cyrusr

Thinking he will go 4-2-3-1 Gollini Hutton - Elphick - Baker - Amavi (if fit) / Cissokho Gardner - Tshibola Bacuna - Ayew - Grealish Gestede Subs: Steed, Okore, Amavi/Cissokho, Westwood, McCormack, Green, Veretout Won't start McCormack, more or less said that in press conference. Bacuna he seems to be keen on. Might play Westwood instead of Gardner. Anyway 1-2. Bannan scores first for Wednesday (of course); then Bacuna equalises followed by a late goal by McCormack! Finally the season started and I cannot wait!!!

They have just signed Flanagan on loan for the season, along with Lowton I imagine they are set for the season. I did see a report though that Liverpool on have Clyne as RB. Go on Klopp, you know Richards is amazing. He has champions league experience too...

BBC reporting medical too! Link Whilst RDM may have seen something in him, will be really pleased if this goes through!

Just to add more random speculation Ravel Morrison is following our very own Italian goalkeeper Eggollini on Twitter:

BBC also confirming Clicky: Much more likely to get minutes which will be good for us and him.

Feels like the signing we needed to make. Gets goals at this level and by the looks of it creates them too. Finally some real cutting edge in the final third (hopefully!).

Hatched 2 10k eggs today (my first ones). Got an Omanyte and Electabuzz; got neither before so very pleased! Was struggling with new ones but finally evolved my eevee to a flareon. Other than that still just keep getting the same pokemon. Damn bloody drowzees!!!

This. Just watched the highlights via Middlesbrough YouTube channel and that pass was awful. Think he could have done better on the 3rd goal too. Thunking about it last season he was told at the start "don't want you, not good enough" by sherwood. Says the same to Bennett. Then Garde comes and basically says to Cissohko "we need you" (which we did given we had no cover for LB, thanks Sherwood) and makes His ego inflate massively. When he gets back here and sees the meas he then says "I'm too good for this" and has a massive chip on his shoulder. Would explain the poor performances anyway. Speculative of course but I get the distinct impression he does not give a damn and will be out for the first team that matches his wages and I won't miss him. I can see a much better attitude coming out of Bennett and right now would rather him stay than Cissokho as competition with Amavi.

First Team Gollini New RB - Elphick - Okore/Baker - Amavi New Defensive Midfielder - Tshibola/Gardner Ayew - New Attacking Midfieider - Grealish New Striker Back up/Squad Steer/Bunn Hutton?/Richards? - Clark/Toner - Baker/Okore - Bennett/Cissohko? Sanchez? - Westwood? Green - Veretout? - Bacuna? Gestede?/Kozak?/Hepburn-Murphy That back up team is truly awful! Anyone with a question mark more than happy to change. Think really we only have strength in depth in Goal and Central Defence. Green seems good and Hepburn-Murphy is promising but don't want to go in with him as main back up. If wasn't clear already, then it's abundantly clear now these players were badly managed for a while. What has been going on in Bodymoor Heath the last 2 years I don't know but it's been horrific whatever has happened. Clearly these players have been damaged, the key is how many can be saved. First few proper games will really tell and if we are terrible, I hope that many more transfers come in. Certainly 2 new midfielders and a new striker are a must. Really would like a new RB too. First team then starts looking better. If we could get that first team sorted this transfer window then should still be up there by Christmas. More strengthening in January and then who knows.

So preseason done and next match is the real test. Have to say I am somewhat disappointed with the result against Middlesborough. Didn't watch the game but from all the comments it seems that not much has changed since last season unfortunately. Hopefully that can be sorted out but next month will be exceptionally telling for the season. Did have a thought about where we need to improve desperately and its seems clear that we still lack that cutting edge in front of goal. Having gone through the stats of pre season our goal breakdown was as follows: Total goals: 21 goals Defenders: 5 Midfielders: 3 (including Sinclair) Forwards: 13 (4 were from youth strikers too so 9 senior strikers) And it's fair to say also that we have not played decent opponents. To me that midfield stat is abysmal, being out scored by defenders?! Clearly not strong enough in the slightest. With Amavi coming back might tighten the defence, but I would really want to see some improvement there. However that might need game time more than anything just to get them working together. However we definitely need to improve the attack and midfield. That lack of midfielders scoring is a worry and having a strong striker will improve us immensely. We need: Defensive Midfielder Attacking/Creative Midfielder Striker As an absolute minimum if we want to even consider promotion right now. Still don't think we have worry regarding relegation but the squad needs strengthening. The fact that Sinclair was involved shows me the move to Celtic is not near. Sanchez also showing no move imminent. I was rather hopeful but hmmm.... Tony, Roberto, Keith. Your move.

