CVByrne

Look at the level of the players we're bringing in. Coutinho, Digne, Kamara, Carlos. A cut above the players we have.

He has played this season on left side of CB, but is right footed. So good to know he can play either side so can partner Konsa or Chambers no problem if needed.

I love that he's nasty, has an edge to him.

Hopefully he's announced now too

I think he'll have a brilliant partnership with Mings next season. He'll take on the responsibility for playing out from the back, while Mings focusses on what he's best at, defending.

Fantastic. Gerrard has added two elite passers within a few days of the end of the season.

I do find it amusing Gerrard has explicitly said we need more experienced senior players in the squad and then get annoyed when we're linked with experienced players.

Injury has cost him. A full pre season and hopefully he gets fully fit. Sounds like he was ripping it up in training as Gerrard said and that's why he got into the team. Hopefully he can learn the 10 role and maybe add some width in games he plays Coutinho Buendia Bailey, that's a quality group to pick your 10s from

Yeah we should also get rid of Gerrard. We need to keep firing and hiring people like Watford. That's what we should do.

Hopefully he'll stay for now. But tough to turn down a head coach role like that

Fulham will be signing him. He's not staying here

Yeah I'd go with this. Needs to play with a top Championship team. Send him to Deano

The difference is we don't win anything. For Villatalk the majority want young players who might go on to be sold and win things with other clubs. We don't want to have success at Aston Villa. It's all about the fantasy manager profit and loss of players.

Seriously, the stuff you read on VT. Ings being better at finishing off chances than Luis Suarez.

Absolute nonsense. Leader doesn't mean shouting and organising a team. Leaders are players who lead by example. Look at how his Atletico teammates celebrated last season after they won La Liga to see how much influence and leadership they though Suarez brought to them.

I think Gerrard correctly surmised that we lacked experience in our team. The problem we have is all our players had got their Premier League experience with Villa. Mings, Buendia, Martnez all had a bit before the joined us but not much. Ings was the first experienced Prem player we signed and Young but he's not a starter. Digne and Coutinho were a step above with Trophy winning, European and International footballers. Getting Kamara in is great as he's lots of experience for his age but he probably will need time to adapt. Getting Bassey in is also good as he isn't needed for the starting 11 yet and has time to improve. We have players in Watkins, Cash, Buendia, JJ etc.. who are still learning, having just two season of Premier League football to their names. The culture and mentality of our team has come from their shared experiences learning Premier League football. We need that experienced Centre Back, midfielder and striker now. Tarkowski, Bissouma, Suarez for example.

I think it's the ball playing part which is key. Plus he brings experience of European competition plus won the Europa League.

The key for me in this is he's a proven Premier League player. With hundreds of games experience, he's played in Europe with Burnley too lets not forget. He's a known quantity and critically he's been consistent. As much as we love Konsa he's had 1 good season in his 3 at Villa so far. We've seen with Chambers, Digne, Coutinho what signing ready made experienced players are like. We'd all call those three signings successful and we're all very positive about their contributions next season after a full pre-season. Tarkowski, Bissouma, Suarez, Oxlaide-Chamberlain etc.. are all proven players in the Premier League. Bissouma being the least experienced has 112 premier league games in 4 seasons.

Yeah, I do believe we need experience in midfield though. Bissouma is great player and all I just would love a more senior player who has been a winner, won trophies to be added to the squad. One who is content with starting or coming off the bench. I've no idea who that player is, just feel we need that in middle of the park.

I think they were already paying these salaries. Their plan is to stop with transfer fees and thus save themselves half of the total cost they used to have.

He's for competition with McGinn I'd imagine. While adding experience to midfield which will feature a 21yo and a 22yo in the majority of games next season.

I think he'll still go. His experience will be needed. Southgate giving younger players a look makes sense.

He had one good season with Leicester. He subsequently joined Chelsea where he didn't play at all really for two seasons. He then went on Loan to Burnley where they didn't even play him. Finally landing on Loan with Villa. Ox has played over 1500 mins of minutes of football for Liverpool this season, Ings and Buendia have 1900mins So yeah, there's your nuance. He's Danny Drinkwater mk2

Assuming he costs the £10m reported. I also seems he's on £120k per week wage and he'll want to keep that salary level. He'll probably want a 4 year contract though. Which is fine as he's 28 and plays CM. So that would be £8.7m per year cost to us.