NurembergVillan

It's consistency that separates the good from the great, and if Carew had been consistent he would never have found his way to Villa Park. He'd have been off somewhere winning Champions League medals.

Christmas Eve and window 24! On paper it's a straight race between Carlos Cuellar and Dariusz Kubicki, but I've in bed all day sick so I'm treating myself, and all of you, to this. Its the time of year that we're supposed celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, and at Villa we had our own JC who had a resurrection when he came to the club. The bells are ringing! Merry Christmas kids!

Karren Brady still in charge of contracts at the sty?

Just been let go by Cardiff City.

Daniel Sturridge is a family friend, so it's likely got something to do with that.

Agree. He almost went in, but I feel sick that Laursen and Carew were nowhere to be seen because of McGrath and Atkinson.

Window 23! What a time to be alive! The list for this shirt, on the rare occasions it's been occupied, comprises - Bryan Small, Neil Davis, David Hughes, Najwan Ghrayib, Stefan Moore, Patrik Berger, Habib Beye, Aly Cissokho and Jordan Amavi. An advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas, and according to the rules of Countdown you're allowed to work with the numbers to get the right answer. If I work with the numbers 2 and 3 I can add them together to make 5. Owing to the presence of God back in window 5, this guy couldn't get in. But thanks to the magic of Christmas here he is. The right answer today is Martin Laursen...

Who would we have as manager from the squad number era? Big Ron? Lord Our Little? The Boss? MON? Tactics?

Thanks guys. Labour of love! Got a corking thread planned for the summer. It'll run for a few weeks, and we'll probably ending up betting on it.* *Just for fun, obviously!

This **** moron's going to get us all killed isn't he?

Ooh, you can almost hear the sound of sleigh bells as we open window 22! I was thinking of maybe putting Gary Charles or Hassan Kachloul in the frame today, if only for a bit of novelty or to balance out my squad. In 2001-2 though, our number 22 was a homegrown lad with electric pace and an eye for goal that would see him catapulted into the England team, scoring an incredible scissors kick on his debut against Holland. I just couldn't leave him out - Never quite achieved what we hoped - Guy Whittingham, Dave Farrell, Luke Moore, Gary Gardner. Rubbish goalkeepers - Scott Carson, Brad Guzan.

That's a good shout actually. I don't think you can count Robert Pires, and he didn't win the CL either. Got to be him or Yorke.

I guess at this point we get into the nuances of the meaning of "speculation". Does speculating on the existence of God make you a Christian? If not, then speculation does not automatically equal belief.

Window 21 is a case of what might have been, not for the player but for the club. A list of home-grown disappointments have worn this shirt - Dave Farrell, Paul Browne, Lee Collins, Darren Byfield, JLloyd Samuel, Steven Davis, Ciaran Clark. None quite reached the heights hoped of them, although Davis has clearly gone on to show his potential elsewhere. Currently occupied by Alan Hutton, and previously Jordan Bowery and Nicky Shorey, you could make a pretty good argument that this shirt is cursed. One player wore it well, though, and I can't help but wonder what might have happened if we'd just given him the chance he craved... Honourable mentions - Steven Davis, Jordan Bowery (just for that wheelchair gif) Dishonourable mentions - nobody really. The list of names just makes me feel a bit sad.

I forgot today! Here's another one with no competition anyway... Honourable mentions - Moustapha Hadji, Robbie Keane. Dishonourable mentions - Najwan Ghrayib, Vaclav Drobny.

So was there a point?

Their last win was 1-0 away at QPR. They scored in the 86th minute and had 3 shots on target over the course of the game.

Window 19. Absolutely no competition. Dishonourable mentions - Bosko Balaban.

Yeah, he did. I'd already got him in as my number 8 though. If Yorke wasn't the competition for 18 I'd have gone for JPA at 18 and someone else at 8. Maybe next year!

Window 18, and for me it's a shirt for strikers. Ivan Zamorano at Inter will always be in my heart when it comes to the number 18 (Google it if you need to). At Villa, the 18 has seen a mix of the exotic and the familiar, the extraordinary and the downright ordinary. From Italians Benito Carbone and Fabio Ferraresi, to Englishmen Steve Stone and Emile Heskey this shirt has been worn by the amazing to the has-beens to the never-weres. Today though, for as much as his departure was downright horrible, and he played for them lot down the road, and he thinks he has a divine right to be our manager, when he wore that number 18 it was becoming apparent that we had a very, very special player on our hands. Start spreading the news... Honourable mention for Benito Carbone. Dishonourable mentions for Fabio Ferraresi, Emile Heskey, Yacouba Sylla and Kieran Richardson. Oh, and Carlton Cole.

I like him as a manager - he's honest in his appraisal of our performances and is being pragmatic in our approach given the tools at his disposal. Particularly with regards to the central midfielders who, Jedinak apart, offer nothing going forward or defensively. He's also got consistently good performances from Chester, Baker and Kodjia. Jedi has looked far better than he did previously too. The spine of a team which for so long didn't have one at all. Got the team spot on - I don't know what he would have done differently after the mess at Carrow Road given the players at his disposal. I liked the tactics - we needed to make our midfield harder to run through than we saw against Norwich, and to have our centre forward be less isolated. Four across the middle, two up front. Back to basics, if you will. It wasn't pretty, but personally I struggle to see what else he could have done in making major changes to the line up. Played well - in so much as their keeper saved a penalty and made a couple of other good saves in the second half, whilst Bunn didn't have a proper save to make. He came out to meet the ball well a couple of times, but wasn't really tested. It was an away game on the back of a very poor performance against a team fighting to find form. I can't really understand why Gabby keeps getting onto the field, or why Tshibola isn't in the squad at all. I've no idea whether either scenario is down to effort in training, fitness, or personality. I wouldn't like to speculate as I'm just not privy to that information. That said, on the whole we're getting positive results so I feel that Mr Bruce deserves the benefit of the doubt for those decisions. Your turn...

Get on Elis James and John Robins. That'll see you through!

Or accept a £20m bid and send them Cissokho in a pair of ripped jeans and a Jedward wig.

It's because we've got a good manager.