limpid

Fixed now :oops:

by carlitobrigante The last week or 2 saw an avalanche of negativity surround this site and MON. The recent run hasn't helped, but I would have thought the excellent early run and the very tough run of games would have seen the great man cut some slack - from us fickle villa fans I should have know better... Now many were panicking and yes we still only have Bardsley but if the stories (and strong, muscular, indomitable rumours they are too) are true then we have happy times ahead. Ashley Young: Class player, lots pace and great prospect where we could double in value (how many signings have we ever been able to say that about). Expensive? Maybe; but in today's market if Boa Morte is worth £6m then £8m plus extras isn't too bad. Milan Baros: Such a shame he's leaving. Don't get me wrong, he was crap for us mostly and it was best for both that he went. He has just signed for Lyon, who are a quality quality team, way above Villa at present. There he will get quality ball to feet service from a great midfield and I'm sure he will fit in there. I feel we would have seen the best of him if he could have waited a year or so till we have more creativity and strength in our midfield and alongside him. That was never going to happen though was it. Although every cloud has a silver lining! Now John Carew. Stunning signing if we pull it off. Yes you may argue not the out and out goal scorer that we may need. However his support play, power and guile is something else. Youtube clips of him are stunning, but don't show the half of what he can do. Now I know neither of the 2 incoming deals have been confirmed. But even the most cynical has got to admit they look solid deals that will hopefully break cover today or tomorrow. Now please, if you cant be positive today about the Villa then you never will be, with Dioup added to the 3 above we have a top 8 team and that's before the summer!

It's not hard to change server...

I'm installed, but still no net connection. How many patches are there?

Can you help us lowbies?

It's just arrived. Nice box. /me taps foot

I'm expecting mine in the post today, but the earliest I can get online is tomorrow night :-(

Please keep this thread on-topic

PB's thoughts this week remain firmly fixed on the transfer window as fans debate the virtues of panic buys to solve our current "crisis". Lets face facts. The team is currently struggling pretty badly, and we don’t appear, on the face of the first 45 minutes at Old Trafford to be about to turn any corners. It is difficult perhaps at this exact moment in time to appreciate just how much the club has changed over a few short months. Fans, quite correctly perhaps, react to what they see on the football pitch, or the telly, and the reaction they have is that, really, things haven’t changed all that much. I can understand this reaction, I really can. I am as frustrated as the next man by the recent run of results, and appreciate as well as any the need for fresh blood in the first team to improve what is really a poor squad in terms of quality. Relegation is, perhaps, a distant threat, but still, a threat it is. We still need probably 15 or more points, and at the moment it is hard to see where they are coming from. I am struggling to see though how our current position can possibly justify us throwing £10m at Watford for a young boy who may, or may not, make the grade, or throwing £12m at Liverpool for a player like Craig Bellamy in a transfer window which must surely be the noisiest one ever in terms of speculation but the quietest one ever in terms of actual moves – and not only for us, for everyone. I also see fans reacting to, in my opinion, ill-advised comments from the General and the manager concerning the European Cup and their aspirations in that area, and similarly ill-advised comments from Martin O’Neill about World class players coming to the Villa. These fans reactions is naturally enough one of great excitement, excitement which may well one day be justified. I remember that during the takeover I said some stuff that I still very much believe, indeed, events since the takeover have, if anything deepened my belief. First The club on Ellis' departure was in a total mess, a train wreck of a football club, in my opinion 9 months away from the Championship. Others I know view this differently, and that’s their perogative, but I'm on record as saying it was so back in the summer, and this season to date has done nothing to change my mind. I was on record then as saying that I believed it would take years to even recover our position of ten years ago, and I stand by that now. Even with, in my opinion the excellent management we have at every level, the mess the club was in was so deep as to make any rapid transformation practically impossible. You are going to have to wait in my opinion, whether you like it or not. Second I am on record as saying during the takeover, and since then, that even if Randy Lerner didn’t put up a single penny of his own money to fund player transfers I would back him if I saw that the steps he was taking as Chairman were positive, forward thinking and would be for the long term benefit of the club, as essentially, that’s what this club REALLY needs, far more than his millions, if we are to have success for many years to come. To date, I have been absolutely bowled over by the way he has run the club - I really genuinely couldn’t ask for more. After 20 years of Ellis’ misrule its still, to me, like one long party. If Randy chucks some millions our way (and I believe that the mess is such that he might just have to sooner or later) then all the better, but for me, I think we have the best club owner you could possibly wish for. As for O’Neill, well, he isn’t perfect. He makes mistakes, he gets things wrong, perhaps increasingly so as the pressure bites. Again, I am on record as saying that I believe that he is absolutely, certainly the best manager we could possibly have for this phase of our development. He is, in some ways, a modern version of GT MKI, a guy who will leave his footprint on this club, a footprint that will last us in good stead for many, many years to come. it is my belief that when he eventually leaves this club he will do so to a standing ovation and the eternal gratitude of our supporters. Its hard, I know, to look at things this way now, on the back of a dismal run of results, but its what I believe. Just thought I would share it, as it seemed kind of apt PB

