M_Afro

I’ve got a feeling that we are trying to see who we can shift before making our moves. We are waiting to see how much we have to play with in terms of wages and once we get closer to the end of the window, we will make our moves, with personal terms for the players that we want, probably already agreed. With this in mind, I would predict another out in the early part of the week, followed by 2 to 3 new signings towards the end of the week/start of next week. I think the next few days will prove to be very interesting.

He must be worth £50m already. What a player. What a signing. He is so calm and composed, I would have preferred Bissouma in the summer but I wouldn’t swap him for anyone at the moment. Total baller.

How on earth is this guy only 26? He seems to have been around for decades.

Well that escalated quickly. Time to move on. I like Danny but he was never quite right for us in my opinion. I wish him all the best and £15m plus £10m saved wages is a good deal for us……………..What’s next then!

I think we need to trust Unai on this. If he thinks we should sell Ings, then that’s good enough for me. He’s the guy who sees him every single day. He’s the guy who really understands what he needs from a striker.

Massive wages. Player in decline. Value set to plummet. I like Ings but we need pragmatism. Sell him and free up his wages.

Villa would never make an offer unless they were certain he would sign. I suspect that the noise is more to do with negotiation tactics. If we agree a fee, he will sign. 100%.

In Ashley Young years, that’s 29! Give him a 4 year deal.

Boubs has only picked up 3 yellow cards. That’s quite incredible considering the role he plays in our team. It just goes to show how smart he is. He anticipates everything. I honestly wouldn’t sell him for £100m because we’ll never be able to replace him. Lovely, lovely football player.

We’ve definitely missed him. He gives us physicality and presence on the pitch which was really lacking at times last night. He does have his limitations but in our current squad, he is worthy of a starting place.

Part of managing a football club is understanding when to sell a player, in order to maximise your return. This is even more critical now with FFP.There appears to be a market for Ings at the moment. It won’t last as he is massively on the decline physically. He is a classic January desperation signing. For that reason, I would sell him. Even if we can’t secure a replacement in January, sell him and wait until the summer to buy a younger striker who’s more capable of fulfilling the role that Emery wants. I know that this would leave a big hole for us but I’m sure we could loan a striker who could play back up to Watkins for 19 matches. Sometimes you just have to look at the bigger picture.

I agree about Watkins. He is crucial to us despite the abuse he gets. We really miss his physicality and pace when he doesn’t play.

I actually think that Leeds are a really good team. They are also the sort of team that causes us problems because they have so many strong, fast and althletic players. They will climb the table in the second half of the season. As for us, we need more physical and pacey players. Matteo would be a good acquisition but we really need a physical and pacey forward too. The new lad did well. Good to see his wheels on show. More of that required.

If we can add Matteo to play alongside Boubs in midfield, we will be really strong. Throw in Diego at the back as well and our spine is pretty strong.

I love the Sultan. He is the best manager we have had since Saunders. We need to be patient because we do need better players but this guy is going to take us places. Relegation worries banished in 6 games. Unbelievable!

He was still poor and a massive liability. Most of Leeds play started with him, Ramsey and Buendia losing possession. Great goal though and until we get someone better, he has to start for his pace and dribbling.

Has anybody checked on Lyric yet? He should be back from school by now!

This would be a top signing. Not only is he a really good young player who already has experience of the PL, he is also quite big and very intelligent. These are two qualities that we seriously lack within our current squad. I really hope that this happens.

Cash to Chelsea would probably be the most bizarre January 2023 transfer. Not gonna happen.

It’s interesting that Stevenage did not pick up a single yellow card yesterday. You’d expect a league 2 side to pick up quite a few when playing against a PL side. It just goes to show how we created so few moments where they were compromised but also highlights a bigger problem. We don’t have any decent ball carriers in the team.

There was a transcript of the post match press conference on the Birmingham Mail website. He was definitely really annoyed, not just about yesterday but also Wolves. He specifically mentioned that the players did not follow the tactics and lacked crucial concentration. It’s worth a read if you get chance.

I totally agree with this. Unai is a top manager. We are really lucky to have him. What he can’t do is magically turn average players into premier league stars overnight. It will take time to get things where we all want them to be but we need to be patient and trust Unai to get things right. This is the best chance we have got of competing effectively again.

45 years. Remember 1981? 14 players won us the league that year. You also don’t need to rotate so many. Keep your spine and rotate around it. It’s caught us out so many times. Emery will sort us out. It will take time but he will get us there. When he does and we start to play 50 plus games per season, I will accept some rotation. Until then, whilst we only play 40 games per season and we haven’t won anything since 1996, I will hope he’s learnt his lesson and will take things more seriously in future.

Stevenage are doing really well this season. They played like a well drilled and confident team. We played like strangers. Why not start with your best 11 and then it doesn’t matter if you make a balls up in the 88th minute because hopefully you will be multiple goals ahead. I’m not sure how long you’ve followed villa for but we have had multiple examples over the years where we field a weaker team and balls it up. Why take the risk?

We’ve just lost to a 4th division team at home. No away game is straightforward for us. We haven’t won an fa cup game since 2015!