Gillz

Im undecided on Cleverly. At the first mention of his name i was distraught. My dad just laughed when i mentioned when we'd been linked. He was very poor last season and hasnt made a great start this season (admittedly too soon to judge). However i remember a few seasons ago when i would have been very excited by this deal as he looked a very good and importantly attack minded player. So fingers hoping we'd play him further up the field and he'd refind his form (if Hutton can do it anyone can!) The other issue i have though is the money reported. £8m, even in this current crazy transfer window (£11m for Ross McCormack!?) thats alot of money on a player who has struggled recently. Albeit he does come with PL and int experience which adds to the pricetag. Additionally i fear his wages may be very high, especially compared to some of our other players and that could be an unsettling factor. Id much rather give Delph a new juicer contract than pay Cleverly 50k for example The jury is still out on this one but all the same its just nice to see some transfer activity and speculation at least!

oh, and just a close up

you what? Might expect a few more 'dodgy decisions' to go Villa's way this year!

Buzzing with this signing, nice to see some positivity back! Also following JPA im delighted we have signed another Columbian; Paul Lambert is having a party, bring your vodka, and your Charlie!

----------------------------guzan--------------------- hutton(regrettably) - vlaar - okore - cissokho ----------------------------sanchez------------------ -------------westwood--------------delph----------- N'Zog-----------------------------------------weimann ------------------------benteke--------------------- However i do like the 3-5-2 if we can actually get it working for a change! -----------------------guzan---------------------- -----------okore------vlaar------cissokho----- Bacuna---------------------------------------Richardson -----------------sanchez-----delph------------------------ -----------------------------N'zog--------------------------- -------------------Weimann----Benteke-----------------

This really annoys me. firstly to see a player i thought had a lot of promise slip away into but more importantly the fact it comes down to a lack of effort. These young men play football for a living which is a dream come true for all of them, on top of that they are getting paid utterly ridiculous money to do so. With these two points in mind i find it completely bewildering and upsetting at the lack of professionalism shown. If someone was paying me 25k a week id be there day and night giving it my all (which wouldn't even be to bad considering its bloody football!). I know many say its part of the modern game and players just wants to land big, lucrative contracts but surely the players can't be so ignorant of how good they've got it!?

Sanchez and aly cissokho. Not a bad day if both these turn out to be true!

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/aug/04/premier-league-preview-aston-villa article on the guardian which excellently summaries our current situation. depressing reading admittedly but still a few optimistic notes.

With our current selection of full backs Lichaj doesn't seem to bad now, at least him and herd always put in 100%

KIss Kiss Bang Bang was on tv last night. really enjoyed it, witty narrating and dialogue. Kilmer and RDJ had very good chemistry too.

I'm just waiting for Pince William to become king and takeover. 'Royal Aston Villa'

Love that celebration. The lad didn't know what to do with himself!

No sign of David Warner then? Alas no, and by all accounts Root seems to of had a much better experience at walkabout this second time round!

Not sure if this is relevant but following the final Sri Lanka ODi match at Edgbaston my friends and I went out on broad street and meet both Joe Root and Gary Ballance in walkabout having a great time. When we told them we were at the game and had been the ones giving them some chat on the boundary (especially Ballance) they invited us into join them and proceeded to spend a ridiculous amount of money on vodka and champagne. Later in the early hours of the morning they left, both accompanied by two of my female friends for some 'fun'.... needless to say whatever happened in their hotel rooms has obviously worked wonders for their batting form!

edit. posted a tweet that was already posted

About as relevant as if someone had posted eight year-old videos of Robert Pires when we signed him. The video was less about the goal and more about the commentary of "joe cole, why not?". In my view this would be a very average signing, it could work out it might not. I doubt he'll be offered too much or too long a contract (maybe 2 years like senderos) and I can see some of the younger players (grealish in particular) learning a lot from Cole.

Joe Cole, why not?

I remember the story on the OS that baker had to decide when he was younger whether to pursue a career in football or rugby. When i watch his attempted tackles on the pitch i can't help but feel he's still trying to do both! the interview: http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3025013,00.html

I'm planning no getting myself one of these as a laptop for gaming. Excellent spec for that price. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-146-MS

Rob Rich? Who are his backers? Mike Money and Will Wealthy!? You can't make this stuff up!

They signed him for around £1m if i remember because he only had 6 months left on his contract. They had agreed a deal for him in the summer but then paid the extra million to get his services in January.

Very upsetting news. Should have been given more of a chance, especially considering we signed Grant Holt on loan!

Will be sad to see him go, especially after he promised so much. Also makes nos sense to let him go when we have benteke and kozak for him to cross to.

Despite the fact that today isn't going to bring some big news we'd all been hoping for i wouldn't get to worried just yet as there is a lot of time left this summer. I'm always rather stupidly optimistic when its comes to the 'next season', it's just how i feel about football. i get excited because anything could happen. We might get bought by a billionaire, we might not. We might sign some excellent players or we might not. We don't really know at this stage but i choose to remain optimistic rather than spend all summer worrying! Perhaps if there's been no sale by August I'll get slightly concerned but until then i reserve my right to stay blindly optimistic (in these harsh times as a villa fan it's one of the few ways of staying in love with the game)