rodigan

good player and top bloke.... wish him all the best wherever he ends up and its a shame if its not with us....

gabby and jack (and PL for that matter) were always going to be the easier contracts to get done....

vlaar and delph will garner a lot of interest from other clubs, who will (a) pay substantially more money and ( have a much more stable future than Villa can offer.

As such, I think that it will be difficult to keep either of the two.

I think the complete silence from Vlaar on the subject matter since the world cup says everything. He is too much of a professional to say anything to intimate that he is leaving, because of the disruptive influence it would have, although I do believe that if he was staying (or strongly suspected that he would do) he would have certainly said so - he is club captain and is doing his best to be positive in every manner other than saying he is committed to the club. If he was in a position to say that, I think he would...

for delph, I don't get the sense that it is so cut and dry... his injury really has thrown a spanner in the works, as I believe that what he needs to stay is to see that the team is improving and that if he stays it will not harm his England chances.... with him out and the other injuries / red cards that we are struggling with at the moment, our results are giving him no desire whatsoever to commit to a club seemingly in freefall...

if we were to get relegated at the end of the season, he would have to go - either we would sell him or he would leave to protect his position as an England international... to sign a new contract with the real(ish) threat of that happening seems foolish in the extreme and ultimately likely to cost him several million pounds...

great shame if he leaves though...

my understanding is that the red card for such an event occurs under the auspices of violent conduct. Nothing in that to me construes violent conduct - he pushes mason's face out of the way - it wasn't a hit or anything of the sort... I would certainly appeal as forcefully as I could - no downside for villa in doing so. I think mason definitely showed movement with his head, which was what caused the reaction by benteke.

away from that incident, I thought he looked very very good.... all that he was missing was a goal, but he was winning his headers, getting into space and looking confident with ball at feet for the first time in many months...

shame if the ban stands...

who is this benteke? sounds like a bit of a prospect - think he could break through into the first team...

well done to the lad.... keep it up, stay fit and lets get that pesky contract situation out of the way for the next four or five years....

UTV

more importantly when is cissokho going to get the program and shave his head, so that the skinheads will be a complete defensive unit???

great start from big phil - a leader where we desperately need one, and one that you feel will throw his body on the line all day long for the team....

great stuff - lets keep that attitude permeating through the team and we'll be just fine....

UTV

hope big fella is back soon..... however, whenever I look at zoggy playing this season and the lack of pace he is showing following his comeback from the same injury, I temper that enthusiasm with the harsh reality that what we are going to see for the first few games is a big frustrated guy trying his damnedest to do things that came naturally to him six months ago and finding himself unable to do so... the frustration of nzogbia is clear, although hopefully we'll see a steady return of pace and match fitness with each game played....

when he's back playing for us is still an early stage in rebuilding the player that destroyed defences not long ago.....

(same goes for Okore as well, unfortunately)

UTV

Couple of comments on this one - completely agree with StanB's points a page or so back - I think the news about wanting to come or not and wage demands relate to his agent trying to get the best deal for his client (and biggest fee for himself), and are likely to a large extent to be going on with the player blissfully unaware on the most part of what is being said....

Cleverley's first choice is to be a starter at Man U - failing that, I understand him wanting his agent to get the best deal he can get for him out there - in terms of clubs and in terms of financial package. Once the deal is cut, he can then worry about rebuilding his career to the best of his ability and I would guess that he would consider that he would add value to the starting teams of any of the clubs supposedly in for him - everton, villa, hull and perhaps Valencia. As such, he was probably agnostic as to where he ultimately ended up.

Does it make him a mercenary to think about developing his own career and securing the best financial package he can? I'm not sure any of us approach our jobs any differently - if we had several employers looking to employ us, we would look to see what the best possible deals we could get from each employer was, and then sit and pick the best.... I don't hold that approach against him at all...

Secondly, as to whose place he is going to take in the team, if any.... Perhaps i'm a glass half full guy, but my view is that he will take the place of the weakest player in the midfield, if he is better than them in that position.... he doesn't replace Richardson, n'zogbia, or westwood unless he is better than them in that position.... imagine if we thought about playing our best players, rather than our least bad ones....

finally, as to whether we have any chance of keeping him after the end of a loan period, to me the answer is simple - if we're progressing and competitive, playing good football  and he is comfortable with the opportunity he has been given to restart a floundering career, I think that we have every chance of keeping him.... we're villa, we're sitting third and I, for one, am comfortable that we are as good as any team outside the big five or six clubs....

welcome to the club, tom - earn your place in our starting XI, and the fans will do right by you....

