switters

Don't take anything an agent says for truth. He'll be doing his best to manipulate the deal in whatever way works best for him, to make sure he gets his 10%. If he's going public it's to put some pressure on Genk or to try and bump up the fee so he gets a bigger cut.

Can't help but think most of this simply comes down to the fact we've been mostly losing for the past 2 years. It might be an indirect effect - supporters are more likely to act like tools when the club is losing and you're more likely to notice the bad elements off the pitch when there's nothing good on the pitch - but it's the losing which is the heart of it. Most football supporters are junkies. We need a sufficient fix of wins (or at least goals) to keep our enthusiasm. We haven't won two games in a row since May 2011 and even they were bittersweet 'cause they were way too late in a miserable season to mean anything. It's been an utterly depressing time to support Villa, but we will win again...sometime...hopefully!

With Clark being in "indifferent" form and dunne being injured, you can see that given cannot handle too much pressured I think we need two players for defence, centre and left back. Get him signed Agreed. Having seen first two matches, I think a CB is actually quite high priority - Dunne won't be back for at least a month and I'd expect it'll be another month after that before he's up to speed (in relative terms!) as he's been injured for most of 2012. I don't really want to be relying on him staying fit. Dawson sounds like he could be expensive for his age, Spurs are good at milking every penny out of people, but our defence is desperately inexperienced. with the current status of Hutton/Warnock/Dunne, Vlaar is our only available defender over 23 and he's got to adjust to this league. QPR, Stoke & Sunderland all linked to Dawson too, so who knows if there's any substance..

Quite simply he thought he could get more out Nzog, Ireland, Clark etc. His faith in those 3 - has spectacularly back fired - Ireland didn't even get a kick yesterday, Clark was dire and got a red - and Nzog was totally anonymous. That doesn't make a lick of sense. How can Lambert's faith in Ireland 'spectacularly backfire' if he didn't even play him yesterday?! And it's way too soon to say how much faith Lambert has in likes of N'Zogbia and Clark. He has only managed 2 matches. We know next-to-nothing about Lambert's thoughts on the team. The only real shows of faith are in the people he has signed.

Bendtner's a good call. Don't particularly like him as person, but he offers something we lack up front, and he's surplus to requirements at Arsenal so perhaps could be got relatively cheap. Depends on wages & whether any of the rumoured interest from Italian clubs is true.

Malouda or Benayoun on loan for the season would be a good move. Don't know much about Kakuta

Jelavic definitely played for Everton before so shouldn't be 0. These stats are somewhat telling, but a bit misleading. Experience outside the PL should count for more than minimal experience in PL (i.e. El Ahmadi's 200 games in Holland make him a much more experienced player than our homegrown kids & even though Vlaar is new to this league he still comfortably looks our most experienced defender in the current backline). We don't need to over-emphasise the importance of having played in this league specifically, when you just need to look at people like Hazard who have played 2 Premier League games but are clearly quality. A tally of career games total would probably give a fairer comparison (and ignore the subs 'cause Heitinga's 300 games don't really mean a lot when he only plays 5 mins!) But however it's done it can't be denied the difference in the experience of the two defences in particular was immense. Everton have 3 defenders in their 30s, we have 3 aged 21, 22, 23. I have no problem with shipping out Collins, Warnock, Hutton, Cuellar but we have to add more than just Vlaar & Lowton to replace them.

Yep definitely missed a trick there. Time and again we're told how difficult it is to sign players, but we see teams around us/theoretically below us making good signings who would've improved our squad. the answer to the question there, though, is Steve Clarke. Strong Chelsea link. Let's hope Lambert has some links which can help us.

I don't think most of them would look massively out of place if they were put individually into another PL side at our level. The problem is we're playing 5 of them at once in a team which has been dysfunctional for the past 2 years. Take Baker, for example. He's a CB being put at LB in a defence with a brand new central pairing and an inexperienced RB, with a player in front of him who provides no cover. What chance does he really have of looking good in that situation? Or Clark finally gets put at CB but again, he's got an inexperienced non-LB one side of him and someone brand new to the league alongside him. He has not impressed, but this is hardly ideal circumstances. You don't see anyone else in the league ever putting out a defence as lacking in experience as ours was today. Compare someone like Spurs. They have some good young players, but if you simultaneously put Walker, Caulker, Naughton in their back 4 and Livermore, Townsend, Rose elsewhere in their XI I think they'd also struggle with the lack of experience around them. We go from one extreme to the other. O'Neill kept the same XI as much as possible and rarely played youth, now we're at a point where we play 4-5 homegrown players every match. Neither is ideal.

