RoyalVilla

That article says we lost £274.9m in the 20/21 season. Can that be right?

Does anyone know if the kids kits come up a little small? My son is 10, he is prob slightly bigger than average and thinking about getting him the 12 (yxl)

I've never seen him play but I've heard he is a good prospect. I assume from your comparison he was playing right back. Was he quick? I see he's listed at 1.75m so not that tall.

So he could be sold to Wolves this month, but he'd still only be able to play for us or Chelsea. Can't see why Tammy would do that though. Let's hope he stays here. If we get promoted would be great to sign him.

Fixed that

Although not particularly friendly, I can understand if other supporters think they're a bit silly or small time. Personally I think it's great that there are a group who are committed to supporting Villa passionately with a desire to create a better atmosphere - I'm all in favour of them. What we think personally about Brigada isn't really the issue though. Standing isn't really the issue either - though in fairness they shouldn't have moved to where they are. What IMO is really the issue is how the club are handling this. It's pathetic that the club have reached this stand off with them. The club should be mature here and work with supporters and look to find an agreement. We have senior managers who negotiate multi million pound deals and develop the future strategy for Villa and yet they can't accommodate and find a sensible solution for a small group of passionate Villa fans. I watch what happens from the Trinity and it really pisses me off. Sort it out Villa - I'm fed up of watching these guys get chucked out.

I've watched the interviews and read Sherwood's quotes. He's obviously under massive pressure (not least from the standards he sets himself) and he's getting asked a lot about it from journalists. I don't see him as making excuses - just answering the questions authentically and providing context. FWIW, I don't see anything wrong with what he's saying - I don't know what everyone expected? We sell our best players and buy a host of unproven young players with no Premier League experience. I'm sure Sherwood would have preferred a little more experience in the signings, but the club have worked as one and are following a strategy. I think Adebayor not coming was a massive blow - you can't just pluck proven PL strikers out of thin air for peanuts. IMO at a performance level, we are about where I expected us to be so far this season. Some signs of promise, some not so good stuff and a lot of inconsistency. We've never got a total battering, but haven't been able to hold it together long enough when we've needed too. We have less points than I'd have hoped for though. I'm in the camp that we should get behind Sherwood and give him more time - I think he deserves that for what he did last season when I (and many others) thought we'd be nailed on to go down. You can't just take the strategy we have, bring in so many players and not give them time to get it right. I've always thought we need to get to Christmas to make a proper assessment

On the way out of VP today, my friend I go with suggested Allardyce. Now I've sat and watched some rubbish in my time going to B6 and I said that if Allardyce was appointed, he could have my ST for the rest of the season and take his dad if he wanted. After having had some time to calm down a bit and reflect on this, I actually find myself still of the same opinion. The last thing I want is to be relegated, and that should be avoided at all cost. However, I would always want a manager who could offer some form of hope. Hope for interesting, progressive modern football.

Looked very comfortable and assured on the ball. A difficult début having to play in a pressure game at home in 2 different defensive formations. As has been said, his positioning looked off, but difficult to tell if that's a personal weakness or a result of other factors. Didn't look commanding / physical enough to be a typical prem CB, but then didn't look entirely lost or out of place. Was surprised to see his name on the team sheet though!

As ever, totally baffled by the anti-Westwood sentiment here. Technically, he's a very good player - brave on the ball, looks to get the play transitioning quickly, good passer and vision. Defensively he reads the game very well. IMO he's better playing deeper, and a bit less effective going forward. Plays an underrated role - a bit like Carrick in that respect. There are very few English players who play technically like he does. Personally, in my view, the way players like him are rated speaks a lot about English football and English supporters in general (just to be clear, I am English)

Heard his interview and thought it sounded ok. Playing direct to push the defensive line back to eventually create space is not exactly some hair brained scheme after all. Chelsea used to do it with Drogba for example, though in fairness they would try to transition a bit quicker. Ignorant fans don't help though (i.e. boos). Sherwood also had to consider fitness and rotation, so thought it all worked out ok and we were able to come away with some positives but most importantly the win. i don't always agree with Sherwood's tactics but then he'll have forgotten way more about football than I'll ever know + he's an inexperienced manager and this is an inexperienced team which needs to develop a lot. So far he's exceeded my expectations both at the end of last season and in the transfer market, so I think he deserves a fair crack at developing this team and getting it right, which I do not expect to be a quick process.

Totally agree with this post. I don't think he's a dick.

Will be interesting to see where he does play when he gets his chances. I wonder if we might see him playing DM as well as CB or even RB

The pivot is basically the central DM who sits between midfield and defense. The double pivot is basically 2 of them, so typically 4-2-3-1 formation. Interesting to hear that this guy has also played as a defensive MF and is good technically and comfortable on the ball I think he sounds like a real prospect and gives us more depth and options. I'm not sure if he'll play as a full back as he sounds more central and Sherwood seems to prefer attacking fullbacks for width. Sounds like a good signing and I'm looking forward to seeing if / how he is used.

I also don't agree that Gestede was bought as a starter, but to give us some optionality. he's taking a step up and will need time to settle, so I don't buy into all this doom-mongering (probably in the wrong place ) He didn't have a good game today, but there were still some positives so I'm happy to see how he develops. If we don't manage to get a main striker in it's not his fault.