The Villa Offside returns for the new season.
By: Ryan |
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Good afternoon to all the followers of my blog, it’s been a while since I have posted, but let’s be honest there has been enough rumours repeatedly circulating the internet for anyone. What I’m trying to say is there has been naff all to talk about, MON hasn’t made a single transaction in this transfer window, there’s been talk of Milner going to City, Liverpool after Luke Young and Petrov, but nothing has been put to paper and signed. I cannot decide if this is a good or a bad thing, as it probably means these players will be staying with Villa, but does it mean we will see no fresh faces?
We weren’t good enough last season to complete our goals, be it silverware or top 4, so that probably means we wont be good enough this season, especially since other teams are getting stronger. We’ve heard talk about a sell to buy policy, talk about selling Milner and using the money to buy players, talk of Ireland coming in to replace Milner, but its all talk talk talk.
PERSONALLY, and talking realistically here, I wouldn’t object to maybe one signing, either an attacker to use in a 4-4-2, or another midfielder and play with the 4-5-1 formation, and using some of our youth players, the likes of Albrighton, the Fonz, Weimann have all shown promise, and why not if we literally don’t have the money to buy players in. Sure they don’t have the experience, but there’s only one way to get it and it sure as hell beats the usual “flop” at the end of the season.
I’m hoping MON does buy players, Bellamy, Ireland are great City rejects for example, we all know MON buys late in the window, so hope is not all lost yet.
Villa play in Portugal tonight, I’m hoping there is a stream online, if I get to watch it I will post a blog about where you can too view this, and also a match report. I don’t agree in posting reports unless you’ve actually seen the match and not just followed a text update service. As for the real first game, West Ham, I shall be at Villa Park cheering on Milner….. maybe.
R x
LIVE STREAM CAN BE FOUND HERE :
http://veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4c4c33f4c7187
and HERE :
http://www.iraqgoals.net/10646-sao-paulo-fc-vs-ceara-sc-.html
Category: Misc
Confirmed 20m bid for Milner
By: Ryan | 5 Comments
This is going to be short and sweet. I hate City, this is a huge bid for Milner, I dont want him to go but 20m is a LOT. It’s a funny scenario as 20m can get you a hell of a lot of player, but with City running around it’s inflating all prices, so can we really replace Milner with that in this day and age?
I want Milner to stay. They can have Heskey for 20m though!
Category: Transfer NewsVilla Season Update – Transfers and Review
By: Ryan | 5 Comments
I’m back! I’ve been away for a couple of months working in Europe and the UK touring with a few bands, mostly Europe where I have zilch internet access so haven’t been able to post. For that I apologise.
The last time I posted we were in the running for the FA cup and 4th place, and we all know how that ended. I managed to watch the FA Cup match via a friends laptop in Germany, all the pubs were showing some bundesliga match, I wasn’t impressed. Anyway, the match was good, apart from the final third, we got tired and gave up, again, something that needs to be looked at in the transfer window. I also caught a few on the final games, I remember exactly where I was when we beat Birmingham, and I really thought we were gonna pull it off, but we lost to City, and that ended it for us. It wouldn’t of mattered anyway with Crouchy winning it for Spurs, but it was nice to take it to the final few games. It was also nice to see Spurs clinch it, and not City, who I despise for the way the owners have entered football and walked around like they own the place saying they will guarentee 4th and will win the season next year….
That takes us to the transfer window, with the fringe players all being put in the window with a massive for sale sign above their heads, which is a good thing for most of them, as we have been told we need to sell to buy (or as good as) and we need a new striker PRONTO. Beckford has popped up in the headlines, on a free transfer? Yes please, but this cannot be the only striker we sign if we do, he’s untested in the Premiership. We also need a decent central midfielder, Sidwell isn’t good enough and we can’t play the same team everytime like we did the previous seasons.
This brings us to the big name leavers, theres talk of Milner, Ash, and Gab all going, I heard 45m for Ash and Gab, which I would take, if we bought in a WORLD CLASS striker and a half decent central midfield playmaker, anything other than that (like 6 average players) then I would be mad, because we would not finish above 7th or 8th if we did. Milner has to stay, end of, he’s going to have a cracking world cup and will be a much better player because of it.
First things first though, the World Cup is only a few weeks away, I cannot wait, be good to see Warnock get some play time, Milner to shine, and Heskey to, um, do his thing? Ah MON, just sell him please.
R x
Unrest in the Villa ranks.
By: Ryan | 2 Comments
I am frustrated. I am frustrated because we are losing out on fourth place for the same reason as last year. I am frustrated because we lost 7-1. I am frustrated with all the rumours surrounding Villa.
