JPAngel

@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?

This. Name me one other Champions League winning manager who would even apply for the Villa job. I know he won it as a a caretaker but that's beside the point. It still had to be won!

I can highly recommend the 一些年輕人霜! EDIT: I just ran the Chinese version of what I originally translated from English through the Google translator again with disastrous results. Please don't judge me!

Had such high hopes for him after that Bournemouth screamer last season(?). I like him but cannot last a full game and while he's quite a tidy player in possession he's just not going to work in the Championship. He'd get absolutely battered.

"Di Matteo , please lead the Villa won the European Champions Cup again" Don't worry guys, I got this.

Hooray! Wasn't originally 100% on RDM but I'm happy with him now. As others have mentioned, what's most important is that we are a united force on this next season. 12th man etc.

Indeed. I didn't expect anyone to particularly care about what he's like off the pitch when he's been such a massive t**t on it. What's really puzzling is that he had a couple of decent games a year or so ago (one against Sunderland if I remember correctly) and when I spoke to him about it he was genuinely buzzing. I don't see why that didn't continue? Weird.

I reckon we need a translator again!

How have the official website not confirmed this yet? The only good reasons would be posting the photoshoot/interview with him alongside it or if they are waiting to confirm Xia too.

Very please with RDM and Clarke! It's interesting that the BBC have said that Clarke will take on the hands-on approach for the squad don't you think? I wonder what role Di Matteo will play in this?

@Grasshopper I think you need to stay off the coffee/pre-workout/actual crack for a while until you calm down

Just to throw in my two cents, I used to work at a gym for a few years that Charlie was a member of and he wasn't that bad of a guy. He trained hard several days a week on mobility, sprinting and light weights and all he wanted to do was play. When it came out that he might be moving to Turkey he said goodbye to the staff and seemed a little dejected about it but when it fell through he was utterly puzzled. He said that Lambert (at the time) didn't want to play him but wouldn't let him go either. He made some nice gestures on occasion, taking part in a keepy up tournament in the gym, gave a few free tickets to some of the French speaking cleaners etc. Not all bad, but definitely needs to move on now.

I think the amount of nervous fans have dwindled considerably since both Xia and Hollis have spoken/allayed fears. I also think that you can chalk the above up to inexperience with dealing with the British press. It's pretty clear that he didn't expected to be treated as he has and perhaps in hindsight, his actions were a little naive. I for one am back to being optimistic. Especially if RDM is appointed this week .

I like this Tony character a lot Thanks @Deisler123

Yeah me too.