AvfcTheObsession

Wolves WMP twitter have tweeted saying due to unforeseen circumstances, no away pubs open tonight, ground serving alcohol from 6-30PM. Oh well, looking forward to this one, 3-4k Villa in a crowd of circa 16k should make for a lively atmosphere considering it's a pre-season game.

Well with the amount of former clubs he's got in the Prem, maybe that guarantees his motivation for at least those games. Would be great to see him come back to haunt all of Arsenal, Spurs and City.

Well we've brought in circa 45m from player sales (Benteke, Delph, Weimann, Lowton, Sylla, etc) Spent around 18m (Amavi, Gueye) If we spend any less than 25-30million between now and the end of the window then it's an absolute joke from Lerner to be honest.

Never seen him play, apparently a £12.5million bid then. Really isn't that much when we've just got 40 million in.

I remember a similar attitude towards the manager who kept us up. Very true, numerous posters said Sherwood would have been their 'last choice' of manager. Certain fans are turning their noses up at a striker who has scored better than a goal every other game in 4 seasons he's played in the Prem, we'd be lucky to have him here, it would actually only be thanks to Sherwood. No way Adebayor would have considered coming here under Lambert.

Milner also left on a free, pretty sure you'd take him?

I would rather go for Callum Wilson than Austin as Benteke's replacement actually. Wilson is quicker, younger, and around half the price. Not like Austin is much more proven as one season can be an anomaly.

I don't get out club sometimes, why wouldn't we be after Austin, he is a proven goalscorer. It's like juninho and Robbie Keane (1st time around) again Harsh - If Sherwood and Reilly aren't interested there's obviously good reason. Likely the same reason no other PL team is after him. Others are after him though, Leicester bid 12m. There's also been reported interest from Palace and Newcastle.

Baker and Okore at CB over Clark? Are you a new Villa fan for the 15/16 season?

No way is their squad worse than ours. They finshed higher than we did with that idiot Carver in charge. They've added to their squad in key areas whereas we have replaced Delph with a similar standard player and have a potentially world class LB. Plus McLaren has said that they wanted 5 or 6 £10m plus players. They are still linked with Mbemba and Austin as well. I hope that we have a comparable squad at the end of the window but right now I can't see it. Have to agree with this, their squad is definitely stronger. Also have Siem De Jong coming back to fitness this year, potential for Cabella to adapt to the pace of the league. They are very weak at CB, but would much rather have their midfield and attacking options than ours.

Umm yes, completely. We're football fans and I f**king hate Liverpool. Of course his destination affects my feelings. I've said countless times that I want him to go to literally anyone but Liverpool. Even Man United?

why did he turn them down? Didnt like Ostrich sandwich Leicester had a bid turned down, reportedly of 12m. Palace were linked but have now signed Bamford on loan, whether that may affect their thinking on this one. Newcastle have signed Mitrovic. Has this left the door open for us? Personally I'd think it's one of Adebayor/Austin then a younger, foreign striker in addition.

If this was Lambert's Villa, I'd say no chance. Sherwood is what gives me hope on this one.

Four of Adebayor's seasons in the Prem have seen him finish with a better than 1 in 2 goals to games ratio, across 3 different clubs. His best season saw him fire 24 goals. On his day he was up there with what we've seen from Benteke over the last 2-3 years.

I do think people are letting their personal dislike of Liverpool affect their feelings on this transfer. He gets to play in a team full of England Internationals, in Europe, with the potential of playing Champs League in the next 2-3 years. If it that last part doesn't happen, he'll only be 26-27 reaching his peak and can move again having spent the same time at Liverpool as he did at Villa. Liverpool are still one of the biggest 20 clubs in the world despite a few tough seasons (finishing mainly 5th/6th/7th). We moan when lottery winners like City can take our players due to the money, but then we also moan when a more traditional giant of the game does their best to find ways to compete with these new-found rich clubs.

We aren't a big club This. If you're going to call us a big club then you have to call Leeds, Forest, Wolves big clubs too.

Biggest issue for me of those cons is the middle one. At 31 I think he's still fine as a short-term solution, for one year or maybe 2 max. Also don't really see us having an issue with space in the squad for both Ade and a younger forward from abroad (Embolo for example).

Ahead of Clark A thought on why Sherwood may have gone for Richards over Clark. If Okore hits form, Clark would be the one more likely to make way in the side at CB to allow Okore to come in?

According to Soccerbase it's 17 goals in 46 starts, then he's had 15 sub appearances on top of that, that's his record in Ligue 1. So better than 1 in 3 for a 22-year-old when starting, not too bad.

Clearly in the minority but I'd love to see him leading the line next season. Would only want to sign him on a 12-month deal though ideally. Always rated him, thought he was great at Arsenal, Man City, Spurs he had a great season on loan, signed and went a bit off the boil but then Sherwood got him playing again. Think Benteke's very difficult to replace, but Ade has a similar goalscoring record in the Prem and there are very few other players we could bring in who we can say that about. If it's on a 12-month deal on sensible wages (i.e 60-70k a week), then by playing for that it proves he's coming to play football not just earn money. There are some issues over his mental health but surely he'll be happiest playing football, scoring goals, with a manager who puts his arm round him who knows him well.

This sums up Gil in general, excellent in the opposition's final third, very creative, great passer. However in his own half opponents muscle him off the ball and it's sometimes in key areas, he needs to be told not to drop back too deep, and always be picked in advanced positions in whatever formation we play.

Maybe not the worst suggestion on a 1-year deal. Just not sure if he's too similar to Westwood and whether we need someone more attacking/box-to-box.

Just bought 2 tickets for this, very limited availability. Mainly just single seats left.

My observations: - Sellars and Calder looked good out of the youngsters - Amavi looked better on the ball and going forward than defensively, where he got turned a couple of times - Gil played a couple of brilliant through balls, but lost the ball easily a couple of times by not being strong enough, once nearly led to a goal Looking ahead Gueye, Grealish and maybe Kozak/Okore will improve us, however it is obvious we are a quality midfielder and quality striker light. At this moment in time our current squad would do well to stay up, important few weeks coming up for Sherwood and the club.

I genuinely fell for all that guff he fed us in January, it sounded like it was coming from the heart and like he really meant it. Maybe at the time he was aware there'd been interest from Liverpool/Spurs level clubs but he knew he'd rather stay at Villa than go to one of those, so he felt confident saying what he did as he intended to stay for the foreseeable future. He might not have envisaged a club like Utd, City or Arsenal triggering the clause any time soon. Overall, I'm still very disappointed in the way it's panned out and it leaves a sour taste in the mouth, whatever the explanation.