ASTON VILLA - getting dangerously close to the drop zone

Said before the season started that they'd every chance of relegation and got laughed at

Looked at one point like they'd done enough but it's gone very wrong in the last couple of months

Aston Villa should go and play in Argentina, their dull, boring, hardly ever score style would fit in extremely well over there

got lucky with a clear handball decision earlier apparently....otherwise

So do you guys despise mcleish and the way he plays or AVFC

They deserve to go for the style of football and Learner deserves to go down for giving mcleish the job in the first place! Ridiculous decision, from trying to get Martinez to somebody completely opposite, clearly no idea and no style of football wanted another useless owner.

Nothing to see here ...  move along please.

It's all part of the masterplan; Randy Lerner intends to bankroll Alex Mcleish this summer,and make Villa Park a fortress next season. Expected to arrive for big fees and huge wages are Iker Casillas, Gianluigi Buffon, Petr Cech, Pepe Reina, Victor Valdes, Manuel Neuer, Wojciech Szczęsny, Joe Hart, Hugo Lloris and Maarten Stekelenburg.

McLeish said at a press conference last night "There are exiting times ahead for the club. I feel playing this revolutionary 10-0-0-1 formation with Gabby up top will guarantee 38 nil nil's in the league each season, which will hopefully be enough to keep us up, and playing the 10 goalkeepers in the cups will be a percentage play, as it will make us extremely tough opponents in penalty shootouts."

He added that he also hopes improvements will be made to Villa Park, with a barbed wire fence being erected on the half way line, with a small mine field positioned behind. "It's just something we tried on the training pitch" he added "I made the decision after watching our full backs, Hutton and Warnock being left for dead for pace by the fans in wheelchairs going in the family enclosure".

He also hopes to erect a 30 foot wall with machine gun posts around the box - "We've conceded a lot of goals from corners and set plays this season, so it seemed the logical decision" he reasoned. "I'm hoping to sign Mario Balotelli and Ashley Cole to man the machine gun posts, as they have a bit of previous with fire arms, as I'm a bit concerned about crowd safety if we get Ireland and Heskey to fill those positions, given their normal prowess shooting in front of goal".

It is time to add Lerner to the already huge list of shyte foreign owners?

Don't worry. Big clubs never get relegated at Villa Park on the last day of the season.

Crisp.

Warnock, Dunne, Petrov (lets be honest) are all not very good.

The Zog has been a huge disappointment, as predicted when he was just chasing the money in the Summer, and Gabby has flattered to deceive for half a dozen years or so.

They are a poor side.

Villa's biggest problem is the wholly unrealistic views of their fans. They see themselves as one of the biggest clubs in the country who should be in the top 6 every year when in fact they are barely good enough to be a premiership club.

The reality of this is finally dawning on them. They haven't won anything for about 20 years and don't look like breaking that drought any time soon. Even Birmingham have had more recent success!

A fading club who are no longer relevant in the upper echelons of English football.

I think AM had enough to work with that they shouldnt be on 37 points with 2 games left

yes losing downing and young are huge blows but it shouldnt be about he aint had funds so cant blame him

plenty of clubs havent had huge money and doing better than him

It is a young mans game Steptoe.

As 1tp points out, O Neill bought some garbage and was very short-sighted.

Lets hope he has the same success in the market, just up the A19 from you.

D rather go down like blackpool having a go than like bham and villa
No excuse to play football like him it's meant to be entertainment

made around 25m profit on milner,downing and young combined

Not sure on this short term thing

built something up at leicester over many years, same with celtic

did 4 years at villa and had an excellent record and could easily have won carling cup had ref done his job in final if memory serves

He will be a success at sunderland, no question of that in my mind

downing was fans player of year last season fwiw

Strawberry Face

It's 15 years, not 20! Despite a few wind up merchants and the odd clown giving it the biggun' on here, I don't think Villans are too bad in terms of realistic expectation, they are certainly nowhere near the perennial kings of delusion, those Spurs and West Ham fans who think they will be winning The Premiership, The Champions League, the Boat Race and the Eurovision Song Contest any time soon.

The facts are they lost a couple of players (Young a big loss, Downing much less so), and this was on top of James Milner leaving but not being replaced the previous summer. The 6th place finishes and cup runs under MO'N were only a couple of years back, and if Ref's had bigger bollocks and had rightfully sent off Vidic and Terry in those games, they may well have had a trophy to show for their efforts.

After MO'N spat his dummy and left, it was always very unlikely they would finish anywhere near as high up the table, and the vast majority of fans understood this, especially when Lerner told Houllier (and then McLeish) that the decent sized transfer fees were over. We were expecting a decline, not a plummet! Basically, given the talent at his disposal, even given a poor back 4,the squad should be hovering around lower mid table at worst and comfortably safe - not well off the likes of Fulham, West Brom and two promoted sides. But the thing the fans are really disillusioned about is the tactics, the football this season has been terrible, and that squad is far more likely to win games by the odd goal in 3 or 5 than by trying to keep it tight, purely because the players he has at his disposal are mainly pacey attacking types and not ball retainers.

Safe as houses. I've stopped the rot by having two quid on them to go down.This will ensure premier football next season with a new manager.

I don't want thanks Villa fans. I am happy to spaff two quid for our beloved Villa.

Staying up with less points than B'ham got last year? Doesn't bode well for the future.

If B'ham won the play offs how would you price up the "who finishes highest market" beteen them and Villa (assuming Villa don't go down).

Oh and by the way it is 16 years and not 15 since they won anything. I told you they were delusional!