John

Looks like that £5.4m Thor deal with Trabzonspor may just have been a rumour then if Boro are being linked with him now?

Is there still time for us to try to hijack Juventus and go in for Ronaldo? I know a former chairman (who still has a stand bearing his name) who would have claimed a last minute interest in doing so to spice up an inactive incoming transfer window like this.

I would think we would listen to a £7m bid but would hope to get £8m. I wonder how much of that will go to WBA?

It would be nice to be able to offer contracts to young players that do a good job next season rather than to again need to sell to balance the books. If we could mix in some astute signings as well as you suggest then we could hope to build. I wouldn't say no to the odd loan with a view to purchases at the end of their loan periods either.

I think the bailiffs may have taken that.

Sadly, I suspect the owner will be looking to sell them as well as rather than instead of Jack.

In this case he may have had little choice because I don't think there are any direct flights from China to Birmingham.

I was thinking primarily some cash to be put into the club to help meet our running costs (rather than relying on player sales for that) but doesn't the FFP position ease a little in 12 months it won't stop us bringing in other players forever will it?

The Daily Mail claim we still owe some money to WBA on the original deal so £5m from Stoke might not have brought that much into our club. Positive that we have not took the first offer made no matter how low it was.

Let's hope there are no scouts from other clubs there then.

I think Levy is playing the waiting game. Nobody else has apparently come in for him and he's in no rush to part with any money. He knows our owner is desperate for cash. The price has probably already been cut from the original quote of £40m to £30m and is likely now down to £20m or slightly less. Levy will continue to string us along until we are forced to accept the paltry £15m he originally wanted to pay or possibly even less. He's just looking to take full advantage of our predicament and will be laughing at our plight as he does so I suspect.

I know it's unlikely but I can't help not being happy about it.

I can do without other teams doing "good things" like this for us. Signing him will make us weaker and them stronger so they had better be offering us some money for him as well as taking his wages or some of his wages off the payroll..

We could still have those to find a starting eleven from but I wouldn't be surprised if we sold one or more of Adomah, Lansbury, Hourihane, Green, Davis or Hogan. On the bright side we may well still have De Laet, Lyden, Gardner, Clark and Doyle-Hayes along with a few more promising youngsters to add to those players that you have mentioned.

Have we found a club that are not yet aware of our dire financial situation and are therefore thinking they will have to make us the sort of offer for a World Cup player that would reluctantly make us seriously consider accepting their offer?

We don't even know which club if any have actually made any bid. If someone from somewhere has I would guess the offer is around twelvty.

Sadly the choice of who stays and who goes is not ours to make. Everyone has a price (a low one) and some may go gratis or on a loan just to take some or all of their wages off the payroll. Those players we would most want to keep are least likely to stay and those we would prefer to move on are most likely to remain. If I start thinking about who I want to keep I'll only grow increasingly frustrated when they start heading for the exit door one after the other. I will be satisfied (not really) if we have enough players left to field something resembling a competitive team when this transfer window mercifully slams shut.

A decent fee but sadly another player on his way out of the door if true. I wonder how many weeks that fee will keep us running for?

Has there been an actual bid for him yet or are we just looking to get all of the high earners off the books because we can't afford to pay them? I would be sorry to see him go because I was hoping he would be able to lead what we have left by example (as captain if and when Chester goes). We won't have much left to put on the pitch if our players all make for the exit.

They had to offer silly money for Gunn to get him and for some reason that is beyond me did. They won't have to twist our arm with silly money for our player if they want him £2m would probably do it with us given our desperate situation. I hope they don't want him because he's worth more to us and is one of the young players we are relying on to come good when we have lost most of the last season's first team.

Linked in the Birmingham Mail now. Decent player but he had his chance to sign for us last season and chose to sign for Small Heath instead because Harry offered him higher wages than we did. I doubt he would be keen to be loaned to us even if we had the money or desire to make it happen.

I hope we are bidding alongside them if that proves to be the case but I doubt that we will be and that he will want to drop down a division to sign for either of these clubs. I've been trying to think of another Villa player sale that has had anywhere near the same impact on me. Bruce Rioch came to mind as did David Platt, Gordon Cowans, Brian Little to Small Heath (which happily never happened) and the exits of John Gidman and Andy Gray. I think Jack's sale would arguably be the worst bit of transfer business that we have done during the last 50 years!!

Nice to hear some good news. I hear Manchester United have invited them to attend a game at Old Trafford. Haven't these boys been put through enough already? I call it cruel and unusual punishment....

I think at present it's more a case of destroying our team rather than rebuilding it. It would be nice to think we could try to do some rebuilding in a year or so or when we have a cash injection which is much needed but presently far from likely. Sadly I anticipate starting the season without Jack, Kodjia and Chester, along with anyone else that another club wants to buy or loan to save us paying some of their wages and possibly get a small loan fee. Hopefully we can bring in a couple of loans to play them alongside our kids and what we have left. Sorry to sound so negative but I have not got "Football's coming home" to lighten up my mood anymore.

A player that could have a real breakthrough season with us if he stays relatively injury free and we don't sell him to someone looking at taking our young talent off our hands on the cheap.