El-Reacho

He was one of the few positives to come out of the McLeish 'experience' - had a good partnership with Petrov, and was the best RB we had last season.

Imagine we'd had him in that O'Neill side with Milner, Young, Downing, and Gabby. I know he was only 16 or whatever but just imagine..........

Their comments remind me of the Arsenal fans singing 'We want our Arsenal back' at Wenger.

Getting lots of plaudits for our slick 3-5-2 on the twittersphere.

Sounds like we're doing well here.

Sweet.

Lowton getting grief for being out of position at RB!

Are Villa playing a back 4?

Are Villa playing a back 4?

That's not actually my logic - I'm just looking at it from two different perspectives - Most good managers won't allow the board to police their transfer policy and decide who's worth the money - O'Neill certainly didn't. So the club have to hand over much of that responsibility to the manager within an overall budget. The ideal situation is when the manager knows and understands the financial implications of everything he does on the club - and will himself take the responsibility for the effect it will have on the club long term. This is something that Wenger clearly does, and strangely something that Redknapp seems to be doing at QPR by saying he's not going to risk bringing in big signings if he feels the club will go down. The Chelsea situation is an extreme - but can you really say the results are rarely positive? They're the current European Champions. I think their plan to be self sustaining within a certain period is also ahead of schedule?

It's qualifiers like this when Given and Dunne are at their best usually (were in Given's case). From an Irish point of view I'll be delighted to have Dunne back in time. Will help us get that heroic 0-0 victory Trap will be so desperate for ;-)

The problem with this is that the board have no football know how to be able to judge what should be financially acceptable for a particular player. So for example how would they have known not to give Habib Beye such a long lucrative contract, but have known to get say Ashley Young tied down to a longer contract. And when the manger proposes N'Zogbia as a replacement for Ashley Young - the board's first instinct will be get him tied down to as long a contract as possible - because the guy in charge of the football side of things reckons they should. But if the board has an advisor say, for talk's sake Houllier - how can they be sure what their advisor says is going to tally up with what Lambert is recommending. Would Houllier have 'sanctioned' the Lowton deal for example? The board is in a tough position either way. Arsenal and Wenger seem to be in a good position as Wenger has clearly bought into maintaining the club's financial position at all times, even as they're losing their best players. In return they trust him to buy whoever he wants, and negotiate contracts.

I would consider Chelsea to be in the same boat as us - they have a striker who can put the ball in the net, but does bugger all else - and they're moving away from that style of play to use more complete attackers.

It's not Lambert's job to protect the value of the club's 'assets' - he was appointed to put a squad together to win games. He's decided that the best way to do that is with the current line up which doesn't include him. He shouldn't change that just so he can increase his value. Besides based on Bent's last few appearances, he was not exactly enhancing his value.

Would definitely be keen on him. I don't see why Southampton would sell him for that price - they're fairly wealthy I think.

Those are the type of players I think we need (again I don't mean those actual names, but that type of player). Weimann, and to an extent Gabby are goal scorers but we need players whose first instinct is to create, either by running at defences and unsettling them - getting them all out of shape so other players can capitalise. I suppose it's no longer being a winger really, because you want someone like Ronaldo who will just cause havoc right across the pitch in the final third. We're pretty easy to defend against at the moment - even with the 4231. Benteke in the air is the big fear for opposition defences at the moment. Gabby doesn't really use his pace as effectively as he used to.

I still don't know exactly what type of player N'Zogbia actually is. Is he capable of beating a full back to the byline and whipping a cross onto Benteke's head? Is he injured at moment?

Can't agree Trent, since we've changed to 4231 some of our best play has been down the wings - the two Utd goals were both from crosses from the byline. I think a pacy winger that can cross could be in Lambert's sights - someone better suited to the job Weimann is currently doing on down the right?

This. Would be a real shame if he was changed into some sort of utility defender. He is a far better right back than he's currently doing at left back. Not enough perhaps to dislodge Lowton, but I wouldn't want him to be deemed not good enough based on his LB performances. Didn't know that. Think he's set for bigger things regardless.

Agree with all of your post Philosopher - except Bent has more than two options. More than likely he'll huff and puff and try and force a move without requesting a transfer as it only costs him his loyalty money. The player will win 9 times out of 10 in these situations - it's up to Villa to simply get as much cash as possible for him. It's now that we really need the likes of a Levy type character at the club.

Arguably it's more important to have him at his best when we're playing the teams around us rather than Utd/City/Arse.

Don't buy it - No need for Lambert to be involved, surely it's more Faulkner when we're trying to get rid of someone - Lambert would be involved when we're recruiting. Also why would he go to WHL to speak to Liverpool's reps? Reckon we'll loan/buy a Spurs/Liverpool player in January. No idea who.

It's one less person to stop the opposition playing though. On Tuesday we had Bannan, Westwood, Holman and whatever Benteke was putting in. I would rather have Bent as an option with Ireland behind him, but would have to drop Benteke though, and Bent would have to work his balls off. In our current system Bent is a luxury we can't afford.

Does Darren hold a grudge I wonder? Redknapp clearly trying to build bridges. Why would the club not be furious about 'Arry tapping up one of our players, if, as Lambert says there's no issue here and he's not for sale.

It would probably be fair enough as long as Lambert has the last call though. So Lerner has maybe said the £3m is part of the transfer kitty and will need to be paid - it's up to you Paul. In which case Lambert's not really covering for anyone, he's made the call himself. I just don't see how a manager, particularly one like Lambert is going to agree to be grilled repeatedly by the press and lie to cover Lerner's ass at RL's request. I'd be pretty disappointed if Lambert did agree to that.