Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: IFWaters on July 17, 2015, 07:13:02 PM
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I think with Delp going and Benteke very close to going thats it for me now.
For me, football has been spoilt by the footballers.
I dont believe a word they say, I am just convinced their whole world is driven by money and ego. Delph was a regular in the England squad playing for us, the captain of the club, promised TWICE he was staying and that we meant everything... and now.. all gone.. WHY ?
What am I supposed to explain to my 7 year old son about how its important to play for your team, its not all about him, when this is the example thats being set, not just by Delph, Sterling has been even worse. Its not just an English problem, its players from all over have NO connection to the clubs and no respect for the fans any more - say what you like about Steven Gerrard but at least he stuck it out for 15+ years for HIS football club, I admire that ... but it is SO rare now.
So I love my Aston Villa, but until there is somebody playing for us who respects and loves it in the same way then I'll take a pass.
Perhaps its time for me to take a look at something lower league because the money has ruined this all for me now.
We might as well all cheer on a bunch of bankers.... woohoo Delphy made 5 MILLION on derivatives bets - WHAT A MAN !!!!!!
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Wholeheartedly agree with you mate, todays fiasco was the final nail in the coffin for me. I don't need the anger and annoyance these guys generate in me anymore. I'd prefer to remember the days when I walked up the steps saw the pitch would feel a buzz of excitement, Instead of the vomit inducing badge kissing wankers we see on every pitch and TV screen today.
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Money has ruined the game completely. If any team outside the top 6 discovers new talent then its only a matter of time before they lured by £££s and cherry picked by these teams (and even more so if they are English players), and the FFP and the homegrown rules have truly fucked everyone else over.
The new Sky deal will make PL clubs stronger in the European market to bring in more foreign players, and this will have even more knock on affects including:
a) the PL will become more competitive with all clubs being able to cherry pick the best foreign players.
b) the PL will be full of more European players and decrease the number of English players actually playing.
c) English players transfer fees will be even more expensive/inflated.
d) the England international team will suffer.
Basically the new rules are fucking useless with the amount of Sky money in the game, and it will destroy the English game internationally.
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It needs a revolution.It starts with the fans giving up.
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Boo fucking hoo.
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Agreed. Although I think I had reached that decision years ago, althoughs still go to 10 games a season and spent about £500 on two days out at Wembley.
Gerrard was a one off and wont be repeated.
The lack of loyalty is one thing but the total lack of a level playing field money wise is the biggest issue for me.
Its all a bit shit and the last 2 days just about sums it all up
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It needs a revolution.It starts with the fans giving up.
Stuff the revolution, where's my £200 quid?
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Everton in exactly the same position
Stones will be off to Chelsea soon and Citeh sniffing round McCarthy
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Cant be bothered with it any more.
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It's been a bad day, but it's not the end. We have to rebuild and move on. Arsenal and Southampton are both examples of clubs who in recent years have lost many top players but they have replaced them really well. We need to do that same and the players who have come in are all good players. We need more of them off course.
Now is not the time to give up!
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It needs a revolution.It starts with the fans giving up.
I often say im giving up and then get excited again when we do well.....like get over the halfway line. Its in the blood and is not easy to give up
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Are we the club that everyone just likes to shit on?
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It's a pisser but it's what we do now that matters. Sherwood needs the full backing of the board to go out and attract quality players to join. It's 3 weeks until the season starts so not a time to fuck about. Let's try and turn today's negative into something very positive, and soon.
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Everton in exactly the same position
Stones will be off to Chelsea soon and Citeh sniffing round McCarthy
Don't think they need to bother with McCarthy for there benchwarming FA cup-League cup specialist, quota filling player anymore, do you.
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What's the point? The only point nowadays is money. Man City used to be a good honest football club with aspirations similar to us. Never seemed to win much but had great support and a well liked team. Then came Sheikhy boy with his trillions and bought them the league title. Now look where they are and how much hated they are for what they have done to football, as have Chelsea. Maybe the answer is in the NFL where they have a draft picks system. Not sure how it would work but certainly the principle is a good one.
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Are we the club that everyone just likes to shit on?
It does seem like that sometimes
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We've lost far better players than these before in my opinion.
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Maybe the answer is in the NFL where they have a draft picks system. Not sure how it would work but certainly the principle is a good one.
and a proper salary (transfer) cap to keep clubs from hoovering up all the most expensive players.
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Maybe the answer is in the NFL where they have a draft picks system. Not sure how it would work but certainly the principle is a good one.
and a proper salary (transfer) cap to keep clubs from hoovering up all the most expensive players.
Agreed
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I just hope we hurry up and buy some more wankers who shit on their clubs to come to us.
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The point is that this is your football club. We have no divine right to be at the top and winning trophies. We don't have the finances of those top 6 teams.
Go and watch the odd lower league game and you will see what it's all about.
But give Sherwood a chance, he'll get us playing decent football.
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I don't get this "no loyalty in football" etc nonsense. Top players will go wherever the money/ambition is, and we have spent precious little of the former and shown absolute zero of the latter over the last 5 years.
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(https://darkroom.dreamteamfc.com/1200/0/770cf52b47872bd64b0a4a6399d9091d:302ba3dd55e4670d98811e4497f824cb/delph.jpg)
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It's hardly a sudden shock that money rules the game and most players are either greedy bastards or want to play in better sides and that the richest clubs win the most trophies.
The point is i'm Villa, and that's the only point.
What's the point of Bury, Chesterfield etc. What's the point of Genk when we sign their best player. Or any other club when we take their players who sees us as a step up/more money.
Edit: Percy said similar.
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The point is that this is your football club. We have no divine right to be at the top and winning trophies. We don't have the finances of those top 6 teams.
Go and watch the odd lower league game and you will see what it's all about.
But give Sherwood a chance, he'll get us playing decent football.
Well of course he's been given a chance, have you seen how many fans turn up every other week? We want to see some ambition, so what's wrong with saying that? We don't just sit there like nodding dogs and take every bit of shit thrown at us by Lerner and co.
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There is no point. But then that goes for all human activity. One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Anyway, have a nice weekend everyone.
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It's hardly a sudden shock that money rules the game and most players are either greedy bastards or want to play in better sides and that the richest clubs win the most trophies.
The point is i'm Villa, and that's the only point.
What's the point of Bury, Chesterfield etc. What's the point of Genk when we sign their best player. Or any other club when we take their players who sees us as a step up/more money.
Edit: Percy said similar.
I'm sure that's the view with every Villa fan out there, but let's see a bit of ambition at the club. We have our pride you know.
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On days like today it all seems pretty futile
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We are making up the numbers. When a club like Man City can take our best midfielder to boost there home grown players...then it is a joke. The days are long gone for competition...we can only dream of CL let alone the championship, same goes for a lot of clubs. We are either waiting for a stupidly rich takeover or a change in the system.
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My mate stopped going to The Villa after they sold his seat because he left it late renewing. That was his tipping point. He now watches Solihull Moors and bores me shitless about how cheap it is, how good the beer in the clubhouse is, how it's all played in the right spirit without money ruining everything.
"Why don't you come with me?" He asked.
"Because I wouldn't give a shit who wins".
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Sorry, I meant the PL championship...not the other one, that one may be a lot closer.
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For me AVFC is an addiction.
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It's been a bad day, but it's not the end. We have to rebuild and move on. Arsenal and Southampton are both examples of clubs who in recent years have lost many top players but they have replaced them really well. We need to do that same and the players who have come in are all good players. We need more of them off course.
Now is not the time to give up!
We rebuild and the same cycle kicks in in two years' time.
The only way things will change is if we get a huge takeover or the Premier League and UEFA finally see sense and introduce rules that level the playing field so that every club has a greater chance of competing for some glory. The present set up is destroying the game. I really do wish Villa would make a stand - we created the league, symbolically we could lead the other clubs into pressing for changes and even strikes.
