skarroki

having read this article I wouldn't be against Morrison signing for us. He's obviously aware of where he went wrong and a year abroad should have helped him mature. If we can keep his head screwed on he's easily a premier league player. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11916281/Ravel-Morrison-Manchester-United-gave-me-too-many-chances.html

Kodija I think will happen, Morrison I can't see happening at all. I think we'll get a good loan signing and probably end up with someone we haven't been linked to this window yet. Could see us potentially bidding big big money on Tom Ince or Chris Martin from Derby.

He is on my post? Adama isn't on there though, because I forgot about him in all honesty

Players can ask for a specific number at the club when signing, but I think most players will request it but not make a huge issue with what number they wear. As an example, I would imagine Ibrahimovic at Utd had it agreed he'd be wearing the 9 shirt, because it would have something to do with his image rights, the same as Beckham always getting the number 23, I think they took the 23 shirt off an academy player midseason at LA Galaxy because Beckham wanted his number to fit the brand.

Oops! Corrected it. And thank you, kind words.

1 Gollini / GUZAN 2 Baker 3 Bennett 4 RICHARDS 5 Okore 6 Clark 7 Bacuna 8 Gana 9 Sinclair 11 AGBONLAHOR 12 Gestede 13 STEER 14 Elphick 15 Westwood 16 LESCOTT 17 Veretout 18 19 Ayew 20 Hepburn-Murphy 21 22 Gardner 23 24 Tshibola / SANCHEZ 25 26 27 Lyden 28 Green 29 Cissokho 30 Grealish That's what I've worked out so far, with CAPS players being ones which I haven't seen with the number, so placed with the number they wore last season

He's a league 2 player at best. Will probably spend half his career in the non-league. I would suggest if he stayed he would currently be 9th choice centre back

I think it's interesting that he is following every player I would suggest has some interest from other clubs this window. Amavi and Ayew are obviously talked about, some of the others have had tenuous links to other clubs. But I honestly think he just following a random group of the players, with no real reason to it Maybe I'll ask him

Tony only follows 33 people and a lot of them are fan clubs or famous villans. He follows 12 players, 3 of them being our new signings. Baker, Westwood, Grealish, Gestede, Clark, Green, Hepburn, Amavi, Ayew are the 9, plus Tshibola, Elphick and Gollini. Dont think there's too much to go on there. Nothing to read into because that tweet is not true.

Interesting if it's true. Has anyone checked to see whether there is any truth to this?

Who is this young lad, called Zoltan Gera playing for Hungary? maybe worth a look at....

Not sure about the validity but there seems to be talk of Leeds and other unnamed clubs matching our bid in an effort to snatch him off us at the last minute

Wasn't there rumours at the time of the smoking in Dubai thing that Gabby was partly out there as he was meeting to discuss a summer move to the UAE league? Could just be Twitter guff I'm remembering but it sounded plausible at the time, I mean we were as good as down and he clearly doesn't want to be here as much as we don't want him here

