AXD

Quite a few players who had deeper lows than this. He did OK for most of his performances, including the ones at left back.

He can leave that hat in Italy though

Reckon Benteke is the big man to go with him. If they pay £5m for Ings and £32.5m for Benteke it's an extremely good value strike partnership IMHO. I think they'll try to offload balotelli first. As it stands they have ings, sturridge, balotelli, origi and lambert as strikers. Add a sixth and you have way too many.

Benteke just got subbed after a very mediocre performance for belgium. No clubs will be coming for him if he plays like this. I'm starting to think he seems such a good player because the others at villa are so average.

1. Guzan - Keep (Starter, unless a decent offer comes in) 2. Baker - Keep (squad) 4. Vlaar - Keep (on lower/same wages, squad player) 5. Okore - Keep(starter) 6. Clark - Keep (starter) 7. Bacuna - Keep (squad as a midfielder as he's poor at defending) 8. Cleverley - Gone 9. Sinclair - Keep (squad) 10. Weimann - Sell 11. Agbonlahor - Keep (squad) 12. Cole - Keep (squad) 13. Steer - Keep (squad) 14. Senderos - Sell 15. Westwood - Keep (starter) 16. Delph - Keep (starter) 18. Richardson - Keep (squad) 20. Benteke - Keep (unlikely though) 21. Hutton - Sell 22. Gardner - Keep (Squad) 23. Cissokho - Sell 24. Sanchez - Keep (squad) 25. Gil - Keep (squad) 27. Kozak - Keep (squad) 28. N'Zogbia - Sell (asap) 29. Hepburn-Murphy - Keep (send him out on loan) 31. Given - Keep (in a coaching role) 34. Lowton - Keep 39. Calder - Keep (send him out on loan) 40. Grealish - Keep (squad) GK: If either Guzan or Given leaves, we need a new/better GK. I would think Guzan might get us a few million. So a new keeper with Given or Steer as back-up Mat Ryan from Australia is young and highly rated keeper, might cost us £5m though Our full back positions are the biggest issues as we all know. RB: Trippier LB: Robertson CB: If Vlaar leaves, we will need to buy a new CB. I would want a starter so that would push Clark or Okore down the pecking order. cheeky bid for Ranocchia from Inter? his contract is up, Inter isn't a top side anymore. Cambiasso came to Leicester, so why not try (one can dream)? Midfield: a box to box player is needed to replace Cleverly. Dembele would be a great addition but wouldn't offer many goals. With Benteke looking to leave a new striker is need in addition to Kozak hopefully fit again next season. Austin for £10m That would make our starting line up look like: GK: Ryan LB: Robertson RB: Trippier CB: Clark CB; Okore DM: Westwood CM: Delph CM Dembele LW: Sinclair RW: Gil CF: Austin Squad: Steer, Given, Lowton, Richardson, Baker, Vlaar (?), Gardner, Sanchez, Bacuna, Cole, Grealish, Agbonlahor, Kozak Grealish will become more of starter as the season goes on, but a lot people are branding him as our saviour. The kid's got loads of talent, but he's nowhere near ready to be a leading player for an entire season, we shouldn't be expecting this either. The value for the ones leaving wouldn't be too bad. Guzan 4m, Hutton 2m Cissoko 1.5m, Senderos 1m, Nzogbia 3m, Weimann 2m Benteke 32.5m = about 46m There quite some business to be done with that kind of money (IF we can sell them all) Also, a lot of people are screaming we need a big overhaul of our squad. No argument that we need improvement, but changing an entire team is no guarantee for success. to use a cliché, 11 good players doesn't equal a good team. Even with a few additions and getting rid of some deadwood, we can improve a lot.

I was wondering the same thing. Dembele will probably leave Spurs anyway. Though I doubt he will score many goals and we could use exactly that from our midfield.

did OK at celtic, but I'm not sure he's better than clark and okore.

