Gabby

[JUAN PABLO]

By "at his peak" Spink could have meant his best playing days, which would have been maybe mid-eighties.

exactly -

[Hookeysmith]

in fairness to the footballers earning mega millions they are in the biggest entertainment industry in the world,
 football is massive world wide it dominates peoples lives its probably what most people talk about in a social environment
there's a few hundred people  just on this site picking to bits everything that goes on in our club from the ticket office workers to the chairman,
 if we have a international weekend or a non football weekend life stops still, people get bored they don't know what to do, its that life dominating

i count myself in the same boat,
 football is massively important to me, i'l travel hundreds of miles to see utter shit then travel back moaning like fuck, i will drag my little 8 year old all over the country trying to instill 'the Villa' into him, my big lad had the same brainwashing
my misses just shakes her head at the ridiculousness of it all

if i start to talk to some stranger and they say they have no interest in football, i think there must be something wrong with him, he must have a very boring limited life, when in reality its probably me

i spend far to much money on football to really be able to realistically justify it, tickets, travel, shirts, sky, BT etc, why, because its what we want to do, its what makes the world go round for most of us
all that money goes somewhere and at the moment its going into the players pockets, they are taking advantage of the global phenomenon which is the game we love today

basically its our fault folks, if we stopped being interested in football and stopped spending so much on following it either on foot or on telly they wouldn't get earn so much

but some other section of society's entertainment industry would

Great post and very true although I don't spend money on away days anymore.

I would rather footballers like Rooney (cock that he is) get the big bucks than media whores like Katie Price and the odious, talentless Joey Essex and Ryland et al who have no discernible talent other than being bell ends yet they make millions.

Another thing is I have always treated Villa like family / kids / missus in as much as in discussion I can criticise and slag them off - but anyone else attempts it and they get a proper short shrift - funny isn't it?

[amfy]

I think top footballers deserve to make a lot of money, it's the giving ridiculous money to run of the mill footballers that I object to.

Top actors and actresses make mega bucks, but not everyone in their films does.

I don't mind them earning more than the rest of us, but average players earning twice as much a week as I earn in a year is crazy. The argument used to be that it's a short career. It's not that short!

[pauliewalnuts]

I think top footballers deserve to make a lot of money, it's the giving ridiculous money to run of the mill footballers that I object to.

My thoughts exactly.

I have no major problem with Aguero picking up 200k a week, it's the likes of Ciaran Clark on 50k a week that bothers me.

[kippaxvilla2]

Liam Ridgewell over 300 PL appearances.  That would have been a decent outlay.

[TopDeck113]

I think top footballers deserve to make a lot of money, it's the giving ridiculous money to run of the mill footballers that I object to.

My thoughts exactly.

I have no major problem with Aguero picking up 200k a week, it's the likes of Ciaran Clark on 50k a week that bothers me.

An interesting debating point, especially with regard to what is a team sport, but would football be better or worse if, like in tennis and golf, the very top players hoovered up virtually all of the cash and the lucrative endorsements and the rest were relative paupers? Would it make the up-and-coming youngsters hungrier and less likely to rest on their laurels as some do once the mega-bucks start rolling in?  What about payment solely by results? Win matches, win silverware and they're quids in; miss the cut so to speak and they'd have the worried look that many of us are familiar with at the end of the month when you check your balance at the ATM.

[jwarry]

Should we read anything into the fact that Gabby appears in today's squad photo?!?

[Bad English]

Should we read anything into the fact that Gabby appears in today's squad photo?!?

There are more than one or two piss-taking twats where I work but if you are on the books then you can be in the photo.

[OCD]

Did the photographer have to use an especially wide angle lens?

[four fornicholl]

Should we read anything into the fact that Gabby appears in today's squad photo?!?

Due to the gruelling season ahead, he is unfortunately with us until at least January, by which time he will probably have made half a dozen, possibly substitute appearances, and also scored a couple of goals.

[Villa in Denmark]

Should we read anything into the fact that Gabby appears in today's squad photo?!?

Due to the gruelling season ahead, he is unfortunately with us until at least January, by which time he will probably have made half a dozen, possibly substitute appearances, and also scored a couple of goals.

I admire the optimism.  I'd bet on a couple of PR own goals personally.

[Des Little]

That wanker shouldn't be anywhere near that photo.

[mr underhill]

He's on the dust jacket of  the latest edition of A Dummies Guide to Dummies

[Exeter 77]

I think Gabby is still nominally part of the squad (with squad number, in squad photo etc.) is because we will lose several attacking players to the African Cup Of Nations and if he can get and stay fit and improve his attitude it makes good business sense. Why pay for a loan player when we are already paying an 'experienced' and (historically) pacy striker who could (potentially) do a job.

Whether we, the fans, agree with this because of all of the 'ifs' and variables is much less of a consideration.

[dicedlam]

As much as it pisses me off to see that fucking leech in the team photo, I'm sure the club would have to include Agbonlahor due to him being a squad member.
Also, if things were to go to legal matters over his contract, I'm sure his lawyers would use it against the club if he had been left out.