El-Reacho

Thought we'd be able to get more than £15m for Ings. He's a much better player and will get more goals than Chris Wood who went to Newcastle for £25m this time last year and would've been a similar age. I guess Ings' high wages account for the difference. WHU will have to pay him something similar for the next 2-3 years.

Bound to have someone coming in. Watkins' knock against Leeds will be a reminder to the hierarchy that we'd be in trouble if we let Ings go without a proper replacement. Duran won't be available for a few weeks right?

Yeah grass is always greener isn't it. I don't think our transfer business is any better or worse than any other side. Brighton and Brentford are the outliers - we're the same as most other PL clubs. Have our successes in Martinez, McGinn, Cash, Watkins, Kamara, Luiz etc., and have our flops. Almost every other club in the league have expensive players that haven't performed as they'd hoped. The money United, Everton etc have wasted is obscene compared to us.

He did indeed make lots of mistakes, but I don't think you can absolve him because he was offered a job he shouldn't have been offered. Gerrard's ego (built by being a great footballer not a great manager) prevented him from developing in any way as a manager whilst he was here. The only tiny glimpse of self-reflection he ever showed was the interview after the Fulham game the night he was sacked, when it was blatantly obvious to even the most blind of his fans that he was a million miles out of his depth. He never once learned from his mistakes and kept repeating them over and over out of sheer stubbornness and refusal to accept he was in the wrong. That's what winds me up so much about Gerrard over all of the other failed managers we've had - and that's on him rather than those that put him there.

Just noticed he's a central midfielder for Marseille. Only a matter of time before he's back at Villa Park.

When Ashley Westwood made his debut against Sunderland for Lambert a lot of the talk on here was about how long we'd be able to keep him for before United and Arsenal came calling.

That surely goes back to the early 1990's when Villa were in pole position to take advantage of the Premier League boom and become one of the world's biggest clubs like Manchester United did. Alex Ferguson predicted it would be ourselves and United that would become the dominant force in English football as the 90's progressed. Doug Ellis realised he could make a few quid for himself rather than give the club the (relatively small) backing it needed to realise its obvious potential. That's why we've been in the doldrums whilst United, Chelsea, Arsenal have hoovered up trophies. In the first season of the PL Villa and United were very similar clubs in terms of stature/size/success/history etc.

If we're playing against an opposition with a weak left hand side you'd think he'd want the option to flip things over and have a very attack minded RB and more defensive LB. Maybe Digne and Cash are the options for this strategy.

Not suggesting all the players should get a free pass for their performances under Gerrard, but surely we need to give him more than 4/5 games under Emery? I think he'd be better off in Bailey's position playing off either Ings or Watkins, if the new LW comes in and takes his current position.

Wonder will he bring in a similar style of RB too or does Cash fit the bill? Would be great to bring in someone as good as Ashley Young but 10 years younger.

Benrahma, Rodrigo, Willock, Morgan Gibbs-White all similar money too. Sinisterra, Dwight McNeil, and Bowen a bit cheaper at £20-25m Bailey is there or there abouts with all of them with the exception of Bowen who I'd definitely rather have.

This is absolutely correct. Most of our squad perform as per what we paid for them. It'd be great if we signed a few more players that performed well above what we paid for them like Brighton or Brentford are able to do. But other teams are probably looking at us signing McGinn, Emi, Luiz, Kamara etc., and wondering why they can't make signings like that.

They'll probably get rid of Lampard - just depends who takes over. Given they've zero strategy in terms of how the club and football matters are run anyone could be in the running to replace him. Allardyce again maybe?

Not sure if you've done this on purpose??

I've always just considered Cash to be a RB as he has been first name on the team-sheet there for both Smith and SG. He obviously offers much more than that given how versatile he was for Forest. He could be a much better option for the wide midfield role than McGinn is.

I think Ings in for Bailey is a good call. This will be a reverse of the game on Sunday where Wolves will sit deep and be well organised and we'll have to break them down. Bailey won't be able to use his pace to beat a high line. Ings as a clinical finisher in the box will be more valuable to us. Ings was outstanding against Brighton - still think he has a big part to play for us.

If Ings was available half the league would be in for him: West Ham, Brighton, Southampton, Wolves, Leeds, Everton, Forest would all have him walk into their sides. Even Newcastle and ManUre would have a look. £12-15m is pretty small change these days for a proven goal scorer. It'd be a shame if he left to go to one of our rivals because the chances are he'll score goals.

Next 4 games will be a totally different proposition to the last 4. We haven’t faced a team with a well coached low block with Emery, so he’ll be changing his approach to something similar to the Liverpool game where we came unstuck. Martin O’Neill’s villa sides came unstuck against ‘inferior’ teams who sat deep so we couldn’t use our pace down the wings. O’Neill had no plan B other than set pieces which was never enough. I reckon Countinho/Buendia/Luiz and maybe Ings will be vital over next few games as they can unlock defences rather than beating them by pace. Really looking forward to these fixtures - hopefully Emery can work his tactical magic.

He definitely would with a few more performances like that. The Gerrard debacle potentially cost Mings, Buendia, Watkins, Kamara and Digne WC places too.

As bad as Olsen was in the main, the pass to start off the attack for the Dalot OG was superb.

Jeez I'm gonna start feeling bad if we manage to screw up this guy's career too....

That would be WWF levels of theatricality. Tyler and Neville absolutely losing it on commentary…

I remember following the Liverpool game when we were 1-0 up with Trez’s goal until we lost in injury time on twitter (which was a mistake). The abuse the Liverpool fans were giving their own players during was horrific. Milner and Henderson in particular were targeted with ‘just get cancer and die’ sort of stuff from accounts covered in red YNWA branding etc. I know it’s kids hiding behind user names, but that was far more toxic than anything I ever seen from Villa fans.

I think the fan base will be much more patient with any of the names being mentioned than they were with Gerrard. A huge proportion of fans (and VT posters) could see and warned that SG would end up just like Sherwood before he was confirmed. It was clear there was no interview process and that Purslow had just gone and got his old mate. The fans have been far more patient with every other manager I can remember including McLeish, so I would hope that patience will return again for this guy.

We paid that for Ings or Digne, or even Wesley. The manager is way more important than any one player - it makes sense that clubs should pay as much for managers as they do players.