JamesBCFC

Mostly C But an element of this. (he had 1 good season in Ligue 2 prior to joining us, and 1 good season with us) And an element of this. I think all of us realise that Abrahams goals wont continue at the rate they have been coming, but we have been working on getting goals from midfield- something that was a huge issue last year. It started to get better with the loan of Tomlin who scored 8 in under half a season. Now he is our own player and we have brought in Paterson as well, Reid chips in with a few, and I'm hoping O'Dowda will get some as well. Freeman I don't expect any from, because his decision making at this level is poor and his shooting equally so (he has never scored a goal for us at Ashton Gate, and his only goal last season was heavily deflected- possibly going wide before the deflection). Plus we have signed a 20 year old who is a full international and has Europa League experience, and with a 1 in 4 ratio during his time at Gothenburg, which considering his age is a promising sign. We have had a very positive transfer window, even with Kodjia leaving and have brought in a younger player who is a similar style (Engvall) as a replacement.

The only time I can recall him coming close to scoring this season was against Wigan where he had a poor game for the most part, but had a low shot tipped onto the post in injury time, since then he has mainly been on the wing and his shots have been largely forgettable (not in that they were particularly rubbish, more that they were your everyday shots that didn't go in) there was one woeful one against Newcastle, but that was with his left foot, and as you will see he has no accuracy with his left foot. I have missed 3 games this season, so he might have come close in one of the away games against Norwich, Wycombe or Scunthorpe, but I don't recall hearing anything about particularly good chances in either of the first two, and he refused to play in the latter. (not sure he even played against Wycombe)

Adomahs crossing (at least with us) was very hit and miss, that said he causes defenders trouble regardless. Kodjia as the right of 2 strikers (perhaps alongside McCormack) with Adomah on the right wing would menace any side in this league

I didn't expect everyone to be fine with it, however since joining here I hadn't said anything derogatory about your club until then, and even that was hardly derogatory, by the same token why should I be expected to accept a slander on my character and a pop at my club, regardless of the forum. I think you'll agree a bit of banter is expected and we have had some already, but the posts I was responding in the manner that I did were not a part of that at all and were nothing but insults towards the views I had taken my time to give to you guys, and towards my club.

I hope we do too!

Not fussed about the amount you spend tbh, but this isn't a league where you can buy the title. Derby tried last season and as a result have had to curtail their spending this year so they can meet the regulations. And once again I will repeat that "pop" at Villa was in response to an off topic "pop" at Bristol City, by a poster who has tried to belittle my posts, so is it any surprise I have given them short shrift?

Again, it was in response to a pop at Bristol City fans being happy with the fact we roughly broke even with transfer fees and that we are going about things in a sustainable way. If Villa have a net spend of £30 odd million each season then they will be in trouble and get fined/have a points deduction.

Personally think you'll fall short of playoffs, had you down as mid table before all transfers were done, but after the signings made think 7th-8th

I can only comment on the one game I saw him in, but at no point did he impress me. Didn't command the box, should have done better with Tomlins shot that he spilled into the path of Abraham for our equaliser and was fooled for the freekick by the exact thing I had spotted while stood in the stand directly behind him. In fairness to Gollini he wasn't at fault at all for our second goal, where a combination of a tremendous run from deep, a perfectly timed and weighted pass and a sluggish defence put Bryan in a great position 1 on 1 and a cool finish across the goal. In fact that goal has given Lee Johnson a bit of a headache as Bryan is seen as a left back, but can play left midfield, or left wing, but at the time was playing as a central attacking midfielder and did a great job. Well it sort of was, but it was in response to a pointless off-topic pop at Bristol City. It was also to say about the financial restrictions in the division and how by spending a huge amount in one of the least predictable major leagues is no guarantee of anything.

