7392craig

Lerner isn't going to put in £15m of his money. He did it once with Darren Bent and he isn't going to do it again. Does the club not have any of its own money? Honest question. If so then Lerner should leave it to Fox to decide what's best - as he promised to do earlier in the summer. It's a reasonable question, I guess the answer is we don't know. The operating budget will I would assume be based on far more up to date figures than are currently available to us through the company financial reports which are somewhat out of date, I would expect the club to be operating at a profit now, a small one but a profit none the less so there should be some money there but I can't see that it would stretch to £15m. So that leaves three possible sources of finances for this window. 1. Player sales 2. Club Profit 3. Investment from Lerner To date what we've spent is (in my view) the combination of 1+2 perhaps with a little left over. If we were to get any money from pot 3, which I really doubt, then I rather suspect that it would in turn go onto the cost to any interested party for buying us. Given that we can't sell the club for the current price, I'm not convinced Lerner would fancy spending and then putting the price up. This is why I've said all summer talk of a net spend of £20m are quite fanciful, it just doesn't make any logical sense. So I don't think we can go to £15m for Austin, in response to the earlier quote and Adebayor would have cost us in the region of £5m which was potentially quite a bargain. I'm not upset with how we're playing, but chances in the prem are few and far between. You need a striker who can take them, and I'd feel more comfortable seeing Adebayor up top than any of our other strikers atm.

Austin scored 2 for QPR this afternoon, I think he's worth a shout after today. He'd have scored with the chances we had in the first half.

He won't score, he's not ready

Or someone else. Personally I think Austin is a one season wonder and would be surprised if he maintained his level. Austin has been a pretty consistent goalscorer for a few years now, albeit only one of those seasons in the prem. But he certainly has stepped up at every level so far, and even if he didn't hit 20 next season I don't think he'd be too far off.

Watching that video, you really forget how much quality he has. Can't wait to have him back.

I don't know. As others have said, our three trickiest players were all out today. It's fairly likely that our three biggest chances of unlocking a defence this season are going to be Grealish, Gil and Traore. On the other hand our midfield held its own today overall I thought. Add some creativity from that trio and we'll be winning games. I get that Grealish, Gil, Traore et al will be more creative I just don't think they'll be playing instead of Westwood/Gana/Veretout/Sanchez. I think we'll see them out wide in the front 3 or as no 10's behind a 2 as part of more of a diamond. I think the back 4 and the 3 across the middle are here to stay. As such the middle 3 looks our weakest link to me at the moment, early in the season as it is. Man Utd are a well organised team sure, but plenty of teams are going to come to Villa Park and pack the midfield. People saying it's the link between defence and attack we were missing last night, well thats the midfield and we need a bit more if we're going to break teams down and make VP a fortress again imo. I really think a midfield 5 is the way forward, especially with the way teams pack the midfield these days. I'm not gonna slag players like Ayew, Gabby or even to an extent Gestede, when they didn't even have scraps to feed off, nobody played any balls through from the midfield for the strikers. I know he's only a young lad but we really miss Grealish in the side, I really think the lad is the link to the strikers.

I think you're right, I think it's just that I'm worried as we're in yet another "transitional" stage. This team could go one way or the other, the heights of mid table or the final push over the edge to relegation. I'm just worried I guess, same as everyone else.

Wasn't too impressed myself. I know we fought harder than usual. But Man U were poor by their standards and if they were on it then I'm confident we'd have lost by 2 or 3. Gueye's passing was awful at times, Veretout looked completely knackered after half an hour and Ayew looked lost. Considering we are supposed to be building a new side with flair around a team of talented players, I was a bit disappointed watching Lambertesque long balls over and over again. I can't recollect one time in the whole game where somebody tried to play a through ball in the final third or a one-two around the last defender. I really don't want to sound doom and gloom and I really hope that it's down to the players needing time to settle, which is a reasonable way to think. But the whole game screamed of last seasons long ball football, just with a bit more fight, fingers crossed it was just a one off.

I imagine Sherwood can't predict it, I reckon about half an hour before kick off, he goes for a piss and in the light of the golden flow, he has a glorious epiphany where he sees the optimim starting 11 and tactics.

I Think Facials Are Spunktastic

It hasn't REALLY happened. It's only a loan - didn't you hear there's a buyback clause? Maybe it's just photoshopped? Damn pranksters at it again.

ITK's aren't actually IKN? Life is not worth living any more

People should get banned for thisBit extreme, we'd have no members if we banned everyone on a wind up. I was on the wind up #lol #thebantz #canttakenomore #bantersaurus

I don't agree as such with him being an impact player, I also think he is dreadful out wide and completely wasted there. But as people have pointed out, he is too isolated as a lone striker. He can play only one position well, up front with a proper CF with him. His pace is amazing but he needs someone there with him to either knock on balls, or to take attention from him for a through ball to go through for him to run on to. I am confident that if he played up front with Gestede he would have a very good season.

I know that it's early and it's a new team, but as most of us said early on, it's not that bad losing against a newly promoted side that's pumped as f**k for this game, it's the manner in which we lose. So far it's looked pretty poor, almost like we're playing for a draw, and certainly not what I expected to see from a Sherwood side. Hopefully the 2nd half will be a bit more settled.

Amavi looks class and Guzan has played well, the rest has been shocking. The passing is awful and the midfielders are offering nothing going forward.

Looks to have lost a bit of weight, he became more inconsistent when he put too much on, let's hope he's back to what we saw flashes of a few years back.

Found a bar to watch this in, nervous as hell

Away with the Mrs so I'll be trying to find somewhere to watch it Ayia Napa, not many bars with English games on with so many Ruskies about on the West coast (Go to Paphos or Protaras) I'll find somewhere eventually. I think 2-0, Gabby and Gueye to get the goals, I have a good feeling about this lads

Only £16m?! That's a shed-load for a player they were already taking a gamble on and he showed nothing in terms of ability or even effort to even try and repay that faith in their gamble. Benteke had a poor run of form after a bad injury, Balotelli has had a huge run of bad form because of the amount of effort he puts in. He's quite simply a waste of potential. He only had a half decent record at City because they created so many chances. I'd rather have Borini to be honest! (I don't want Borini, just demonstrating how shocking Mario has become). His career was on a massive slide and a club as big as Liverpool gave him a final chance to show he still had something but he just simply doesn't care. He'd get the ball, lose it easily and show zero lack of desire to rectify this, he'd stand there with his hands on his hips instead of closing down. That's nothing to do with feeling loved or an arm around his shoulder, that's straight up laziness and other players having to carry him. Isn't that the case with Berbatov though? Although admittedly Berbatov pulls it out the bag more often than not. But if we were to sign him there would undoubtedly be a lot of games where players would be carrying him, mostly due to his lack of closing down. I highly rate him but I couldn't count how many times I've seen him with his hands on his hips.

At the right price yes, but anything that's taking money away from any other potential transfer targets isn't worth it. (If we have any more targets, fingers crossed for a CB)

I genuinely believe you, he's never had a dad around and pretty much raised his family as the man of the house at too young an age. Given an arm around him, some love from the fans and a mentor like Tim and he could hit 20+ a season. But it's a big gamble and there's no room for sentiment in football. One red card and he might go off on one and not score for 2 months, we're not in the position to take on such a luxury striker.

I don't think we'll score any goals, I think we'll concede every game, I think all of our players will go down simultaneously with cruciate ligament injuries and Tim will be outed in the sun as a sexual predator who traps players in the changing rooms for his special 'facials'. Am I doing this right?

Bugsy Maloan

Loan