The Gabby Appreciation Thread - Update: 4 year deal

[LeeB]

How many international squads has he pulled out of now? Didnt he pull out of an underage international tournament a couple of years back too?

Cant understand English football people being devoted to their club but despising their country. Its not just Villa fans, why is that?

To me it's always been a cockney-centric circus.

[Legion]

Yet another great gesture from Gabby

[Dave Cooper please]

Yet another great gesture from Gabby

Never one to forget his roots is our Gabby.

By the way the Lincoln Moses (now an MBE) mentioned in the article is a great bloke, he founded Continental Star about 25 years ago to give black kids in the Brum inner-city areas something to do rather than hanging around the streets. They now run teams from little kids right up to veterans as well as providing youth centres and homework clubs in some of the most run down parts of our City.

[Dave Cooper please]

 Actually, I made a mistake in the above post, on further reading I see that he didn't found Continental Star, but he did play for them and eventually become General Manager and now President. Doesn't thake away what he has done for several communities in Birmingham though.

[Chipsticks]

Quick reminder.

[dave.woodhall]

Yet another great gesture from Gabby

Never one to forget his roots is our Gabby.

By the way the Lincoln Moses (now an MBE) mentioned in the article is a great bloke, he founded Continental Star about 25 years ago to give black kids in the Brum inner-city areas something to do rather than hanging around the streets. They now run teams from little kids right up to veterans as well as providing youth centres and homework clubs in some of the most run down parts of our City.

And he's an old Villa lad.

[olaftab]

Quick reminder.

This is just gratuitous ....and great!

[Chipsticks]

Quick reminder.

This is just gratuitous ....and great!

It's the clearance off the line that gets me, could've been a completely different story.

[olaftab]

Its incidents like that that make me totally anti video replay being used for crucial decisions. We effectively scored from their corner! Can you imagine if that clearance had been doubtful in terms of if the ball was over the line when cleared and the game stopped for VRD? What follows would have been totally different.

[Chipsticks]

Completely agree aftab, my biggest fear is interrupting the flow of play - which is a big part of what makes football so damn compelling and exciting.

[Monty]

Its incidents like that that make me totally anti video replay being used for crucial decisions. We effectively scored from their corner! Can you imagine if that clearance had been doubtful in terms of if the ball was over the line when cleared and the game stopped for VRD? What follows would have been totally different.

I don't think the game should be stopped, but that the fourth official should be able, using their discretion, to review a decision while the game is going on, only stopping it to reverse a decision and go back to the point of the original incident. A play-to-the-whistle mentality should be in evidence - and there should certainly NOT be an 'appeal' system as football is not cricket and is not stop-start - appeals would be abused, no doubt about that.

[SoccerHQ]

Big Gabby fan but I was really disappointed with his contribution since Bent was injured.

His poor second half of the season meant it was easy to forget how good he was from August- Xmas when he was comfortably our best player imo.

He's always been a player who's blown hot and cold throughout his career but it's vital we at least get him back into double figures next season.

[dl9]

Clearly I'm missing something ....

[eastie]

Big Gabby fan but I was really disappointed with his contribution since Bent was injured.

His poor second half of the season meant it was easy to forget how good he was from August- Xmas when he was comfortably our best player imo.

He's always been a player who's blown hot and cold throughout his career but it's vital we at least get him back into double figures next season.

I disagree, too inconsistent for me and not a natural finisher, i would be quite happy to see him move on and invest the money on a better striker.

[Ian.]

I'm a Gabby fan and he has scored some vital goals in big matches for us over the years. His for was terrible since January but if we can get that form back then we have a very good player.