Intertoto Latest #
Ian Symes - June 30, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
Yes yes yes, Spain have won Euro 2008, very good. But yesterday’s big game came in the Intertoto Cup First Round clash between TPS Turku of Finland and Northern Ireland’s Lisburn Distillery. Turku won the game 3-1 and the tie 6-3 on aggregate. This is a shame, as we wanted to play Distillery for the MO’N link. Now, Turku go on to face Denmark’s Odense in the Second Round, with the winner of that going on to play us in just three weeks’ time.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why we’re talking about this instead of the Villa-related news that people are actually talking about, then… well, it’s too depressing. We’ll have a full post-mortem when he’s gone, but for now we’re going to hide under our desks and stick our fingers in our ears.
Comments (0) | tags: gareth barry, intertoto cup, Lisburn Distillery, Odense, Turku
We’re not fickle, we STILL don’t like you #
Ian Symes - June 27, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
Yes, thank you, David, thank you so much. Thanks for taking us down to 16th in the league and dragging us into a relegation battle. Thanks for filling our squad with a load of old dross, and then failing to motivate them because you’re too busy making excuses about them being “a small squad, but an honest bunch of lads”. Thanks for managing to make Doug Ellis look like the sensible one when you tried to fake that bloody stupid players’ revolt thing that got you sacked.
If O’Leary was still here, we’d be in the Championship now. That’s not an exaggeration - we *would* have gone down in the following season if he wasn’t sacked. Fortunately, subsequent events have made O’Leary’s comments comical rather than aggravating, but nobody should think for a moment that any Villa fan holds him in high regard. The shit-brained, stupid-faced tosspot.
Comments (0) | tags: David O'Leary
Euro 2008 Nonsense #
Ian Symes - June 20, 2008 @ 11:45 pm
There’s a lot of nonsense that’s been written since Euro 2008 turned out to be bloody excellent. Mostly focussed, unsurprisingly, on England’s failure to qualify. The second most annoying is people saying that’s it’s been great despite England not being involved. As if the lack of England automatically makes something dull and uninteresting, and Euro 2008 being exceptional has dragged the total back up to zero.
The most annoying, though, is people saying it’s been great because England weren’t there. Ahh, didn’t expect them to have that opinion, did you? Well, they do. They think England are rubbish and they’re actually glad they didn’t qualify because they’d only have dragged it down.
The truth is that when England are in a major tournament, people in this country don’t care whether the tournament is good or not, because they’re so blindly focussed on England. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the games are brilliant or shit, it’s all about how England do. And as soon as we get knocked out, the rest of the tournament is ignored. It takes the lack of bias to make people pay attention.
Euro 2008 has been great, and it would have been with or without England. But if England had qualified, nobody would have thought to check.
Comments (3) | tags: euro 2008
FIXTURES #
Ian Symes - June 16, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Always one of the most exciting bits of pre-season - today’s the day the fixtures are released! Although, is it me or are they a bit early this year? They usually happen during Wimbledon, don’t they? Anyway, let’s have a quick look at some of the highlights…
We start off at home to Man City, before facing the mighty Stoke away, and then Liverpool at home. That one could be very interesting depending on the events of the next few weeks. Promisingly, we have a pretty easy run-in at the end of the season - West Ham (h), Bolton (a), Hull (h), Fulham (a), Boro (a) and Newcastle (h) - which could either prove vital or be inconsequential. Games against the big teams are thankfully fairly spread out, with the exception of Arsenal (a) and United (h) in straight weeks in November, and a run of Liverpool (a), United (a) and Everton (h) in March/April.
Derby games! West Brom away on 20th September, and at home on 10th January. Stoke away on 23rd August, and at home on 28th February. Home to Arsenal on Boxing Day, away to Hull on the 28th. One odd thing - the last game is really late: Sunday, 24th May. It was the 11th last season. Presumably the Cup Final will take place a week later, on the 30th, which is incredibly late! The joys of not having a tournament next summer, presumably.
Right, the fixtures are in - so we’re all ready for next season. Now, let’s sign some players…
Comments (0) | tags: 2008/09, fixtures
My Dream Team #
Ian Symes - June 15, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
It’s always tricky when someone asks you to name your all-time Villa XI. OK, Paul McGrath is always first on the list, but after that it becomes more difficult. How much knowledge and experience could anyone have that qualifies them to name the best eleven players to have ever played for us? Unless you are over 134 years old, you can’t, so you rely on recent memory. But how far back should that stretch? I’d put half the European Cup winning team in my all-time eleven, but I simply don’t know how good they were. All I’ve got to go off is old videos and my dad’s anecdotes. To really know who’s good and who isn’t, you have to watch them week in week out…
Comments (4) | tags: dream team
Nice one, Cyrille #
Ian Symes - June 14, 2008 @ 8:34 am
Some good news, for a change. The Queen’s birthday honours list was announced today, and you may have noticed on some of the news reports (typically somewhere near the bottom) that an MBE has been awarded to Cyrille Regis.
It’s unthinkable in this day and age that someone could play for all four big Midlands clubs (West Brom, Coventry, Villa and Wolves) and be universally loved by all four groups of supporters. As well as being a great centre-forward, he was also one of “The Three Degrees” - a slightly dodgy name for West Brom’s three black players under Ron Atkinson, of all people. Alongside Laurie Cunningham and Brendan Baston, Cyrille helped pave the way for black players to be respected at the top level of football, at a time when racial tension in Britain was in a massive transitional period.
We salute you, Cyrille.
Comments (0) | tags: cyrille regis
Barry’s agent says he wants out #
Ian Symes - June 10, 2008 @ 9:59 am
I’m trying to keep an open mind until I see it reported by a more reliable source - and indeed until Barry says something himself - but this doesn’t look good. I could cry.
Comments (5) | tags: gareth barry, liverpool
Year Three #
Ian Symes - June 1, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
So, we firmly established last week that last season was bloody excellent and we’re very happy with our lot, thank you very much. Martin O’Neill has always said he’s got a five-year plan to take the club back to the top, and it all seems to be on track so far. 2006/07 was all about consolidation, and steadying a previously doomed ship. 2007/08 saw us joyfully leap five places in the table and qualify for some sort of European competition for the first time in six years. So what’s next?