Villanun

Then what's Shearer doing on the beeb?

Jelavic still can't score!

Bloody Shunnamites. Once they get into the carpet they're a bugger to get rid of.

With regards to Lerner's original statement, I still feel his hand was forced somewhat by the speculation surrounding the club and the fan unrest. So I understand why he made the statement; I just don't understand why he said what he did. Essentially saying "I'm sick of running this club, give me 200 million for it please" doesn't sound like a great sales pitch. It reminds me of Mr Burns buying his power plant back from the Germans: "You are desperate to buy? What a coincidence, we are desperate to sell!"

Just checked out the No Man's Sky trailer. I know trailers are carefully choreographed and can't be trusted, but wow. If the planet-to-planet transitions are really that smooth then color me impressed. I grew up having to wait ten minutes for a game to load off a cassette tape, so the prospect of whole worlds streaming in real-time like that it's pretty exciting. I'd like to see more of how things are going to be structured, as I think a properly organised multiplayer will be vital to longevity, but the tech and art style are very impressive. Gta V on the PC - about bloody time. I always play Gta games on the PC because of mods, but the ports are usually terrible so I'm tempering my excitement. Assassin's Creed: Unity looks like it might finally be the AC game I've been waiting for. I lost interest after AC3 with it's bugs, awful missions, dumbed-down combat, boring lead character and disappointing cock-tease of a story. If Unity delivers on its promises of improved movement and more open-ended assassinations then I could well be tempted back. And Hotline Miami 2 will have a level editor? Awesome.

Oh God yes, like in a Looney Tunes cartoon - he pulls the cord to open the parachute and an anvil pops out instead.

I'm okay with this signing. He's a naturally talented player whose injury problems have been a major setback. I think he'll be a positive addition to the dressing room and can add much-needed confidence to the midfield. We just have to keep him fit. I'd definitely rather have him as an option than Sylla. Welcome aboard, Joe!

If Lambert manages anything like I do in Football Manager he assigns everything to the coaches and clicks Next to continue.

I'm afraid that all this talk about Benteke annoys me a bit. If he'd remained fit we MIGHT have scored more goals and won more points, but that would still have only been covering up the gaping deficiencies in the rest of the team. I mean, Benteke's fitness had no influence on Luna's propensity to pull out of important tackles; it had no impact on Baker and Bennett's poor decision making and disastrous mistakes; it didn't force the midfield to crumble under even the slightest pressure or make them pass the ball straight into touch; it didn't make Gabby jog for most of the season or cause Weimann to get so few shots on target. To put it another way, when I hear people talking about Benteke they always comment on his ability to make something out of nothing. The something is great - it's the nothing he has to keep making it from that's the problem.

Well so far the most exciting thing about this match was the thunderstorm.

Ffs Sturridge!

This Honduras team needs to toughen up, add a bit of physicality to their game.

Time for more Adrian Chiles. About time, I don't think we've seen enough of him so far.

Sheezus, 30 minutes of dead air would be preferable to this.

Interesting that the Tony Moon shirt is on sale. Is he on his way out? I bought one of those shirts. The front was all right but it was all over the place at the back.

Sounds like an ITV nature documentary.

Me: Wow, what a terrible season! You know Randy, I don't think there's a single thing you could say to convince me that Lambert shouldn't be sacked immediately. Randy: I'm going to announce to the world that I'm sick of running the club and then hope that someone gives me two hundred million dollars to take it off my hands! Me: ...You got lucky, Lerner.

Yeah, that username doesn't seem quite so clever now. With regards to Lambert, I mean the way he toed the line about the policy of buying young and hungry players for ages, but towards the end of the season he stated talking about needing to get in more expensive players, dropped hints about things not being right behind the scenes, and saying that the current situation was not where anyone (including, I think it's fair to assume, him) wanted to be. It wasn't much, but for someone who'd always talked about having a close relationship with the owner and had always agreed with the transfer policy, it was a marked change. I don't think that's what forced Randy's hand in and of itself, but it can't have helped. Right, I'm off to change my username.

Up the Lliwedd Bach passage? Back on topic, I kind've wish I hadn't found out about this sale so early. In the run up towards the end of yet another awful season I kept thinking "Oh well, at least we'll be for sale soon, that'll make me feel better." Now we're actually on the market I've gone from worrying about relegation to worrying about who, if anyone, is going to buy us and I don't feel better at all. My head tells me it's easy too early to start panicking, but my Villa genes aren't paying much attention. That being said, I think Randy was put in a position where he had to announce something. The crowds were against him, the players seemed unhappy and the manager was making off-message statements for the first time. I wonder if the initial "I'll make a statement at the end of the season" announcement was put out to keep us quiet in a difficult run-in. After that he'd have to make full announcement even if there wasn't a buyer lined up. As far as the recent front-runner having dodgy connections (allegedly), I don't think there's any successful businessman who got there without having a few skeletons in his closet. Ruthlessness goes hand in hand with success, and I suppose I'd rather have a hardheaded businessman than a well-meaning but ineffective heir. Long time lurker, first time poster, btw. Hello everyone. Be nice.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Been a Villa fan for about fifteen years, and a VillaTalk reader for two, and I thought I'd join properly and contribute my thoughts here and there. - Chris