Pez1974

Aston Villa FC ‏@AVFCOfficial Paul Lambert confirms Ron Vlaar is available for the West Brom clash. Richard Dunne and Darren Bent are hoping to train this morning. #AVFC That'll learn 'em! If Dunne can come back, does this reduce the urgency for a CD, and shoft the focus fully onto midfield?

Wow, some of the vitriol on here really surprises me. I suspect that 99.9% of posters on here love the club and are desparate to to see it get back to where we all believe it belongs. Yeah, we can disagree on what we need to do to get there, but some people seem ready to mutiny! No problems with opinions, no problems with people spreading gossip, as long as they identify it as such, but is does disturb me a bit when we start to turn on each other like this. C'mon, group hug........

I know. This sums up the difference between where the club is and where it should be. January is the time to make shrewd additions, and picking up a highly talented young keeper on the cheap fits the bill perfectly (esp. as it would piss off the scum). The fact that we have so many other priorities and so little money.... makes me want to have a little cry

James Nursey ‏@JamesNursey #BCFC still struggling to shift Butland for big-money. But been assured if he stays this month, then club WON'T go into admin despite fears I know we aren't that sort of club anymore, but I would love to think we could put in a bid for this guy. If they need the cash, £2m or £3m may do it, and he would surely earn a lot less than Given and is clearly one for the future. The issues would be - would he come? would be displace Brad? would they sell to us? do we want to save them? we have more pressing needs. Probably a non-starter then. Not sure why I bothered!

Gotta love the man. People slag off the club, but a lot of people come to the club, especially from Europe, and retain a real love for the place and the fans. Not the best defender technically (think McGrath), but made up for all of that with courage, committment and being **** immense!

He could fill a hole in our midfield. A bloody big hole to be fair

AVFC on twatter - Villa Park's main club store to reopen on Sunday instead of Monday. With such earth shattering news, this can only mean that we will be announcing a plethora of major new signings on Saturday evening / Sunday morning. Can't.....quite.....reach.....straws..........

I think the point on the Habib Beye thing is that a day or 2 after he was singed Luke Young's brother died in an accident, and he was rightly given a lot of time off. So we lost our first choice RB, and what did MON do with our new £3m and £40k + a week RB, put him on the bench and played Mellberg at RB. So we payed all that money for a third choice RB. A terrible signing and an inexcusable waste of money - sums up what MON and RL did wrong for me.

Great. Can we all set up a ITK accounts and talk about Sissoko, Stephens, M'Vila, Boateng, Coutinho, etc. etc. etc.

Gary Karsa is PLs man, someone to help him with his job of manager. What is being called a DoF is the owners man, someone to give him independent advice on the actions and suggestions of the manager and his team.

It isn't going to happen.

Funny. And then not because of the truth of it.

Apparently Fulham are wanting rid of Riise, and are wanting Warnock. Of course, it could be lazy journo's (who would have thought!). Maybe give 'em a call about a swap?

I know it's usually full of BS, but the Metro is reporting that Aston Villa are set to beat Sunderland to the signing of Toulouse midfielder Moussa Sissoko, 22 Can't they be right just this once!

Try the McLeish approach for staying up? Guzan Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker Bennett Hutton Delph Westwood Warnock Holman Benteke sold as he loses his man when defending corners

Blimey - I had forgotten all about Mr Krulak. Blood pressure rising, rising......

"Alcohol! The cause of, and solution to all of lifes problems." H J Simpson, Springfield, USA

Good point that. QPR singed Ryan Nelson (although he is likely to be off), and he proved their best defender in the first half of the season. Not glamourous, and Pl would have been hammered for it, but a solid pro who won't let you down.

Reo-coker I think is a decent shout. Free, knows the club and players. Isn't getting paid at the moment, so could work out quite cheap for 5 months. Barton is on shit loads. But (and I hate myself for saying this) he would improve us. Never going to happen though.And QPR still own him, so would undoubtedly block it. Ashley Williams - if that is what £8m gets you, I wish I had kept my fitness up! Whittingham would be OK, but not for that much. Couple of mill tops, not that we could afford that. Tom Ince - yes. ****' hell - I'd take his dad too over Bannan and Delph! Karl Henry - if we can't buy better than him for £1m and a bag of chips, I really wish I had kept my fitness up.

