ChrisH

Pretty much sums upo thye weakness of playing 5 at the back, the fullback feel obliged to help in the forward play which the system needs and then if teams break quickly they are stranded up field.

Why is it only us out of the bottomn teams who just seem to fall apart and get a hammering when we lose

We're passing the ball we're pasing the ball

we're Aston Villa , we're passing the ball

N'Zogbia has done more in the first 10 mins than he did all last season..... he is actually running with the ball!!!

Is there a 3rd/4th place playoff in Olympic football? I think that might break the matrix actually. It would be too many levels of unimportance for it to handle.

3rd/4th Play Off is NOTHING. There was a 7th/8th Play Off in the men's Hockey today

A 7th/8th playoff. That really beggars belief.

Then the the fact that they had a playoff for 11th/12th place in the womens hockey today is gonna really amaze you then!!

Just for the record Belgium beat USA 2-1 to secure 11th

Not sure if this should be in this section or the Olympics, but as I imagine specialised cyclists are in here I'll post....

Just watching the men's omnium race, and can understand how it all works.. One thing that is confusing though Is how the Danish rider got 6th place...yes he lapped the peloton and so understandably "made a lap" but he also crashed and missed a few laps..does he not have to make those up?

He has 5 laps to rejoin the pack, due to the fact things are moving so quick (15 secs per lap ish) he would have no chance of ever making up the laps.

Spent way too much time trying to make sure the Brazil boat was behind them, and forgot all about sweden it seems

Speaking to some Rangers fans while working up there this week and they would rather start in the 3rd division and work there way back up. They think the other SPL teams are happy to vote them out the SPL with the knowledge that if they end up in the 1st division within 1 season they will be back and they will be getting their revenue having stuck 2 fingers up at Rangers, kindof a win win situation for all of the SPL.

What I like about Lambert is that his sphere of influence will be greater than just coaching the first team.

I'd be surprised if Lambert didn't bring Ian Culverhouse and Gary Karsa with him, I'm not sure what Karsa's role was at Carrow Rd, but Culverhouse carried out the coaching of the players and during matches if he suggested a susbtitution to Lambert then he'd go with it, he has a big influence. Lambert just gets on with managing!

I am sure there roles were posted by a norwich fan earlier in the thread.

to Summarise what i remember:

Lambert identifies players, and is the main motivator

Culverhouse handles a lot of the training, and tactics and by some accounts has a lot of say in the team selection.

Karsa is the person who hangs it all together, he is the total opposite of lambert, gets everyone on side, both players and fans and is a really funny guy someone everyone wants to be around.

So they are a team, without one the whole package suffers

I'm sure someone will be along to correct anything that isn't right!

kin embarrassing if we're chasing the Norwich manager

Good luck to norwich, i hope he stays put

You won't be happy unless we unveil Mourinho.

Laudrup

Benitez

Klinsmann

Let's be realistic now. At best I'd say, based on our squad and past few seasons, we'd be lucky to be rated in the top 10 of the Premier League. Also our stock in Europe is almost 0 due to lack of European football. The above 3 would probably respond with "Aston who?"

On that logic so would the current crop of BYT's - Lambert, Bob M & Rodgers

The point being we are not in any position to just turn up and say "we're Aston Villa sign this contract" Out stock has dropped dramatically over the last few years. We need to sell the club to managers and doing that to the likes of Laudrup and Klinsman would involve monumental amounts of money. With all due respect we can however offer a better job to a manager coming from Norwich, Swansea or Wigan.

Whilst I can see the point you are making, isn't Laudrup out of work? IF and it's a very big IF he was interested in continuing with his management development a role at a decent sized English club like ourselves may be seen as a perfect step back into management. Not that I think we will get him, but I could see why if offered the role he would take it under serious consideration. The point re Klinsman is very valid.

Laudrup's Wiki makes good reading, talking about his teams playing attacking flowing football and having to rebuild teams and get rid of aging players....... sounds very familiar!

Not one to plug bookies, but why has Rafa came away in on the betting over the past 15mins. Was 36/1 now into 14/1 on Betfair

Please please please please please.

Yep, would be my #1 choice also.

Problem is he would want £20-30m to spend (saying that, whoever is appointed will need that...but wont get it).

That's the thing though, if he was appointed we could probably be sure of there being big money spent in the summer.

Exciting times ahead then i just worry for the youth IF he got appointed :cry:

liverpool fans were on Talksport last night praising rafa for the youth setup they now have, said he put a lot of time into setting up the youth side of things. I guess the money is only really needed intially is his long terms plans for youth work.

I would not have expected us to go back for him after last time but it may be that he really had some loyalty to Wigan and Whelan. Having been given the OK to leave for Liverpool I think he can see the time is now right to part and he may not think Liverpool will offer him the job or give him the time to change them before moving him on if they are not top 6 within a season so he likes the idea of building a team from scratch as he has done before but this time with us and being given a couple of seasons to show signs of progress.

