Raymond

A very very sub standard player, not surprising considering he was signed by McTwat.

Based on? One fluffed shot and a misplaced cross in his league debut?

Please.

Woke up excited. Now feeling like I felt most of last season.

This team is poor. Let's hope we get at least 3 players in.

They have played this second half like we did last year when we were

1-0 up. Hopefully they fall apart like we always did.

We spent years getting a defensive striker off the books, lets not replace him with another striker who cant score!

Heskey scored when he wanted to.......

Like Dempsey a lot, but theres nothing like 'refusing to play and breach of contract etc' to put you off a player.

1 good season last year and now his billy bollocks.

I read some stat that in the last 3 years, Dempsey was only behind Rooney and RVP in goals scored. He has been a consistent goal getting for quite a few seasons now. He knows he is in the prime of his career and wants to move up. He makes less that 60k a week at fulham and probably thinks he deserves more, which I'd agree with based on his abilities.

i understand the wanting to play in the champions league, but these are teams already qualified for the champions league

Chelsea, Valencia, Montpellier, Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund. Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax, Manchester United Bayern Munich, Porto, Galatasaray, Arsenal, Schalke 04, Benfica, Olympiacos, Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St. Petersburg, Nordsjælland,

Barcelona, A.C. milan

out of those, the only ones id say would want to take him are donetsk, dortmund, galatasary, zenit and Nordsjælland. if he moves to any of those then yeah fair enough its cus he wants to play in CL, but to move to liverpool who will struggle to finish top 6 will show himself up to be a right bell end.

What is wrong with wanting to make more money?

If your employer paid you below market value and was preventing you from moving to someone willing to pay you a lot more money, I bet you would throw quite a fit as well.

Just because they make 40k a week instead of a year does not make it any different.

I come on this thread to read about fake Twitter ITKs and hilarious transfer rumour mongering.

When I see the page count has jumped by 5 or so pages since last night, I'm intrigued - then disappointed to find out its more debate about past seasons and 'He Who Must Not Be Named.'

I want more Twitter bollocks!

Second.

I went to watch the under nineteens last night and saw that the squad is pretty ordinary as we suspected, so I have very realistic expectations for them this season, ie. it's going to be a struggle.

On the other hand I've watched most of the first team squad a fair bit, and I believe that we've got more than enough quality to be getting on with. A number of our players are really talented and it's Lambert's job to gel this talent into a team.

Individually our squad has a lot more potential than the Norwich squad, and yet PL got Norwich playing really well at times last season. So why all the doom and gloom?

Because it is apparently the default setting for a lot of the people here.

Didn't Lichaj play LB for a bit last season? Wasn't he alright?

I liked him there, but I really do not know if his talent matches our ambitions for the club.

Would love him to break out though. We need a new LB for the USMNT.

Hes a better player than the fonz,weimann and gabby ^

Do not agree on Gabby. Looking at strike for Bordeaux and Villa, respectively, Gabby bangs one in every .248 matches, while Chamakh scored on an average of every .247 matches, making Gabby just slightly better. Even more so if you consider the PL a superior league to Ligue 1. But that is irrelevant, Chamakh is shite and we will not sign him.

since when did gabby average 4 goals a game?

Yeah. Think we have a decimal point error or two.

Milner's at Villa Park today. Done deal.

Must have been a different James Milner playing for Man City in the charity shield then. Seriously, why post this shit ?

Because the Shield was played at Villa Park and it is a clever joke?

Know the season is back when I am trudging through internet back-alleys looking for streams.

Mat Kendrick ‏@MatKendrick

Stephen Warnock not part of the 18-man Villa squad which flew to Germany today for tomorrow's Werder Bremen friendly

One can hope he is off!

Was coming to post the same thing. I guess Lambert gave him a shot and now he is gone.

He's one of those players that's going to be a great squad player in a Champions League side when he leaves us, completely out of the blue. Still, no idea why this bloke is still on the books to be honest.

I think his champions league days are well behind him now.

Sorry, completely forgot we bought him off Lyon...!

Yes - getting on for 2 years ago we brought him from Lyon. At that point he had played in the CL.

