Mazrim

I think he's a bit of a rough diamond. When he does end up being polished in a couple of years he'll be a top PL striker. He's scoring but missing quite a few. More of those half chances will go in when he does mature and what a player he will be then. He's already formidable. We should try and sign the kid asap.

Has the tweet been removed or something? Can't see it. I dont do Twitter though so might be me.

Yep. Ive got more time for bluenoses than shapeshifting Sky fab 4 fans. Always have, always will. How come bluenoses are almost entirely bald? It is one of the great mysteries of our age.

Of about 90 in my office its something like 30 Villa, 20 Man Utd, 15 Liverpool 10 Wolves, 5 Blose, 3 Baggies... Others.

We'll start putting more chances away soon. Which is quite daunting to the rest.

Which will only improve I fancy. I have us down for 86 points after strengthening in Jan too. I reckon thats either 1st or 2nd. Most likely 1st.

For all we know, 80 points wins the league this year. Its a dogfight and may well be all the way in with the top 10 or 12 regularly taking points off eachother. Its wide open for a team to put a good run on. Why not Villa.

He will be better than Chester. Better than or as good as Southgate and Ugo? Unlikely but maybe. If he's as good as Mellberg and Laursen he'll be doing well. I think that's quite possible. He's a bit like Rio Ferdinand at West Ham in his early years. Quick enough, comfortable on the ball and with the odd error in him. Very promising though. Doubt Mourinho would risk him (how he would view it) in the Premier League any time soon. He needs to move on. When we get promoted I don't see why we couldn't get him but we'll see.

Why 0%?

To be fair I wasn't aware of his contract situation. In any case I'd like us to move on from him but would rather him back than putting Jedinak in there for instance. If we can get to Jan without losing a centre half, we can do without him.

I've long since made my peace with this. It's as much a part of the progress of the game now as the offside rule, all seater stadiums and paying average gobshites 100k a week. Im not going to criticise anybody who has strong opposing opinions to doing this. But if you want to compete you have to finance it somehow and this is one of the easiest and most profitable. So there it is. Its a cliche but everybody will still call it Villa Park regardless and if the end result is a top team on the pitch, so be it. Interestingly, I dont recall Chelsea or Liverpool ever changing the name of the stadium under Purslow. But im prepared for it if it has to happen.

Agreed. If Elphick is doing well, sell him while he has some stock. For whatever reasons its happening for him at Villa. He's far too slow for a dynamic team. Buy Tuanzebe in the summer, try and sell Elphick, get a CB or two in Jan.

Let the club know. You never know...

I've always liked Terry. My favourite sportsmen have always had a bit of the devil in them ailed to their absolute determination to win. Botham, James Hunt, Brett Favre, John McEnroe, Shane Warne... etc. Terry is that kind of character.

I think Fans most certainly were sick of Bruce's interviews as well as his results. Not only that but his style of play. Even after winning the first 2 games there were rumblings because it was pretty dire fayre. Then when you're looking for the manager to explain himself it was just the same old meaningless drivel and sound bites followed by increasingly petulant and self indulgent nonsense. No tactical nous. No insight. Nothing to reassure fans he knew what was going wrong and how to fix it. its true that fans won't put up with bad results forever, but I think if most can see there's a plan in place, and that's communicated to them and obvious on the pitch, they will cut Smith a lot of slack. It's going to have to be that way. It's been so wretched and sub par it's asking a lot to turn it around immediately. Also, most fans aren't idiots and have some tactical appreciation of the game. Bruce failed to see this, or didn't feel the need to explain himself or even have a plan to begin with. You can just about get away with that if you're flunking wins. Good luck otherwise. If you're paid a fortune and you can't even be arsed to take training, I think that's shocking. it couldn't be more different now and I'm convinced it's the right move. If we have to go through some ruts to get there, so be it.

Honestly, I'd keep him around. A good alternative to Grealish. Get him in there.

There are few people I dislike more than Danny fecking Murphy. He's got a scrunched up goblin face, he's boring, droning and talks absolute bollocks. I really don't know why he gets air time. Horrible pointless little scrote.

The main differences and improvements were very basic. Largely because the basics were the biggest problems and the easiest to fix in a couple of days. Yes we could have drawn or lost that game but we could have won it comfortably. Personally its refreshing to see us get some of the basics right. Its been a while. Throw ins have almost given me a stroke under Bruce for instance. As the weeks go by, more improvements and moving from getting the basics right to getting more sophisticated things right will see us go from scraping through games we should have won more comfortably to pummeling teams regularly.

So despite multi billionaire owners we're still watching the Penneys.

I think some fans get nervous and anxious and say things they don't really mean. Some fans are just clearings in the woods. Personally, I've waited ages to see Villa play purposeful, attractive possession-based football and I don't care how long it takes to get it right as long as we're on the way, and that we are by the looks of it. Yesterday wasn't perfect. Who really thought it would be after 2 days training? There will be days it doesn't work out and his methods will be scrutinised. But as long as we stick to the plan and have patience good things will happen.

By Christmas Smiths doctrines should have well and truly sunk in. I think we'll see gradual improvement leading up to that. In the new year, all being well, and with some reinforcements, I can see us going on one hell of a run. It's definitely all to play for - including the title. Just stay in touch and keep improving and developing.

Agree that Grealish is still under par. But pretty much everybody else was better. And as has been pointed out, after a couple of days. It should get much better.

It is essentially Bruce's team. I'm not sure what you were expecting. I thought he might play Kodjia and Abraham. And Bolassie maybe but he's still not totally match fit. It's all about how they play though I guess. Plus the tactical changes as and when needed. It's a very atracking bench. Just finishing my pint... then I'm tabbing up there. Let's see how we go.

I choose to remember Merson the footballer. Because otherwise he's just a massive bellend. If Dean does well at Villa under NSWE, which will mean be back in the PL with massive resources, he will already be in possession of a top job.

Next season we'll need to consolodate. Cant expect to win the Premier League on the first attempt...