OnlyOne

Well I've just had a good laugh. A few Sunderland fans think they have a real chance of getting Downing as 'payback'.

There is, its in Randys office though. Just ask Ash,Barry Milner etc. they'll have a story to tell i'm sure.Yes, I'm sure they will. What they'll say is "Man City (or wherever Ash is going) showed me more ambition". When they say ambition however, they mean money. No, tbf it means they want to win things, something they find out quite quick when they come to AstonVilla that they wont do.You're kidding yourself if you think money isn't the main reason. Why else would Milner move from here where he played week in week out and was regarded as a hero to City just to sit on the bench?what did he win??. Something he'd never have seen here Same with Barry.He was a bench-warmer for a lot of that FA Cup campaign, particularly the latter stages. What's to say he wouldn't have won it here anyway? Cos we currently have a manager who likes to throw away the FA Cup. Oh not this myth again. It's not a myth. It's a fact. Houllier didn't believe we would beat Man City, so he rested our main players for the Bolton game.

There is, its in Randys office though. Just ask Ash,Barry Milner etc. they'll have a story to tell i'm sure.Yes, I'm sure they will. What they'll say is "Man City (or wherever Ash is going) showed me more ambition". When they say ambition however, they mean money. No, tbf it means they want to win things, something they find out quite quick when they come to AstonVilla that they wont do.You're kidding yourself if you think money isn't the main reason. Why else would Milner move from here where he played week in week out and was regarded as a hero to City just to sit on the bench?what did he win??. Something he'd never have seen here Same with Barry.He was a bench-warmer for a lot of that FA Cup campaign, particularly the latter stages. What's to say he wouldn't have won it here anyway? Cos we currently have a manager who likes to throw away the FA Cup.

Theres only one way we can persuade players like Downing to stay, and thats to first get some direction back in the club, then try and bring in some ambitious signings. Weve had two players mention this lack of direction already, and until its sorted, we will continue to drift, until we hit the rocks. Absolutely spot on How about Darren Bent? Randy looked at how much he could lose if we were to get relegated. That's over 40 million. It looked like we were going down. Our strikers couldn't score more than 4 goals between them. We needed goals so we went with the obvious choice and it paid off. It wasn't ambition. It was a panic buy. I doubt Randy would ever allow a manager to break the transfer window at 24m in a pre-season. And you seem to be forgetting he pocked the Milner money, didn't even spend in 2010, so it's not like he actually had to dig deep in his pockets.

Actually, we're now a feeder to the top 6 clubs. We've derailed fast and it's mainly down to the board. How exactly? Because they haven't forced players to stay when they want away? Because they haven't put us into deep financial debt by trying to outspend the richest clubs in the league with regards to wages? Because they seem to be gutless on pretty much everything. If say Tottenham were put in a similar situation, I don't think they would wait around. They'll grow some balls and get it sorted. From the moment Randy hired Paul Faulkner as CEO, from the moment Randy said MON will be 100% staying next season and him taking off nearly soon as the season started, they've been shambolic. They haven't sorted out anything properly yet. Our wage bill is still as high as ever and we need a manager RIGHT NOW so they've got the whole summer to reduce it dramatically, but instead they want to do it the easy/soft approach by waiting on test medical results. It's no wonder Downing is trying to get out right now with shit like this going on. It's been a shit season. Look at the table. We're 9th. Hurrah, that's great isn't it? Take a closer look. We're closer to relegation than 6th. Are we really progressing or this our level now? Just slightly better than Bolton, West Brom but no where near the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham nevermind the big boys? I think the board gives a strong impression that they're not willing to push and they seem happy with that.

Actually, we're now a feeder to the top 6 clubs. We've derailed fast and it's mainly down to the board.

Hardly...At least they won a cup recently no matter how shit it gets for them. What's the difference between being in the Premier League and then say the League 2? We still lose our best players regardless and it appears we've lost the drive to compete for anything. Makes no **** difference at all. Oh, apart from the ticket prices being higher. Worst. Post. Ever. What's the benefits of being in the Premier League if we lose our best players every single season, we're not good enough to compete for anything and watching mercenaries play for clubs? All the best we can hope for now is dull Premier League positions at the very best if this keeps up. We still haven't filled the Milner gap and it's gonna be very hard to fill Young AND Downing if they were both to leave as well. At least in a lower league there's more stability with cheaper ticket prices. The whole top league is a money pot that's destroying the game. Personally, I prefer watching International players playing in front of 38k+ against some of the best players in the world rather than watching some players who are slight improvement on non league football who struggle to pass the ball on a bobbly pitch in front of about 8k max. more stability lower leagues? most are struggling to survive as football clubs.I'd rather finish 6th in the Prem than in league two. What a total joke of an arguement. Pathetic. Even if it means losing our best players every single **** season? I'm getting rather tired of it to be honest. I don't give a shit about international players against each other. I give a shit about Villa and wouldn't care where they end up. All I want to see is committed players for this club and at the moment it's not happening.

