Mark Albrighton

Congratulations

I'm taking this as a good sign that a thread like this can be genuinely warranted and it's another good sign that there's an argument for 4 or 5 names to gain the most votes.

Are the new avatar shapes VT's way of suggesting to Villa that they go back to having a circular club emblem?

Pretty much agree with everything markavfc40 has said. It's been an exciting window, it's felt like the most positive summer in years. At the very least I think it's given the club and us as fans a much needed shot in the arm. Bring on the next 34 matches, it's going to be interesting.

Mainly my fault, his being level with Sinclair surprised me. I'm heading back to the Lescott thread to see if the chat has returned to Kenneth Williams. On Sinclair, do we think he's most likely going to benefit by starting with a partner alongside him, or maybe as a lone striker with Adama, Gil & Grealish behind him?

Welcome Joleon. It's fantastic that he'll get to play for his childhood team. And credit where it's due to Man City for that tweet, they appear to be pretty good at media relations (that wham video is great, the east 17 one is decent too). Anyway, hoping to see Lescott score for us instead of against us for a change!

So do we think they'll get around this then? BBC are saying it's "collapsed" rather than stalled which sounds a bit more final.

Brilliant.

Well again, judging by his responses he doesn't seem to care what a few of the more vocal fans (trolls) think. At the other end of the spectrum you've got Gabby who gets some abuse on social media and following his reaction to that it's speculated that he's taken it to heart. If I had to guess, I'd say he knows he hasn't been great, he would have liked to been playing good football week in week out, but he's made his millions so what's it really matter?

Totally agree DDID. There's no chance in hell if I was a player I'd be on social media. I'm not a fan of his. But he is still our player and even if he were to be sold he shouldn't be receiving personal abuse or a bit of goading from anyone. While the situation is frustrating it's ultimately the club's fault he's on the salary he is. If fans want to complain, this is a much more appropriate place to vent. Judging by his responses, he does seem to have a rather flippant attitude to things which to me suggests he's happy to hang around a while longer.

Ah, cheers fellas. I've elected to blank out a lot of the houllier season so that explains it. I'm still working on forgetting the majority of the following few seasons.

If he's been paid £63k a week since he joined us, I'd say "The Money Pit".

Clark scoring 8 goals surprises me, struggling to recall them all. Sinclair will be making the biggest jump up that list I reckon, 15 goals in all competitions this season would be a good target for him to aim for. Been meaning to say that your complete goal scorer list is superb BOF, love stuff like that.

Wes Craven has died aged 76.

I know what you mean. There's always going to be a slight fear that things won't work out, players won't click etc. We've had our fair share of false dawns. But I think we have the majority of the pieces, the team appears to have a bit more character about them. Going 1-0 down last season would have meant an inevitable defeat rather than being back on level terms within 3 minutes. Sherwood has said recently it's how you finish the season and I'm inclined to agree. Worries over a slightly stuttery start can be tempered with the fact we started well last season and things changed pretty quickly. There are goals in this team and if we have that, then that's a good part of the battle won.

Congratulations to all three of you.

A thread about the potential signing of Joleon Lescott goes "a bit OT" by discussing Kenneth Williams' holidays. I bloody love VillaTalk.

Gana was terrific yesterday. Veretout looks like he could be a very good signing.

I'm not sure about everyone else but every time we were on the attack I found myself hoping the final pass would ultimately fall to Sinclair. Easy to say after this week and perhaps too early to say, but I think he's nailed on to be our top scorer. Yes, the goals have included two penalties and a couple of tap ins, but he's getting into the position for those tap ins (he's a good poacher, but he offers much more than that IMO). As Richards says he's a bargain and so far he's scored 5 times as many goals as that bloke Liverpool bought for £30m more.

Frustrating game. We were clearly the better team but a single free kick and a ten minute spell at the start of the second half was enough. Richards is looking like our best defender, Amavi looks very positive, although he faded in the last 20 minutes. Sinclair has to be our first choice striker, if we don't buy another forward the front line should be centred around him. Gil looked good, should have started or at least come on 10-15 minutes earlier. Gana was my man of the match. We're going to be fine.

I reckon the attendance will be around 34,000. I shall be in attendance with my mate and this will be the third villa/sunderland match we've gone to. Previous times were the memorable 0-0 draw under Mcleish and last December's enthralling 0-0 game. We either break our goalless streak or Sherwood gets his first 0-0 draw. I fancy us for the win, but I also think there will be a scare along the way, 3-1 to the Villa. (But 0-0 is also a distinct possibility, so apologies in advance)

I've provided a detailed description of those involved to the powers that be. I suspect maybe it was because he replaced Traore, tough act to follow. The mutterings were generally about his legs going, jumping straight away on the occasional mistake made, "how's he going to help" and so on. They were fairly quiet regarding the more positive impact he had. I like Joe, he's always seemed like one of the "good guys". He still got a great eye for a neat pass to unlock a defence and he's not scared to stick a foot in to nip the opposition's attack in the bud. It's been said before, but Grealish has said himself that Cole being at Villa is a great help to him.

He did have a decent game, the odd mistake, but he definitely got stuck in with some good challenges when they were looking to press and his assist was good. When he came on there were a few around me ready to mock him but I feel he still has something positive for us, particularly when seeing games out.

I'm enjoying watching him play, so all the contract stuff is not going to worry me too much. Having said that I was wondering does the deal mean we can't sell him to anyone else for three years? Apologies if asked and answered before. In the mean time I just hope he's on course to destroy sunderland, I hope no news is good news regarding his knock.

I think as there's a buy back clause for Adama, it's fairly likely Sherwood will have had a conversation with him to that affect.