IMO, a total lack of footballing strategy started the rot. We played well with wingers (albeit we it massively overspent on mediocrity, mainly as a result of MON unwillingness to tap into the European market). We then sold the 2 main wingers without properly replacing them under GH, but finally bought a goalscorer at an inflated price. Then we appointed McLeish, who only seemed to play with defenders in every position. Now we have PL, who doesn't use wingers. Can you imagine someone taking over at Old Trafford next season and not playing with wingers - they would need to sell Young, Valencia, and Nani. They would need a different style of midfielders, the full backs would need to change their style of play. It would be a hell of a transition, but at least they would still have RVP, Rooney, Vidic etc. We are doing it with kids who ain't as good as everyone thought they were. MON loved older, experienced players. GH and PL preferred younger, hungry players (Pires aside!). McLeish loved defenders, and shit ones at that. Lerner has spent a fortune on players and wages, but we are now in a 4th consecutive season playing and recruiting in a different way - under 5 different managers. This means that continuity in our scouting system is almost non-existent, with long term player recruitment looking 6 months ahead tops. Look at the best sides - continuity is almost always key. And not just Man Utd and Arsenal, look at Everton, Wigan (for their level) and even Swansea played the same way under Matinez, then Rodgers, and now Laudrup. Plus, (taking the argument a little above our station) look at Barcelona - they play a set style and have done for years throughout the club, from the youngest teams up, under Rikyaard, Guardiola and now the new fella. They buy players who fit in, and they can usually just slot in seemlessly. We buy Alan Hutton, and expect him to do a good job defensively, when the whole world knows he can't. Personally, I think Lerner has done loads for AVFC, and spent a fortune. But he knows **** all about football. His Chief Exec is a commercial guy, and is doing a good job at it. But he knows nothing about football. We know this, they appointed McLeish (I don't like McLeish you know!). We need someone in the Boardroom with footballing knowledge to help guide the Board. Tell them when and where to spend; mention that perhaps £2m and £50k-odd a week on Habib Beye as a 3rd choice right back is not great use of funds; question why McLeish thinks Alan Hutton is fit to wear the shirt; provid a bit on continuity on footballing matters even if the manager changes, and make sure the new manager can build upon previous work, rather than start again; and provide a link between the Board and the fans. Until we have this at the top, we ain't going anywhere nice.

We know we are still paying for the old shortcomings in the transfer market - and although the singing of Bent may have actually kept us up a couple of years ago, it led to a rise in our salary bill that we couldn't sustain. As a result, we stayed up, but couldn't afford to invest so continue to struggle. We can't afford to spunk shed-loads on one player, and then not be able to invest next year. Therefore, as much as we might not like it, we need to invest wisely, as we need a few bodies in quickly. What does puzzle me is our seeming inability to tap into the rich seam of French and Spanish players that other teams do. On the signings of other clubs - do not mistake quality and quantity. Reading have signed 2 players, but no-one really rates either of them. Remy to Newcastle may prove unwise, as he has really gone off the boil I understand. M'Vila (who I would love to sign from what I know of him) is a known arse, and could be a mistake as well. And those who mention MON's signings at Sunderland, I hadn't heard of them, so who knows!

Yep, we need a couple of nasty players, but who can actually be effectively nasty. Delph seems to get a booking every game, but has no presence because he is a strip of piss who wouldn't intimidate my daughter. You don't need to be big, but to be a good DCM, you need to be very strong. And no-one in our midfield is. Also, I cannot understand why people put Weimann out wide in their proposed formations. He is a goal poacher. We see time and again that his crossing is poor, his decision making can be poor, but his one touch finishes are as good as anyone. To use him right, we need to play him CF, with Benteke. People always talk about whether we should play Benteke or Bent, but for me it is Weimann or Bent, as neither do the role Benteke does.

Of course he says this. He ain't going to say - yeah we'll sign a few, we're loaded. This doesn't mean we have funds, it doesn't mean we haven't.

Getting people back is vital, and the numbers back in training will give the squad a boost, add to the energy levels (a few have looked jaded recently) and give us options. If we can get Vlaar back in the defense (even for 60 mins), Westwood back in CM, Holman providing energy (for 60 mins!), N'Zog creating, with Benteke finding a bit of form and Weimann keeping scoring, I think we are seriously stronger than we were over Xmas.

Westwood is back according to Mat Kendrick. Whether back in training or in the squad, not sure. Either way - great news for me