Facts or Fiction, past or future

Excellent article avfc48. I am now going to enjoy sitting back and watching the sparks fly.

Sorry, have I missed this point of this? Why are you/we repeating this stuff? There are no new thoughts here - just the same old negative dribble. By the way, the article misses the acquisition of Davies - a permanent signing by any other name, only delayed for the baggies cash flow/ tax reasons. It also misses the acquisitions made in January. No I don't think MON walks on water and yes the hype was too heavy in the early Summer and yes I did feel a bit let down by the process but yes I did renew my season ticket which, for AVFC48's information is a season long pass to the ground that enables supporters to see all of the matches - not a TV couch pass. By the way I also live in N Wales which I surmise is probably not too far from the home of AVFC48. The point surely is that the Villa is being re-built, albeit more slowly than some would like. This year's squad is more solid looking than last years. Progress is being made. Now let those who do little but complain please stop moaning and either support the club or leave. And can we all please move on.

When did you start writing this article avfc48???.... 1st Sept??? Bygones, in the past... leave it be. You change your tunes every 90mins we play - if you win you sign our praises; when we lose you nit-pick. It's cr@p journalism. So in your eyes we won't improve on our tally of 52 pts last season?

Some good points raised and many we share with you.... however I feel there's a new light at the end of the tunnel for villa players.... Players like barry who nearly left us under Ellis, see the club now going in the right direction... players now want to stay and fight for a place to play for AVFC, before players like Baros, Alpay along with many others did not and the performances/heart seen whilst wearing claret and blue colours spoke for it self. I do now see a team who collectively will strengthen over coming years, with the backbone almost cemented in Barry, Reo-coker, Laursen, Mellberg - some statute players with the young guys that have momentum and feist playing around them identifies a new forward looking villa.... We will break into Europe in coming years with if the club continues to go in the direction it is, the Premiership isn't for mugs, you have to be serious to contend in it.... I feel our management, back room staff, Board and Chairman are competent in doing so...

Can someone explain the point of this article to me please?

OK, here are some sparks for Jonah. I'm not actually clear what point is being made here, but I have the usual bone to pick: yet again the facts seem to be 'cropped' in such a way as to omit important factors, i.e., highlighting our signings between the end of the season and Aug 31, which conveniently excludes the acquisition of Carew, Maloney and Petrov. And what about Davies - did we just lose him? As for our net spend, would it have been better for the team, or the fans, or our owner's wallet, if we had kept the players who weren't up to speed? In my opinion, all bar one of the players who left had failings that had already been recognised by the fans, and the one who was up to speed reportedly wanted a guaranteed place. No manager worth having would agree to that. Selling players who aren't part of long term plans sounds like good business sense to me. As for "nobody has dared do a comparison of this summers deals to those of O'Leary and Taylor's under Ellis" - well that sounds like a brilliant idea. So why on earth did avfc miss the opportunity to do just that? Then there is "the players bought are arguably far poorer". Are they really? I really don't think so. Mellberg and Bouma have proved to be damn good signings, but if I think of Crouch, Allback, Alpay, Hughes, Baros, Balaban, etc., I cannot forget how seriously badly those guys played in a Villa shirt, golden boot or no golden boot. And even good old JPA (bless him) only did it for one season. Boiled down to its essence, this article simply seems to be asking why people keep on linking Villa to 'good players'. I honestly don't know. It isn't something I do, but perhaps people do it because it's fun so why try to stop them? But hang on a minute - didn't the Barcodes lose to Derby at the weekend, and aren't Spurs having severe problems of their own - despite both clubs spending a fortune on players. If I were Martins or Defoe, I'd be bloody glad if MON came in for me! :o)

