dukes

I think with us losing Terry it's obvious we need a centre back and more experienced goalkeeper. I don't believe Chester is a great communicator and the defence will miss that this season, also Elphick and Chester isn't the most commanding centre back pairing, they seem quite passive.

I wonder if we could get John Ruddy on loan from Wolves, or if Hart is still at city on deadline day then I would think he'd be the type of player that Bruce could get back confident...but we'd need that to happen very quickly indeed. Also Diego Cavalieri, Oscar Ustari, and Boaz Myhill are available on free transfers, and would probably be an improvement on Steer and Bunn.

For centre Back could we get a deal for Huth, he is a very typical Bruce signing, and might be ok alongside Chester with Elphick in reserve.

Everything depends on how much money there is available, and how much we're allowed to spend, but for me these are the positions where strengthening is most urgently required.

If money isn't such a problem, Max Meyer is available on a free, and must be worth a punt. I doubt he'd drop to the championship, but we can dream.

4 minutes ago, dudevillaisnice said:

In fairness that didn’t get us promoted. As far I’m concerned the players have to also take responsibility for it just as the manager has to.

Unlike the manager I’m not sure that Snodgrass could have contributed more on or off the pitch.

20 minutes ago, dudevillaisnice said:

I’d take both back. I think they both failed just like Bruce did last season but a fresh start under new ownership I would take them both back. I’d also want a bit of pace in the team but not sure if we can spend..

In what way did Snodgrass fail ? 

1 hour ago, One For The Road said:

Ok. 

And my thoughts on our state are based on knowledge. We are in turmoil. It's that simple.

Surely we were in turmoil, but now things aren’t half as bad ? So maybe we are in oil.

I went for out. If we can’t spend money then we need someone prepared to blood youngsters, that hasn’t been Bruce at Villa so far.

If we can spend money I’m not sure Bruce would make inspiring signings.

he has had pretty much 2 seasons and an expensive squad (at this level), I just don’t think it’s going to happen for him here.

2 hours ago, VERB27 said:

A bit weird of Bruce’s to do that press interview with Sky if this was in the pipeline.

I know it was probably at initial stages then but SB’s tone was pretty strong considering. 

Could be his downfall, can’t see the new guys wanting anyone with loose lips about the place (except Mallory).

47 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Adidas to sponsor The Holte End urinals if he wants to. 

That’s just taking the piss, and everybody knows Adidas is all about taking a shit !  After dinner of course.

44 minutes ago, sidcow said:

His 6% of Adidas is actually the biggest individual shareholding and he sits on the board. If you go on their corporate website his photo and bio is right there.  I think he has enough power at Adidas to sponsor The Holte End urinals if he wants to. 

I already stated that.

16 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

What’s that worth?

Thats a pretty big holding in whats probably the second biggest sports brand in the world. This guys the real deal. 

I wasn’t questioning whether he was the real deal. The OP asked if the new owner could just get Adidas to sponsor us, and I just said that I doubt it since he doesn’t own a big enough shareholding to make that decision alone.

in all likelihood  our next kit will be by Adidas, just like when Lerner took over there were links with Nike and IMG and we got a Nike kit quite quickly afterwards as a ‘favour’.

he holds approx 12M shares valued at something like $2.7bn so it’s a huge investment, kinda shows how small fry Villa are in his portfolio.

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

What’s 6% of 6.8 billion?

No he owns 6% of the shares of Adidas.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-30/egyptian-billionaire-sawiris-emerges-as-biggest-adidas-investor

12 minutes ago, HAL said:

Cant the possible new owner just get Adidas to sponsor us? 

I doubt it, he is the biggest single shareholder, but he only owns 6%.

 Mine arrived today, shirt is fine but the sizes are on the big side.

I must be missing something, Lerner spent two years trying to sell the club and struggled. By the time Lerner sold there was no debt, but we’d been relegated. Xia reportedly paid £80M.

Now, two years later the club is leveraged to the hilt and he’s turning down offers that value the club at more than he paid for it.....how can that be ? 

Something doesn’t ring true here, if Xia carries on taking loans at the rate he has been his ‘investment’ will be worth zero...why would he reject bids out of hand without negotiation ? 

@TheEgo in your view is there anything happening in terms of a takeover or is this absolute cockwomble going to hold on until there is nothing left ?

its been very quiet on the takeover run our front the last week.

Well I’ve ordered my first Villa shirt since 1995 (home).

I think both kits are great. Haven't bought a shirt for years, but will buy the home top. reminds me of the 1984 Mita copiers one.

15 minutes ago, romavillan said:

That Bruce statement is **** atrocious, he's basically saying everyone knows we are broke and need to sell and so we'll have to accept getting a total butt fudging on deadline day for our best players. Sounds like an awesome summer plan then. We can expect more genius leadership from this shower of shit.

Totally agree, to my mind it's grounds for dismissal. He's basically said we'll have to sell everyone for whatever offers come in, whenever they come in. It's the worst possible thing to communicate at this time when we clearly need to push prices up.

What he should have said was something like. "we all know the situation regarding FFP, we need to sell players during the season, but there's no rush right now and we'll wait for the right offer for club and player"

it's clear we need to sell, but Steve Bruce just played into Levy's hands !

3 hours ago, villa89 said:

There's going to be a lot of complaints in this thread come Monday morning. The logo is shit lads. We know it's shit and we know it's going to be on the jersey. It's time to accept it. 

One thing that is odd is the pink on the training kit. The last thing we need is yet another home kit that's not actually claret.

Unibet is not the main sponsor and will not appear on the kits

35 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

It’s all just awaiting on a fee between the clubs. No ploy from Spurs it’s all moving ahead, at this point I’ll be massively shocked if it doesn’t go through. 

If no fee has been agreed, that means no offer has been made ! Surely there won't be a transfer without a fee being agreed between two clubs ?

Social media bollocks, this is no further forward than when the press were lying about maximum of £15M bids from Spurs.

Everyone should calm down.

1 hour ago, omariqy said:

Bruce out.

Bruce in

33 minutes ago, Straggler said:

My bet is on the breaking news being that Grealish has been told that he is being sold today.  The club won't be able to keep it quiet once the players know, someone will spill the beans instantly.  With the Tweet JG just sent out I fear that the news we will hear today will not be feel good in any way.

Is that the tweet ? doesn't it just mean hard day at training ?

47 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I believe he's on gardening leave, removing weeds, turning over soil and the like. 

Is He the contractor doing the pitch ? Or would that be Hoe ?

21 hours ago, TheEgo said:

Sorry for the spam replies, I only get a chance to get on a few times a day and then make a bunch of posts all in one. 

• Are you a journalist ? Unlike many you seem to speak with conviction and certainty about things that aren't in the public domain

From what little I know Cortese seemed to have done a great job at Southampton. He left there in 2014 and hasn't been seen at a football club since.....with so many clubs in need of experience such as his how can that be ?

1 minute ago, TheEgo said:

Yes they were, my point being is they weren't lodged until AFTER the play off final, so he was waiting to see whether we went up before seeking to restrict shares. So it was clearly his plan B before it all got out in the press. 

ah yes, got it now