SJM

IIRC, folk were skeptical when us hibees were saying you've got a player potentially as good as milner or possibly barry...what are the views now? (Apologies if this is coming across as smug, we're just so f***ing proud of him)

We did tell you...and i'm so glad he's finally showing you the extent of his indescribable brilliance, as a person and as a player. He really has it in him to win you a major trophy.

We were utterly pathetic at Eater Road, mainly because he set us up to be sh!t scared. Very glad he's gone - when you folks were singing about him being a rocket polisher, my thought was "i agree...but how do they know?"

exactly how i feel - i hoped we'd meet in the group stages in stead, but so be it...alas, i hope you have a couple of catastrophic performances, but if not and we get papped out, then i'll be supporting Villa all the way. So delighted that this game gets to happen - apart from anything else, you're going to get the chance to see why SJM talks so highly of his experience of winning the Scottish Cup at Hibs. Our league might not have the money and glitz of the Premier League, but there's good football up here, and no shortage of history, authenticity and passion. I think both sets of fans are going to enjoy themselves, come what may

He was undoubtably pish for Villa for a spell, but throughout that he was absolutely brilliant for Scotland. He might not be able to a carry a team with a hopeless manager at the highest level, but give him a Steve Clark or an Emery and he is an absolute treasure. Enjoy him - in ten, fifteen years time, he's the one of this era that you'll remember (along with Emi, of course).

So glad to see he's come good. Really good illustration of how a manager can be the problem and not the player, especially when their positive attitude is so plain to see. genuinely my favourite Hibs player of all time, and always buzzing for Villa when they do well as a result of his presence. Most Hibs and St Mirren fans will feel the same way.

If used right, he'll come good - he's been genuinely sublime for Scotland against the likes of Ukraine and Denmark, who are as good as anyone in the bottom half of the Premier League. That said, he certainly has a bit of a belly on him these days, more so than anyone should have playing at that level.

Obviously, as my name suggests, I'm a bit biased...but is there a case to be made that Gerrard is the problem, and that along with the rest of the team, he'd be a different player under a better manager? All I'm saying is that he's been absolutely brilliant for Scotland, and there's no way he'd be phoning it in for Villa - the man, if nothing else, gives everything he's got.

not sure if i've figured out the quoting thing - yeah, my other club is Hibs, my interest in Villa was initially just following McGinn's progress, but over the course of the promotion winning season the club really grew on me. I'll definitely still follow Villa if McGinn leaves, though - a really great club.

as a Scot, I've always embraced the 'anyone but england' thing, partly because we get a bit sick of hearing about '66 and all that, and partly because IMO, pettiness is part of what makes football fun...half my family is from england, so there's nothing anti-english about me, and i always supported Henman at wimbedon and so on... ...but it's players like Mings who made me genuinely gutted when England lost the other night, a feeling that was very alien to me. Massive, massive respect to him for calling Patel out on her pish. I really hope this group of england players gets the success they deserve at some point, and tbh, i'd be happy if southgate was the one to oversee them achieve something great, as he seems like a really good guy. I'm not going to claim to be a die-hard villan, but this club has certainly grown on me since McGinn joined, and I've gone from looking for the results to now feeling proud that Mings is associated with the club that it would appear, almost unbeknownst to me, I now support.

as a hibs fan, can you please stop saying things like this, it hurts my feelings

might have been crap today, but i cannot wait to see him against liverpool and man city, he will be absolutely buzzing to prove himself against them.

You don't need to worry about McGinn ever kicking up a strop. By all accounts, he was pretty desperate for the celtic move to happen (he's a Celtic fan) and found it pretty difficult during that time - he still played out of his skin for us though, helped us progress in Europe and was generally an absolute gent throughout the whole thing. He will always know what Villa have done for him, and he won't act like a spoiled clearing in the woods like so many others do.

I think we (hibs fans) would have felt more robbed if the market for non old firm scottish players wasn't so crap. if the rumours about sell on fees are true (i.e. 15-20%), then we could end up getting a lot more than we would have got by any other means. I think we also find it completely hilarious that celtic came out with such arrogant stuff about him not being worth what we were asking, and now look so utterly stupid. Personally, I love what he has brought to Aston Villa - I think it's the perfect club for him, certainly at this stage of his career. I hope he hangs about for a good few years, then gets sold to Barca for hundreds of millions of pounds and both of our clubs have a massive payday.

looked like a pen to me, the guy completely ran through him, anywhere else on the park and that's a foul