John

He was actually willing to sign for us having held informal talks with our then chairman (HDE) on his boat in 1990. He returned from World Cup duty but then heard nothing more about the move he had been expecting to make to us.

So much for promotion then. Georgie Bingham on Talksport just said we could end up in League Two. What qualifies her to reach a conclusion like that? She went on to add that she hopes she's wrong before talking about the calorific content of her first ever Burger King meal namely a ? chicken burger. Sorry I just needed to share what I had the misfortune of hearing on what claims to be a sports programme. I will leave her talking about her big six clubs and avoid her shows at all costs from now onwards. I'm fuming and feel like telling her where to shove her 1,500 calories a day but ringing her sad show is probably what she wants.

A new manager will need time to look at the squad. Bruce has shown his commitment to the club and put aside personal grief to try to get us up. Ultimately he didn't hit the promotion target and the decision for our new owners is should they stick or twist by appointing a new man and hoping that he can hit the ground running? It looks a bit 50/50 currently, we will soon know.

I'm hoping for an automatic spot. Those playoffs are too much of an end of season lottery for me and can have a grim conclusion as we found to our cost last season. It's great that our new overlords have installed such positivity isn't it? This time last week I would have targeted a mid table finish and keeping out of administration. I'm now hoping for automatic rather than the playoffs. The swings and roundabouts of being a Villa fan eh?

I very much doubt that they were classmates (there are a few years between them for a start) and I'm also happy to accept that he was the good guy at Lehman Brothers as it all went pear shaped there after he left.

Hopefully we might now be able to bring a couple in. I wouldn't mind starting with Snodgrass and Fraser Forster as well as asking John Terry if he'd like to come back and finish what he started with us.

I don't want him or even a telephone call from Spurs.

Possibly, but for me as Big Ron used to say "Don't tell me show me" would work just as well.

Love it! This will be so hard for them to take. They along with the Wolves and Albion fans had been wallowing in our recent temporary financial embarrassment but they will all be choking on their Corn Flakes this morning! Natural order has been restored..

What's wrong with being old and tired? A few of us know how that feels. As far as his looks are concerned this is not a beauty contest but what he played a big part in yesterday certainly was beautiful. Welcome to Wes or is that Brad Pitt (it's hard to tell through these claret & blue sunglasses with the sun shining so brightly at Villa Park this morning)?

Well this promotion thing might just be back on again with yesterday's upturn in our fortunes. If we manage to hold onto the players we were most reluctant to see go and bring in a couple of players on loan with an option to buy we may well have a decent run at promotion again this season after all. Perhaps it's worth an optimistic punt (I thought so) with the turf accountants (Coral still have us at 9/2 for promotion and at 14/1 for the title for example). Although they are seldom wrong, I think they might have been a bit slow in reacting to our new overlords ambitions to make Villa great again on this occasion.

This sounds almost too good to be true (let's hope it's not). If it happens, I'm sure we'll all be doing the sand dance around Villa Park like Wilson Keppel & Betty (one for the youngsters there).

He's a willing Salah as long as the price is right!

If so, does it walk like an Egyptian?

If there is a choice to be made I have little confidence that the right one for our football club will be made by the person who will be making the decision.

I think that's 50/50 or a half and a half as Ross might put it.

SKY sports news this morning give a 4.3/5 likelihood rating of Spurs signing Jack and "understand talks are ongoing between the clubs." What is there to talk about it Levy won't make a serious offer. Is this just take news based on rumour after rumour? It seems like everyone seems to think we should sell to Levy for whatever he wants to pay us. It's high time the club drew a line under this speculation and said he's staying where he is unless someone meets our asking price but they won't and even if they did it would just be more take news. What a fine mess our owner has gotten us into!

He might well help us break on through on the right hand side or his signing could equally represent the end for us. It would be a shock to see our owner find the money to bring him in given our lack of cash but people are strange and I wouldn't say he isn't.

Just heard Alan Brazil and Steve Harmison (he really should stick to cricket) on Talksport saying what a good move it would be for Jack to move to Spurs for a cut price £20m. Good for everyone but us they should have added!

Yes what's the delay man? Where there's Hope...

That would be unacceptable for club employees with regular outgoings that they have to meet where the club seem less concerned about not meeting their own.

The price is £40m to them!

It's in The Birmingham Mail report on the previous page. I find little to suggest there is any money to pay any new player's wages and Marney is apparently just keeping fit at Bodymoor rather than being there with a view to signing. I don't put a lot of weight on reports by the Mirror Group but they are not the only ones suggesting that there is no money and I haven't seen many reports that suggest we do have any money to use on the playing staff. It's high time we all accepted reluctantly that as Liam Byrne's note left on the desk of the incoming Treasury secretary David Laws said "there's no money left" applies to us as well.

Sad to see him back in their claret & blue.

We really shouldn't be looking at bids that are significantly lower than what Norwich got for James Maddison. Other clubs know his worth and to bid more than £10m below that is insulting although sadly predictable given the mess we have been put in.