VILLAMARV

We have a few keepers of James's quality here for sure

THIS!! and idle minded standing around having made a run that didn't come off expecting a medal as if they've invented a machine that turns farts into gold instead of making another run. But this along with our complete inablity to hold onto possession from our own throw ins has been the most frustrating thing about watching us for the last 5 years for me.

I suppose it's all down to whether Amavi is happy here in the grand scheme of things. £25m is a great offer but as others have said would we have confidence in the clubs ability to improve on him with any potential replacement? Obviously the day after arguably his worst performance for us will prompt a lot of people to think yes. But he does not have to be or ever become 'the next Roberto Carlos' to be a very good player for Aston Villa Football Club. No point keeping him if his head's been turned though and I think we'll be hard pressed to keep hold of him past the summer if we don't go up regardless of what happens in this window.

We should go for someone who can pass and shoot imo.

Thing is it's kind of gone past the point where criticising him for his individual performances is meaningful. The problem is he's our second choice right back who we all know is a terrible footballer with the ball at his feet. Surely there's no one left out there who'd be sad to see him go. I think from what we've seen so far this year, all we can really say is that the drop in quality of the opposition from the PL to the Championship hasn't made him look any more useful.

Totally what I'm thinking too. FWIW I think Amavi is quite obviously one of our better players and I think it would be a massive mistake to sell him now, whatever the money. He was undeniably shocking at times yesterday.

Is that supposed to back up the statement I baulked at and highlighted about him? Which was and still is baffling to me. All I think he proved in the Premier League last year was that he wasn't really going to be overly successful in it.

Baffling statement to me that. Who for? The opposition?

I don't know why either mate.

well, to be fair 1 would be nice

Well, as Lambert would say, He'd give it a right good go!

WTFAF Lucky, lucky, Lucky Lucky Lucky

Another shout out to the linesman. Good spot.

That's Ayew right there. The one time he absolutely should have dropped the shoulder and gone on the outside and he hooks a tame shot into touch. Just poor decision making under pressure. Come on Villa nick a goal FFS

I was just thinking this too. Then I looked at the bench.

Life of a Villa fan I heard

They should put some crosses in then. I've heard he's amazing if you just do that thing.

I like him, played well against us at VP I seem to recall

couldn't agree more.

I think you'd be hard pressed to name a better RB than Delaney to have played for us from the 90's onwards with the notable exception of Kyle Walker imo. He was no world beater for sure but we haven't exactly been blessed with quality right backs in the last 30 years.

No doubt its all in the balance and the margins are tight and the performances hardly inspire confidence but we are 9 points off 3rd place and it's Xmas. That's a good thing from where we were after the Preston game. There's also a lot of football to be played yet. It's also probably quite a sad indication of the quality of teams in the Championship overall. But none of the teams from 3-9th should be feared any more than they would us. Brighton and Newcastle are hardly unbeatable. Jonah is right though, just get our own house in order.

We didn't get a left winger in the summer and we still desperately need some balance. If Grealish and/or Green aren't up to it in Bruce's eyes then I'd love to see something done about that. Hutton, Westwood, Gardner may be shit but Grealish, Amavi, Ayew, McCormack, Kodjia and now Bacuna have all basically been filling in out of position at some point this season and Bruce is likely to want to play a 442 at times (which is no bad thing imo). Having mentioned Gardner and Westwood - If we got 2 central midfielders in I'd be delighted. If we don't get 1 central midfielder in this window I'll be disappointed. Can Bruce find us better options at RB and GK? lets see. No-one's going to complain if we dont see Hutton again or if Gollini/Bunn are battling out for a place on the bench because we have found some keeper we all can agree on being an upgrade. I just think a Left winger and a central midfielder coming in would do us more good than say a RB and a CM. And after the last few years I dont really want to get my hopes up on more than 1 or maybe 2 signings in January.

Just to be pedantic I believe @NurembergVillan was restricting his choices to the squad number era (so 1993 onwards).

That tweet from the Dr has cheered me up more than a boxing day win

yeah but did they go tho?