John

Well he is taking his sweet time about it so three, four, I have plenty of time to lock my door!

Good luck for the season at Porto Aly! This gives us a space in the squad and it is a decent move for the player who for me did not let us down during his time with us.

Happy we have got this one done and that the player was happy to sign a contract of that length. I thought he had a fine season last year and we were not the same at the back without him. I hope we have learned our lesson about running contracts down to the last year now.

Brearley was a very rare example of someone whose leadership made him worth a place in the team when his playing ability did not. Of course you had to have outstanding players around him to make up for that. In this case I guess Tim cannot guarantee that Gabby will be first choice for every game so has gone for the Australian way of choosing a cricket captain namely choosing one from the most likely first choice starting line up. I would have gone for Clark myself but it was Tim's choice to make. The length of time spent at a club should not result in someone being made captain on those grounds alone and getting the club captain role should make Gabby feel a little better about this.Good luck as our captain Micah and I look forward to seeing you lift a trophy soon.

Is he in the champagne bar at Marco Pierre White's with Timmy yet?

I would expect Stoke to do everything they can to get him to sign for them without coming down to see what we offer as a club because they would be aware that he may well choose us despite their Barca connections. If he does make it to VP & BMH I would guess Tim would take him and his agent up Broad Street, get them on the Sangrias and wave a contract in front of their faces at around 3am. Job done!

What's not to like about that? Super player at his best but he just does not want to be bothered to be at his best often enough.If Tim could get him playing consistently over the course of a season it would be a great signing and he would have proved he is a miracle worker beyond doubt but I suspect Mario would not consider coming to us in any case.

Andy Gray rather than Tony Adams if anyone?

I can see where you are coming from. Recent teams have been some way off the teams of the late 70s, the early 80s and the early/mid 90s to me as well. But we do have to replace players with new ones at some point in time. This year we have had to replace some players who wanted to leave us with some players who want to play for us. Villa is my team and will remain so whatever players we have in our shirt. Over the years I have missed players like Rioch, Gray, Gidman and Platt for example when they left to join other clubs. But I have given their replacements the appropriate backing as you and every Villa fan will do this time.

Who is this Benteke? Why do we care what he does if he does not do it in a Villa shirt? I look forward to seeing him mentioned in transfer window speculation in the next year or two when he is seeking an end to "his Liverpool hell" and a move to us. That is when I will take notice of that player again other than when he lines up against us.

I really thought you were going to say "dark horses" for something higher than 10th until you said that .

Playing them at the wrong time but we need points from these early games as these matches are ones we really need to take points from to not find ourselves playing catch-up (so our first must not lose game then ). I would take a point but think we have enough to win this one as long as we have a 2 goal lead going into the last 2 minutes. I think we might start: Guzan, Hutton, Richards, Clark, Amavi, Westwood, Gueye, Veretout, Sinclair/Grealish, Gestede & Ayew.

Outside of the bottom six would be acceptable. I think we might get 11th and a cup though.

I would like another couple of defenders if at all possible and our defence does seem more of a potential problem now we have strengthened in other areas. Late goals remain a worry for us it seems but given we had only Hutton of our likely starting back 4 playing when Forest pulled two goals back today I wonder whether both of those goals would have been scored against our first choice defence?

Welcome to the club Rudy! 15 goals would be nice for this season. He will win a lot of ball in the air. Good signing for me.

Welcome Jordan you got your wish (to play for the Villa) as did we (to have you play for us)!

Transfer embargo hasn't stopped barca signing players Blackburn are not Barcelona though and the players they are signing cannot play until the embargo is lifted as I understand it. I think Blackburn have enough to be mid table with or without Rhodes/Gestede (after all they are in the same division as Small Heath) and I thought they might end up top 6 with them both. So I can understand their reluctance to let Gestede leave but surely they would not want to stand in the way of his "dream move" to us and I'm sure we could offer them a couple of loans from our squad up until the next window to help this one go through.

Virgil van Dijk anyone? He could be available particularly if Celtic fail to qualify for the next round of the CL @ around £10m. I think he might well plug any holes in our defence and I suspect he would be F-A-B in a Villa shirt. He might also be prepared to change his name to Jordan...

We had to expect Spurs to haggle on this one. I would have hoped we could have had them pay half of his wages and taken him on loan with a view to a later buy as we did that midfield player who is now at Everton whose name escapes me. But Levy whilst he wants the player out of the door will not want to be seen to be helping Tim in any way so will try to squeeze every penny he can out of the deal for his club before he lets it happen. I guess the details will not be made public when the deal happens later today.

He might change his mind yet. Money can sometimes lead to people making decisions that are not supported by their previous "honourable" comments. I think we really need to get this one done today. The player appears to want to join us and Mr Kita seems to want to put through our deal despite the late bid from another club that I understand may include a lifetime supply of salt & lineker crisps for him.

Welcome to the club Jose! Angel did well with us and I always thought that Crespo would have done the same had we signed him so now you have the opportunity to make an impact with us. It also proves that our scouting network did look somewhere other than France for new players.

Welcome to our club Jordan. Like the attitude and I'm sure we will enjoy your goals and assists!

It would be a pity if he went to them rather than us if Tim wants him as much as we do.

I loved that cheeky header on the goal line. Looks class. The injury situation is a worry but we have signed a player with an injury before.

Headline from The Mail on Sunday today "I did it for my kids": http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3174636/Fabian-Delph-says-family-forefront-decision-join-Manchester-City-midfielder-lifts-lid-Aston-Villa-exit.html No you did it for yourself! He does not have a lot to say about us does he?