Darth Villa

Elation, frustration, desolation - pretty much sums us up. It is too early to be despondent as we will improve and we are competitive albeit naïve too when it comes to seeing games out but why oh why do we seem to be playing against VAR every single game...and WTF does an opposition player have to do to get booked, punch SJM in the head?

Awful decision, makes me feel like we're a target for referee's as it's the second one in four games that's struck me as being suspect. Hopefully this will even itself out over the course of the season but it concerns me as teams who get relegated almost always get "bad luck" like this...biggest surprise is the Gary Lineker tweet - we might actually get some positive coverage on MOTD tonight...pity it doesn't help our points total...

Given the signings we've made this summer the idea of Sturridge or Balotelli representing any sort of milestones for our club is frankly mind blowing, even if it's just tipping us over into 1000 pages. We may be short up top but we need to see how we fare in the first 10 games before we know what/who is or isn't working. I personally don't feel Dean Smith is relying on a single striker to deliver 20 odd goals, I think he's expecting all of the front 5 to contribute. Will it work, possibly but if not then I expect more firepower to arrive in January. That's what I believe Purslow meant by being strategic in our approach, fingers crossed!!

Dean Smith hit the nail on the head for me in his post match Sky interview. We were physically overpowered by Spurs in the second half, the better team won but our goal gave us hope that we couldn't capitalise on. Only out first game and plenty of positives to build on but Villa Park must become a fortress if we're to progress in this league. For 65 minutes we competed and arguably controlled the game (despite the stats making us out as being hammered) but we fell deeper and lacked the experience to see it out. I believe Smith will be working on that out on the training pitch on Monday..

Only 83 pages of top Totti talk to go (mods, are you policing this thread?), and here I was hoping to see if the identity of our mystery striker has been revealed! Everything point's towards Benrahma plus one other, just hope the window ends on a high note rather than fizzling out as we've made some incredible progress with regards to the squad rebuild.

As with all our players, How-re-han (or however we're meant to pronounce it) has some flaws in terms of positioning, physicality and decision making but you can't deny the bloke has popped up with some critical goals - many after his drop in form that saw him booed off at Villa Park. Arguably he's been as fundamental to our return to the Premier league as Jack, SJM or Mings (in my opinion before the rocks come flying at me!). That's why Dean Smith seems to rate him (I believe), he has an underlying attitude and desire to compete, despite any physical/technical limitations. I believe this is the key difference in many of our new signings this summer and we're all the better for it. We now have a squad, he's an integral part of it and I believe his left foot will contribute to our survival this coming season.

I thought that twitter post was someone taking the pi$$...seeing as this is the longest medical in football history?

£8m is nothing in today's market and if this transfer gives us more cash to land the rumoured record buy new striker then I'm all for it. It all feels like a plan coming together..

Maupay has been in the background all summer, I'm sure he's a good striker but not convinced he would work in the one-up-top role that Wesley will play. We will need the ball to stick when it gets up the pitch, especially against the top sides. Kodja can do that and is unpredictable, Hogan can't and Davies looks likely to be loaned out. Smith may want Maupay if he's going to play 3-5-2 but I'm expecting someone else to come in from overseas rather than us giving Brentford another £20m. Afterall we still need another keeper too..

Many Villa fans seem happy in their misery, which is unfathomable given our unbeaten run, play-off victory and fantasy football summer transfers. Just glance across at any Sha or boing boing fans to see what real unhappiness looks like..they're so miserable they're having to spend the summer obsessing over our club.

Interestingly we're still debating how to setup our international class midfield, whilst Sam Allardyce and his fellow knuckle draggers are already writing us off as being delusional. You'd think the arrival of players of Douglas Luiz calibre would perhaps signal to these morons that we mean to have a right go at surviving and surprising a few teams this season. I'm really hoping we catch a few out...

^^ I like the optimism but everything points towards Kalinic not settling and wanting to move on, plus I remain unconvinced that he's got either the physical agility or mental strength to compete at the top level. We need a better keeper to push Steer and vice versa as the stats show a decent keeper can make all the difference if you plan on surviving in the Premier League..

^^ I think you've hit the nail on the head with this point. We certainly are having to rebuild the squad and therefore Smith is looking for versatility alongside youth, stamina and potential. Despite our wealthy owners, I think this is something we have to do as we don't have the money (can FFP limits, even after selling Villa Park to ourselves) to get absolute specialists at this point of our rebuild. I suspect that will follow if/when we re-establish ourselves in the Premier League beyond this coming season.

@Danny_Villaman84, I think I understand your point but from a quick review of you tube I don't believe Trezeguet is much quicker than El Ghazi, who in my opinion is deceptively rapid. This strikes me as a cut price gamble for a player who Elmo would help to settle at the club but I don't believe he offers anything other than cover at this point, regardless of tactics or opponents. Hope I'm proven wrong!!