We should start our own guild. I could do a website that Nays won't join :-)

just wait a year and they'll give them away for 4 hours in a bg.

by PB PB takes a look at the latest transfer gossip I don’t agree with transfer windows for a whole host of reasons, not least amongst those being the fact that message boards like this spend months getting themselves into a lather of excitement and expectation in the build up, and then, when the window finally opens, there is a mass feeding frenzy of speculation, rumour and counter rumour. Everyone is very much on edge, a situation not helped by the fact that we seem to have gone several years without winning a game. Everyone can see our need. Everyone can see our billionaire owner. Over to you Randy? I have my doubts that it is that simple, but still I can sympathize with the viewpoint. Anyway, I felt it was time to get into the spirit of things and have a look at the gossip, and it really is for the most part no more than that, surrounding Villa at the moment. Out Well, young Peter Whittingham seems to have kicked his last ball for the Villa. Rarely able to get a spot in the team despite our crippling injury list, the former U-21 international is going to join Championship contenders Cardiff City for £300,000. Peter’s contract expires in the summer, and looks unlikely to be renewed. In some ways it is a shame to see one of your young guns stepping down a League, but Peter rarely reached the heights of those dizzy days early in O’Leary’s reign when he looked like he might be the real deal. Ulises de la Cruz – remember him? – might be, according to rumour, heading back North of the border to join Scottish Champions Celtic. Also said to be heading North of the border is full back Aaron Hughes, who is allegedly a transfer target for his old club Newcastle United. Hughes, something of a contentious figure these days, might feel a little miffed that O’Neill has signed a young Manchester United reserve to play in his spot. The Northern Ireland captain is one of those players that fans seem to either love or hate, with the latter camp currently seeming to be the bigger of the two. According to Milan Baros’ Mum - yes seriously his Mum – the Czech international striker is wanted by Chelsea. His agent, talkative at the best of times, has confirmed the interest. While this news might surprise his many detractors, there can be little doubt that a Baros that is properly switched on is a genuinely top class player as he showed in the Cup game this weekend. While Martin O’Neill has become, it appears, the latest manager to run out of patience with the occasionally brilliant, occasionally invisible striker, it is possible that Mourinho feels he can spark that latent talent into something approaching consistency. I think, personally, that it might just be the best deal for all concerned, especially if we can use Milan to prize away from Stamford Bridge the, and I use this prefix because everyone else does, mercurial young winger Sean Wright-Phillips. This brings us very neatly to: In As mentioned above, Villa are apparently trying very hard indeed to secure Ian Wright’s adopted son (is that right? I think it is.). There is some debate about whether this would be on loan on permanent, and there appears to be even more doubt about how happy the young winger would be to leave Chelsea. We will see. A lot may depend on whether or not Villa can secure a deal for Watford’s young starlet Ashley Young. With Moore and Agbonlahor, I can’t see Villa wanting both Wright-Phillips AND Young, and my belief is that one of these is plan A, while the other is plan B. It could well be that Villa’s interest in Wright-Phillips has increased since Watford increased the asking price for Young to a silly £9m. With Milan Baros apparently heading for the door, we are in need of a striker. Well, we needed a striker anyway, but now we REALLY need a striker. There was some talk about Kevin Doyle, the free scoring Reading striker for £5m, but in my opinion this is just speculation. I think that the strong rumours concerning Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy are more likely to be true. O’Neill has already rescued this lad’s career once, and will probably feel quite confident that he can do it again for the striker with a reputation roughly akin to a mix between Attilla the Hun and Robbie Savage. £9m though? Then there are the “bolts out of the blue”. Villa have been linked with all manner of continental players, for the most part probably the work of agents gabbling to the press more in hope than expectation. Some Egyptian lad who’s name I’m not even going to try and spell or pronounce who looks tasty on YouTube (which seems to be taking over from Championship manager as the way for the masses to judge players), another YouTube star from Romania and probably some others who I have forgotten. Meanwhile, Martin O’Neill has said, very bravely in my opinion, that he hopes to sign five players of the “Petrov” quality this window. He has also said that this might be easier said than done and he might have to plug the gaps in his plans with stop gap signings towards the end of the window if things don’t go quite as anticipated. We will see PB

