1958Villan

I'd like to remind people, that we have had £20m for each of the last 3 or 4 seasons to spend. This time around we also brought in £4.750m in sales. We spent the best part of £16.5m before Delph went, leaving us approx £8m. Benteke added another £32.5m making the kitty £40/41m. Since then we have probably spent another £20/25m, leaving us with £16 to £21m to spend. Personally I'd like us to buy 2 out of Eder Balanta from Argentina, Jeremiah Akaminko from Turkey, or Martin Caceres from Italy, to strengthen our central defence. Hopefully there'd be enough left to get Javier Hernandez from Man Utd.

If Mr Sherwood persists with his admiration of Ashley Westwood, I fear we will be in a relegation struggle yet again. Westwood is a tidy enough player but, he can't produce a decent free-kick. Just as he can't tackle, which is strange for a supposed defensive midfielder. His initial thought, when he receives the ball, is to play it straight back to the defence. He doesn't actually look forward unless a defender isn't available. He can pass 20 yards+, when given time, when rushed he panics. With Westwood in the team all season, we will probably be relegated. With Westwood out of the team, we will finish between 11th and 14th.

I've thought, for quite a long time, that Richards long-term future is as a centre-back. He will make silly errors until he learns the job, just as Clark has done. Clark progressed in leaps and bounds last season, although I still don't see him as a centre-back in the traditional pairing. He is far too quick to go to ground, while staying on his feet improves his performance dramatically. I could see Clark playing as the slightly advanced middle defender in a 3-man defence. Senderos would be the pick, if the middle centre-back was to be played slightly behind the other two, in a sweeper type of role. Okore has potential but, all he offers at present, is great speed over the ground. Speed is ideal if you play a high back-line, where-as playing a shallow back-line actually negates the one thing that gives him an advantage. Okore needs, like the others, to work on tackling but on staying upright and shepherding players to where they don't want to go. The one thing that every successful defence has, is a competent defensive/holding midfield. This can be made up of either one or two players. A good defensive midfielder will not stray any further than 10 to 12 metres away from his central defenders, when his team have the ball. He will be able to read where the trouble will come from and intercept it. He will be a strong tackler and able to give the ball to someone who can then use it to set-up attacks. When you have a pairing, one will be the box-to-box player, although they do tend to take that job in turns. I'd like to see Richards paired with either Eder Balanta of River Plate, with Senderos sweeping. Or, Richards with Martin Caceres of Juventus, with Clark, or Okore, playing slightly in advance.

Surely its dragged on long enough. If it was me, I'd be saying, to who-so-ever is holding things up, ' you've got our offer, accept it by noon today, or it's withdrawn'. If the offer is accepted fine, if not, we move on.

This squad of players should, with a competent coach/manager in the mould of T.Pullis, finish in mid table. Unfortunately we have a head coach/manager who says, 'Weimann is great as a centre forward', then plays him in midfield the next match. I was actually surprised that he didn't play Guzan as centre forward in a couple of games. A decent coch/manager is able to use different tactics instead of thinking that tactics are just sweets.

A complete waste of time thinking about players we might get as Lerner has blocked all transfers in or contract renewal talks. I believe Gardner signed a new contract because he was in discussion before the embargo.

A lot of us have been saying for years that Gabby just doesn't have a footballing brain and I think he proved it again last night. Anyone with half a footballing brain has decided what he is going to do with the ball before it gets to him, Gabby seems to want to sit down and work out the possibilities after he gets the ball. Maybe he should chuck football and become a 100/200 metre sprinter.

I fear Gary Gardner's chance at a top flight career in football has gone. I say this because he has become too injury prone and he has not actually improved since he was a young kid. Wilshire and Ramsey might well say that he was the best of the three of them but, they have both stepped up and improved their games. I know the horrible run of injuries he has suffered may well be behind him standing still, as it were, so as has been suggested by others on this thread, maybe giving him a one or two year extension on his contract and then loaning him out to a league two outfit for half a year, then moving him to a league one team for the remainder of the year, might give him a good chance to show what he can do.

I think that Mr Lambert should make trying to sign Bertrand his first act at the end of the season. I think there is every chance we could get him too, especially as Chelsea are in the hunt for Shaw at Southampton, which would push Bertrand back to at least fourth choice left back.

As I'm so old I have two players, both well pre-premiership, I would have loved to see in the Claret and Blue of Villa. John Charles, who was a whole team on his own and Johnny Haynes, who could thread a ball through the eye of a needle. Players in the premiership years, I would have to say my number one would have to be Frank Lampard. The best £7 million Chelsea ever spent.

European centre back = Pontus Jansson? We were linked with him before.

1) If we don't get to keep Bertrand in the summer, does anyone think that we'll go for Cresswell of Ipswich, he's having another decent season? 2) Holtby has played about 40 games for Spurs since his £1.5 million move from Germany. Although he looked something special in the Bundesliga, he has failed to live up to expectations in the Premiership. This may be due to a change in culture, or a change in the pace of the game as played here as compared to there. 3) Tom Ince and Wilfried Zaha are not players who occupy positions where we need strengthening, so going for either of them would be rather silly. 4) Buying players in January has both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are, that in the vast majority of cases you have to overpay for the player. The advantage is, that the player you buy has the remainder of the season to get accustomed to his new club and team-mates and jf he comes from abroad, he has enough time to get accustomed to the new culture. This all saves time for the next season. Just as in Summer transfers, buying in January is a case of pot-luck.

