Grumpy_Lion

None of this is great for either party. McCormacks name is currently mud so that hampers any move away he wanted to make and it also means we won't get a decent price if we do intend to sell him. It also makes the club look silly for signing him and if he's not turning up for training and doesn't want to play under Bruce then we are left with a £12 million paperweight. So the sooner they sort this the better for both.

Really excited to see Lansbury in action now. I think he is something we don't really have. We have a lot of wingers/inside forwards but we don't really have someone who seems to like to drive into the box and support the strikers the way I hope Lansbury continues to do.

I think our problem was that we ended up selling/losing our whole spine really quickly and then bought in a mass of new players to the english league. So we had a really inexperianced team with no real leaders or goalscorers. We had players playing out of position and in my eyes no real sense of tactics. This ended up in players with such low confidence that no one performed. I wouldn't go as far as saying we bought good players and they have moved on and have become good again, I think they were ok players in our price range and have gone back to being that. Some have pushed on and become better but many have become worse. As for Veretout, I think he was ok before we bought him and showed a tiny glimse that he could be good for us but he went missing in so many games. He also looked uninterested very quickly, he sulked a lot. He made it very clear he had no interest in fighting for us or wanting to be here. I think he could be good enough to get in our side again now but if his atitude is still the same then I don't think I want him.

we're starting to see the importance of Kodjia in our team now. Without him we lack a spearhead of our team and with that we lack goals.

For the price i'd happily take him, but if he isn't interested or there's complications then move on. We need players and we don't have time to spend all month negotiating one deal, we have already lost 6 points because we failed to buy a goal scorer.

Adomah is slow starting to grow into the player I hoped he would be. I was disappointed with him at first, I thought he would be a lot quicker and trickier on the ball than he was. The last two games though we have seen so much more from him and I think he is starting to settle in. Hopefully he continues to improve and be a great player for us.

I actually think they were both built for the Championship, the style suites them far more than the Prem. I just feel the Prem is too fast for them, it showed on quite a few occasions when we were in the prem. I think they have both been great this season but in my opinion I think they would look average in the league above. On another note, i've been so impressed with Baker this season. I would keep him in the side from now on.

He was all about pace and working hard when he was in his prime but over the last few seasons both of these seem to have been lost. He was also starting to look out of shape too which was worrying. His body language on the pitch came across as if he'd given up, which I know isn't true but that's just how it looked at times. Part of me still believes he could be useful this season but I need to see it to believe it now. If he's working hard and looking decent then give him one last chance to prove it to all of us.

haha, I think in short this was pretty much my point :-)

A few things have stood out for me, even with the short time Bruce has been here. For months now many of us have been saying we're not fit enough, we look sluggish and it was great for Bruce to come in and after one game say just that. I think Bruce said we were alarmingly unfit, which I fully agree with. It was also nice to see him sub Jedinak. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Jedinak at all but I think he is struggling a bit right now, perhaps due to fitness perhaps just settling in. But we have seen some average performances from him lately and Di Matteo never seem to notice, Bruce made that change and I was just pleased to see he wasn't going to overlook things like this. I also thought it was quite interesting what he said regarding Bacuna and Ayew and how they didn't feature because they had long flights home. It's this sort of thinking I'm starting to like from Bruce and it's this sort of thinking we have been missing as of late. They are all simple things I know, but i've not really heard anything like this come from any of our 4 or so previous managers. It just feels like we finally have someone who has the experiance to think this way.

For better or worse it's very hard to have a personality as a footballer these days. I remember the days when footballers would have been out on heavy drinking sessions to then play the next day and it was known and accepted by a lot of people. But football was a different game back then and you could afford to have a laugh and mess around and still turn up to a prem game and perform, of course this was only a special few but it happened and could happen. It's a different world now and if you want to be a pro footballer you have to live and breath football almost all of your working life. Fitness is so key now that you can't afford to do anything to put it at risk, managers won't stand for it. I actually think it's a shame that players are so restricted these days, I always enjoy seeing the real side of a footballer. Saying all that, I think Jack needed a manager who could understand all this and I believe Bruce could be just that. I don't believe Jack needs telling off every Monday morning and being banned he just needs someone to say, look you can have a bit of fun but be careful, then turn up at the weekend and give everything you've got. If this guy turns out to be as good as I believe he can be and peforms week in and week out for villa then he can do as he pleases outside football for all i care :-). Do us proud Jack.

I want to believe that a manager can come in and produce results straight away but after what we have seen in the past i'm still a little weary. I do believe however that Bruce has it in him to turn this side around over the course of this season, so all i'm saying is, that we need to stick together as much as we can even when things do go wrong. We do really need to see performances pick up quickly though,even if some results don't go our way, I want to see some passion back in the side. I really hope we see a change in attitude in the players over the next month.

I think Saturday is a little early to start judging him, especially when most the prep for the Wolves game hasn't been done by him. I really hope the fans give him time, the club is in a mess and will need time to sort. All the booing doesn't help.

I'm actually quite pleased with this appointment. The previous club thing really doesn't bother me, the only thing I worry about in that department is how they performed during their spell at the club. I'll be honest, i've never taken much notice of his achievements as a manager up until a week or so ago but for what he does he does it well. He may never win you the prem but he knows how to get a club promoted and that's what we need right now. We keep trying these managers which have high profile names but aren't high profile managers and I think it was time to bring in experiance and this is what Bruce gives us. I have nothing to base it on but I just have a good feeling about this one, the previous few managers always felt like we were just crossing out fingers and hoping but Bruce to me at least feels like we have something proper now.

he looks like he has a bit of character to him as well, we've lacked this over the last few years so I welcome it.

He does wear number 99 though, and we do need to fill that spot! :-)

hmm, I can't think of many he hasn't handled well tbh perhaps 1 or 2 but in 5 games that isn't too bad. Which free kicks are you referring to? the ones into the box or the ones they are shooting from? Tbf i've been used to watching Guzans positioning from free kicks for the past few seasons and I always hated where he would stand so perhaps I'm just thankful he doesn't do what he did :-). But I think generally he hasn't looked too bad from free kicks, the only ones that looked to beat him went wide so I can't grumble too much.

this injury means we have to buy another striker and fast. Kozak wasn't good enough, we will miss Gestede if someone else doesn't come on.

I actually quite like him. I think other than those two poor kicks he has been decent, unfortunately the two errors are what people are remembering at the moment. In my opinion he looks solid and much better than what we have had for years, he is still young and looks like he could develop into a great player.

From reading the chairmans comments, this isn't likely anyway. I wouldn't be disappointed if we signed him though, he could be quite interesting

I keep hoping for him to come good but I felt he was carried again against Derby. He had a few nice plays and a great shot but his basics are just lacking. I really worried when seeing him line up against Derby and tbf to him he was ok but after the games i've seen him play this season he just doesn't cut it for me.

Personally I think he's been fine this season. You know what you get with Westwood and he gives his all each game. I still feel we could get a better player in his position though, perhaps Tshibola and Jedinak are the ones who will play now but I think Westwood is a great addition to the squad at the very least.

he really bypassed me last season, He was a player I just kept forgetting we even had. He seemed 'ok' but lacked any fight or even care towards the end. He seems to think he is better than us and anyone feeling that way can go imo.

I fully agree, i thought it was a shame as it was a good opportunity for him to show he can do it but he failed. He just looked so off the pace and lacked any real ability to do anything. That moment when he picked the ball up on the half way line and tried to run about summed the poor lad up for me.

is he injured for todays game?