talkSPORT Drive presenter gives his forthright views on the week's football. Disagree with Adrian? Have your say by commenting below (he reads every comment).

AVB lost in the cup for losers

Andre Villas-Boas is a manager who has qualities, but I'm still not convinced he's good enough to manage a club with the ambition of Tottenham Hotspur.

He talked up the Europa League like it was the biggest tournament on the planet. And so he looked a bit foolish when Spurs were knocked out by a Swiss team in the quarter-finals.

He'd talked up ties with Lyon and Inter Milan, comparing them to Champions League level challenges. So he ran out of such analogies when it came to Basle, beaten 7-0 by Bayern Munich in last season's Champions League. It was a tie Spurs had to win but didn't, and their poor record of not winning away from home in Europe this season was complete.

The way AVB had talked through the tournament, you sensed he saw it as a cup he wanted to win. I mean REALLY wanted to win. But why? Chelsea, as European champions, are embarrassed to be in it. Middlesbrough and Fulham have got to finals in this competition, and they did well, but they're not giants of Europe.

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Having won the trophy with Porto, his young, fresh image was a dream for UEFA. As Mourinho became synonymous with the Champions League, so AVB is the face of the Europa League. He's UEFA's golden little boy.

This is why he came out with the utter nonsense after the defeat to Basle about Spurs showing the rest of England how to respect the Europa League.

At the end of the day it's a cup for Champions League losers. If Man City and Man United want to get out of it as early as possible it's their prerogative. Has AVB earned the right to tell Sir Alex Ferguson how to do his job?

Tactically Spurs were a shambles last night. Is anyone at the club coaching Kyle Walker? Or do they just tell him to run? Is AVB admitting he can't get a tune out of Adebayor? That's an expensive mistake. And new managers normally get the backing of their chairman, but does AVB not command that respect from Levy?

Jury is still out on AVB.

Shame on Alan Pardew

When will Newcastle win a trophy again? It is getting ridiculous that a club that size, with that many fans, fails season after season to do anything.

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If I tell you Alan Pardew played the Ameobi brothers together up front in the FA Cup tie at Brighton this season, you'll draw the obvious conclusion he wasn't taking the competition seriously. And now we get to a situation where football is horrified that Wigan are sending 10,000 tickets back unsold.

Well if Newcastle had taken it seriously, their fans would be having a fantastic day out and filling Wembley this weekend. Shame on Pardew for not taking it seriously.

Don't pay tribute to Thatcher at football

When Margaret Thatcher passed away, so did someone's mother, and someone's grandmother. But I cannot get my head round the calls for a minute's silence at football.

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She didn't like football. She demonised fans. She disrespected the Hillsborough families.

The 96 who died had mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children. But the mother of two, Margaret Thatcher, not only failed to fight for justice on behalf of the Hillsborough families, she was complicit in perpetuating the lie that the Liverpool fans were to blame.

If people want to pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher, that's not a problem. But not at a football ground.

The lower leagues need sorting out

Portsmouth's years of misery and uncertainty seemingly came to an end with the Supporters' Trust takeover this week. But on the same day Bury announced they needed £1million or they would be going out of business in days.

Earlier this week Manchester United secured at least £120m by selling the naming rights to their training ground. Football is obviously very top heavy.

But for lower league clubs they have to cut their cloth, and stick to budgets, or it could get ugly. And the Football League need to step up their fit and proper persons tests. Big time.

Give Venkys some credit

I see the Venkys summoned Blackburn caretaker manager Gary Bowyer over to India. That is a massive 'headsgone' decision.

Rovers have just dipped into the bottom three and haven’t won in 11 games. They face a second successive relegation. So not an ideal time for Bowyer to fly to India, who missed training sessions while he was away. In the meantime, two caretakers did the work of the real caretaker.

Steve Kean resigned but is believed to be suing for constructive dismissal. Henning Berg won once in a 10-game spell in charge this season, but he is demanding compensation. Michael Appleton received a £500,000 pay off after 57 days work, and four wins in 15 games.

It looks like the Venkys are to blame. But these owners provided £8million so Blackburn could sign Jordan Rhodes, who has since banged in over 20 goals.

Not many terrible owners let a manager in the Championship have an £8million striker to play with….

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