JamesBCFC

Albert is a great winger- perhaps I remember him with a tinted view because he was a bright spark in an awful season, but he is a great winger in this league and appears to have only got better since joining 'Boro. I do hope you overpay for him too so we can get more from the sell on but I would take him back here if the opportunity arose.

For me it's a bit like when people say the Premier League is the best in the world. It's subjective and depends what is meant by "best". But I believe the Championship is the best major league (so not the Algerian First Division- no disrespect to them) in terms of competitiveness. Brighton went from a relegation fight one season to almost getting promoted the next. Brentford almost managed it while selling their best layers and buying relative unknowns using the Moneyball method, it's one of the hardest leagues to predict because although there seems to be one club that is a shambles each season (Bolton last year, Blackburn this), the rest is very tough to guess.

Not £15mil. Personally I'd say £6-8m. But the price is driven up because we essentially have 3 years of his contract left (it's 2, but the club holds an option), WBA and Hull are also after him, so there's an element of a bidding war, we have no need to sell and only a couple of days to get a replacement signed (though Engvall is apparently done). Then again, even if he scores 1 goal for you all season (he'll get much more), but it happens to seal promotion then he's worth it.

I'm pretty sure this is done, I'm not ITK at all, but someone on our forum who often gets tidbits (and is Birmingham based) has heard medical is completed, with the deal being £15m plus add ons. At the same time it appears we are close to singing our replacement- Gustav Engvall from IFK Gothenburg for circa £2m.

Hands off!

View from an outsider. Honestly out of the 3 relegated sides I had you down as the least likely to go back up this year and would have predicted a finish of about 8th. This is because of how little fight there appeared to be last season, as well as the tendency to collapse once you conceded. City are in an odd position of having only played teams new to the division so far, and out of the ones I have seen (all except Norwich), Villa were the most impressive (for 45 minutes anyway). In the first half on Saturday you were better than us all over the pitch, quicker, better movement, winning the 50/50s and second balls and pressing very well. I did say to the person next to me though that you wouldn't be able to keep that work rate up for the whole 90 minutes and your players seemed worn out from about 5 minutes into the second half. Whether there are fitness issues I don't know (there really shouldn't be, given they are professional athletes) but if you can sort that out and get your performances to last the whole 90 you will be right up there, though I still wonder about the players mental strength after the collapse on Saturday.

Haha, well it is normally us being robbed. Our record profit from a sale was what we got from a sell on clause when Bolasie was sold to Everton- we let him go to Palace for roughly 300k! We have been ran amateurly behind the the scenes for years now, but we have had 2 fantastic summers in the last 3 years. For the first we brought in Mark Ashton fro Oxford to work as a consultant and we bought all the best players in League 1. The next summer he was gone and we managed just 1 signing, we couldn't even fill the subs bench. Then after Steve Cotterill was sacked we got Mark Ashton back in and have had a brilliant summer, signing players from Juventus, Bayern Munich and RC Lens when just year earlier players were turning u down left, right and centre.

He isn't the most clinical, it always feels like he needs 5-6 chances to score. But at same time he is very capable of creating his own chances out of very little, which makes it feel not so bad somehow. He hasn't scored at all this season, but his endless running tired out the Wigan defence and allowed Abraham to come on as a sub and tear them apart, he would have a goal if not for a good save pushing his shot onto the post. Since then he has been played out wide so not had so many chances to shoot. There are times where he goes down easy but should stay on his feet and times where he stays on his feet but perhaps (and I don't like saying this) should have gone down. Against Newcastle he cut inside the penalty box and was pulled back and then tripped, he stayed on his feet and lost control of the ball, but if he had gone down most referees would have probably given a penalty.

Although not a goal, and I can't remember if he got the assist or if the ball was flicked on, but the highlights of our 2-0 home win against Forest show his tenacity. At one point he is fouled, but gets back up and crosses the ball in, Wilbraham scores. Honestly that summary of it doesn't do it justice, he will really battle for the ball.

Kodjia (aka Jimmy) appears to be a good striker for this level. He scored 19 league goals for us last season, despite us battling relegation. He also netted against WBA meaning he managed 20 goals in his first season over here, despite not speaking any English when he initially signed. He is very unpredictable, has good pace on him and is pretty strong. However he is incredibly greedy and has no ability with his left foot. Personally would say his value is around 6-7 million, based on other strikers prices, his age and him not having the extra premium for being English, that said, we have absolutely 0 need to sell him and have 2 more years on his contract, as well as a club option to extend that for another year. Those coupled with the short amount of time left in the transfer window mean we can ask for way more than his worth. In terms of the ACON, he only received his first call up to the Ivory Coast squad in the summer, and that was when they left out a few of their first choice players. He has been called up again in this international break, so obviously impressed but I wouldn't think he is nailed on to go to the ACON. This season he has actually ended up second fiddle to 18 year old Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea. We play 1 up front, and with the impact Abraham has had there is no real justification not to start him. This has meant Kodjia has played out wide in his last couple of games, and he has shown himself capable there, as against Newcastle he was relelntless and caused Ciaran Clarke plenty of problems. Kodjia would be a good addition to most clubs in the division, though despite being a big fan of his, I really would say we would have robbed you if we get £15m for him.

Hi there. First off I'll start by saying I'm not here to gloat at all, just wanted to give my honest appraisal of the game, and see the thoughts of any Villains who went. In the first half, you were the better side in all areas, movement, passing, winning second balls and really could (should) have gone into the break 3 goals up. In fact if it wasn't for a sliding block by Aden Flint you would have gone ahead 2-0 up. You played some really quick pressing football, not giving any of our players time on the ball- I even remarked to the person seated next to me that there was no way you could keep that tempo up. We did grow into the game and for the last 5 minutes of the first half didn't look so bad, but you were still on top. Second half was a totally different story and it seemed your players tired a fair bit, probably down to the intensity of the first half, though if fitness is still an issue that would be a concern. The equaliser was deserved, despite your first half dominance and once you conceded you seemed to collapse. A trait I think you had last season too? For the third goal, Gollini (sp?) seemed totally fooled by us having a left footer and a right footer lined up for it and he should have done better if I am honest. Finally the referee- I would say the referee was OK, he wasn't fantastic, and both sides were potentially lucky to end with 10 men. In the first half Joe Bryan came crashing through a Villa player and got booked, if he hadn't got a touch to the ball I could see him being shown a straight red rather than a yellow. On the other hand, De Laet probably should have been booked for a follow through on one of our centre backs- Magnusson, before later being booked for dissent. Speaking of dissent, I don't think Di Matteo will be happy with having at least 4 players booked for dissent. They are silly bookings to pick up, and I have found myself frustrated with Lee Tomlin this season for twice talking himself into a needless booking- in one case he almost talked himself into a red card! Honestly I think Bristol City deserved the win overall, though of course there will be an element of rose tinted glasses, however IF you can play how you did in the first half, but keep it up for a whole match, you will cause teams all sorts of problems. Hope any who went had a safe journey, and best of luck for the season. One final thought- your fans who went today were fantastic and didn't stop for the first 50 minutes or so, after that it quietened down a bit, but it was a cracking effort. Your man of the match was Grealish by an absolute mile, fantastic ability, though he gave the impression of having a poor attitude.

Another Bristol City fan here, came to give my thoughts of the game and to see the thoughts of any of you who made the journey yesterday.