cheltenham_villa

It was probably what I expected, had a feeling we wouldnt hold them out long enough but lots of good signs. Heaton a huge improvement, mings and engels gelled. Would like to see targett but Taylor played well. Midfield struggled late on, eventually over ran. I think they will learn though, grealish will adjust quickly but hasn't played at this level for a long time. Wes and Kodj need to do more to relieve pressure and we need to take changes but this game really wont define our season. On to Bournemouth, points needed.

We'll learn a bit today and adjust quickly I think, our midfield needs to be a bit sharper and upfront we need to make sure when we get chance to take the pressure off we take them. Over the moon if we hold on for a draw

Here it comes.

Kodj for wes

Trez looking good, wesley not so much

Just weather the storm, dont concede early. Grow into the game

Not surprised to see him only phase in a few of the new signings. You cant put a brand new 11 in against spurs and expect to compete. New players will need to learn systems and tactics, integrate over time. Surprised to not see Jota though.

I'm not sure the 12 are all an improvement. 3 obviously we had last year. Is wesley an improvement over tammy? Engels or konsa and improvement of tuanzabe? And you need to take into account the fact that weve squeezed in 12 new players, settling will have an impact. I've enjoyed the window but we cant put blinkers on, we finished 5th in the championship. This will be very tough.

My problem with Jimmy is that in most instances I've seen, he wouldnt lay it off to Jack. He'd take on three players instead.

Maybe hes referring to Ian Taylor or others still around the club? Most interesting thing for me was his reference to the number of new players and how difficult settling can be. As excited as we all get with this many new players, getting them to settle and gel is still a huge risk and it could cost us.

Good summary on sky sports news tonight, acceptance that trying to bed in this many new players is of course risky but weve brought players known by the manager, weve had a strategy established early on, we always needed to do something. It's very different to Fulham and is far from ideal by it's probably a better squad than we had.

The reality is that nobody would set out trying to buy this many players, unfortunately we didn't have a choice. The jury is out on the quality, my villa heart says they are all unbelievable, I suspect if another club had bought this many from Belgium and lower leagues we would probably be laughing at them. Time will tell but I'm still not sure what options we had.

Most of the non villa fans I've spoken to today rate this as our best signing of the window. Inclined to agree. Guaranteed improvement, much needed experience.

The Doncaster link probably sums up this player, we couldn't even consider him in the championship. Concern is probably his wages. Suspect it's too much for a Doncaster move.

At this late stage would anyone consider sturridge, we will struggle for goals, available on a free and an improvement on our striking options.

If they really did bid 50m, it would make it very difficult for us as a club and him as a player to turn down. One pundit recently talked about Maguire and said when united come calling, you have to force the move. The future could hold a broken leg and the chance may never arrive again. I love SJM but we need to be realistic.

Started taking my 9 year old in the last two years. Hes very quiet so found the trinity road the best place for him. If you can get close to the pitch he loves it, any chance to be close to the players and get on the tv. The swearing he has adjusted to, the angry reaction of some adults is really difficult though. Very daunting for a young child, made me really question some of my own conduct in the past.

Gary cahill, 1 great goal, couldn't recall a single decent performance in a villa shirt. I still think he's shit now.

2k extra? That's a ludicrous offer. No, not ludicrous. It's insulting. If he left Villa in the summer I wouldn't blame him. Pathetic. We need to offer him an amount which would prevent him leaving for another club, not an amount we think we can get away with because we are pretending our academy is shit. the club has to balance the wages. Throwing money at everyone after a few decent appearances got us in the situation we were in before. At the end of the day its his first season and hes done well, but next year he may not be playing alongside Benteke and things might be a bit more tough. Remember Albrightons break through year? What have we seen since? Id expect us to offer more than 2k, but its a negotiation. Weve offered 2k more, hes probably asked for 20k more, lets wait and see where we meet.

think he needs a bit of a rest. with bent, benteke, gabby, weimann, nzogbia we should be abe to rotate our forward line a bit more.

I don't think we'll win. To much pressure and we haven't dealt well with that all season. Possibly a draw.

cant make a case for us staying up anymore.

Shameless bump in desperation.

An arab

How would it be better. Lerner wants the club to support himself, were all screaming for him to invest. How could we possibly generate the funds required for year on year investment. Villa talk is also testemant to the fact that fans don't agree on anything.