In answer to your first question turnbull, how about Andy Gray. A Scottish striker we bought from Dundee Utd reserves for £110k. I think he was very decent for us.

Before we can go on paying bigger wages, to attract better payers, there are two things that need doing. One, we need to get the remaining highly paid off the books, players like Given, Bent, Hutton and N'Zogbia. Two, we need to expand the commercial side of the club to bring in more money. This is something that needs to keep expanding every year, just to be able to stand still. Until this is achieved, we will remain what we are now, a small club fighting for survival in the premiership. The next step upwards, is to probably become what we ended up as under O'Neil, that is a club that supply's players to the top sides, for a profit.

What everyone seems to be forgetting is that it doesn't matter how rich a new owner is, the rules have changed and so he would not be allowed to pump untold amounts of money into the team. People tend to forget that Randy tried for it, it being Champions League qualification, sadly he had the wrong manager to achieve it.

I have seen Frimpong play several times over the last four years RAMTIN. He does have a lot of talent and once he learns to pace himself, he will not get injured as much, or as badly. Comparing players is difficult because everyone see's something different when watching a player. Take NRC as an example, most thought him a waste of space, while I and a few others recognised what he actually did. Frimpong could become a big name player but, not for a few years in the position he has been playing in.

Welcome to Villa Jermaine Pennant? Have to admit that thought popped in my head when I saw the news I have a nagging fear it might happen if Hoolahan falls through I really hope it doesn't. That dive against a Petrov-no-contact challenge that won them a free kick, a goal and the game has stuck with me for a few years. Diving w*nker. Wasn't that Gerrard doing the diving in that game?

Is Dale Stephens our new Robbie Keane?

Bowery makes some great runs but, always seems to be either half a second too soon, or too late, in arriving at the optimum spot. His record as a striker, before he came to us, was anything but impressive. This tends to make me think he isn't a natural striker but, could be transformed into a decent centre back, or even a defensive midfielder. We bought a striker several years ago, from Dunfermline, called Allan Evans. He turned out to be one of the best centre backs we have ever had, so it can be done.

Had no idea who that was until I Googled the picture. There are some pictures I found that are not suitable at lunch time, but I thought you'd appreciate an old school entertainer reference It's Margaret Thatcher. Her name is Faith Brown and she was big as a comedienne in the eighties. The lady had an impressive frontage.

DeFour had a decent season followed by a good season and that was what brought him to the attention of the football world, allied to his age, he was relatively young don't forget and so people thought he could only improve. He went to the wrong club, probably for the money and instead of improving, he went the other way. Now, if he gets the right club, playing the right system, he might just be able to get back to where he was but, then again he might not. DeFour would be just the same as any other buy, a gamble. Taking all things into account, his time has probably come and gone.

El-Reacho, I personally don't like him as a player, never have, and I agree there are both up and down sides to signing him. It's just that, with what we are lacking in midfield at the moment, he could be worth the down sides on that short term contract. I doubt very much that he would be expecting £63k a week, maybe £50k. And if he did what I think he could do to the team, I think it would be worth it, as long as Lambert was able to keep him on a short string.

Has as been said, the problem isn't of Lambert's making. He inherited a squad of poor players, we vastly overpaid for, being paid two and three times what they should have been earning and all on long term contracts. Quite a lot of them were and are, at the tail end of whatever careers they have had and understandably unwilling to take a huge pay cut to keep playing for some other club. This can all be traced back to the one, many called and some still call, The Messiah and his policies. If you check up on his previous clubs, you will find that he left them all in a far worse financial position, than when he took over. To clear the books of so many has been a wonder. It seems as if he might be having some success in getting rid of those remaining, in the 'bomb squad,' as well. We still need to get rid of, a goalkeeper, a right back, an ex-Wigan Frenchman and a forward. There are then some academy players that need to go, as they are not good enough.

We all know our midfield needs strengthening, so I was a little surprised to see, albeit from the Daily Star, that Hull are interested in signing Sulley Muntari from AC MIlan for £3.9 million. He plays central midfield but, can operate as a defensive midfielder, or a left midfielder, Positions where we need strengthening. He has premiership experience, which is the new song from management. He is cheap, which fits in with the clubs financial position. We've just freed up £63k a week in wages, by getting rid of Stephen Ireland, so we should be able to afford his salary, especially if he is signed on a relatively short contract, say 18 months. Worth a shot, or not.

interesting post but gotta add someone from the Swiss league cuz there on the up Also missing the Northern Irish, Irish, Welsh, Maltese and Cypriot leagues where their players can get "Champions league or european experience" via playoffs lol. Could always sign Grant Holt, I think he's from Wigan, who are in the championship....... and were in the Europa league. Adam, I wasn't taking the piss, I am serious about these league's. I know many fans laugh, at 'the mighty Villa,' even contemplating buying a player who isn't one of the world's famous names but, I happen to live in the real world. We are not and haven't been a world reknown club, for longer than any of our present day fans have been alive. Yes we have a proud history but it is long gone the time when our fans, one and all realised the situation we are in, in this day and age..