After 3 good seasons, I think we have to accept the inevitable and, between corrupt #FFP and #PSR rules, the Premier League and/or UEFA have successfully restricted any challenge #AVFC could possibly have mounted to the cartel. We clearly have no room to spend/upgrade. #UTV
@steve_mcginn@1968Tv Ah, the "fresh off the press" Sports Argus, covering the Villa, Blues, Albion, arriving at the newsagent in a van, tied up in bundles..anytime from 6pm..
..while queueing in the chippy for your tea ❤️
When Saturdays were special!
Around this time on Saturday mornings back in the late 1970s and early 80s, I would be getting ready for school football, with a kick-off at 9:30. Once finished, it was straight home for either Tiswas or Swap Shop.
Then settle down for an afternoon of sport with Grandstand and World Of Sport, which give us Football Focus and On The Ball. After a chippy dinner, it was watching the latest football scores flash on screen whilst watching other sports. Half-time reports came straight from the grounds and then you knew if your team would be featured on Match Of The Day or The Big Match, more latest scores would be flashed on screen in the second half of matches usually watching Rugby League on Grandstand or Wrestling on World Of Sport, around 4:40pm it was time for the Teleprinter/Vidiprinter on Grandstand or the results service on World Of Sport…but it had to be Grandstand, with David Coleman or Frank Bough reading out the results as they came in, or late goals etc.
Then it was time for Final Score and the Classified Results with Len Martin, complete with league tables, pools news, late kick-offs, and which matches would feature on Match Of The Day. After the late racing results and rugby results (Rugby Union results were often referred to as club matches) it was usually time for the sporting headlines of the day which meant the show was at its end usually around 5:10-5:15 pm.
After our tea, it was Pink Panther or Doctor Who, the Generation Game, then Starsky & Hutch as we were all waiting for Match Of The Day with Jimmy Hill and Bob Wilson, and if your team were on, it was the perfect end to your Saturday.
Unless you wanted to stay up ( if your parents let you) and watch Parkinson.
Those are memories of better days!
@HLTCO Funniest thing for me, this guy can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo week in week out. I live in Cyprus and watch Pafos in the league regularly, and he's awful...
"What a hit" indeed...never again in his career.
On this day, in 2020, we lost the legendary drummer of Rush, Neil Peart, who has been considered as the most influential drummer of all time by many.
The Rush drummer, Neil Peart, blows the roof off the dump during Drum Solo Week from Late Show in 2011.
You'll be forever missed Neil Peart.
Ann Wilson makes Led Zeppelin cry with their own song "Stairway To Heaven."
This is why we should always pay tribute to people when they're still alive. The joy and the emotion on their faces are priceless.
Unai Emery’s record as Aston Villa manager is truly remarkable when looked at in its entirety.
He took over in October of 2022 with the team 14th and just 3 points off the relegation zone following on from a dismal end to the tenure of Steven Gerrard.
From there, they won 15 of their remaining Premier League fixtures to finish 7th and qualify for the Conference League. In the 2023/24 season that followed, they finished 4th in the top flight, qualifying for the Champions League whilst making it to the semi-finals of the Conference League simultaneously.
The 2024/25 season saw them reach the Champions League quarter-finals where they were knocked out 5-4 on aggregate by eventual winners PSG despite being 5-1 down after just 27 minutes of the second leg, they also made it to an FA Cup semi-final and finished just outside of the Champions League places again.
This season, after a very poor opening few weeks by their standards, they’ve won 13 of their last 15 in all competitions, including their last 7 on the bounce, with their most recent win coming at home to league leaders Arsenal with pretty much the last kick of the game. They’re 3rd in the Premier League, just 3 points off the Gunners at the top and are also 3rd in the Europa League, level on points with Lyon who sit in 1st on goal difference.
The true measure of Emery’s success over the last 3 and a bit years though, is that his win % at Aston Villa stands at 55.28% across 161 matches, well clear of George Ramsey’s record of 49.59% at the top of the charts for every manager in the club’s history.
Villa are a massive football club, their description as a “sleeping giant” of English football was well founded before Emery’s arrival but what he has done there deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops. It’s no wonder they all think he walks on water.
These Aston Villa celebrations are some of the best you’ll see.
It’s the sort of clip you could keep saved to show people who don’t “get” football. What else gets 40,000 odd men, women and children to collectively lose their minds like that at once?