NeilS

Just read on the bbc in the rolling sports news that he has flown to France to see a specialist about his hamstring injury after problems in training on friday. Does not sound like we will see him anytime soon

Both Tim and the Team need to learn quickly how to see out a game, that is 6 points dropped this season already. 1 point v Palace, 2 points v Sunderland and 3 points against Leicester. That is pretty terrible for any team, add those 6 points and we would be sitting pretty at the moment. For all Tim's promises and statements about not being in a relegation battle this season, it is hard to see anything but another long season of struggle if we don't learn how to see out games.

Now Breaking News on the BBC that Chelsea have agreed a deal with Barcelona for Pedro, doffs hat to sharkyvilla ITK. The annoying thing is my bruv is only allowed to tell me after it's been mentioned in the media due to the company having a confidentiality thingy, so my ITK is a bit useless. Also as it's in the South East it is never Villa-related. They take all sorts of footballers and managers to places. You were quicker with the news than the Beeb, or at least it looked that way to me as I didn't see it on there first. Your info is still a lot better than anything most of us get.

Now Breaking News on the BBC that Chelsea have agreed a deal with Barcelona for Pedro, doffs hat to sharkyvilla ITK.

If he does well here then I wouldn't be surprised to see him be in the frame for the job at some point, simply because there is a lack of succesful English managers in the game. The important thing is he will need to do well here first, and it is still early days on that front as he hasn't proven anything just yet. The early signs are positive for him though, but the test of a good manager is to build something successful and then repeat success.

Yeah Allardyce to Sunderland wouldn't surprise me, he is a manager who will more times than not guarantee PL safety and reach mid table safety.

I have always had the same thought regarding Skrtel, reminds me of Squirtle Turtle and I can't read his name without thinking it. It amuses me anyway

I was too young to properly remember us winning the League and European Cup, although I do have memories of us listening on the radio and hearing us being knocked out of Europe by a Boniek inspired Juventus. Therefore my best moment would be the Coca Cola Cup final win over Man Utd in '94 to put a halt to their domestic treble that all their fans were telling us they wwre going to win. It was a great day out in the old Wembley. I couldn't go to the '96 final as I didn't have a season ticket that year unfortunately and for some reason my Dad couldn't get me one. Beating Inter Milan twice at VP is pretty high up as well, the first one 2-0 with Nielson and Platt scoring was ruined by losing 3-0 at the San Siro a couple of weeks later, but the second time around when we beat them on penalties was pretty amazing. But I suppose my happiest memory was being the Mascot for Villa v Chelsea on 26th April 1986, I got to run out with the team led by Allan Evans and have a kick about pre-match, look around the changing rooms, watch the match in the directors box, my dad met Gordon Banks before the match and got his autograph on my programme. To cap it off we won 3-1 to secure our place in division 1 for another season. (Unfortunately we all know what happened the following season ) Looking back through the photos, and I have a picture of me with Allan Evans, Simon Stainrod , and a pic of me sitting on the bench with Graham Turner, Ron Wylie and whisper it quietly Steve Hodge.

You'd hope so, although that does seem a bit on the sensible side and mightn't placate the mouth foamers. It's a tough balance. Yeah I know what you mean they will need to punish the guy because they need to as he did break the rules. I think as Hull suspended him at the time and due to the peronal issues he was suffering the governing body will probably issue a ban which backdates to then so his ban will be say 9 months, during which he will probably receive counselling etc. A full 2 year suspension would be extremely harsh in my opinion.

Recent news coming out on this case now and It sounds like Jake Livermore was having a lot of personal issues going by what Steve Bruce was saying. I feel that maybe some leniency should be shown here and that helping the player with his problems is the way forward with this case.

Don't forget Ayew as well. One thing for certain is that we have a variety of options, so we can change it around if someone is out of form.

This is just it, I remember Fox saying when he first joined the club that the aim was to make us a more exciting and appealing brand. Shortly after that Lambert tried to change our style (which failed miserably), then this summer happens and a whole new footballing philosophy has been created at the club.We have been targeting players with a decent technique and who will excite the fans. Hopefully if the plan comes to fruition we will see an entertaining and succesful football team playing at Villa Park again (i don't mean the opposition before anyone says ) Hopefully we are starting to see something similar to when Wenger took over at Arsenal and moved them away from the George Graham boring boring Arsenal, to one of the most exciting teams for neutrals to watch. If we manage to replicate that to a certain degree then Fox will have done a magnificent job. I agree with all of that....but remember, we have to win ugly sometimes as we did at Dean Court Yep, even the best teams have to win ugly sometimes.

