icouldtelltheworld

Poor decision IMO, but I guess we need to sell to buy. It's all in danger of going a bit tits up, isn't it? Amazing the money we've just pissed up the wall the last year

That's an O'neill-esque transfer window with pitiful sell-on value that could see us waste another opportunity to establish ourselves where we should be. A few years ago there was a near consensus on VT that we should move to a more sustainable model, but now we have a new billionaire owner, it seems a lot of us are just happy to throw the money around again, and pay over the odds if needs be. I sincerely hope lessons have been learnt at the club, and that this won't all end in tears.

I didn't say that though, I said if we got promoted we'd be in a position of hoping a by then nearly 38 year old JT would be up to playing a season in the Prem, which doesn't fill me with much confidence. Difference of opinions is all I guess

Point taken, but then where does that leave us in a years time? Either JT isn't up to it and it's a waste of resources and holds us back this year, or we get promoted and either have to start all over again with a new main CB, or hope that a nearly 38 year old JT is up to a season in the PL. Along with the rest of our transfer policy under Bruce ( and RDM) thus far, this doesn't really give me any confidence that there is a long term plan in place. Which is exactly my point. If JT isn't the savior/isn't up to the pace anymore, we'll have Gabby, Richards and JT all draining vital resources and contributing (at least relatively) **** all. Could add McCormack to that list as well, and probably a few others. It's a worrying scenario. As I said, I really hope to be proved wrong on this one, but I really just can't get excited at all. Some might accuse me of being negative, but I always take a glass half full approach to the Villa, just have a bad feeling about this one. Sincerely look forward to someone quoting this in the summer when we've just walked the league and JT wins player of the season, I'll happily eat my words if that's the case

Not excited by this, starting to worry that theres a lack of long term planning at the club and Xia's tenure could end up like Lerner's if we keep throwing money about. Is he still worth 60,000 per week in the Championship? For that kind of money at this level you'd want him to be a near ever-present throughout the campaign. I'd be so happy to be proved wrong, but I really can't bring myself to feel the excitement that most fans have for this signing. Time will tell I guess!

Scored some winning goals for us during a season when Benteke was injured/not with it for long periods. Without checking, im fairly confident to say that one or two less victories wouldve meant relegation that season. With Randy Lerner still firmly in charge (think he announced intention to sell after Lambert's second season?). Probably not the same player after 18 months out injured, but worst signing ever? Give it a rest

As bad as anything last season. Dreadful. Barely strung two passes together all night, players were constantly isolated with noone to play the ball too. Amavi the best of a very bad bunch. Ayew is not at the races at all, Gabby isn't a footballer

Definitely has a role to play at this level, not a starter, but looked bright and in better shape today

Yay! Hard to tell from the radio but sounded like Gardner played well, Kodjia on the score sheet again is good. Bit of momentum going into the Steve Bruce Clasico next week, 7 points from 9, my weekend isn't ruined. Thanks Villa +Steve

I like Bruce, I think he's come across well since taking the job and it seems he really wants to be here and work hard to improve us. We've been bad at the basics for so long, fitness is one aspect, also set pieces we've looked completely unthreatening from for years, I trust Bruce to see things like this and sort them out. One thing I realised is that he was SHA manager during the only period in my life where they were a top flight club who regularly beat us. I really think that he's the right man to sort us out and re-establish us as a solid PL side, then we can bring in someone else to build on his foundations once we get there, as mid-table seems to be about his ceiling. We have to get the basics right before we can look to push on. I wouldn't have wanted him to be managing us a few years back, but the reality at the club is different now. So while I might not like that were in a situation where SB is about the best option for us, I certainly don't have a problem with his appointment given our circumstances Hopefully we can get 3 points today and carry on with our rebuild, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Up the Villa!

Another hard fought point on the way to safety. Can't fault the lads

our full backs are hopeless, I still think we'll win 3-1 though. Over to you, Steve

Stupid for McCormack to get involved

Cissokho is a **** liability

loving the McCormack / Grealish link up

Think were gonna smash them, 3-1 win for the Villa. Two for Kodjia and one for Grealish. UTV

Been impressed with Walker, Lallana and Dier especially, Rooney looks OK in midfield so far, Alli not at his best and I don't think he should start next game. Kane has looked poor in both games and Sterling is just a bit rubbish. Hart and the defence look shaky though, and we'll be punished by better teams. With a bit of fortune I think we could make SF though. Thoroughly enjoyable tournament so far

