tom_avfc

This makes a lot more sense but I suppose the real question is how well does that £40m cover the loss of income from not being in the premier league. I know we'll have seen reductions in some players wages but I'd still expect to see the decrease in income being greater than the decrease in expenditure. If this is the case then we are immediately more loss making as a club and Xia is going to need to inject more money than RL just to meet costs. Using that £40m against Xia when its replacing a larger figure from the previous year is a bit false.

That was my point. The previous poster seemed to be suggesting that this £40m parachute payment was some kind of bonus to us.

Doesn't this £40m replace a much larger revenue figure which we received in the premier league? Even with wage cuts etc. I'd have thought this would be needed for running costs and the idea of the parachute payments was to ensure that once relegated a team wasn't immediately threatened with huge losses and potential insolvency issues.. This may be completely wrong, that's just what I thought they were there for. I wouldn't have thought the premier league would just dish out £40m for teams to buy players with.

I think I largely agree with this. My issue is when this wariness becomes outright negativity. I am yet to be fully convinced by our new owners so would consider myself wary. What I'm not doing is stating worst case scenarios as the most likely outcomes with no real basis.

This is a fair point and my comment was rather tongue in cheek. But seriously, the way some posters look to highlight any negatives and ignore any positives is slightly ridiculous. I'd like to see what happened if we actually saw some success this year as it feels like some people would have no idea how to react.

This is the last thing I'd like to see to be honest. I'd rather let our new owner be enthusiastic and optimistic about the club than become disenchanted due to the general negativity hanging around the club from top to bottom from the last five years or so.

Maybe something to do with Norwich and McCormack? Only player I think we're rumoured to be in for along with either of those two clubs.

Yeah I've got no idea what it means either. Looks like someones upset him though!

I'd have put Gana and Westwood as the best of a bad bunch of midfielders to be honest. Would rather lose Sanchez or Bacuna (although he's probably played more games at RB than midfield for Villa) but in reality none of our midfielders were anywhere near good enough last season. I think Gana would have done well next year but won't be a great miss for us IMO.

This probably isn't true. I'd assume that it's a clause linked to our relegation and that the clause would be higher or not exist if we had stayed up. It's been put in by the player and his agent to mitigate against the risk of relegation and give him an easier way out.

I think Mali would be through on 13 points as one of the best 2nd placed teams even if they lose to Benin. 12 for Benin would be touch and go depending on a few of the other second placed teams' results.

Yeah, my mistake. Ivory Coast will need a draw against Sierra Leone which is pretty likely. Benin will be through with a win but probably out with anything less.

Ivory Coast are already through - won their group. Benin are currently best second place team with the top 2 second place teams going through. However they've got Mali left to play who have won their group already. If they lose that then they'll probably miss out and a draw might not be good enough either.

£13m. Seems a fairly good price and probably a good deal for all involved.

I wasn't suggesting that we'd keep everyone we wanted and lose all of the dead wood. Richard's comment seemed to suggest the other extreme (maybe I read it wrong). As we stand now we've got rid of Richardson and N'zogbia whilst losing anybody who we would like to retain. The next set of players that are being talked of leaving are Richards, Veretout, Sinclair and Sanchez. To me saying the ones we want to stay will leave and the ones we want to go will stay doesn't look anything like what is happening. This also ignores the fact that Ayew, Gana and Amavi would be the only particularly big losses IMO with Veretout possibly having the potential to improve on last year.

Pretty much where I am with him. I don't think he'll be a huge loss based on last year's performances where he was no more effective than Westwood but I do think he's capable of much more.

This seems rather (unsurprisingly) pessimistic. The talk today is of Guzan, Sinclair, Richards and Veretout leaving. I'd say of that lot Veretout maybe could do a job but was unimpressive at large last year anyway. This also ignores the fact that only Richardson and N'Zogbia have actually left so far - both of whom are clearly not up to it. So basically you're guessing and guessing at the most negative option.

Where it says "more requested" would seem to suggest it's a decision made by SWFC to only initially release 2000 tickets. No idea why though.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come. Seems a ridiculous price for championship football and I hope we'll be charging similar for the return game. Seems a bit silly that they've capped ticket prices in the premier league but not bothered about anyone below that!!

Luton Town v Villa EFL Cup – First Round Wednesday August 10 Kick-off: 7.45pm Kenilworth Stadium Ticket allocation: 1,500 Prices: £18 [adults], £13 [young adults (U22) and O65s], £10 [O75s], £6 [U18s], £3 [U10s] Wheelchair bays: Contact Luton Town ticket office on 01582 416976 Monday July 18: On sale to 2016/17 away scheme members and 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 9+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Tuesday July 19: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 5+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Wednesday July 20: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 1+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Wednesday July 20 from 2pm: Lions Club chairmen can call to secure their allocation Thursday July 21: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders Friday July 22: On sale to Villa Cash members Tuesday July 26: On sale to supporters who attended 5+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Thursday July 28: On general sale To buy tickets, head to Villa Park or New Street ticket offices, contact 0333 323 1874 or visit our ONLINE BOX OFFICE. Coach travel for this fixture departs at 4.30pm - cost £20 per person (non-refundable).

Sheffield Wednesday v Villa Sky Bet Championship Sunday August 7 Kick-off: 4.30pm Hillsborough Initial ticket allocation [more requested]: 2,043 Prices: £42 [adults], £32 [O65s], £15 [U17s], £10 [U11s], £5 [U5s] There are nine wheelchair bays – disabled supporter ticket prices are as above with free personal assistant Monday July 18: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 9+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Tuesday July 19: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 5+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Wednesday July 20: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders who attended 1+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Wednesday July 20 from 2pm: Lions Club chairmen can call to secure their allocation Thursday July 21: On sale to 2016/17 season ticket holders Friday July 22: On sale to Villa Cash members Tuesday July 26: On sale to supporters who attended 5+ away league matches in the 2015/16 season Thursday July 28: On general sale To buy tickets, head to Villa Park or New Street ticket offices, contact 0333 323 1874 or visit our ONLINE BOX OFFICE. Coach travel for this fixture departs at 12:30pm – cost £20 per person (non-refundable).

Turns out you can actually just go through the online ticket office and then click on all matches and all the preseason matches are on there. Don't know why the away matches aren't on the "upcoming matches" section though!

Should be available on the online ticket office here On general sale as well from what I can see. No idea why you can't get to that from the ticket office home page but I just went through the link on an old ticket news post on the OS. Hope that works for you.

Yeah because Berahino and Pogba are of a similar level! If Berahino finds himself at Watford next year it's not too difficult to imagine he could soon be swapping places with either Newcastle or us next year. If I was Berahino and had the choice of Watford or Newcastle I'm not sure the decision would be so straight forward. He didn't have a good enough year last year to get one of the bigger clubs interested.

Agree with this completely. My post wasn't meant to sound like I approved of the Berahino situation. I just wanted to point out that actually, Berahino joining a team like Newcastle for around £20m is pretty likely if Albion can't get him to sign a new contract. I'm not sure whether Albion would get some compensation for him if he did go on a free with his age but no doubt it would be a small fee for his potential.