We have a nice mix of optimism, cynicism @hippo and realism @Tom13 on VT today, Phillips would be an excellent addition, no doubt overpriced but with bags of potential and as @TrentVilla said, he did a superb job on Grealish last season. I believe something is clearly happening with the player but I'm equally not certain that he's definitely coming to us but he does fit the mold in that he's young and versatile with a future sell on value. Whatever happens today, it's good to see that we are building a team for the future too. Leeds imploding and Bruce rumoured to be on his way to NUFC are simply the cherries on top of the icing in my view..

We're seemingly getting an England keeper, for the same price as a less than stellar Croatian keeper... seems like sensible business to me if we get our money back for Kalinic this window and follow up with KP from Leeds. If it helps to establish us in the Prem then I'm okay with this at £7m, after all I think he's still young enough at 33 to give us a good few years and he knows how to navigate through relegation battles, if that's ultimately where we find ourselves this coming season. It also shows we will not simply pay over the odds, so when we enquire don't assume we're desperate as we will walk away from deals that don't work for us. We're Aston Villa we buy who we want (or not if the selling club start to take the proverbial).

Q. How much would you sell Mings for Villa? A. He's priceless, we're loaded, now do one. Don't need no price comparison website to work that one out, simples!

To be fair to them he is their Grealish but some of the blunt reactions and threats to dismember you @Vive_La_Villaare OTT. It's also interesting to note that we're light on Leeds fans on VT now too, seeing as we're not going into financial meltdown...and got promoted ahead of them. I do feel for them but my sympathy rapidly evaporates when their combined intellectual response is F.. K off... they deserve everything they get if that's their attitude.

We've clearly got transfer targets in mind and are making progress but it's still a challenge to stay up for any team coming through the play-off route. I feel a good season of progress will still see us lower mid at the end of the day. That would be a good result given we're back up a year ahead of Purslow's plan. I'm cautiously optimistic that we could do better as I'm hoping we'll surprise a few given we'll be the unknown team/manager that they won't have played before.

They're clearly smoking something down at the Sun newspaper...perhaps the heatwave has melted whatever brain cell they share when cobling together the latest rumour. SJM is an outstanding prospect alongside Grealish as they compliment each other really well but nothing more at this point. All potential, but unproven at the top levels of the game - even though I'm confident he'll adapt and improve. I know the Man Utd transfer approach is at car crash levels of efficiency these days but really, £50m...you have to be popping something illegal to publish that "exclusive"...

It's good to see we're buying sensibly, Targett has potential and will improve under Dean Smith. £14m is peanuts in this league and arguably better value than the often quoted £20m for Championship players. I just wish Bournemouth could be as reasonable when it comes to Mings!

I wonder if he's asked for a lock-in given his past difficulties with gates?

Seems the plan is coming together, just as Purslow and Smith said it would in their last interview. We have to trust them and Suso to be working on this now and Smith has form for rebuilding squads given his Brentford experience. I've no doubt we'll still be linked with Cahill, Milner and Delph but I believe we have a plan and it's being executed to perfection. Just need Mings secured now and I'll be able to relax for the summer!

We're just to slow again tonight, have we learnt nothing from Saturday, come on Villa, don't waste this now..

We were poor today by recent standards but that speaks volumes about our recent unbeaten run. Didn't think we were going to get anything after 60 minutes but laughably the Baggies grew tired chasing the ball, as the Bruceball tactics they employed undid them. The irony is delicious. Steer made key saves, Mings and Tuanzebe struggled with Gayle who then imploded like the plonker he is. Jack had to endure the usual kicking and McGinn found himself crowded out. Adomah was poor and i felt for Whelan when he gifted them a goal but he's an experienced pro and recovered his composure even if that meant only returning to a below par performance in line with many others today. We seemed to be doing everything wrong and found ourselves playing the occassion and struggling. Then, the substitutions made all the difference as the Baggies tired and Hourihane fired in a trademark blast - they clearly forgot that Glen Whelan had left the pitch! After that the momentum shifted, Jack found himself running in the right part of the pitch, the ref had no choice but to give the pen and Tammy kept his cool to slot it away. We definitely have the more talented team but the Baggies were being more effective, and putting physicality and experience to use but it's good to be a goal ahead although it's not a big enough win to relax ahead of Tuesday night. We can play better and must stay focused on attacking positively as they'll have to come and have a go which will hopefully give us the space we lacked today. Or they might go for Bruceball part 2 and still hope to nick something off the back of any errors we make.. who knows? Credit to Dean Smith though, he's fashioned a team and style of foootball that refuses to contemplate defeat and we're definitely going to need that mentatility if we're going to get back to the promised land.