jackbauer24

Rumoured fee for Cech is £11m. Rumoured fee for Begovic is £10m. Nah... I still don't agree with spending any budget we have on a keeper (unless by the end of the season we've improved every other positions) but I think spending anywhere near £10m on a keeper who's only got a year left on his contract is madness when we have a perfectly adequate keeper for our current position. We sign any first choice keeper this summer and I'll question Sherwood's decision making unless by September 1st at least five other first choice players have also been signed.

Lincoln is my second team too! University reasons for me, so much so it's the only football shirt other than Villa I've ever bought - the season they were sponsored by the Uni...and got relegated from the league!

Every player is replaceable, or more accurately, can be improved on. However, if you listed our squad in order of their value to Villa, then I'd say Delph comes top, followed by Guzan. Benteke wants out and is worth a lot so his sale at least makes some sense for the improvement of the squad as a whole. Other players are a mixture of good, average and poor but are more easily replaceable than a keeper. If the intention is to improve every position this summer then fine, replace him. But we more urgently need defenders, midfielders and strikers. Hell even more desperately need squad depth than a new keeper. So if improving on Guzan makes any of those less possible it's simply not worth doing. Improving on Richardson, Hutton, departed Lowton and soon gone Vlaar is VITAL (1 done in Richards) Improving on departed Cleverley, Sanchez, N'Zogbia is VITAL (no replacements yet) Improving on departed Bent, Weimann and not goid enough to lead Gabby is VITAL (almost bare bones) Improving on at least a very adequate keeper (being unkind) is a LUXURY Think it's frankly ridiculous this is being discussed unless we've money to replace starting XI. And that's ignoring fact he was praised beyond belief most of his time as number 1 and has perhaps had even just one poorer season.

So we'd potentially have a back four of Richards, Richards, Richardson and one other? Makes me wonder if Sherwood made his shopping list very clear or just said "get as many Richards" as you can...

To be fair, the KEY data is backed up; 95% pictures were cloud linked. It's just silly things like game saves where I don't want to start again. Or bookmarks to websites which I'll have forgotten! It's more principle of it just dying. With old windows stuff, however bad the machine has got, I've been able to recover data but that doesn't seem to exist for Android. Ah well, live and learn then. It was 2 1/2 to 3 years old so well out of warranty. Bought from Currys in Brum.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Wifi (GT-N8010) that has always been 'stock', never rooted or anything like that. Tonight I was browsing VillaTalk... and it crashed and will no longer get past the boot screen. Not added any new apps, nothings changed, just suddenly given up. To cut a very long story short, for the past 8 hours I have been trying all sorts of reboots or fixes or anything else I can think of, or have researched, but have got nowhere. I can only open it in Odin mode and not in recovery mode - if you're still with me here, I bet you know far more than I do! I'm currently waiting for my second version of a 'Stock Rom' to download to try that through Odin after the first one made no difference. ROMs are only available through crappy things like rapidgator.net which strangle download unless you pay for premium access. No direct downloads or torrents available. Ultimately I have ordered a new tablet. Fixable or not, it was aging, getting slow and I simply don't trust it now. Fundamentally however, it still is a plastic brick too. SO. First and foremost does anyone know of any other ways of repairing it? Secondly can I at least get my data off it and how? (pictures/game saves etc) Computer and Kies don't read it and as it's effectively bricked I can't put it in USB/MTP mode. Thirdly does anyone know of any reputable, and also importantly, cheap places that would be able to fix it? Don't want to spend a fortune and then nothing can be done. Any help appreciated, tearing my hair out.

Not really important but just interested; who edits the Member Title?! I was doing my daily browse of the site and suddenly noticed my Member Title has been changed to 'Official Food Taster' - doesn't bother me, just wondered who, why and when?! Thought it was based purely on posts so think I was 'Reserve Team' previously as I read a lot but post fairly sporadically or in spurts. However I then noticed that a few people have specialised ones like 'Sweaty Git' or 'Bronzed Goddess' but you can't edit it yourself from what I can see. The secrets of VT....