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For me AVFC is an addiction.
feels like smack last few years
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It's been a bad day, but it's not the end. We have to rebuild and move on. Arsenal and Southampton are both examples of clubs who in recent years have lost many top players but they have replaced them really well. We need to do that same and the players who have come in are all good players. We need more of them off course.
Now is not the time to give up!
We rebuild and the same cycle kicks in in two years' time.
The only way things will change is if we get a huge takeover or the Premier League and UEFA finally see sense and introduce rules that level the playing field so that every club has a greater chance of competing for some glory. The present set up is destroying the game. I really do wish Villa would make a stand - we created the league, symbolically we could lead the other clubs into pressing for changes and even strikes.
That's not going to happen though is it? What can happen is that we buy players that will improve us and if they are sold then we have a pipeline of good players to replace them. What we haven't done well is replace our good players and that's why we are where we are.
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If we're expecting a team that competes, or that wins things, then there is no point. I've thought this for a while now, but the only way we, the fans, can find a point to it all is by making the match day experience a laugh. Forget the football, it will only disappoint. Just accept we're shit, and will probably always be shit now, and have a fucking good time at matches (as much as is possible in the sterile Premier League) regardless of the crap on the pitch. The sticking point is the outrageous ticket price, but what choice do we have?
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Another Villa shambles, laced with the usual mix of incompetence and lies. I agree with all the sentiments expressed about the state of the English game, and its money obsessed lack of morality, but ask yourselves this question; why does this sort of thing keep happening to the Villa? The club is dying through serial mis-management. We've got a hopeless and semi-detached owner who can't even sell the club in a semi-competent way. Every transfer we try and undertake is nearly always botched or takes five weeks to complete. We can't seem to negotiate contracts with our better players without them and their agents inserting release and escape clauses. We can't get rid of the dross, players bought for ludicrous transfer fees and put on ridiculous long term and lucrative contracts, and we can't attract quality players. Every close season is a fiasco with all the talk concentrated on who's leaving. We never get on the front foot, it's always negative and defensive fire-fighting. Utterly hopeless, and before we round on Delph and Benteke, the real culprit, the almost impossibly useless Randy Lerner, sits in his faraway mansion fiddling while his club burns.
I leave you with this thought. What decision or action has Lerner taken these last five disastrous years that has proved to be a good and insightful one and that has benefited our club? This is the man who gave us McLeish and Lambert ,remember, and has presided over the most calamitous run of results in the history of the club. Not one bad year, five dreadful ones on the trot. Nothing remotely good will happen at the Villa until the worst owner and Chairman we've ever had lets the club out of his death grip.
The Delph fiasco is typical of the club that Lerner has tragically allowed the Villa to become.
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One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Three nanoseconds before we win the FA cup.
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Its days like today that make you realise how futile it is. We cant leave, we cant break the cycle. You hope the men that make the decisions would influence change but why would they? They are running the richest clubs and the richest league in the world. I would love nothing more than to see a salary cap level the field but its not going to happen. Money has and always will talk louder than the fans.
This week is a dark one for AVFC but we will bounce back. Roll on next season and the quest to be the best of the teams that don't matter!
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If we're expecting a team that competes, or that wins things, then there is no point. I've thought this for a while now, but the only way we, the fans, can find a point to it all is by making the match day experience a laugh. Forget the football, it will only disappoint. Just accept we're shit, and will probably always be shit now, and have a fucking good time at matches (as much as is possible in the sterile Premier League) regardless of the crap on the pitch. The sticking point is the outrageous ticket price, but what choice do we have?
I've felt exactly like that for years now. Away games are as much an excuse to drink all day as to watch Villa lose.
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Another Villa shambles, laced with the usual mix of incompetence and lies. I agree with all the sentiments expressed about the state of the English game, and its money obsessed lack of morality, but ask yourselves this question; why does this sort of thing keep happening to the Villa? The club is dying through serial mis-management. We've got a hopeless and semi-detached owner who can't even sell the club in a semi-competent way. Every transfer we try and undertake is nearly always botched or takes five weeks to complete. We can't seem to negotiate contracts with our better players without them and their agents inserting release and escape clauses. We can't get rid of the dross, players bought for ludicrous transfer fees and put on ridiculous long term and lucrative contracts, and we can't attract quality players. Every close season is a fiasco with all the talk concentrated on who's leaving. We never get on the front foot, it's always negative and defensive fire-fighting. Utterly hopeless, and before we round on Delph and Benteke, the real culprit, the almost impossibly useless Randy Lerner, sits in his faraway mansion fiddling while his club burns.
I leave you with this thought. What decision or action has Lerner taken these last five disastrous years that has proved to be a good and insightful one and that has benefited our club? This is the man who gave us McLeish and Lambert ,remember, and has presided over the most calamitous run of results in the history of the club. Not one bad year, five dreadful ones on the trot. Nothing remotely good will happen at the Villa until the worst owner and Chairman we've ever had lets the club out of his death grip.
The Delph fiasco is typical of the club that Lerner has tragically allowed the Villa to become.
Youre talking crap mate
Agree re Mcleish but we all wanted Lambert at the time. Randy was fleeced by Pube head and rightly has reigned in the spending. We would have been bust otherwise.
The Delph issue is down to the player himself. The club are blameless
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For all the doom and gloom, the league is getting more competitive. More and more Premier League TV money (especially overseas rights, which are split evenly) make things like Champions League money, sponsorship, match day income, even rich owners, less significant.
Top teams don't rest players for league games now, that's why English clubs have gone shit in Europe. Small, well-managed clubs like Swansea can do well from their little grounds compared to big, badly- managed clubs like us and Newcastle.
Today of all days it's hard to see but I believe it's happening. Good management in all aspects of the club is the key.
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I dont blame the club for either of the players leaving. Sherwood has a helluva job getting me enthusiastic again though. Football and Aston Villa in particular has felt tired and out of ideas for years. Its ground me down. Its a pretty joyless existence supporting a non moneyed team.
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If we're expecting a team that competes, or that wins things, then there is no point. I've thought this for a while now, but the only way we, the fans, can find a point to it all is by making the match day experience a laugh. Forget the football, it will only disappoint. Just accept we're shit, and will probably always be shit now, and have a fucking good time at matches (as much as is possible in the sterile Premier League) regardless of the crap on the pitch. The sticking point is the outrageous ticket price, but what choice do we have?
I've felt exactly like that for years now. Away games are as much an excuse to drink all day as to watch Villa lose.
My brother in law supports Sheffield United. I'd say he enjoys it every bit as much as I do Villa. And in turn I reckon Man City supporters are as happy or as miserable as we are.
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One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Three nanoseconds before we win the FA cup.
No chance. The sun thing is due in about 7.5 billion years' time which is way too early to expect us to be on the cusp of winning the FA Cup.
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I take it nobody bemoaning the current situation wants us taken over by a zillionaire.
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I take it nobody bemoaning the current situation wants us taken over by a zillionaire.
I'd be happy for us to be taken over by an ISIS/Nazi Party joint consortium if they win us the FA Cup.
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"Youre talking crap mate
Agree re Mcleish but we all wanted Lambert at the time. Randy was fleeced by Pube head and rightly has reigned in the spending. We would have been bust otherwise.
The Delph issue is down to the player himself. The club are blameless"
You don't get it, do you? Delph is no better or worse a person than your average Premiership player. In fact, he comes over as a likeable and genuine bloke whenever I've heard him speak. He just didn't want to carry on playing for the Villa and somebody made him a better offer. The same can be said of Milner, Barry, Cahill, Young and Downing. Benteke will be next out of the door too, although I suspect he's one of your more typical big time Charlie footballers who senses greener grass elsewhere wherever he plies his trade. Two good seasons at Liverpool and he and his agent will convince themselves that Barcelona is the next logical step. He'd have gone from the Villa two years ago if he hadn't picked up a serious injury. Let's just be thankful we had him long enough to keep us up and we've made £25 million out of him.
