Monkeypuzzle

I don't want him as the back up to our back up! Hause is better in my opinion.

I think it's something to do with wanting new players that are BETTER than the players that are already here. This is most certainly NOT that.

Yeah, I didn't want to form a quick opinion of him off one game, he is just noticeably making mistakes left right and centre tonight, bless him! By the by, great penalty save by Marshall!

Someone who watches the younger lads more often than me, please tell me, is Teddy Rowe always as rubbish as he looks so far this game? I don't want to be harsh on the lad, we can all have an off day, but he looks dreadful compared to everyone else on the pitch tonight.

How did D. Caleta-Car and R. de Tomas do last season? They are the two names that I keep hearing and at a cursory glance they look great as centre back and striker options for us.

A good ex players personality rubbing off on players? I just have horror flash backs to Roy Keane's time at Villa.

I've had a day to calm down and with a fresh head I can more seriously say " Get Gerrard out!" I'm not gonna lie, I have never been his biggest supporter, I always felt that Smith was kicked out way too soon and deserved more loyalty from the club. Gerrard was an inexperienced ex-player who had never managed in a competitive league before and any success he had was going to be more by luck than judgement. His formation doesn't suit the players we have, or had. This is an inexcusable trait in a manager that has been here more than one transfer window and shows a tactical inflexability. It also worried me that he seems so dependent on his staff to actually run things for him. He seems too hands off. He has always attacked our own players publicly, which is terrible from a manager and does not seem to respond tactically to different situations during games. His treatment of the squad as a whole, as well as individuals like Tyrone Mings is appalling. The ONE positive that I can say about him is that he has attracted some great players to the club, but now that they are here, he can go. Let a proper man manager take over now. The last top, top manager we had, who brought any sort of success at the top level to Villa was Martin O'Neil. He was a fantastic man manager, and the last person to make Villa players play above the level expected of them! His weakness was in the transfer market! With Lange he could have cracked the top 4 as it was back then! The manager who reminds me of O'Neil's management skills the most is Mauricio Pochettino. Forget that he is currently available, even if he wasn't, he still has some of the best man management skills in the game. Look at what he achieved at Southampton and later at Spurs! For those saying he would never come here, I say "why wouldn't he?" Huge financial backing, big club on the verge of breaking back into Europe, great ambition from the owners and the chance to be part of a growing franchise! It's less of a jump than the likes of Ancelotti going to Everton. Now I know, sadly, that Gerrard won't be going anytime soon, at least not soon enough, but hopefully when he does go (as much as I would love success at Villa Park, I don't see it coming under his leadership) I hope that we get someone with top management skills, who gets the best out of the very talented players that we have at the club. You can feel the rot starting to spread in the squad and he is the one responsible. He gets the plaudits if we succeed and he takes the blame if we fail. We have been failing for half a year now! Rant over, sorry!

I see lots of people talking about Douglas Luiz or Sanson needing to move on before a new player can come in. I find that very strange as surely Nakamba is bottom of the pile when it comes to our midfield six? McGinn, Ramsey, Luiz, Kamara and Sanson are all surely rated higher? Any new incoming midfielder I simply see as a Nakamba replacement. Worst case scenario if we sign a defensive minded midfielder who can go straight into the starting lineup once settled is that Nakamba doesn't make the squad for this season as we continue to look for somewhere to move him on. People sound very hopeful that Luiz is going to sign a new contract too.

£20 million for a youth player who doesn't want to play for us and could go for free in 11 months? Outstanding business Villa, well done! Let's see that money invested into a new player in his position that will actually make a difference to our squad! He may become a great player, but it was clearly never going to be for us. He might be another ravel Morrison. The latter is statistically more likely. Glad this story is now over!

I can't really see any truth in reports that we are looking at Ross Barkley again. That would send a shiver down my spine!

It wasn't that long ago we were afraid Man City would buy him back at £25m as most wanted him to stay and thought he was worth much more than that.

