DJS

Filming eh? That'll learn us...

Sheer shock at the nerve of the Spanish, methinks

Dunno if you went to Sunderland last year Wayne but if you did and were anywhere near the front, you'll have struggled to miss the fuss (much ado about nothing) that their jobsworth stewards made. I guess a reduced allocation is down to that. You're right though, it takes the piss when they cant even sell the home sections out.

I do like Villa away, but i preferred it when they stuck us all behind the goal, it was much better than the 'round the corner' nonsense they've used the last couple of seasons.

Christ yeah...i remember their stewards getting all arsey over our lot persistently standing up last season.

Would certainly be a better option than Voronin. He'd want about £4m in wages though, no doubt.

It would be pathetic if, under the circumstances, we end up paying £16m...let alone add-ons.

Sunderland and Blackburn, to name two of the big allocation away days.

Only first half of the season is decided at this stage, sorry

The brilliance of it lies in the audacity to come back for a second lap.

http://sport.rtl.de/fussball/euro2008_7946...mp;set_id=16097

Not official, but here it is: Feels like too few of our games on tv, but for matchgoers, that's preferable.

Nah, that's not what we're upto. Our minimum requirement is still comfortably better than Villa or Spurs achievements when punching above their weight...we dont need to weaken them.

It's still hypocrasy, but it's the 'done thing' with all managers, Rafa wouldnt necessarily play it much differently in the same position. It's the usual thing, we turn a blind eye to one of our own but we dont like it when others do it.

Yeah but O'Neill doesnt have any obligation to negtiate or lower his asking price. Sure, in the context of the situation with Barry firmly wanting out and therefore being of less and less use to Villa by the day, the wisest thing O'Neill could do is perhaps budge a little in order to end a saga that's doing his club no good. But that's purely something that'd be better for his club, it's not something he's obligated to do or owes us.

It working so far is merely a measure of how useless we are at this negotiation malarky.

The difference with Barry though is that he's almost at the point where he cant play for the club again, so they'd effectively be left with an asset that will be of minimal use to them.

Spot on. Leave them be, withdraw from negotiations and then laugh as they come back to the table begging us to sign him in a week or 3.

I dont get why we're increasing our bid and more than that, i dont see what Villa hope to achieve by rejecting it. I can see us paying about £17m for him, which (given the context of the transfer) would be ludicrously expensive.

And that is a realistic scenario, if we play it right. It's not hard for Stevie to have a word in Barry's ear and get this sorted. Yet somehow, i fear we'll still end up paying £15m at least for a player who has burnt all his bridges at Villa and holds all the power in this situation.

Well that one wooshed over my head then Doh!

Underrated but overvalued?

Rafa's been to Specsavers

I think it reflects how few top class and realistically available (and affordable) wingers there actually are. I suspect rafa will look to Dossena and the RB to provide width.