NeilS

Well the statement on AVFC.co.uk says that Randy wanted PF re-engage in in his broader business plans and to work in a non operational role at VP, so maybe Pat Murphy was correct. From the quotes on the website, it looks like everything happened on good terms and their are no hard feelings, so hopefully no more tribunals to worry about on this one. I guess that means we operate at a bare minimum of staffing levels with Robin Russell combining the two jobs pending the takeover. If we do see a new CEO appointed now, then I guess that would point to a takeover being a long way off.

How so? If the club were sold as a simple contract between two individuals then no-one other than they need to know about it. The first time they would need to involve anyone else would be to fulfil the FA's "fit and proper" owner test. I suspect that process also be followed pretty quietly as there is no consultation. (I'm not claiming to have any knowledge). What I mean is (and I probably worded it wrongly, should have said it was highly unlikely), when buying players a contract would be made between the all of the parties involved. I highly doubt any decent players would sign for us without knowing about who exactly they are signing for? Which is why we have only signed free agents so far. As mentioned above by Jack Bauer24, as soon as we start to flex any kind of financial muscle or go for any decent in demand player then surely the cat will be out of the bag. We have been down the smoke and mirrors route before, and we always end up being disappointed (Marlon Harewood). So I am taking this viewpoint that it is not likely to be the case, mainly to avoid disappointment further down the line.

We are not secretly sold, that would not be possible. Surely players would like to know who they are signing for? Talks may be happening behind the scenes with potential buyers, but I highly doubt this is all some smoke and mirrors trick.

I would have thought that the Joe Cole signing would have put an end to the Kiyotake rumours. Would we be likely to sign two players for that same position, when we have gone two years without signing one? I know as fans we would like to say yes and it would probably be sensible given JC's age and potential injury problems, but in reality with the cutting of costs going on at the club pending the sale, I can't see us doing this. Also, as the player has been built up so much over the last 12-16 months, he can only fail to live up to the expectations placed on him by us fans. If we are looking at 2-3 signings, then I think it will probably be a defender and a forward assuming we don't lose any players like Vlaar or Delph before the end of the window. The defender I see being a LB, as we saw at the end of last season that Lambert doesn't trust either Bennett or Luna. The forward will be someone who can come in short term to cover Benteke while he is still injured assuming Helenius is not going to get a chance. Other than that, I can't see any major changes unless we get taken over and some major funds become available.

Hopefully this is true. I would have been happy to give Bent another chance here, had he not pretty much wasted last season on loan at Fulham. Hopefully a move abroad can help ressurect his career and be good move for all parties.

That was something from Lerner's end of season statement about looking to sell the club.I think it is some biblical reference.

Is he now just entering into the final year of his contract? If so, and he gets back to full fitness we could get to see the best of N'Zog.

I remember when everyone believed in Lerner's five year plan. Unfortunately that 5 year plan was left in the hands of the wrong people, and money was wasted. I will add to my list above.... must have a decent team of people with them to implement the good plan.

I could well be wrong and I admit I only saw him play once against sha, but I wasn't overly impressed by McCormack. He missed a few easy chances before he finally scored, so that put me off him a bit I must admit. I just wonder if he could make the step up against better quality defenders and with less chances and time to pick his spot. Not sure he would be any better than Wiemann to be honest.

I don't care where they come from, just want them to have a decent plan, lots of enthusiasm, and a decent amount of loot to see the plan through even when it inevitably hits bumps along the way.

Breaking Bad imo is one of those series that just gets better and better as it goes. The first season did start slowly and I think was affected by the Writer strike at the time, but as more and more characters are introduced and the plot twists and turns it just leaves you wanting more. Everyone I know who has seen it has said it is brilliant and says the same thing, that is thst they have felt compelled to watch the next episode almost immediatly. It is a series that I plan to buy on DVD and re-watch later in the year. However, that is not to say that everyone will like it. My Wife didn't like it, I don't think she liked some of the violence in it, and didn't really get it.

I think he got one for Delph's goal against Chelsea as well, although that was more down to Delphs great finish than the cross.

Well I guess the hope is that Joe Cole will resolve the issue of goals. Our problem isn't necessarily that the strikers are bad, it's that we struggle to supply them with anything when Benteke isn't on the pitch to make something out of nothing. One of our biggest defensive problems is our lack defensive midfielder IMO. When our full backs push forward, we don't have a defensive minded midfielder who has the intelligence to drop back and give cover in the space left by the full back has pushing forward. I've said a million times, the biggest problem with Villa is that we have no players that can play between the lines. With Joe Cole we have the players who can help us offensively, we really need a defensive player now. If we can bring in a half decent defensive midfielder we'll be absolutely fine next season. Big "if" though. Yes I agree that Joe Cole is a start to solving our problems, and I agree that a holding midfielder would make us a lot more solid, even to the point that it may make our LB position look more secure with decent cover. It just concerns me that we are going into the season relying on Gabby as our main source of goals, and he has never been a regular goal scorer. Every season to date even when we had Young, Milner etc supplying the ammo, he has had real dry spells in front of goal that last months. We cannot afford that.

As per my post in the Bendtner thread, I worry about a lack of goals in our team. Now I am not saying Bendtner is the answer, I just think it is an area where we also need a player. Yes we need a LB and holding midfielder as well as per above post, but our lack of goals last season was horrendous. How many games did we fail to score in? With our over reliance on Benteke over the last two years and a big question mark over when/if he will return to full fitness, I worry about where our goals are going to come from. The end of last season was painful, and if we start the new season like that then we are probably going down.

