rodigan

i thought the midfield three were poor in the first half, with our pass completion rate dreadful.... with delph back fit, i don't think sylla displaces either KEA or westy based on last night.... even with a beast hairstyle...

playing out of his skin at the moment.... looks like a captain now, and lets hope he's there doing that for a long time yet...

great goal, no question, and critical to us.... lets hope that gives him the confidence he needs to start playing with a bit of swagger.... has taken a few games to get it back, but lets hope he kicks on from here... loved to see him reaching for the villa badge when he scored.... would love to see him still doing that in 10 years time...

great to have him back on the pitch.... turning out to be a real leader and even though he was playing as a wing back, gave us some bite in midfield which was sorely lacking in the first half.... his other midfielders seemed to lift themselves when he came on.... by my reckoning, he must be close to a suspension for yellow cards - anyone know status of him and the rest of the team?

didn't like him at all last night, and thought he was much of the cause of benteke's frustration in the first half.... in my mind, his first job is to feed the two strikers, and failing which to look at goal.... he appears to have gotten his priorities arse backwards, resulting in crap shot after crap shot... if i'm being honest from what i've seen, i can't believe that we loaned marc out, and are starting this guy....

i think he's been good the last couple of games, and appears to be getting better... he's definitely winning me over... keep it up....

how people can come to the conclusion that he thinks he is bigger than the club astounds me... he looks frustrated, that i can understand, but i hvae no idea from watching the game why he's frustrated... the service he got last night in the first half was dreadful... the people delivering that service did nothing to draw out the wall of defenders, which meant that not only were shit balls going into the box, but when they got there, benteke was surounded by big lumps of baggy.... when gabby and andi came on, at least they started to draw defenders out and forced them to make a tackle before the ball came in... i think bentekkers will come good, but he looks a shadow of the player that was playing with an invincible amount of confidence at the end of last season.... he is not the only villa player to have suffered that fate.... in fairness to him, our expectations for him should be somewhere between where he is now and where he was at the end of last season, which i think is the point that PL was trying to make in the press before the game...

I think we would all be amazed how many of the premier league teams are 'up for sale' at the moment. in most cases, this simply means subtle feelers being put out saying that the club is on the market at a good price, as opposed to being in any great urgency to sell. sort of like testing the water with your house onthe market to see how much its worth... What has happened is that very few of those who have made vanity purchases of premier league clubs in the last 10 years, still have the stomach for the relentless outlay that is required, bearing in mind taking a club into the top six on a sustained basis requires a commitment of hundreds, not tens of millions.... as well as many clubs looking for buyers, the pool of potential buyers seems to be rapidly diminishing... where is the next pool of money coming from? its been done in russia, the middle east, parts of asia... is the Premier League attractive from an ownership perspective? interesting to see indonesian money buying into inter milan... as far as villa, whether or not randy is a seller, i take a degree of comfort that he and his team have worked so hard to get the financials back onto level footing over the last few years. i am prepared to call the MON era of spending naivety, but at least the powers that be realise that the only thing sustained spending of that nature relative to our income would guarantee would be financial ruin once the backing ceased.... Unfortunately, we are all still paying for those three years finishing sixth, but at least the club seems to be developing on a basis that will allow my grandkids to cheer for villa in the premier league...

on dembele, if he's looking for a loan move, its a short term thing to ensure that he is playing first team football for the rest of the season with a view to securing a place in belgium's world cup squad. villa appear to be a team that is not in dire straits in terms of performance, like many of the other premier league teams, has a world class player in benteke, and would allow him to lock down a first team place quickly and with a fair degree of certainty. all of these would appeal, as would the flexibility at the end of the season to decide whether villa is a project that he buys into for the longer term, while not having to worry about marking his time to make his way into an established first team... from spurs perspective, it would mean that they are not allowing him to move to a key competitor. i can see the appeal of this to all parties.... as ever, however, the devil is in the details, by which i mean the cost...

