Lichfield Dean

Club just tweeted that he is available today

So I have been criticising Lescott a lot this season. Take Micah out and suddenly he improved and the team looked better. Put Micah back in and we lose. Guess I was blaming the wrong guy?

Fair point, the exact reasons why Albrighton went are obviously a matter between him and the club. He would have stayed given the right financial conditions and I think Leicester were prepared to meet those where we weren't. I think we were wrong and I thought that at the time. With more money available would the same call have been made? We will never know.

I like Garde. I think he can build us up for future. But it may take a season or two in the championship sadly. And hopefully some decent funding (which really is the key point). (As an aside but slightly pertinent point, for all those who big up Leicester and Watford, don't forget both those clubs have been heavily bankrolled. We couldn't even keep hold of Albrighton because of wages and this shouldn't be forgotten.) Persinally I think Remi could be our best manager in years given time and funds. Whether he will get either I am not sure.

I wonder if he knows that he is fast becoming a fan favourite? Would be nice if he had a song or some kind if obvious feedback from the fans. He deserves it.

Never really liked Naismith much, but I can see him adding some much needed grit to the side and I bet he would be an excellent foil to Ayew. Could make a good pairing.

Oh, and regarding the Premier drums, I bought them several years back at what is now PMT. I remember walking in and being totally dazzled by this amazing red kit that had loads of shiny chrome all over it. It really does look pretty amazing. I didn't actually buy it for any other reason than that! It does sound very nice though, and the tom mounts are the 'hanging' type that don't have anything penetrating the shell. The only thing I would say is that the hardware in just a tiny bit less solid than Japanese equivalents. Tama and Yamaha for instance are extremely well engineered in comparison, and I had decided originally after much research that I was going to buy a Yamaha kit. But instead I bought the shiny red one.

Thanks for listening! There are actually two different singers taking lead vocal, and there is about a 50/50 split across the tracks. They do sometimes sound similar however. We recorded in a place called Dockside in Bristol because it was handy for the one singer to pop into for mixing and so on. They were also rather good value :-) I realise these songs are not everybody's cup of tea - some of them are very poppy, and even a bit twee, but I actually like most them even though I generally listen to more 'complex' music. Interestingly, when we have played in Brum we often got comments from other bands along the lines of "it's nice that you are doing something different than heavy rock or metal". We would stand apart from the general crowd at times :-)

So my band Satchel Blue went into a recording studio and re-recorded a bunch of our songs (previous versions were cobbled together in a front room with dodgy electronic drums). On these new recordings I at least got to use my real drums for a change! The newly recorded versions are a big improvement, although due to limited funds and time and ability they could certainly still be better. There are some mastering/mixing issues on some tracks but generally I am pretty pleased with it considering how little time we had to record all these tracks. The album is called Best Of and two tracks (Steve McQueen and Heather Graham) I in fact played entirely on the mini drum kit that I built (and posted about on here a few months ago). The rest of it is played on a Premier artist birch kit with a self-built 13" bubinga snare drum. You can find the album on google play here https://play.google.com/music/m/Bvuxwxm323r7kwrapbiaj3xap6u?t=The_Best_Of_Deluxe_Version_-_Satchel_Blue or just search for Satchel Blue Best Of on your preferred online music purveyor. My personal favourite tracks are London Town, Me And The Devil, Goin Travelling, Cheap Shot At Love and Don't Try To Understand Me. If anybody listens, I hope you enjoy it!

The Arsenal fans were singing "Jack Grealish, he sleeps where he wants"

FTFY

I notice that Grealish, Ilori and Lyden are all absent from the U21 game, so as we have been hearing Jack is back with the first team, and I wonder if either of the other two might be given surprise bench appearances?

Very funny. French dictionary for Gabby though? Interesting... :-)

Minor point this, but has anybody heard about changes to the training regime or general office hours at Villa lately? Driving past Bodymoor Heath in the morning I have noticed that security guys at the gates are there before 8am whereas I never used to see them, and general activity in the area seems to have increased as well. Maybe it is nothing, or maybe the threat of relegation has resulted in longer working hours being mandated there?

Yeah, I know.... But it was the sort of play that Jack had us all hoping we might get to see, that sort of silky dribbling round the defence followed by a nifty one-two and clever layoff.

Draxler was excellent in Wolfsburg's second goal. Dare I say he was almost Grealish-esque?

Haha! Never spotted that. Useless. Still... Tuqui tuqui tuqui to one and all.

Joe Lolley scores against the noses :-)

(I think this Sanchez Christmas video is perhaps the greatest thing ever on youtube)

Sounds like he did very well in the friendly today. Two goals if I read the report correctly. Would have thought he must be in contention for the first team?

Westwood still injured? Or dropped? And Gabby? Injured or dropped? Excited to see how this team does though. Just what I wanted to see.

Yep, Bournemouth's injured strikers have really cost them today. And also Newcastle have protected their lead, something we failed to do at Leicester.

I can't ever remember seeing such a one-sided match. How Newcastle are winning this will have to go down as one of mankind's greatest mysteries.

Very impressive interview. Calm, considered and clear. Looking forward to seeing how this goes.