skarroki

do we have one of the biggest turnover of players in the league?? i am looking back now and i seem to remember that by the time MON had left the only survivor of his reign from the DOL days was Agbonlahor. Some players came and left whilst he was here. Since he's left nearly his entire squad that he left has now gone too. That's like 50 players in 7/8 years.

Talk about stability and building for the future

you've all forgotten Freidel! dunno whether n'zogbia deserves a mention or not too, then there is hutton...

i am interested in a villatalk league as soon as i have a TV, a PS3 and FIFA13. so basically if i can join in a little later then i would want to be part of it

i think this console has the potential to have some must-buy games, but unfortunately, as with all nintendo consoles it seems these days, we have to wait many years for these games to actually come out once the console is released, and so by the time the games are actually taking full advantage of the capabilities of the console, the next generation of consoles is well on the way and sales are starting to wain, which is a shame.

The only real reason i still go with nintendo is for the games series that are exclusive to them, without those they would be well behind the market. Pokemon/Zelda/Mario and then newcomers like Prof. Layton, in my opinion, are the only things keeping them in it

Bradford have lost 2 and drawn 1 of their last 3 games.

Just read a statistic though:

"This is Villa's 14th participation in the semi-finals. They have never progressed to the final after failing to win the first leg of a semi-final"

I think BBC have got that wrong though? Tranmere 94? We lost the first leg but won the second and got to the final.

• This is Villa's 14th participation in the semi-finals. They have never progressed to the final after failing to win the first leg of a semi-final (D2, L3).
  
• This is the second time they have faced a fourth-tier club in the League Cup semi-finals: in 1975 they drew 2-2 away to Chester in the first leg and won 3-2 at Villa Park in the second leg.
  

So they are saying that we never progress when we don't win the 1st leg, then give an example of us progessing after not winning the 1st leg as the next fact???? is there something i am missing?

jesus christ can people stop saying how much he is worth? technically he is worth $0, we didn't buy him as he came through the academy, we haven't publicly put a price tag on him, and no-one has put in a bid for him. Football players cannot be accurately priced, people using the logic of 35mil Carroll, what about comparing him to Michu? he's worth less than Michu.

I think he's a great talent and i am enjoying watching him play for villa, long may it continue. looks like he is happy playing, and getting along with all the other lads too so happy off the pitch, i'm not gonna worry about 2 years down the line because he is awesome and playing for us as it stands

I think he should be starting against Bradford, may not be his level anymore but it's what he is used to, and i think he would cause big problems to the bradford defence. also giving him a couple of starts to give him some time to show what he can do, can't be a bad idea surely? He has the physical build to make it by the looks of it, it's up to him to show if he has the attitude, talent and potential now.

Con, i understand why you back him now because you've stated all the statistics you have to back up your opinion. But what was your opinion of him and what did you think were his best attributes before finding all of that out? What did you think of him after watching him play and nothing more?

He used stats to back up his opinion, not form it.

i am pretty sure that is exactly what i said?

Thanks for the response Con, and fair play in that case. I really like Bannan and think better players around him will show him to be even better than the potential he's showing at the moment. I just wanted to check as you were posting the same statistics from the same site over and over and i didn't know whether the stats were clouding your judgement of the guy from just watching him.

Mitch Waddon.. a football writer.. has written on Twitter that we are definately interested in Cavanda on a permanent deal and ruled out our interest in Aubameyang.

Not sure who he writes for but probably BS anyway

willing to believe this guy, mainly because he's saying what i'm thinking , I would really like to see someone like Cavanda at the club, i think he would adjust well to the prem with his playing style and his abundance in pace. Also, he's a young Belgian who gets on well with Benteke so we already have bait at the club, and maybe that's how we've heard about him? Would be a good way of getting inside knowledge on him, having a friend of his at the club already

But i really feel that if we went for Aubameyang then a bigger club would come in and convince him to go somewhere else. Also, i don't like the links with players that we were interested in during the summer, obviously there is a chance of us going back for someone, but Lambert doesn't like being mucked about, so unless the deal wasn't completed because we ran out of time (Stephens) then i feel like it is more likely lazy journalism (Gouffran)

Con, i understand why you back him now because you've stated all the statistics you have to back up your opinion. But what was your opinion of him and what did you think were his best attributes before finding all of that out? What did you think of him after watching him play and nothing more?

Hello ..

So if Douglas 4 .. Mousa 4 .. Auba I think 6 could get him to our side .. Same thing was said with Vlaar .. then we got him with less money .. Coutinho was reported 10 Million Euro's .. so 8-9 Million pound ..

Therefore .. It's from 18-19 Million Pound .. Which is less than our budget in the summer .. also more little bit than the summer before that .. And it's less that what ae got Darren Bent for !

So who knows ?! 4 signings would turn our side upside down !!

I agree with those prices in principal, but it would be convincing the players to join our side. These are players that other teams will already know a lot about and will want as well, and most of them will be better placed than us. Coutinho is at Inter! i realise he may want to leave for more games but to go to an english relegation candidate just doesn't seem likely.