This is an ongoing blog which will look at each area of Aston Villa’s squad of players that are contracted to the club at the end of the 2016 season. The first post will go through all the Goalkeepers at the club, looking at whether the club should attempt to keep them on, or try to offload them out of the club. After a season of failure, following years of near misses, it is easy to suggest that the entire squad should be ripped up, so the aim is to look objectively at every player. 1 - Brad Guzan The big American goalkeeper is slowly becoming part of the furniture at Villa Park, having been signed originally by Martin O’Neill. This makes him the second longest serving member of the senior squad, behind Gabriel Agbonlahor, which can be viewed in two very different ways. Having been there for so long he will understand the club, the fans, the expectations and be an old head in the dressing room that doesn’t cause trouble or grab the wrong headlines. However, unfortunately for him he has been the goalkeeper to have taken Villa through year after year of relegation battles and his form took a nosedive that he didn’t seem to quite recover from. He is still the USA’s first choice keeper and has helped keep us up in many seasons. Under the new management, especially with the new goalkeeper coach coming in, he is worth giving another chance. If the club receive any serious bids I can see him potentially wanting to put the last season behind him with a fresh start, but he doesn’t need to be forced out the club. 31 - Mark Bunn A strange one in the sense that he hasn’t showered himself in glory during his time at the club, but hasn’t been any worse than Guzan this season and has pulled off a couple of impressive saves. He hasn’t been a regular first choice keeper since 2009 with Sheffield United in the Championship. With his career slowly heading downward, and seemingly only ever signed permanently as a backup keeper, I would prefer it if he was moved on in the summer. 13 - Jed Steer Jed has been at the club a fair few years now and has never made the step up from third choice keeper, which would initially ring alarm bells and suggest he’s surplus to requirements. However, this season just gone he’s been sent out on loan to Huddersfield and by all accounts has done a good job for them, to the point that they’ve extended his loan twice. A keeper who is young and still developing, Aston Villa could do a lot worse than keep him at the club, even if it was as second choice. Whether he’d want to be second choice is another question though. The chances are he has found his level and if Huddersfield are interested in keeping him permanently, I would let him go. 41 - Bradley Watkins I know relatively little about this goalkeeper, but what I am aware of is that he has slowly overtaken Benjamin Seigrist in the eyes of the academy staff, who looked a capable goalkeeper himself at one time. I would guess though, at 21 years old, he probably hasn’t progressed to the level that would make him a viable bench keeper. With his contract up at the end of the month, it is unlikely that it will get renewed. To summarise, I would only be looking to keep hold of Guzan for next season, but even then I wouldn’t say no to a reasonable offer. There are a lot of good goalkeepers in the lower leagues and this is one position we cannot afford to take a risk with. Rumours of Daniel Bentley are very welcome as I think he would be a fantastic option, but there are other keepers, such as David Marshall, who we could launch an ambitious bid for. I would consider signing: David Marshall - looked good for Cardiff in the Premier League, plenty of experience Boaz Myhill - was at West Bromwich under Di Matteo and Clarke, looked solid when called on Daniel Bentley - My preferred choice, an excellent young keeper for Southend who looks ready to take the next step. Hopefully Aston Villa can convince him to do that with them. It would make sense to build from the back, so a solid goalkeeping signing early on in the transfer window would be a signal of intent.

I'd like Bentley as our first choice keeper next season ideally, but was just looking through different options. David Marshall jumps out as a very good option if we could get him here, but if not, would anyone be against Boaz Myhill? Think he'd be a good option, wouldn't have to relocate and RDM signed him for WBA and Clarke played him so there's history between the coaches and him.

Pretty sure Donacien has been released, as his contract is up and there is no reason to extend it. He is League 2 standard at a push and will probably end up playing there if he improves his game, but shouldn't be kept on.

He finished as one of the top 5 goalscorers in the Championship 2 seasons in a row and wasn't even his clubs penalty taker. He's more "proven" then all these "proven" strikers people keep bringing up on here. He outscored Bamford in the same season for a worse team in the championship and then outscored Bamford again last season. Gestede is one of a few players I think we need to make sure we keep. He's one that clearly has his head screwed on, as while Gabby is smoking from a shisha pipe, Gestede is out feeding homeless people.

Benik Afobe would be a brilliant option if Bournemouth were willing to move him back on. Or potentially even Lewis Grabban

I'm far too overqualified for that sort of role. I watch football occasionally for a start.

Still playing at Fulham. Only made 20 appearances last season but I remember seeing an article about him scoring a good goal and being glad to be back playing regularly

Older head in midfield, could do worse than get Scott Parker in on a free for a season to help get us back up?

Jamie O'Hara son is in the villa academy. Just posted a tweet with something along the lines of "I'd give anything to see my son play for such a big club" Would anyone be against O'Hara on a free? I know he was frozen out at Wolves but I'm not sure if it was purely financial or his attitude stank.

Rogers preferring to work with a smaller squad, and lots of rumours flying around of a potential clearout at Celtic, I think we should be looking at some of the better players and seeing if we could tempt Celtic to part with them. Think Rogic looks a good player, and Forrest is out of contract. Lustig could be a good option at RB and maybe even try to get Brown? As our Joey Barton kind of player in the middle of the park. Be a good option for captain

Okay I'm probably being quite harsh saying he was average, but he certainly did not deserve to get player of the season. His 17 goals he got was 3 less than Gestede scored for Blackburn, and 10 less than Daryl Murphy scored for Ipswich (who I understand is old and hasn't done as well this year) of those we already have and the other I doubt anyone here would consider signing. I just remember a lot of friends with teams in the championship saying how baffled they were that he won player of the season He could flourish back in the championship but I can imagine him demanding high wages and Chelsea wanting a big fee for him and I can't help but feel there are better options out there.

Why? He was bang average in the championship in a full season. Calum is from our own academy, would be on less wages with no loan fee, we'd keep him after the season finished for free, and he's proven an effective sub off the bench. I get Bamford is a better option than some other players out there, but I'd rather not get anyone worse than Bamford AND not get Bamford too. I would rather have Bamford than Gabby, but I'd rather have neither.