El-Reacho

Jesus - is that confidence or wrecklessness?

Love that Benteke was trying to get the ball to restart before it even hit the back of the net.

Looks and sounds absolutely sensational there.

That's pretty much the best team we can currently put out. Weimann perhaps in for Gabby but they both offer different things. Wonder who will help out on the left hand side. If zog is allowed to roam about it'll leave us pretty exposed there.

On MOTD the other night Shearer seemed to think Newcastle's players were great when they're winning and disappear when they losing like now. Not sure I agree with Cabaye - he looked great on Saturday. But certainly Tiote and Cisse have gone off the boil. Demba Ba had zero motivation for them this season. As soon as he moved to Chelsea his knee suddenly was fine. Also Ben Arfa wants out apparently. Hopefully that attitude will spread throughout their squad - new recruits and all. I get the impression that Lambert scouts players a bit like O'Neill with personality and temperament playing a big part - so they're easier to motivate. Newcastle are perhaps putting all of their emphasis on raw talent.

I reckon Bent and for that matter Dunne will play their parts this season. Just like Zog is starting to do (hopefully). Lots of the big teams do that with their players. Look at Rosicky last season - he was all but ignored for the first half of the season and then brought in and was one of their best players for the second half. I think Lambert knows Benteke could and probably will run out of steam at some stage and he'll need Bent to come in.

I hate Guillem Balague. Smug bastard.

As did I. Desperate.

Marseille say they're not interested in him.

Looking forward to Gardner and Carruthers coming through. Would love if the academy delivered a really top class player.

It's because he's let his contract run down - he's a free agent in June hence he will expect free agent wages; similar to Sissouko.

Means we're relying on Dunne and Vlaar to stay fit to stay up. Not ideal. Surely even a veteran on loan as cover would be a good idea?

Why would Lambert come out with such praise for Lerner this morning then - basically saying they're best pals despite the fact Lerner is changing the goal posts on him. Why is he not furious?

I think we were all fully aware that we weren't going to sign another £20m player like Bent. And PL's comments today have confirmed that. For me he hasn't ruled out signings completely - I still think we will bring in a couple of players of a similar value to what we got during the summer - like Vlaar or Lowton. Lambert certainly hasn't ruled that out.

He was good last season when he was beside Petrov. It illustrates the benefits of having experienced players along side the younger guys because I don't think Herd is going to manage our midfield alongside Bannan, Delph, of Westwood.

Zog, Dunne, and Bent will come into their own in the second half of the season and help us turn things around. I think.....

I wonder does he even speak english? Hopefully this will be good news for us. Hard to say what way it will go but hopefully there'll be some bad feeling toward the club by the players which will take its toll on results.

Southampton news is great for us. Why on earth would they sack Adkins - he's the man behind their success to date. I fully expected them to pull away from the relegation zone but they've taken a huge gamble now. Don't no much about Pochettino - he'd a good couple of seasons as a CB with Heinze at PSG.

“I think Darren came in and the lad Makoun didn’t he? No, absolutely not a chance. “We’re trying to do something within the structure of the club, but we won’t be able to do that.” Lambert spent £20 million on signings last summer and asked if he knew about the financial conditions he would be working with, he replied: “I get on really well with Randy. “He really has been great with me. “I understand where he’s coming from on a lot of things and it is what it is. “I’ll work with it, and if I’ve got to go with the group I’ve got then I’ll go with it. I don’t have a problem, I’ve got nothing but prauise for these lads. “They give me everything they’ve got. Yes, I’d like one or two more results to get us out that bottom end. I’d like to get to a cup final and those sort of fans like every Villa fan would. ”Lambert was reluctant to divulge any details of his confidential conversations with Lerner. He added: Randy’s been great with me, I can’t ask for any more from him. We’ll wait and see. “I think the conversation between me and him is private, I’m not going to tell you what happened and that’s no disrespect to you, but it’s a privatre thing.” Why would he come out this morning and say this if RL has moved the goal posts on him. He knows rightly we need players to stay up I'm sure he's said as much in the last few weeks. Now Lerner is happy to roll the dice on our premier league status? Why would he cover for him? Think the club are feeding the press, clubs, agents, and players a story here.

Given our current predicament in the league, and the fact that two of our highest earners (Dunne and Warnock) are gone in June don't you think the club would bend the rules slightly this time?

One reason? Could an alternative reason be that RL and PF are haggling? There's still 12 days left of the window. The story so far is that PL has given RL the list of players that he wants. Firstly why would Lerner even accept this list if there was no money? Then Lerner has gone and tried to negotiate with these players' agents. Again why would he do this if there was no money. After hearing their terms he was withdrawn the funding? Perhaps he is now waiting for them to come back to him with revised terms after seeing his reaction. Playing hard ball and all that? Perhaps he's spreading the rumours that there's no money so that clubs won't think we're desperate to get anyone in to save the club from relegation and bend us over a barrel. Also nearly all of the players PL has signed so far have been 'privileged' to sign for Villa rather than vice versa (I know this sounds quite arrogant as fan when we've currently don't have a big pile to be arrogant about), as in it was by far and away the best move the could possibly have imagined at this stage in their careers. Therefore the players on PL's list are more likely to be very keen to come here which again puts RL in a position of strength, allowing him to play the waiting game. I see where you are coming from , but do you honestly think it's the only reason this could have happened?

Enda would have been perfect for the left wing back role in the 532 we played before Christmas. He has a good cross - much better than Lichaj.

Jeez you can't win: When they don't come out and back the manager it's cos all the players hate him. When they do come out and back him they're just towing the party line....

Class.

Probably already been suggested but this guy's available on a free? http://goo.gl/mF5Ll