Given that he is 29 now - and we hold his registration for a further 2 years, I just don't see him playing CL football again.

If he does I will hold up my hand and say I was wrong - but given his current position that seems unlikely.

He played CL last season.

Stop talking nonsense. You know if it did not happen in England, it did not happen.

Mmmmm, I won't hold my breath on Ireland

I can't see him lasting the season under Lambert personally

Hope he proves me wrong

Can you tell me why?

2nd. Ireland is talented and is playing under a manager that has a history of getting the best out of players.

Why would he not succeed?

Does have to be paired with a midfielder/midfielders who can get the ball back and pressure.

I do not follow the English National Team so I do not know.

Have Bent and Carroll played together? If so, how did they look?

I think we need someone like N'Daw sat just in front of Vlaar & Baker

That would protect the back line and allow players like KEA / Ireland to be more progressive up the field

Are you a retard?

Are you? Seems like a reasonable idea and seems like the way Lambert would like to play.

If we do bring in a defensive midfielder, it has to be someone like (I said like. I know not as good as) Yaya Toure who can defend well but can also make driving, powerful runs up field.

I saw Clark do that a couple times last season. I liked him in the position, but it might be nice to bring someone in for that role.

To sell, there needs to be a buyer

Hence the pause in ALL activity for now

Thanks for clearing that up for us all, we've all been waiting for some official update and now we have it, great.

I am not so worried about the midfield. I feel like Clark looked good in that position last year

I'm afraid from the games I saw he was very weak and wouldn't have anywhere the midfield. I'm curious as to which game your referring to where you thought he looked good?

He scored a couple great goals for us during January/February, one against QPR I think?

More it was just a general feeling that he was well suited for the DM role. He knows how to defend and tackle, but has the skills to play the ball forward and get involved in the attack.

Very weak? I would like to know what games you thought he looked weak in .

Striker for sure. Left back a close second.

I am not so worried about the midfield. I feel like Clark looked good in that position last year and Warnock can play there as well.

NFL teams don't have as big of an expense than PL teams, because most of the players are coming straight from College (uni), thats why they are worth so much, because a lot of money stays within the team...Its a strange one no matter how bad an NFL team is, it can still be a cash Cow.

It more has to do with the rigid salary cap and the revenue sharing than rookie contracts.

A certain percentage of the Cowboys, for instance, revenue goes into a general pot that is split at the end of the season. This helps smaller market teams like the Browns turn a profit.

They also are limited by a fairly hard salary cap on what they can spend every year on players. I think the Browns payroll was roughly half of the Villa payroll last season.

Then, of course, is the crazy popularity of the sport in the richest country in the world. The NFL brings in about $6 billion in television revenue a year, and that money is spread evenly to all 32 teams.

There is just a ton of money. I saw the Dallas Cowboys were appraised at $5 billion. It is insane.

Been on loan at Burnley and played out of position, on loan at Leicester, didn't get a run of games. He has lots of abilty. Pace, strength (when he gets stuck in), very good dribbling skills, gets into some good positions as well. Needs to be more proactive and improve his movement in the box. For Delfouneso the problems are mental, but that also means that the problems can be overcome.

You left out the biggest problem. He cannot consistently hit the target.

Perhaps that is mental as well, and the goal on the American trip had to be a confidence boost. I am still waiting to see it.

I think Lambert played Warnock at DM in one of the American matches and I kind of liked him there last year.

Maybe PL sees him in that role for this team. Maybe use him in matches when we need a bit more bite in midfield.

“The big point that people sometimes forget is that he inherited Cleveland – he bought Villa. Any rumours that he could be thinking about getting out or losing interest is nonsense.” - PF

Talking about the rumors that Learner is looking to sell Villa as well as the Browns.

Basically the exact point I made a couple days ago.

I used the search feature but could not come up with anything.

Is there an app we can use to browse the VT forum?

Is the West Ham link real? The mirror (I know) have Collins in London for talks on Tuesday.

Would be a good trade for me. Give up 2 million up front, but lose 15k a week off the wage bill.