It is unfair to call 48 leader of the 'knob squad', he is a very very nice man. He is entitled to share his views regardless if they differ to most. As for signings, several people have highlighted that signing big name players does not guarantee anything. CSKAhelski signed Shevchenko and Ballack last season and went backwards. Spuds have spent fortunes and lost 4 of the first 6 games. This summer very few clubs have made what could be considered 'big' name purchases. Torres being the exception. The skill in football management is spotting and buying talent. Wenger has shown he is the master at this. Anelka, Petit, Overmars, Viera, Henry were relative nomarks who Wenger took the best years from and then sold for a massive profit. Only clubs that are currently at the top can attract the big names such as Rooney, Dogbreath, Torres etc. Look at Manure in the last couple of seasons, they have spent £35 million on Hargreaves and Carrick!! They have spent £30m on Nani and Anderson who are relatively unknown. Would we have been happy if that £65m was spent at VP on those players? Other than Torres what superstars have Murderpool purchased? Their other world class player is home grown. It has been proven with England recently, it is not about having the best individuals, it is about having the best team. Morinihio complained this week that he doesn't have the 'best eggs to make the best ommlette' but has spent zillions. So what chance do the Villa have? Well I think the best chance is M'ON. Throughout his playing career he was succesful. His mangement record with Wycombe, Leicester and Celtic has mirrored his playing days. Outside of the top four he has lifted more silverware as a manager in this country than any other currently in the league. I am not sure why 48 mentions Defoe as a big name. Since when has the fourth choice striker at a club below the Villa, been a big name? I have said from day one that it will be the third season onwards when we will start seeing the difference. The impatience shown after just 14 months I find startling. After sales and wages are taken into account M'ON has spent approximately £24m since arriving. Equivalent to a Torres, Hargreaves, Dogbreath, Essien, SWP, Rooney or Ferdinand. However I would say the 2 most valuable players in the league at the moment are Gerrard and Terry and they cost nowt. 48 isn't confident in M'ON, that is his choice. His preference for the job was Klinsman or Scolari. Me? I am confident in what M'ON can do for the club in the next few years. I think he will make our 'unknowns' into superstars. M'ON has often been described as lucky. Well maybe some of his luck has rubbed off on Barry, who has gone from being worth £5m to £15m in the space of a few weeks. In time 48 will be proved right or wrong. The downside is, I get the feeling he wants to be proved right, in effect, he is hoping for the Villa to fail. 48 is always the same after a bad result so maybe it is his love of the club that brings out the manic deppressive in him all the time?? Overall a good article, which as per usual, most disagree with.

avfc48 is a knob though, voice. He makes the same illinformed arguments with every article. While he says we should be buying better, he neglects the fact that without european football its hard to attract "big" signings. did he expect Randy to do a Chelsea? Who ever made that promise? And i suspect voice is right, that he does want to see MON and villa fail, so that he is proven right. If that is the case, he is not a true villa fan. What fan WANTS to see their team fail? Avfc48 is just a poor writer, hoping to provoke a reaction from writing the same garbled poor argumens time and time again. Please, someone else write an article - his are crap.

It's a good article and does deal in facts. I do resent the comparison between DOL and MON though. The stick DOL got was never down to his signings, just the fact he was a complete arse and hated everything about the club.

the point was to cause arguements lol

Are we currently in transition?yes, are we the finished article?no, is the quality of the squad better than this time last year?yes,is the style of football under MON better and more attractive than the previous recent managers?yes, is the atmosphere at Villa Park better than of recent seasons?yes,has Gareth Barry stated that the upturn in his career is down to MON?yes, do we have the nucleus of the next generation of the England team at Villa?yes,have players stated that the reason they came to Villa is because of MON?yes,are the national press starting to take note of events at Villa and starting to praise our potential?yes,are Randy & co an improvement on Ellis?yes, are the club moving in the right direction?yes,is there a culpable sense of optimism surrounding the club for the first time in years?yes,did we seriously expect to go from 16th to challenging the top four in one season?no,

I guess the flipside of the positives Jon.H are do we have a squad big enough to see us through this season? My feeling is no, hope injuries are kind otherwise we could struggle. Do we have a striker capable of scoring more than 15? no. Should we have got one in the summer? yes

Amazingly some good and valid points for once, BUT most of the new players are under 23 and assuming MON brings them on in their careers they are all valuable British assets for the club and in 3 years time with a couple more additions ??? Everyone knows that without European football we can't buy big, Simple As. If only we had won that Fair Play place in Europe then things would be totally different and if we are top 6 or 7 come Jan, we can surely get a couple of proven big players for the final push. As I said at the start some good points but still the Yawn factor..

With all due respect avfc48, isn't your article, relatively close to the truth though it may well be, simply made up of yesterday's news? What is there to be achieved by going back and re-hashing what is now old, old copy. Everything that you raise has been discussed over and over on the forum, to the very point now where its become rather boring. You raise, comment upon, observations that are now way past their sell-by date, and there is no new or fresh way to respond. Had you written this article immediately upon the closure of the summer window, then fuelled by my frustration of our dealings I may well have responded differently, but like many other Villans all over the globe, I just cant see any positive objective in going over and over the very same topics that each and every one of us have already commented upon a thousand and one times. I'm not arguing against many of the points that you raise, in fact they are issues I have raised and discussed on here many times, have talked about over a pint or two in the local, chewed over with work colleagues, etc. etc., I just question whether we should not by now allow the curtain to fall on the activities of summer 2007, and move on?

Well said myleft foot. AVFC48 does write some intelligent and well thought out articles, but its the fact that he seems to thrive so much on spreading and enjoying negativity that is obviously the big turn off to most supporters.