They are in Scotland, they gave up on "football" a long time ago...

I'm walking distance to the cross city line and that runs every 10 minutes to Aston on Saturday afternoon. Sunday's are annoying at every 30 minutes and evenings runs until 11 but can still get me home so all good! Depends where you need to get to but buses and trains into town means should be reachable from public transport from near enough wherever

Maybe what RDM is suggesting is that if other clubs make bids then could delay things. His release clause ends at the end of July so come 1st August no release clause? Therefore if Villa say bid more gets it done quicker? Purely speculative of course but makes sense of the comments from RDM. Either way he doesn't want to be here. Rather he did stay as clearly had something about him, even if it was in one of the worse midfields for the club but if he's not commit lets get this done ASAP and get someone in who wants to play for Villa.

Does anybody know when he get formally announced? I would imagine sometime next week and would be really telling as to who is part of RDM team and who is not.

Finally some real ale!!! VERY happy with this!

On Official Website too! Not the worse player of last season, but 1 that definitely needed to be moved on. I do (sincerely) wish him well.

Still following Villa on Twitter according to this list...

Hate the b********. They always just want to float away right at the wrong time! And seriously in the game, it was the only time I used Repel in the game, so annoying!

The actual article from L'Equipe: The body of which when "translated" comes out as: So Nice are seeking a loan which we do not want, with no quotes and anyway he wants the Premier League instead. How good is L'Equipe for links? This doesn't seem to have much substance to this.

The biggest difference from last season is that we seem to have some organisation on the coaching side. We have some poor players and some that need coaching right. Already the noises from the players are better which to me suggests that they will hopefully play better. The signings are positive and the youngsters seem eager for an opportunity and are ready for it. It is clear that the starting 11 for the 1st game will be a lot different to the team that played the last match against Arsenal which was: Bunn, Lyden, Bacuna, Lescott, Toner, Cissokho, Westwood, Sánchez, Gueye, Sinclair, J Ayew Substitutes: Guzan, Richards, Traoré, Gil, Hepburn-Murphy, Gestede, Grealish I am not even sure what formation was played but that was an awful team. Black's selections were by far the worse of the managers last season. Based on the pre season games I would say that out of the starting 11 only Bacuna, Cissokho, Westwood and Ayew have a chance of starting (and Gana if he stays) so we have already changed over half the starting 11. We are already a better team from last season. The point is even as it stands I reckon we are a good mid-table championship team and with a good run push for the play-offs. Some more squad changes between now and the end of the window will only improve the team and push us higher up the table. Ultimately time will tell but there are some poor teams in the Championship but we will know by 1st September how realistic promotion next season is.

Was listening to Talksport this morning to see if there was anything... Yeah its getting that desperate! Happy-ish so far but would like the momentum to continue. I reckon we may see a quick succession of players leaving as they are all in the pipelines. Anyway, Robin Van Persie is being linked to Rangers and Stoke. 32 years old (33 next month) but scored 16 in 31 league games last season in Turkey, maybe could still do a job next season in the Championship? If Rangers could tempt him surely we could?

One of the better players last season and I would rather he stayed. If he wants to go though, this should be done ASAP rather than drag on. That will not do us any favours. Now if he could only sneak Lescott in his back pocket...

Nothing but I was just saying if he doesn't want to stay and fight for the team he should move on and quickly. Wyness probably knows a lot more than me though as to where they are at with the transfers so no doubt more will be revealed either way shortly

Either: a) he has a release clause and Everton have met it and we can going to try and convince him to stay; or b ) journalists are talking out their arses. Either way, one I would have preferred to stay but if his hearts not in it I don't want him here and we are better getting rid now.

If Sunderland do sign him (and N'Zogbia) then I think we really dodged a bullet with Moyes. I get the potential with Richards, but he has bulked up too much to be an effective RB anymore and has a complete lack of positional awareness. Seriously how many gaps in our defence last season did he cause?! It was ridiculous. He is not a CB and soon he won't be a RB. Clueless but N'Zogbia? At best I can see he is trying to impress to get the next contract and then he will go AWOL again when the going gets tough. To be fair most of the Sunderland fans do not seem to be keen and if they are its at RB. Most seem to have their head screwed on. It's been said before but if Sunderland sign both of them I would bet on them going down next season.