Harry

And hoofing the ball straight back to them did not help either.

Sadly after being 1-0 up for most of the game what I thought would happen did happen. We need a better striker to capitalise on the opportunities we have.

Thought we were the better side for most of the game but two catastrophic mistakes cost us along with very poor play in front of goal. The ref was awful and not since Stoke City have I seen a side more ready to try to con the ref and go down with ‘injuries’.

As I seem to recall he was pretty good in the second half of last season under Smith. I’m not saying he Is PL standard, I doubt he is for a starting 11. Smith clearly recognises that which is why we bought Targett but I really don’t think he is as bad as many think he is. He is just another one of those players who many fans don’t like whatever he does and he will have his work cut out to change that opinion. The reality is what we are discussing is his ability as a squad player not as first choice LB. Personally I would keep him not least as we may struggle to sign someone better who would clearly be coming in as back up. Obviously Hause is an option too but I would guess he sees himself as a reluctant LB. I may be wrong but was he not at LB on his debut and had a mare and that is the only time he has played there for us? As I said I may be wrong on that.

The simple truth is Man U are not the draw they used to be. They may not have realised that just yet! I doubt their manager will last the season and star players are queueing at the exit. Yes they are a big club but miles behind the like of Liverpool and City and probably will struggle to better Spurs and Arsenal and maybe Everton so overall not a great draw. McGinn is young and can afford to wait for a bigger club even assuming he wants to go. If he has a stellar season in a struggling Villa side I could see him go for a very large fee this time next year. It’s just lazy journalism yet again from Nixon on a par with McGinn going to Leicester because of Rogers - tbf not sure if that was Nixon but the same principle. The owners and CEO are no pushover these days and we are not a selling club. If McGinn wants to go which I seriously doubt then we will screw Man U for massive fee.

Bruce managing Newcastle

Good to see that MON’s career as a manager may finally be over. I have never forgiven him for his deliberately disruptive resignation.

Good business IMO

I agree with DS having a look but I doubt he is even squad player in the PL.

I really do wish you would speak your mind in this forum

Never say never, much depends on whether Chelsea want to keep him. I’d have thought £25m would get him.

Great day absolutely rocking still.

Totally agree, no class in the end.

I think his loan was much more to do with the strikers we have - Tammy and Kodjia with Davies as back up. Seems to me that Smith has got a lot out of players who were being vilified on VT - Taylor and Whelan anyone? I agree he is probably a championship player but a good one

Play offs achieved - what a result!

Great result but our wastefulness in front of goal was not good. Having said that we did the job required.

They know who they are

Life is sweet today....another three points off the Blues who yet again show their utter lack of class as a club; their fans and that fan, rubbish blowing all over the pitch, I think I saw one of their stewards being led away by the police, the shameless targeting of Jack by the Blues players....I could go on.....Oh I think I will, Monk seems to think they should have won

As I have said on VT before Villa fans have to have at least one player as our resident pantomime villain to abuse in any given season. At the moment it’s a toss up between Taylor and Hutton as Westwood was a couple of years ago for example. I can’t imagine the abuse they get either at the game or on forums like this help in any way at all. We have seats eight rows from the back of the Holte so in a pretty good position to judge atmosphere which for the most part is poor. It’s good when we are winning but rapidly decends to near silence punctuated by groans every time a pass goes astray or we are not attacking the opposition. Personally I don’t think we get behind the players hardly at all, we are not that mythical ‘twelfth man’. OK you aren’t going to be singing or chanting for the entire game but it awfully quiet at a lot of games.

Great post. Spoiler alert - we are just not that a big a draw for many managers. Just being ‘Aston Villa’ is not enough to attract the sort of names that get bandied around on VT. Rodger? Benitez? Dream on. We are currently a bang average mid table Championship side whose squad needs to be majorly rebuilt on limited funds. Personally I don’t think we can hope for much better than Smith and I do think he needs to be given time as I believe he can rebuild the squad and get us playing the right sort of football. Bruce got 100 games over two years and spent tens of millions to take us nowhere and yet 3-4 months in fans want Smith out to bring in who? Oh yes that dream manager, the best manager we have ever had......until he loses a few games.

Glad I missed it.

Who are they? Mings is in the starting eleven today and Carroll and Hause are on the bench.

Very much agree with those thoughts. For once we have not made panic buys or brought in aging players often on high salaries to try to solve a problem. This is very much building for the future in how we have handled our existing squad, particularly the younger players going out on loan. Just because we did not sign a player for a particular position like LB does not mean we did not try. Personally I think it shows the benefits of a football CEO, a DoF and a forward thinking young manager.

Absolutely agree with this comment. I don’t think I have posted regarding transfers this window not least because of the vitriol about certain players we have in our squad already but slagging off a player who has never played for us really takes us to a new level. i just hope he has a good first game for us otherwise I think VT will go into meltdown

The worst I have seen us play since our relegation season. The team was outplayed and outsmarted by a bang average Swansea who pretty much controlled the game for 75% of the time. The defence was woeful with Bree being by far the worst, constantly out of position and caught out. Hutton at CB...really? I actually felt sorry for Hogan, he ran the channels but never got a chance save for that early shot. Lansbury looking decent was the only bright spot. Personally I would have rather we played a whole second string side. Until he brought on Kodja, Lansbury and Davies the tactics and formation looked little short of inept.