Philosopher

50m plus at least. Their captain, England International. Prime years ahead.

Also we need a quality set piece taker. We are crying out for one.

Dribbling style is the same tease, entice, and then boom balls gone. However Jack also has the weight of pass and can cross with both feet. Also for me we need a left footed version of Jack.

I like Saint-Maxim, but his end product isn't that great. And he is inclined to pick up muscle injuries. I also believe he plays best in the left. If we had another top class winger I'd be happy with him as a 3rd choice rotation option or if we planned to move Jack to the middle, then as the left winger. I'd like to see another creator type like Jack as opposed to a direct speed merchant like Saint Maxim. As we have 3 or 4 box to box midfielders good at getting in between the lines, and Watkins who is very good running in behind, then it makes more sense to me to have a player on the right who can find those runs of the two 8's and the striker. While also possessing the skill to hold ball and give thise players time to make their run and offer an outlet to carry the ball forward. Great movement in the middle seems to be Deanos aim with everyone capable ball carriers. So playmaker wingers suit that more. This will help ball retention too. Traore seems more of a playmaker type, but he doesn’t seem to have enough quality. Now if we decided to play Jack as a no 10 then pace around him is what you want.

I too believe the budget will be around 100m. I do also believe we will have to keep the wages of any signings down. Which means only one bigger name. I don't see any Barca players being on our radar unless we can somehow afford Coutiniho (Coutiniho and Jack on the flanks is bags of creativity). Younger players ready for first team football will be kept. So Fati and Pedro aren't going anywhere. The youngsters not quite ready for the first team will be hard to persuade and not what we need in the short to medium term. Jack will want to see another 100m spend at a minimum to stay and a big name or 2 included in that. The Money he is on now is enough, his next move will entirely a football decision imo, all a bigger contract will do is up his value. That may not be in his best interests even if he stays.

We need another winger that can REGULARLY beat his man and find quality end productas well. Traore, El-Ghazi and Trez simply don't do it enough, and the end product is not good enough. Targett has learned how to defend but is still too slow for my liking. So a quick left back is essential. This would sort the first team with Wesley fully fit by the start of next season, and Barry closer to being ready. Would like a big midfielder who is a fine passer both short and long, as a bonus. Obviously this is if we keep Jack. Would add a promising centre back to that as one for the future. The quality we need and the likely 100m spend we have mirror 2020's transfer window. But maybe spend bigger on the right winger.

It depends on the football we want to play. If we want to play tiki-taki short passing with a midfield full of players comfortable under pressure and capable of carrying the ball then we are heading in the right direction in terms of personnel, however the coaching is quite up to scratch for me. However I do think Konsa isn't the best aerially and that we need another huge guy in the team for set pieces both defensively and offensively. If we signed Sander Barge I'd be very happy with that. I feel that we'd be better off with Mcginn as the holder and Ramsey and Sanson if front of him.

I feel we certainly need to pass out of the back better. Our passing out of defense is very laboured at times. The movement is poor, and the passing is laboured the centre backs often take three or four touches when you need 1 or 2 touches. This is why we struggle to keep the ball when teams press us high, as we end up having to resort to long balls to a 5'10 striker. Mcginn is very wasteful with his passes. His short passing is poor, but his long passing is pretty decent. This leads me to believe he may be better as the holding midfielder as he is good in the tackle and tenacious as well. Then we can have him keep his short passes safety first, and his long passing to switch the play. We play far too many long balls forward (as our passing out the back is poor) when we don't even have a proper target man starting and not one player over 5'10 in midfield. Out wide if you have El-Ghazi and Traore wide you can get them up against short fullbacks as they are both 6 foot. However they both have poor direction on their headers. It seems to me that we need a specialist coach to work on the short passing and movement. This for me is not poor form. It's that we have been found out. Press us high and we resort to long balls. If our 5'10 striker can't hold it up then the ball comes right back at us. So in essence we are prevented from ever getting going. This is a technical issue.

He has shown himself to be a decent back up to Jack this season. That's as good as it gets for him. I'm fine with that.

I feel he is a good player. But not top a top level performer. We need someone with similar ability as Jack on the right in an ideal world. That is where the bulk of transfer fund should go in the summer I believe.

