John

He is messing them around now a little bit like he messed us around in the previous transfer window. Might his antics be a sign for us to keep clear of him this time around?

Yes in a heartbeat, but sadly I doubt that even Steve Bruce would have given me a game.

He might be an option but we have been messed around once by him and I would not give him the chance to do that again myself. He had the opportunity to join us and I am not sure I would give him another, if he wants one in any case. I certainly would not fly him over for talks this time he can take the ferry and pay his own fare!

He certainly would be. I thought we should have gone for him when he left Walsall. He is particularly impressive coming forward. Dean Smith had him at Walsall and then brought him to Brentford, if he signs him for us then he clearly really rates the lad, having worked with him twice already and that would be a good enough reason to bring him to Villa Park for me.

I like what I have seen of Reach and think he may well develop into a quality player but I think he might prove to be outside of our financial reach during this transfer window.

Part of Mirror Group Newspapers. It's not been a reliable source for Villa news for many years.

Let's try and bring in Powell and play him in Saturday's game.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Unbelievable!

Not so many I suspect. He also will need to start again with a new set of fans who will see him as a squad player rather than as an automatic starter, as will his new manager. Still that will be his and Chelsea's problem.

I think we can, but FFP wouldn't allow us to as well as make other necessary signings. Or we might consider he has been over priced. Perhaps, JT can have a word with Chelsea who owe us one now in my opinion concerning how the Abraham loan deal looks to have turned out and can arrange for them to make another one of their many good young players available to us by way of compensation.

Not as such, I think they said it was going to go through.

Radio WM have said it's a loan to buy tonight from their reporter at Wolves.

We have the chance to do the double over Wigan on Saturday and as has already been said we really need to do so to get back on track. We have not lost at Wigan since 2006 and have won on 5 of our 8 visits up there since then. Overall we have 8 wins and 6 draws to show from the 19 league games between the two clubs. I was standing on the grass/mud bank behind the goal during the first meeting between the two clubs 37 years ago at Springfield Park. We won that League Cup game 2-1 and another 2-1 win on Saturday would do nicely. They are currently 12 points behind us and a win could possibly bring us within 2 points of a play off place. We are currently a better bet away from home than we are at Villa Park, having won 3 and drawn 2 of our last 5 away matches. Here's hoping we can record our first victory of the New Year and take 3 points from Wigan!

Hopefully he will sign and tell Abraham all about how unpleasant it has been playing for Wolverhampton and how relieved he is to have joined us.

He did against us!

Does anyone else think that Iheancho might rediscover his goal touch with us and that his parent club as well as us might therefore benefit from a loan with us until the end of the season if Abraham does move?

I guess he may have little choice if Chelsea have agreed a deal. Perhaps they will pay them a higher proportion of his wages as well as give him the opportunity to play some PL games and that has swung it. If he does leave that is a real blow to us in the short term at least (I had hoped his goals would get us promoted this season and we might then make his stay with us permanent). Still until he does go there remains a slender chance.