Well run clubs would be able to keep Delph and have persuaded him to stay. If you can't see that the Villa have become a shambles under Lerner, where the hell have you been these last five years. Forget the clowns like Falkner, McLeish, Lambert etc who've come and gone; Lerner is the common thread that runs through the club's disastrous decline into irrelevance.
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One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Three nanoseconds before we win the FA cup.
No chance. The sun thing is due in about 7.5 billion years' time which is way too early to expect us to be on the cusp of winning the FA Cup.
By which time I expect we'll be in space, observing the incineration of our planet. The destruction of all we hold dear, all we ever cherished. An anguished moment in time stretching through countless aeons as the very fabric of space and time is rent asunder.
Just like Spurs away under McLeish.
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We are being screwed over beyond precedent. Even our esteemed leader must wonder why the fuck anyone would buy a season ticket for this level of pure reaming.
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We are being screwed over beyond precedent. Even our esteemed leader must wonder why the fuck anyone would buy a season ticket for this level of pure reaming.
Right now supporting Villa is like being endlessly reamed by a randy bull elephant. Eventually the beast tires, but then you realise his mate is waiting to take over.
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We are being screwed over beyond precedent. Even our esteemed leader must wonder why the fuck anyone would buy a season ticket for this level of pure reaming.
Right now supporting Villa is like being endlessly reamed by a randy bull elephant. Eventually the beast tires, but then you realise his mate is waiting to take over.
No hyperbole there, oh no.
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One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Three nanoseconds before we win the FA cup.
No chance. The sun thing is due in about 7.5 billion years' time which is way too early to expect us to be on the cusp of winning the FA Cup.
By which time I expect we'll be in space, observing the incineration of our planet. The destruction of all we hold dear, all we ever cherished. An anguished moment in time stretching through countless aeons as the very fabric of space and time is rent asunder.
Just like Spurs away under McLeish.
We'll be watching highlights of Mars Megoliths v Cenus' Volcanoes in the semi-final of the Earth memorial cup. The Tories will have redrawn the celestial boundaries and declared new fixed term parkiaments of 1000 Plutonian years. Bruce Forsyth will be presenting Match of the Day and Sky will have changed Villa's fixtures to be played every other year at midnight ib three feet of snow. On the olus side Delph will re-sign for us.
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Another Villa shambles, laced with the usual mix of incompetence and lies. I agree with all the sentiments expressed about the state of the English game, and its money obsessed lack of morality, but ask yourselves this question; why does this sort of thing keep happening to the Villa? The club is dying through serial mis-management. We've got a hopeless and semi-detached owner who can't even sell the club in a semi-competent way. Every transfer we try and undertake is nearly always botched or takes five weeks to complete. We can't seem to negotiate contracts with our better players without them and their agents inserting release and escape clauses. We can't get rid of the dross, players bought for ludicrous transfer fees and put on ridiculous long term and lucrative contracts, and we can't attract quality players. Every close season is a fiasco with all the talk concentrated on who's leaving. We never get on the front foot, it's always negative and defensive fire-fighting. Utterly hopeless, and before we round on Delph and Benteke, the real culprit, the almost impossibly useless Randy Lerner, sits in his faraway mansion fiddling while his club burns.
I leave you with this thought. What decision or action has Lerner taken these last five disastrous years that has proved to be a good and insightful one and that has benefited our club? This is the man who gave us McLeish and Lambert ,remember, and has presided over the most calamitous run of results in the history of the club. Not one bad year, five dreadful ones on the trot. Nothing remotely good will happen at the Villa until the worst owner and Chairman we've ever had lets the club out of his death grip.
The Delph fiasco is typical of the club that Lerner has tragically allowed the Villa to become.
Hear hear!
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"Youre talking crap mate
Agree re Mcleish but we all wanted Lambert at the time. Randy was fleeced by Pube head and rightly has reigned in the spending. We would have been bust otherwise.
The Delph issue is down to the player himself. The club are blameless"
You don't get it, do you? Delph is no better or worse a person than your average Premiership player. In fact, he comes over as a likeable and genuine bloke whenever I've heard him speak. He just didn't want to carry on playing for the Villa and somebody made him a better offer.
Lerner is the common thread that runs through the club's disastrous decline into irrelevance.
On the first point I've highlighted, I would say that it seems to me that he DID want to carry on playing for Villa BUT someone made him a better offer.
On the second point I've highlighted, you seem to have forgotten that we were a pretty disastrous irrelevance just before Lerner got here. In fact, the summer before he arrived I was was certain we were to be relegated the following season. A certainty that I am strangely nowhere near feeling now. i'm not saying we won't get relegated, but the idea this is a Lerner based phenomenon is completely false. We were in decline well before he got here. The illusion that we weren't is only created by the fact that he reversed it for a while.
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So in a roundabout way you're blaming Doug for the mess we're in?
Jesus wept.
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We are being screwed over beyond precedent. Even our esteemed leader must wonder why the fuck anyone would buy a season ticket for this level of pure reaming.
Right now supporting Villa is like being endlessly reamed by a randy bull elephant. Eventually the beast tires, but then you realise his mate is waiting to take over.
Hey, we've all been there right guys?
Guys?
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Some people talk like they're surprised, its been many years, apart from the odd exception, since footballers were loyal. If you were offered a better job you'd walk, obviously handled badly by someone but fuck em, players come players go.
I watched dross for 95% of the season then had the time of my life at Baggies quarter final, Semi final and (despite the result) the Cup final and played with Nigel Spink on Villa Park in a supporters club match after the Burnley game, that why I keep coming back.
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I assumed I'd always be a Villa fan, but I also assumed there would be a period of my life where I would start to take it all less seriously and try and be more objective about football in general. But moments like this make me realise that outside of Aston Villa, I genuinely despise the way football is dictated by finance. It may be relative - I'm sure secretly there are Noses who would jump at the chance for us to trade owners, status, stadia - but we can't buy our way into competitiveness, and the Delph and Benteke thing sure as shit teach us that the slow and steady building project is doomed from the off.
My dream was that we would lift that Cup in May and we would close a door on a recent past that has been miserable. The fact we were looking at a hiding from about two minutes in disappointed me, but the whole experience, from fans fighting fans, to five pound lager, to three hours trying to keep warm outside the Wembley Shopping Extravaganza or whatever it was called, finally drilled it in to me that I'm supporting a club in the footballing equivalent of an Ice Age. It's all razzmatazz, hype and bullshit where money is king and romance is dead. I'm not naive - I can see why Delph went, for example - but in sport you have to have faith, otherwise there's nothing to keep you from wandering off when times are tough.
I must admit to going through that crisis. It sounds dramatic, but that FA Cup Final caused a shift in a cornerstone of my life, which was my unconditional support of this club. For the first time in years, maybe ever, I'm not fussed about missing games. I'm not bothered about players we sign or the fact I'm away for the opening fixtures. It all just seems like a gigantic waste of time, and this week has added another couple of entries to the negatives pile. I expect at some point I'll get excited by it all again, but for now, I think I'll just be prepared to be disappointed.
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I've had a season ticket on and off since the 1960s and my son joined me in 1990. This season we haven't renewed. I have no faith/belief in the stewardship of Randy and his management team. The leadership skills at the Club, seemingly at all levels, are non-existent: in fact it reminds me of the classic appraisal comments about an army officer, "His men follow him more out of curiosity than necessity."
However, I will book a guided tour of Villa Park for myself, my son, his girlfriend and her little sister. It will remind me of what a wonderful stadium and history the Villa has. We'll try and get a couple of games in this season but they will have to be at 3.00pm on Saturday.
Oh and the Premier League, the media, the Delphs of this world, the gormless FA, can all Foxtrot Oscar - See Abdul the taxidermist - Go forth and multiply.
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I've had a season ticket on and off since the 1960s and my son joined me in 1990. This season we haven't renewed. I have no faith/belief in the stewardship of Randy and his management team. The leadership skills at the Club, seemingly at all levels, are non-existent: in fact it reminds me of the classic appraisal comments about an army officer, "His men follow him more out of curiosity than necessity."
