Butterfingers

Yes-I wasn't assuming that they were currently working for nothing.

Yes really You don't seriously think that any one of our players would turn down the opportunity of Premier League football and a minimum of £1million per year (that's £4million over the length of a contract) because they love and feel loyalty to good old Aston Villa do you? Whether they'll get offers is another thing but don't kid yourself that their agents won't be touting them.

I think Benteke will be a huge success for Palace. I'm gutted as it's another reminder of where we are. Palace have got rid of Gayle & replaced him with Benteke- That's excellent business in my book. Still, as others have said, we need to move on now-This is the price we have to pay for the past 4 years of poor leadership. Onwards and forwards-Class is permanent. 5 years from now, we will be above the Palaces and the Leicesters of this world-Of that I'm sure. By then, Benteke will be a distant memory.

Thanks-I know little about either to be honest, other than they both have excellent goal scoring records at this level .I thought Bamford was the smaller of the two and different type of striker but haven't seen either play. I love Aywes work ethic but we've never had t benefit of seeing him form a partnership with someone. 2 from those 3 sounds quite mouth watering.

Is there any concrete rumours regarding Bamford & McCormack? Could they play together? If we were to loose AYwe for instance, we would do so for a considerable fee-Would it be feasible to pair Bamford & McCormack together?

Contracts are re-written quite regularly when a club seek to secure the services of a player-Bentekes at the time Spurs were sniffing is the obvious example. It is not beyond the realms of belief to hope that RDM has a certain amount of scope to tinker with contracts on the players that he would like to keep hold of but are vulnerable to counter offers. I think you are being a tad naïve if you think that the relegation contracts are set in stone and that they cannot be altered if the club want to keep hold of a player.

The thought has crossed my mind as to whether RDM has been given a bit of licence regarding salaries. Given that we appear to have a certain amount of financial backing, could it be that although relegation clauses may well be written into contracts, that RDM has a bit of manoeuvre not to implement them, or at least not to implement them in full? An extra million in wages could well be better than having to fork out on a replacement.

Well at least it's a step in the right direction.

It probably does. These players generally stand out when they are given an extended run in the side, they're a different breed to your "salt of the earth" grafters who can be thrown in here and there and have an instant impact. Apart from Liverpool away, when I thought their defence handled him well for the 25 mins he was on, Adama made a positive impact in every game I recall, once he was introduced. This is extremely unusual for a flair player. 10 or 15 games back to back will show you exactly what type of player we have on our hands. It is not something that is likely to level out or drop in standard as happens with many promising flair players. Adamas key strengths are pace and power, coupled with a lot of skill admittedly-He won't suffer a drop in these as opposed to suffering a drop in form. He'd get into a lot better starting 11s than Villas as well-As others have aluded to, Adama in the championship would be frightening.

Why? You don't seriously think that more 10% think we have better players than Traore do you?

I would venture that somewhere between 90 & 95% of all Villa fans would have him down as a nailed on starter. Still if you really are going to think about the stupidity of using throw away comments such as "green and raw" then you've learned something. well done.

No it isn't correct. Notwithstanding the fact that I never said anywhere what you can and can't say, the point is that being a nailed on starter (in an appalling side admittedly) means that he is not as green and raw as people like to suggest. Actually, it is a cheap cop out levelled at most flair players when they first hit the scene. He is no more green and raw than any other 19 year old. If he's good enough to start, that should be the focus, not using cheap cop outs such as "he's green and raw" If he is green and raw, I'd hate to think what your thoughts are on some of the more seasoned w#nkers who donned a shirt for us last season. You need to understand the difference between ability and "green and raw" if certain aspects of his game were better, he'd still be at Barcelona, not Villa.

You can say that about any player aged under 25. I think you need to watch his game more closely if you think he is so green and raw that he wouldn't be amongst the first 2 or 3 names on the team sheet. You can't be both

I love all these comments about him being "green" and "raw" His game is all about pace strength and direct attacking. It's as good as anything in the Premiership, let alone the Championship. His crossing isn't the best and I can't see that changing too much-It doesn't usually with this type of player. I really fail to see what people expect to change in order for him not to be "green" or "raw". As for his tracking back, do they think he has a quick read of the paper when the other side has the ball? I'm not quite sure what he's "green" or "raw" about? Tony Daley spent an entire career playing like that. He needs a run in the side, not 15 or 20 minutes here and there.

I thought this was an attempt at sarcasm at first but it isn't is it? You really meant this didn't you?

It is now on the back of the result but last night it was the strongest it had been for a year. It will recover though, until the next time Scotland destabilizes things again with their next "leave" campaign As far as Villa are concerned, I would expect contingency to be in place to ensure last nights vote won't affect the transfer budget.

The markets haven't opened yet. Last night the £ was at its strongest against the $ for the past 12 months. Surely anyone planning to invest in big sums of Euros will have planned for this vote and have money banked in Europe as well?

A massive inspiration to 1000's. It would shock me if, after 4 years out, he could come back at this level. I have no issues whatsoever in him trying to. To have him around the training ground would have a positive impact and if he was needed to cover for the odd game then I'm sure he'd cope.

I agree-Can't see any of them taking a drop in what we will be paying them in order to play first team football.

It's all down to who stays. If by some fluke we could keep Adama, Okore, Amavi, Aywe, Grealish, Gana, coupled with Elphick then that's a good starting point. Another 5-6 added to that lot would be reasonable. That would mean a goalkeeper, RB, CM and striker would be priorities. I'd add another midfielder to that. This would leave us people like Gestede, Hutton, Richards etc as squad players. It could then be that another 2 could be bought in in January to give us a push, if needed (which they probably would be)

I know football is all about decisions and vey often there is no right or wrong decision. For me, I am not over phased by the 8 extra games the league brings. I would field reserves in the league cup and in January, if we were top 6/8 (which we should be) I would field reserves in the FA Cup. That way, the amount of games only equate to the same as a couple of decent cup runs. In addition, someone like Okore could be rested in certain games, especially at home, where poorer sides are likely to just come and park the bus. I'd be interested to see how many games Spurs played last season and they didn't do too badly did they?

If he's in his last year, I would prefer him to commit to us if we are going to start him. We need to be building and don't want wholesale changes every summer like we've had last year and will have this. If he doesn't want to commit then great, we'll have excellent back up in that position. I also appreciate the logic in playing your best 11 and looking at the replacement in a years time. Either way, it will be good for the club, at least in the short term. I certainly think he'd be one of the better defenders in the championship.

Yes-Lets get what we can for him now. He is too expensive to take a chance on coming good in the future, given we are now in the championship. For me the reasons to sell are: 1. He never really seems to have settled here. 2. He wasn't even first choice in the worst midfield in the prem 3. We can't afford to take chances on players who may come good. We need players who can do a job here and now. We will probably take a £2million hit on him but we can accept that as we had his services for 12 months. The money bought in will help go towards a player who is more likely to succeed in the championship.

As a matter of interest, where do you think he could be used "correctly"? Surely if its LB then it means Amavi will be off?

initially underwhelmed but having thought about it and taken on board what others have said, it doesn't seem so bad. Must admit to being slightly surprised about the wages-I didn't think the difference would be that great between us and teams like Watford.