The news that had spread around Villa Park before yesterday’s game that Abraham may well have played his last game for Aston Villa deflated our spirits and the game that followed did nothing to lift the gloom. Dean Smith tasted his second defeat at Villa Park yesterday. Swansea recorded their first ever cup win against us. We produced the sort of shambolic performance that was reminiscent of those that we had grown accustomed to witnessing during our relegation season. We were knocked out of this competition in the 3rd Round for a third consecutive year. Abraham was the perfect fit for us up front as were we the perfect football club for him. If it turns out that he has played his last game for us, then we will not only have a defence and a midfield to worry about but also a forward line that has been neutered. The depth and quality of our squad had already been found wanting by the absence through injury of Jack and Axel. It was further put to the test by leaving James Chester, Conor Hourihane, Yannick Bolasie and Jonathan Kodjia out of the starting line-up. Who was to know that among those that were selected there were several players that would choose to take the afternoon off as well? Our defence once again conceded goals for fun yesterday and our midfield did little to halt the progress of their opponents through it or to create much themselves in and around the penalty box. What was different was the absence of any threat up front from us. With Abraham in the team there is an expectation that we will score goals as freely as we concede them. Without him, that would be highly unlikely to be the case and yesterday was a worrying sign of things that may be to come. Sadly, the strikers we had on the pitch yesterday did nothing to suggest they would be able to score goals with any sort of regularity should Abraham make a move to a football club in the Black County that is suffering from chronic delusions of grandeur. This sorry capitulation was very hard to endure. We gift wrapped Swansea (who failed to make a similar number of changes to their team in order to try to even things up) a place in the 4th Round and they must have had to pinch themselves to believe how easy we made it for them to score 3 goals without reply yesterday. We are now free to concentrate on the league and this abject performance, which led to merited boos at the final whistle will also give our players a weekend’s break from the rigours of football on 4th Round weekend! My player ratings from a game that extended our FA Cup years of hurt into a 62nd year are: Lovre Kalanic – 6 – Let’s give him a little more than 90 minutes to prove his true worth to us. Peter Shilton would have struggled behind this defence (although he is getting on in years now)! Lovre conceded his first goal 2 minutes into his debut when he blocked a low cross but unluckily the ball rebounded into Baker-Richardson and was deflected in off his shin. Turned a 32nd minute shot from outside of the box from Roberts past the post for a corner. Beaten low to his right for their second and third goals. Made decent saves on 76 and 83 minutes to prevent the score looking even more humiliating. James Bree – 5 – Will have and has had better games than this one. Alan Hutton - 4 – He’s not a left back and he’s certainly not a central defender either. Playing him in this position lost us the forward runs that he makes from wide positions and it did nothing to make our already suspect defence look any more solid. Fer ran for and crossed a loose ball following a challenge with him to Fulton to score their third as Alan stood statuesque in the centre of the penalty area. Tommy Elphick – 6 – Headed a 74th minute Lansbury corner wide of the far post. Neil Taylor – 4 – Looked far from comfortable on his return to the first team. Glenn Whelan – 4 – I would have anticipated that Glenn rather than Bjarnason would have been rested for this one. John McGinn – 7 – MOTM – It was surprising that John played the full 90 minutes yesterday (he was the only player to really do so). He is another player that I think would have benefited from a rest, Dean said post game that he would get one when his next booking presents him with a 2-game suspension and therefore an enforced rest! Showed his usual tenacity and work ethic along with his understandable frustration on 92 minutes when Lansbury played a free kick to him and he blasted it over the bar. Albert Adomah – 4 – A couple of times early on, I thought that he might just produce something of his old self yesterday, but this ended up being another disappointing afternoon. Curled a 54th minute shot over the bar and Mulder kept out an 80th minute attempt by him. Callum O’Hare – 6 – Taken out of the firing line on 55 minutes. Like Doyle-Hayes, I think we have a player here, but they both need games and experience. This was an experience that Callum will have been able to take little good from. Showed promise at times along with his inexperience on other occasions. Would benefit from a loan in much the same way that Jack once did in my opinion. Anwar El Ghazi – 4 – He looked like he really didn’t want to be there most of the time yesterday. Can do and needs to do better than this on a consistent basis. Was ball watching and failed to pick up Dyer who ran behind him onto Fer’s nice through ball before slotting the ball past Kalanic. Scott Hogan - 5 – Lacking in the confidence that scoring goals would give him, but he is not looking likely to go on a scoring run any time soon, so it is a bit of a Catch 22 situation. Lost possession on the edge of the box which led to their opener. Turned a 1st minute El Ghazi cross wide of the near post and 5 minutes later hit an Adomah cross goalward which hit Mulder on the line rather than the back of the net. Kodjia touched the ball back to him on 62 minutes but his attempt was blocked at the near post by a defender. Had one of these gone in it might have shaken us out of our lethargy. Substitutes: Jonathan Kodjia - 5 – Replaced O’Hare on 55 minutes and didn’t live up to his nickname in the time he had on the pitch. Henri Lansbury - 6 – Came on for Whelan on 60 minutes and appeared to want to take the opportunity he was offered to show that he could do a job for us in the future. Hit a 64th minute shot from outside of the box that flew wide of the left post. Did well enough on a day that too many of those around him did not. Keinan Davis – Replaced Hogan on 72 minutes. Held the ball up well again but he won’t score with the regularity that we need someone to and needs to play alongside another striker. Not on quite long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa! John Lewis