*rubs hands together mischievously and walks away* My work here is done!

At least all the ridiculous 'Bailey is rubbish now' chat has ended. That really just highlighted how so many people's opinions are utter garbage.

Steer (maybe keep for the last year of his contraçt as emergency 3rd choice keeper. Sale value negligible). Hause (injured so not much chance of selling him now. 5th choice centre back. Resale value ~ £5 - 10 million). El Ghazi (5th choice winger/ attacking midfielder. Resale value ~ £5 - 10 million). Davis (4th choice striker. Resale value ~ £10 - 15 million). If we decide to use Kesler-Hayden and Iroegbunam in the squad, rather than going on loan this season, then you could potentially add Guilbert and Nakamba to that list but anything more than ~ £5 million for either would be lucky indeed. Selling any other players without replacing them would be a bad idea so the likes of Sanson and Traore (both of whom are great squad players) should only go if we buy new top players in their positions! Other than that we have some youngsters who should go out on loan and Ashley Young, who is only really in the squad to exist, not play often. That's two players really worth selling this summer. Hardly dangerous levels of bloating in the squad. We have two players for every position, plus Young, Davis, Hause and El Ghazi. Getting El Ghazi and Davis off the wages will help but is not going to stop us buying anyone else. Any new addition to the club should be a clear improvement on who is there already. We can focus on pure quality now. Then sell off the squad player they replace.

Coutinho, Buendia and Bailey behind the striker is still possible as we are using a 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half of all the friendlies so far, youth and first team fixtures.

He played fine today! As people said, the second half was more stop start than the first, but he didn't look out of place at all. Utter nonsense to suggest he isn't suitable as back up to Cash. He'd be first choice in several Premier League clubs. Is he a starter? Not when Cash is playing well, but can he do a job on rotation? Absolutely! Whether he stays or goes will be a choice for him and/or the club, but suggesting he isn't good enough to play Premier League football at any level shows a total lack of sense.

If we do sell him and get anywhere near the £30-40 million that has been thrown around in the press, we have done amazingly well out of the situation! I am expecting to lose him for nothing, maybe £5 million in compensation if we're lucky. Anything more is a great deal for us if he doesn't want to stay.

I'd be happy to see him go out on loan if Guilbert stays. I'm confident he could do a perfectly good job as back up this year but if he gets regular game time on loan he can get EVEN BETTER next season when Young and Guilbert are probably gone.

In the various friendlies played so far at senior and youth level, we seem to have played 4-2-3-1 for the first half and some variation of 4-3-3 in the second. Could this suggest we are more open to a change of formation this season than many here were willing to believe?

Great! Hope Emi doesn't get Chlamydia of the damn koala.

Isn't Washington DC basically built in a swamp? With one of the highest crime rates in the US? Not saying he should choose us but it's not exactly a glamorous place to live by all accounts.

But Benteke kept us up for one more season and Grealish got us promoted with those extra years, so there was a point with those examples!

I can still see him going to forest. Yes they signed another big strong forward but apart from Sam Surridge, who do they have upfront? Grabban is apparently going and two guys in their 30s that they loaned out last season as they weren't deemed good enough for the championship? They definitely need another striker and Davis is probably still on their list!

The depth we have in each position puts almost every other club to shame, short of Man City maybe. I don't mean that our back up players are better than every other clubs but the gap in quality between our first choice and second choice player in each position is much closer and there are not really any positions that we don't have Premier League quality cover for. Look at other clubs, even in the sky big six and that depth just isn't there to the same extent. Once their first choice is out there is either a big dip in quality or there is no one short of a youth player to cover. At Arsenal, for example, they have Jesus, backed up by Nketiah. We have Watkins competing with Ings. They have Tierney backed up by Tavares. We now have Digne backed up by Augustinsson (assuming ) The drop off in quality at clubs like Man Utd, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Wolves is shocking!

Saying that Young can cover at RB after the Walsall game worries me greatly!