However, I will book a guided tour of Villa Park for myself, my son, his girlfriend and her little sister. It will remind me of what a wonderful stadium and history the Villa has. We'll try and get a couple of games in this season but they will have to be at 3.00pm on Saturday.
Oh and the Premier League, the media, the Delphs of this world, the gormless FA, can all Foxtrot Oscar - See Abdul the taxidermist - Go forth and multiply.
Sad to see you go, newtonsballs, but your argument has cogency.
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On the second point I've highlighted, you seem to have forgotten that we were a pretty disastrous irrelevance just before Lerner got here. In fact, the summer before he arrived I was was certain we were to be relegated the following season. A certainty that I am strangely nowhere near feeling now. i'm not saying we won't get relegated, but the idea this is a Lerner based phenomenon is completely false. We were in decline well before he got here. The illusion that we weren't is only created by the fact that he reversed it for a while.
I had that same feeling of nailed on relegation the year before Lerner and MOL came in. I have that same feeling now.
We have lost the 2 players that kept us up last season, we've flirted with it for a few years now, and it would be just Villa's luck to final meet our demise in the same summer that the new TV cash is flashed at everyone.
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This is the first summer to be excited about in a long time. £9 million on a midfielder, £10 million on the next French left back; genuine ambition in our targets, back room staff to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated.
Every club loses players, even their best ones. If Man United can have them taken, so can we. This isn't a phenomena of the modern game either.
I have a belief that we will quite comfortably replace Delph, while if we get even half the player of Benteke, our scouts will have worked some magic.
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One day the sun will consume the solar system and none of it will matter.
Three nanoseconds before we win the FA cup.
And in that moment, we will concede.
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My original point is i blame the footballers. Granted Randy has made a royal mess out of the last few seasons but thats just adding to our bad luckin this situation. I read Delph's statement and I smell horseshit. The same old chance to test myself drivel trotted out every time and were supposed to lap it up. It makes no difference to his England chances in fact id argue it makes them worse. So what is it Fabian ?
A ) chance to win medals - ego then.
B) money - i'd respect you if you admitted it.
C) you were unhappy with something -well bloody say so - perhaps the takeover falling through.
You owe us an answer Fabian, my son deserves better than this.
I dont agree with its always been this way , its got worse. I grew up in Derby in the 70s when they won the league twice. That would never happen now for them let alone us and we are the biggest club in the midlands. I just think its desperately sad that the game has been taken over by those in it for themselves rather than those trying to be part of a team.
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Its at times like these I appreciate the Steve Bulls, Steven Gerards, Ian Taylor's, gabby Agbonlahors of this world.
And for all gabbys bad points, at least he has stood in the holte as a young lad, and stayed committed to the cause.
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Its at times like these I appreciate the Steve Bulls, Steven Gerards, Ian Taylor's, gabby Agbonlahors of this world.
And for all gabbys bad points, at least he has stood in the holte as a young lad, and stayed committed to the cause.
You really think the first and third of those would have stayed loyal now, when they could double their wages with one signature?
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This is the first summer to be excited about in a long time. £9 million on a midfielder, £10 million on the next French left back; genuine ambition in our targets, back room staff to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated.
Every club loses players, even their best ones. If Man United can have them taken, so can we. This isn't a phenomena of the modern game either.
I have a belief that we will quite comfortably replace Delph, while if we get even half the player of Benteke, our scouts will have worked some magic.
I kind of agree with you regarding the last point but with the exception of the keeper we will likely be starting the season without the spine of our team containing our two most influential players. Sherwood may work wonders with new recruits but it's a tall order to expect them all to be the real deal from the off.
I comfort myself in the fact that even with that spine we only just managed to avoid the drop. Maybe the change and shake up is what we need to progress. I really hope so.
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Long, long time reader and used to post many moons ago. Anyhow, felt the need to post again tonight. When I got home earlier I was the same as you all, gutted, pissed off and then totally disillusioned about all things football. I fully agree with what everyone's said about modern football and the modern footballer, 100%, I hate it as much as everyone else who remembers it before Sky and the premier league. BUT, I support a football CLUB, not a player, not a team, not a balance sheet. My club today has taken a knock and will do again in a couple of days when that other player leaves, but its taken knocks before and has come back stronger and will do again. I have always felt pride telling people I support Aston Villa and will continue wearing the colours no matter what.
The point is: we belong to a club with history, we belong to a club with class, we belong to Aston Villa Football Club
And I wouldn't change it for anything!!
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A spine so good it finished 17th, 16th and 15th the last three seasons.
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This is the first summer to be excited about in a long time. £9 million on a midfielder, £10 million on the next French left back; genuine ambition in our targets, back room staff to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated.
Every club loses players, even their best ones. If Man United can have them taken, so can we. This isn't a phenomena of the modern game either.
I have a belief that we will quite comfortably replace Delph, while if we get even half the player of Benteke, our scouts will have worked some magic.
I share your sentiment Ads
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I'll always support Aston Villa FC. The Delph's of this world are irrelevant to my support for this club.
I do hate what the modern game has become though.
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I've had a season ticket on and off since the 1960s and my son joined me in 1990. This season we haven't renewed. I have no faith/belief in the stewardship of Randy and his management team. The leadership skills at the Club, seemingly at all levels, are non-existent: in fact it reminds me of the classic appraisal comments about an army officer, "His men follow him more out of curiosity than necessity."
However, I will book a guided tour of Villa Park for myself, my son, his girlfriend and her little sister. It will remind me of what a wonderful stadium and history the Villa has. We'll try and get a couple of games in this season but they will have to be at 3.00pm on Saturday.
Oh and the Premier League, the media, the Delphs of this world, the gormless FA, can all Foxtrot Oscar - See Abdul the taxidermist - Go forth and multiply.
Sad to see you go, newtonsballs, but your argument has cogency.
Thanks for your comments. I will, of course, continue to post facile comments on here and subscribe to the DW's e-fanzine (I dread the knock on the door/ email).
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I'll always support Aston Villa FC. The Delph's of this world are irrelevant to my support for this club.
I do hate what the modern game has become though.
it's not the modern game though. This kind of stuff has happened to other clubs before. Players have betrayed clubs and fans. It's just shit when it happens to us. And if the money existed 15-20 years ago like it does today it would have happened a lot more.
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This is the first summer to be excited about in a long time. £9 million on a midfielder, £10 million on the next French left back; genuine ambition in our targets, back room staff to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated.
Every club loses players, even their best ones. If Man United can have them taken, so can we. This isn't a phenomena of the modern game either.
I have a belief that we will quite comfortably replace Delph, while if we get even half the player of Benteke, our scouts will have worked some magic.
Keep talking. I want to be turned around. This is a good start and makes sense.
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This is the first summer to be excited about in a long time. £9 million on a midfielder, £10 million on the next French left back; genuine ambition in our targets, back room staff to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated.
Every club loses players, even their best ones. If Man United can have them taken, so can we. This isn't a phenomena of the modern game either.
I have a belief that we will quite comfortably replace Delph, while if we get even half the player of Benteke, our scouts will have worked some magic.
I share your sentiment Ads
Me too. We're Aston Villa, let's fookin 'ave at it.
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The Delph situation just doesn't add up. All the players are so committed to the Villa until season ticket sales have been made. Suddenly it all changes from "I decided to stay at Villa because I am proud to captain the team of this great club" to "Man.City sign Delph on a 5 year deal." It seems that the Club and Delph were in league all the way along. Say the right things and, once we have enough season ticket sales you can go with our blessing. In any other walk of life you could demand a full refund and, probably, a bit of compensation as well for being misled!!