I would be happy with him, OGS or Lambert who now appear to be the 3 front runners. We could do a lot worse than all three of them.

I think this is the reason why we can't rule martinez out. Randy will admire his loyalty, and just because Whelan spouted off to the media like he did, it doesn't mean this is what was happening behind closed doors.

Martinez seems an honorable kind of guy and i would guess whelan doing what he did didn't sit well with him either

I like a gamble but i've never used Betfair and I don't have a clue what's going on on that Betfair page, all the names have 6 different buttons next to them with 2 different numbers on the buttons????? WTF? Anyone?

dark blue button to back him, dark pink button to bet against it happening

Number on top are the odds, number on the bpotom is the amount of money available for that bet (you have to have people willing to take your bet on betfair)

Still 2-2?

-

3-2

Bolton winning. We're gonna stay up on goal difference :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

with QPR losing, we are staying up by a point at the moment

Somebody came up with the stat than in his last 150 games in charge of any club - the team have only scored more than one goal on 10 occasions. can't be true ?

Well looking at this seasons results including cup games we have scored more than 1 goal on 10 occassions, so unless he hadn't done it ever in his previous 100 or so then I would suggest the stat is untrue, believable but still untrue

Just taken AFC Telford to the Premier league in consecutive seasons, winning every league on the way, the championship was a bit of a drain on resources as i could only use the seating parts in my ground so attendences were limited to 2700 !!

On promotion to the premier league they have announced they will add 6700 more seats but my ground is shut and i have to play my home games at Molineaux until the work is done! the next season should be interesting!!

Martin O'neill is back managing villa and i am waiting for them to give him the push so i can take over

Anyone spotted any sports people or celeb's taking part? I think Ray Wilkins is but not spotted many others.

Jenson Button was growing one, they mentioned it during an interview at the GP on Sunday

He's a Villa fan as well apparently

Really?

Commentator last night said he was a Blues fan but his mom is a Villa fan...

Could he be doing a Craig Gardner?

Birmingham Mail

Article says he is a blues fan, used to watch them as a kid etc, went to watch villa once

how does the parachute payments work?

The premier league continue to pay relegated teams a payment each season unless they get promoted. In past it used to be about £11m a year for up to 3 years, I think it has changed now though.

Its now a large amount of money over 4 years with it decreasing each year.

£48 Million over 4 years i think, £16 million in years 1 and 2 and then £8 million for years 3 and 4

I can't believe that the season you quit you won nothing... you should at least go out on a high...

I'd take him, but the figures quoted are mad, and probably bollocks.

Absolute max of £2m for me, and he can get a pay off from Man C on his contract, so realistic salary too.

I can't see Man City doing anything to make it too easy for him to leave. From their point of view they have 2 very good keepers and they don't exactly need the money.

Given will want first team football but he hasn't exactly been overly vocal to the extent Man City would want to get rid.

Bent is currently on a crazy goalscoring spree using the tactic posted earlier in the thread

8 in 8 in the league

1 in 1 in the league cup

17 in 5 in the Europa League !!

overall 26 in 14

he had 16 in 8 in pre-season friendlies as well.

Though now i have posted he probably won't score again !!

Scoring hasn't stopped, into April now, about 10 league and cup games to go and he has 85 competetive goals, I just think the season will run out too soon for him to hit 100

well his jet flew to Figari Corsica at 17 tonight,confirmed by a contact in ATC #n85cl

That was posted by Macbhx on twitter, TheTrees knows him.

Maybe Randy originally Flew into Liverpool, and picked up his new best mate Bill Kenwright and flew him to Corsica so he can speak to AM..... what with Kenwright not having enough money for his own jet and all that or am i just clutching at straws

Gus Poyet the latest big mover in the odds on Betfair

and yes i know bookies know nothing

Is there any way to bet on people that won't become manager? I want to put some money on McCleish not becoming manager being that he is favourite to do so.

Yes, goto betfair and click on the red box next to Mcleish's nameThe red box is betting he will not become manager - this is called laying Mcleish (which someone else found rather amusing ), the blue one is backing him to become manager.

I've already got £150 on him not becoming manager. The odds right now are amazingly good.

Or the other way of doing it is through your normal bookie, and back every manager other than the one or two you think won't get a job. This is much more difficult though because of the huge number of options and you have to bet different amounts on different managers depending on the odds...! Stick with BetFair.

You can have some real good fun using the flutuating odds on the Villa Manager market on Betfair. By laying managers at low odds and backing them again for less money at higher odds you can make guarenteed profit as well as your favorites making you more money if they were to happen. I'm sure someone earlier said they were due £150 regardless of who was made manager by doing this!

Yup, though next manager books are slow moving. Horse racing or in-play football is much more exciting.

What you are talking about is "arbitrage" - an age old, minimum risk way of gambling (investing).

Horse racing odds can move scarily fast, at least the next manager market isn't quite so heart stopping!!