HKP90

Might have a better team. Not a better club. Everything successful about them came from shady Russian gangsters. When I was a kid they had the same sort of status as West Ham or Crystal Palace now.

Jack has a £60M release clause? Clicky

Interesting. Is that a public website, i’d like to check a few players.

I’m not sure we need an overhaul. We did some hard yards last summer to bolster numbers and clear out our ageing squad. I think we just need to add some quality in key positions, using what we have as backup/rotation. Same if we go down really, but from a less prestigious list of targets. I think if we go down, we’ll be well placed to dominate the Champ.

That Sean Dyche bit cracked me up.

That’s fair. I’d want better crossing from both wingbacks, as they are your primary width. Plus if you have one wingback who can play on both wings, he’d need to be as good with both feet, cos cutting back will kill any momentum during the counter attack.

We need better crossing.

If we stick with 5 at the back we need proper wingbacks

Me too. Is Engels pace really so bad that it undermines our press? I'm not sure he's that slow. Plus, who says it's the central CB of the 3 that has to step out with the ball? If we don't think Engels is up for it, we could still allow one of the others to do the ball carrying, and let Engels drift over to cover. I thought Engels looked good most of the times I've seen him, and fwiw I still think he's going to have a massive part to play before the end of the season in some capacity or other.

Do you not think that players with both technical aptitude and psychological resilience will be playing for top sides? When you drop down the leagues you may have to prioritise one or the other, as players are more limited. We’ve not been a draw for top talent for years. Couple that with the fact that being without technical ability in a league as strong as the Prem, you will be found out, and I can see why our recruitment has prioritised technical ability. Take probably our best player last year, McGinn. He was peerless in the Champ. His main attribute was his work rate and ability to harrass the opposition in midfield. Take him to the prem, and whilst he’s not been bad, he’s not hit the heights.

I've been watching Villa since the early '90s, and the only players that I can remember during that period that could get into the starting 11 of virtually any team in the Premier League and be successful like Jack could right now were Dwight Yorke (who I maintain is the best player I've ever seen in Villa colours), arguably Bosnich, and possibly Milner. Maybe Delph at a push, although he did not massively stand out in that City side. Other players, such as McGrath, Southgate, Ugo, Angel, Merson, Olaf, Laursen, Carew and Benteke were brilliant for us, but were not attractive to the big teams because either they were on their way down after a career at the top, or were in some way limited, which excluded them from the top sides. The exception is Benteke, who could have walked into any side, but for some reason did not adapt when he had the chance. I don't think Jack is Benteke, I think he could do it anywhere, and that's why he's special. He's probably the best i've seen since Yorke. I also think he's shown real class in not moving this January, because I have no doubt agents were banging his door down, and if he leaves in the summer I would wish him the very best for his career as he's earned his success and done the hard yards in the Championship for us whilst being clattered by no-marks.

ITSOTP

We used to play 5-3-2/3-5-2 often during the Brian Little era, and we played some tremendous football. Personally don’t think we have the ideal full backs/wing backs for it atm though. If you have the right wide men and ball playing cb’s it doesn’t have to be overly defensive either. Shifts the overload to wide midfield areas

Boooooooom!

Quiet on here and I can't watch tonight cos i'm working. How are we playing?

You obviously can't tell much about a player from a youtube montage, but he seems like a pretty confident finisher. Quite a few of his goals appear to be first time instinctive strikes, without taking too many touches. Of course there might be another montage somewhere of him missing 80 opportunities between each strike, but I'm hoping he can come in and give everyone a lift with a few cheeky poaches on his debut! Incidentally I heard that he's not been registered in time to be able to play tonight. Can anybody confirm/deny pls?

Yes it was a joke.

The Villa way: 1. Take a team languishing in the championship with an average age of around 30 2. Add new filthy rich owners with ambition. 3. Add a young manager with promise with a record of possession football 4. Put a five year plan together to get into and establish yourself in the premier league 5. Get promoted at first time of asking 6. Get rid of old journeymen footballers on massive wages who can't play football. 6. Inject a ton of money to replace all of the players we lost. Buy young unproven players which will hopefully do a job in the prem, but if not then will be good championship players. 7. Fans get frustrated in the first six months of being back in the prem. that we are not challenging for the champions league. 8. Due to fan pressure, sack manager and bring in a clogger like Sam Allerdyce 9. Spunk a bunch more money on old journeymen on massive wages who can't play football, but can head and break knees. 10. Completely alter playing style to fit said cloggers 11. Get relegated anyway 12. Old journeymen get bored and dial it in. 13. First season in championship we finish 13th. Average age of team is now >29. Football is derisive. Sack clogger of manager who is now considered a 'dinosaur'. 14. Goto No. 1 This is why we will never be successful again. Unless we completely ignore fan pressure.

Big Sam? Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No one ever, ever learns. Never.

Got it iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin one

You said there was going to be support in this supporters forum?

Tough crowd. Short of coaching the opposition on how to beat us, not quite sure what else Smith could do to please after a 5 nil win with our 2nd team.

Just read an interesting article comparing Wesley’s goal scoring stats vs Carew, Angel, Benteke and Savo after 16 games. He’s scored one less than Angel, Savo and Benteke, and one more than Carew. Purely based on stats, he’s on par with some august company.

Do most people deal with all of their problems in life by hysterical negativity? Maybe I should try it. Everyone out. Their replacements out.

Amen