UTV

Jack made a very important cameo yesterday was instrumental in taking the sting out of Hull at a time when last season we probably would have buckled.... I could sense the frustration of the hull players from all the way here in the orient....

great effort and the only thing better than seeing the glee with which he got up and did the same thing again, was seeing how quickly the senior players were around him every time it happened giving the hull players an earful....

looks like the shirt he gave my lad at last years soccer sevens here in HK is the next claret and blue shirt to go on his wall!!!

great effort and UTV....

its all looking pretty exciting for the first time in a few seasons, I reckon....

not long after the international break, and presuming we get cleverley in, we could have a team starting like this:

guzan

hutton

vlaar ©

senderos

cissokho

delph

sanchez

cleverley

Richardson

benteke

n'zogbia

and if things aren't going our way, we could bring on any of cole, grealish, gabby, westwood, weimann, kozak, bacuna to try and open up a tiring defence....

if we needed cover at the back, okore, clark, baker, lowton, herd and Richardson dropping back into left back....

I like it.... UTV

he has been immense in our first two games this season and dragged the defence with him.... the back four seem to have a resolve about them that we haven't seen for a long time....

I hope he stays, and once he's still here next week, signs a new deal and sees out his career with us here... for villa right now, he is a critical player for us, and should be contracted as such....

certainly one out of left field for me, but in the overall context of where we are, I have to say, it looks like we have assembled a fairly nice looking squad... In my mind there is no doubt we are a wiser and tougher proposition to play against now and will continue to be for the remainder of the season, even with injuries....

cleverley will in my mind add to that ethos... say we have a first choice midfield three of delph, westwood and sanchez as the engine room, as opposed to the creative players.... beyond that where do we go? KEA and then? bacuna? herd? cleverley has just turned 25, is playing for Manchester united (and still starting), has 13 England caps and can be ours for 18m. he comes with the mentality of one of the big clubs, but with a shit load to prove... I fail to see how he doesn't add value to our squad and I also believe that we are truly thin on the ground in the area that he will come in to. I also believe that he is low risk - I have no doubt about his ability to perform at the same level that he does for man u with us in the premier league, and I also believe that we are deluding ourselves if we think that is not good enough for villa as we stand today....

for me, I just get the sense that PL has started from the back and worked forward.... having said that, he has reinforced of a sort in every area, save for striker, and that on the basis that he is about to get back his two front line strikers shortly.... if we look at our pools of players in the various positions, end of last season to this, i'm feeling good about things...

GK -  guzan, given compared to guzan, steer

RB - hutton, lowton, bacuna compared to bacuna, lowton

CB - vlaar, senderos, okore, clark, baker compared to vlaar, baker, clark

LB - cissokho, Richardson compared to Bertrand, luna, clark, Bennett

MF (engine room) - sanchez, delph, westwood, [cleverley], KEA, herd compared to delph, westwood, KEA, bacuna

MF (creative) / wingers - Cole, Richardson, grealish, n'zogbia, gabby, weimann compared to weimann, gabby, marc, tonev, bowery

strikers - gabby, weimann, bent, [bentekkers], [kozak] compared to gabby, weimann, holt

with the budget we have, I'm liking this as a squad and I think cleverley fits in there quite nicely.... if true, good to see PL / Keane backing themselves to get the best out of a player whose confidence is currently shot...

for saturday, i would line up as follows

guzan

hutton - vlaar - okore - cissokho

westwood - delph - KEA

zoggy - bent - gabby

subs: given, senderos, herd, richardson, weimann, grealish

once we get sanchez in, cole fit and tekkers and libor back, i think our strongest XI is something like this:

Guzan

Hutton - Vlaar - Okore - Cissokho

Sanchez

Cole - Delph

Zoggy - Benteke - Gabby

In that situation, our squad depth is actually good (by which I mean better than last year) across all positions:

GK - Given

RB - Lowton, Bacuna, Herd

CB - Senderos, Clark, Baker, Herd

LB - Richardson, Bennett, Stevens

MF - KEA, Herd, Cole, Westwood, Grealish, GG, Zoggy

Wings - Richardson, Weimann, Grealish

Str - Kozak, Bent, Weimann, Robinson

The more I look at this as a squad, the less the sense of forboding overwhelms me, particuarly with the thought that we may see one or more of our front line strikers back in September....