So, what do we have at this moment in time, our only 2 players that other clubs wanted are gone whereas we have been linked with about half the players in Ligue 1 and, how many of those have we actually signed - none!! Also other players we were on the cusp of signing suddenly make a deal at Newcastle, Southampton etc.- Villa however, nowhere. I had not had a season ticket for some years but, believed in TS's vision so, got season ticket early but, just now feeling shafted by the Club and players like Delph and wish I hadn't bothered. Our problem chaps is, that once you support a Club they know that's it until you die. Delph going doesn't bother me half as much as Benteke as, I really feel he won't get much game time at Citeh and, will do his England career no good at all. Alas, the poor lad is not half as good as he thinks he is. Great player for Villa, bit player for Citeh!!
Amen.
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Holy shit I've just realised the season starts in three weeks
I just can't see us being anywhere near ready for it. I'm just running through our best eleven in my mind. I'm refusing to write it down.
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Good morning everyone.I wake up to find that our new free transfer signing Richards did have something to do with Delphs exit.Richards told him that Man City were
the greatest club in the world and he loved his time there.Now that is not what Richards should have said as an employee of our Club...but he did.
Richards is either mentally thick or couldn't care less that we have signed an injury ravaged player and may be paying him 65,000 a week to play for a lesser club than ManCity
I will say it again......Modern football is rubbish!
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Another Villa shambles, laced with the usual mix of incompetence and lies. I agree with all the sentiments expressed about the state of the English game, and its money obsessed lack of morality, but ask yourselves this question; why does this sort of thing keep happening to the Villa? The club is dying through serial mis-management. We've got a hopeless and semi-detached owner who can't even sell the club in a semi-competent way. Every transfer we try and undertake is nearly always botched or takes five weeks to complete. We can't seem to negotiate contracts with our better players without them and their agents inserting release and escape clauses. We can't get rid of the dross, players bought for ludicrous transfer fees and put on ridiculous long term and lucrative contracts, and we can't attract quality players. Every close season is a fiasco with all the talk concentrated on who's leaving. We never get on the front foot, it's always negative and defensive fire-fighting. Utterly hopeless, and before we round on Delph and Benteke, the real culprit, the almost impossibly useless Randy Lerner, sits in his faraway mansion fiddling while his club burns.
I leave you with this thought. What decision or action has Lerner taken these last five disastrous years that has proved to be a good and insightful one and that has benefited our club? This is the man who gave us McLeish and Lambert ,remember, and has presided over the most calamitous run of results in the history of the club. Not one bad year, five dreadful ones on the trot. Nothing remotely good will happen at the Villa until the worst owner and Chairman we've ever had lets the club out of his death grip.
The Delph fiasco is typical of the club that Lerner has tragically allowed the Villa to become.
Well said, my sentiments exactly. We are year on year heading in the wrong direction.
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the quicker the whole football scene goes tits up the better its managed by utter twats
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Some good posts above, Skerra and Ron Manager in particular.
So I now have the feeling that we are a stepping stone club, well its been apparent for years, but for a player to do what "its" done shows absolutely no class no feelings for the club, no thought of his own career, and just a show me the money kind of guy.
The only people that care about this club are the fans, to everyone else its just another gig.
For how much longer will this gig PAY???
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There is even more of a point at times like these, I remember early in the 79/80 season when Gray and Gidman upped and left, it made me want to get behind the club and players even more, I know we had a much better team then and they were very different times but I kind of feel the same now that Judas Delph and Benteke are fucking off, fuck them, fuck Radio WM in fact fuck everybody who is not Villa, I have a feeling that Sherwood will be even more determined now to show the football world that he is the real deal and push us on to better times.
And its Aston Villa Aston Villa F C, you all know the rest, keep strong keep the faith.
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It will help if we unveil some signings next week. A rabbit out of the hat would go a way to brightening the mood too, an attacking player with a good reputation, someone we can get behind, a new hero.
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It will help if we unveil some signings next week. A rabbit out of the hat would go a way to brightening the mood too, an attacking player with a good reputation, someone we can get behind, a new hero.
Agreed 100%
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Its at times like these I appreciate the Steve Bulls, Steven Gerards, Ian Taylor's, gabby Agbonlahors of this world.
And for all gabbys bad points, at least he has stood in the holte as a young lad, and stayed committed to the cause.
You really think the first and third of those would have stayed loyal now, when they could double their wages with one signature?
I think Steve Bull had actually packed his bags ready to move to us but the deal fell through.
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Another Villa shambles, laced with the usual mix of incompetence and lies. I agree with all the sentiments expressed about the state of the English game, and its money obsessed lack of morality, but ask yourselves this question; why does this sort of thing keep happening to the Villa? The club is dying through serial mis-management. We've got a hopeless and semi-detached owner who can't even sell the club in a semi-competent way. Every transfer we try and undertake is nearly always botched or takes five weeks to complete. We can't seem to negotiate contracts with our better players without them and their agents inserting release and escape clauses. We can't get rid of the dross, players bought for ludicrous transfer fees and put on ridiculous long term and lucrative contracts, and we can't attract quality players. Every close season is a fiasco with all the talk concentrated on who's leaving. We never get on the front foot, it's always negative and defensive fire-fighting. Utterly hopeless, and before we round on Delph and Benteke, the real culprit, the almost impossibly useless Randy Lerner, sits in his faraway mansion fiddling while his club burns.
I leave you with this thought. What decision or action has Lerner taken these last five disastrous years that has proved to be a good and insightful one and that has benefited our club? This is the man who gave us McLeish and Lambert ,remember, and has presided over the most calamitous run of results in the history of the club. Not one bad year, five dreadful ones on the trot. Nothing remotely good will happen at the Villa until the worst owner and Chairman we've ever had lets the club out of his death grip.
The Delph fiasco is typical of the club that Lerner has tragically allowed the Villa to become.
Hear hear!
"Youre talking crap mate
Agree re Mcleish but we all wanted Lambert at the time. Randy was fleeced by Pube head and rightly has reigned in the spending. We would have been bust otherwise.
The Delph issue is down to the player himself. The club are blameless"
You don't get it, do you? Delph is no better or worse a person than your average Premiership player. In fact, he comes over as a likeable and genuine bloke whenever I've heard him speak. He just didn't want to carry on playing for the Villa and somebody made him a better offer.
Lerner is the common thread that runs through the club's disastrous decline into irrelevance.
On the first point I've highlighted, I would say that it seems to me that he DID want to carry on playing for Villa BUT someone made him a better offer.
On the second point I've highlighted, you seem to have forgotten that we were a pretty disastrous irrelevance just before Lerner got here. In fact, the summer before he arrived I was was certain we were to be relegated the following season. A certainty that I am strangely nowhere near feeling now. i'm not saying we won't get relegated, but the idea this is a Lerner based phenomenon is completely false. We were in decline well before he got here. The illusion that we weren't is only created by the fact that he reversed it for a while.
Agreed. We lost big players way before Randy Lerner turned up.
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To be honest I find the whole game pretty boring now. I don't really watch anything outside Villa games and major international tournaments. If it wasn't the fact that I've supported Villa for years I don't think I'd have much interest now. It's anticompetetive and just a case of whoever has the most money wins. The disdain of the media for any club outside the European elite is also disgraceful.
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The irony about the whole Delph transfer is that if he had gone a week ago which was first hinted at then not many of us would have harbored hard feelings towards him but it is the sudden U-Turn which has pissed many people off.
Anyway, yes Football at the top level at least is pretty much dead, like most things of its nature it has been straggled by the extreme side of capitalism. I still love the game in its purest form, and there are still interesting football going on elsewhere....
In somewhere or another I will always support Aston Villa, just because they have always been my team and have a proud history and it is just about doing your bit as a supporter. But at the moment things are looking more and more hopeless and they could stay that way for awhile. So what I see myself doing in the coming years is enjoying more Championship and lower league football (yes insert your own Villa related gag here!), and to support the ever growing Women's game etc..
