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"Relegation - Villa or Leeds - or maybe neither"

Being a Villa fan, I'm very concerned of how close we are coming to the relegation battle. It looked like Villa were clear, until four straight losses and a draw. We were 14 points clear of the relegation zone, but we are now only 6. It now looks like Sunderland and WBA are gone.

With Bolton, West Ham and Birmingham all winning, it looks like Villa are going to go down, unless Leeds carry on losing.


Here are the 5 battlers for relegetion, showing pos. Points and points from last 7 games.

Villa ----- 36 --- 7
Birmingham - 35 --- 10
Leeds ----- 34 --- 3
Bolton ---- 32 --- 11
West Ham -- 30 --- 13


This shows that Leeds are the ones for the drop, but I fear that it will be Villa instead. This is because of the games we have left, eg. Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea.

Our only chance is to beat Leeds and West Ham, otherwise we might as well say goodbye.


Who do you think will join Sunderland and West Brom?

Nice point for Villa against Arsenal but:

Leeds Won
Bolton Won
West Ham Drew
Birmingham Lost -- phew!

Just hope that we don't lose against West Ham next week.

No defender likes a player that is prepared to run at a defence every time he gets the ball... at present Kewell is a jewell, a true gem... i would be extremely surprised if he stayed at Leeds after this season especially with the interest he has already gathered (Arsenal couldnt guarentee him a starting place, neither could Man Utd) Liverpool does seem to be the most likely place to go to... Gerrad, Hamman, Kewell and Murphy across the middle with Smith and Owen up front...nice.

I dont mean to keep leaving Heskey out of the equation but on the evidence of this season with him playing in every position imaginable i doubt he would figure in Houlliers immdiate plans should Smith and Kewell both join.

I hope after all this that the rumours and interest are valid... i'd love to see those players paired up next season.

For the record i know Martin O'neil was interested in Viduka... i dont know if that still applies or not.

Liverpool have a great passing team with players like Gerrard and Hamman. What we need is for someone to run at people like Macca used to do.

And Kewell is pretty good at that.

In the International games you mentioned English bloke i have to say that those were largely experimental games and to be fair to both Owen and Smith none of the England team seems to perform like they are capable of in those situations...

Smith is a far more aggresive player than Owen, theyre both lightning fast and can both score from practically anywhere given the chance... if there was someone like Kewell feeding balls into the danger zone for both Smith and Owen every couple of minutes then the results would be devastating and im sure Houllier knows this... the possibilities of that combination is simply breathtaking.

I think West Ham made some very good signings at a important time giving the team a lift and thereby improving their results.

Another thing I like about the 2 players is that they are both still young.

I think Owen and Smith could work well together, but I think it would take a while for them to "click". They haven't really set the pitch alight when playing for England together. But you can't really judge them on 45 mins now and then.

I see Leeds going down.

Really. Bolton can play well when they want to, Birmingham are the same, and I just can't see Aston Villa going down. West Ham have been playing well as of late as well, unlike, yep, Leeds.

I hope they go down too. :-D

Its funny you mentioned Fowler... i think that he and Smith are out of the same mould... Smith would as you rightly say fit right into Liverpools style of play and im 110% positive that Smith and Owen would 'click' straight away... i dont think many could argue that fact.

rabid wrote:
> I agree that Heskey would not prefer to move but as we know sometimes
> players have little say in these matters

Too true, I wish Fowler still played for Liverpool.

I have no idea as to the price of the players sorry... if i was to guess (and it would be a total guess) i would put a price of £8 million on Kewell and £6 million on Smith... thats just what i value them both at... others will disagree with this im sure.

Im a Birmingham fan and i'd love to see one/both of them at St Andrews... they are both quality players (altho i would rather have Kewell if i had to choose, he is sheer class)

I agree that Heskey would not prefer to move but as we know sometimes players have little say in these matters... i just wouldnt blame him if he did leave... someone like Tottenham, Everton, Chelsea or even Southampton would love a player of Heskeys ability... he would fit right in and most likely not be given the goalies gloves on a saturday lol.