No I love supporting England, just wish i didn't sometimes feel marginalised by our support. Am aware my post sounds very Guardian liberal-lefty which is far from my views and intention. Just believe we need a serious conversation about why our support attracts almost the biggest group of idiots and we insist on antagonising others. Very hard to sound neutral with my view, and I believe the English fans have been **** over in France, but we won't get to the bottom of our problems unless we can accept that the English had a part in the disorder alongside the Russians, French ultras and discriminatory police. Consider myself an England fan and hope you don't think I'm rejecting that, but hope you can understand given the video above and where my family is from that i sometimes feel uncomfortable. Hope I haven't insulted you and I hope England go as far as we can, but we have a long way to go to bury our demons IMO and FWIW with my family being republican Northern Irish, and me being Birmingham born and raised I often feel uncomfortable with their view towards the English team/public/fans etc. Just for balance

And if anyone local to Brum wants proof of English ignorance, read the Birmingham Updates post about 5 (I believe) refugee families arriving in Brum a day or two (from facebook, not sure if he posts elsewhere). A majority of ignorant, hateful posts over welcoming/understanding ones. The comments from regular Brummies, many with AVFC in their profile picture or profile name, made me utterly sick.

I don't know if a link to facebook will work, but there's the video for anyone that's interested. It doesn't look too nasty, and I'm certainly not going to accuse everyone there of being a racist; but it certainly seems indicative of a nasty ignorance that runs through the mainstream of English culture. I'm English but most of my family are Irish, and I've copped some stick the past few days about the behaviour of our fans thus far, and I've stuck up for them as It seems clear to me that we weren't the main antagonists in Marseille, but there were still reports before the Russians showed up of England fans chanting about ISIS (in a city with a big and not particularly well integrated Muslim community - how do we react when groups like the EDL chant their filth in Birmingham?), chanting "if it wasn't for the English you'd be krauts" at the locals, plenty of "10 German bombers". We don't really help ourselves do we? It is utterly disgusting that innocent English fans have been caught up in this, and my understanding is the French police don't seem to care much for the safety of our supporters (particularly the case in Marseille after 1998 I'd imagine), but the scenes that Collymore broadcast today - "thousands" (his words) of English fans prowling the streets looking for Russians, damaging cars etc, and videos such as the one above, this behaviour is abhorrent and we should all be ashamed of it, and quick to condemn it. Every single country has their minority of idiots, every club and country at every level of football does, but we can't kid ourselves and pretend that England doesn't have one of the biggest minorities of all countries, despite everything we've done to get over the bad days. Those lads marching round Lille today in Collymore's video, how many are there to support the team and how many are there to let everyone know the "Ing-er-lish" are in town? And how many made the short hop through the tunnel the last few days because they wanted a rematch tear up with the Russians? Would you dismiss pissed up football fans throwing coins at homeless young people in Brum as 'a bit of a game' if they were fans of a travelling team on a visit to Villa Park of a Saturday afternoon? Would you ****. I wanted it to be a case of the English being attacked and having to stand up, which I'm sure at points it has been, but despite 2000 odd hooligans having to have handed in their passports this month, the English are still game as hell and everyone knows it. It's sad that these are young lads for the most part, it could really set the English game back, we seem to be a certain amount of time over "the English disease" that it has become idolised to an extent, the Premier League generation have little first hand experience of it; it's glorified as an almost honourable outlet for male aggression. A historical factor of football pre-1992. Several romanticised films have been made. I doubt my dad's ever had a fight in his life, but he's gone the Villa for 50 years and has genuinely told me that he believes there was less gang and random violence through the 70s and 80s because of the football violence. Even someone who never had any involvement or experience with it, who hates violence, can make an excuse for it. It seems strange to me. Disturbing people's views in the fanzone by standing in a circle and chanting, cheering when France's opposition score, making ignorant as **** references to ISIS (seen an English fan in an "I h8 Isis" tshirt, like every other sane word removed in the civilised world doesn't), chants about a war that none of these words removed even remember, the fact I've heard enough filth on the Holte over the years to know full well that racism and right wing politics are alive and well in English football (a guy turned to me once and said "KEA's alright, but he's a paki" - if it's censored, a very unkind 4-letter word for a person of Pakistani/Asian origin, how do we challenge that level of ignorance? I just dropped my jaw and turned away) it all makes me uneasy about fully supporting the English team, and I absolutely hate it. If i'm honest, with the mob mentality and vast money, I often wonder why I have any interest in football at all, it's at odds with almost all my other morals in life. I mean where the **** else would we be praising a guy who made his billions exporting MSG if he hadn't just bought the Villa? I tried supporting Sutton Town for a spell, but it's not the same, cheaper, mind - and you see more goals. I hold onto the belief that even though the business and money behind Villa is inevitably corrupt or immoral as hell (as all money acquired within the billions inevitably is - Marxist though that may sound), that despite all that, the Villa are a community asset that serve a purpose round here, a huge part of my identity, passed down from my dad, to me, to my son. I just can't feel that way with the the England team while such a sizeable minority make me feel uncomfortable, I know it's pretty trendy to say you hate/don't care about the England team on VT, and I'm sure the scumbag fan element is a factor for a lot of people. Singing about the IRA almost 20 years post ceasefire? I'm no sympathiser, but with my parents and grandparents background (majority of my family are from Derry and a lot remember Bloody Sunday), it makes me feel uneasy. I wonder how much the average England fan throwing chairs in Lille or Marseille could tell me about the Troubles if we sat down to discuss it? What happens to the English abroad? There are many English fans in France who will be more upset if we come home having looked second in the hooligan stakes to Russia, than if we lose our next two group games and go out with a whimper. This is the best England team since 1996, and should go far. It's pathetic, and it's not a particulalry small number totalled up. I bet those backing Brexit are rubbing their hands and licking their lips, a further wedge between the UK and Europe before the Sun-sponsored EU election. I believe if we lose our next two games we'll be eliminated from the Euros two days before the referendum? All bets are off on the result in that case. One thing I will say, it shows how well football is policed in this country, and far from the last few days being a reason why England couldn't host a tournament, it serves as testament we could hold one within months and do a better job of it than this shambles from the French. But I don't know if it's an island thing, or a colonial hangover, but there is a nasty and ignorant superiority complex that runs through the English psyche, it's displayed in our chants about the wars of the early 20th century (how many trophies have Germany, France and neutral Spain won since 1945 compared to us?), and anyone who tells themself the above video is just banter and not a symptom of deeply ingrained English racism/xenophobia is lying to themself. We condemn this lot when they cause trouble at our grounds, when they mob up and antagonise foreign cities, we clamour for excuses, I know I've done it myself over the past week. Sorry to rant, have followed the fan violence closely on here, other forums and youtube/twitter the last few days. Wanted to make my comments and VT is by far the best football forum I visit. If I'd been any good at football I'd have qualified for England, ROI, Wales and Northern Ireland, so I have taken the maximum time off for the Euros to get pissed UTV

