Christ I hate the international break!

Boring boring boring.

And that's just England.

Still, this was the most exciting goal scored at Wembley against Slovenia:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ4ZI8CHRI2/

I hate it, but it's mostly cause Norway is so fecking shite.

We have some very good young players coming through now though, so I'm hoping we're up there in the next qualifier.

I have absolutely no interest in watching England. I'd rather see the national team made up solely of players from League 1.

Some kid called Onomah scored a nice goal in the U21 match though.

Sitting on the sofa at home having just had Sunday dinner.
Hopefully I will doze off before the game starts

HA HA @Boldfinger me too mate, napped all the way through the first half, best hour kip I've had in a long time.

LOL I feel your pain lads. Although tbh, when you're an NFL fan then it makes things much easier as my team played on Monday and they are playing tonight too so it's almost as if Villa haven't been away this week .

AstonThriller wrote:LOL I feel your pain lads. Although tbh, when you're an NFL fan then it makes things much easier as my team played on Monday and they are playing tonight too so it's almost as if Villa haven't been away this week .

I thought I'd alleviate the boredom and pop down to watch exeter city. A quick fixture check told me they were away at Carlisle. I was bored but not that bored!

Still at least Snodgrass scored!

I watched some of the match last night and realised I really don't know who some of these players are or who they play for. Deli, Rashford, Sturridge and Kane yes but I couldn't tell you who any of this lot play for:

Butland
Keane
Stones (he was at Everton, I think)
Maguire
Trippier
Henderson (Liverpool?)
Winks
Cresswell (Wet Spam?)

Probably says more about me and my complete and utter disinterest in the Premier League now we're not in it but I hope they're not all from the top four or five clubs as usual. They looked a bit wishywashy though, not helped by playing wingbacks with not enough players seeming to know what they're doing. Sounds like when we play wingbacks.

Went down and watched Bromsgrove Sporting win 2 - 0.
So nice to actually park across the road, pay £5 to get in and have a lovely cheese burger and chips with a pint and watch players actually enjoying themselves and playing some good football... and it wasn't raining!

FoxyAV wrote:I watched some of the match last night and realised I really don't know who some of these players are or who they play for. Deli, Rashford, Sturridge and Kane yes but I couldn't tell you who any of this lot play for:

Butland
Keane
Stones (he was at Everton, I think)
Maguire
Trippier
Henderson (Liverpool?)
Winks
Cresswell (Wet Spam?)

Probably says more about me and my complete and utter disinterest in the Premier League now we're not in it but I hope they're not all from the top four or five clubs as usual. They looked a bit wishywashy though, not helped by playing wingbacks with not enough players seeming to know what they're doing. Sounds like when we play wingbacks.

I still pretty much watch the prem almost as much as ever although BT sport moving Saturday's game from 1230 to 1700 is a pain, purely personal cos my 16 month old still has a kip in the middle of the day so I had a tailor made excuse to be watching tv haha. 3 kids in our house means 5pm is fecking bedlam so I always record the game/hope I don't see the score prior to watching. I always record MOTD and watch it Sunday but that's because I despise "analysis". In fact often if I do watch a game "live" I record it and start watching it 20 mins late so I can fast forward through half time. That's how much I hate the has beens and never will be's droning on ad nauseum.

De Kuip wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:I watched some of the match last night and realised I really don't know who some of these players are or who they play for. Deli, Rashford, Sturridge and Kane yes but I couldn't tell you who any of this lot play for:

Butland
Keane
Stones (he was at Everton, I think)
Maguire
Trippier
Henderson (Liverpool?)
Winks
Cresswell (Wet Spam?)

Probably says more about me and my complete and utter disinterest in the Premier League now we're not in it but I hope they're not all from the top four or five clubs as usual. They looked a bit wishywashy though, not helped by playing wingbacks with not enough players seeming to know what they're doing. Sounds like when we play wingbacks.

I still pretty much watch the prem almost as much as ever although BT sport moving Saturday's game from 1230 to 1700 is a pain, purely personal cos my 16 month old still has a kip in the middle of the day so I had a tailor made excuse to be watching tv haha. 3 kids in our house means 5pm is fecking bedlam so I always record the game/hope I don't see the score prior to watching. I always record MOTD and watch it Sunday but that's because I despise "analysis". In fact often if I do watch a game "live" I record it and start watching it 20 mins late so I can fast forward through half time. That's how much I hate the has beens and never will be's droning on ad nauseum.

Various of the wife's family have season tickets at Wet Spam and there's always one spare so I'll be going to a few matches there this season when we're visiting and I might make it down to Southampton (I'm only 10 miles away) if a free ticket or two comes up. I used to go to Reading (not far from Winchester either) on a free ticket just to escape PL relegation escape mediocrity but now we're in the same league it's not as interesting! I like going to watch matches where I have no interest whatsoever in the outcome but find it difficult to get to Villa Park, I just don't have the money or spare time (my boy is two this month), although I do make it to the likes of Reading and Fulham as they're local enough/possible to incorporate into a business trip or family visit. I used to watch F1 but can't even be bothered with highlights, I wonder if it's the money involved and the prima donnas it spawns? The best thing I've seen Whelan do is a few matches ago when he suddenly woke up and in what looked like a fit of rage ran full pelt at whoever had the ball and whacked it high into the stand. I suspect the opposition player had two options there, to give way or lose the use of his legs. It's how I imagine people should play for England (actually it's how I imagine people should play for Villa, which is why Grealish and Gabby seem to fall short, bearing in mind they were fans of the club first) but they always fall short of expectations. At least now the squad seems to be full of young players, a few years ago the squad was mostly made up of older players and it looked like they just couldn't be bothered.

Actually going back to Whelan I do think he can improve and would make the kind of enforcer we haven't seen since Gabby used to go after people who fouled our players. I just think he doesn't have the energy anymore and we can put a Lansbury (or even Onemah) in his position to better effect. I digress. As usual...

Sometimes international football isn't mind numbing - currently enjoying Syria taking Australia into extra time in the WC qualifier play off - if they won, that would be brilliant!

Shame they lost 2-1 would have been a fairytale ending. They hit the post in the first minute of second half of extra time added time as well - if that had gone in Syria would have won on away goals!
In other international news, Strachan blames "genetics" saying that's why Scotland didn't qualify, then goes on to equate Scottish size with - can you believe this - Spain! How that proves his point is beyond me. Then we have Holland needing to beat Sweden 7-0 in order to qualify cos Sweden beat Lux 8-0 to go +19 goal diff. Also likely that Argentina won't make it, so we could see two of the 2014 quarter finalists not qualify. Oh, and with Iceland qualifying bananason will be pleased, as will Whelan, but not Chester!
Slightly less bored as none of the above points mention Engerland.

Not sure why, but I always find more enjoyment from watching Norways U21 and U18 than our national side

So not long until the international break is over. So much to do, I have to disband the knitting circle, the basket weaving will put on a back burner and my hula hoop exercise will have to stop.

By McGrath I hate these long breaks