by kingrollo There were 74,000 at Old Trafford on Sunday, despite the fact the game was live on mainstream TV. As far as I am aware there were no big price reductions; a tremendous turnout. There was only one problem (apart from the result) - I am jealous of such a turnout. We can not alter the result, but perhaps this match will be remembered like the 1970-71 league cup final, not for the result, but for the fact that Aston Villa are on the way back and you can make a difference. At this point in time we are encouraging the Villa management to spend a few million on bolstering the team. I think most of us accept that we can’t compete with Chelsea and Man Utd in terms of spending power, but we do expect to be able to compete with the likes of Newcastle and Spurs. We are asking the club to make an effort. On Jan 20 we have a chance to show Randy and Martin, a glimpse of how good a place Aston Villa can be, We are home to Watford, no disrespect intended but not the most glamorous fixture that weekend. But it's a golden chance for anyone who hasn't been down the Villa in ages to return to the fold. In my opinion the club don't push this enough but the prices in the family enclosure are:- £15 Adults £5 kids I am setting a target here on VillaTalk. We need to get an attendance of 38,000 for this match. A tall order I know, but spread the word you might be surprised. For example I made it my intention to take my 2 kids to this match, I mentioned it to one or two people, mentioned the prices as well. Guess what? There are 17 of us now, that's an extra 14 people who just fancied going down the villa, but just needed a nudge out the door! An added bonus of a bumper crowd, at this time is that there might just be a few players 'mulling' over a move to Villa Park at this time - if you believe what you hear one could even be in the opposing team! What better way to demonstrate we are a club going places -than a whopping big gate... One other attraction of this match - we will probably win!

Please stay on topic.

Got my priest to level 8 and got bored. Great afternoon's play. Anyone want anything from the chinese?

Playing an ally priest on Deathwing while I wait. Fefifofum.

Is tarren mill down?

You'll be "glad" to hear that after 8 ish weeks of me telling the networking people there are problems with internet connectivity from my hotel - they've found a problem with internet connectivity. ffs.

Don't you only need the collector's edition if you don't own a copy already? Serious question - a mate wants to start playing, but is waiting until TBC comes out so he doesn't have several GB of patches to download.

Will play.com deliver on the 16th, or dispatch on the 16th?

I've mentioned this before on another thread, but anyone using digital cameras (especially professionally) should spend a few minutes to read this.

The Burning Crusade [*:ae2280c859]Any date announced yet? [*:ae2280c859]Any retailers offering release day shipping? (ie. to arrive on release day) Get searching people...

Erm, Clicky

by OutByEaster? There shouldn't be any glory in a nil-nil draw at home, but something about the nature of our performance against Chelsea leads me to think that better times are ahead. What's the collective noun for a group of young lions? You see, sometimes it's more important that you regain some of the properties you had that had been slipping away than get three points. I thought our young side played will real pride, heart and spirit tonight against an excellent Chelsea side. It's not always something to celebrate when you set up for a draw a home and get it, regardless of who your opponents are, but the manner of our resistance was as much a cause for celebration as watching 4,000 unhappy cockneys and one Portuguese slope off back to the smoke in a pall of misery, There were notable performances all over the pitch. Our two young centre halves were excellent; they work really well as a pair and fear absolutely no one. Drogba has a habit of leaving defenders bruised, battered and unhappy. He limped off tonight a wounded man. Bouma was a revelation, man-marking SWP out of the game so effectively that he'll be sleeping with the light on for a fortnight. A tour de force from our often-criticised Dutch pocket battleship. Gardner, Petrov, Osbourne, and particularly Davis were industry personified and seemed to be all over the pitch, outnumbering Chelsea when it appeared they would be out gunned. Angel performed his lonely task well; it can't be easy trying to hold up the ball with Carvalho behind you and Makalele in front. It never looked great, but he did an important job tonight. Collectively, they had a force that seemed to take Chelsea by surprise. Chelsea are the archetypal playground bully, and when they don't get their own way, they start to look a little lost, a little confused and a little temperamental. The moment that typified the game for me was Agbonlahor roaring back to take the ball from Drogba on one of the rare occasions that he'd out muscled Mellberg. It earned him a round of applause from his manager that spread around the ground; its echo can probably still be heard on Chelsea's team bus. So, lets not focus on our own negativity, or lack of ambition, for the height of our ambitions must surely be to create a team full of spirit and belief, ready to work and battle for one another and for our cause. Rest assured that these qualities now reawakened will bring us points in the weeks to come. The pride is back. Hope follows.

