Zhan_Zhuang

Agreed, I like him honestly I do. As @MaVilla said, he does look overweight and immobile. He costs us every game recklessly giving the ball away.

I waited awhile from posting... Man City are 'light years' away from us, it was actually frightening watching them rip us apart last night. Yes they have a great coach, allegedly one of the best but I'm sure I saw a list recently of how much Guardiola had spent on his defenders alone. Over £500 million (I think). We should not be too despondent, they have spent for ten years and constantly improved. Villa went backwards in those years and it is going to take some time and I am in no doubt Villa need absolute MASSIVE investment. It's the only way. Problem is unless we break into the top four by pure fluke it is not going to happen. We might get into the top eight next season but who knows? I think we are relying on others around us to falter such as Liverplop, Spuds etc to help us get further up the league. This season seemed like an opportunity but unfortunately we did not take the opportunity. Benteke seemed to be close to the exit-door at Palace in January, I still think a six-month contract would really have helped us. I'm sure he would have scored a few with the service and helped us solidify a top ten place. If not Benteke I can't think of a better player to help Watkins out. We are going to get twelfth now as I think Wolves are looking good so they will hunt us down next!

Great to see him score but to be fair it would have been more difficult to miss from there. All-round play again non-existent and he gave the ball away four times which is an improvement (at least) on the six against Liverplop. Against City two of his errors I thought was going to cost us a goal, one especially was really dangerous and reckless play on his part. Still think he's a liabiility and needs to be benched next season.

It seems UEFA are happy to 'move on' and forget. No team, person or business organisation should be above the law. Fines and/or bans from competitions should be made. Allegedly all twelve ESL teams paid £8million each to join in the first place.

Rangers and Celtic next?

But they are not intending on going anywhere, they want both the PL and SL money. This is disgusting.

Must admit I quite like G. Neville and agree with his words there. It's crazy and sheer greed and he was correct to make the point that all these PL owners are not English and (mostly) have no understanding or concern of what the fans want.

Probably not, well I didn't. Norwich aren't nearly as dislikeable! Still can't fathom why anyone would sign up to any other club forum than their own?

I agree, he's the best and most naturally talented Villa footballer of the modern era. You could go further and say in terms of England since Gazza. One problem is the lack of protection, because Grealish is strong he does take a fair few knocks and this is impacting him through injuries now. I think also he does 'milk' a few challenges out of necessity. Finally due to his Cavalier playing style it is inevitable he will find it difficult to play a whole season (I don't think he ever has).

I think they'll do a Sheff Utd too, they won't be a surprise anymore. Watched the PL 2 highlights just a minute ago, even their reserves are Dirty. I guess that'll always stick to them like s***

Yeah I agree, that's what I was thinking too. Sixty minutes is good, get a couple more of them under his belt over the next couple of weeks and then see if he can get a ninety minutes done.

I watched only a little of the PL 2 match against Dirty leeds butte commentary was awful. Their reading of the game was other poor and biased. More importantly how long did Wesley play for? I'd have thought if he can get a few more 90 minutes under his belt with no adverse reactions then we might see him on the bench for the last game perhaps? The Villa team will no doubt have a target in mind.

Learn from the Barkley mistake and move on.

I read Wolves have planning permission to increase capacity to 50,000. If they expect to sell out Molineux then Villa Park should aim even higher at 55,000-60,000.

The way things seem to be going I don't actually think we will sign another PL player. Sure there is value but agents and clubs will literally try to screw as much money as they can out of a player. Ward-Prowse I thought would be great for us but he'd be £50-60million; Tammy would also be great but again same sort of numbers; if Newcastle stay up there is no way we'd get Saint-Maximin for anything under those same values. Even the Championship clubs are getting wise as they know we have the money. The value lies in overseas players notably in Ligue 1, La Liga and Serie A. That's where we should be shopping and finding the 'next-level' players, maybe a Rodrigo De Paul? The next-level player or two that we require would blow our budget if we shop from the PL. I cannot see us making any signings from the PL. Apart from De Paul, my knowledge of foreign players isn't what it used to be.

There was a good debate on Talksport this morning (yeah I know) and Simon Jordan was talking realistically. The topic was Everton and how far away they are in terms of top six and spending power. In five years they have spent just over £400 million. Liverplop, Chelski, Man City and Manure all close to £800 million. Plop's 25-man squad was worth more than double ours last time we played them. Villa are closing in to the top ten but we are miles away without very shrewd investment and also spending the maximum we can over the next two to three seasons. Each summer we need to add at least two starters to the first eleven. Of course the problem is other teams are years ahead of us as it is and they will continue to add also. Be interesting to see how Everton continue as Ancellotti never stays at a club for longer than a couple of seasons.

Really not sure about Dele Alli... Potentially a lot of baggage and maybe like Barkley he's just not got the desire?

Yup, and then he ripped us a new one...I was worried there were far too many ridiculing him on here before we played them.

It's an interesting debate for sure. Players are a 'means to an end' there should be no room for sentiment. Players may struggle for a season and then improve the next, if they don't then they need to be benched or sold. Some of the players were the best we could get with the funds available and some have worked and others not so much. Building a squad and first team should be constantly evolving and hopefully improving, surely the owners realise this. Hopefully Smith does too, but he obviously has his favourites and therefore is sentimental which I'd argue is detrimental and holds us back.

McGinn isn't going to protect the game though, he'd just give the ball away and invite pressure. He's a liability.

That was about it though. One assist every five or six games might be good enough for you but SEVEN times he gave the ball away, Jota nearly got an assist from him too. He's lightweight.

Don't get me wrong, i love Dean Smith. The job he has done has been fantastic and we can clearly see major progress. Of course I did not expect Europe however the fact is we were in a very strong position and lost a few games we really shouldn't have. Hopefully we will learn from games against Sheff. Utd, Burnley, Newcastle etc. Because if we win them we'd be comfortably in with a shout Europe, this is the frustration as we are so close. The reason I mentioned if we aren't comfortably top ten next season and in Europe is because I'd imagine the owners will want continued progress for their investment. Presumably they will again give Smith another £100 million or so (at least). Dean Smith needs to step-up or he'll be gone. It doesn't matter that we all (mostly) love him, he's a Villan and a Brummie the owners WILL want Europe next season. They would probably have wanted it this season too considering how close we are/were.

If we spend another £100 million and we are struggling to be top ten Dean Smith is going to be out. Big season for Smith next year!

"past 3 months"... Try 12 months, @thunderball you really nailed it. McGinn is pish as they'd say in Scotland and completely ineffective.