jackbauer24

Fantastic news he's been omitted from England squad with regards any hopes we have of signing him. Gets called up; top teams start sniffing again or he gets all big headed about playing at different level etc. No Villa players called up; he starts thinking Villa isn't a big enough team to supply England with players Delph called up; best scenario. Keeps him grounded, knows he can be called up if playing for Villa and sees the player who was called up has signed new contract at this club! I still don't think he'll sign for us but this is best scenario in aiding any attempt.

I'd definitely chase this up, it only took a few days for tickets to arrive for most people. Unless there was some weird delay on your block or something? I'm guessing they've got lost so I'd get on it asap so you don't miss out.

As much as he's been a good player for us, weirdly I'm very pragmatic about him leaving and won't be gutted in the slightest. He has an almost mercenary feel to him, I don't feel like fans have that bond to him - Delph isn't a local boy but feels more part of the club. Not sure I'm making sense...! I feel like there was a lot more hero worship for the likes of Carew than there is for him, despite him being the better striker. So sell him for profit, reinvest in the team. If we could get £30-40m for him and reinvest that in to something like Austin for £15-20m I'd be more than happy. Austin too is quite young, has scored a ton of goals for a poor team and would suit out style of play. And then there is automatically £10-20m to strengthen the defence and maybe another midfielder. We could improve the team and make a profit this summer! We couldn't afford to lose Delph. We'd be silly to have let Grealish slip away. I think we'd be better focusing on trying to keep Cleverely now. But Benteke, as good as he is, we CAN afford to let him go for the figures banded around and move on as a team.

The Sherwood quotes are 'troubling' to some degree - it almost sounds like he doesn't really want him and has been lumbered with him. That's his prerogative but it's a waste of our likely small budget if we agreed the deal in January only to sack Lambert in February! Not good planning. Personally I'd prefer to see him in N'Zogbia's role. I think he offers more energy, more pace and morethreat attacking threat. I think he might be being heavily punished for being incredibly selfish against former team Swansea as he was putting his glory above they teams. However he offered a lot before that game so a 'chat' would be a lot better than removing him from the picture entirely.

I think to summarise; With Lambert a played 10 games would result in W D D D L D L D D L (9pts) With Sherwood it'd be more likely W L D W L W L W W L (16pts) He will always 'go for it' so we're going to see a lot more wins, a lot more losses and very few draws. They'll be a few 'humiliations' by teams who read us but us ultimately more points on the board. What concerns me most is one type of team will destroy is; passing teams. Grafting teams we'll compete with, counter attacking teams we'll compete with, teams that come for a draw we'll open up but passing teams will annihilate us. And that bodes very badly for the FA Cup Final.

For a lot of fans, winning the FA Cup will be Number One greatest day - it would be for me. Obviously Europe is amazing, FA Cup in 57 great, hell even the double in the 1897! But they're all before my time, so however proud I am of our history I never had that feeling of living it. I want that feeling and if it comes it'll be MY number one Villa memory.

Whilst it'd be unfair to say he was at fault for any of the goals (although Long's was very saveable) I don't think he was strong enough and could have done better for a lot of the goals, they shouldn't be passing it in to an empty net if the goalie has touched the ball....Three times. Guzan was dropped too easily, although I'm hoping it was a master stroke by Sherwood to keep everyone on their toes and he can fairly now put Guzan back in for the FA Cup!

I'm still weighing him up but it's undeniable he's tipping towards the 'pro' rather than con side; Pro's; He's kept us up, that swings it wildly in his favour! Plays good football Got poor performing players playing better Interesting press conferences Faith in youth Cons; Still tactically naive, will get heavily smashed with gungho approach Rates Richardson Doesn't rate Gil The Given/ Guzan thing feels like a mates decision rather than a team one However, win the FA Cup and I'll not care if he loses every game afterwards!

This summer will decide if this is a realistic thread. Lose Cleverley and/or Benteke and we'll be in big trouble without adequate replacements. Keep the team as it is and we're an 8th-12th team on paper. Add a few defensive players and we could even have an outside chance on Europa. Lose the two players above and I think v5.0 will be the last one we need as we'll be in Championship the season after.

We need a new defence really, possibly to include a keeper. Keep Benteke and Cleverley vital too. Midfield, as it is, is fine. Strikers/ attacking players we are ok for, one more might be nice. But defence; Vlaar - past it, bad all season Okore - inexperienced, struggles regularly Senderos - broken Baker - made of glass Clark - unreliable but played ok Lowton/ Bacuna/ Richardson - despite other qualities, poor defenders Hutton - more chance of red cards than successful tackles Given too weak, Guzan fragile confidence but might be ok.

Away kit colour preferences in order; 1. Black 2. White 3. Silver 4. Turquoise/ Blue 5. Any other colour 6. Yellow

I voted 8 too, but 1 would be second choice.

That's an interesting point; if we are bought for £500m but Lerner stipulates that £350m had to be spent on transfers, would that circumnavigate FFP as technically it is income?! Never going to happen but just interesting!