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Football has been pointless for all but the monied and favoured elite for years. Ever since Blatter, Scudamore, Murdoch and other greed mongers cottoned on that it was a marketing and sponsorship goldmine waiting to be tapped. It's long been a designer industry geared up to perpetuate the success of a few elite clubs and countries, in order to maximise marketing and TV subscription income. The rest of us just make up the numbers in return for a large but pointless bag of cash, if you are lucky enough to be in the top division. The players and agents, not to mention officials, have merely set themselves up to leech off this industry and get their cut of the gravy train. You can't really blame them, and only a fool would believe a word that comes out of their mouths. Since Football sold its soul it's only my long standing love of the Villa and the old game I remember (with tackling allowed) that keeps me going, albeit rarely, these days. And I have absolutely no intention of getting my kids interested in something that takes so much in terms of money, time, emotion, loyalty etc. and now offers so little in return - unless of course you turn glory-hunter and hitch your emotional waqgon to one of the elite.
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I've lost faith in football.
Dirty cash. Money talks.
Loyalty? He can stuff that up his arse and only brings out to admire when he's on the bench.
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Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
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We just have to hope that when Benteke goes next week that it will the lowest point for the club. When he is gone we look forward and with the loss of Delph it will be last of the O Neill links gone from the club and the last of the poison of the post MON era. That's all we can do is hope that the club learn from this and don't leave ourselves exposed like this ever again. UTV
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To be honest I find the whole game pretty boring now. I don't really watch anything outside Villa games and major international tournaments. If it wasn't the fact that I've supported Villa for years I don't think I'd have much interest now. It's anticompetetive and just a case of whoever has the most money wins. The disdain of the media for any club outside the European elite is also disgraceful.
I am with you on this Paul - Its the hype of the so called "big clubs" by SKY and Talkshite that drives me mad - yesterday the Villa were literally a laughing stock, almost akin to the days when were referred to as "Aston Vanilla - the team anyone can lick" Our stock has really fallen - I can take good hearted jokes but its the mocking i find difficult. I dont subscribe to SKY and will lock out of Talkshite going forward.
I always thought that football would eat itself at some point - once money became the overall driving factor it was inevitable. I was put off football back in the day when Kevin Keegan signed for Newcastle on £2K a week - The figures quoted now are ****ing immoral - I just cant identify with the game anymore - even VCTM jnr is turning away from the game - its something when the highlight to Villa Park or Birmingham is the pre match balti pie or post match trip to Ladypool Road for a Balti.
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We might aswell fuck Gabby and Zog off too if we are having a new start.
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Maybe the answer is in the NFL where they have a draft picks system. Not sure how it would work but certainly the principle is a good one.
and a proper salary (transfer) cap to keep clubs from hoovering up all the most expensive players.
An imposed salary cap will just see players leaving to leagues that don't have one. MLS and other leagues would see their opportunity and players would just chase the money elsewhere.
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We might aswell fuck Gabby and Zog off too if we are having a new start.
They should have been the first out the door.
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I think this is the final straw, Villa are my team , I can not change that but I hate what is happening to the game and our club.
It is an absoloute disgrace and Delph ought to be ashamed of himself.
I will do my best to try and eradicate football from my life.
Fuck em
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Maybe the answer is in the NFL where they have a draft picks system. Not sure how it would work but certainly the principle is a good one.
and a proper salary (transfer) cap to keep clubs from hoovering up all the most expensive players.
An imposed salary cap will just see players leaving to leagues that don't have one. MLS and other leagues would see their opportunity and players would just chase the money elsewhere.
A great reason to have a salary cap then.
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I've thought that for a while mate. They have it in Australia in all the codes and it works pretty well. Admittedly not many afl players would be able to go overseas to another league and even Rugby League overseas options would be limited. But they have it in the 'soccer' A-league and it works fine. The standard's not great, but how many premiership games do we watch that are utter dross?
I think a UEFA wide salary cap could work if it was properly enforced
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The best thing about sport in Australia is the salary cap.
Good coaching and astute recruitment gets rewarded not by the size of the cheque book.
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To be honest I find the whole game pretty boring now. I don't really watch anything outside Villa games and major international tournaments. If it wasn't the fact that I've supported Villa for years I don't think I'd have much interest now. It's anticompetetive and just a case of whoever has the most money wins. The disdain of the media for any club outside the European elite is also disgraceful.
I am with you on this Paul - Its the hype of the so called "big clubs" by SKY and Talkshite that drives me mad - yesterday the Villa were literally a laughing stock, almost akin to the days when were referred to as "Aston Vanilla - the team anyone can lick" Our stock has really fallen - I can take good hearted jokes but its the mocking i find difficult. I dont subscribe to SKY and will lock out of Talkshite going forward.
I always thought that football would eat itself at some point - once money became the overall driving factor it was inevitable. I was put off football back in the day when Kevin Keegan signed for Newcastle on £2K a week - The figures quoted now are ****ing immoral - I just cant identify with the game anymore - even VCTM jnr is turning away from the game - its something when the highlight to Villa Park or Birmingham is the pre match balti pie or post match trip to Ladypool Road for a Balti.
I could not have summed it up any better Clive...and Paul. Exactly my feelings off to a tee. I sit and watch matches these days half in admiration of the fans who still go and half thinking they are just mugs and wondering why the hell they bother to go to matches in a league where you can write out the table on day 1 of the season and be pretty much spot on with how it will all finish. And all this while players like Raheem fucking Stirling earn more in a week than most people on here earn in five years. I, frankly, don't wish to subscribe to being part of that!
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The best thing about sport in Australia is the salary cap.
Good coaching and astute recruitment gets rewarded not by the size of the cheque book.
As mentioned, the reason they can have a salary cap is that there aren't many other countries that play the sports they do.
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To be honest I find the whole game pretty boring now. I don't really watch anything outside Villa games and major international tournaments. If it wasn't the fact that I've supported Villa for years I don't think I'd have much interest now. It's anticompetetive and just a case of whoever has the most money wins. The disdain of the media for any club outside the European elite is also disgraceful.
I am with you on this Paul - Its the hype of the so called "big clubs" by SKY and Talkshite that drives me mad - yesterday the Villa were literally a laughing stock, almost akin to the days when were referred to as "Aston Vanilla - the team anyone can lick" Our stock has really fallen - I can take good hearted jokes but its the mocking i find difficult. I dont subscribe to SKY and will lock out of Talkshite going forward.
I always thought that football would eat itself at some point - once money became the overall driving factor it was inevitable. I was put off football back in the day when Kevin Keegan signed for Newcastle on £2K a week - The figures quoted now are ****ing immoral - I just cant identify with the game anymore - even VCTM jnr is turning away from the game - its something when the highlight to Villa Park or Birmingham is the pre match balti pie or post match trip to Ladypool Road for a Balti.
This.
I could not have summed it up any better Clive...and Paul. Exactly my feelings off to a tee. I sit and watch matches these days half in admiration of the fans who still go and half thinking they are just mugs and wondering why the hell they bother to go to matches in a league where you can write out the table on day 1 of the season and be pretty much spot on with how it will all finish. And all this while players like Raheem fucking Stirling earn more in a week than most people on here earn in five years. I, frankly, don't wish to subscribe to being part of that!
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The mocking pisses me off too. The media 100% wholeheartedly support what is happening to the English game, but then mourns the repeated failures in major tournaments like a natural disaster whilst it's the system they support and talk up that is making our game suffer.
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Some people talk like they're surprised, its been many years, apart from the odd exception, since footballers were loyal. If you were offered a better job you'd walk, obviously handled badly by someone but fuck em, players come players go.
I watched dross for 95% of the season then had the time of my life at Baggies quarter final, Semi final and (despite the result) the Cup final and played with Nigel Spink on Villa Park in a supporters club match after the Burnley game, that why I keep coming back.
As well as the scintillating match day company........
I am pretty much with you here Simon. I am amazed when people believe that players are genuinely loyal to a club - unless they are winning trophies a club is just an employer to them, with the possible exception of players who join as kids and come through the age groups.
