The race for 4th place - 08/09

[Lord Dula]

Bad time to whine like an iddy biddy ***** whenst we've just gone 'n raped our way to the Champs League semi

 

[AnthonyG]

Bad time to whine like an iddy biddy ***** whenst we've just gone 'n rapped our way to the Champs League semi

Fixed and over to you em cee.

 

[irishgunnerz]

'tried soo hard and got so far....but in the end doesnt even matter....'

Sorry Stevo! Its cruel of us but today everything seems funny!

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Haha, enjoying yourself lads? I must admit I raised a smile Reading the last few posts. But not once this season have I thought we'd finish 4th so I'm not too fussed. Disappointed obviosuly but it isn't a disaster (although try telling that to some villa fans!!!)

In regards to o'neill's English signings. You all seem to be bad mouthing his signings (again like some villa fans) but those signings have taken a team battling for relegation to a side genuinely challenging for a champions league place. The entire team now, bar 3 players, is o'neill's signings, so from where I'm standing it looks like his signings have been just fine!

And for the record, as long as we don't somehow finish 4th, I would be more than happy to see arsenal win the cl. I supported you 3 years ago when you got to the final and I'd support you again this year.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

In regards to o'neill's English signings. You all seem to be bad mouthing his signings (again like some villa fans) but those signings have taken a team battling for relegation to a side genuinely challenging for a champions league place. The entire team now, bar 3 players, is o'neill's signings, so from where I'm standing it looks like his signings have been just fine!

They've been solid, no doubt about it. It's a bit curious that he paid roughly the same amount for Milner as we did for Arshavin though. Now, I rate Milner and he has been very good for Villa but for £12 million I'd expect a much better player. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there's an aspect of Arsenal as a Champions League team and constant top four finisher that Villa can't match and that makes signing a player like Arshavin a bit unrealistic, but it's a lot of money nonetheless and I think it could have bought him a better player.

Same goes with Heskey - he's good if you wanna make a move from relegation battle into a stable midtable position but when you're fighting for a top position? He's also stolen game time from Carew who, to my mind at least, has been the best striker outside the top four clubs this season.

 

[KY]

They've been solid, no doubt about it. It's a bit curious that he paid roughly the same amount for Milner as we did for Arshavin though. Now, I rate Milner and he has been very good for Villa but for £12 million I'd expect a much better player. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there's an aspect of Arsenal as a Champions League team and constant top four finisher that Villa can't match and that makes signing a player like Arshavin a bit unrealistic, but it's a lot of money nonetheless and I think it could have bought him a better player.

Same goes with Heskey - he's good if you wanna make a move from relegation battle into a stable midtable position but when you're fighting for a top position? He's also stolen game time from Carew who, to my mind at least, has been the best striker outside the top four clubs this season.

Gosh I had no idea he costs that much. Shows how much english players prices are inflated.why don't we ever get that kind of money for the likes of pennant, bentley and co.? Milner definitely isn't worth that money. People called MON daft when he spent 10 million on young but THAT was worth it. Not milner. Price maybe inflated by the fact that he's the highest capped U-21 english player.

Agree with you totally on Heskey. So what does it say about england that he is considered a good player for the national team?

 

[hesham]

He's a good player
He's English
He's Young
Has a resale value

£12m sound about right in this market

 

[asajoseph]

There's no doubt we got a bargain with Arshavin, but I think a more comparable signing for us would be Samir Nasri.

 

[Meatwad]

They've been solid, no doubt about it. It's a bit curious that he paid roughly the same amount for Milner as we did for Arshavin though. Now, I rate Milner and he has been very good for Villa but for £12 million I'd expect a much better player. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there's an aspect of Arsenal as a Champions League team and constant top four finisher that Villa can't match and that makes signing a player like Arshavin a bit unrealistic, but it's a lot of money nonetheless and I think it could have bought him a better player.

Same goes with Heskey - he's good if you wanna make a move from relegation battle into a stable midtable position but when you're fighting for a top position? He's also stolen game time from Carew who, to my mind at least, has been the best striker outside the top four clubs this season.