my view on kozak, is that as long as he's getting better each time he plays, i have no complaints... he's new to this team and new to this league, but i thought he was better this week than i've seen him before.... it is difficult for me to judge a new player who is improving each game, as far as how good they are going to be in time.... i'll take a goal and a win and say thank you very much mr kozak....

as far as options, i think there are a number of choices.... lowton back in and push bacuna up the field.... tonev to play either on that side or switch gabby over.... marc, a more natural winger, to play... the thing is, i think he is carrying the air of someone who desperately wants to make things better but doesn't know how... in that situation, particularly as a relatively young guy, i think that it is beneficial to take him out of the firing line for a couple of games, let him come on after an hour, fired up and wreak havoc... big fan of andi, but he looks a bit lost to me for now.... the quicker we can get him back as a genuine goal threat the better...

i don't think dropping him will do him any harm at all.... he just seems to be trying so hard, and doesn't know how to make things right... take him out of the firing line.... get him back to basics - build up his confidence again, and reintroduce him with a little less pressure on him - getting the best out of young developing talents is what lambert's being paid the bucks for - lets see him earn those with andi (and matty lowton.... and joe bennett.... and marc.... and tonev... and bowery... and helenius....) having a squad of players only works, if we can interchange them as and when we need to...

great return - the lift to the game on his arrival was ace.... now we need to start slotting some goals and getting points on the board... a loss needs to be followed up with a win, particularly after lost points at hull...

a fired up benteke who feels like he's making up for lost time is exactly what we need.... great effort by the team in his absence, and with him coming back to lift people's games even more - lets hope sunday is a rip roaring continuation of this season's much stronger start.... also suspect vertonghen would not dream of any debagging shenanigans on the mighty bentekkers.... UTV

i suspect this is a 3m compromise, when we're priced out of getting kiyotake.... just not sure another slight player in the midfield is what we need.... we seem to have so many midfield players all of whom are quite good, many of whom have potential, and non of whom are a nailed on starter in the middle of the park for me.... not sure adding another, no matter how cheap, is what we want to spend our cash on.... westwood delph sylla tonev bacuna helenius KEA gardner grealish carruthers johnson and those who have not yet left us: zoggy ireland bannan

if he turns up today, he'll come to train.... if i were PL, i'd have a chat with him, and then i'd have a chat with everyone else, and then get on with training.... i guess that with only half of the squad give or take having met him before, there'll be plenty of time making introductions!! if ever there was a day to be a fly on the wall, today is that day!

right now we're all feeling good.... personally, i'm loving the players we're buying in, but am under no misapprehensions that this new lot will likely take as long as the last lot did to bed in... however, i also think that for the first time in three seasons, we're going to be a team that plays with no fear.... you could see it in people like gabby at the end of the season - how long have we waited for him to fire up and get back to terrorising defenders like he used to... if i look at our starting XI - lets call it guzan, lowton, vlaar, baker, bennett, westwood, delph, sylla, gabby, andi, bentekkers - there is not one player in that lot that i would say ended the season a weaker player than they started.... we have a team that thinks that they can win, and now we have some genuine depth - okore, clark, nzogbia, holman, KEA, tonev, bowery, helenius (almost), bacuna, albrighton, gardner, herd, bannan and with back up keepers and wingbacks still likely to come... our academy is doing brilliant - nextgen champions certainly has a nice ring to it... talent coming through there as well - johnson, grealish, donacien, carruthers, burke, williams.... we have a good new kit.... and its already friday afternoon in hong kong.... whats not to be feeling good about!!!!!!

i think we're in a great position to be in terms of negotiating this one.... we've already got three (or four) signings under our belts in a very short time and for a very small amount of money.... if the price is right for this one, then we'll consider it - if not, PL and RL are already smelling of roses and none of the fans are going to be outraged... if he really wants to come to the PL, we may yet see belhanda in claret and blue next season, but i suspect that villa are in the strongest position that we have been in the transfer market for a few seasons now... which in itself is phenomenal work by the club bearing in mind the facts of where we actually ended the season last year...

