the end - despite the heroic effort to get a point.
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I've nicked Laursen's quote for my "thingy-at-the-bottom-of-the-message" - Thanks.
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I don't think we'd have qualified for the Champs League should he have stayed fit, it wasn't as close as that.
We also had 2-3 games without him that we won (and kept clean sheets) despite being under the kosh.
We were too one dimensional, sucking up pressure and hitting teams on the counter wasn't gonna last.
Not beating Arsenal at Villa Park in the 2-2 was what cost us I think, beginning of the end - despite the heroic effort to get a point.
I broadly agree.
And the way Arsenal managed to remain unbeaten from about December 08 onwards was pretty impressive.
But would they have managed that with more pressure on, particularly with an 8 point gap in our favour going into the final two and a bit months of the season?
We'll never know.
But I doubt we'd have been so open and all over the shop as we were versus Tottenham at home, Liverpool away and so on.
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Is Laursen a legend?
He is in my book. I know for sure that goal against Fulham and Vidigic's yesterday would not have happened had we had a fit Laursen in the team.
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It's impossible to say what would/wouldn't have happened had Laursen stayed fit. But bearing in mind how close we got and how much we missed him, I'd find it hard to argue with anyone who says we would have got 4th.
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We missed his impact two fold at the back end of that campaign.
The stability and control he had at the back and the mayhem he could cause in the opposition penalty area from free kicks or corners. Even if he didn't score (and he scored a few) he'd tie defenders up enough for someone else in our side to benefit.
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Isn't Laursen back in Denmark now? So not sure he'd have been right in the action when the previous manager left.
With Friedel, he's simply a much better keeper than the one Houllier had at Liverpool so that was a non issue for me.
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When it comes to assigning 'legend' status, I often think to how i'd design a montage of players in a hall-of-fame. You'd have the players that did something special at some stage of their Villa career to make them memorable, then the good players, the great and at the end of the wall, i'd have the legends. For me, Laursen is right at the end of the 'great' section, just before you get to the likes of Sid, Sir Brian, etc.
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Laursen filled me with confidence for those couple of seasons when he was fully fit. You knew we would be solid at the back when he was in the team. You knew he would throw himself in the way of anything that came his way. He was brave, composed and had high intelligence and concentration levels. He also contributed a fair few goals from corners.
For me, he's a villa legend.
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I think the moment we lost Martin Laurson was when things really started to go wrong under O'Neill. He was our captain and arguably our most inspirational players. You could say that, even with the arrival of Dunne and Collins, we are still struggling to replace him.
Just a thought...
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I heard from inside the club how Laursen was respected and the way that he conducted himself, he had time for everybody and was respected by everbody, he loved the Club and was the perfect captain. He was certainly a leader, great captain and very very good player.
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To use Johnny Giles lingo, a good player but not a great one. The club were very good to him too don't forget. I think the goalscoring run he went on is clouding posters opinions of him as a player. He was superb in the air but tended to spend a bit of time on the ground too if memory serves correct. Despite being partnered with Mellberg, Cahill, Ridgewell, Knight, Davies and Cuellar - I don't think any partnership he was part of was as solid as Dunne and Collins. The stats would back that up too.
The season he got injured we kept playing well til February. Remember a superb win away to Blackburn after which it all went horribly wrong. Curtis Davies in particular lost all form but Luke Young at left back, Cuellar and a host of others went to pot at the same time. MON lack of rotation and the disastrous change of formation following the signing of Emile Heskey were more to blame.