According to Netflix I watched Drive in July 2012 and rated it three stars. I may have underrated it; there’s one particular scene that’s stayed with me and it seems especially relevant right now:
Don’t worry. Don’t… don’t worry. That’s it. It’s done. There’s no pain, it’s over, it’s over.
I’m sure others have already compared watching Aston Villa over the last several years to watching a loved one suffering with a terminal illness. As tragic as it is, when they finally
The season from hell is finally over and Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa career has, as expected, been terminated. His tenure has passed on. It’s no more. It has ceased to be. Expired and gone to meet its maker. A stiff, bereft of life. It rests in peace. Its metabolic processes are now history. Kicked the bucket. Shuffled off its mortal coil. Run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible.
This is an ex-Aston Villa manager.
Today is a very good
At the onset of his tenure, it wouldn’t have taken much effort to find predictions about the brand of football Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa side were destined to serve up. None were particularly exciting or encouraging.
I prefer a ‘wait and see’ policy myself, but I think we’re far enough into the season now to look at some statistics and draw some conclusions.
In this post, we’ll focus on the number of attempted passes that have been hit long as a percentage
Despite it being a dead rubber for Rosenborg, and Ajax having the ability to win the group, it was the Norwegian side who took all three points with a 2-0 victory in Amsterdam tonight, leaving our own Young Lions at the top of the pile.
This means that we’ll have the advantage of playing the single-legged quarter final at Villa Park, more than likely against Marseille. There’s just one game left in Group 1, Marseille will face Celtic with second place
It’s been the week of loans in B6 with no less than four players heading out to get some competitive football elsewhere.
Firstly, Habib Beye went to Doncaster, initially until January, but hopefully a deal to take him through to the end of the season (and his Villa contract) won’t be out of the question. Assuming he’s not a disaster.
Then Nathan Baker, closely followed by Shane Lowry, made a temporary switch to Milwall; Baker for a month, Lowry just into the
Gary Gardner scored all three goals in a comprehensive victory over Ajax U19s in the Young Lions’ final group stage match of the NextGen Series at Villa Park tonight, guaranteeing a place in the quarter finals next year.
Ajax, who are now bumped down to second place in the group, have one final game; Rosenborg at home on November 29th. If Ajax fail to win in Amsterdam, Villa will win the group, earning home advantage for the next round, and will
This is not an attempt to absolve anyone of any blame for the unacceptable performance at White Hart Lane last night, but it’s become painfully obvious to me in the last 18 months or so that in the fans’ eyes it’s players that win games… and managers that lose them.
Let me give you an example:
Towards the end of last season, in what would be Gerard Houllier’s final game on the sidelines, we took on the hapless West Ham at Upton
The NextGen Series has announced the brackets for the quarter finals on their Twitter feed and it sets up a possible trip to Barcelona for our Young Lions. Due to domestic fixtures, the quarters finals will be played over just one leg with each of the group winners earning the advantage of playing at home:
QF1:
Group 1 Winner
vs
Group 3 Runner-up
QF2:
Group 2 Winner
vs
Group 4 Runner-up
QF3:
Group 3 Winner
vs
Group 1 Runner-up
QF4:
Group 4 Winner
vs
Group 2 Runner-up
Group 2 has already been wrapped up with Sporting winning
Fenerbahce recorded their first win in the NextGen Series with a 1-0 victory over visiting Rosenborg today, leaving our own U19s in a very strong position to qualify for the next round.
With just two Group 3 games remaining, the table now looks like this:
Team
P
W
L
D
F
A
GD
PTS
Ajax
4
3
0
1
9
2
7
10
Aston Villa
5
3
2
0
12
7
5
9
Rosenborg
5
2
3
0
9
11
-2
6
Fenerbahce
6
1
4
1
5
15
-10
4
Ajax come to Villa Park on November 22nd before hosting Rosenborg themselves on November 29th.
Since the fixtures are not as structured as the Champions League, the competition NextGen aims to emulate, the group stage won’t be