Please don't sign Richardson again! The point remains though, if Richards signs on Tuesday, which is widely being reported, does that mean the takeover is either complete or off?

If we're in a period of 'exclusivity' and the deal is imminent then who is sanctioning moves in the transfer market? I can understand offering new contracts might not be considered major dealing (although arguably it is if you offer someone quadruple their wage... new owner would have to happy with that) but the potential signing of Micah Richards is certainly an acquisition the new owners would be interested in. On one hand it'd be fool-hardy of Lerner to agree massively inflating wages because he thinks we'll be sold soon but then finds they back out. On the other new owners aren't going to want you to keep adding players to the wage bill before they've taken over as they may have different plans and requirements. They may not even want to keep Sherwood (unlikely though). I half suspect whether the club is letting this 'exclusivity' story run without denying it as it's good for season ticket sales/ hope. It's not going to put off other potential bidders as they stay involved, even if there is a six week 'holiday' before negotiations continue. I'm not so sure we're close to being taken over at all.

I think it's looked down on because the quality is disproportionately bad. There are probably lots of genuine reasons for that, not limited to opportunity, investment and interest. I'd get thrashed by a female tennis player, out paced by a female sprinter, out driven by Susie Wolff and competitively embarrassed in almost any sport I can think of by a top female player. But you get the feeling even the top female team could be beaten by a poor Sunday League team. It's not comparing men vs women but amateur vs professional and I'm not sure why women's football is SO poor. I can't workout how low you need to go in the men's game before the female team would have a chance. As has been mentioned several times, the goalkeeping is particularly awful. If one argues the shots have less power etc than the men's game then the ability between outfield players and goalkeepers shouldn't be any different. I.e. poor players have poorer shots so should be saved by poorer goalkeepers. I still watch it, and somewhat enjoy it, but the gap is so big it really is hard not to shake your head at the amateur nature of it. The reasons behind that are probably very complex. But it's not the same feeling you get when you watch women's tennis or athletics etc.

I'm sure a mod can edit this thread to look like the monthly optimism ones. So how you feel this off season? Optimistic about the future? Fed up of football? Concerned the only Villa stories in the press are about departures? Bored by the takeover saga?

Bloody tablet - delete this duplicate thread please!!

Everyone agrees that if we're going to stop this cycle of relegation battles, the squad needs an overhaul. Now when people talk about signing players they can be unrealistic due to a host of reasons not limited to availability, price, wages etc. So perhaps the first place to look is our own squad - I've just listed the squad as displayed on the back of the last programme of the season. You're the manager - you decide who to sell, who to loan, who to use as a squad player and who to fight to keep. 1. Guzan - KEEP (starter) 2. Baker - KEEP (squad) 4. Vlaar - RELEASE 5. Okore - KEEP (squad) 6. Clark - KEEP (starter) 7. Bacuna - KEEP (squad) 8. Cleverley (LOAN) - KEEP if possible/ not held to ransom 9. Sinclair - KEEP (squad/starter) 10. Weimann - KEEP but play in right position OR loan to a club who will (last chance saloon) 11. Agbonlahor - KEEP (squad) 12. Cole - RELEASE 13. Steer - KEEP (squad) 14. Senderos - RELEASE 15. Westwood - KEEP (starter) 16. Delph - KEEP (starter) 18. Richardson - SELL/ RELEASE 20. Benteke - SELL (money better than player who doesn't want to be here) 21. Hutton - SELL (much better season but still liability) 22. Gardner - KEEP (no loan now though, either squad player or should be sold. Last chance saloon) 23. Cissokho - KEEP (squad) 24. Sanchez - KEEP (squad) 25. Gil - KEEP (squad/starter) 27. Kozak - KEEP (squad/starter) 28. N'Zogbia - SELL/RELEASE 29. Hepburn-Murphy - LOAN 31. Given - RELEASE 34. Lowton - KEEP (squad) 39. Calder - LOAN 40. Grealish - KEEP (starter) Meaning I need two or three defenders, no midfielders and one or two strikers. From likely £40m budget (assuming Benteke sale for approx £30m) Guzan RB CB Clark LB Delph Westwood Grealish Cleverley (or Sanchez) Gil/Sinclair Striker

