John

As of today if I was picking a Villa team with the assumption that everyone was fit and not suspended (which more often than not they will not all be) I might go something like: Guzan, Hutton, Richards, Clark, Amavi, Gueye, Westwood, Sanchez, Sinclair, Grealish & Gabby. That would leave say Bunn, Okore, Baker, Senderos, Richardson, Cissokho, Bacuna, Cole, Gil, Gardner, N'Zogbia & Kozak to choose a bench from. Of those I think Okore, Baker, Bacuna, Richardson, Gil, Gardner & Kozak would now present the stronger challenges for a starting place. For me that demonstrates that we have a great deal of work still to be done in this transfer window if we are to approach the new season with confidence that we will not be in another relegation battle. I would think that will require a minimum of 2 more forwards and a midfield player which we will need the profit on player trading so far to pay for along with possibly a little bit extra although 6 rather than 3 new players (including possibly a couple of loan signings) would be better. I trust Tim and his team to be able to do what is needed but I still have concerns that our "custodian" will fail to make sufficient funds available to allow them to do so and will again prefer to gamble on our top flight status. I look forward to our "custodian" acting like one in the coming weeks.

Where is that reported?

Didn't WBA have a reported £7m bid for him turned down because they want £10m for him? It seems they over-price their players in much the same way that Spurs do despite their relegation. I might choose to go for an over-priced Spurs winger rather than a QPR one if the fees are similar.

Does anyone think Lorient have got their Euros and Pounds mixed up or that someone may have hit the wrong key when making or considering our bid? Or have they read this topic and thought that as we were unsure of the currency in which the bid was made it was worth making a cheeky claim that it was made in Pounds rather than Euros? I hope this deal goes through for the player who I think could really prove an asset for us.

I doubt Young would want to come back in any case. I suspect he will want to stay where he is and either play out the last year of his contract or sign another one with them. When he does leave he will go to the club that makes him the best offer. Should that be us given his age, lack of sell-on value and that it is rare for players to do as well on their return to a former club as they did before leaving? Not for me.

You can't make him sign a contract if he doesn't want to. Maybe he wants to move next season as a free agent. Or we could make him an offer he can't refuse given he is such a key part of our defence now. Looks like we might have already done so?

Beaten to the punch!

I thought Arsenal and Newcastle had cornered the market for the best young players in Ligue 1? It seems that is no longer the case. How about re-working an old chant from the terraces? "Ayew, Ayew, its up the Holte we go".

I guess Adebayor is currently 50/50 to take them.

Make it happen Villa! We need a boost and this would be a big one. We should have moved on this one before Newcastle did their deals which led to the increased price.

Speculate to accumulate ...weren't we saying that about Doug all those years ago The early start to the season I think is bad for us as some of the players we have to shift are the ones clubs take on deadline day when they desperate.I also think Levy will mess us around for Adebayor most of the window too. We sure were and it remains as appropriate today as it was back then.

With Benteke gone we should have the money to buy more players now although if we were waiting for the deal to be completed before being able to sign players rather than to cushion the blow of Benteke's departure it would seem our transfer budget is little better than it has been in recent years which would not be in any way acceptable. I hope that any delay in getting deals over the line is due to them taking a fair amount of time to be done rather than because our "custodian" is prepared to risk our top flight status yet again by not providing the sort of transfer budget that we need to stand still let alone to move upwards in the league. He really needs to back our new manager now in the way I would suspect Tim would have been told he would be when he was interviewed for the job before keeping us up and taking us to the FA Cup Final. I wonder if he will?

A sad day for us and I suspect for him. His goals kept us up and I thank him for that but they could now send us down so what he did for us is now history. He has been looking to leave us for a long time and has I think from the start considered us as only a stepping stone. He now has the move he and his agent wanted. I had hoped that we would grow as a club to the extent that he would see that he could win things with us but Wembley in May did for that. Thanks for the memories and I am sure that you will get a good reception at Villa Park in the future as long as you show the appropriate respect to the club and fans you have now chosen to leave from now onwards.

Still no news then. Anyone think Liverpool might be trying to get Dr Nick to find a reason (any reason) for them to lower their offer back down to around £25m?

In Tim signing quality players from Ligue 1 we trust! "I'd rather sign a player like Delph". Really Juju? I would rather we signed someone who was nothing at all like that liar, cad and bounder. I fart in his general direction!

Welcome Jordan! Positive news was what we needed this weekend. Well done to the club on persuading him that we were the club for him and to him for not changing his mind on the deal (or did he? ). You are our player now!

What an insult to snakes and cockroaches!

So "no longer Fab" jumps straight to number one in my chart of most hated ex-Villa players. 1 - Fibian Wealth. 2 - Hodge. 3 - Downing. 4 - Yorke.

If he has been signed a contract why has he not signed it? I cannot understand why we have let another player go into the last year on his contract. It does appear a bit like an "Everything Must Go Sale" at Villa Park at the moment. He should be our next captain but not until he signs a new contract. We need some good news his signing a contract that reflects his current status at the club would be that make it happen Villa!

Of the two players we have looked like losing recently Benteke was the one I would rather have kept at our club (the name of the other one escapes me now). If he wants to play every game he should stay where he is. Just because Liverpool might want you (although not enough to do a deal without trying to barter the price down and then seeking to do the deal on the never-never) it does not mean you have to sign for them because nobody else wants to meet your sell on clause either. Reject their offer and tell the world that you unlike another player whose name you do not recall are loyal to Aston Villa and their fans. Or risk sitting on a bench next season and at Euro 16 as has someone else whose name escapes me once again.

Loyalty in football hit a new low today. There are lies, damned lies and his repeated claims of loyalty. He has let us and himself down but has saved his new club the extra money they would have had to pay someone else to sit on their bench who might have had more concerns about losing his international place as a result. I do hope he does not pick up too many splinters on his backside through sitting on the bench next season. So happy he could find time to sign for Citeh and will be able to fly out to Australia to join up with the other mercenaries when he could not find the time to be with the club he was the captain of in Portugal. I look forward to giving him a warm reception at Villa Park and then shouting Judas, Judas what's the score? You Delph are a liar and a cad!

I see your point and had wondered whether we needed to sell to buy as well. But why would we want to sell our captain and an England international for just £8m when he is worth £20m minimum? I think the club were to blame for letting his contract run down to its last year and at least we did get something back that we would not have got had he left for nothing in this window as he could have. But this move was not of the club's making for me.

Is it April Fool's Day? If it is Delph he could be visiting a hospital rather than having a medical but I very much doubt that it is him in any case. To sign for them so soon after telling us he was staying with Villa would make him look too bad to be true. I do not think he would do this on us. The press however love to run stories no matter how far fetched they may be when they are negative for us.

If we do need to replace Benteke then why not spend £15m on Martial rather than Austin? http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Martial-priorite-de-villa/53760?xtatc=INT-22-[Martial-priorite-de-villa] There is more on this in the Benteke replacement thread.

Talk Sport have said this morning that Liverpool are set to trigger his release clause. They do not seem to be in a rush to do it though do they? The tortoise with the bid on his back that left Anfield yesterday is reported to have spent last night in Stanley Park. I guess Benteke did a Peter Odemwingie last night and spent the night n his car at Anfield?