Gosh I had no idea he costs that much. Shows how much english players prices are inflated.why don't we ever get that kind of money for the likes of pennant, bentley and co.? Milner definitely isn't worth that money. People called MON daft when he spent 10 million on young but THAT was worth it. Not milner. Price maybe inflated by the fact that he's the highest capped U-21 english player.

Agree with you totally on Heskey. So what does it say about england that he is considered a good player for the national team?

when penant and bentley left they weren't nearly as accomplished as a james milner in terms of league productivity at newcastle. because of sell-on clauses we ultimately got 7.7m for bentley and 4.25m for pennant anyway.

 

[KY]

sorry meatwad. I was being sarcastic. not to undermine your effort or anything...

 

[Klaus Daimler]

There's no doubt we got a bargain with Arshavin, but I think a more comparable signing for us would be Samir Nasri.

Even so. Nasri was a french international, the youngest member of the french squad in the Euros, had been named Young Player of the Year in France ahead of Benzema and had also been voted Marseille's best player in 2007, ahead of a certain Franck Ribery. He's also two years younger. Paying £11 million for Nasri makes sense. Paying £12 million for Milner doesn't, especially not if you're as keen to not overpay for players as O'Neill has suggested that he is. He could have bought a couple of equally good players for that fee but opted for the english one instead. I think that it has been by large his biggest fault this season: too thin a squad to remain competitive and a preference for nationality above quality.

That being said, most managers do get certain things wrong. It doesn't take anything away from the fact that he's transformed Villa from a bottom team to a top team in a few seasons. Mistakes are there to learn from and they were far worse off without him before. To see people calling for O'Neill's head at Villa Talk is about as disgraceful as people calling for Wenger's here after our bad start to the season. He (O'Neill) deserves some criticism for his transfer dealings but he also deserves a lot of respect for what he's done.

 

[hackajack]

Nasri's been light years ahead of Milner.

 

[Clrnc]

You can't blame them. If they go in for Arshavin or Nasri will they sign for Villa? Mancity came in with so much money and could only sign average players

 

[Anzac]

You can't blame them. If they go in for Arshavin or Nasri will they sign for Villa? Mancity came in with so much money and could only sign average players

The first REAL test re ManC money will come this summer. The 2nd will be in regards as to who their manager will be.

 

[alonso14]

gerrard is definatley out of the game at anfield on tuesday

 

[GaelForce22]

Ouch. Gallas will probably be the biggest miss for us, seems to be capable of dealing with Torres from what we saw last season. Can't say I'm confident of Djourou or Silvestre keeping him quiet.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

You can't blame them. If they go in for Arshavin or Nasri will they sign for Villa?

That wasn't really the point though. No one's saying they should spend like a european top club but they have to spend smarter. It's not like it's a shortage of good players out there. Elmander signed for Bolton. Santa Cruz signed for Blackburn (as did McCarthy who were touted as the next big thing at the time). Sp**s, in all their ****ness, signed Berbatov and then Modric. And so forth. I don't think spending £12 million on James Milner is matching a top four ambition and I don't like how media and fans alike excuse our current position with "all they had to do to keep their top four position was buying another world class player in january". We've even spent less than Villa on transfers in current years. They might not have been able to get Nasri and Arshavin but they were certainly able to get better players than Milner for £12 million.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Nasri's got 6 goals and 2 assists.
Milner's got 3 goals and 8 assists..

Perhaps Nasri is better, but "light years ahead" is a bit of an exagerration imo.

I do agree we paid too much for Milner though.

 

[ricky1985]

Nasri's got 6 goals and 2 assists.
Milner's got 3 goals and 8 assists..

Perhaps Nasri is better, but "light years ahead" is a bit of an exagerration imo.

I do agree we paid too much for Milner though.

Lets not forget Milner's been playing in a team that until recently was functioning at optimum or at least really well, relative to overall ability, and Nasri's been playing in a team that has been functioning extremely poorly, relative to overall ability.

 

[asajoseph]

Credentials may affect someone's price, but at the end of the day you pay for what someone's going to do on the pitch, not the length of their CV.

I think Nasri's been pretty poor over the last few months particularly, and whilst I certainly still think he's a good player, and am happy we've got him, I think it would indeed be a bit of a stretch to say that Nasri's been light-years ahead, especially when you consider that Milner plays a much more rounded game than Nasri does at the moment.