bobzy

Is Sinclair going to take a drop in wages though? I'd assume (and it's only a guess) that he's not on less than £50k/wk at Man City.

Really hope this gets stretched a bit and we stay away from Moses and Sinclair. Either way, though, funds are needed.

I voted 13th - 16th and 'slightly pessimistic'. As per the last few seasons, we're in a situation where we could finish anywhere between 10th and 20th - so I picked the halfway point. Are we in relegation trouble? Yes we are. I actually think the biggest problem we face is not Lerner or Lambert, but Christian Benteke. Seems an odd thing to be worried about, I guess, but I think there's far, far too much on him to get back into the side and scoring goals immediately. He's had a very bad injury and we're all expecting him to return as a top striker. However, outside of him... where are the goals? Whilst all of Kozak, Agbonlahor, Weimann and Bent can score; I'm struggling to see any of them break 10 league goals this season. Given our recent struggles, I actually feel more confident defensively. Most people seem to dislike Ciaran Clark, but I think he's a genuinely decent defender. Sure, he's made a couple of clangers but name a defender that hasn't? What he is, is comfortable on the ball. I'm fairly happy with Guzan-Clark/Vlaar/Okore as a keeper/back 3 or Guzan/any 2 of the others as a keeper and central defensive pair - the defensive issue is what occurs outside of them. Personally, I'd like to see a back 3 with Richardson/Bennett and Bacuna/Lowton as wing backs but, hell, that seems unlikely. Our biggest issue on the pitch is that midfield. Whilst the components all add something, it's very easily overpowered and nowhere near creative enough going forwards. We better hope Joe Cole sees a lot of playing time in the middle of the park. Delph has the correct attributes to be a decent box-to-box player but seems to often make awful decisions; running into blind alleys or making a poor pass the main ones. Westwood is neat and tidy for retaining possession, but has certainly lacked in the "stopper"/tackling department (let's hope the apparent bulking up over summer has helped out with this). Meanwhile, KEA is a bit of a non-entity for me. He does well in some defensive bits and some attacking areas but none of them consistently and none of them with great conviction. The transfer window is far from closed and I'm still hopeful (God knows why) that we'll make a couple of purchases. After all, even Randy Lerner must realise that a relegated club is nowhere near as attractive a purchase as a Premier League one? However, it's still likely to be a season of consolidation. You've just got to hope we're not too far adrift come the start of November...

Due to Lovren's departure, they are after two new centre-backs so the likely signing of Van Dijk wouldn't affect any potential deal for Vlaar. Are they? How do you know this?

Don't we still have Benjamin Siegrist? It might be that, given Guzan didn't miss a game(?) last season through injury, we've decided to give Steer some competitive playing time instead of warming our bench. I'm completely fine with this.

Sigh. The only reason it has "backfired" is because "young and hungry" players cost money. If you've got an owner that isn't willing to spend a decent sum of money (lets say, for example, £8m on Benteke) on good, young players then you have to take a different approach. The approach, now, seems to be to take in more experienced players for minimal amounts. Irrespective of how you feel about Lambert or who he should/should not buy, bringing in younger players is more often than not going to be a good approach. For example (and I know he's a different calibre of player), Chelsea brought in Lukaku for £18m, seldom played him, and then sold him on for £28m. Young players will, on the whole, hold their value or improve it. The mistakes of signing a whole load of expensive, proven players (Bent, N'Zogbia, Hutton, Warnock, Reo-Coker, Beye etc etc) with little to no resale value and high wages has massively stung us in the ass. Signing cheaper players was always going to be the better approach to take. Given that we weren't generally spending massive amounts, the cheaper players we bought always needed to be complimented by higher quality players as we move along. In this instance, Lambert hasn't been afforded the backing to do this and has had to adapt. Lowton is a pretty brilliant indicator of what can happen. Highly rated at Sheff Utd, we bought him for £3m(?) thinking he'd be a solid player for years to come - and maybe he will be. His performances at the back of the 2012/13 season were brilliant but, for whatever reason, he hasn't worked out this time round. A loan to Middlesbrough may well work wonders for him. Alternatively, it might not improve his stock at all. Either way, if we need to get rid of him, we'll still recoup a fee and won't have spent a silly amount on wages - a more preferable scenario than with the aforementioned players, no?

lol.

(Short) piece on the BBC Sport site saying Paul Lambert has "challenged Jack to break into the first team". Encouraging?

...says who? FM2014.

Bring back positive Richard Bring back an owner that gives a shit Aside from not spending on transfers, I fail to see what Lerner has done to suggest he "doesn't give a shit"? He's obviously looking to sell the club, but we've rarely (never?) sold our better players for sod all under his ownership.

They won't be paying anything like that which is exactly why they didn't make it permanent in the first place. Going by Koeman's comments, he really is just being used as a stop-gap while they groom Matt Targett, another off the production line, to become first-choice. That is not the point. If the World Cup is anything to go by, Lukaku £28m, played like a kid, Bertrand £10m, didn't play, Lovren, nothing spectacular, £20m, Vlaar best CD at the World Cup, less than £10m?? How much is Benteke worth if we compare to Lukaku? £50m? It's absolutely not just about the World Cup - don't get suckered in by that.

Every thread? Really? I did wonder where BJ had gone to...

