John

We could do a lot worse and don't call me Shirley.

I wonder if Tim made a call about loaning Ibe or even signing Borini & the response from Liverpool was they would do both if we took £12m for Delph or possibly a bit more for Benteke? I guess Tim would have laughed and/or told them where to shove their £12m before hanging up!

Tell them £32.5m for Delph but £40m for us to take Borini & Ibe on loan as a part of the deal!

Why on earth would we drop the asking price for them or for anyone else? They have the money as has been shown by their previous signings so if they do not think he is worth what he is worth to us then let them go for their other targets and the same applies to Liverpool who value Sterling so much higher than they do our man. Benteke might want to go but we have been here before and I would be happy to see him sign another improved contract and play as well as he did for us after he signed the last one.

Another one gone and some more money back in the coffers. That out door seems to be seeing a lot more action than the in door to date. Matt looked like a real find in his first season and did a decent enough job when called upon after that. This move can be a good one for him. I wish him the best of luck and thank him for his efforts in our shirt.

Which top class would join us? We'd have to so like Southampton have done recently. Plus if we spent all our budget on one striker snd they got injured like Benteke did, we'd more than likely be in a relegation battle. We can't be reliant on one person. I agree with this and this is our current problem we rely heavily on one player. If he is injured or plays poorly we struggle. We need a squad of quality players to cope with bad form/injuries Yes, we need Benteke along with a squad of quality players. You do not become a better team very often by selling your best player or avoid relegation by selling the player that has made a habit of keeping you up.

1. Rimmer 2. Gidman 3. Aitken 4. Evans 5. McGrath 6. Mortimer 7. Graydon 8. Little/Rioch 9. Gray 10.Cowans 11.Morley

If Watford have already turned down an £11m bid for Deeney they can keep him. We can do better than him for that sort of money. I think he is a Nose as well so I guess we would be the last team he would have his heart set on joining.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/11688896/Liverpool-go-cool-on-Aston-Villa-striker-Christian-Benteke-as-focus-switches-to-Fernando-Llorente-and-Carlos-Bacca.html I would like us to sign Messi & Ronaldo but would want us to pay closer to £30m each for them rather than somewhere near what they are really worth. I guess our chances of signing those two should therefore be slightly lower than Liverpool's chances of signing Benteke for around £10m below his release clause.

Is there any reason why due diligence might not have begun on or very soon after 16/5 given we were safe by then if securing our top flight status was all that had been holding things up prior to that? If so, might we already be a month into this?

Take Benteke out of our team and we would have a mountain to climb to stay up. The good news is that nobody seems very keen to spend £32.5 on him as yet. We are also currently in profit as things stand transfer fee wise which will please our custodian.

The last 4 years were far from good but they were not the 4 worst years in our history for me. I would go for 1966/67 21st relegated from Division 1, 67/68 16th in Division 2, 68/69 18th, 69/70 21st relegated from Division 2. I rest my case. Sad days indeed. But this deal is taking too long to go through for me and I can understand those that doubt there is any potential deal waiting in the wings.

Is he?

I take it we will not have sought any sell on percentage as part of the deal? But in any case, they have signed a player that can do a very good job for them at a decent price. Thanks for your efforts in our shirt Andi and the best of luck with The Rams and with Austria.

Welcome to the club Micah! Nice to see this deal come off and it does show Tim can persuade quality players to sign for him when they have other options. This could well end up being seen as the best value catch of this transfer window.

Jack to go out on loan to CD Tenerife possibly?

Our 5 games from mid October offers games against Chelsea (a), Swansea (h), Spurs (a), Man C (h) & Everton (a), We then reverse those fixtures in the 5 games from the start of March. 30 points from that lot then.

I hope not!

West Ham at home on Boxing Day & we had better not need points on the last day as we have Arsenal (a).

First 4 and last 4 (with the main focus on the first and last game) followed by the Christmas & Easter games for me.

Yes can only think of one mistake Saunders made in the transfer market and that was Tommy Craig What about Alun Evans? He was signed by Vic Crowe.

More on this potential signing: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/villa-closing-richards-reports-terrified-richards?

"player not very interested" - That should be the end of that then.

Yes can only think of one mistake Saunders made in the transfer market and that was Tommy Craig But most of us thought it was a good signing back then.

The promoted teams will most likely get games against the top 6 clubs and be on TV whilst the likes of us will kick off on Saturday @ 15.00 against Newcastle. I hope the fixtures are better spread for us this season rather than getting the glut of tough games we often seem to get together. I guess our last game next season will be at Wembley again!