JPAngel

@dont_do_it_doug. @DeadlyDirk As long as I can use a blanket to cover the penetration...

I just want an official interview with XIa and RDM and I'll be happy, I swear.

Yeah but even Young and Milner went for nowhere near what they were worth!

Have we ever got good value for selling on any of our players since Lerner arrived? I feel like we pay high prices and get low sell on fees for everyone. Other than Downing and maybe Benteke we let our boys go for pennies!

I would absolutely love for him to come back into the first team. As others have mentioned above, the parallels drawn between overcoming adversity for both parties is uncanny and for him to help drag us back into the BPL would be amazing. The fan response alone would be worth giving him a shot. Having him back in the dressing room would be inspirational.

Do people think that once the takeover is signed off by the BPL/FL the signings will just start rolling in? I haven't been this excited for a transfer window in bloody ages! I'd love for us to sign at least a couple I've people I've heard of this year and you'd hope that with Dr. X's apparent wealth, this could be a reality. I've had enough Lowtons, Bowerys, Westwoods and Bacunas to last a bloody lifetime

That article was a fantastic read. I wasn't hugely fussed about Massimo until now! It's so refreshing to know that we've got such sound knowledge behind the scenes on a coaching level - it's importance could not possibly be overlooked, this season especially.

For those who don't want to translate, the above is just a statement about Steve Clarke's arrival and his career thus far.

Hey, why don't you tell us how you really feel!

Therein lies the choice RDM has to make. Glad I'm not in his shoes . I don't think affording him the time to perform is an issue if Xia is to be believed and I do think he's a good option to have on bench as I said earlier. I say keep him for another season and give him a chance as he's at least performed in this division before. With Ayew leaving and Kozak likely broken, it's probably worthwhile.

@sne He's a target man, if the ball is being passed around in front of him on the ground he can't get in to positions where he's effective. If the ball isn't being put out wide and crossed in, he's pretty much useless. I'd love to see some stats on balls crossed into the box or even matches where we've had actual wingers on the pitch.

Perhaps not all the time but I think he's a dynamite option to have. We've seen how effective a "big man, little man" combo can be in the past and as someone to chuck on to give us an outlet/battering ram up top he can't be a bad choice. Imagine, knackered opposition defenders, 85th minute, on comes Gestede... That's a nightmare scenario for them if we use him correctly.

Precisely the reason we're using him all wrong and that's probably why he's a target man. There's a reason why he did this:

Nail on head. I think we underestimate Gabby's pull in foreign countries as well. He's been a premier league player for a long time and his surname is hardly forgettable. We have to remember that Liam Ridgewell is a top player in the MLS at the moment and even has his own signature celebration - "The Ridgy Roll" *shudder*.

@omariqy I would be devastated if we still had Richards, Lescott and Gabby at the club. Probably the three players most responsible for the current atmosphere at the club.

I'd take Barry back but calling him a legend is just wrong. Have people forgotten about him saying he'd only leave for a club in the Champions League and then left for Man City who weren't? You could argue that they were on a road to the CL but weren't we at one point? Even more so if our best players stayed and Barry, being one of them, buggered off as soon as Citeh flashed the cash. Add to this the fact that in the seasons after his move he got absolutely slammed by the whole of Villa Park on his returns with people throwing fake money at him when he was taking corners. Do you really think he'd come back after that?

Whilst I don't think Bamford is worth £10mil I have to disagree with this point in bold. Gray, McCormack and Rhodes have never made an impression in the Premier League either and they've all scored bags of goals in the Championship. I'm not fussed about the BPL yet, let's just focus on getting out of the Championship for now.

I think you're right. My post was just for a bit of perspective though and I also agree that I don't think we'll go up in the automatic places just yet. Am I alone in forgetting how it feels to go into a game with confidence? I think that's why I'm struggling with the concept of winning X amount of games/accruing Y amount of points.

Is this really worthy of a new topic

Just thought I'd leave this lovely image here.

Holy crap I hadn't thought about that... To put that in perspective, we've only amassed 93 points in the last three seasons combined which is ironically exactly how many points Burnley acquired this season to win the league. Burnley won 26 games this season while we've only won 23 games in the last FIVE seasons combined...

I'm rarely this negative about anyone at Villa but Black has to go. He's ruined his reputation with Villa and I just cannot take him seriously now I know how absolutely inept he is. He might be the best coach in the Championship but I'd still want shot of him. We can't have any remnants of his disastrous time at the club.

Quality news. A manager and his chosen staff to work with, absolutely chuffed.

Just had an unreal season with Hertha, no chance he'd take the step down now.

All this optimism has come at a time when we are at our lowest league position in 20-odd years. Who'd have thunk it?