He was injured for the vast majority of the season. Ah fair enough. Thought he was quiet. It's not fair enough, it's wrong. He did have a few niggling injuries, but he was fit and available for at least half of their games last season. Every time he came on he appeared lazy, disinterested and was allegedly a petulant and disruptive figure in the dressing room. He's made his money, he's happy coasting now. No thanks. That's not the impression i got from my Albion supporting mates regarding him not being in the squad. Your mates are wrong, basically. His attitude is appalling.

Not sure how I feel about this. Tettey is the kind of player that we desperately need - but I'm not sure he's the right player for us.

I still think he's the best footballer I've ever seen; there's nobody that can do what Ronaldinho can/could. Ronaldo was basically pace and finishing - phenominal forward, but not a great overall footballer. Interesting that he gets ranked in many "best ever" lists and Ronaldinho generally doesn't.

Pikeky? Pikeki? Pikekey?

Are you kidding me? I'd love someone to waste some of our space like he did from 2002 to 2012. Even now he'd be incredible. You mean 2002 - 2006 surely? He went to AC in his late twenties in 2008 and he was well finished even then. 2009/10 - wasn't he top assists in Serie A and voted Milan's player of the season? "Well finished even then"?

Exactly. 4-3-3 with full backs who can't defend is absolute defensive suicide, as has been proven time and time again over the last two years. I can see us going (granted, haven't watched any pre-season) 5-3-2 with wing backs and 3 central defenders. I'd be more confident with ANY of Luna/Bennett/Richardson/Lowton/Bacuna in a wing back role rather than a full back role, too. Lambert has experimented with this before, Vlaar has excelled in this formation at the World Cup - could be a goer?

I'd take him all day long. Probably the best footballer that I've ever seen.

'Better fan' lists the years he has followed the club to prove something cliché. All he is saying is that he's been through worse times? Certainly a better post than: "What a load of populist, head-in-the-sand babble. You got the yellow star that was your intention though so well done...I guess." Which is **** garbage. r.e: Vlaar, we're obviously fine discussing the merits of a potential move for him but literally nothing has come out to suggest he's on his way. The manager doesn't want to sell and Vlaar hasn't said anything. There's obviously nothing wrong with saying "I'm worried, he's only got a year left and I think we might sell him" or whatever, but there's such a pessimistic cloud over every single tiny detail at the moment. I'm amazed some people feel fit to shoot any sort of optimism down with a personal insult. Bad times.

Am I missing the joke here? I was thinking that as we both know they're not Korean names, then it suddenly dawned on me... Chunky, monkey, funky and flunky. Err......?

FWIW, I signed him down to a new deal on FM straight away. He's earning £4.5k/wk - get on it Lambert

Generally he's been ok but nothing special, he's part of the problem because ours is a team that concedes far too many goals. I do think 10m would be amazing although you are the 1st person to write it because I wouldn't rate him much more than 3m now that he has less than a year to run on his contract. Thanks to a good WC we might make some money on him. I and many Villans had never heard of Vlaar before he was photographed being shown around VP but I'm pretty sure Lambert will have his scouts looking for the next unknown bargain or out of contract player if he thinks he will lose Vlaar. If I were to guess though I think we already have Vlaar's replacement in Senderos which if I'm right is a worry. I completely agree that he's "nothing special"; but special players cost an absolutely ridiculous amount. What he is, is a solid central defender that has improved over the time he's been at Aston Villa and has clearly adapted to the demands of the Premier League and, thus, has been able to apply his adaptation on the biggest stage in the World. Whether you like it or not, the clubs that are being linked with signing him (Man Utd, Spurs, Southampton) are all better than Villa - that's the level he's at. To rate the guy at not "much more than 3m" is crazy. I think replacing him will be harder than people seem to think; especially if you're expecting scouts to find a player as good as him for around £7-10m and also have them settle instantly.

He's generally played pretty well for Villa. It's hard to really pinpoint many glaring errors that he's made and in some games he's been absolutely superb. Playing at Aston Villa (currently) means you see way less of the ball and are under much more pressure than when playing for Netherlands (a side who had the majority of possession in every World Cup game they played apart from vs. Brazil). One of his strengths is being comfortable on the ball - sometimes to his detriment (vs Newcastle), but a refreshing change from aimless long balls. He makes pretty crucial interceptions and seems to time his tackles well whilst being deceptively quick. My point is more... people are saying "£10m is amazing! Take it!" - who do you replace him with for £10m though? Who is this magical £7/8m CB that Ulver mentioned who is as good if not better than Ron Vlaar?

If its a cash plus player or players then yes, but not if its just to loan two players for a season. I like Holtby - saw him against Norwich playing for Spurs and he was pretty impressive, but didn't really get a chance to play in the first season he was here. Dawson I'd take, but be aware of his weaknesses - but he could form a good partnership with Okore. I know Vlaar had a good world cup, and yes he has a good season for us, but there have been times he's been pretty poor, particularly his first season. If we can get some money and a couple of players out of it, I'd drive him to his next club. At 29 he'll want a bumper contract when his current one is up for one last pay day and with his value high after a good world cup, now would be the time to sell him. I know that's not everybody's view (que mass ridicule) but if we can sell one player to get 2 or 3 quality players in of the right age and position, in our current situation, I think its a smart move. r.e: bold bit; basically Ron Vlaar has continually improved as a Villa player then? He started off poorly, then got better, then had a great World Cup...