NeilS

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.

Only the one huge mistake a game? Already better than most of our defenders then. Good luck Phillipe, hope you do well here. We certainly need you to step up to the mark, and help us improve.

Who is Russ Lynch? Is he a journalist?

Arrison is something to do with Costa Concordia isn't he, the ship that sunk and now apparently interested in Aston Villa.. there is a joke in there somewhere I think?

Our history in the game is fantastic and something to be proud of, but that is what it is now... History. We have quickly been forgotten about by everyone else in the game and have become insignificant. We need to move forward and create a future now with new chapters to add to our history. It is fine to celebrate the past success, as lots of teams have had none, but what would be better if current and future success.

I don't every remember their chairmen coming out with such a public and official for sale statement? Kenwright doesn't really want to sell Everton and they are doing well under him so why change? Ashley will only want to sell the barcodes if he can make a large profit and would want £500m for them. They are not comparable to us. This, but why let the facts stop spouting doom & glooom nonsense and spreading negativity. A bit of this, now I am concerned for us next season as we have a poor manager, poor squad, no money to improve either and a disinterested owner. Come the 1st July or there abouts and nothing has changed I am going to be in full panic mode! I am currently sitting in the "Not too worried yet" camp. I would go as far as saying that I will be in the "Slightly concerned" camp if there is no news filtering through by the 1st July, and full panic mode will kick in at 1st of August if we haven't been taken over at that point. Hopefully things are going on behind the scenes that we don't know about, and things are moving along smoothly.

It's not about 1 player's salary, overpaying leads to wage inflation throughout the squad. Players use team mates as referents, and paying sizeable wages to average players means top players want much more than that and other average players want parity. There's one thing paying Benteke a higher than average wage, but how many players in the squad would look at Albrighton and think 'he deserves a higher salary than me'? How many people are happy in the workplace when people they consider equal/less capable than them earn significantly more? Possibly a reason for the 'bomb squad' - keep those being overpaid isolated from the rest of the squad. Exactly, we all do it. We look at others in the work place and think we should be earning that, it is human nature. Lets be honest ten half decent performances three years after signing a contract, doesn't warrant a nice pay increase.

Ha ha, yeah I just noticed this on the beeb whilst eating my lunch. Of all the things to get upset about, what a plonker! If someone paid me £200k per week, I'm sure would forgive them for forgetting to wish me a happy birthday. Crazy.

This is what people seem to forget. Okore will be back, perhaps Zog as well then Benteke after a few months. We were one of the teams with the highest amount of injures, yet we were still meant to be steaming up the league. This is not an excuse for Lambert who was shite a lot of the time, its fact about the injuries. I agree we probably are a only few players away from being a decent mid table team with the right additions, the major concern that I have is that we are relying on these players who have suffered long term injuries to come back at the same level as before, and also staying fit long enough to get their levels up to the required standard. Usually after such long term injuries players come back and suffer other niggling injuries or worse case scenario the injury goes again. So even if we do buy a few decent players, we are far from guaranteed to climb the table.

No news, you haven't missed much. Apart from we now know the Postcode (Sorry Zip code) to Randy's restaurant. Yeah that sounds feasible, and wouldn't suprise me. Best we don't get our hopes up until we start to hear something more solid.

It has probably already been mentioned on here, but why do they pack scissors in plastic packaging? We bought some the other day, and the packaging was very neat and tidy, but we could have done with a pair of scissors to open the packet, unfortunately the scissors we had were encased in plastic.

Supposedly yeah, never been to BMH or VP myself. If true, then the restaurant thing (if true also) could be "the last supper", and Lerner is giving him golden handshake if the supposed new owners told him they're letting him go. You would have thought that Lerner had enough respect and would have informed PL before changing the sign on the door. Also, why would they put "Manager" in, instead of leaving blank for the new guys name? I may be wrong, but I don't think this is an indication of anything happening tbh.

If I remember correctly O'Leary was sacked for trying to make out there had been a player coup at the club or something like that, which was quickly denied by the players. Ellis then sacked O'Leary for being a tool, and Gross Misconduct.

Why would it be a sure sign? For all we know his work has been appreciated elsewhere. Managers are being sacked all over the place in the last few days, and this could mean movement all the way down the chain. He may have had an offer come his way in the last few weeks, and think that a new owner probably wouldn't want him anyway. Therefore it may be better for him if an offer comes his way to jump ship to somewhere he knows the chairman wants him, rather than take a risk that our new owner may or may not want him.