And for all the slagging off of Man City, they are pretty much what I hoped we may become under Lerner. Bastards....
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I see the sky viewing figures for the ashes are pretty horrendous. Sky killing another sport off.
Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
See you weren't too bothered about Sky killing another sport off then!
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Some people talk like they're surprised, its been many years, apart from the odd exception, since footballers were loyal. If you were offered a better job you'd walk, obviously handled badly by someone but fuck em, players come players go.
I watched dross for 95% of the season then had the time of my life at Baggies quarter final, Semi final and (despite the result) the Cup final and played with Nigel Spink on Villa Park in a supporters club match after the Burnley game, that why I keep coming back.
As well as the scintillating match day company........
I am pretty much with you here Simon. I am amazed when people believe that players are genuinely loyal to a club - unless they are winning trophies a club is just an employer to them, with the possible exception of players who join as kids and come through the age groups.
And for all the slagging off of Man City, they are pretty much what I hoped we may become under Lerner. Bastards....
Despite the last few days, I'm glad we are not Man City. Times have moved on but if we are to be a success i hanker for the way the 80 to 82 team was formed and money wasnt the over whelming factor. I realise it will never happen again like that
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I honestly thought that Delph with his decision to stay with us would of put him into the category of villa legends.
But he has gone so this great club will pick its self up dust its self down and start all over again.
When I was younger I thought that if andy Gary or Brian little wasn't playing then there is no way we can win but these players along with others have come and gone. But we are Aston villa and we will carry on like only we can and look forward to the next Gray, little, Delph benteke etc wearing the famous claret and blue.
Don't let these players get you down its life and life moves on and so will Aston villa.
Aston villa my life my team my everything
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Amazing Really.....within a week a person can go from the cusp of Club Legend to a Poxy Little Runt
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Black pearl your right
He was not the first and he certainly won't be the last to do what he did
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Amazing Really.....within a week a person can go from the cusp of Club Legend to a Poxy Little Runt
Cusp of club legend ? Mmmm ok
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Amazing Really.....within a week a person can go from the cusp of Club Legend to a Poxy Little Runt
Cusp of club legend ? Mmmm ok
He gave us his undying love back in January...then played his heart out for us till 30th May...We Loved him...showed us total commitment on sat 11th July...then shits on our doorstep...One Step from Villa Greatness...Have to admire Stevie G and the few others who honour the ONE club policy...Gabby with his critics is ONE of them....we need a team of Charlie Aitken type characters.
So lets start nourishing our young talent...they will make mistakes but they will learn, they will be world beaters one week..next week they will be non league losers...but its part of the process to Honour Thy Club...There are no Oil fields in B6 unlike Manchester!
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I see the sky viewing figures for the ashes are pretty horrendous. Sky killing another sport off.
Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
See you weren't too bothered about Sky killing another sport off then!
The funny thing is I don't know if there are many sports which Sky have killed off, but then that might be just because I don't watch many sports to begin with. Tennis and Rugby still seem to be going quite strong for example.
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I see the sky viewing figures for the ashes are pretty horrendous. Sky killing another sport off.
Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
See you weren't too bothered about Sky killing another sport off then!
The funny thing is I don't know if there are many sports which Sky have killed off, but then that might be just because I don't watch many sports to begin with. Tennis and Rugby still seem to be going quite strong for example.
Darts and snooker are odd ones. I couldn't name you a top snooker player and no more than a couple in darts, neither sport is talked about as much as it used to be, yet the crowds and the money seem bigger than ever.
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I honestly thought that Delph with his decision to stay with us would of put him into the category of villa legends.
But he has gone so this great club will pick its self up dust its self down and start all over again.
When I was younger I thought that if andy Gary or Brian little wasn't playing then there is no way we can win but these players along with others have come and gone. But we are Aston villa and we will carry on like only we can and look forward to the next Gray, little, Delph benteke etc wearing the famous claret and blue.
Don't let these players get you down its life and life moves on and so will Aston villa.
Aston villa my life my team my everything
This
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I see the sky viewing figures for the ashes are pretty horrendous. Sky killing another sport off.
Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
[/quo
See you weren't too bothered about Sky killing another sport off then!
The funny thing is I don't know if there are many sports which Sky have killed off, but then that might be just because I don't watch many sports to begin with. Tennis and Rugby still seem to be going quite strong for example.
Darts and snooker are odd ones. I couldn't name you a top snooker player and no more than a couple in darts, neither sport is talked about as much as it used to be, yet the crowds and the money seem bigger than ever.
Not even Ronnie O'Sullivan Dave?
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I see the sky viewing figures for the ashes are pretty horrendous. Sky killing another sport off.
Going to cancel sky . That will help the healing process.
[/quo
See you weren't too bothered about Sky killing another sport off then!
The funny thing is I don't know if there are many sports which Sky have killed off, but then that might be just because I don't watch many sports to begin with. Tennis and Rugby still seem to be going quite strong for example.
Darts and snooker are odd ones. I couldn't name you a top snooker player and no more than a couple in darts, neither sport is talked about as much as it used to be, yet the crowds and the money seem bigger than ever.
Not even Ronnie O'Sullivan Dave?
Is he a top player anymore? I honestly don't know.
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Dave, if a bizarre set of circumstances leads to us teaming up to appear on Pointless we're fucked if there is a darts or snooker question.
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Are Cliff Lazarenko and Bill Werbeniuk still top player?
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I've noticed so many people who complain about SKY 'killing' or 'ruining' various sports and are 'anti modern football' also happens to subscribe to it. Surely if they feel that strongly they wouldn't subscribe?
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Are Cliff Lazarenko and Bill Werbeniuk still top player?
Are they still alive would be my question.
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I've been a fan since my dad took me back in 1969. I can't honestly remember a worse season in that time culminating in the worst week ever. We've had the Clubs worse manager with the worst players except two who have both left in the same week, one of which has made a laughing stock of us. We have a new player who loved his previous club that much he advised our best player to join them. We have an owner who wants out and is dragging the club down hill to a position where we are now no better than Stoke or Sunderland. So yes, I wonder what is the point? I can't see any way out of this mess
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
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I've noticed so many people who complain about SKY 'killing' or 'ruining' various sports and are 'anti modern football' also happens to subscribe to it. Surely if they feel that strongly they wouldn't subscribe?
I don't, and haven't for years, so I reckon I can say it.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
it will be interesting to see how Southampton get on this season having sold 2-3 more. I cant help but think it will bite them in the arse sooner or later. I cant help thinking the same about the Villa too.
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Cliff Lazarenko is still alive. Bill Werbeniuk sadly died during the running of his 17th Marathon in January 2003.
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Cliff Lazarenko is still alive. Bill Werbeniuk sadly died during the running of his 17th Marathon in January 2003.
Have you been looking at wikipaedia as well?
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I've noticed so many people who complain about SKY 'killing' or 'ruining' various sports and are 'anti modern football' also happens to subscribe to it. Surely if they feel that strongly they wouldn't subscribe?
I don't, and haven't for years, so I reckon I can say it.
Of course, I didn't say everybody.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
What's the point of a four and half year contract with an £8m get out clause for a current England international? That is surely totally crap management by Fox, unless there are things the club aren't telling the fans.
Contracts would seem to be meaningless for clubs like Villa, as when the mega bucks clubs want a player they just unsettle other club's players with media talk, dressing room chats (Delph/Hart) undermining any loyalty there might be.
At least Benteke had a realistic release clause value, but Delph's was bloody appalling. We have paid more for his replacement who has yet to prove himself in the Premiership.
Delph's turnaround after his first refusal to join City was piss poor PR by whoever drafted his press release for changing his mind again. He will deserve all the flack he'll get when he returns to B6. If he'd gone initially, was bad enough, but the farce that followed doesn't give him any latitude from Villa supporters in my opinion.
