wilko154

Random... However it's all about the development of a player. Enda Stevens has now developed into a fantastic left back, I watched him yesterday and he was superb. He would currently walk into our side. Lowton has developed into a very good right back for Burnley. Taylor won't improve. We now have to hope Guilbert and Targett can develop to become brilliant premier league full backs for us.

Good to see you back mate!

Next meeting could we mention the pricing structure for the Carabao Cup fixture against Liverpool. In my opinion the club have got it completely wrong and we are likely to see a lot of empty seats for a game that should see a packed out Villa Park. a) The pricing doesn't match the away fans £20 per ticket b) It is overpriced for what will likely be a second string match c) If we had drawn a Colchester, Oxford or even Everton the ticket price would likely have been £15-£20 d) During December we have 8 games. For me 4 of these are away games and now one is a cup game that I have to pay extra for; I know it's my choice to go to these games but do we not think about the fans anymore?

£35 million in the bank for Villa to replace him with a quality midfielder. City don't buy him and we continue developing him and get the best out of him. He's young, he's not played in the PL before, it will take him time to settle. I think he's shown glimpses of quality, again much like the rest of the team he benefits from having Grealish in the side and McGinn on song.

Looking to go for a Mazda 6 for my next car. Does anyone own one? What are they like? Nice to drive? Reliable?

They are finally updating the Villa squad!

Fairly certain Lewis won't be winning after these tweets following last weeks show

If I hadn't looked at the lineup prior to kick off I wouldn't have even known Rice was on the pitch. No way near good enough for the England side yet; Henderson should be in that role (as much as I don't like him) for his experience and leadership at the least.

The prices to this game are not far off a disgrace. I've been to every game this season, home and away. For £30 to watch a Carabao Cup game with two reserve sides I think I'll miss my first game of the season. £20 would have been a fair price during the Christmas month with a stack of fixtures coming up.

I thought Mings was shaky last night, but I wouldn't go as far as calling him poor. Ultimately the midfield let down the defence last night, Rice didn't provide any movement for an out ball into the midfield and it made Mings job a lot harder trying to play out from the back. As someone else mentioned Maguire seemed to keep giving Mings the ball when he himself had no options on. It's a shame that Mings got the call against Kosovo and not Macedonia, because John Stones would have been all over the place against Nuhui last night. Mings handled him fairly well.

Just finished The Last of Us. What an incredible game, I didn't want it to end. I now completely understand the rave reviews, it's up there with one of favourite ever games. I've just watched the trailer and some gameplay for The Last of Us 2 and that looks on a different level, can't wait. Going to play through the Last of Us: Left Behind before moving onto Marvel's Spider-Man which arrived from Boomerang Rentals today.

Things you love to see on a Friday... Jack Grealish back in training.

To be honest he's performing as I expected him to. I thought he would struggle, the Premier League is a huge step up. I felt in the Summer that we had made a big mistake in not signing a striker, an oversight by the club in some ways. When he's been good he's been very good, when he's been bad he's been very bad. If we were to get to some middle ground then I think there is hope for him. However as I said I didn't expect him to hit the ground running, and unfortunately he hasn't. I do believe he will come good though.

Again it's all very well saying that but Davis most likely won't be back until January. So it's Kodjia or Wesley. We've created this situation ourselves by not bringing in a second striker. Writing Wesley off after four months is just plain daft.

I'm not saying they are wrong, some of his performances have been poor but it had to be expected, very few young strikers coming into English football hit the ground running. The more he plays the quicker he learns and unlocks his potential. When he's been good he's been very good, the Everton and Norwich games were the standard we need to get him upto for every game. For me those two games in particular prove that there is a lot of talent in Wesley that both Aston Villa and Brazil have seen. It's easy to say bench him and bring another striker in, but right now its November 15th. We have 10 games to go before we can sign a new striker. Are you suggesting we drop Wesley and play Kodjia going forward? I agree he needs reinforcements to help him come January, a striker with some pace and skill who can play on the shoulder of the defence gives us another dimension to our play and can either replace Wesley when he's out of form or play with him to get the best out of them both. Equally a player in his mould with some experience (Giroud for example) may also be beneficial to helping him learn and improve and take the pressure off for a year or two.

Some huge exaggerations in this thread. He's not terrible, he's not a flop and he's not abysmal. We signed a striker to develop and improve. We knew all along that we weren't buying the finished product. Combine that with Wesley being a young Brazilian footballer adapting to the English game and you have a player who will take 6 months to a year to show his true talent. It's not his fault we signed him, or for the money we signed him for. It's our fault that we didn't combine his signing with another striker to take the pressure off him when he isn't performing. We are judging Wesley on 12 games. 4 of those game have been against Tottenham, Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool. The difference between these games compared to previous seasons with Tammy and Kodjia in the Championship are huge. Wesley will improve, he will start doing the things he's doing well more consistently and he will shake off the bad habits. We haven't bought him to hit the ground running and become a 20 goal a season striker immediately, as with most players in the squad we've bought him for the long term investment of making him a better striker to benefit the club going forward. We need to get behind him and help drive him on to some good performances, to pick up some goals and build some momentum. I would hope in January we will recruit some reinforcements for him to take off the pressure, however until then he's the best we have and we need to support him as much as possible.

Do I warm an apple turnover up or eat it cold?

I would snap Chelsea's hand off for Giroud, 7 million. Giroud up front gives something for the whole team to work off, he's fantastic in the air, can hold the ball up, scores goals and would be the perfect player for Wesley & Davis to learn from and improve their game. 7 million is a now an absolute steal, and means we should have enough money left in the bank to strengthen the wings or midfield to provide more chances for the front line. A winger with a bit of consistent quality would be fantastic, but as the weeks go on the biggest problem we have is Grealish not being fit and so finding a player who can replace his quality in some way would go a long way to getting points on the board.

Off to Tallinn for a few days in two weeks time. Mainly going for the Christmas markets. Anyone been before? If so anything worth seeing or doing whilst there?

It's been a few years since I've watched the NFL but last week I decided I would get myself back into it. Atlanta Falcons have always been my team. Sat down last Sunday to watch their game against Saints and was surprised how good they looked for a team with 1-7. Looking forward to watching them again this Sunday.

Anyone heard from @kurtsimonw ?