First off, James Collins twitter feed was deleted because he apoligised to the fans for a “rubbish” display. What’s wrong with that? We lost 7-1 for crying out loud, everyone knows it was a rubbish display, you dont need to take away from the fans because one of the players spoke the truth.
Secondly there are lots of rumours surrounding Martin O’Neill and him leaving the club. I hope this isn’t true and is just the media playing up because we lost so heavily the other night. But the mirror reports its due to Lerner wanting to cut the squad and lower the wage bill. I can’t see this being true as we hardly have a squad and pay nothing in wages anyway compared to the big clubs. Plus Lerner has always been supportive in that area. It also states MON wants more money to spend to give it another shot. Personally, if I was Lerner, this would annoy me, as he spent a lot last summer, and players like Beye haven’t had a look in. I am annoyed at MON, but don’t want to see him go, he’s done a lot for us, but he’s made the same mistake twice, and that’s unforgiveable.
Only an FA Cup win can save us now!
R x
Tired Villa get the run around.
By: Ryan | 6 Comments
Im writing this and the Chelsea game hasn’t finished. MON has just subbed off Gabby, Petrov and Carew and replaced with Downing, the Fonz and Beye. The only reason I can think of is to save tired legs for the rest of the season, which means he has given up on this game, therefore so have I. We are losing 5-1 and have dropped 3 points, on a day where Spurs are winning 2-0 means we are now 7 points adrift of fourth place. Sure Spurs have 3 hard games in the run in, which could mean 9 points, but that’s only if we win the three games we have, and the way we are playing, I’m sorry but we have no chance.
Pluses to take from this game, in the 10mins he’s been on Nathan has shown a lot of promise, It’s good to see. But thats about it.
Maybe we can repay the favour in the FA Cup coming up, maybe if we can win that, then it will spur us on for maybe half a chance of getting fourth. Hey, who knows, maybe Portsmouth will score three goals in the next 15mins. If they do I’ll gladly eat my hat.
R x
Category: MiscCut back Villa squad face weakened Chelsea
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ve been moving house and am currently sat inside a mountain of cardboard boxes. Although that is really just an excuse as my frustrations as a Villa fan are getting the better of me, fourth place is slipping away from us, at the time when we could be taking full advantage of the run in. First off, I don’t blame the team or MON or Randy or anyone, we’ve had chances but we just have finished them and most of the time ended up drawing when we should of won. We are unbeaten this year, a statistic which should scream success, but it doesn’t, everytime we draw we drop 2 points.
SO onto today, we face Chelsea, with doubts for Heskey, Dunne, Agbonlahor and the biggy Milner. The Fonz played the last game, and in my opinion played very well, considering he’s not used to first team action and he’s only a youngster, I would be more than happy for him to start today. Saying that, if Milner is fit, he may chuck 5 in midfield with Sidwell coming in. The defence is good enough, as Luke Young will come in and do a stand up job as RB with Cueller taking up Dunne’s CB role.
As for Chelsea, their defence is down to its bare bones with Zhirkov, Alex, Terry, Ferreira making up the back four. Also I’ve heard Drogba is doubful along with Ballack. Good news! Villa have a good record against Chelsea, they cleaned up last season, but apart from that we’ve always come away with some points, hopefully today we can do the double and take 6 points from them this season.
Tottenham are running away with fourth, and we need to win today to just stay in the picture.
King Sidwell to score today?
R x
My twitter : StagediveRy
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Villa Offside Update – Wolves Preview
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
It’s been a while, my laptop decided to produce smoke and cook itself so I’ve had no real internet access, but now I’m back up on my lovely new PC. It broke during the stoke game, I’m not sure if it watched that match and self destructed with frustration due to how terrible it was, or I subconciously fried it with my brain so I didn’t have to write about how awful my beloved Villa were. BUT either way I got out of it, and now I’m back on a much brighter note after our win at Wigan to keep us up there in contention at least. What was different about both those games? Oh yeah, Heskey. I dont rate Heskey one bit, if MON gave him away to birmingham on a free transfer, I think I would have a party I want him gone that bad, and someone who, um, what is it that strikers do? Oh yeah, someone that scores goals, creates goals, and just someone that works brought in would be nice.
Now for today’s game, at Villa Park, live on Sky Sports, on numerous streams on the internet, 12.45 there is no excuse. There has been talk about Gabby’s fitness, a hamstring injury that may mean he cant play. If that’s the case we need help, the Carew Heskey partnership may work against a low Championship side, but not in the Premiership, sorry MON, I would rather see the Fonz play than Heskey with Carew. BECAUSE of that, I hope to god Gabby is starting, him and Carew atm are on fire, and I love it, because it means Heskey is on the bench.
