Cizzler

Can't quite make out the words? "He's no good at skiing and he's no Johann Bach, He can't ride a bobsleigh but he's king at Villa Park, Ohhhh Andy Weimann, He's a striker from Austriaaa" ?

Translation: I haven't heard a thing, I'm just going to post this to see if people bite Think he was just getting in on all the pun that is being had around here.

You do realise you are using an example of him scuffing a sitter onto the post as an example of why he is 'world class', right?

Bannan does have - a drinking problem Put your faith in someone who doesn't have their blood/alcohol level tested every training session, Con.

I don't catch much of the youth/reserves, Andy, and I always assumed that Carruthers was the pick of the centre midfielders. Who are the younger lads that are ready to step ahead? I know Graham and Grealish are rated higher on here - but I thought they played wider? And, Dan Crowley has left for Arsenal, right?

I agree with the decision. Never let us down but I feel he is being slightly over-rated by some on here. He was solid defensively. I remember him marking Bale well once, in particular. However, I think he's limited. His miss against West Brom this season ultimately cost us two points. I wish him well. He'll hopefully go to a Championship club. Ipswich could do far worse.

Not sure it's really fair to equate the Europa League to the La Liga title. In my opinion, ousting Barcelona is a far greater achievement than Europe's second-tier competition. winning just 1 league title with most expensive squad ever assembled isnt a great achievement Mourinho underachieved at Real. I agree. I'm only highlighting that success can not be measured purely numerically. Where would you draw the line? Has Steve Davis won as much in two years at Crewe as Mourinho has in three years at Madrid?

Not sure it's really fair to equate the Europa League to the La Liga title. In my opinion, ousting Barcelona is a far greater achievement than Europe's second-tier competition.

I checked and apparently the attendance was 22,915 for our friendly against Fiorentina in 2009. I think Malaga and Fiorentina are of comparable stature. Who knows? If we get a couple of exciting signings we could surpass that.

He's Belgian, but agree he could be a good player for us and our system. Probably not too expensive either. £3m? Another Belgian in the team could be good for keeping Benteke too. Not to mention how well Belgian players seem to be taking to the Premiership.. Him and Cavanda could come in very cheapily, perform well in areas we need depth in the squad and befriend Christian and get him to stay haha. Seriously - what the hell is going on in Belgium?! Courtois, Mignolet, Kompany, Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Dembele, Fellaini, Defour, Witsel, Mirallas, Hazard, Lukaku, Benteke, De Bruyne... Never seen this lad or Cavanda play - but I want to implement TRS-T's warped logic and sign them because they are Belgian.

Both. O'Neill did make some good signings. I would class Downing, Milner, Freidel, L.Young, Young, Carew and Petrov as good signings. Delph is starting to prove his worth too. Also Routledge and Maloney were inexpensive and can clearly perform at this level. It's just the astronomical fees and wages for average performers like Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Davies, Sidwell, Cuellar, Knight, Beye, Shorey, Heskey and Reo-Coker that was so thoroughly unimaginative and uninspiring. How much did we recoup from that list? I think that's why Lambert's approach is so refreshing. Hungry, young players with resale value. The sooner we are finally rid of the overpaid crap that is hemorrhaging our club, the better.

Do you have a link to Lambert saying that?

I'd guess that he's going on the pre-season tour with the first team

Why is this headline news? "Shite players at Stoke being unfunny". It's hardly the aporkalypse. Anyone else hear the barrel being scraped?

Luke Shaw, Walcott, Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain... Our graduates pale in comparison. Lallana and Dyer too. Imagine if Southampton had been playing at a level where they could have retained these guys...

I'd be pretty disappointed in him if he left as I feel like he owes us more. We've given him his break. That said, I think he'll sign. Lambert clearly values his work ethic and I'm confident we will offer him acceptable terms.

In my opinion Bent, Bannan and Given are all going to be sold. I can see a mid-table club stumping up around £8 million for Bent. A Championship club or Celtic signing Bannan and perhaps Cardiff/ Hull coming in for Given? Dunne, Lichaj and Marshall's contracts are up. Dawkins' loan has ended. Makoun's been sold. Hopefully Ireland will probably be released? He has a year left and I think we may offer him a severance package. I also hope Hutton has impressed someone somewhere at Mallorca and we can get rid of him too. I would also try and sell Albrighton, Holman and Stevens. Perhaps harsh on Enda - but from what I've seen these three do not have the technical ability to take us to where I want us to be. I'm willing to give Clark, Bennett, KEA and Herd one season to kick on - even if it just for the sake of keeping the impact of squad turnover lower. I feel Clark was put under intense pressure unfairly - captaining that grossly inexperienced back 5. Yes he made mistakes, but in my opinion there is a centre back in there somewhere. It can't have been easy for Bennett and KEA to step up to this level in the circumstances either. Herd for me is a useful utility player who has always given his all for Villa when he's played. The rest of them, I'm delighted with. Guzan, Benteke, Lowton, Westwood and Weimann had outstanding seasons. Delph and Agbonlahor came good at the end. Vlaar and Sylla both had very promising first seasons. Baker has potential. N'Zogbia offers something different from midfield. Would not be against Bowery being loaned out.

It was still a tough group though! Bayern, Napoli and Villarreal. They also got 10 points - which is usually the threshold. United did not get through that year and their group was Benfica, Basel and Otelul Galati... It may be unfair, in my opinion he deserved to be sacked. When you spend that much, you shouldn't be judged by rational expectations.

Boyce was born in Aylesbury! He came through Luton's academy. Also think they'd be hard-pressed to have signed a better player than Kone for £3.5 million. I'd have taken Figueroa over Bennett too. They survived for so long by unearthing players like Antonio Valencia, Rodallega and Figeuroa. Although I agree there is a fair but of crap mixed in. It would be unfair to say they're at the heart of the reason why the national team is poor. Arguably our best left back (Baines) came through their academy. They also gave Victor Moses his break in the Premiership - and back then it looked likely he'd opt to play for England.

I agree. Tidy player who is ready to make the step up and fits into Lambert's ideology. Would give Westwood a good challenge.

I've seen quite a lot of Vydra this season. He was brilliant the first two thirds of the season but really went off the boil! However he did score a worldy this weekend. I would take him but I doubt he would be cheap. Would love Kjaer/Dragovic to partner Vlaar. We really need a CB.

Anyone think he was unlucky to miss out on the u21 squad? Tom Lees and Craig Dawson chosen ahead of him despite playing Championship football all season. Hard to argue about Caulker being ahead of him - but Wisdom has played most of his football at right back. Rambling off topic but it looks like a really poor squad. Forwards in particular.

Hogg and Deeney (both ex-Villa academy) linking up for Watford to send them through to the play-off final. I was actually at Vicarage Road for the game. Unbeleivable scenes!

Malky Macaky told my friend yesterday to "put a quid on" him being the next Everton manager. Odds slashed from around 26/1 to 4/1 yesterday. Now we know from the whole OGS affair that the bookies probably have as much clue as us - but I thought it was worth sharing.

Lambert clearly likes signing unproven players and using the fact he is giving them their chance at the top-level as a motivational tool. I agree that the Football League has a pool of talent. Will Hughes, Tom Ince and Sam Byram have probably been hyped out of our price range but there are plenty of others who would dramatically improve our squad. Wouldn't be at all surprised if we picked up Luke Murphy from Crewe after the reports of Lambert watching him at Wembley.