Pez1974

Vlaar. No need to change it for next season. However, he will have to step up again if he wants to keep it for 14/15.

Close. Getting money for Ireland would more impressive. Getting rid of Bent, Ireland, Hutton and Given (on top of Warnock, Dunne and Makoun) would be unbelievable.

Even if they are just rumours, it's nice to hear that a few clubs may be interested - increases the liklihood of his departure and perhaps means we will get a reasonable fee. For me, the guy has done nothing wrong, but is taking up way too much wages for his role in the squad and we should offload. If he is on the reported £80k per week, saving £4m in wages next season (perhaps offset by £1m wages to his replacement) would mean that £6m+ would be decent business for us.

Lazy journo link, or an agent trying it on for me. Reading would ask way too much for this guy, and his wages would be relatively high too. Lambert is getting in quality and value from all over Europe - why would he bother with this guy?

I love this link. Not being Danish, nor a player of compuer games I know nothing of the guy. However, I have banged on in the past about the clubs lack of footballing strategy (i.e. buying Bent after we sold the best wingers in the country; changing the style of player from wingers to 4-3-3, via Houllier and MacLeish; etc. Having 2 similar players in the squad figting for the same place makes perfect sense.

Great news. This summer is so un-Villa like! Signing up the better players to longer contracts; getting rid of the shite; signing promising younger players.......

That's about it for me.

I doubt he would be interested in Sinclair. He represents everything that got us into the mess we are just getting out of - expensive; high wages; somewhat inconsistent; lack of committment (preferred wages to playing); etc. I love the way we are going with Lambert - Tonev would cost much less than Sinclair, probably be on less than half what he would want in wages, international etc. The current England problems are easily put down to a lack of English players in the Premier League, but the transfer fees and wages being demanded result in clubs looking abroad for cheaper and better players. Scott Sinclair (amongst many others) are a perfect example of this issue.

Good plan Mikey. Stick the academy ones in for me, just after the 1st team squad - don't try and do in chrona chroni in date order. IMO Lichaj, Marshall and Dawkins are way too high. Probably less then £20k per week between them.

Agreed. We don't want him; PL won't want him' he won't want to come here.

He did say something like that, but I think he was just being polite in reponse to a question about possible signings. He isn't going to say "Defoe? Jones? Nah, they're shite." Unless something unimaginable happens, I would gladly put my house on us not signing someone like Defoe - wrong type of player, in the wrong position, on the wrong wages, at the wrong age, with the wrong lifestyle. The only caveat to that is that a 30 year old central defender may be considered as a short term option if the main targets weren't available. But I wouldn't expect it.

This is a serious point, so please bear with me..... If we sell Bannan. And Ireland. And Hutton. And Bent. And with Dunne, Makoun and Warnock now gone. Who the **** are we going to argue about?

The Defoe link just makes me smile! In the past I would have been worried, but I just don't think that PL would be interested. However, there does seem to be a few clubs interested in Benteke, so at least we should be able to force the price up to silly levels if we do sell. As for Capoue, I would love him here. There are always links to bigger clubs, bu that is probably just agents stirring things up. Will we get him? Nah! McGeady? I thought MON had left!

First day back off holiday and in work. The thought that Baz could be off, and we get some money in The Swansea thread

Will Hughes would be a great shout. I am currently on holiday and a Derby player is also at the hotel (top bloke by the way) and he reckons that Hughes is going to be unbelievable, better than anyone he has played with.

I agree with the recent posts. If he wants to play the last couple of years of his career, he can have a free transfer and good luck to him. I wouldn't give him more than a notional amount (although a footballers notional amount is vastly different to ours or mine!) If he wants his contract paid up to leave, he can sit and be our back-up keeper for the next 3 years. If he goes, we would have to get someone else in, and with fees, etc, it ain't worth paying Shay off. Plus, it's not like he's acting like a tool about it - he is being kept out by one of the best keepers in the league.

I think there will be tons of bollocks about Bent over the next few weeks, as he is clearly a player with value who isn't playing and will want to - perfect fodder for agents and journos alike. I think we need to ship him out quickly both to stop the circus, and because he is probably our most (unwanted) saleable asset and earning the most wages; shipping him out will give Lambert a lot of certainty over his transfer kitty and wage bill. I also think we will have a number of options - I can see both Cardiff and Hull being in the hunt, and maybe Watford or Palace, as he is a London lad and may be prepared to take a pay-cut to move back there. I also think a few other PL teams will fancy him - Fulham are an easy one, and maybe WBA if they don't get Lukaku back again. In fact, most of the teams around us last season need to score more goals, and this guy give them options. I also think going abroad to somewhere like Russia or Turkey, where they don't mind paying silly wages, could be possible. We must have a few options, and I hope that the club and exploring them with haste.