If he goes, Weimann will be a loss and we could end up regretting it. It seems even sillier to sell a forward like Weimann when we have already released Bent and are likely to lose Benteke too. Weimann is a crap winger, no doubt. But if he plays in his position as a striker then I think he'd actually be worth a lot more than £2m to us. He's played in that position so rarely I don't think it's fair to write him off as sub-standard. Someone said we've replaced him with Sinclair and this too is not fair - it's not the same position! Weimann is an out and out striker who runs on to flick ons or tries to use his pace and work ethic. He may never be a 20 a season striker but he's at least comparable with Gabby when player in the right position. His best games were when playing in that position and I'll always love that goal against Man City!! Weimann could never be accused of slacking either.

He didn't mention we were changing kit supplier at all and he didn't mention an American company, at least not to the group as a whole during his presentationy bit. He purely mentioned we needed to make far more money from our kit sponsors than we were currently. He seemed to slip up suggesting we might replace Macron but he also said we might keep them. There contract isn't up for a year either. All he said is we needed more income. Unless someone is suggesting he said something to them directly during his walk around then it's simply not true to say he made some sort of announcement. Why would he do a group of fans?!

Yeah there was.... he said Gil stole his sandwich at Bodymoor Heath and he hasn't yet forgiven him* *may not have actually been said

Oh and they're investing more and more in to infrastructure to keep players fitter, looking at science, making sure players don't keep injuring same areas, investing in youth abd again highlighted the experience Paddy Reilly brings with him. He said it was a case of getting all the best people in the right places.

I imagine for a host of reasons, not limited to disclosure and PR Spin, that he didn't mention specifics as regards commercial deals. But highlighting how badly we were performing and that we need to close that gap asap. He mentioned Spurs as being currently way ahead of us along with Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea in a commercial sense but we have to be best of the rest. He said globally no-one else cares about the other teams but due to our 'Englishness', our history, our unique name, our tradition we are important around the world despite our lowly position in recent years. He didn't directly mention whether funds would be increased but suggested some deals were now done and would be announced soon which were more in line with what we should be getting and that can only improve the ability we have to spend on improving the squad. Money isn't going to come from the Chairman because basically it can't - it can only come from improving revenue. So reading in to that, Fox (or Wajeratna more directly as it's his role) will impact on our spending power based on the amount of money they can bring in from sponsors and related revenues.

The impression given was that income was far more important than the owner's wealth so therefore that was the area we would focus on. He said if we could improve our sponsorship deals to be more on par with other clubs and in turn improve our league position, we'd find we grew exponentially and could compete higher and higher. He DIDN'T seem to suggest it was more of the same actually - although he didn't talk about budgets directly. What he did say is we under perform on the business side so we don't make as much as we should and no-one who just wants to make a quick buck would be interested as we can't provide that yet.

I'm not going to try and justify what he said or the reasoning behind it - I'm just reporting directly what he said when answering some questions. He seemed to suggest that Lambert seemed to be doing all the right things when he came in and e couldn't work out why we weren't getting the results and he still thinks just because things are going wrong doesn't automatically mean it's the mangers fault as there is a lot of cogs in the machine. People weren't asking the right questions was his main point - why are we getting same injuries, why are all of our defenders injured, why are players doing the wrong training on some days etc. But now we have Sherwood, he had more of a role in the development at Spurs and all the connections he has formed and that the Director role isn't as needed for him but it will happen eventually. Currently he works with Tim and Paddy to do the role together but eventually someone else will take that role themselves.

No names mentioned, 'they' were just here with representatives of Birmingham and showed the club off as well. May bring in no investment at all. Manufacturer and sponsors were mentioned but only in that we didn't get enough money by any stretch. He said we may replace Macron or may not but we need more income from this area. He spoke to tables individually after main chat but I heard nothing about American manufacturers personally.

