Mark Albrighton

If that’s the case then Darren Bent must have occupied a spot high up on the list for a fair few years.

I don’t know which defenders we could realistically buy for this sort of price (or less) who could be considered better, be a near certainty to be settled at the club and be premier league “proven”.

Have I missed something or is there a reason why we appear to think Suso had no involvement in the Wesley transfer?

If he’s anywhere near as influential for us as he was last season I couldn’t give a **** if it’s £20m or £26m.

I know you’re not against women playing football, I understand that it’s the intrusion of it in the mainstream football media that you’re not keen on. All this is just the clubs/authorities/men (and women) in general attempting to readdress the balance a bit, trying to right a few wrongs. I dare say that while the 50 year ban may well have been lifted in 1971, it’s probably a safe bet that those in the game didn’t exactly rush to help any women who wanted to be involved, so the impact of the ban was compounded.

Well I assumed you knew because you said you appreciated what they (the women) do. The women’s game used to be huge. Genuinely huge. Sell out crowds. Rivalling the men’s game. Then the FA banned the game for 50 years. Lifting the ban in the early 70’s, when the game had moved on significantly so the women’s game has been trying to play catch up ever since. Read up about it, the sport owes them. Edit so yes, in a way we did nick their best players for generations.

Because the men’s side is much better known and their nearly 150 years of existence doesn’t need promoting via the women’s team twitter feed. How many people do you think follow the women’s team twitter account and not the official club’s twitter feed? Do you think the 16,000 people who follow the women’s account are not already aware of the recent promotion to the premier league, the official club’s account and and it’s 1.2 million followers? I don’t buy this “they don’t care about the men’s team” argument. They are representing Aston Villa at the level they are able to. ****ing fair play to them. Once again, the sport owes the women’s game. Promoting it en masse to people, many of whom probably won’t be interested is the tiny inconvenience we now must face. I’m pleased that the club is at least attempting to support and promote them.

There’s plenty to enjoy in the covers Jess Greenberg records for her YouTube channel...

Hence “something (someone) like Nakamba”. I think it’s equally likely a player we haven’t been linked to could be brought in, like Wesley.

I didn’t see us picking up all the supposed top targets. Even if we did and got them for the lower estimates being touted around - Webster, Philips, Benrahma would probably set us back around £60m in total. I reckon it’ll be something like Nakamba for around £10m instead of Philips for £25m, meaning we can put the “saved” £15m towards acquiring one of our other targets.

The Stables bar? That’s at the back of the kings head. There’s also the Shakespeare which I believe has a nice outdoor bit now.

A meal and drinks out in Bridgnorth with friends on Saturday evening.

No we’re not going to agree. Although it’s interesting that the talk about the men’s game sends you to sleep and the women’s game makes you sit up and take notice

So just ignore the threads, ignore the coverage, skip the bits of the podcasts you don’t want to listen to. It’s not difficult to avoid. The point about how the sport owes something to the women’s game, this is it. It owes them a bit of coverage, a bit of promoting in areas where there won’t be much interest. It’s no real hardship really. I just went on the BBC Sports app, first headline is Pakistan v Bangladesh - not interested in that, then it’s updates from Wimbledon - not interested in that either, then it’s a story about Carney retiring from England after the World Cup. Again not interested. But am I disillusioned by this? No. I click the top right menu button, click “all sport” and then “football”. With three touches of a button I reach the news I want to read and I can see who Derby County have appointed as their new manager. Really, really easy. I don’t know why sky didn’t choose the cricket match you wanted to watch, I find it hard to believe it wasn’t available anywhere to view. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. They’ll get the message.

Who said anything about it magically coming on? The game you wanted to watch wasn’t on sky sports. A women’s game was on instead. Your problem is with sky sports, not women’s cricket. And yes, if a Villa fan is complaining about Man Utd or Liverpool being on, then they don’t have to watch that either. It’s really simple.

When it reaches the point of the podcast when they start talking about the women’s game, you can stop listening. I dare say the talk will subside the closer we get to August. The cricket, well I don’t know. But I’d be surprised if such a unique game wasn’t being shown anywhere. Again, you don’t have to watch the women’s cricket, there’s an off switch. The Aston Villa women’s team does has something to do with Aston Villa, the first two words are the giveaway. As it stands, Alan Hutton no longer has any involvement with Aston Villa, if he comes back in some capacity, I’m sure his thread will be moved back. I don’t understand why the new kit thread gets the traffic it does, the investment people have in new designs. It’s just going to be changed the following season and we’ll see the similar designs again. But while I don’t get why the popularity of the thread, what I don’t do is go in and complain about the relevance of discussing it. It’s currently Villa related, so it’s there. Again, if that does happen, you can chose not to read them. For a long time women weren’t given the choice of whether they could play to a competitive level. Whether you like it or not, the game owes them some support. If that support means that you or I have to click on page 2 of On Topic to try and find the thread we want to read and post in, then I can live with that.

But it’s not being “forced on us”. Has anyone associated with the women’s game made you post in here? Will this thread existing in On Topic decrease your enjoyment of VillaTalk? Did Gabby Logan hold a gun to your head forcing you to watch the BBC’s coverage of the women’s World Cup? If you don’t want to read the thread, then don’t read the thread.

Judging by his Twitter picture, I think he’s a bit sketchy.

I don’t believe (or rather I am hopeful) that we won’t find ourselves in that situation again. And I don’t think, in a a one off situation, it would matter greatly if we paid £20m or £30m for Kalvin Philips. We would probably recoup a lot of that back if we had to. I think supporters have become more and more aware of the financial side of the game and are a bit more concerned with some of the pitfalls that can found when we’re not being sensible with recruitment. I don’t see us paying the top figure for all the targets we’re being linked with, one or two maybe, but not all of them.

Because clubs being conscious of their spending means we can avoid having threads like this -

As far as I can tell his attitude has always been faultless. Whatever happens with Scott I genuinely hope he puts the past couple of years behind him and finds his scoring boots*. *As long as it’s not for small heath or someone like that.

Hmmm “Alanis” must be a stage name.

Have there been any quotes from Dean on the signing of Wes?

Is your nearest supermarket in 2004?