HalfTimePost

Out: Given, Hutton, Stephens, Lichaj, Warnock, Dunne, Makoun, Ireland, Herd, Bannan, KEA, NZogbia, Bent, Delfouneso The ones in bold can be given another year as it would be a heck of a squad change to lose and replace all of those, but I really wouldn't mind if we lost all of those. Estimate about £15-20m in fee's and £390k a week in wages from the non-bold players And around about £25-30m in fee's & £520k a week including the bold players?

Strengthen the squad (all over. Defence and midfield key, aswell as good replacements for Bent and Given), Keep Benteke, Lowton and Westwood: If we do this I think we'll finish 7th, and establish ourselves as the new Everton (who I expect to be bottom half with a late push towards relegation next season, unfortunately, i like them). Strengthen squad generally but lose Benteke: Lower Midtable. Just. Dont strengthen well enough + lose Benteke: Relegated. Dont strengthen well enough + keep Benteke: Won't happen. He'll be off no matter what if he see's us doing nothing.

No.

What are they? Do they really have to have a Football Manager assigned role? If so, I guess I would go with Advanced Playmaker with their job role set to 'Support'. However I wouldn't argue if somebody suggested a Box-to-Box Midfielder with job role set to 'Attack'.

But neither Delph or Ramires are DM's.

Mancini to be sacked this week according to The Times

Lost 4-2 on Penalties.

Gone to extra time in the Play Offs vs Sunderland. 1-1 at the moment and both teams are down to 10 men. We went 1-0 up early on, Sunderlands twitter describing it as a low shot after we nicked possession on the edge of their box. Agnew equalised for them on 31 minutes with a 35yrd shot which took a deflection on it's way in. We went down to 10 men after we brought one of their players down who was clean through on goal. Sukar was sent off for Sunderland for a foul on Grealish in extra time No word on who was sent off or who scored for us as it appears Sunderlands twitter account only knows Grealish's name. Update: 1-1 Still just gone half time in extra time

I'll be near suicidal if Wigan win Tuesday. I just hold out faith that surely, surely one of Southampton (Sunderland, Stoke) Sunderland (Southampton, Spurs) Norwich (West Brom, Man City) and Newcastle (QPR, Arsenal) will lose both of their remaining games... Surely?

Fellaini yes , Baines possibly. Wonder if he'll have an eye on Benteke Cant see it, Moyes isn't one to have too many great strikers on the books. He'll play with one striker, RVP and use Hernandez as his backup I imagine. Even if Rooney leaves I can't see him buying somebody like Benteke to replace him. Think he'll play 4-2-3-1 De Gea Rafael Jones Vidic Baines Carrick Fellaini Valencia Kagawa Young* RVP *But possibly a new signing. (However, when Villa were on our spending spree though I always thought a Baines+Young combination would be lethal, different styles of wing play giving some variation from out wide. Not as good, but similar to how I think Walker + Downing had quite a good partnership for us under Houllier. But I digress.)

Surprised nobody has said Gus Poyet yet. As soon as the rumours swirling around about Fergie came out I said Moyes to Utd and Poyet to Everton.

Our midfield is definitely lacking something. Just in current form I couldnt pinpoint one of the three and say 'they are the one that needs dropping'. We need somebody who is a bit better at tackling and breaking up play and we also need somebody who is going to score some goals from midfield (Gardner maybe?). But I think Delph and Sylla are both playing really well and Westwood is the player our midfield needs to be created around.

Had a very good game, probably his best for us in all honesty. He's also got the most desire to score a goal out of the whole team. Last 2 or 3 games I've seen him play he'll be making some absolutely cracking runs on the left wing. Left wing is probably not the right word, he essentially plays it as though he's a left forward standing right on the oppositions Right back. He did it for about 10 minutes straight versus Sunderland and a couple of times vs Chelsea. Some great runs, just nobody ever looked up to find the right pass, I think Westwood tried it once maybe yesterday but it didnt quite come off. As impressed as I was with him yesterday his defensive positioning was lacking at times but fortunately he wasn't found out as Weimann and Gabby (depending who was on his side) would track back and essentially play LB as Bennett kept finding himself more central than he needed to be (he was marking a player, and it may have been a tactical decision but he should have left that player to the CBs and watched the player on the left). It meant that once or twice we would clear the ball and Gabby/Weimann would be absolutely nowhere near Benteke's flick-ons and thus completely collapsing a couple of potential counter attacks. But overall I think he did really well yesterday.

...is belgian guy actually Benteke?

If he'd just applied himself and not been a complete prick he could easily have had that here. QPR will be the only club willing to pay his wage and with them getting relegated I think that ship has sailed for him. I agree, he'll go to the MLS

Looks like some talent is coming through again then. Where does Sellars play? Striker?. Think next year may be an opportunity to loan out Grealish and Graham so that they can be ready to start breaking into the first team in 14/15.

Please lets just have that Lazio Shirt with a Claret body. Please. Pretty Please.

Guzan Lowton Vlaar Dragovic Bennett Westwood Delph Weimann De Jong Agbonlahor Benteke Would look like quite a nice little team. New left back and a new midfielder in that team and I would be happy with our starting 11. Add to that Backup Keeper, Finnbogason to backup Teke, a winger to backup Weimann/Gabby, Murphy to backup De Jong and I would be ecstatic but I'm not sure we'll see that much movement on players coming in.

I thought it was Luuk De Jong who Newcastle were after. They were linked with both.

Anybody think we could get Siem De Jong from Ajax? Personally think he is maybe out of our range but there were some big rumours about him going to Newcastle so presuming that was possible I could see no reason why we couldn't get him. He's been quoted as saying he wants to leave Ajax for either the Premier League or the Bundesliga but only to a team that tries to play football and utilizes the midfield. He's 24, so relatively young still but is also Ajax's captain so has a decent amount of experience. The Newcastle rumours floating around were pricing him at £9m so he'd definitely be a marquee signing if we could get him in.

Aaron Hunt has had a decent return this season stat-wise in a Werder Bremen team who can still be relegated: R Name Pos Apps Goals Assists Shots p/game Key Passes p/game Drb F Off Rt 1 Kevin De Bruyne AM(CL) 31 7 9 2.5 2.5 3.2 1.2 0.1 7.53 2 Aaron Hunt AM(CL) 25(2) 11 3 2.9 2.1 1.9 2.7 0.2 7.34 Maybe not as many assists as you'd like but with 2.1 key passes per game it's not as though he has been creating a lack of chances.

Guzan Lowton Vlaar Dragovic Cavanda Westwood Delph Hughes Weimann Agbonlahor Benteke Siegrist, Bennett, Baker, Sylla, Murphy, Finnbogason and a Winger would do me. Edit: Just seen the link with Hughes to Barca, City, Arsenal and Chelsea.. If they get Hughes and Schurrle maybe we COULD try a cheeky attempt for Marin? That would make my summer, very under rated player at Chelsea.

Luke Murphy is a good, realistic shout. Would like him at Villa. I think getting rid of Ireland and replacing with either (or both) of Luke Murphy and Will Hughes (maybe? if we get in there early?) could be good for the squad

Stop talking about De Bruyne. There is absolutely zero chance of it.

Someone at the Awards dinner has been tweeting that Dunne, Given and Bent are all off in the summer, Ireland not even there tonight so probably him too. Mostly expected but interesting nonetheless @SpaghettiCr8ive