villaglint

I'd imagine you will always have the choice Tony so no need to lose any sleep just yet. I also enjoy driving but there are times usually when hungover when I would love to have a sleep in the car on the journey back from somewhere. This amazingly engineered bit of kit might fit that ridiculous need rather nicely!

Yes very true and I'm sure you stuck your ! on Bob Rich didn't you?

Be interesting to see how we reacts to the main source of passes he receives being bobbled knock downs from the big man.

I'd go for this but as Stevo says Sterling behind Sturridge. If we are going to do anything in this tournament we need someone young to announce themselves on the world stage similar to Owen and I think Sterling is the only player with high enough potential to do that. I would also give consideration to putting Barkley in that Wilshere spot.

Just for the fun of speculation. If Doyen wanted to do a similar thing in Premier League and own a team to make that happen. I can imagine ensuring how that would work "ie third party ownership" in different leagues and importing them into an owned entity in Premier League would be quite a complicated process and take a fair bit of working through with the lawyers and league etc. Maybe why we get the extended period of "no news".

Yeah he is which I think is probably wise. Like all showman ITK he obviously got told something credible at some point (i.e. the Culverhouse stuff) but he has stretched the good will he earned from that way past breaking point now

Can I add this to the comedy gold on this thread. Admin has reared his head on TBAR again and unfortunately I think signed the death knell for his rapidly dwindling credibility. Admin wrote: Hello again, The name I heard earlier is Donald Sterling (LA Clippers owner). As I said, not a name that's shown up on my radar until now. Another source has said he's heard the name but could add no more than that. Where Sterling fits into this and how far down the track he is with it I'll try to find out for you but it looks like a deal WILL be completed this summer (cue jokes about the UK summer being 8 days) As I'm sure you've read over and over, info coming out of Villa at the moment is extremely limited but I'll keep you updated when I can.

Odd isn't it, given people were banging on for ages how we were sold... its almost like they were making it up and there wasn't a buyer in place at the time of Randy's statement. I fully expect Lerner to still be around come the start of the season. Bloody hell Trent - you really are depressing, usually because you are right.

Two ways to look at this. If we get taken over in the short term (ie this summer) then surely a new owner would be looking to invest in the team. In that case I am confident we could replace Albrighton with a better standard of player. If we don't get taken over in the short term and we lose Albrighton to Leicester or whoever then that is a real blow. He was clearly one of our better players and it will mean another head to cover with an already stretched budget

I watched a minor league game in Vegas and it was very boring. Not a home run all game, little to no atmosphere. Felt like what I am sure Yanks feel when they watch cricket over here.

TT's first comment came at 2.28 so that fits with the timeline we are working to. Phew...glad we got this all wrapped up

Well there have been plenty of leaks/statements so looks like Dave was wrong on this occasion. Doesn't he work for the People or Star or something? I imagine it wasn't the first time.

@ Gentleman He did say he was gone but in another message also said he wasn't sure when this would be announced. I still don't think that is unlikely to happen. @ StanBalaban - Yes of course it is easy to say it will happen one day. I think Admin is saying it will happen soon and certainly in this close season. That is a definite statement we can test. Trent hasn't said anything that contradicts that. So as I said right now they could both be in agreement as in "Lambert will be gone this summer" although they are putting out different statements about the current status of Lambert. I just wanted to be clear on what I meant and I know this is talking about posters which will irk Trent among others but it is really about establishing the credibility of information we are hearing on the takeover. And all in all I reckon that is still all pointing in the right direction.

In terms of ITK ratings I don't really see how today changes things for Admin. Lambert leaving still seems very likely and I don't think Admin put a time line on it just that it was going to happen. Everyone else put two and two together and thought today would be the day. Be interesting if Trent is willing to say Lambert will be our manager on 1st day of season then we really would have a proper ITK off. As far as I can tell only Trent only says what isnt going to happen rather than making any clear statements himself. Which is fair enough and probably a more reliable and sustainable way of passing on information. The only person with his balls on the line today is Dinkleham on TBAR as he said the takeover would be announced on the stock exchange today. Which is as clear and testable a prediction as you can get. Either way all the ITK is great fun, if a nightmare for work productivity. Sure it will all turn out good in the end I'm relaxed on time-scales.

Makes sense for Lambert to stay - not in any parties interest for him to be gone before new owners are on board. Takeovers take time, as long as it happens I'm happy.