First extra point; Tom Fox said we're a mile away from top 6, the horse has already bolted regarding some teams before FFP came in, but our job is to be bigger than the other 14 teams. He said we are more popular than all of them based on fan base/ twitter/global following so we need to start getting revenue from that. So whilst top 6 are leagues away, we need to pull away from the others. We're in top 40 clubs finance wise due to Premiership alone, and new deal will make it so of the top 30 clubs in the world, 20 of them will be Premier League clubs - this means we are in competition with just clubs around us and if we can start living up to our potential, we can effectively be the tenth biggest in the world just by using the revenue that is available to us.

Just back. Don't worry, I mentioned Villa Talk by name, does that get me mod rights? To be fair it was quite interesting, despite a fair mention of food! So I'll try to recap what happened and rough idea of what was said/implied, although not direct quotes. To start, there was a few testers of food! It gets more interesting but I'll cover it for completion. Looks like we're getting improved burgers, fish and chips, Nannsters (nan bread filled with rice/curry) and mini curry. They are looking at a few more things in possibly Holte Suite.Holte Right, more interesting stuff. Tom Fox gave a short talk saying neither he or Randy were happy about our situation and he is promising it won't happen again. He then backed up that belief by putting in what he felt was the main reason and said the infrastructure and the income were woeful. He said whilst most clubs were improving their income by huge amountstheir, our year on year income was increased by only 5%. He said based on size we should be 7th in the list and yet we're 14th. We get less than £5m a season whilst Spurs get £20m for shirts. There are some big announcements to come regarding sponsorship but no details as regards who or if shirt etc. He mentioned the amount of money coming in to Birmingham and also mentioned Chinese money and a Chinese Airline but doesn't necessarily equal anything. He thinks each club should choose whether to cut prices based on supply and demand but thinks our prices are very competitive and it's only poor performance that stops the stadium being full. He said he needed time to assess Lambert but felt that he was doing a good job but then acknowledged the role was new to him and now Sherwood is in he realises how much was lacking before. Hindsight and all that. Director of football is on back burner as Sherwood brings a lot of development knowledge with him that Lambert didn't have. However it is a model that Villa will have eventually and if done properly should only be a plus for the manager. They are putting in place all the right people in all the right places. He's not happy players are getting injuries in the same areas and has praised Paddy Reilly and some Opta guy for revamping areas we're lacking. Takeover news; nothing greatly revealed! However Lerner would only sell to 'right' people and is looking for custodians again. There is currently nothing to take out the club as we are under performing in that area so it's all about selling to the right people. He reiterated that Randy loves the club, has the famed tattoo and would be happier than we can all imagine to win the FA Cup. Chairman; should the club not be sold then a Chairman would be a figure head role but Tom Fox would not answer to him but work in a committee like role. Tom Fox doesn't care about title but says Randy said he'd be offered something along lines of Co-chairman. If Villa are sold and new people don't want him, that's their loss he said! He wouldn't confirm scarves plan for final but said we're a proper club and will do something great! He said he's not in slightest bit conflicted, Arsenal will want it, Villa need it! All the players know how big it is apart from Jack who just plays football and doesn't seem to notice! FA Cup final tickets were sold block by block as that was only logistical way to do it. Stewarding will be looked at. Sound system is rubbish as usual. Can't talk about specific sponsorship deals. Can't talk about any plans should be win cup. Season ticket sales are already ahead of schedule. Looking at ways of going cashless/ incorporating Villa Cash. Anything else that comes to me as I remember it, I'll put it on here.

Off to the latest SCG tonight with Tom Fox and Charlie Wijeratna. Do any of the supporters on here have any genuine (non-offensive!) questions that they'd like me to put forward if I get the chance or they are not brought up by someone else? here Leave in about an hour, so be quick!

Please delete as tablet duplicated thread. Sorry.