I would love it to happen, i just can't see it so i don't want to get my hopes up. There is also the chance that if you are buying a good young player from abroad then they will have to adjust to playing in a new league, learn the language as they wont be able to communicate with a lot of the players, and they will need time to adjust living in a new country away from home. We can't expect them to come in and hit the ground running is what i am saying.

I wouldn't mind Chris McCann in, i mentioned him along with a few others 4-5 weeks back, but i am not sure whether he would be that big a step up from what we currently have, although his age and experience may help the team more than his ability.

Hello ..

"FootballCraze ‏@Football_Craze

Manchester City are ready to line up a £45 million bid for Cavani. #MCFC" ..

What do you guys think about Balotelli !? lol .. Who knows maybe they'd prefer to sell him to us ?!

I know he may not be a Lambert type in attitude .. but as someone said here ..

Balotelli and Benteke upfront ?!

Auba and Coutinho at the back ?!

One of the best attacking options in the league !

loving the positivity but unfortunately all the options you want in this window are unlikely to happen on FM. Little sense of realism required right now

if he could do something along these lines on a more regular basis that would be great. Great technique and control.

I really rate the guy but i think he should be used in a rotating midfield, with Westwood, 2 other CM's and an Attacking midfielder. However until we have those options i think it's ridiculous to want him out the team. who do you want to play instead of him? he really isn't that bad, and i feel he is improving slightly as the season goes on. Let him play regularly until we have someone better. Selling him would be madness, the squad is wafer thin and our other options in the middle are poor

i think of 3 he is probably a bit similar to Barry, keeps it simple and has coolness in midfield and doesnt want all the attention. thing is when Barry was 22 he wasnt a Premier League centre midfielder am sure he was 26,27 when he got moved there by MON

is my memory bad or did Barry come through as a Left-Back, then got moved up to LM before being pushed into the middle?

I don't think Westwood is a bad player at all, but i don't think he's that good. A lot of people raved about him so i tried to watch him closer in games and he just never did anything which i thought was particularly good. He does the simple well, and i understand he isn't there to get people off there seats, but even the simple looks a bit... simple, with him. If he keeps improving then he could be good, but for me he needs to do just a bit more.

Olof was loved because he hated the Blues, and because he had an awesome beard, and because he was captain, and because he was loyal, and because he put in a great effort. However, Olof was also loved because he was a bloody good centre-back.

100% agree with everything written here. Olof was my favourite player and a hero when i first started watching villa growing up.

My only hopes for him is that we don't get less than 2m for him, I am not hopeful

If we were stupid enough to sell we would get more than 2mil of course. Selling a player who has in the past single-handedly kept a team in the premier league in the past and has 3 years left on his contract for 2mil is ridiculous.

so happy he made it into the first team and is playing well. My old man isn't a villa fan, PNE unfortunately for him, but he came to watch Villa v Stoke last year with me and spent the match saying how much he liked him. Said he looked like a poor mans Wayne Rooney, which i don't mind tbh. Scored a cracking goal that game too which helped make him even more memorable

as long as the guy is confident and he is in an important position on the pitch for the team i am confident he will deliver. He's got talent, he just doesn't show it enough but if he is happy at the club finally and more willing to put in the performances that are needed from him we could really have a good player on our hands.

Unfortunately every time i get my hopes up about him he lets me down so i'm not getting too excited this time. surely has to start against bradford, will tear them to shreds

job done. players coming back and getting professional match time. Bent scoring. Bennett playing well.

Get in a CM, CB. Roll on Tuesday

sunderland pulled it back nicely for those mentioning them losing earlier. looks like quite a few shocks are on today i am glad we aren't one.

could do without a replay... come on lads. Can anyone watching fill me in on how N'Zog played before coming off? and is either team looking like scoring??

Yessss!! Bentyyy!! Goalscoring machine, should start every game!

thank god i am a villa fan otherwise people might question my complete change of opinion on him after 20 seconds of gametime.

brentford 2-1 up at southend

come on villa this is absolutely ridiculous. this is a game where we haven't spent the entire half on the back foot, don't **** it up

I got a single entry work visa, so i can't leave until i go to HongKong on the 8th of February. I have been here a bit, yes, legov, but i wanted to talk to people on here just to see if anyone brought up something i hadn't heard about

I have been to Beijing for a few weeks in august and saw Summer Palace, Tiananmen square, Great wall, All the main sites. Briefly been to Shanghai but will probably go again,

Just back from Hangzhou and actually didn't think it was very polluted, however it has been snowing there for a few days so it may have all been covered up. The snow made for a completely different experience to the one i had expected and the mist lingering over the lake made it look amazing.

Basically done everything now in Shandong province, because work has restricted my travelling abilities. Qufu to see Confusious, Qingdao, Tai'an Mountain, and all the famous areas of Jinan.

i have friends in Chengdu and i want to see the Panda's so that's a real option if i have time.

My main area of interest is Yunnan, i want to go to Lijiang, or whichever place is a good starting block for seeing the Tiger Leaping Gorge. I want to see the forests on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan too, along with Phoenix City and Yuanyang Rice Terraces. Other than that i'll try to fit in all of your suggestions too. Thanks for all the responses, if you have anything more to add now i've better explained my position i would welcome it