he would be on 25 - 30k max - coming out of the dutch leagues - similar to cardboard ron and KEA... i just get the sense that if he gets a bit of a run in a team, whether its the socceroos or the villa, he'll get his confidence up and we'll see a completely different player to the one who is being used for 15 minutes every 6 - 8 weeks...

this picture just made me wnat to say 'what you talking about willis..." great signing and more excitement about the club.... as to why these guys are signing for us, is there any other club that has such a collection of young and exciting talent that will have a real shot at the first team in one of the greatest leagues.... no downside for them coming here - if they back themselves, they are going to get the chance to play against some of the best talent around in a team of equally young and fearless players... i really can't think of a better set up for a young player who backs themselves to be a top class player in a couple of years and is looking for the opportunity to show that to the rest of the world... UTV

welcome to the club, leandro.... great to see new young players being given a chance at the club.... thing is we're buying young and cheap, but all these guys have been playing as established first team players in their respective teams for some time before we buy them.... all of the players that we are buying look like they're young, competent and on the way up in their development - a consistent theme, and one that is turning out to be correct in more cases than not: benteke westwood lowton sylla bowery okore tonev bacuna helenius if you take out benteke, these guys are costing slightly upward of 2m per player, and i'm guessing most of them will hold their own at premier level.... if say the seven other than benteke cost 16m, that in the context of some other clubs spending over the last couple of seasons sounds like brilliant business by the club... am thinking of players like fletcher, samba, jarvis, carroll, remy - players other clubs are paying top dollar for in trying to compete in the premier league.... its certainly going to be a great ride next season.... UTV and well done RL and PL...

if benteke re-signs, i will raise a glass of ice cold lager in hong kong to both paul lambert and randy lerner.... sterling effort so far this summer, and with increasingly positive news about helenius and okore, the future is indeed bright...

well, it really looks like we may have someone at the helm once again, going about things the right way for the club.... all of the big wage earners who are not contributing regularly to the first team squad are all on their way, or looking for new clubs - ireland, given, hutton, makoun, bent, dunne... stan off the books in a sensitive way that still has him contributing positively to the club.... key young players signing new and prudent new contracts.... new talent joining and being linked to us... by the end of the summer, we could have a great squad of players all with decent amounts of time left on their contracts, with reasonable wages and the bigger wages in the right hands.... it would be a young squad, the vast majority of whom are developing and enhancing their value.... we could have an attacking force that even the best teams will be concerned about.... we could be a club that some great young european talent has wanted to join.... exciting times indeed.... if they can get the big man to sign a new contract this week, i would personally say, we have overachieved so far in the off season for the first time in several years.... UTV

if those rumours that currently appear to have legs, mostly turn out to be true, and i admit that's a massive if, just think what our squad would look like: we could start the season with benteke up front supported by two of gabby, andi, zoggy and tonev and squad support in the form of bowery, holman, carruthers, grealish we could have a midfielders comprising three of belhanda, popov, delph, westwood, sylla, KEA, with squad support of bannan, gardner centre backs comprising two of vlaar, baker, okore, clark, with squad support coming from the academy kids coming through fullbacks of lowton, bennett, stevens and others still to come, perhaps cresswell brad in goal, supported by siegrist and perhaps one still to come.... compared to our squad of say 18 months ago, what a transformation.... i hope that the fans will get behind PL and RL, and give them the kudos that they deserve for actually coming up with a plan and executing it over time... to identify and build a squad like that and to do so in a financially prudent way, and to have the balls to stick to it through all the hard times that came with it, to me, shows ambition and a huge set of nuggets.... i'm not intending to jump the gun here, but to me, it looks like a plan, and one that if it succeeds (and again, its a big if), would certainly make me proud to be a villa fan...

sounds like you're looking for a short nathan baker...