Woody1000

I don't think the term 'made your bed, so lie in it' has ever been more appropriate. Instead of coming into the club and throwing his money around, or allowing MON to throw his money around in a way that was never going to be sustainable, we should have built slowly. Sure, we probably wouldn't have had the 3 6th place finishes, but we wouldn't have had the 5 years of shite after either. i think unfortunately we are stuck with him, as he would struggle to get £100m for us as a championship club. Dark times await.

Awful. The video looked horrible, I really fear for the lad's long-term future.

I think we will see a similar set up for the game at Goodison Park. I think the key for any new manager coming into this sort of situation is to stop the rot, and if we can get another point in that game then I can see the shackles being loosened for the home game against Watford. Very impressed with him so far, I think he is the most tactically astute manager that we have had for a long time.

Is it bad that I got a semi when I saw the line-up?....

For me it's a 27 game season starting this weekend, and we need 36 points. We've got to be 100% behind him. That is 9 wins, 9 draws and 9 defeats. That is a big ask IMO considering it's going to take him a few games to fully get his ideas across. I wonder if it's a step too far considering we've already dropped a lot of vital points from 'winnable' home games this season. Could any of you see us winning 9, 10 or 11 games this season?

This thread is just like Groundhog Day - the same people slagging him off and the same people defending him. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Regarding Lerner, doesn't the money belong to his family rather than just him? I'm sure there is a family trust, which makes it more understandable why they are holding out for the full price. Regarding tonight's game, pitifully predictable from Villa.

Moyes is still my first choice, although I don't think that we'll get him. I just hope that we can get in someone that can actually build something, rather than us just getting another stop-gap before looking for another manager in 12 months time.

We are in a relegation battle already (can't believe I'm typing that in October ffs) so I feel whoever we bring in needs to know English football and know the PL. I would like Moyes, got a point to prove and will tighten us up at the back.

I think that a defeat on Saturday will see the fans turn. We have had our worst start in donkeys years, and we're in serious danger of being relegated so Sherwood could be in trouble if Swansea take all 3 points this weekend..

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that we're going down this season. We need to act now, or this is going to cost Randy a lot of cash!

Unfortunately Richard I agree with you. Like we saw with Wigan, you can only flirt with the drop so many times before it eventually catches you. A season in the Championship would be awful for us imo, every side really up for playing us because we're the big club in the division, 2 games a week, the pressure of being favourites to win the title, id be biting my fingernails all year!

The more I think about it, the more I want Sherwood sacked assuming that we lose on Saturday. That isn't meant to sound defeatist, Chelsea have had an awful start to the season, but I think we'd all agree that we have a history of helping teams end bad runs - if you're down on your luck, come and see the Villa..... Hopefully we can have a new manager in for Swansea, and a little bit of 'new manager bounce' to go with it with 4 difficult games to come for us. I think Moyes is the man we need, knows the league and has a point to prove. One thing for sure, he'd sort our defence out! Richards would flourish under him imo. Whether he'd want the job is another thing, but he'd be my no1 choice.

It seems it's becoming clearer and clearer by the day that Tim is out of his depth. He won't see November at this rate.

I'm not going to criticise Wilkins for not standing in the technical area barking orders for 90 minutes because I've always got the impression that he does his work on the training field. Nothing negative has come out about him, nor do I expect it to.

no it isn't. I just worry about who we would get...

On the one hand I would like him to be given time, we've had quite a few injuries - I don't think the fact that he has never been able to choose from a fully-fit squad should go unnoticed. But on the other hand he just looks completely clueless at times, I think I've yet to see us win a league game under him that we've gone behind in. His substitutions (or sometimes lack of them) are baffling. The big question is will he improve?

He is becoming a terrific player. I can admit that I didn't believe the hype at first, but this boy is special. If he can add a few more goals to his game, then I can see home being the best player we've had for a long, long time.

Don't know about starting him, but I agree that he should be ahead of Gestede at the moment.

The worrying thing about the mistake last week was that it was from coming for a cross, something that I think most of us would agree is one of Brad's 'strong' points. As a goalkeeper myself, it just looks to me like his confidence is shot. His distribution has always been average at best, but when you see Brad making mistakes in areas he normally excels in then you get the impression that something is up.

Westwood is neat and tidy with the ball, but I feel that is biggest weakness is his positional sense - he just seems to completely lose his man at times. Definitely not our worst player yesterday by any means, but a disappointing game for him none the less.

My thoughts? He is giving me a boner, but I just can't see the song catching on.

Thought I'd give this thread a bump as I would imagine that with Gana's hamstring injury he'll be coming back into the side. Hopefully he will pick up where he left off against Notts County where I would say while not spectacular, it was his best performance in a Villa shirt so far.

Benteke started slowly? Your memory must be off thunderball, he was great from the off. He's started off slowly for Liverpool though I'd say 2 goals in his first 10 games is starting pretty slowly, especially when you consider that he averaged nearly a goal a game in his time at VP. Ayew needs some time, and I think football fans (myself included) are much too quick to judge a player nowadays. I think we need to give all the new foreign signings until May before we cast our judgement, they are taking on a new league and a new way of life, and I think they deserve until then. I can admit that I've not been impressed by what I've seen so far in claret and blue, but he scored a nice goal for Ghana the other day (the matchwinner I believe) so at least we know he has it in his locker. There's plenty of time for him to improve.

Nice to see a loan deal that doesn't only benefit the parent club. Looks like a decent ball playing defender, surprised he's never had a sniff with Liverpool to be honest.