by kingrollo kingrollo muses possible signings. I think there is only Drogba & Ronaldo that we haven't been linked with! But what do we actually know. Considered Options: [*:61b967c34f]Martin O'Neill has heavily hinted that he wants players with experience of the premiership. [*:61b967c34f]He wants players with pace. [*:61b967c34f]He has previously shown a liking for a big man up front - even if this guy isn't a prolific goal scorer. [*:61b967c34f]His liking for players he knows - suggests that he is interested in the character of players, or he hasn't yet got a good scouting network established after a while out of the game. I am bit undecided on this one. Reading the forums there isn't a position that doesn't need strengthening; from Goalkeeper to centre forward - in every position it seems we have no position we are entirely happy with. I think we are going to find out what sort of team O'Neill is going to build at Villa. In my opinion there are 3 routes to go down: [*:61b967c34f]We go for big names, expensive players - not Chelsea style - but Say Craig Bellamy, Robbie Keane, Defoe. The problem is we aren’t in Europe and history has shown that it is difficult to attract players until we are in Europe even in the close season. [*:61b967c34f]We assemble a squad a quality players regardless of position when quality becomes available. For example most people probably think Sorenson is an OK keeper - but if better goalie became available we should go for him. [*:61b967c34f]Martin O'Neill does what does he knows and assembles a Leicester type side. Tough tackling with few stars, but very difficult to beat. Still lacking against the very big guns. This I feel is most likely option at least in the short term. So who are the names then? I have no doubt in my mind that Craig Bellamy would Martin O'Neill's first choice up front but that seems highly unlikely. Defoe would be a major surprise, I even think Robbie Keane is highly unlikely. Darren Bent would appear gettable, but Charlton would have little to gain by selling him now unless they can be convinced with a swap involving Baros (remember Pardew was keen on Baros before). So availability seems to be key, which brings us to the likes of James Beattie at Everton. He's not for sale officially, but rumours of Everton eyeing Nugent from Preston could make him surplus to requirements. Of course Villa could go for Nugent, but he lacks the premiership experience that O'Neill seeks. One who would be available is Harewood at West Ham; he's not a great goalscorer and West Ham fans weren't convinced when he was playing in the Championship. But he fits the MON style of play and I feel would be an improvement on what we have. My tip is that it will be one of Beattie, Harewood, Nugent in that order of probability. For an outside punt; what about Andy Cole, or even Emille Heskey (with six premier goals this season). The other position which I sense MON is ill at ease with is centre back. Ridgewell has recently been left out in favour of Cahill and I understand Ridgewell had one or two fraught moments against Chelsea tonight. Curtis Davies is my strong tip to join us, I believe that Mowbray at Albion wants to build his own team, and the sale of Davies would give him funds to do that. Midfield: Barry Fergusson has been suggested, however there seems to be fog of politics up north and Fergusson and his family didn't settle south of the border. With the manager under scrutiny, I feel Fergusson may decide to tough it out at Rangers. Steve Sidwell from reading fits the bill for me. I understand he doesn’t have long on his contract either. Hendrie may go the other way in a swap deal. Others: Well Alan Smith on loan, he could do a job for us. Bardsley from Man Utd would appear to lack the required premiership experience. Craig Gordon from Hearts could be an outside bet to solve our goalkeeping crisis. Either way I expect some positive news very soon!!