All Villa seem to be is a hunting ground for the money clubs to pick off players when they have proved themselves. With Benteke, Delph, Cleverley and Vlaar? gone, plus the ones we wanted shut of, Sherwood has a great opportunity to prove himself and I hope he can do so and stick two fingers up to the deserters.
Being in Portugal last week, I saw the game against Braga and we badly need a goal scorer as our usual weaknesses remain, hopefully Kozak will come good but he needs better support then Gabby.
UTV
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We desperately need a season free of a relegation battle to raise the morale. It's 5 years on the bounce now and it grinds people down. The home form doesn't help either.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
What's the point of a four and half year contract with an £8m get out clause for a current England international? That is surely totally crap management by Fox, unless there are things the club aren't telling the fans.
Contracts would seem to be meaningless for clubs like Villa, as when the mega bucks clubs want a player they just unsettle other club's players with media talk, dressing room chats (Delph/Hart) undermining any loyalty there might be.
At least Benteke had a realistic release clause value, but Delph's was bloody appalling. We have paid more for his replacement who has yet to prove himself in the Premiership.
Delph's turnaround after his first refusal to join City was piss poor PR by whoever drafted his press release for changing his mind again. He will deserve all the flack he'll get when he returns to B6. If he'd gone initially, was bad enough, but the farce that followed doesn't give him any latitude from Villa supporters in my opinion.
All Villa seem to be is a hunting ground for the money clubs to pick off players when they have proved themselves. With Benteke, Delph, Cleverley and Vlaar? gone, plus the ones we wanted shut of, Sherwood has a great opportunity to prove himself and I hope he can do so and stick two fingers up to the deserters.
Being in Portugal last week, I saw the game against Braga and we badly need a goal scorer as our usual weaknesses remain, hopefully Kozak will come good but he needs better support then Gabby.
UTV
I think Delph is responsible for his own actions. Others might have tried to advise but ultimately it's down to him.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
What's the point of a four and half year contract with an £8m get out clause for a current England international? That is surely totally crap management by Fox, unless there are things the club aren't telling the fans.
Contracts would seem to be meaningless for clubs like Villa, as when the mega bucks clubs want a player they just unsettle other club's players with media talk, dressing room chats (Delph/Hart) undermining any loyalty there might be.
At least Benteke had a realistic release clause value, but Delph's was bloody appalling. We have paid more for his replacement who has yet to prove himself in the Premiership.
Delph's turnaround after his first refusal to join City was piss poor PR by whoever drafted his press release for changing his mind again. He will deserve all the flack he'll get when he returns to B6. If he'd gone initially, was bad enough, but the farce that followed doesn't give him any latitude from Villa supporters in my opinion.
All Villa seem to be is a hunting ground for the money clubs to pick off players when they have proved themselves. With Benteke, Delph, Cleverley and Vlaar? gone, plus the ones we wanted shut of, Sherwood has a great opportunity to prove himself and I hope he can do so and stick two fingers up to the deserters.
Being in Portugal last week, I saw the game against Braga and we badly need a goal scorer as our usual weaknesses remain, hopefully Kozak will come good but he needs better support then Gabby.
UTV
I don't think you can really blame fox for the 8mil release clause. He had 5 months to go on his current contract and Delph held all the cards. We were going through some bad times and him signing the new deal was a welcome boost.
However, the fact they didn't manage to get him to sign a new deal when he had 2 years / 18 months left is disappointing
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
What's the point of a four and half year contract with an £8m get out clause for a current England international? That is surely totally crap management by Fox, unless there are things the club aren't telling the fans.
Contracts would seem to be meaningless for clubs like Villa, as when the mega bucks clubs want a player they just unsettle other club's players with media talk, dressing room chats (Delph/Hart) undermining any loyalty there might be.
At least Benteke had a realistic release clause value, but Delph's was bloody appalling. We have paid more for his replacement who has yet to prove himself in the Premiership.
Delph's turnaround after his first refusal to join City was piss poor PR by whoever drafted his press release for changing his mind again. He will deserve all the flack he'll get when he returns to B6. If he'd gone initially, was bad enough, but the farce that followed doesn't give him any latitude from Villa supporters in my opinion.
All Villa seem to be is a hunting ground for the money clubs to pick off players when they have proved themselves. With Benteke, Delph, Cleverley and Vlaar? gone, plus the ones we wanted shut of, Sherwood has a great opportunity to prove himself and I hope he can do so and stick two fingers up to the deserters.
Being in Portugal last week, I saw the game against Braga and we badly need a goal scorer as our usual weaknesses remain, hopefully Kozak will come good but he needs better support then Gabby.
UTV
I don't think you can really blame fox for the 8mil release clause. He had 5 months to go on his current contract and Delph held all the cards. We were going through some bad times and him signing the new deal was a welcome boost.
However, the fact they didn't manage to get him to sign a new deal when he had 2 years / 18 months left is disappointing
The rumours last summer were that he was desperate to sign a new contract with only 12 months left (and having only shown 6 months of form in the 5? years he'd been with us) That's the point at which we really f¤¤ked up. You might even have gotten him on pretty much the same terms after he'd had a big rise under Houllier
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And of course with the mighty Freeview who needs Sky? ;)
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We desperately need a season free of a relegation battle to raise the morale. It's 5 years on the bounce now and it grinds people down. The home form doesn't help either.
Absolutely this. I dream of a season in which the last 10 games are not nerve shredding.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
get that, its just when i hear us being asked to emulate a poxy little club with a charecterless stadium and bumpkin supporters that i can not help thinking that maybe we should be better than that. The Saints ar Norwich in Red and White stripes.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
get that, its just when i hear us being asked to emulate a poxy little club with a charecterless stadium and bumpkin supporters that i can not help thinking that maybe we should be better than that. The Saints ar Norwich in Red and White stripes.
That's incredibly disparaging. It would be no different to Liverpool fans calling us the same or the comments Holloway made about us a few years back. Quite frankly if we are going to follow a club that has come back from the edge of oblivion to be financially sound and within a few years competing in European competition then clubs like Southampton or Swansea are decent models to follow and build on.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
Entertainment, goals, good signings, full stadium, great set up, a chairman who gives a flying F, tonked us 6-1, 4-1 etc. I'd be happy with a season similar to theirs of the last 3 years
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
get that, its just when i hear us being asked to emulate a poxy little club with a charecterless stadium and bumpkin supporters that i can not help thinking that maybe we should be better than that. The Saints ar Norwich in Red and White stripes.
I think a reality check is needed here by some people because for the past few seasons the only type of club we've emulated is one that's a bloody good candidate for relegation. I for one would have loved us to emulate Southampton's league position over the past two seasons.
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I feel like I had a moment of clarity this morning. It's all very well being linked with and making some quality signings. But the squad as It stands today is a definite relegation contender and there's two and a half weeks until the season starts. I think the current group of players probably scored ten or fewer premier league goals between them last season.
I'm excited about grealish and Gil but it's very optimistic to think we can play with one up and rely on them creating and scoring enough goals from the positions behind. And we know that our defence has been awful under Sherwood in particular.
He really has got a hell of a job on. Having said that, there are at least 6 clubs that i don't think have better squads and presumably less money to spend.
I need a positive goal scoring performance tonight and two quality signings within the next week please villa.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Considerably more football matches than us in recent seasons.
get that, its just when i hear us being asked to emulate a poxy little club with a charecterless stadium and bumpkin supporters that i can not help thinking that maybe we should be better than that. The Saints ar Norwich in Red and White stripes.
They were in the third tier just a few seasons ago and on the edge of going bust. Last season they had as good a go at qualifying for the Champions League as we did back when O'Neill was in charge of us and they were in League One. That's not bad going in my book.
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As disappointing as it is, buying players for 7mil and selling for 33mil should be exactly what we are about right now. Southampton have shown that providing you reinvest well, this is how you can grow and develop a top 10 side.
Allowing Delph to get get to having just 6 months left on his contract is just piss poor management.
and what have Sarfampton won?
Respect