Chap of Steel

For some reason I completely forgot about Javi Garcia - and then thought he was still playing at Man City. I must have missed his move to Zenit!

In some respects I'm worried it's true and that Delph signed the contract as a goodwill gesture to at least give Villa a transfer fee. However I tend to trust the likes of John Percy when it comes to Villa news now so I'm not convinced yet. It's a bit strange that only the Mirror are reporting it.

While the bid for Begovic is slightly random/possibly unnecessary, it is at least nice to see more ambitious transfer targets.

Even if Villa do get a big money takeover there's no guarantee we'll be racing up the league table. Stoke is a stable top 10 club at the moment and while I'd be delighted, I would be surprised if Begovic was to join. However, with not long left on his contract and a decent backup keeper in Butland, Stoke could cash in I guess?

Firstly, my apologies if a similar thread already exists but I couldn't find one. As someone who loves to travel I've often entertained the idea of someday moving abroad and find it interesting to hear stories of people who've left the UK for pastures anew. Seeing different locations from time to time under VillaTalk posters' avatars I thought I'd ask you guys. Would be great to hear of your experiences.

As high as the rumoured wages seem they're pretty typical of the Premier League these days. Would be a decent signing if it does go ahead, IMO.

Having bought FM15 for around a tenner I have had chance to play the game properly for the first time. I'm still getting used to things and have lost my first two league games as Villa unfortunately - although I did beat Peterborough 3-1 in the cup! Can anyone recommend some good websites/resources for tutorial stuff? Could do with some help on transfers/scouting.

It will be on Premier Sports, annoyingly.

I'm watching Community at the minute and loving it. Just started season two.

I've just sat and read through this over lunch and can't believe some of the stuff I've read - although I do echo concerns regarding Sherwood's first transfer window. As disappointing as the final was I don't think it mean's we'll be doomed next season. If you have inconsistent players you get inconsistent results which is what we've seen over the last couple of games. Might it be that the players simply ran out of steam as it looked like relegation had been avoided? Possibly. While Sherwood's digs at players are perhaps unwise it's a bit over the top to compare him to di Canio. Personally I'm not too worried about next season just yet. We know Villa have a good scouting system so I don't think it will be a case of Sherwood raiding Tottenham's reserves. He's definitely earned a season to build a team and I can't understand why people are downplaying the achievement of keeping us in the Premier League. After the Hull City loss I thought we were gone...

Why is Michael Owen amazed at the fact there was no movement on the bench when Benteke scored? We're still 5-1 down..

Okore and Vlaar are not suddenly "awful" players, but this is bad

Sad to see Southampton fans politely applauding their fourth goal while we all hope Hull City lose today. How football has changed, eh Still, let's be honest, we're probably safe at least. Although as others have posted I'm worried about confidence now.

Weekend ruined, and it's only 1pm

My local team! Gutting to see Gary Rowett leave for Blues of all people, but the job Hasselbaink has done is incredible.

I quickly did that predictor thing and I'm feeling pretty confident about us staying up. I only put one Villa win (v Burnley) and we still finished in 17th. Hull v Burnley and Sunderland v Leicester will be interesting games to keep an eye on..

Didn't start the second half quite as brightly. Hopefully damage limitation now as we don't want confidence knocked too much.

How many times are we going to see that replay...

It's fake, sadly

"No Villa manager has won three Premier League games in a row since Martin O’Neill in April 2010." Time to change this Sherwood!

Hopefully we see a more energetic performance in the second half. At least it's still 0-0! Would be good to see Grealish introduced at some point.

Bit of an odd one that TSF tweet. If it was anyone else I'd instantly ignore it. But isn't that the guy who writes/wrote for the Guardian? The lack of elaboration has me skeptical though.

Bit harsh to compare Sherwood to Lambert after one game in charge. Unfortunately though time is running out - and fast. Best we can hope for is that Sherwood makes the necessary squad/tactical changes and we pick up some points very soon. 2 shots on target against Stoke is very disappointing, though.

"I thought we were excellent today"

Baffling how we seemingly had £5 million to spend on R Lambert. Surely it would have been wiser to look for a Benteke-esque signing from a European league?