I have said he is decent from the start, so not begrudgingly accepted it at all. He does have barren spells, 2 in 17 is a prime example of this (never heard of him having a spell as a Baron though). He does need a high ratio of chances, speaking as someone who has watched him for over a season, he does miss more than he scores. But that is also the case for most strikers unless they are world class. He has limitations in his tactical thinking, and this isn't just the view of a lone "bitter" fan, but something that we had accepted was a part of his game during his time with us, it was even highlighted by our manager. I have also said about why this is (not having had the academy training that most pros do) and how in some ways he benefits from this (his moments of unpredictability which haven't been coached out of him and lead to him creating chances for himself or team mates). No need for the "behind the scenes" bit to be put into quotes when it is a factual statement. As a club we are playing catch up with other on the backroom set up, but are catching up at a good rate. We have just redeveloped our stadium and are improving our academy, improving our scouting network, improving our medical staff and equipment, developing apps for our players to use to get feedback from their training and monitor them away from training during the off season, buying into new techniques for training sessions such as using drones to get an overhead view of things. You can be happy at your club spunking away money if you want, but in this division you are by no means guaranteed to go straight up. You are allowed to lose £39m over 3 seasons and just how much was Villas net spend? You have a great attacking threat, but as shown when we played you, are vulnerable at the back, an ok midfield which seems to have troubling fitness problems and a dodgy goalkeeper as well as a losing mentality among the players. It's no surprise that most people I know who aren't Villa fans don't expect you to go up this season. In fact many were thinking you could go down again, until Lerner left and Dr. Xia took ownership.

Absolutely 100% I have said this a few times, but obviously only because I'm bitter and can't say anything good about Kodjia apparently, but we carved out numerous opportunities per game. The only one I can recall off the top of my head where we created absolutely nothing was away at Derby where we lost 4-0. Every other game we created plenty and, particularly early in the season, came away wondering how we weren't scoring more (the ball wasn't going in the goal-duh!). Creating goal scoring chances hasn't been an issue at Bristol City since we were relegated from this division. In our first season in League 1, when we were bottom at Christmas, Sam Baldock was on about 6 goals at that point, but could- and perhaps should- have been in his teens already, such was the number of 1 on 1 chances he missed. We built on that attacking flair but started scoring goals and not only finished comfortably mid-table, but proceeded to romp to the title the next season. I wouldn't expect Butterfingers to know how good we are going forward, or have been over the last few years. But I would appreciate it if they stopped talking out their arse about us.

Sorry to disappoint you @Butterfingers but I'm not bitter at all. Kodjia refusing to play in a game left a bad taste, but I have wished him well regardless. As for there "always being a sting in the tail" when I say something good about him, it's because I am being honest about the player, though maybe next time I will give 2 reviews of the player you sign from us. One honest review for everyone else, and one special review just for you where I pretend the player is the best thing to have ever happened to me or the club and how things will never be the same now he has left. In regards to me bringing up the quotes about the price. That was to show that despite the suggestions that City fans were saying Villa had overpaid just because he had already been sold and that those comments were spawned from bitterness, they had originally been made months before Villa formally expressed any interest, and as such showing they were the genuine thoughts of our fans. Whether he was worth the £11m or not time will only tell and I think he will do a good job for you (something I have said the entire time and is clearly a sign of how bitter I am).

I didn't fail to mention that at all, I have said it multiple times. Perhaps you need to go back and read my posts, rather than picking and choosing which bit you want and making untrue assertions about my club.

We made plenty of chances last season, even if we finished 18th. Just because we finished in a low position doesn't mean we didn't make the chances. Our issue at the back was the main reason we did badly.

Baker is good, and seems to have got over injury issues (I believe he had them before joining us, can you confirm, or is it just a rumour I'd heard?). However there were 3-4 times last season where he had to be subbed or he would have been sent off. I like a hard tackling defender, but at times he is just downright reckless or not thinking. Against Blackburn at home last year he was sent off early in the second half, but could have been gone before half time. He was at one point a part of the worst defence in the league, however so was Aden Flint and he isn't a bad defender at this level, I think the problem was our overly attacking mentality at the time. Baker is a solid player and if we didn't have Magnusson here then I wouldn't have minded Baker back. (That said it is early days and I firmly believe Magnusson is an upgrade, but he is a starter and Baker is your backup so I'd be concerned if your backup was better than our starter)

One last thing (for today, I think I'm close to my posting limit today already!) is going back to what I said before about offsides. Incredible technique as it was, and I really wish to take nothing away from the goal, but he looks offside at the original cross for his goal a couple of days ago.

Have they? Haha, I hadn't realised, and certainly wasn't intentional. I'm just trying to keep it balanced, he is a good player, but not prolific needing several chances per game. He was fairly consistent I think, with one (long) spell where he netted just 2 in 17 games. To start with he benefited from Wilbraham being a battering ram, and taking the physicality. Once Jimmy got used to the physicality he was able to play as the lone striker more effectively.