A win today would move us to 5th, and if a miracle happens, and Stoke beat Spurs something like 4-0 and we win 5-0 we can gop fourth! YAY. Seriously though, if Spurs drop points today we still have that game in hand, and can push past them with it. Come on you Lions!
This is what we need to see today :
R x
My twitter : StagediveRy
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Category: MiscJohn Carew Carew, he’s bigger than me and you….
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
….he’s gonna score one or two! (or three!!)
So we are going back to Wembley thanks to a hat trick from John Carew, but no thanks to an absolute terrible first half. We deserved nothing but a 2 goal deficit after that abysmal 45minutes, but whatever MON said in that dressing room at half time should be bottled and sold off for millions, because it couldn’t of worked better.
A quick goal is what we needed, and a quick goal is what we got thanks to Ashley Young slotting it in at the back post after only about a minute of the second half kicking off. After that two goals in five minutes from Carew put us ahead and in the driving seat, if Villa could play like that for a whole game we wouldn’t be battling for fourth, we’d be going for the league. Villa then slowed down and Reading staged a great attempted come back, and had their fair share of corners, even forced a goal line clearance by Ashley Young but nothing serious was to come from it. Then in injury time Carew showed his tremendous hold up skills and won a penalty, which he then converted for his well deserved hat trick and to send Villa to Wembley yet again. Final score Reading 2-4 Villa.
Key players for me were Warnock, god knows why he didn’t start for England but played a blinder today, and of course Carew, who never fails to score goals, which is why, for me, he should be paired with Gabby in front of Heskey, and I think he’s given MON something to think about.
So there it is, Villa have won, in March, now lets win EVERY game in March, now that would be a treat wouldn’t it?
See you at Wembley.
R x
My twitter : StagediveRy
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Villa Vs Reading Preview, Miserable March?
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
After losing out on the Carling Cup, we’ve got the FA Cup to lift our spirits. A win here today would do just that, and send us back to Wembley where our experience last week will come in very handy. We were nervous against United, Dunne made a rare mistake as well as Cuellar, which cost us dearly. But if we were to return, that experience should hopefully mean it wont happen again. Firstly though we have to beat Reading away, and the month is March, I don’t think we have won a game in march for many years, a freak fact or a realistic one? Is this the time tiredness kicks in? Only today will tell. If we lose or draw today, that fact may make the players uneasy for what is a very important run in to the end of the league and fourth place. On paper we have a fantastic chance, with some very hard games for Spurs and City we have all arguably winnable games, but if we lose or draw too many, it will be over quicker than that.
Would you swap the FA Cup for fourth place? Normally I would say no, but after suffering defeat in the Carling Cup, I want this bad, we deserve it, but at the same time I would hate to see a club like City run away with fourth place, finishing 10th last season, after spending a few hundred million and spitting on the ethics of football, if they finish fourth it would just seem too easy. After all the hard work MON has done building a quality side at Villa year after year, I’m really not a fan of City.
Starting eleven today is anybody’s guess, we have a lot of games this month and Villa’s fringe players have the ability to beat Reading, will MON play a few? I hope so, especially Delph, Delfouneso and Sidwell. Nathan scored for England the other day, and I really think he’s class, and he needs more game time, because if the worst should happen, and Gabby got injured, we would be screwed.
My predictions for today? A nice 2-0 win to the Villa, at least that’s what I’m hoping for, and I’m really dreading a draw, we don’t need a replay.
R x
My twitter : StagediveRy
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It’s Cup Final Day!!!
By: Ryan | 10 Comments
Sunday 28th February 2010, is today the day we end our drought of silverware? I sure hope so, and I hope there’s a certain FA Cup to follow, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m proper nervous about today, United are a quality side and even though we’ve taken 4 points from them in the league, we’ve only scored 1 in each game, and I’m sure 1 goal isn’t going to be enough today. BUT it is the cup, and the cup final, we’ve had plenty to shout about as far as goals are concerned in the cup.
Villa have a got a lot more to play for than United, Warnock will want to prove he can play for England, what a better place than Wembley to do that, not to mention the likes of Dunne wanting his first cup medal, and for the first piece of silverware for a LONG time. Villa will want it more, and I think that’s what cup finals are about, it goes to whoever wants it more, and that has to be the Villa. With Chelsea’s annoying loss yesterday, United will have one eye on the league as they are only 1 point from top spot.
Sadly I won’t be at Wembley, I will be on my sofa with a shed load of beverages and snacks, it is live on BBC1 in the UK and on Sky Sports, but I’m sure there will be plenty of streams online to anyone outside of the UK.
Good luck to the Villa boys, I really cant wait, COME ON YOU LIONS!
Rx
My twitter : StagediveRy
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