Tom Fox's meeting with Supporters

[kippaxvilla2]

I must confess  to not having listened to the programme but that my comment was more a  direct response to "There's a case for Grealish to be in the England squad".  Christ there's barely a case for him to be in our match day squad at the moment.

In addition
1.) He's got at least a 99% Billy Bollocks strike rate.
2.) If he's commenting on something that isn't pseudo-intellectual bullshit, he's usually paraphrasing someone else and not offering anything insightful.

Agree - I should have said with the exception of the ridiculous Grealish comment.

[Jon Crofts]

A muppet that shouldn't be running a football club - could apply to Fox or Lerner but equally accurate for either.

[Clampy]

Did he ever make a grovelling apology to Burnley fans for slagging their club and town before joining them, for possibly the best deal he could get?

he didnt slag their club and town for the best deal ,, but thats fine ,, say that if it fits your agenda

No, he didn't but then again you didn't read my post properly. And what agenda are you on about?

[bertlambshank]

I must confess  to not having listened to the programme but that my comment was more a  direct response to "There's a case for Grealish to be in the England squad".  Christ there's barely a case for him to be in our match day squad at the moment.

In addition
1.) He's got at least a 99% Billy Bollocks strike rate.
2.) If he's commenting on something that isn't pseudo-intellectual bullshit, he's usually paraphrasing someone else and not offering anything insightful.

'match day squad'.
I thought I would never see the day anyone would use it in a post.
It's a sad sad day.

[cheltenhamlion]

Collection of useless ******?

[Villa in Denmark]

I must confess  to not having listened to the programme but that my comment was more a  direct response to "There's a case for Grealish to be in the England squad".  Christ there's barely a case for him to be in our match day squad at the moment.

In addition
1.) He's got at least a 99% Billy Bollocks strike rate.
2.) If he's commenting on something that isn't pseudo-intellectual bullshit, he's usually paraphrasing someone else and not offering anything insightful.

'match day squad'.
I thought I would never see the day anyone would use it in a post.
It's a sad sad day.

So what is an acceptable phrase for the 11 that start and the rest warming their arses on heated Recaro seats?

[Villa in Denmark]

Disagree.  In terms of numbers, we probably brought in as many as we could, with a reasonable mix of expected starters / back-up and development players.

The problem stems from (as ever) not looking any further forward than the next transfer window and not having sensible succession planning / squad development over the previous 18 months.

Especially with the Delph situation there was no excuse for not having someone in the squad who could have been broken in comparatively gently last season so he was pretty much good to go this season, or a least share the load with Guaye.

It's been another recurring theme from day 1 of Lerner's tenure and something the likes of paul_e have been banging on about for years now.  We've been appalling at managing and developing the squad so that, as far as possible, we turn players over at a time and pace that suits us.  It prevents wholesale changes to the matchday squad and gives us maximum return on players that are moving on.

Reading Sherwood's comments at the time, I think Delph's departure came somewhat as a surprise.  He probably went from planning to bring in a midfielder to compliment him, to having to entirely start from scratch.  I agree about management of the squad and reading Alex Ferguson's latest book, it is something he was very meticulous about.  I personally still think it boils down to the continuous process over an extended period of replacing the decent players we had with players of lesser quality.     

Edited to reduce the quotathon.

I meant that we should have done something about it the previous summer when we "strengthened" the midfield with Joe Cole.  After 6 months of him dropping none to subtle hints that he wanted to sign a new contract it all went quiet and we went into that summer with our best midfielder heading towards Bosman territory.

That's the sort of short sighted bollocks that's been driving some people nuts.

As for the summer just gone, I guess we'll never know for certain, but he wouldn't have insisted on an £8M release clause if he'd got no intention of leaving that summer.  That was as good as a come and get me if you want to invitation once his agent had signed off on it. That's not to say he'd made his mind up at that point, someone like Everton could have come in and he might have turned round and said no thanks, but if one of the Manc clubs, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal showed an interest he was always going to go.

[LTA]

Driving tonight and put 5 live on and I thought "who's this Scouse bloke talking about us?" Turns out it was Joey Barton. For what it's worth I thought he made some good fair points. Especially the bit where he says the club is being run by 'muppets'

Pat Murphy also on and as a favourite son of this parish couldn't help but do his 'quite pleased with himself, Midlands BBC reporter Randy won't speak to me routine'

Link here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03dlnpv

While I hate to use the phrase 'false narrative', when will the media get past Sherwood's version of their 'truth'. The business we did over the summer is not the problem, Ayew, Veretout, Amavi (when he was fit), and Traore (though only fitfully) have been the only bright sparks throughout the entire season.

