Recircle

Looks as though it'll take place in a Neville Johnson furniture showroom.

I hope you're right. I might be wide of the mark, but I get the impression that Gerrard is closer to the Roy Keane school of motivation than the Arsene Wenger school. I can't see quiet, intense characters like Buendia and Bailey (who are still bedding in) responding that positively to Stevie G's locker-door thumping '"THIS DOES NOT F***ING SLIP" calls to action.

Olof's at the wheel? On second thoughts, perhaps not.

That it was understandable and not unreasonable for him to leave when he did, and that those who will never have the sheer talent that causes them to have to make difficult choices like that (which would be most of us) shouldn't judge him too harshly.

Some would've been saying "just one more season" to him over and over until he'd aged himself out of likely getting a chance to play in the Champions or Europa Leagues. Footballers have to secure their reputations while they're still working, because unlike visual artists (whose work always exists in the present), once they've retired, the chance of them getting upgraded to 'historically significant player' on the back of people poring over old footage is pretty slim. (Playing for a narrowly defeated team in a Champions League final or a World Cup or Euros final/semi-final trumps, profile-wise, playing for the winning team in a Championship play-off final - the 'Gazza's tears' WC semi-final effectively shows this.)

Wanting to play for your country is one of the more solid indicators of a player's drive and ambition (for one thing, it shows that they possess the urge to play high-level football without a bloated club pay-check acting as an incentive), and it's hard to think of a great player down the years who hasn't had the strong desire to turn out for his national team. I'd be more bothered if Buendia didn't show this desire, regardless of how much of a tall-order achieving the goal might seem to others.

That's true, and the games would've been physically very demanding. But they wouldn't have drained him in terms of momentum and confidence, because of his natural playing level relative to that of a lot of Championship players (plus he was two or three years younger then).

It hasn't been a spectacular start for sure, but for it to seem an outright poor move, Villa have got to start doing the business with their half of 'the equation' and get moving back up the table (if Villa lose tomorrow and Leeds beat Norwich, the latter will draw level with Villa - and Watford - on points).

Fair enough. Are you going to reveal the source, so we can judge how substantive the claim is?

If that's based on an article that ran a few days ago in the Birmingham Mail, they've spun it a bit, since Guardiola's basically just pointing out that Grealish is having to adjust to the demands of playing Champions League matches midweek (" We spoke about [the new demands] and how he has to live when he's not here, with resting, sleeping. What he's done so far is excellent.."). Doesn't particularly sound like a 'dressing down'; he's essentially saying: this is what 'stepping up' to the next level means and requires.

Didn't he pose for that photo session before the end of last season?

I still think he's forcing the foul a fair bit of the time. He's just hard to dispossess, since he'll either happily advance towards a defender or 'hover', inviting the challenge, but in any case reducing a defender's operational space, which automatically makes any challenge look less controlled and considered.

One or two in here seem in a hurry to write off the City move as pointless/disappointing, but to be fair to Grealish he's still in the transitional phase. This is a simplification, but I think Guardiola is currently proscribing Grealish's play a bit, putting a hold on the natural, free-roaming stuff, in order to turn him into a more altruistic and sacrificing player. Once these other qualities have been added and become second nature, he'll allow Grealish's old instincts back into the mix, and what you'll then have is substantially the old player, but with a broader and more adaptable set of abilities; viz.: he'll be a more complete player.

One of the most effective things Villa fans could do on the day is to 'kill him with kindness' - if they applauded or shouted genuine compliments when he went on a little run or pushed a nice pass through, it might make a bit of guilt well up in him and blunt his drive!

Players with talent and self-confidence are well used to that sort of stuff; they expect it and often seem to use it to raise their game. He's already said he's used to opposition fans singling him out, and the noise of Villa fans booing him won't register any differently with him while he's focused on playing the match. If Villa fans wanted to mess with his head, they'd probably do better to respond with tepid indifference whenever he's on the ball, but I imagine many won't be able to resist jeering and booing him. I think the bigger danger for him as a 'dafty' will be reacting will too much joy if he provides a couple of fine assists or nicks a goal, which would turn even the more mature and magnanimous Villa fans against him.

At one point against Leicester Grealish had snuck into a gap between defenders as Silva drove forward centrally with the ball, and was in the perfect position to collect a threaded through ball and fire a close-range shot, but Silva chose to hit-and-hope instead and Schmeichel made a fairly regulation save. You could tell Grealish was annoyed, but he's not established enough at City yet to remonstrate with greedy teammates. Watching him limiting himself to a disappointed little sag of the shoulders when he was clearly itching to have a moan at Silva was funny.

Yep. People mock and jeer what they fear.

He apparently called Grealish "an encyclopaedia of football", or so an interviewer alleged in a Grealish interview that cropped up during the Euros.

To cut him a bit of slack, I always took that reply ("I don't know what that means") to mean he didn't know what Dean Smith meant by calling him that, not that he didn't know what the word itself meant.

Wonder if he'll be wearing his Euro 2020 and Community Shield losing finalist's medals around his neck.

Fair enough (it was a big old reply, and I scanned through a fair bit of it). I'm not too keen on this 'legends' stuff full stop, I've got to say. Pantheons, hall-of-famers, golden greats...a media-feeding/media-driven hagiography that doesn't seem to have much to do with what actually happens on a football pitch.

He's left because he's trophy-less.

On the basis of your first point, anger doesn't even have to fuel such a comment. One way of proving that it makes no difference would be say it neutrally about a player that hasn't made you angry.

Too easy as a get-out: saying woeful bitter stuff and then excusing yourself by playing the "just bantz innit" card. Having your cake and eating it. Always reveals more about the poster than the poster can control. People should honestly try and bottle this sort of stuff up if they can.

This is exactly how a lot of Manchester City fans would be hoping Villa fans will be reacting. Honestly, you should just keep this stuff inside and go down to the bottom of the garden or something and yell it all out. What City fans don't want to see is Villa fans accepting with good grace. You might not be really feeling that way, but that's how Villa fans should be reacting: just flash a cryptic smile, and nod and mutter something about how things move on and change. Class is acting in the right way even though you're seething or collapsing on the inside. Only class can neutralise the jeers. Anger and bitterness and wishing injury upon him just fuels their mockery.