Mazrim

Still think we'll get a DM. Arguably as crucial as new defenders. And a couple of full backs if you're asking.

Has it been confirmed he was AWOL? Maybe it was AWL?

Correct. We need to stop seeing loans as the issue. They're sometimes the only way to get top players here. It also works both ways as we can dump the shit ones cheaply. Yes its better to have settled players who are worthy of a place but our recruitment has been terrible and we're left with a lot of expensive rubbish we can't shift. I can see all players being loans one day, or rather one season contracts. Also an NFL style draft system for the best youth, rather than a few clubs hoarding them would work.

Need to move on. Find the next Benteke. The old one is broken, physicalky and mentally it seems. And as much as I love the romance of the prodigal son returning, if he wasn't broken he'd be tearing up the league as he should naturally be doing. We can't afford to get it wrong.

I live inside of Birmingham and I don't give a **** about anybody else except Villa. Who are a big club irrespective of what anybody else says.

If Sturridge wasn't more brittle and vulnerable than a bone china Sean Bean, I'd love him here. But he gets injured watching boxsets.

Ffs..

Says who?

If he is leaving, how about a pic of him emptying his locker and the words... "Tam Packs".

If its true he hasn't turned up to training then... Wow, what a top bastard. Rather not have him.

We score a lot from crosses, true, but that doesn't mean they're headers. A good few are to feet. And not that I'm pining for Maupay, but where has our budget been published?

Wow. Some super-sleuth deduction there from SKY. Who would have thought the decision was down to the club that own him?

He was awesome for City for a while.

I think we all could do with a positive or 2 this week.

I think he has to say that otherwise he's a) putting a lot of pressure on the guy we might get in and b) not empowering the players already here to step up and compete.

Kodjia post injury is not the same player. He can weigh in with a few no doubt. He rarely scores easy goals. And thats why I dont trust him to pick up the slack if, and it's still IF, Abraham leaves. We would need another striker and a good one. 100%.

He won't be on any more money if he leaves on loan.

Nope.

I know Sabbath are the Godfathers of Doom mate but **** me, you're the embodiment of it.

Is this a joke? Somewhere in between Smith and Bruce is a shit version of Smith. And he definitely is tactically astute. This is Bruce's team, playing like garbage for a manager who knows and deserves better.

He's 21 and has plenty of time. He goes up with Villa, and we but him, he could be in the Premier League with a genuinely big club and unlimited potential. He's enjoying it here, clearly feels settled with Smith, Terry et al looking after him, mates like Grealish. Playing in front of 43000 that love him. If it doesn't happen, he goes back to Chelsea or gets a proper move in the summer. Or he can move to a mid sized club in a shithole town nobody in their right minds deliberately goes to, on the crest of one of their once every 15 / 20 year mini waves. On loan, probably. Playing in front of a few misshapen trolls blathering unintelligible gobbledygook when he misses one of the many chances he spurns at the moment. Tough choice.

You could argue we need 4 defenders - 2 full backs and at least 1 centre half who can carry the ball from the back, a defensive or box to box midfielder who can screen the back 4, especially when the new full backs press forward. And if theres a decent playmaker we can nab to cover for Jack, great.

We are a bigger club than them. We always will be. It's not even close.

FIFA got an octopus to draw the possibilty from a fish tank.