Depends who it is though, I'd take Trippier and Ings from Burnley, Austen from QPR and Robertson from Hull in a heartbeat. Trippier £3,1m Ings - free Austin - £8m Robertson - £4.4m add Heaton - £2.2m these prices are based on transfermarkt, so they are just something to go by (apart from Ings, he's still rated at £9m, but he's out of contract). Seems like a few bargains can found in the relegated teams. On that note, why is everyone going on about Austin being worth £15m. If he were in the situation of a Benteke than maybe yes, but he plays for a relegated club, with financial problems and has only 1 year left on his contract. All reasons to lower his price.

Bacuna has none in the first third. he should play as a right winger, not a defender. His marking is poor. In a game where we will be on the attack often enough, he might get the start but yesterday I think the result would have been worse with him at back

Gardner in, but no clark or Westwood?

I agree pretty much 100% with that assesment. Though we won't shift all of those players mentioned, I'm hoping the ones with substantial wages will be the ones who go first. I can live with Lowton or Bennett hanhing around one more season.

Sherwood still has a lot to prove. Losing to Arsenal is no disgrace, but being outclassed like that is shameful. It didn't help that some of our players didn't show up today (delph, benteke). We need big investments for next year, on every position. Our left back was one our better players today, while that's the position most in need of a new signing. Bacuna shouldn't play at back anymore, he's an awful defender. Wouldn't mind keeping Vlaar as a Back-up. Nzogbia needs to go for me.

Sánchez on? Sherwood doesn't want to score does he?

Come on villa boys! Make us proud!

happy with the line-up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSDhhZtRwFU time for this yet?

Whilst I love the idea, I just can't see it happening. The FA needs money. Where's the money coming from? The big advertisers aren't going to support another event at the same time as the World Cup. There's also the issue over the World Cup being played over Winter. The Premiership (and others) will want to protect their interests. Maybe a few nations could pull out and stage something during the summer but come the Winter it will be business as usual for FIFA. why not? what if England, France, Germany and the US pull out. that's a huge commercial market for the advertisers. with those countries gone, the tournament loses a few big names. There probably will be a few others to follow like Italy, Holland, Belgium (not sure where the South American countries stand in all this). So it wouldn't be commercialy as appealing as it has been. If those countries leaving would play the 'slavery/deaths in building the WC in Qatar'-card it would add ethical pressure on advertisers. Imagine you're an exec at McDonalds, would you still be as eager to fund an event where a huge part of the public you're trying to reach isn't present and if you are people might accuse you of endorsing slavery? it seems easy but in the end nobody will do anything (lack of cojones) and in a few years everyone will watch our players run around in the desert.

I would like this approach to be copied, but right now we can't focus on that. Our team needs finished goods as it stands. If we can buy a few youngsters for 1-2m each and let them stay with their current clubs on loan for 1 or 2 season that would be great. But only if we do get some bigger signings for our first team.

Great talent, but nowhere near ready to be a PL regular starter. We could buy him now and let him stay in bruges on loan for at least another season.

I like that idea, though they're a bit similar as players. If we were to sell Benteke to Liverpool, we could try to get Origi on loan.

Delph and Okore for me Delph because he has performed well throughout the entire season, whereas Benteke has only performed (a lot better than Delph) for the last 2 months. Clark was great and deserves a lot of votes, but I couldn't choose him because our defence wasn't great. (worse without him though) Okore because he came back great from his injury and has shown a lot of potential this season, bar his last game. Grealish will get it next year when he plays more games.

Seems like a reasonable suggestion

If this doesn't give hull, Sunderland and Newcastle a boost, I don't know what will.

A bit harsh to say the least. He played left back for a few games recently and did quite well. Admittedly, he's not the best player in our squad, but the last few games he didn't disappoint. Also in his first season here, he played almost every game and he was rarely questioned. Bacuna is positionally just as weak on defense, yet he is doing well the last few months. There a decent player in Lowton, maybe not a regular starter, but I'm happy to keep him as a Squad player.

He's probably a bit busy in Atlanta at the moment ah, the problem of a generic name I mean this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Ryan