First and foremost I want Villa safe obviously. I think it's likely a matter of time now, we and everyone else could lose on Saturday and we'd still be safe. Then it becomes interesting rather than scary! If we were safe by the time three o'clock kick offs start, I'll be supporting Hull 100%! In fact I'm happy as long as we match Hull's result. Ideally I'd like to see the back of Newcastle, then Sunderland, then Leicester and finally Hull. Unfortunately the odds are completely opposite to that!

The way they are sold has been disgusting. I'm not sure why they release blocks slowly and don't give you a greater choice. Whether this is Villa's fault or the FAs fault I'm not sure. All other big sporting events they would give you a map (online) and you just click the ones you want to buy - as long as you're not leaving odd spaces they should be fine. So all blocks should have been opened up on the first day of sale, those at the top of the queue should have been able to buy where they wanted until they were all sold out in that section. By the time it got to 'some booking history' there would have been less choice, and rightly so. A lot of people have booked a block, but you could be very front of that block or very back, you may have been wise leaving it to be at the front of the next block that was released instead of at the back of the one currently available. Frankly the lack of information and transparency selling these tickets has been disgraceful. Ultimately I'm happy knowing I'm going, but I've never before been waiting to see where my seats are until they've arrived. I may have decided to get £120 ones if they'd been in a good position but they could have been a seat difference from £70 and that is not a 'risk' I'm willing to take.

A consortium does not automatically equal a bad thing/lack of money. If they pay for the club outright then they may well be loaded (not that it particularly matters anymore) and are just hedging the risk - a bit like Dragon's Den when two go in together, they could afford it individually but decide to split the cost and risk. The problem arises if a consortium, or individual, uses loans to buy the club that are held against thus club itself. This should be banned as part of the 'fit and proper' test.

Easily our most underrated player. I'd be more worried about losing him than a lot of other players. He cost less than £1m, I think we'd struggle to replace him for seven times that or even 15 times that if British! I think he took a lot of flack for the system, for the defensive element he was asked to do but now his true worth is really showing. I can't think of many times he's been seen to lack effort or even play a bad/lazy pass. He's quick and neat with the ball and does all the simple things well. He's not going to skip past players or hit 60 yard passes but that's not his job - he breaks up play and plays the quick, simple, short passes that makes space for others. We look a lot better with him than without him. He's currently far superior to Sanchez, has been more consistent than the recently reborn Cleverley and rivals Delph for effort. I'm glad he's being talked about for England, even if that is unlikely. Better still is Sherwood recognises it and those worrying stories about him being sold this summer are being denied.

Would put him in ahead of Richardson in a heartbeat. Mind you, I'd say that if he was blind and had broken both legs... In all seriousness, Lowton is a good attacking player who lacks a little defensively. He's a very able back up for a team that hovers in the middle to lower table. I'd put him in the same bracket as Bacuna in that regard. And that goal against Stoke will mean I probably give him far more praise than he deserves for the rest of his career!

According to quick Google search, the Dafabet deal was a two year one that started in 2013. So hopefully new sponsors, with more cash obviously but the most significant thing I've found with betting company sponsors is that kids feel they don't get the replica shirt their heroes play in! Might not be big in the scale of things but kids notice these things!

They only look like training tops because there isn't a sponsor on them. I really like first one, yellow however is never a good choice...unless you're Sweden which someone mentioned!

I think the £70 tickets in the lower tier behind the goal will be right down at the front in the first few rows which is why they are cheaper than the rest of the lower tier. I booked ours in the upper 543 for £70 - no idea how far forward or back that will be though, or whether the whole block is £70 as that was the only choice I had. I would have thought seats towards the back will be £50. I find it odd there's no clear map for pricing anywhere. I'd guesstimated these £70 seats were either at the front (gfs far) or right at the back (furthest away) but don't overly care - view will be good enough and if we win I'm sure all be finding a video of it for the 'best' view!

You'll have to be VERY quick off the mark to get them. There's very few and they release them in batches. Almost impossible by phone, luck by internet. But they're a few blocks next to the half way line on either side of the pitch - about 6 blocks in total I think. When it turns into a corner it drops to £70/90.

I think most tickets are Category 2 (£90), a few up in the gods behind the goal are Category 4 (£50) and then there's a weird subsection of Category 3 (£70) in some areas like the block I chose - 132; you could select £90 seats or £70 seats and for the sake of what, in a worse case scenario, could be one row difference I just went for £70 ones. I think I'd be a bit peed off if I found out the guy sitting one seat beside/below me had spent £20 less per ticket.

I was holding out for Category 1 tickets thinking once in a lifetime etc but when they became available today, I just thought they're so close the the corner do I really care about sitting one block further over? I just want to be there, the view is almost secondary! Made sure I would see any presentation if we are that lucky/good so all booked. And saved myself £100. Content.

Does anyone know how tickets are sold in relation to blocks? There doesn't seem to be any information anywhere as to how many category one tickets there are or which blocks are for sale when or whether you can chose seats at the front of a block etc. It just seems to be a case of buying blindly and being grateful! For example, does anyone have a definite guide to which blocks are category 1, 2, 3 or 4 as there a multiple maps for Wembley depending on event. It seems odd in this day and age that the choice is so limited - I can't think of any event from Villa to concerts to comedy to the cinema that you don't get a seating plan BEFORE you book.