JamesBCFC

appreciate you have seen more of him than I have. But he did great in a very poor Blackburn side. I get the feeling he is one of those who is great in one league, but can't cut it at the next level (like Joe Garner, great in league 1 but poor in the Championship).

I'm special

haha I'll certainly be keeping an eye on Villa now, mostly to see how Kodjia does, but also to see how close you get to catching us

Kodjia is very, very rough around the edges, but there is quality in there. Not to the extent of Benteke though. About 6 months ago he was described as "tactically like an 18 year old" by Lee Johnson, and it really isn't an unfair comment. Jonathan didn't come through a clubs academy and so hasn't had the football upbringing that most in this league will have had, he is tactically naïve but if you can get past that and teach him the offside rule he will score plenty. He isn't clinical though, so good job you create lots of chances.

good point, it's silly money for a backup, do feel Gestede is the better striker, but they are different types. In any case there's no excuse for you to not score bucket loads with the attacking options you have, arguably the best forward players in the league.

My first Villa match was last Saturday. I'll leave it at that, don't want to upset the locals

Fantastic strike that goal, but not something you will see from him often (just look at his goals for us last season) imavillan is right that he will be a menace to defenders, there is an element of unpredictability to him where sometimes I'm not sure he's thought any further ahead than "get near the goal" I don't think he will be first choice for you, as in McCormack have a proven Championship striker, and Gestede is class at this level whereas there is an element of doubt that Jimmy can replicate last seasons tally, but with regular game time I think he will get 10-15 for you.

I did wonder if it was, I'll take a whoosh

26

Very surprised about Fulham. They were awful last year and if it wasn't for McCormack and Dembele would have been relegated. At the time of the prediction I think Dembele had left and McCormack was about to leave, so I couldn't see how they'd survive. But they've done decent business since, think they will finish bottom half still.

Honestly I don't doubt this happened. There was a rumour about it just before we played you, but I wrote if off as someone trying to stir the pot, hearing it from someone at the club (in this case the owner) only confirms it for me. I see what you are saying about an owner trying to save face, but Steve Lansdown has always been upfront about things, always has come out and admitted mistakes and has flown round the country to hold a pre match meeting with fans in a pub at one away game each season, regardless of how things are going on the pitch. (One that stands out was Crewe away when we were bottom of league 1 during a season we hoped to be promoted).

I think all our fans accepted he saw the move here as a stepping stone, but the way its ended has left a sour taste. We had hoped we would get 1 more year from him, but that's the way things go. Lansdown did say afterwards that he "doesn't want to paint a bad picture of him" and he recognises the pressures on him. Still wish Jimmy good luck, but do think he may get a hostile reception when he plays us, whereas before he would likely have received nothing but applause and his song in appreciation of his efforts.

1. Newcastle 2. Norwich --------------------------- 3. Derby 4. Sheffield Wednesday 5. Brighton 6. Ipswich ---------------------------- 7. Brentford 8. Wolves 9. Cardiff 10. Huddersfield 11. QPR 12. Aston Villa 13. Birmingham City 14.Bristol City 15. Preston 16. Leeds 17. Nottingham Forest 18. Wigan 19. Reading 20. Barnsley 21. Burton ---------------------------------- 22. Blackburn 23. Fulham 24. Rotherham This is a prediction I made at the start of July, since then you are no longer an absolute shambles off the pitch and signed some good players, but there's still evidence of players being mentally weak, so your weakness will be if the other team scores first. I'd now predict 8th place for you.

Revealed by our club owner in an interview, he said after that he sat down with Lee Johnson and they talked about what was best for the club, which was to sell Kodjia. He also apologised to our fans for going against his statement that we wouldn't sell him to a divisional rival, but felt keeping Kodjia here would have been detrimental.

It was revealed today that Jimmy refused to play for us against Scunthorpe and was sulking a lot. Whereas before this became public I think he would have got a good reception upon his return, I highly doubt that will be the case now. He did a great job for us, but a player acting up like that isn't going to go down well at any club.

Albert is very genuine, met him a few times and he's a bit of a character too, likes a laugh and very honest.

It's the theme from Heartbeat

winger, mostly right side haha, don't think cole did, good midfielder though

not sure what your chant for benteke was, but we used this

Cole Skuse is another reject of ours that is decent at this level and available, why don't you buy him too?

Brighton didn't lose for about 17 games, but had a serious fall away in form

yeah, it was Adomah who told our scouts to look at Bolasie. during their time here albert was the better player, but Bolasie didn't get as many chances. The real mystery is why we never played both together, they would have caused any team in the division trouble. Bolasie went to Palace for a few hundred thousand, the only upside being we had a sell on clause related to profit.

We made about £6m from Bolasie, which actually broke our record sale of a player before you bought Kodjia (previously Ade Akinbiyi to Wolves for £3.5m). A testament to how badly we had been at negotiating in the past.

What's funny is we had them both at Bristol City at the same time. But we would only play one of them at a time. Albert recommended Bolasie to our scouts saying that Bolasie was better than him, but during their time at the club Bolasie was second fiddle to him, and Adomah the better performer of the 2.

The strapping is because of an injury he had before, offers his wrist some protection We created plenty of chances last season too. With the amount of chances made he probably should have got nearer 30 goals! He has been played as a winger in all games but one. In the game upfront (Wigan) he was poor for 90 minutes and still very nearly got goal at the end. Let's put it this way I'd have been happy if he stayed, but for £15m you are welcome to him. Correct, he wasn't the reason, that was our defence, but Jimmy could easily have scored many more than he did As above, happy if he stayed, but for that money you can have him- overpaid. First- we weren't shit last season. Not in the sense that Villa were. In the first half of the season we regularly left games wondering how we had lost and not won. And in the second half of the season (since Johnson got the job) we were at playoff form, beat the playoff finalists 4-1 and the current league leaders 4-0. A spell of only 2 goals in 17 (or something along those lines) yet scoring 20 is inconsistent, no? 19 in the league, 1 in the cup. Again, we weren't shit. We created numerous chances in each game. Against Charlton Kodjia had about 10 chances to himself and it wasn't him who scored our goal. Against Wigan we had 20 shots just in the second half and he failed to score. He will probably get you 14-15 goals this year if he starts most games. But I personally think the ones you had already were better, so he won't be starting every game and so won't replicate last seasons tally.