HalfTimePost

Very excited.

Yeah, I know it's only preseason but I'm pretty dissappointed we are still conceding such cheap goals from corners. Hopefully it gets sorted over the next few weeks

Celtic would be in the Championship.

If they were to get promotion they would just keep doing the same thing. They aren't technically doing anything wrong although it is definitely morally ambiguous at best. Watford aren't able to sign any players and Udinese have a great academy, this is a win/win for both clubs, obviously, as they both have the same owner. Udinese / Granada sell players for £0 to Watford, who are allowed to sign freebies, who then get a decent squad for nothing. It's clever, deceitful and poor sportsmanship. The major issue is the Financial Fair Play Regulations and any other Fair Play Regulations at that. Every other club in the Championship (And English football) have to buy players for market value or more. Watford are completely getting around that due to their sister clubs. If I was a fan of a Championship team I'd be very pissed off. If they get promotion it will be interesting to see what happens. Watford to become the Premierships Udinese would certainly be interesting but I imagine FIFA will make some form of rule change to stop them doing this at some point

Yeah he does I agree, but I think being on the wing will suit him in his first few appearances, he'll have more space and time and not get battered as much by defenders by the full backs where as he would do in the free role as he'd be going up against teams' DM and Centre backs.

Lovely freekick from Westy. Thats a beaut.

Somebody we haven't heard of yet. I'd like Finnbogason, but he'll be too 'mainstream' come next summer. #HipsterLambert (Who on here made this? It's brilliant. I'm going to guess at Gareth?)

Still think it's some kind of sick joke that Qatar got the World Cup.

So very happy. I still don't like that he handed a transfer request in. But ah well, lets put it behind us for the next 12 months and support the lad. Big players do this all the time. Modric and Rooney two big recent examples. Quality players. Lets hope we can keep him for a long time or get £40m next summer.

Absolutely stunning first 12 months in the job. New squad, kept our best players (and I dont just mean Benteke, it would have been feasible that Lowton, Guzan, Benteke, Weimann and possibly even Westwood could have been chased, not only have they been kept, they've all signed Contract extensions) had a very exciting season in the mean time too. Magnificent Highs and Soul Crushing lows. New contract indeed.

Didn't realise Stevens hadn't gone to Germany, mind you with Bennett and Luna we dont really need a 3rd Left back. If we sell him though I think we should get a proper backup Right Back in, if Lowton got injured it would be awful having Herd as his backup.

Squad at the minute: Guzan Lowton Luna Bennett Herd Stevens Vlaar Baker Clark Delph Sylla El Ahmadi Westwood Bacuna NZogbia Albrighton Tonev Bowery Agbonlahor Weimann Helenius Benteke Steer, Siegrist, Okore, Gardner, Carruthers etc all under 21 as of Jan 1st 2013 so dont need to be named in the 25. 22 players to name in the 25. So 3 gaps, assuming we bring in an AM, 2 gaps. Then assuming nobody else comes in, If we then managed to not move on one or two of the 'Bomb Squad' I think it would be silly to not name them in the 25 man squad, if we had an injury crisis we may need to play them.

Probably yes. But if I was a footballer and I wanted to be in the chase for Champions League, I would think twice about joining a Spurs team that have just lost Gareth Bale. Say they get £60m for him and spend £30m of that on Benteke. They still need to replace Bale. It'll cost a good £20-30m for an adequate replacement and I just can't see Spurs spending £77m in one transfer window.

If only he was on 65k!

Maybe Sylla took him out to show him Villa fans still liked him. But that would be a bit weird, there must be some kind of reason though, its not a normal kind of decision

He is a very good young player but perhaps I overhyped him in the past, hope he gets his debut this season You wouldn't do that.

Higuain: Mourinho wants me at Chelsea

Gonzalo Higuain has said Mourinho wants him at Chelsea. Jovetic already moved to City. Possibly more of a chance of Arsenal maybe wanting Benteke if their pursuit of Suarez doesn't work out now too?

Napoli have approached Liverpool for Reina

Jovetic to City. Heavily linked with Arsenal. Hopefully they will lose out on their chase for Suarez and come in with that £30m bid for Christian. I wouldn't begrudge him moving to his boyhood club, in the Champions League for £30m. If it were me, it wouldn't really matter who I was playing for, if Villa came in for me I would be an absolute word removed to my current club if it got me the move. Obviously wouldn't like Benteke to do that, but I couldn't begrudge him it. Spurs on the otherhand...

If that is his agent it's Sylla's hand he is shaking. Hope to **** Benteke hasn't set Sylla up with his agent.

Thank. ****.

Rooney to Chelsea Lukaku to United Bale to Madrid Benteke to Spurs Some Unknown to Villa Think that could be more likely, couldn't think of who else Moyes would go for so I thought it might be interesting if Lukaku was part of a swap (although I admit that's unlikely)

I sort of agree, but if you shorten the transfer window you massively increase the chance for over-spending on panic buys as the window becomes as short as the January window fee's rise as business has to be done much quicker. Then the likes of Lowton and Westwood moving for 900k are hugely less likely to happen. Although at the other end Spurs would have stumped up for Benteke by now.

Grealish giving himself a hard time on twitter. He seems to do that a lot. It's good to see in one way as it shows he has a lot of desire to be better, can only do him good. I didn't see the game today but I'm sure on past occasions he's moaned about his performance when he's actually done alright. Jack Grealish @JackGrealish1 Such a bang average performance from me, fuming! Happy to have scored 1 tho n nice to get another win but need to improve rapidly #stress Future Legend hopefully.