Not down with this comparison with other managers. Smiths team selection, substitutions and general motivation of the team yesterday wasn't good enough. Shame as is came in the back of the Leeds game where all of the aforementioned was on point. The team doesn't seem to be the only inconsistent factor.

Let's be clear the team that started never had the invention to break down a stubbornly defending 10 men. Ramsey was the most inventive of the lot. In the final third the final ball which usually came from the widemen simply wasn't good enough. Mcginn was also poor in the final third, and the fullbacks didn't overlap much to support attacks, as they are both slow! The sending off played into their hands. Mings and Konsa were the only players that can be happy with their performance. They were all sub par. To pin it all on Ramsey is unfair. McGinn continuously gave the ball away when in the final third, Nakamba is all about defending, Anwar lacked the awareness that he had the beating of his man so he should be using that to get into more advanced positions rather than using the yard of space he made without trying to hit deep balls into the box. Traore kept overplaying. Ollie looked like he was lacking a bit of power. Making two central midfield changes just as we were building momentum and keeping the ball in the their half, wrecked that and mean we had a 15 minute period of struggling to find any rhythm. He should have just taken off Nakamba for Barkley or Davis. So much was sub par about this from the management, to the entire midfield, the fullbacks, and the attackers. To scapegoat a youngster making his third Premier league start is a bit disgraceful.

Substitute fails to change game revelation. Nothing to see here move on.

Personally I don't think he is ready for City. I think he needs another season or two. Apparently they are looking at Locatelli who is a bit ahead of him in his development, and a very good player. Would fit in well at Villa. A tall deep lying playmaker. They seem to prefer tall no6's.

I agree. For me it's about what you get for your money. So Tammy would strengthen the squad and improve competition, but he certainly wouldn't walk into our first team. So at 40m he he simply wouldn't be realistic as we aren't at the level where we can spend that amount on a player that would only improve the squad. However 20m makes sense. 40m has to be we expect this player to improve our first team. Tammy isn't that guy. I'd pick Watkins ahead of Tammy all day long. They wouldn't be a good partnership as a 2 upto front either as they make similar runs and take up similar positions. Watkins isn't better than our other wingers as a winger and moving him would hurt his performances imo.

To be honest I think Barkley is trying hard and does want to play well. He has cut a very frustrated figure and I think that's down to him knowing he hasn't performed. Give him some time out of the team, train and find his game again and I'm sure he will be back.

Why did you have to remind me of that! Watching Lerner alienate the fans that loved him and dismantle what was a team with potential was excruciating.

Antidepressants!

I don't have Instagram!

McGinn is an 8 so playing as a 6 definitely limits him. Love McGinn. 100 percent effort every time he plays. You have to love that. Our midfield however does lack bit of class. We need that put it on a six pence pass master to put the icing on the cake.

Buying Tammy is a waste of 40 million. As no matter how you move people around to incorporate him the team doesn't look better. 40 million fees have to go on players that improve the first team not simply add depth or give us another option. Now if Tammy was going for 20 million and we had European football back at Villa Park then I'd be tempted.

Fortunately I can't remember much of him. He was very forgettable. I spent most of the o'deary days stoned which also helped!

Doug will almost certainly be sitting out the next game. Being rested, like this will hurt, but this will be good for him. Gives him a chance to refresh and work on his game. He was never the finished article. He is 22 years old and will get much better. Potentially a world class operator. I hope Nakamba plays well and keeps Doug out of the team, because I believe it will benefit in the long run. Doug seems to be a player that responds well to adversity. It will also keep Man City away from him.

Definitely deserves to keep his place. For me he is a player that doesn't do much for our team when in possession, but is our best defensively minded midfielder. The other two midfielders stayed quite deep and gave him a lot of support which really helped him. In games where we play more open he can be exposed. It's horse for courses. But you simply can't drop a guy on the back of a motm performance.

I don't see that as a dig. If it's meant to be a message to those out of the team then at most it's we all need to get our heads down and work hard. For me though it was more of a 'we are not a one man team'! Jack makes us better but we're a good hardworking bunch in the first place.