Going on Hippo's posts it sounds like he has a line into Lambert but not much insight beyond that. He said the following comment just days before Randy said the exact opposite. I would take Lambert leaving as a very good sign that something will happen sooner than Autumn. Surely if you wanted to continue to run it on a shoestring then you would keep Lambert in place. No point going through another "transition" if you don't have any money to spend. Posted by hippo on 06 May 2014 - 01:32 PM in Villa Talk This takeover either isn't happening, or is the best secret Randy has ever kept. I really wouldn't get your hopes up for anything other than a reaffirmation of Randy's committment to the club and a new manager.

I'd say it is almost impossible to put a price on Weimann right now. On this season alone - I think £3-4m is pretty much fair value. Obviously last season you would have put his value much higher. I don't think anyone knows exactly which direction his career is going to take.

Cant believe how thin our squad is when Stones is our first choice reserve centre back. He has played 15 games for Everton this year and I'd guess less than 5 of those he played CB. Cant say I have seen loads of him but in the few games I have seen he looks tidy but nothing spectacular. I'd be pretty disappointed if I was someone like Caulker who I think has been very good whenever I've seen him this year.

Squad is very weak at CB, and wide pacey forwards. An injury to Jagielka or Cahill and we are struggling (I'm not even a fan of the two of them as a pair) Only seems to be Sterling and Oxlade who can play wide - I know Jimmy and Welbeck can do it but neither are going to scaring the worlds best too much. Shame we had injuries for Walcott and Townsend just disappeared for a season after such a bright start.

Yeah I thought it was pathetic they both didn't get 30 mins to be honest. The game was over, Tottenham had taken their foot right off the pedal so it was the ideal opportunity. The only possible reason is that Lambert knows he is off and no longer gives a toss.

To be honest I would say the game is still playing so there is no score yet on the ITK front. Randy had to make a statement sooner or later and what he has said does support those who claim to have been ITK about a takeover. They way I see it if we go the whole summer with minimal investment, no new owner yet but still up for sale and Lambert still in place then Trent will have been spot on and I will be very disappointed to say the least. We will also have a big battle for relegation again next season. If we get sold in the next two months then Admin and others will have been spot on and better times will be on there way.

They don't give a shit, barely trying to make a tackle

It's not often you can score 6, a player get a hat-trick, and the right back is arguably MotM. Yes he was phenomenal that game but that seems a long time ago now. Difficult to say who has been the bigger disappointment this year out of him and Weimann. Hopefully both are able to develop in the right direction.

So they limit it to league one, and after a few years when enough B teams get promoted we end up with the majotyi of League 1 clubs in League 2, and most of the league 2 clubs being pushed down to non-league. All so the kids can have a kickaround even though they'll eventually just end up playing exactly the same opponents they would in a youth/reserve league bar a handful of fixtures a year from the few teams who get promoted/relegated in to it each season. In my opinion you are over simplifying. I don't think it would be automatic that a team of U21 would automatically start spanking all of the lower league teams. I'm pretty sure there would be a decent mix between the leagues. Having seen our U21s play a lot over the last few years I think they would be schooled big time by some seasoned pros and learn some pretty harsh and pretty quick lessons along the way. Of course the clubs would then receive bids for some of the better B players which the parent club may expect if they didn't think the player would reach first team level. So it would actually just recycle talented players around the leagues a lot quicker. I'm in favour because right now we have a situation where the big clubs take the best talented kids who have little to no chance of ever making the first team. Which means their first taste of "mens" football comes several years later than it needed to and often with the kid on a downer because they've been let go by the club of their dreams. This solution seems to offer a way of reintegrating those talented kids back into the system (at all levels) a lot quicker.

Doesn't seem to be a popular view on here but I would definitely be in support of this if done right. I don't want to see a Championship full of B teams but if they were limited to rising to a certain level then I'd be up for it. Also it ought to be only home grown players as that is the point of doing this in first place. The reserve league was crap and the U21 league we currently have is even worse. Whether it is B teams or any other solution we need to make it easier for the most talented kids to be playing men's football as soon as possible. Look at what it has done for Jack Grealish over the last year and Samir Curruthers before he got injured. Then look at Jordan Graham (I know he's had a bad injury), Graham Burke, Janoi Donacien, Daniel Johnson all talented lads who are miles away from first team because no club has come in for them on loan.