gilbertoAVFC

According to a source, Thompson isn't coming. More later.

That, if true, is a disgrace and my opinion of the board would go down hugely.

KMac will be back in the reserves. Staunton the man who is more likely to be assistant than PT. Media looking to portray Houllier's appointment as very unpopular with the fans and will use Krulak's blogs across all three forums he posts on to justify this.

At the rate he's going after his 'full pre-season' (no excuse now) has to be Stewart Downing. At least Agathe didn't cost £12 million!

People say SI has a bad attitude, but from what I've seen in games and heard in training for City and now Villa, his work-rate and determination is excellent. Bit of an odd-ball perhaps, but who cares if he delivers the goods?

Shouldn't have posted that last bit. All of Randy's critics will start moaning that he has no intention to spend money yardayarda

I reckon Christian Gross should be given a chance personally. Also, the Doc didn't get a fair crack now did he? Gross/Venglos super-staff!

Well I'm fed-up with five-year plans so that rules Stalin out for me I'm afraid. I reckon Hitler would bring with him a decent scouting network. Good shout there.

So would a £10 bet on Houllier be worth it at 5/2 on Will Hill?

I'm not surprised you're banned from Heroes and Villains with tripe like this! Nationality bias? It's called giving the lad a chance!

That Mail article has to go down as one of the stupidest headlines I've seen from them, and that's saying something! Awful journalism.

he also is playing for a temporary manager who has never managed in the premier league before. (not a dig about kmac at all, but he has been signed bya club who dont know who will be managing the team next week.) Yep there's another one! Completely ideal circumstances then for a player to make a good impression?

Firstly, he hardly played last year and has clearly faded out of games as a result of a lack of match fitness. Secondly, he has only ever played with Richard Dunne from our team, he'll need time to gel. Thirdly, the whole team were pretty damn awful in both Newcastle and Rapid Vienna games. Fourthly, he is being played as a holding midfielder, would Wesley Sneijder play as well there? No. Fifthly, he has played two games, difficult to make huge judgements of a player from that. Just stating the facts!

Hi General, great to see the club interacting with the fans from the highest level - can't question you or Randy's commitment to our cause in any way. Anybody that does, is just looking for a fight? I am a little concerned about our activity in the transfer window, but more to do with SELLING players than purchasing them. I appreciate we may need a few new recruits before the deadline on September 1st - but if we are to believe some of the figures given to us from papers and posters 'in the know' - what are your plans to reduce the huge wage bill we are under? I know you can't satisfy them all, and you must be thinking 'how can I keep 'these' fans happy about their need to buy players and 'these' fans happy for their need to sell them'? I understand it is a tight balance. But what I will argue is that, stopping the loss of money that has happened in recent years is CRUCIAL to the well-being of our club. You've seen what's happened to Portsmouth - on the verge of ceasing to exist at one point. I know bringing in good players means spending lots of money, but I for one would accept a few years to 're-build' with perhaps lower ambitions following Randy's brilliantly generous spending in recent years, in order to ensure the long-term health is this club is good. I think I speak for all Villa fans when I say that keeping this club in business is more important than ANY result. I obviously want to see us do as well as we can, but I'd hate to see us putting success ahead of potentially losing the existance of my club. I know we're a long way off that, but it nearly happened to Leeds. Thanks for your efforts in keeping in touch with the fans General.

Friedel - helpless apart from Barton's goal. Young - best of the defence Dunne - worst I've seen him play Clark - lightweight, not good enough yet Warnock - where was he? Albrighton - ran into corners Petrov - over-run, no impact other than a negative one Ireland - on par with Eto'o deal my arse. Looked disinterested after we went behind. Young - best of bad bunch Downing - just utter shite. Scared, no belief, DROP HIM! Carew - direeeeee

What we've lacked is any sort of aggression in the middle, NRC should've been brought on a lot earlier. We were closing down well from the front but are giving them far too much room at the back, KND has always lined-up the reserves with no players diving in - you CANNOT afford to give that much room to players in the Prem. Downing has been same old - no effort or bottle whatsoever. Carew just woeful. Worst performance I've ever seen by Richard Dunne. Only Ash has done anything really. Need Collins/Cuellar and Gabby back pronto. So contrasting to last week. We look yards behind their players - they're much fitter.

Great statement, can you imagine the Villa website ever acknowledging something like that? Still, at least we don't terrorise our own fans when they're in agony.

Hopefully we get a new manager in before the start of the Premier League cycle. :winkold:

Great news, indicates real faith in our young players, which is always brilliant to see. UTV!

What about Brian McDermott of Reading - totally transformed them last season? They played some great football against us last season. Will never happen, but could be a big-name in future.

If he was willing to take an 80% paycut then he's welcome

Am I the only one that is happy to see Kevin MacDonald in charge at the minute? Granted, he's not a 'big-name' that will attract lots of players, but I feel that he could really do a job for us in the coming weeks. Knows the club, done brilliantly for the reserves who play a lot of good football and will not hesitate to give young players a chance ahead of first teamers if they are slacking. Not saying I want him there full-time, but I think he should be considered if he does well.

Keane is a dead-cert to come.

Brilliant article. I of course appreciate Randy's commitment to our cause, but why oh why did we spend as much as we did last season and allow our wage bill to increase by nearly 300% in three years? It's gone from one extreme to another now. I suppose the lack of patience amongst a great deal of our fan base will have played a part in speeding up this process, but it could be argued to be very poor business. However, I'm optimistic that because we seem to have realised and addressed the situation before it really was too late, we can get out of this mess. Getting rid of the likes of Davies, Luke Young and NRC would certainly make our squad overall weaker, but it sure would benefit us in the long-term. Sidwell and Heskey have to go if they really are on £5.2m a year between them. I feel that MON will be placing much more faith this season in our young players, which I look forward to, even if it will be frustrating at times. Keep the faith, UTV.

I think the real answer to this poll is: WE DON'T KNOW, IT'S JOHN CAREW AFTER ALL!