The news that had spread around Villa Park before yesterday’s game that Abraham may well have played his last game for Aston Villa deflated our spirits and the game that followed did nothing to lift the gloom. Dean Smith tasted his second defeat at Villa Park yesterday. Swansea recorded their first ever cup win against us. We produced the sort of shambolic performance that was reminiscent of those that we had grown accustomed to witnessing during our relegation season. We were knocked out of this competition in the 3rd Round for a third consecutive year. Abraham was the perfect fit for us up front as were we the perfect football club for him. If it turns out that he has played his last game for us, then we will not only have a defence and a midfield to worry about but also a forward line that has been neutered. The depth and quality of our squad had already been found wanting by the absence through injury of Jack and Axel. It was further put to the test by leaving James Chester, Conor Hourihane, Yannick Bolasie and Jonathan Kodjia out of the starting line-up. Who was to know that among those that were selected there were several players that would choose to take the afternoon off as well? Our defence once again conceded goals for fun yesterday and our midfield did little to halt the progress of their opponents through it or to create much themselves in and around the penalty box. What was different was the absence of any threat up front from us. With Abraham in the team there is an expectation that we will score goals as freely as we concede them. Without him, that would be highly unlikely to be the case and yesterday was a worrying sign of things that may be to come. Sadly, the strikers we had on the pitch yesterday did nothing to suggest they would be able to score goals with any sort of regularity should Abraham make a move to a football club in the Black County that is suffering from chronic delusions of grandeur. This sorry capitulation was very hard to endure. We gift wrapped Swansea (who failed to make a similar number of changes to their team in order to try to even things up) a place in the 4th Round and they must have had to pinch themselves to believe how easy we made it for them to score 3 goals without reply yesterday. We are now free to concentrate on the league and this abject performance, which led to merited boos at the final whistle will also give our players a weekend’s break from the rigours of football on 4th Round weekend! My player ratings from a game that extended our FA Cup years of hurt into a 62nd year are: Lovre Kalanic – 6 – Let’s give him a little more than 90 minutes to prove his true worth to us. Peter Shilton would have struggled behind this defence (although he is getting on in years now)! Lovre conceded his first goal 2 minutes into his debut when he blocked a low cross but unluckily the ball rebounded into Baker-Richardson and was deflected in off his shin. Turned a 32nd minute shot from outside of the box from Roberts past the post for a corner. Beaten low to his right for their second and third goals. Made decent saves on 76 and 83 minutes to prevent the score looking even more humiliating. James Bree – 5 – Will have and has had better games than this one. Alan Hutton - 4 – He’s not a left back and he’s certainly not a central defender either. Playing him in this position lost us the forward runs that he makes from wide positions and it did nothing to make our already suspect defence look any more solid. Fer ran for and crossed a loose ball following a challenge with him to Fulton to score their third as Alan stood statuesque in the centre of the penalty area. Tommy Elphick – 6 – Headed a 74th minute Lansbury corner wide of the far post. Neil Taylor – 4 – Looked far from comfortable on his return to the first team. Glenn Whelan – 4 – I would have anticipated that Glenn rather than Bjarnason would have been rested for this one. John McGinn – 7 – MOTM – It was surprising that John played the full 90 minutes yesterday (he was the only player to really do so). He is another player that I think would have benefited from a rest, Dean said post game that he would get one when his next booking presents him with a 2-game suspension and therefore an enforced rest! Showed his usual tenacity and work ethic along with his understandable frustration on 92 minutes when Lansbury played a free kick to him and he blasted it over the bar. Albert Adomah – 4 – A couple of times early on, I thought that he might just produce something of his old self yesterday, but this ended up being another disappointing afternoon. Curled a 54th minute shot over the bar and Mulder kept out an 80th minute attempt by him. Callum O’Hare – 6 – Taken out of the firing line on 55 minutes. Like Doyle-Hayes, I think we have a player here, but they both need games and experience. This was an experience that Callum will have been able to take little good from. Showed promise at times along with his inexperience on other occasions. Would benefit from a loan in much the same way that Jack once did in my opinion. Anwar El Ghazi – 4 – He looked like he really didn’t want to be there most of the time yesterday. Can do and needs to do better than this on a consistent basis. Was ball watching and failed to pick up Dyer who ran behind him onto Fer’s nice through ball before slotting the ball past Kalanic. Scott Hogan - 5 – Lacking in the confidence that scoring goals would give him, but he is not looking likely to go on a scoring run any time soon, so it is a bit of a Catch 22 situation. Lost possession on the edge of the box which led to their opener. Turned a 1st minute El Ghazi cross wide of the near post and 5 minutes later hit an Adomah cross goalward which hit Mulder on the line rather than the back of the net. Kodjia touched the ball back to him on 62 minutes but his attempt was blocked at the near post by a defender. Had one of these gone in it might have shaken us out of our lethargy. Substitutes: Jonathan Kodjia - 5 – Replaced O’Hare on 55 minutes and didn’t live up to his nickname in the time he had on the pitch. Henri Lansbury - 6 – Came on for Whelan on 60 minutes and appeared to want to take the opportunity he was offered to show that he could do a job for us in the future. Hit a 64th minute shot from outside of the box that flew wide of the left post. Did well enough on a day that too many of those around him did not. Keinan Davis – Replaced Hogan on 72 minutes. Held the ball up well again but he won’t score with the regularity that we need someone to and needs to play alongside another striker. Not on quite long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa! John Lewis