I don't think the club has the money to invest more than £20-30 million a season. Well you know I could have sworn blind that I have been saying for two years now that Randy does not have the money to take achieve the goals he has said he wants to achieve here (top four) and that in order to do that we need more money or a new owner with the kind of money required. But I had loads disagreeing with me, obviously you weren't one of those to disagree then. Dont get me wrong I'm comfortable with the club we are, second tier premier league club with the odd cup challenge here and there. What I am not comfortable with is people believing, or actually stating, that we are anything different or aiming for something more without the wherewithall to back it up. It's bad enough that Randy hasn't got the guts to make any decisions, but if he hasn't even got the money to compete anymore, I wonder why he's still the owner of this club because it's not to take us forward.

Hardly...At least they won a cup recently no matter how shit it gets for them. What's the difference between being in the Premier League and then say the League 2? We still lose our best players regardless and it appears we've lost the drive to compete for anything. Makes no **** difference at all. Oh, apart from the ticket prices being higher. Worst. Post. Ever. What's the benefits of being in the Premier League if we lose our best players every single season, we're not good enough to compete for anything and watching mercenaries play for clubs? All the best we can hope for now is dull Premier League positions at the very best if this keeps up. We still haven't filled the Milner gap and it's gonna be very hard to fill Young AND Downing if they were both to leave as well. At least in a lower league there's more stability with cheaper ticket prices. The whole top league is a money pot that's destroying the game.

Hardly...At least they won a cup recently no matter how shit it gets for them. What's the difference between being in the Premier League and then say the League 2? We still lose our best players regardless and it appears we've lost the drive to compete for anything. Makes no **** difference at all. Oh, apart from the ticket prices being higher.

If Downing stayed for another season, but didn't sign a new contract, would the fans be happy with that? I wouldn't. I'd want the lying tosser out.

If we lose 4 main England players in 3 years in a row then it's gone far enough. We shouldn't be used as a gateway for players to break through to the England squad. I'm sure Bent will follow suit, he's done it before. **** the lot of them and let's focus on foreigners who'll be grateful to be in this club. At least they aren't ego maniacs who believe in their own hype. I'm sick of this board. I actually despise them. They're still pussyfooting around Houllier while the players must be thinking what's the point of sticking around when they're still unsure if they're going or not. Paul Faulkner is useless. It does look like in the interview he was powerless to talk Downing's agent round. What on earth was Randy thinking of hiring a friend over an reliable experienced CEO. I'm sure Paul is only in his early 30s as well. It's comical.

Okay what the hell is going on here. I expected the club to act straight away with bringing in a new solid appointment so they've got the WHOLE summer to sort out the deadwood and new signings. Instead, they'll waiting for the medical report on a manager who's done average (at the very best) to see if he can manage next season. They gave him the all clear when he was appointed as the manager and he had fatal health problems in his very first season before it even ended, so what's stopping it from happening again regardless of the report? This is literally a joke. We've got the time sort out the shambles now, but everyone is sitting on their arse waiting over to see what the doctor has to say when it makes no blind bit of difference. Just pay him off and move on RL. Put a shift on. We already have Redknapp doing quality signings and I expect a manager to do the same with us right now, especially when we've got a massive mess to sort out.

Ancelotti would be a massive improvement.

Thank you wheeler dealer.

Next stop, League One!

Gary Mac has done well, but we still need a new manager for the next season.

That really is almost childish in its simplicity. For the same reason that Shevchenko who won the Champions League with Milan couldn't cut it at Chelsea. It's an entirely different league with an entirely different way of playing. It suits some players, and doesn't suit others. You could be right. We still need to give him a pre-season and if he's still off pace, he has to go. But there's still hope for him yet. He does have potential to be a regular.

Yup, I'm sure Everton would have been relegated by now if it wasn't for Moyes. They are a very poor club.

He's finished above us the majority of times and with a less budget overall. So if he's average, what does that make us as a club? Abysmal?

I think he needs a pre-season to give him time to adjust to this league. But if he's gonna be exactly the same next season, then we need to ship him off.

I would rather if it was a manager who's grateful to have a job at Villa, while still being brilliant. I don't like managers and players who think they're too big for this club. It's happening too much tbh.

Steve McClaren - Fear

Out of all the potenial managers we can choose from then now and some of you want to go with the safe option? The standard British manager. Who the hell would him to get the best out of Ireland, Collins etc. They don't deserve to play at our club at all. I want a manager who'll find us near CL quality players, not someone who's going to be settled with players who are losers in terms of ambition. It's no wonder our players are bottlers instead of winners. No ambition whatsoever. We've seen what Hudges is like with a bottomless pit and he wasn't that good. He overpaid Lescott that was one of the worst deals I've seen in my life. We were also above his Man City team through the season despite the fact he had much better resources than us. Moyes is different because there's some sides we haven't seen with him yet. For a starters I wanna see what he's like with a better budget, a different PL team other than Everton and a striker who can score goals very well. We've seen everything Hudges has to offer. We'll be lucky if we can get top 6 with him and that's it. It's not exciting at all.