We're going down because of the likes of Guzan, Bacuna, Richardson, Richards, Hutton, Sanchez, Agbonlahor, N'Zogbia, Cole, Senderos, and all the other useless suspects. You can't blame Reilly and Almstadt for the fact that the rest of the squad weren't good enough in the first place, only Randy.

Fox is obviously a buffoon in CEO's clothing, overpaid, over-promoted and over here...And since when did Nigel Pearson become the fucking messiah!

In fairness we haven't properly replaced Benteke, Delph or to a lesser extent Vlaar.  When you sell Benteke and replace him with Gestede  (regardless of whose signing it was) then you are asking for trouble. Likewise Delph for Gana.

[bertlambshank]

I must confess  to not having listened to the programme but that my comment was more a  direct response to "There's a case for Grealish to be in the England squad".  Christ there's barely a case for him to be in our match day squad at the moment.

In addition
1.) He's got at least a 99% Billy Bollocks strike rate.
2.) If he's commenting on something that isn't pseudo-intellectual bullshit, he's usually paraphrasing someone else and not offering anything insightful.

'match day squad'.
I thought I would never see the day anyone would use it in a post.
It's a sad sad day.

So what is an acceptable phrase for the 11 that start and the rest warming their arses on heated Recaro seats?

Maybe it's just me but it all sounds a bit too Richard Scudamore.

[Villa in Denmark]

I must confess  to not having listened to the programme but that my comment was more a  direct response to "There's a case for Grealish to be in the England squad".  Christ there's barely a case for him to be in our match day squad at the moment.

In addition
1.) He's got at least a 99% Billy Bollocks strike rate.
2.) If he's commenting on something that isn't pseudo-intellectual bullshit, he's usually paraphrasing someone else and not offering anything insightful.

'match day squad'.
I thought I would never see the day anyone would use it in a post.
It's a sad sad day.

So what is an acceptable phrase for the 11 that start and the rest warming their arses on heated Recaro seats?

Maybe it's just me but it all sounds a bit too Richard Scudamore.

Fair enough, but there still needs to be an alternative phrase.

I thought of match day 18 but decided that that stank of Scudamore.  It's a squad of 18 players used on the day of the match.

What I think is bollocks is that it's 18 players at all.  They're slowly turning it into American football.

[pauliewalnuts]

Disagree.  In terms of numbers, we probably brought in as many as we could, with a reasonable mix of expected starters / back-up and development players.

The problem stems from (as ever) not looking any further forward than the next transfer window and not having sensible succession planning / squad development over the previous 18 months.

Especially with the Delph situation there was no excuse for not having someone in the squad who could have been broken in comparatively gently last season so he was pretty much good to go this season, or a least share the load with Guaye.

It's been another recurring theme from day 1 of Lerner's tenure and something the likes of paul_e have been banging on about for years now.  We've been appalling at managing and developing the squad so that, as far as possible, we turn players over at a time and pace that suits us.  It prevents wholesale changes to the matchday squad and gives us maximum return on players that are moving on.

Reading Sherwood's comments at the time, I think Delph's departure came somewhat as a surprise.  He probably went from planning to bring in a midfielder to compliment him, to having to entirely start from scratch.  I agree about management of the squad and reading Alex Ferguson's latest book, it is something he was very meticulous about.  I personally still think it boils down to the continuous process over an extended period of replacing the decent players we had with players of lesser quality.     

If Delph's leaving came as a surprise to anyone at the club, then they're dafter than we thought.

What did they think would happen when he signed a contract with a release fee of exactly what we'd paid for him? What on earth do they think Delph's thinking was with that?

[hvkfa1]

The fact that they made such a thing about him signing was pathetic. Loads of gullible people looking at his face on that big screen and clapping and cheering. They made a big deal of that signing and knew he was fucking off.

[bertlambshank]

VD it's a tough one to call,it used to be 'The team'.
Modern football needs to label everything these days to sell it.

[Villa in Denmark]

VD it's a tough one to call,it used to be 'The team'.
Modern football needs to label everything these days to sell it.

Maybe, but to me the team is the 11 on the pitch.

Back in the day when it was 1 sub, or even that new fangled 2 subs I'd agree, but these days it's so bloated it is a squad.

[aj2k77]

I hate the squad of 18, it just facilitates the top clubs stock piling more players, as well as the loan system.