I spent 6 weeks in Greece in 1992. Watched the Euro Cup final with a mob of drunken Swedes...I spent most of my time in the Cyclades, particularly on Sifnos, a hidden gem of an island, not very touristy at all.
Athens was a dump, I spent about two days there in total, saw the sites, and that's it. You'd blow your nose after a day of walking around the city, and out would come black snot. 24 hour traffic, too, constant noise.
Some very tasty fixtures ahead that we should* be able to get a good points tally from. This will be the litmus test for the Lerner/Lambert model. If the club struggles to actually win a few of these games, things will get uncomfortable for them.
Plenty of time. One win in STL. and the series comes back home. I always thought this would go 6 or 7. Bizarre series so far. And much more exciting than the two boring sweeps in '04 and '07.
Bennett, Kozak, Tonev, Helenuis (so good we bought another striker without playing him) all say Hi.
Yes, fairly savvy. Benteke, Vlaar, Bacuna, Lowton, Okore, and Luna have been good signings, to varying degrees, obviously. The verdict is still out on Tonev, Helenius and Kozak, but then they've not really had much time to prove themselves, have they.
I'm starting to think that an annual relegation battle will get very old very soon for Lambert if he's not backed by the owner to bring in the players we desperately need to even finish in 10th place.
He's proven to be a fairly savvy manager in the transfer market, and his record with Norwich combined with his higher profile gig with Villa will mean that some club will tap him up with the promise of more cash to spend. If Lerner doesn't back the manager in January and next summer, he could very well be off.
Clearly needs to be dropped. He's put so many shots beyond the 20th row, it's criminal. Has pace and commitment, but his guile is lacking. He's looking more and more like Gabby, really.
Our midfield is too weak, we'll get overrun every time we play a decent side. The reality is that this Villa team is only marginally better than last season's. If it weren't for the utterly shambolic clubs at the bottom, we'd be relegation fodder again.
Grin and bear it time.
My weekend begins today!
I'm heading up to Maine in a couple of hours to spend time with my old man. Gonna watch Game 1 of the World Series together on Wednesday night. (Yes, I know, why do we call it the "World" series....)
Anyhow....Here we go, Red Sox!
See you all in a few days
Recently watched "The Master", and it was alright, not great. Joaquin Phoenix is very good as a drifting loner after the war. But the movie gets weighed down a bit by it's own self-importance, something that the director flirted with when he made "There Will Be Blood".
Anderson is a huge talent, but I'd like to see him do something more along the lines of Boogie Nights again instead of plodding character studies.
It's arguable that we deserved a point from this. Much better effort in the second half, but Spurs are the better side, had most of the possession, and it paid off for them.
Not too upset, because we played with integrity, but just lost to the better team.