AlwaysAVFC

I think they will still be working on the possibility of someone becoming available to loan or at least have been. Get the feeling we would have heard from Tony if we were completely done and dusted for the night.

It's not The Brabazon is it? and he's been allowed a break from being holed up with Stephens, Defoe, Benni McCarthy and others

Sounds like we're not necessarily done yet.

It's not like there is a queue of World class players itching to cut it in the Championship. We've gone for someone it probably hasn't come off, we've took an alternative option.

Exactly, he has said all along the World Class player (Hernandez or not) has been a hard negotiating process. That alone means it was never guaranteed and could quite possibly fail.

Finding bargains takes time, we've had part of a close season to source and get the players we need and didn't exactly have a thorough scouting system previous to the takeover.

Arrived back from Mallorca Friday, only they didn't put a tag on my suitcase. My girlfriend told me she thought they hadn't, but not till we were near security Even then I thought that they can't have not but it on, it's pretty much what they are there to do as well as a couple of security checks. At Birmingham they said it had been located in Palma and would likely be sent out to me Saturday. On Saturday they said it will arrive Sunday, yesterday they said it will be with me today. It has finally arrived in Birmingham, but won't be sent to me till Wednesday Wouldn't be so bad if I was home but my holiday has been continuing in UK, so been getting by with few clothes.

Yes I think it will differ from a director of football role and RDM will have a big say on the plan and objectives for the future, rather than Round coming in and taking control. My guess is that they will develop a plan together and then the technical director will be in charge of implementing it through the club. I think Everton have 2 academies in USA, definitely at least one. I don't know how much involvement Round would of had in those but he'd certainly know a bit about how they operated.

RB is the only position he could excel at. Good to hear he had a good game. He needs to work on his concentration and the overall defensive side of the game but the positive parts of his game work best at RB than anywhere else on the pitch.

Maybe they would and it just wouldn't have gone public, but I couldn't see any other chairmen/owners doing this and taking on the responsibility. I think it's my favourite thing he has done so far. I'd like to think it was very inspirational and was a great motivation. Of course it could have been a boring powerpoint which the players were hardly listening to, but have a feeling that wasn't the case. I like the way he works.

Sounded like he had a decent game as well as the goals.

If that Keith is right and Xia is a fraud and Samuelson owns the club Then he is going to extraordinary lengths to hide it all.

Not to worry, it's just been a little de laed.

I've not read the article on what's happened but does it appear it's definitely him who has taken this decision or just the media making up a story on the back of last night? Would RDM really not be part of this decision? I can't really see Xia making this call on his own unless he's going a bit crazy on the basis that he scored a couple of goals pre season. Alternatively maybe someone is looking to pay something for Cissokho? Or worse Amavi.

Easy done. Yes it's a little bit embarrassing for the club and it can't help much with any confidence issues but we are going to play enough games anyway this season with a priority of getting promotion, however distant that seems currently and if it means we don't see one or 2 players again, or it means we get an extra player than what was originally thought needed. Then there are positives that could come out of it. Let's hope do anyway.

It would be a bit harsh to pin all our confidence issues on him but he is a big part of them. His lack of effort and positional discipline is shocking and then there was his role of captain. The first time I saw him was the Swindon friendly, while I had my doubts on him when he signed he did seem like he was a talker on the pitch. This never happened once the season started. He made no rallying effort at all. Elphick showed more captaincy on Sunday than Richards did all season.

The major plus of last night is if they didn't know it already, they now know we need more new players. The worst thing that could have happened would be to have a false dawn before the Window closes and it goes to pot with no way to sort it out apart from some loans.

Perhaps Wolves are trying to poach him and he's doing a bit of background research.

Sorted, she's already got one The big thing for me to get used to is where she lives. It's a small Village with 2 pubs and no shop, a couple of miles from the nearest town and supermarket. Thank f**k there are 2 pubs at least.

Yeah, I think we did place a bid but it was rejected and we didn't go any higher, could be wrong though.

Made the plunge and going to move in with my girlfriend. I'll be 35 by the time the years out and until now I've never actually lived with a girl full time and have always been keen to keep my own space. Which was probably why my relationships were short lived but that suited me perfectly really. Things are going really well so I thought it's now or never.

Cheers wasn't sure whether Ho was right but couldn't be arsed to check. Plus I thought I'd set someone up to comment on it.

No idea but it does come across that it is him personally. There's that guy Ho, but doesn't he look after Villa's Twitter and Weibo accounts rather than Xia's?

Agree with that, and in these positions he does actually does some decent tracking back most of the time as well as dropping deep for the ball, but playing wide midfield, tracking back is so much more a key skill required.

Yeah not so sure . They do seem to have a better relationship with Villa now but Murphy and Percy both seem to be first to the news ahead of Evans and Kendrick