What's in it for Chelsea though? He goes to them on loan, is not guaranteed a starting place and might not score so regularly in a team he is new to and that have a different way of playing. His value and confidence might therefore decrease. Or he stays with us, continues to score goals for fun and his confidence continues to soar along with his value. I know which is the safer bet.

I can't see Chelsea or Tammy being interested in any loan deal. Who do Wolves think they are? Only Levy at Spurs can feel entitled to make silly noises about signing other club's players.

Some plonker of a Wolves fan said on Radio WMs phone in last night that they would sign him as a squad player. I bet that would tempt Tammy. Their fans lapped up this rumour claiming he would want to sign for a "bigger club" like them. I'm hoping we can all laugh about this episode this time next season.

It wasn't Woods unfortunately.

We play Swansea for a third time within three months on Saturday. There have been 2 previous meetings between the two clubs in the FA Cup. We were away on each occasion in 1924 and then again in 1925. We won both games 2-0 and 3-1 respectively. There has been only one other cup game between the two clubs. That was again at Swansea, this time in the League Cup in 1965 and we won that one 3-2 as well. Our visitors have never won the FA Cup but were beaten semi finalists twice in 1926 when they were beaten 3-0 by Bolton and in 1964 when they lost 2-1 to Preston. We have 7 wins, have been runners up 4 times and have appeared in 21 semi finals. It has been two seasons since we went past the Third Round of this competition and this will be the 62nd year since we last won it by beating The Busby Babes in 1957. It is high time that we won it again. We once sang "7 times we've won it no-one else can catch us up". We can't sing that now and I don't see us winning it this year. I would therefore give the kids a game against what is most likely to be Swansea's second string and let them enjoy the experience. Hopefully we will soon be in a position to take this competition more seriously again in the hope that we can add an 8th win that will ease the pain of our 2000 and 2015 Cup Final defeats a little and end the years of hurt in this our competition that began way back in 1958.

£3m would bankrupt them. What a tremendous idea!