This is just it, I remember Fox saying when he first joined the club that the aim was to make us a more exciting and appealing brand. Shortly after that Lambert tried to change our style (which failed miserably), then this summer happens and a whole new footballing philosophy has been created at the club.We have been targeting players with a decent technique and who will excite the fans. Hopefully if the plan comes to fruition we will see an entertaining and succesful football team playing at Villa Park again (i don't mean the opposition before anyone says ) Hopefully we are starting to see something similar to when Wenger took over at Arsenal and moved them away from the George Graham boring boring Arsenal, to one of the most exciting teams for neutrals to watch. If we manage to replicate that to a certain degree then Fox will have done a magnificent job.

Don't remember that. The Ellison stuff was completely made up by people on internet forums and don't even recall people like Collymore tweeting about it. Yeah I seem to recall Collymore stoking the rumours at the time as well.

I would take Collymore's tweets with a pinch of salt, he is sometimes correct and sometimes horribly wrong. For instance, didn't he tweet Ellison to buy Villa last summer?

That is more or less how I see it. It is a thin line between those places from 8th downwards. We have had some terrible years recently, but that has been on the back of some terrible management from the top down combined with mass austerity and bad injury problems. We do appear to have done something about the management, and it looks like the austerity is coming to an end, so time will tell as to whether that has a positive impact on the team. I would have thought that Stoke have hit their ceiling now, and would be surprised to see them getting much higher up than they managed last season. I would not be surprised to see the two teams much closer together in the table next season. Therefore, it comes down to who can offer the best package to the player, and can satisfy the players requirements. I don't know much about Stokes training facilities or ground, but ours is a famous ground and our facilities are pretty impressive. We do not know what the player is looking for in his move, so it could go either way in my opinion.

I guess our interest in Praet is probably over now, unless Sherwood really is going for the Spurs formula of signing all of the midfielders. It would be annoying to see him signing for that lot down the road though! I hope he goes to any country in Europe other than our league, just so that we don't have the possiblilty that not signing this lad ending up biting us on the bottom.

I agree with most of that, apart from it is probably unfair to call him one of the worst in the cup final. They were all equally useless. I think we do need to temper our expectations on this lad, it is the notorius second season now. He will find it tougher this year, and we should try and let the lad develop without the added pressure of being our great big hope. I think it is a good thing that we have plenty of competition for those attacking slots as it will allow Sherwood to pull young Jack out of the firing line if things are not going as well as hoped.

I agree with that. The defence is still a concern at the moment. My hope is that as the season goes on with a settled unit at the back, the understanding will improve and we will become harder to score against. I would still like a new GK and CD though, get those positions filled and I will be a lot more confident going forward.

A new CB is a must in my opinion regardless of how well Richards has been doing. Baker is not really good enough, Okore has fitness concerns hanging over him and I don't think Senderos is going to be here much longer, which really only leaves Clark and Richards as our CB's.

Who could that be? I would imagine it will be Crespo

How could a Liverpool fan recognise him? He has never played for Liverpool Maybe from her nightmares, being as he ripped them apart in quite a few games?

I think you are right Oaks, clearly trying to claim some credit for the two players and therefore improve on his image in the game. The majority of Villa fans will never forget the rubbish his teams served up, especially the last year where it was a joke with the lack of goals scored and numerous droughts in front of goal. His best bet is to keep quiet and try and nab a job abroad at maybe a midtable German team to try and rebuild his reputation, as I cant see any top teams over here employing him anytime soon.

He pulled out of the deal last week before the medical even happened. This looks like it is on to me this time, there is no point being in denial, I can only assume with further thought he has realised he has passed up a big opportunity for him to be involved in a team challenging whilst earning lots of dough, for a mid table/relegation slog (I can't blame him to be honest). He should never have given all the spiel about loyalty and staying for the season because he has made himself look a mug in the process. For Villa it is a bit gutting as the £8m fee is rediculously small for an england midfielder, but I guess we could look at it that we may have ended up with nothing.

What's changed this year compared the the last few for us to suddenly spend anymore that £10m? I don't know so I am guessing, but we have removed a few high earners from our wage bill over the last two seasons, combined with bigger income streams coming in from tv deals this year could free us up to invest a bit in the squad. We are no longer losing £20-30m per year, so Randy hasn't got to subsidise that therefore allowing him to invest in transfer fees? I think I'd have a lot more confidence in the wage bill argument if for the first few years of Lerner's Osbourne act we weren't told it was the wage bill stopping the signing of players, and then that switched to the fees now. It's all excuses. I've also yet to see any evidence of increase of income streams - the TV deal comes in play next year and our sponsorship is still nowhere near where Fox was saying it should be. And why would Lerner invest any more at all seeing as he's 'wanted' rid of the club for over two years now? I just don't see it happening. You may well be right, I guess we will have to wait and see. I am usually cautious, but I have a gut feeling we will spend a bit more than the last 3-4 seasons this year. I hope that now Randy has cut right back, he is looking to grow the club within it's means a little more. Last time it was boom or bust, and that left us teetering on the edge of the drop. Maybe with a bit of investment he is hoping that we will become more desireable and an easier sell, kind of like doing up your house to make it look better. Trying not to be too dispondant really.