Macca1888

Market value is whatever we say. Guzan has just signed up to a nice new contract, too, so good luck gunners! This is the cockney press simply being very disrespectful to Villa once again. It was Benteke last year and now it's Brad. No, market value is what the market says not what we say. That would be our valuation, which I would expect to be higher this the market valuation because of how important he is to us. Yes. We are saying the same thing - "market value" is irrelevant as we are setting the price. Thus, when it comes to likes of Brad, "market value" is whatever we say.

He's far superior to any keeper at Arsenal.

Market value is whatever we say. Guzan has just signed up to a nice new contract, too, so good luck gunners! This is the cockney press simply being very disrespectful to Villa once again. It was Benteke last year and now it's Brad.

A class above us in all respects? Not too sure about that. Ah, I see the comment was made a week or so ago.

A class above us in all respects? Not too sure about that.

Well, in theory however many pages are put into this thread over the space of the next year or so. Delph, Petrov, Downing, etc. were all terrible for Villa a lot longer than Tonev has been so far. Dismissing a player in his first season is madness, doing it after 2 starts for a cub, I don't know what to say. Problem is, i cant see him getting too many chances, injuries permitting. You haven't the slightest idea of how many chances he will get, my friend - injuries or otherwise.

What's nice about that photo is that it captures the moment we are all celebrating an Aston Villa academy graduate sinking an oil sheik's financially-doped vanity project.

Yep, he did drop clangers - and probably has a few more in him - but that's all part and parcel of being a young defender and learning his trade at the highest level.

It's what Spurs are doing.

This is why writing young players off is too soon is a risky business. You have to give people time - in any walk of life - to prove themselves. Every one of youngsters who have come through in the last three years have been given a huge baptism of fire. In fact I can't think of any other set of youngsters that have had such a tough introduction to Premier League football. Our club was in turmoil when the likes of Clark were first thrown into the action - if he had been blooded into a ready made winning team like man utd three years ago people would have been talking about him in the same (over the top, admittedly) way that they have been speaking about the likes of Smalling and Jones. I'll say it again: when Clark was representing England at youth levels he was skipper of a cohort that included the likes of Gibbs, Sturridge etc. He's a class act and should be all the better for the experiences of the past three years.

I think people need to be a bit more organic with their thinking. There are all sorts of scenarios that could arise with Villa both as a business and as a football club, nothing is set in stone in football. The way we are viewed as a football club now could be very different to how we are viewed by Christmas. The way we are viewed as a club by the end of this season could be very different to how we are viewed in one, two or three seasons' time. The same applies to our funding, revenues and transfer spend.

ARGUABLY? The day those mustard guzzlers from Norfolk are a bigger club than Villa will be when pigs fly! Lambert looked at the potential at Villa, the stadium, the training facilities, and the sheer class of the club and thought that will do for me. Just like when Taylor left a good Watford side to come to us. The potential at Villa is frightening. If only someone could ever achieve it. For a promising British manager, getting the Villa job is still one of the best managerial jobs around. Aston Villa firing on all cylinders is a match for ANY job. Don't listen to the hype and bullshit about Man Utd - pre the Premier League they were also-rans. They're the media's go to club, their muse, if you will. Think X Factor: no one gives a monkeys but it's in the papers every week filling up space and making money. Man Utd are the football equivalent built up by the media as a means of making money, selling TV advertising space and filling pages of tedious newspapers. One Direction are another example of such a media built cash cow. A certain type of demographic (easily swayed by the media, lowish IQ, very young, impressionable etc.) gets sucked in by the coverage of these entities and simply hand over their cash making the marketing people and media companies behind them very rich and very happy. May Villa never sell their soul to the media!

Possibly the worst comment I've read on this forum.

Guzan is the best in the league.

Maybe, just maybe, he'll manage a successful Aston Villa?

I wish that would solve the problem, more like £30m for 2/3 midfielders. And why stop there - how about another £30m for 2/3 decent defenders? Being brutal, we have not progressed under Lerner's tenure. We are year-in year-out relegation fodder. I have been a supporter since the early 80s and my recollection is generally of Villa on the fringe of the top, the nearly-men, and that was OK, but the past three years have been desperate. Its all well with the general Lambert poilcy of buying young, hungry promising kids, but you really need a solid backbone to provide the platform to blood the youngsters. Tottenham got it right because they invested in youngsters, bought some decent players where they needed to, but generally kept wages in check which is what has killed us and forced the fire sales. A serious rethink is needed me thinks. A serious rethink took place three years ago and the part of your comment in bold is where we are now at. I can see us starting to sign "decent players" once more over the next couple of seasons. If we do sell Benteke for big money, for example, I can see us buying two or three £10-15 million bracket players to improve the squad further.

It is when the opposition is a top 5 Premier League club. It's a great attendance considering it was for a match between Villa's second/third string and Tottenham's second string. Everyone who went tonight went with the knowledge that Villa would be using the game to blood players and get others match fit.

And against all but one team this season prior to us they scraped a win by a single goal. Our Jan2013 form is coming early this season, City are going to wallop us. I just don't understand how anyone can find anything positive about this squad other than Benteke? We could go down this season, I am already thinking who is worse than us already. That was a Villa second/third team out there. Have some perspective. There is zero chance Villa will go down.

I'm looking forward to Tonev proving the doubters here wrong - he looks a very exciting player to me. If he's good enough for Stan Petrov and Paul Lambert he's good enough for me. "He was awful on Saturday in every regard". Good grief. The guy's in a new country, he hardly speaks English, he's desperate to get on the pitch and bang in a goal or two...show a little patience and understanding. He looks a very exciting prospect to me and if we, the supporters, can get behind him and help him settle, he will be a huge asset for the club.

I have to disagree with you. The club is rebuilding and I expect us to develop and grow year on year. We have been operating on a certain budget these past two years but my view is that this budget will adapt as we re-emerge. You're right, there's no quick fix - as the past couple of seasons have demonstrated. We're getting there, though.

So? All that means is that no one was willing to meet our valuation last summer - it certainly doesn't mean he isn't good enough for a CL team because I think we all know he is comfortably good enough. The point is though that no other CL team thought he was good enough to pay our valuation and with escalating transfer fees, that i feel is a telling factor. It may well be that CL teams want to see more of him before making the financial committment or, our perceived valuation of him is a little biased? No. We have a valuation for all of our players - if they are to be sold our valuation has to be met. That is how we operate as a strong business and a strong football club. Who on earth gives a monkey's what a "CL team" thinks of our players or how much they value our players? If Aston Villa are to continue to grow and develop once more as a club the only thing that matters is what Aston Villa thinks.

Once this lad has settled he will be a huge asset for the club.

Maybe by the time Jack is making it at first team level for Villa we will be back up there as contenders? I can certainly see Villa back fighting for top six/top four within the next couple of years. The timing for Jack is perfect.

Fans writing off a new player after a handful of games? When will people learn, I wonder. Give the lad time and he'll come good.

Agree. It's the start of the season, he's just had 3 weeks off, and we have no decent alternative. He won't be getting a rest anytime soon. I think he needs to play himself back into form - as do a lot of our players. We have had a really disjointed start to the season meaning we haven't been able to settle as a team and get into our stride yet. It might be a couple of games yet until we see the likes of Lowton hit their stride.