I think right now we have a good balance in the team, we are slightly short on out and out strikers (3) but have 2 others who were originally trained as forwards and comfortable there. One of our 3 strikers is only 18, but has scored 5 goals and has had 5 starts, one is Aaron Wilbraham who wont have a huge role but will get 5-6 goals and one is a Swedish international with Europa League experience at the age of 20. We have a left back that's been tracked by Everton for years, a right back who can be one of the best in this division when fit (quoting LJ from yesterday) but also one of the worst in the division when he isn't fit (same quote). We have the England u20s captain, a centre back Sunderland wanted to buy, and an Icelandic international, plus Joel Ekstrand is going to sign any day now. Midfield wise we have one of the better CMs in the league with O'Neill who signed for us rather than staying at Norwich and has won promotion to the Prem 4 times. We have Korey Smitm who is an extremely good CM as well, and Pack, who while not technically as good, nor with much pace, is a good workhorse- a solid player at this level. We also have an attacking midfielder who chose to sign for us rather than wait for offers from Premier League sides, because of how much he enjoyed his loan here, and has a good record with his freekicks (as you may have witnessed). Our weakest area is on the wings, where we have Luke Freeman, someone too good for League 1, but so far not shown himself to be good enough at this level, he troubles the defenders but tries to go past each one 7 times each time he has the ball, alternatively we have Bryan (the left back mentioned above), O'Dowda (tracked by the big Premier League clubs this summer, and an international), Patterson (signed from Forest) and that's about it barring some youth product who may or may not breakthrough. Though I suppose there is Burns, on loan at Aberdeen where he has been impressive. Oh, and a manager rated as one of the best young managers in the world. I realise stating which players are internationals may not be impressive to a side who will have been full of them, and facing them regularly, but Villa have far more stature than Bristol City, and its a mark of our progress that we have signed such prospects. Our squad is very young on the whole, with most having a couple of years minimum before they reach their peak.

as far as money in the bank, we have plenty already, but are doing enormous work behind the scenes. The aim is for the club to be self sufficient, but our owner is willing to sanction the big fees if necessary

We took Bournemouths head scout last season, then Man Utd took our scout who found Kodjia . He did find us another lad who we signed for 50k in January, and got rave reviews from his debut for Plymouth on the weekend.

Yes and no, we had a terrible side of journeymen for a few years, then after relegation found ourselves bottom of League 1 at Christmas. We ended that season with the 3rd highest goal scoring partnership in the country behind Sturridge and Suarez and another pair I can't remember. One of our 2 strikers then left the club for little more than £1m after scoring 20 odd goals in the league. Our promotion season in league 1 didn't have a single extremely prolific striker (though Aaron Wilbraham of all people scored more than 20 in all competitions) but a several players who all got a fair share- Aden Flint (a defender) was our second top scorer with 15, including a hattrick on the final day, with a volleyed rabona. Kieran Agard (recently sold for about £400k) managed 14 goals, Matt Smith (not Dr Who, but a loanee from Fulham) scored 13 times in 17 games, Jay Emmanuel Thomas (left on free transfer) scored 12 and was only a bit part player, used as a sub. until injuries to Agard and Wilbraham gave him a run in the first team alongside Smith. We then had 24 more goals from our midfielders. Long story short goals were coming from everywhere. Kodjia is a good player, but much like Baldock when he was with us in League 1, needs several chances to score. There is still doubt (mainly from fans of other clubs who saw him only 1 or 2 times) that he can replicate last seasons tally, bearing in mind he has only had 2 good seasons in his career, and that was one of them.

It is a possibility, but I do doubt it. Even before the whole 'asking not to play against Scunthorpe' thing came out, I don't recall a single comment from any of our fans suggesting we should have got more from the sale. above is a post from our forum back in June when he was linked with Wednesday another at around the same time, suggesting, even 3 months ago that £11m would be an overpayment and another, I wont keep on with these otherwise it would be an incredibly long post, I will add just 1 more though, which will be my own comment from back then at the time Kodjia was away on international duty and there was speculation of a bid from Newcastle, hence the bit about training (this was at the start of July). I hope he does well, only so we can get that extra 4 million in the clauses, and may even get a bit extra from the sell on

Not sure if he had the nickname before joining us, but he had the nickname "Jimmy Danger" from the squad. I think he was referred to in interviews as Jimmy more than his actual name.

Birmingham were formed before Bristol City, but we did have the initials BCFC first

you are right, never prolific before that season. But that is also true of Kodjia who we signed after he had 1 good year in a much weaker league. Some players are just late bloomers. That's said you are in a better position to judge Gestede than I am, having only seen him from afar.