Yeah, our strike force for the last two seasons has been reliant on Benteke. We won't probably see him until after Christmas if we're being honest, and even then there will be a question mark over what level he will be able to perform to when he gets back to fitness. The same can be said of Kozak, who although he will be back sooner hasn't had any kind of run to see whether he will succeed at this level, and also may not be the same level as before his injury. Bent has hardly scored in the last two seasons, Gabby is hot and cold on scoring (mostly cold), and Wiemann could either continue his form from last season, or start to kick on. I would say that unless we get someone in who knows where the back of the net is, then we are in for a long season.

True but the Man City squad wasn't that bad when they took over. They had already spent quite a bit and finished around mid table. Spending 200M on a regular relegation contender seems unlikely. I don't think he was overly concerned with the players they had, only the players they were going to buy. I wouldn't be surprised if he got someone to put all prem teams in a hat and he just happened to pick City, what happened to them could have happened to anyone in the league that was even slightly for sale, if he was a couple of years earlier it could have been us I think the previous Man City owner got into a few legal problems, which meant that he needed to sell the club, and they got lucky with the timing of Sheikh Mansoors interest in a football club. If only he had been interested in a club when Doug was selling up. Oh well. Did City own their stadium before the takeover? I thought Manchester City council owned it then (and now?). Aston Villa are well known globally and have some of the best infrastructure in the land, I do not think the things you have mentioned will deter a potential bidder from acquiring this club. In my opinion, the issues regarding a sale will be Lerner's asking price and the FFP rules (depending on the type of investor). I think you are right, it was the old Commonwealth Games stadium which was owned by the council. I don't know about the ownership now, but I would guess that Man City have bought it since, especially as they are looking to expand it now. Those FFP rules are probably the main issue, as has been covered before. Hands are tied for investors, they are not allowed to pump mooney into a club to make it competitive anymore which is ridiculous imo.

I remember Merse saying on Soccer Saturday many months ago that Joe Cole would be a good buy for us, and that he was being used out of position at West Ham. Joe Cole is not a winger, he is someone who can pick a clever pass, which most would not see. Hopefully he will do a job for us over the next couple of years, he will certainly add some vision to our midfield which is very predictable, we just have to hope he remains injury free.

I thought Dave Cameron was going to have a word with his rich Saudi buddies to see if he could drum up some interest. Come on Dave pull your finger out! In all seriousness though, I am a little concerned about the lack of takeover news, but equally as we saw with the Man City takeover all it takes is some super rich guy to decide he wants to buy us and it can all happen quickly. I mean the Man City takeover happened so late in the window, that it must have been a late decision taken by Sheikh Mansoor. We just need someone of similar ilk, and with similar plans to see the light and that the light is Claret and Blue.

Oh right, haha trust me not to notice. I guess i was too wrapped up in the story to realise. That is my excuse anyway. Yeah next weeks should be a good one. I guess the Jon Snow storyline will now be on hold until next season. The next episode should bring us up to speed on Brann, Kings Landing trials, The Stark girls various exploits, and Dragons. Hmmmm, quite a lot to fill in. I guess some will be minor updates, such as the Stark children, with big chunks of the episode featuring the goings on at Kings Landing and also with Daenerys and her dragons.

I tend to agree with Stevo with that order, with season 3 just edging seasons 1&2 and 4 in last place. I am not sure whether this is because I have rewatched the first three seasons on DVD, and maybe when re-watching season 4 on DVD I will love it just as much as the others? I tend to find I can tie things together better on second watch, although I may to skip the end of The Viper vs The Mountain when rewatching the series . Season 4 has had some big things happen, but the season just feels less complete than the others for some reason. Are the episodes shorter? I am sure they used to take up 1 1/4 hours on Sky Atlantic, now they seem to be done in 1 hour? I do think the next episode will be a biggy though with lots still to sort out in the other story arcs, as this recent episode concentrated on one story arc which is fairly unusual for GOT.

TBH, all of the players are either away on international duty or on holiday now. Therefore a week or two won't hurt on this occasion.

If he is only on £25k per week as suggested, then definitly worth a gamble imo. He offers something the rest of our squad doesn't. I was unsure about this signing before, as I assumed he would be on wages in the region of about £60k per week. Lets hope he stays fit, and delivers some creativity up top in our formation. He may be a good role model for young Jack, and help him grow into his eventual succesor as well.

I was hopeful a deal was going through behind the scenes, but I think you are probably correct in your assumption as it now looks like it is going that way. You would have thought if a deal was close then no deals would be signed off regardless of whether they are free transfers or not. Unfortunatley there is not a lot else we can do as fans but hope, and support the team when the season gets underway. As mentioned in the HH post from TBAR above, if the atmosphere gets poisonous then I think that will be it for our Premier League status.

Barry the one who is asking for 60k a week two year deal whereas Joe Cole is being paid 25k. Ah really, didn't realise there was such a difference between the wages. Shame, as GB would be a good acquisition at this moment in time

Agree - Ive been accused over being over dramatic - but I don't think our physio's are up to much. It is a question I have thought about as well. The amount of of serious injuries we have had since Lambert and his team have taken control makes me think it could be a case of poor physios, or possibly poor training techniques. It could all be a coincidence, but we have suffered some pretty horrendous luck with injuries to key players throughout the last two seasons. It doesn't bode well that we are now bringing in a player who is pretty injury prone over the last few seasons. I don't hold out much hope that he will stay fit long enough to make any difference to our team, and will just be a drain on our limited wage budget. A different type of player I know, but I would rather have used our money on Gareth Barry. You know what you get with GB, and he would have been a good solid base for our midfield to work from. I feel we are lacking that, and you need a good base to start from. If it is just JC who arrives though, I will wish him luck and pray to the gods that he proves me wrong and stays injury free and performs better than we hope.