I find it astounding, particularly considering the recent exploits of one Marc Albrighton, that any fan would want to get rid of Grealish immediately at this stage and be ready to dismiss him as garbage. He's clearly got potential, he was brilliant at times at the end of last season, not just the semi-final but West Ham at home, that crazy Man City game where Sanchez scored I remember him running up the field and gliding past 3 or 4 City players before they had to take him out. You could say he only looked good because he played with Delph next to him and Benteke up front - but by the same measure they'd both been dreadful for most of the season until Jack's run of form. The start of this season we looked best when he played well, not often enough admittedly, but against Blues and Leicester he showed what he can do. He's a 20 year old local lad, with high expectations, in the worst Villa team in most people's memories. People are expecting him to be the star, yet this was the first season he'd gone into expecting to be in the starting eleven from the off. He will need to mature and work hard to realise his potential, but it's so **** obvious that here's a technically gifted player who actually wants to play for this club, I just don't get how he can be written off at this stage, based on this season. It's also clear that we are severely lacking in decent footballing role models at our club, his behaviour isn't that surprising when it will have been Gabby's arm round his shoulder the last few years, but he's still young enough to work hard and improve. hopefully will if we can sort our mess of a squad out. It'd be a shame if he left here having not been given a real chance to shine and went on to be excellent elsewhere.

Voted for Moyes, would be a fantastic appointment for us and a real sign of intent. In order of preference: 1) Moyes 2) Dyche 3) Bruce 4) Monk 5) Pearson I like Monk and think he will be a good manager in time, but Villa would be the wrong job for him ATM IMO. Bruce and Dyche both solid Championship managers, I'd be more than happy for either of them to get the job. Might sound dramatic, but I don't think I would have any interest in watching Villa under Pearson. The man is an absolute disgrace, and all his back room staff are still at Leicester anyway. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe success its Leicester was a bit of a anomaly in an otherwise very average managerial career anyway, and let's remember that Leicester outspent everyone in the league to get promoted, something that I can't see us doing

Townsend is just like a more talented Tonev, all he does is try and push the ball onto his left foot and shoot. Looks spectacular when it goes in, but wasteful the majority the rest of the time

This smacks of appeasement to me if I'm honest. One of the biggest criticisms fans have had of the Lerner/the hierarchy is a lack of football/Villa men. This just comes across as a token gesture, particularly if he's going to be an advisor to the board rather than actually sitting on it? I could be wrong on the details. It's just hard not be sceptical about news coming out of the club, even when that news seems like it could be positive

Haha! I thought that as I typed "people cheering his name" He was at one time a local hero though, so is about the best comparison with Johnson