Bring on the season and UTV...

i'm actually feeling quite good about the upcoming season.....

i like a back four of hutton, vlaar, okore, cissokho.... much stronger defensively, and it feels like we now have a back four of men, rather than boys.... back up from senderos, clark, baker and herd in the middle, lowton and bacuna on the right and richardson and bennett on the left looks like some depth as well...

if we were to get carlos sanchez in to anchor the midfield, i like the look of us there as well... a starting three of delph, sanchez and cole, with back up from westwood, KEA, GG, bacuna

and then to the three up front.... while we wait for the big guys to get back, i like the front three of bent, gabby, zoggy for saturday, with weimann, richardson, grealish, as back up... throw in tekkers and libor after the international break in september, and thats a squad and starting XI that in my mind is much stronger and deeper than last year....

a contract of say three or four years in line with our top earners (say gabby and delph) is reasonable for the club captain, a dead set starter, and someone who made many people's team of the world cup....

offer it to the guy, and if he says no, then the club has a decision to make...

with him not being on a contract of this nature having been at the club for two years, i could understand if he felt aggrieved having just had the world cup that he had, and with there being demand for him from a number of other clubs...  

i'm guessing that he would be the cheapest world cup semi-finalist?

i also thinks that the villa manager's job may well be up for grabs sooner rather than later, and that he'll get a shot as caretaker manager at least when that happens...

but they're still giving these guys two years in their 30s.... if it doesn't work out that they make the first team very quickly into their stay with us, thats all pissed up the wall... its hardly a case of them developing into better players over time...

Where he plays will be an interesting one.

If we carry on with 3 men in midfield I'd be worried to play him through the middle for fear of being too weak.

In the wide areas I'd still prefer Agbonlahor and Weimann for their pace.

If he can add a bit of craft and ball - retention then I don't really have any problems with this.

spot on.... the problem in our midfield is that we are too lightweight - with KEA being the 'enforcer'... taking him out for cole makes us even more flimsy defensively... can't see PL dropping either andi or gabby for him, so not quite sure how he fits into our starting line up...

cole, senderos, bendtner.... my concern is that having spent the last three years getting the wage bill back in order, we're going to blow it all again in one tragic window.... these guys are going to be on substantial packages and are just as likely to be on the bench or the treatment table as they are in the first team.... the big issue by the end of the MON era was not that we had bad first team players, but rather that we had too many people being paid large salaries and getting nowhere near the first team...

am astounded how quickly one can get themselves back into the same mess all over again...

at least he can keep using his old kit...

i think this will be a good signing, and suspect he'll come in buzzing to get another chance to show that he's not a washed up footballer... a bit of passion and fire is only going to do well with the players...

lets just keep him wrapped up in cotton wool, and hopefully nurse him through the season...

jack had an interesting tournament in HK - i'd say he was outshone by DJ on the first day, but really came into his own on the second and looked absolute class...

as far as him being slight, the lad has calves like hamhocks and certainly rode the tackles well.. there was no question that he was having chunks kicked out of him more than any other player in the tournament...

had you asked me on the first day whether jack was going to light up the premiership, i would have been uncertain.... pretty play, but didn't seem to be getting anywhere... second day, he was a different class - came out fired up and ripped teams to pieces...

i guess at the end of the day, that is the problem with young players - the consistency is something that comes with experience, and something that jack's time at notts county would certainly have helped with...

i'm not sure whats best for his development this coming season, but i hope that the club takes a long term view in developing what is clearly a great talent, and ensuring that he remains as loyal to the club as he has ben to date...

if i understand the proposition, we are going to ask 100,000 people to each pay 2000 quid to RL for the privilege of him not putting 20 million quid into the club each year...  

the club which lost a number in excess of 50 million last year, will now have 20 million less into its profit line, and the fans will not at this point have put one penny into the club....

if we thought the transfer kitties were shit in the last few years, they'd be somewhat shitter under our new model...

was i right in hearing that jack and dj were heading out to hong kong in two weeks time for the soccer sevens again?

would be great to see them lighting up the tournament again.... in fact, with the season that jack's just had, i suspect he will appear as a man among boys in the competition here...