Spot on - good post

Interesting and balanced. Thanks for that. Couldn't resist scrolling down at first to check out the Bannan comments

We survived! Given the surgery required on the squad following 2 seasons of going nowhere (or backwards), I feel that we have a squad which will be better next year even if we add no-one to it, which I haven't felt for years. I think is is a massive step forward for the club. However, we are already going to lose some people of next years wage bill who contributed nothing this season - Dunne, Makoun (done already I heard), Petrov (sadly), and with possibility of a few other non-contributors moving a on (Hutton? Ireland? Given? Bent (he did contribute, but no much)?) any additions would inevitably make e squad stronger. In my opinion, Lambert has proved to be very shrewd in the transfer market, and the 'truth' coming out about some of the fees paid for he likes of Lowton, Westwood, and Sylla should make Randy not only willing to back him further, but desperate to do so. Next season we should be looking at a top 10 finish with a couple of defensive additions, plus replacements for those other departures. If we can really nail the defence, perhaps a little higher. However, keep the team together after next season, and we could easily become the 'new Everton'. Maybe even the 'new Spurs'!

The problem with ex-pros is that they rarely slag off other pros. If Savage had come out and said that we have too much shite in the squad, but have replaced them with too little experience - fair play. He didn't, he just said that too little experiece = not good enough. Which is (and was proved) bollocks. A squad of Guzan, Benteke, Lowton, Wiltshire, Sterling, MacManaman, Michu, Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw (I could go on) would have little PL experience, but would be bloody good. Whereas a squad of Rob Green, Bosingwa, Chris Samba, Nedum Onuoha, Ji-sung Park, Wright-Phillips, Jenas, Hoilet, Zamora, Remy, Andy Johnson will finish bottom. Shit loads of experience there! In fact, if you look at Lawrensen's predictions, I think he has QPR in the top half. These guys know next to **** all.

**** me, did we only have to pay them £0.5m

QPR - like most, perhaps Hoillet, but I do think there will be better available for less money. I like M'bia too, but I think wages will be an issue. Reading - McCarthy looks a great young keeper, but we need to shift Shay first. Not convinced about Le Fondre; he is a sub for a reason! Robson-Kanu has a lot of bad days for me, although I think Kebe could be a useful squad player, but suspect that better and cheaper is out there. Wigan - I know I am wrong, but I have never seen anything in McCarthy or McArthur to say that they are good players. MacManaman I really like, although he needs a lot of coaching and again will cost a premium price. I've never been convinced about Kone. Some good stuff but a lot of dross. Positionally he's terrible. I think Sharner could be a useful addition and he covers CB and CM, but only as a squad player. Di Santo is shit - the Argie Emile Heskey!

The squad balance is still a problem. There are still too many players with too few games under their belts, and in defence this is most keenly felt - we need a CB with more experience, even if he is just a reserve for Vlaar. Having said that, the players have the experience of this past season and that is a massive plus for next year. We are fine at GK, but hugely over budget. Hopefully we can sort this out in the summer. As said earlier, we need more experience at CB, and PL will need to decide on LB. Will Bennett come good next year? Is Stevens a good enough back-up? Personally I would resign Lichaj to cover for Lowton. Midfielder is a mess. Our first choice 3 are looking OK, but we should try and improve upon these and this will mean at least one of these being relegated to the bench, which is a good thing. We have far too many CMs on the books; Westwood, Delph, Sylla, Bannan, Ireland, Herd, KEA, Gardner, plus those stepping up fro the youth team competing for 2 or 3 slots is crazy on our budget. This area needs emptying, and for me KEA, Herd, Bannan and Ireland can go, and be replaced by new starter and those from the u21s. The front 3 are fine, and presumably the plan is to keep these. Bent is way too expensive for the bench, so we need to get rid and replace - whether internally or buy I just don't know! Plan B would seem to be to bring on an ACM for a CM - if this is N'Zog, fine - he can stay! So can Bowery, who will be inexpensive and an option out wide. However, I cannot see a place for the Fonz, Albrighton or Holman in the squad, and presumably Dawkins will be packed off but I believe there are a couple of youngsters in the u21s who would fancy a chance, so perhaps again we could see 4 out and maybe only 1 in upfront.

Gone for 6. A new, more experienced, CB and maybe the same for CM. Otherwise, a few up and comers to replace the ones we ship out, with the U21s having a few step up as well. Reckon we will give a new contract to Lichaj too.