We did the worst thing you can do vs Everton and went behind very early. They are one of the best in the league at holding a lead. It clearly rocked our already unsteady confidence, and we then really struggled to get any hold in the game. That's where the massive lack of experience in the team showed. N'Zogbia and Bannan were the biggest disappointments. Both wasteful, both showing very poor decision making. Bannan needs to learn when to play simple and keep the ball on the ground, rather than trying to overcomplicate things. N'Zogbia needs to learn when it's best to run and when it's best to release it, but I fear he never will. Gotta try and eke out something positive, so I will say once we scored, even though Everton had clearly just settled for the score at 1-3, we did look a bit more confident & that is something to take forward. Holman and Weimann both offered a bit more brightness in attack in their cameos. Got a nice home cup fixture now to try and build some confidence. I'd like to see something like: Given Lowton-Vlaar-Baker-Lichaj Herd-ElAhmadi-Ireland-Holman Bent-Weimann

I think we're lacking in the area between Given and the opposition goalkeeper. And Given's been crap too!

Good lord. There is really no positive from this half. Completely lacking in attack, woeful in defence. Lambert has A LOT of work to do to make a team out of this lot.

Oh jesus, Given. Woeful.

Glad to see Bannan start. Bit surprised by Fonz. I think Herd will be in there to track Fellaini.

I think we'll get at least a draw. Everton are experienced & good at stifling teams, which is how they beat United, but they are nothing to be scared of.

Spearing is no better than Herd, so I wouldn't see the point.

I'd be very surprised if Sturridge is surplus to requirements unless Chelsea have another striker coming in. If Torres got injured they've only got him or Moses to lead the line.

Que mass VT suicide. He's a good player, but VT seems to have an unhealthy obsession with getting him here. I agree with the number of people saying he is a good player. But he is a MOTD player. Will do a few good crosses but then lose the ball to easily other times. Much like SWP in that way. Can turn a game on its head but not every single game. Maybe 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 games. I would rather have someone less flashy that can do something in every game he plays. SWP is a good comparison, and in fact their careers have followed very similar trajectories - make their name at middling PL club (Man City, as they were/Middlesbrough), step up to new money club at about 22/23 (Chelsea/Man City) get into England setup but never establish themselves as first choice with their club, after 3 yrs of being in/out of team move back home age 25/26 (SWP directly back to Man City/Johnson back to the NE, maybe would've been Boro if they were still around). Now the point here is: what did SWP do after Chelsea? Hung around at City bench for a few years, now he's doing very little at QPR. Obviously this does not mean Johnson will follow same path - he is a bit younger & maybe less reliant on pace as SWP is - but we certainly wouldn't regret missing out on post-Chelsea SWP, and I think it might well end up similar here. Talented player but inconsistent & frustrating with it. Not really what we need when we already have N'Zogbia & Ireland for that particular role :winkold:

If we shift Dunne and Warnock we effectively won't have a single outfield player in their 30s left in the squad (only Petrov, but no-one knows if he'll play again). And if we shift Dunne, Warnock and Hutton, Vlaar will be our only defender over the age of 23! Which would sound pretty damn risky to me..

I know right i mean after all he ONLY got Alexander Hleb ( Arsenal and barcelona midfielder ) and Obafemi Martins ( inter milan and Newcastle striker ) on loan for SHA ...Surely that was one of the worst points ive ever heard on VT :? Heh, and let us not forget how Hleb described the experience afterwards "The day before a game he would come onto the pitch and show us what to do: 'You stand here, the goalkeeper will give you the ball here, kick it as far as you can and don't pass to anyone nearby. And we all run.'" I am no McLeish fan but Hleb's career since leaving Arsenal has hardly been a blaze of glory. Maybe he should look at himself a lot closer. Read the whole interview. He was self-critical, but also McLeish-critical, I just picked the funniest quote: http://en.rian.ru/sports/20120419/172911969.html

I know right i mean after all he ONLY got Alexander Hleb ( Arsenal and barcelona midfielder ) and Obafemi Martins ( inter milan and Newcastle striker ) on loan for SHA ...Surely that was one of the worst points ive ever heard on VT :? Heh, and let us not forget how Hleb described the experience afterwards "The day before a game he would come onto the pitch and show us what to do: 'You stand here, the goalkeeper will give you the ball here, kick it as far as you can and don't pass to anyone nearby. And we all run.'"

I'd take it as a good sign if we're not after the players 'doing the rounds', i.e. the players agents are trying to tout. A lot of these will be players like Hutton and Warnock who clubs are most desperately trying to offload..

Great stuff. Sounds likes a very positive, long-term move.

It was probably the best thing he did all season so no surprise he remembers it! Bannan's got a chance for a fresh start after last season, and he's perhaps one who needs it most, as he faded badly after the driving thing and then hardly getting in the (underperforming) team. He is definitely good with the ball, but it's a question of applying it at the top level - can he make the right passes at the right time, etc. And that's also partly down to whether manager plays a system in which he fits. Certainly would be an attribute in the team for dead ball situations and a deep-lying playmaker role might be where he fits, if alongside the right players

He ain't worth that kind of money. Burnley got him from Hibs for £3m, which was an astute buy - our strategy this summer is to get these type of signings at that stage rather than when they've been over-inflated by a couple of decent seasons in the Premier League so I would not expect us to be considering him.