Adam2003

I really don't think we should be looking to sell Gabby, even if he's not first choice at some point, unless we know for a fact that Bent and Weimann won't get injured once next season!

Wow, I'm living in the past! Still think he has time to step up, even if it does look like Weimann's eclipsing him at the moment. But also still agree he has a long way to go.

Agree he needs to progress and work hard but those writing him off at 19 are harsh in my opinion. At his age Gabby was just about to make his debut, and plenty of top strikers the world over were yet to play senior football. Didier Drogba was still two years away from first team football in the French Second Division. Think he sometimes suffers by having been in the same group as Bannan, Clark etc so people forget he's a good couple of years younger than them. Even if he doesn't break through this or next season he still has lots of time on his side. No guarantees, of course, but a lot seem to have given up on him a bit early IMO.

Barrysboots and KHV I take your point. But the point is we have the seventh highest revenues in England. So if (IF) we were being run properly there should only be six clubs able to outspend/outperform us.

Ginko, see your point but Stevens has played in the Europa League, including against this season's very strong Sours side, without embarrassing himself. Just saying, not saying he's definitely going to be a star for us of course.

None of the big brands have ethics issues any more. Those days are long gone, and Nike are now one of the most ethical companies in the world. Nike's factory in Indonesia got stung for millions in compensation for forcing workers to do unpaid overtime literally last month...

Remains to be seen but he's really impressed me in the last couple of months.

Even if you believe that, a midtable team is better than the relegation certainties we were shaping up as before Randy arrived. Whatever else I'll always remember that, so the '**** him' attitude doesn't sit well with me. You're entitled to your opinion of course!

We wont even be doing that this season I'm afraid. Your support of Mcleish, though admirable, is at best misplaced Given our current league position, I would say your prediction that we wont be finishing 6th - 10th could be deemed misplaced as well Richard I think 6th to 10th has become 8th to 12th. Neither excites me, of course, but those thinking we'll be in big trouble are incorrect IMO.

I couldn't disagree more. For all people complain about negativity/creativity etc we have some very good attacking players. We have some promising youth coming through. Our defence is awful. Maybe Dunne is no worse than Collins, but we can improve on both.

This is a huge part of the argument on here and elsewhere. Irish fans (of whom we have a lot, which is great) love Dunne - he's something of a national hero, and that's fair enough. He's rubbish though. An awful player. This 'oh he'll be great most of the time but then have a few howlers' drives me insane. Give me someone who's 7/10 and cuts out the howlers and then we'll stop conceding as many. Our defence (not just him) guarantee goals to the opposition every game. I will judge McLeish firmly on what he does with our defence this summer and Dunne needs to go. And, just as I started this looking at the Irish side of things, just want to say my favourite Villa players ever are mostly Irish - and I love the likes of Robbie Keane and Shay Given now. You can't be too careful with the current racism climate in the Premier League ;-)

Wasn't he secretly injured and waiting for an operation? My recollection is he needed one but agreed to wait until the end of the season so we had cover in an emergency. Think even Gary Mac said now he was going for an operation and that#s why he'd been on the bench and praised his commitment. Like him, hope he stays.

Don't see it at quite that level, especially on an attacking basis. I think he has the potential to be great for us and there were flashes but overall I was frustrated with him more than not yesterday for his positioning. If we started an attack on the right he would be central and there would be no-one wide on the left. Brilliant if we had an overlapping left back but with Warnock it meant too often we looked for the pass left, there was no-one there and we had to come back inside. Of course, no way of knowing if this was him drifting or if that's what he's been told to do. When he was in position to be an option for us it meant he could do great things like set up the first goal, lead the break that led to Gabby's chance etc. But I think we could have had more of those breaks if he'd been holding wider on the left at times instead of pushing up through the middle. HOWEVER on all that. what I would say from the last two games is his defensive work has been great. He's worked very, very hard and it's made a difference. Think he can be a very good player for us - he could do with a goal to get his confidence up and then hopefully we'll see more of the good stuff from the last few games.

I think Delph and Bannan will both go on to be very good players. I'd like to see Delph alongside Herd - I don't mean because I want to drop Petrov, I just mean that I'd like to see Delph play with a holding midfielder at some point.

This. I think he's better than Luke Young but not really by much. I guess if Young wanted to go that much then we needed to replace him.

What's this? Anyone got a link? Sorry to repost, but this seems like quite big news if true...

What's this? Anyone got a link?

Concidentally, at the end of Petrov's first season, we were all saying exactly the same. I wish the player who played against West Ham had stayed for the rest of his Villa career.

Were you banned from H&V for being stupid, too? I liked the capital NOT. It really added emphasis to an already bizarre statement. Back on topic, I wouldn't have Petrov starting every week, but I do think he's a model pro and a good club captain.

Thanks for the information. Weird that they always let him wear the captain's armband and lift the trophies. http://img.skysports.com/10/07/218x298/Iker-Casillas-Holland-Spain-World-Cup-2010-Fi_2476528.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nErQe11XWvU/Tc81o0h7adI/AAAAAAAABDw/DVFvWsu3Ii4/s1600/109428_iker-casillas_300_225.jpg

Yes they do. No they don't. Can you imagine Spain or Real Madrid winning anything with Iker Casillas as captain? I didn't think so.

I'd give it to Bent if we took it off Petrov. He'd love to be captain and is the first name on our teamsheet every week.

You're right. The shame, if this is about NRC, is in absolutely no-one else at all being interested despite you being available on a free for months. That's not a slight on Bolton at all. Good luck to him though, I have nothing against NRC.

Take it you missed the game on tv Mature response. He played well today. I think a section of our fans are determined to write him off, as with so many players in the past, and I hope he can prove them wrong.

Very good today.