Bombadil

Winning mentality!

Did he say that like. He definitely has a voice that keeps making me just cut him off. All of a sudden I realise I've missed 2 or 3 minutes of his patter. 178262[/snapback] I was thinking the same thing.

Thought he said Charles N'Zogbia rather than James Milner??? 178258[/snapback] He mentioned both, but he did say that about Milner.

Caller: "There's always an end product from James Milner", yeah right.

Roeder and Shepherd have had the best part of three months and they have failed to bring in a striker. The fact that Roeder still hasn't made his mind up over Kuyt and feels he needs to see him in yet another meaningless friendly is ludicrous.

I haven't really seen a lot of him. How did he do last season?

Wayne to Bridge the gap.

O'Neill poised to extend contract Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill is expected to sign a long-term deal if billionaire Randy Lerner takes control of the club, BBC Sport understands. The contract would be the longest held by any current Premiership manager. O'Neill took over at Villa on 4 August after agreeing a 12-month rolling contract with chairman Doug Ellis. But he had already held "detailed discussions" with Lerner and agreed the terms of a contract, a source close to the American told BBC Sport. O'Neill also gained assurances from Ellis that he would relinquish control of the club. The source has told BBC Sport that O'Neill and Lerner struck up a good rapport when they met and that they "share a mutual love of football and American Football". Lerner, who is the chairman of credit card company MBNA, has vowed to provide the resources to turn Villa into one of the top four teams in the Premiership. The 44-year-old has made an offer of £62.6m for the Midlands club, which has been accepted by its board. An emergency general meeting of Villa's shareholders has now been called to discuss the bid. Lerner and his financial adviser Keith Harris, who brokered Roman Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea, had been "thinking through" a deal for Villa for the last two years, according to the source. The American is said to see a lot of similarities between the cities of Cleveland and Birmingham. Lerner took sole control of the Cleveland Browns gridiron team when his father died in 2002 and claims to have turned them into the best supported team in the NFL. Villa finished 16th in the Premiership last season and manager David O'Leary parted company with the club in July.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. Ameobi as a lone striker it is then.

When the "everything else" is overshadowed by the lack of effort' date=' yes they do.[/quote'] And rightly so, it's about finding the right balance. Let me put it differently - there seem to be a lot of people who blindly value crunching tackles over an intelligent block or a good pass. By the way, I wasn't defending Luque, I said in my first post int his thread that he's been poor and that it will be the best thing for all parties if he leaves as soon as possible.

Shearer's involvement doesn't have to be a bad thing, I quite like the idea.

I don't think anyone is obsessed with talentless cloggers, to be honest with you. 176132[/snapback] Probably not. But there seem to be a lot of people who blindly value 'effort' over everything else.

I would.

I was one of the people who was happy when I heard that we had signed Luque - even though it was blatantly obvious that he was a panic buy. But from what I've seen of him, he's been poor and now that it's clear that he has no future at the club, I hope a Spanish team will come in for him before the end of the month. We need to get rid as long as we can still get a good price for him. Having said that, I see where aimaad is coming from and I think he's right when he says that a lot of people are obsessed with talentless cloggers. Maybe Bowyer isn't the best example - a lot of people disliked him from the start because of his background and character. But still - he was a desperately poor player who got away with more than he should have because he's the type of player who runs around all day and makes silly (but spectacular) tackles. I also think that the club probably doesn't do enough to help foreign players settle. Clubs like Arsenal make sure they look after their foreign players, I guess that's part of the reason why they've been so successful.

I wouldn't worry about that. I think all of our midfielders will start enough games, given the injury problems we always have. Emre's injury record is poor and Duff, being the pacey player that he is, has had his fair share of muscular problems too.

How are we playing?

£16.7m! They were robbed.

I can't function without a cup of tea or coffee first thing in the morning. I'm halfway through my first cup of tea now and I can feel life coming back to my body... The great thing about having English and Italian blood in my veins is that I get the best of both worlds - the English blatantly know nothing about coffee (I blame American chains and coffee in pints), but the whole tea culture is brilliant.

If the deal doesn't go ahead soon, it could be too late for us to get Bridge though. And isn't Gallas still AWOL? I can see Bridge staying with Chelsea no matter what happens with Cole.

No shit Sherlock!

Spot on.

Let's have an Amady Faye tribute thread.

He only ever wanks over English players. Martins is just a good striker with a lot of pace according to him.

From what I've seen of him, Gravesen is a better version of Bowyer. Can drive the team forward, but simply because he can tackle doesn't mean he's a defensive midfielder. I wouldn't pay over the odds for him, but getting £2m for Faye and spending £3m on Gravesen sounds like a good deal.