rogerbarton

It wasn't even a pie!!!! (Meat and potato pasty apparently.) Do we really reckon he made some money off this? Seems more like a daft thing to do than him having an ulterior motive, but the fact he's resigned might suggest otherwise...

They'd have been long down if they hadn't somehow done us in TWICE this season. Owen Coyle is one of those managers that interests me - did a good job at St Johnstone and Burnley, started well at Bolton, then went very fast downhill from there.

I remember getting on a train to London on the last day of the season last year. The mackems of course got on at Watford (who they'd played) and, rather than singing anything about themselves, were going on about Rafa Benitez. Should've recorded it so I could play it back to some of them in a few months' time Mind you, I wouldn't mind if they stayed up, cos Rafa v Moyes gives me much greater hope of a derby win than anything since Brucey was in charge there.

If you think back to last time we went up, I can only remember Tiote and Ben Arfa being added. Mind you, our squad was much stronger then. It all depends on how much Ashley is prepared to back Rafa. Will he be nervous of repeating same mistakes that led to our previous two relegations? If he's given the chance, I think Rafa will overhaul this squad. We need at least one centre back, a left back, a quality holding midfielder, a left winger and probably another striker too.

Just goes from bad to worse for 'The Villa'. Hogan and Codger (not bothering to spell it) both off injured. Codger looked their best player too. Got to say I'm not surprised when you look at their team. They've brought in the likes of Lansbury and Bjarnarsson to 'strengthen' that side. Can you honestly say they are any better than semi-decent at this level? Their keeper's an absolute flapper, Hutton's legs have gone and Elphick is useless too.

Also, he books Shelvs for clapping, while Jedinak escapes censure for an absolute tirade of abuse earlier in the game.

Whisper it, but we've looked a lot better since Mitro came on. It was pretty obvious Gayle wasn't fully fit and I don't think that helped in the opening half hour or so. An absolutely wank first half, devoid of any quality whatsoever (for both teams, and the officials). I'm sorry but, despite the goal, Gouffran has been utterly useless. I'd get Atsu on around the hour mark.

The useless blonde scores! With our first shot? We're lucky Villa are shite

Villa, who've been accused of no bottle all season, first to every second ball and winning the 50/50s here. I think Jedinak has made a difference for them.

Yeah. another really slow and laboured performance at home. Have we even had a shot yet? Was there ever a time Colback looked good? He just gave the ball away yards outside the penalty area.

Just seen the mackems beaten on PL Gold ahead of our game on Sky. Goals from Andy Carroll and Mo Diame... a sign? Want to see us howk these bastards tonight. Villa fans melting down over their lineup on Twitter. They reckon we'll target getting behind Hutton.

I'd love to know which Argentinian with 5 caps wanted to go to Kilmarnock

[tweet] [/tweet] Can anyone make out what he's saying about Lee Clark, the South American player and Benitez? EDIT: Once again failing to embed tweets. Any advice?

Everything in the form book dictates we should put them away easily. They've really fostered a losing mentality over there. That said, after last season's two inept draws, plus the very lucky point they got from us earlier this season, I feel like they are a potential banana skin. Just for a bit of context, though - since they beat us 1-0 to send us down at Villa Park, their fans conducting themselves in the most dignified way throughout, we've played them 13 times and lost just once...

Totally agree on the Kante part. They've negated their striker problem because Sanchez has stepped into that role. But they're usually playing 4-2-3-1 with the two holding midfielders picked from Xhaka, Coquelin, Elneny, Iwobi, hell even Oxlade-Chamberlain played there against Chelsea! Can't really understand why he hasn't identified that as a position for improvement. EDIT: I suppose he did, and the best he could come up with was Xhaka.

The league table at this time in 09/10. We have 3 more points, as Fish alluded to. However, we got 39 points out of the 45 available in last 15. What's noticeable is that, other than Forest, no one else was really in touching distance. Whereas this year Reading and Huddersfield are both keeping us honest. Has to be noted that Forest fell away badly at the end, though. EDIT: Please do tell me an easier way of sharing locally saved images on here

Honestly can't believe some of the hyperbole on here and Twitter. We were unlucky only to take a point from the other form team in the division. We're still top & I'm not concerned about Huddersfield. After they play Man City in the cup, their next four are: Reading H, Barnsley A, Wolves A, NUFC H. Come back to me if they're in touching distance after we play them.

Is the bloke's contract up this summer? Cos otherwise he's probably coming back to us... Got to be a really good shout for worst signing ever. The only PL goal he did score was by mistake FFS.

I'm definitely subscribing to the view that every scraped 1-0 win away from home is a good thing. Even the great champions have their fair share of games like that. Can't imagine any neutrals stayed for the 90 minutes like. Mitro was targeted by a very poor ref. And the commentators were dreadful. Were they the same ones Sky normally use for the Championship? As I've usually thought they were pretty decent.

Think this will be a tough one. They seem to have been able to raise their game against the bigger teams all season. Knocked Liverpool's second XI out of the FA Cup too. We'll need to be patient, but a win by the odd goal here would be crucial going into some very difficult fixtures.

Would be interested to know what happened. Knew a Coventry fan who thought he was superb, and he looked promising when he first played here. He didn't have much good to say about Pardew. I always rated Abeid too - reckon he would've done a good job for us this season.

I'm enjoying how he's leaped on the 'fake news' thing as a way of discrediting the legitimate sources questioning him, or even his plunging approval rating. Makes you wonder where reality blurs with what he says in his brain.

Leicester. Someone was bound to say it eventually. But I take your point and accept that was pretty much a fluke occurrence. The Spurs example is a good one, though. Even before 'Arry, how many times had they been in Europe in the previous two decades? I do think it's attainable for a club that a) are willing to invest, and appoint the right manager. We've already got and not many teams do. I can see Everton building up a head of steam with Koeman now, but there's no one else outside that top 6 really.

True. There's a bit more info here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/revealed-birmingham-sacked-gary-rowett-9463699 Looks like new owners who weren't completely happy with him.

Yep, I can see Darlow / Krul, Mbemba, Yedlin, Shelvey, Diame, Ritchie, Gayle and Mitrovic being good enough. Hayden and Ayoze are decent rotation options. But we'll need strength in depth. On the shopping list will be a top-quality CB, left back, defensive midfielder, winger, an actually good number 10 (!!!) and I'd imagine we'll be looking at bringing in a proven PL striker too. Oh, plus someone who could step in for Shelvey.