Godders

I can't imagine he'd have said anything else until it happens.

Delph said he was staying in the summer. 

You can't trust anything that comes out of a footballers mouth!!

The two jobs are absolutely incomparable if you ask me. 

Yes, Moyes has so far shown somewhat lacking to be considered for the biggest jobs in the world. But if he comes here, we're not asking him to take over one of the biggest jobs in the world. We're not even sniffing around Europe.

What Moyes has proven he can do though, is build a solid premiership team, on a budget that's not as big as some of the teams around him. 

That is exactly what we need right now.

I don't get the negativity towards transfer committees. Why is it so hard to understand that the 'football men' in the club have the expertise in the football side of things, and the 'business men' have the business expertise. For a successful transfer, someone needs to identify a need for a new signing, and then identify the player(s) that can fill that need. That's done by the football guys. The fee and wages then need to be negotiated to make sure the club don't pay over the odds for the player, that there's marketability if needed etc. That's the business guys. They all work together, to get a transfer done, so why not have a committee that discusses and identifies key targets? To me it makes perfect sense.

And like it or lump it Stan, but Bournemouth and Swansea are currently better football clubs than us.

I think the reason your posts have generated so much debate is because your argument, as far as I can tell, is based on the assumption that a 4 win swing over the course of a 38 game season is statistically insignificant enough for the two managers' respective records to be considered almost identical. 

A 4 win swing, in my opinion, and in the opinion of a number of others here from what I see, is definitely not insignificant. In fact, it is very significant over the course of a season. Therefore, Moyes is a better manager and is rightly recognised as such.

Would you consider Sherwood to be able to have done a better job at Sociedad if it was he that was taken on there instead of Moyes?

Sociedad at home to Atletico Madrid today, and a couple of the back pages this morning suggesting Moyes would be up for the Villa job. 

Maybe Sherwood's two game ultimatum won't be too far wrong- if Sociedad lose heavily and Moyes is sacked, a week or so of negotiations and he could replacing Sherwood shortly after the Swansea game regardless of the result.

Personally I would take Moyes here in a heartbeat. 

They've certainly experienced more goals

I have made no secret of my continuing disappointment in Lerner and his disregard for Aston Villa. I think this window has been a very entertaining failure. That's best way I can put it.

 

If you make a team of the players we've signed and play it against a team of the players who've left (as I did in another thread) then it becomes fairly apparent we have, at best, stood still. The quality is more evenly been spread so areas such as defence are improved but strikeforce weakened, where as the midfield has also more evenly spread the quality. Ultimately though, the lack of a more recognisable striker will hurt us. We released Bent, Weimann, Helenius and kids and should have replaced them more ambitiously, Benteke was not replaceable in a realistic budget.

 

And that is the final element; we all accept we have a limited budget but given we lost our best players, needed an overhaul, have a new manager and finished 17th last season, I'm fuming that we spent so little money that wasn't from sales and even more disappointed that Lerner has somehow managed to sneak this past a large majority of fans who have been seduced by the pure numbers rather than the difference in quality.

 

He can sell the whole first XI next season for £30m but as long as we buy 40 relatively unknown foreign players for £10m that may or may not end up both being good enough and settling in the Premier League it will keep the masses happy.

 

No money doesn't necessarily equal success, but lack of investment guarantees failure.

This is a perfectly reasonable opinion, and one I think a few others on here will share. Not me though I'm afraid.

Taking your points on board, I would say that we are in a much better position than we were this time last season, and I would suggest that you may even be alluding to this in your post. My reasoning is this... Even assuming we've just done enough to stand still (I personally think we've done better than that), the prevailing consensus here is that we're a decent striker away from being a significantly better team than under Lambert.

That's one player. One person we need to find in January, or find within the squad (e.g. Ayew coming good) to keep us clear of another relegation dogfight. Could we really have said that this time last year? I don't think so.

So, yes we may still be a player shy of where we, as fans, want to be, and yes, when January comes, we may all be moaning about Lerner's shallowness of pocket. However the quality we've bought in right across the park means we will hit the ground running if we do find that player, rather than another season of hoping and praying Tekkers doesn't get injured, or goes through a dry patch. For that reason, I think this has been a very good window.

Hmmm

Villa scum or Spurs arsenal. Guess which Derby will be the sky match...

Bennett!!

Two more and it's a psychological point ahead of Saturday.

Ha! Goal was on TV before my avtv comms

SSN?? Apparently they're showing all the goals before they go in tonight.

Personally, I think Sherwood has seen this game as an opportunity to try a few things out, check a few players out etc which is why the selection is so left field. It would make sense if we're not targeting a run in this cup as this would basically be a free game (like it or lump it tonight, we've got bigger fish to fry this season than the capital one cup). I'm sure if Sherwood saw this game as a must win, we would be fielding a much more conventional team.

Poor performance today. Really to need up the tempo when in possession. That, for me, is what was lacking. With the players we have on the pitch we need to be playing a quick game. None of this dalying on the ball like we did today. Played a high tempo last Friday and I think that performance would have won today.

Really need Rudy on. Far too easy for Utd to defend against at the mo. Would like to see Ayew slotting in just behind- he seems to be dropping for the ball at the moment like a no. 9

Souness completely out of his depth talking about Traore there.

No idea who he is and basically judged him by implying we have overpaid just coz he's a Barca youngster.

Probably a small insight into why he's not currently managing

I seem to have turned onto MUTV judging from Sky's disgracefully biased coverage in the build up.

 

Just about to post this, is disgraceful!

 

Hope we can spoil the party, again.

Sky's got to reach their target market, and unfortunately that means waxing lyrical on Utd since that's where the bulk of the interest lies.

Doing them over 3-0 I'm sure will be reported as a huge upset, but let's face it, we all know better, and that's all that matters

It's not really like a loan deal though is it? He could do well for us, but Barcelona may not fancy him. Doesn't stop Man City giving us £30m for him does it?

There's a good chance we would make money. Its unlikely he will become good enough to play for Barcelona, let's be honest.

I think the concern is that if his market value is over the buy-back clause, barca may take him back just to sell him straight on and pocket the difference.

Couldn't we insist the buy-back clause has a 'no sell on for a season' clause?!

Didn't the Spanish story this morning suggest the deal would be done today? Is he even at BMH yet? Has Tim facialed him yet? (Is 'facial' even a verb?!)

Edit: Apparently it is according to the Mrs... To make something official via Facebook (a portmanteau of Facebook and official). As in "fingers crossed, Tim and Traore will be facial soon"

Good result. Happy with the fact that we look like we've now got players capable of playing football. As it stands, looks like Sherwood's first transfer window has been a success. Looking forward to what this team can do after they've played a few more games together and with Gil & Grealish playing as well. 

It was always going to be a tough ask today - they'll be so pumped for this game it was the worst possible opening fixture we could have got in my opinion.

I think we look better than we did under Lambert last season which is good. The Frenchies look like they're expecting a touch too much time on the ball though - a couple of times our players have had their pockets picked or been harassed into wayward passes. Get Gestede on at half time though - Gabby's not having any influence on the game so may as well try something different. 

Nantes > Amesterdam > Birmingham - to arrive at 9.05pm.

Source: Twitter Stalkers

God bless those creepy lil bastards.

We need a volunteer at the gate for 9:05PM.... get that photo and post on here (then we can all sleep peacefully tonight)

And someone at East Mids too to show any Leicester fans with the same idea the picture?!

Hello all,

Life long Villa fan. Living near London at the mo so don't get up to VP much these days. Was there for Gil's scorcher against Bournemouth though. Looking forward to joining in the discussions for the new season!