BigJim

No word on his work permit yet? Is there a danger he won't qualify?

More like 1.5 million GBP, but he looks far too good for that sort of money?

Then we have Delph and Benteke who have releases clauses, but we don't have to sell. If Delph is your captain, then you don't sell him for 10m. Benteke is his only consistent striker, so you don't sell him unless you have a very competent replacement lined-up. Surely the whole point of the release clauses that we DO have to sell if anybody offers the amount stipulated?

I'm also worried. It just rings true. And while I wasn't worried he would risk going to Citeh, at that price of course there's any number of clubs would take him off our hands.

I'm going to assume a problem with attitude rather than ability. Even then, if he's good enough to make a difference - play him. I doubt very much that anyone on the staff questions his ability. It's PL experience that he lacks, and there's only one way to get that. I would love to see him in the same team as Gil, that would take a lot of pressure off Jack, and maybe a little off Gil as well. I really hope we don't get Sinclair in and shunt him out on loan. I believe he can produce the goods if we show some faith in him.

Ron should be less greedy and more prudent, given his fitness record. He should sign any deal on the table now, i.e. with us. He'll look pretty daft if he gets injured again before his dream team come in for him, and he gets left high and dry with no contract at all in the summer.

May as well go now?? Doesn't make sense to me. One the eve of an important game? Wouldn't you have at least asked him to take training that day?? Of course you would. Two things about the extra bit you slipped in that the players knew he was leaving: 1. Why would they know, he's only just announced it to the management? 2. Even if they knew, if he was leaving on good terms there would be absolutely no reason for him not to continue his duties for a few days with the full respect and support of the players and everybody else.

Why? Because people like a good conspiracy especially when it is negative about the club, it adds to the suggestion we are in chaos and is more likely to bring about a managerial change or help justify it. Well thats my guess It's as plain as day that there is a lot more to this than the club are letting on. How anybody can swallow the official story is beyond me. You only have to ask yourself, if Keane offered to stay on until a replacement was found, why wasn't his offer taken up? As far as I can see, either he didn't make the offer or he was told his services were no longer required.

Hmm, I thought I read somewhere that Lambert said he'd only just heard. You'd think he would have been party to any decision. Whatever, it's the about the most unsurprising piece of news coming out of VP for years. Good riddance.

Yeah especially in a dodgy barber's chair. Going back to the zonal thing though. Why the hell are we not standing at the posts? It's such a dangerous thing to do. Yeah the whole no defenders on the post perplexed me a bit. There were three CBs out there plus Kozak, which is a lot of height. Surely they could throw someone like Bacuna and Delph in at the posts? The only reason I can think of is that it may stop the opposition putting someone on the line to block the keeper. If there's no-one on the posts they would be offside immediately the ball was headed forward - no way they are not interfering if they are standing on top of the keeper. Dunno if that's the reason but either way I don't like leaving the posts unprotected. We're not the only culprits though - seen quite a lot of teams doing it recently.

Sort of depends how desperate he is for first team football, because it looks like nobody is going to pay him anything remotely near what he's on here. Could be our Darren will prefer to see his bank account growing while he plays for the reserves?

Yes, and if the toughest opponents are the top 9, Villa have the easiest run in of the bottom 8 teams.. Villa and QPR have 3 "tough" fixtures, and 2 of Villa's are at thome. Most of the others have to play 4, Soton and Wigan have to play 5.

Ron is a very accomplished footballer, certainly better with the ball at his feet than Mellberg or Laursen. And his passion is quite evident, he really wants to succeed here. I like the guy. But he is clearly poor in the air. I seem to remember this was mentioned by somebody when we signed him. That's no good in British football, where heading in crosses is the one thing strikers (even lower league ones) have always excelled at. If PL didn't know Ron can't head the ball before, he certainly knows it now. I would sign a typical British centre half and turn Ron into a defensive midfielder. I think he could really excell in that position eventually, but as we don't have lot of time to play with, PL is unlikely to experiment.

That may be the understanding now, but what if he does really well for the barcodes, the fans love him, they have a great second half to the season and finish above us....Is he going to want to come back? On the other hand, if he has a crap time up there, can't hold a place in the side, are we going to want him back? I'd like to see him do well for Villa long term, but I don't feel confident that he will want to come back and be wanted back, or that he will manage to break his way into our midfield next season.

Pity our previous manager didn't see thngs this way.

Yes, and I think you're quite right. It was just the "this is how a well run business operates" bit that doesn't fit in with that assessment, IMO, which was why I highlighted it. Shouldn't have done really, the post didn't deserve such nit picking.

So you think that was the plan in place all along, do you? Promote Kev and start looking if he doesn't like it/isn't good enough? Fair enough, if that's what you believe.

And what a *really* well run business does is have replacements already lined up as contingencies. It certainly doesn't place things in the hands of a junior executive. We should have had a manager ready and waiting in the sidelines just in case MON resigned? As I'm sure you are aware, top businesses have contingency plans to turn to in the event of a sudden loss of an important asset or resource. It doesn't seem to me that our club had any such plan, therefore I wouldn't hold up our way of doing things as exemplary business practice.

And what a *really* well run business does is have replacements already lined up as contingencies. It certainly doesn't place things in the hands of a junior executive.

...absolutely, and although it might seem now that filling the ground regularly we would only rake in an extra 2m or so, the real point is that if and when we achieve that, the club will be able to raise ticket prices and generate some serious extra cash. Rasinig ticket prices now risks driving attendance down; the time to do it is obvously when we're scrapping to get hold of them.

Without the help of any spin from the board or anywhere else, most can see plainly that Martin's popularity among the players as a whole steadily decreased over the years. It also seems likely that many if not all the players saw over the last few months at least that his time was coming to an end. In the combination of those circumstances I wouldn't expect much reaction from the players. People may try as they will to place the blame at Randy's door, but you can't escape the terrible timing of the resignation. Oh Martin is a man of great principle - they say - he couldn't possibly carry on if xyz circumstances were suddenly presented to him... But he could have made thngs a whole lot easier for the club if he'd handled it differently, couldn't he? Not him though. No thought for anybody bar himself.

Sounds about right, so I reckon that means if we are going to trim the wage bill, we need to shift TWO more players out before we can think about getting anyone else in. Maybe even three if we want someone decent (Keane wouldn't come cheap, wages wise).

Even if your figures are right, I don't think that means we have 70K a week to splash out on wages. One thing I have learned this window is that our wage bill appears to be far too high in relation to turnover. Milner out Ireland in doesn't mean we have money to spend on another signing, unless and until we move someone else off the books (Shorey looks a good bet, let's hope there are more).

In his post-Walsall interview reported on the OS, MON sounds like he thinks JM might well be staying. Seems a lot on here won't be too happy, but I wonder if JM would be so unpopular if we didn't need the money from his sale so desperately? I'd really like him to stay, but I'd probably agree to sacrifice him if we've got no money to strengthen otherwise.

The way I see it is that any signings these clubs make can only improve them very marginally. In our case, on the other hand, one or two shrewd signings could make a far bigger relative impact and in fact close the gap quite a bit. I don't think it's the case that we just get further and further behind the big spenders. These clubs have to spend big to more or less stand still. Chelsea, for example, will be buying to replace aging players. Will any new striker they could bring in be significantly better than Drogba has been? Compare the difference to our squad when we eventually replace our aging strikers.