Ulver

I reckon the best thing for Kozak would be half season loan in the Championship where he can play every week and get his sharpness back. It's asking an awful lot for someone that hasn't played for over a year to waltz back into the PL

 

Gestede/Ade to replace Benteke/Kozak

that's the only scary bit.

 

so now we're down to Richards (still think he's a better right back), Clark and Senderos (who Sherwood doesn't seem to rate given his lack of pre-season starts)

 

bloody nora

 

hope we've got a good one (or even two!) up our sleeve

 

Crespo too who can play LB, CB and RB.

 

jack of all trades master of ... ???

in this instance, i'd MUCH rather we bought in a PL schooled CB. who that is i don't know mind

 

 

Our squad is going to look so much stronger by the time the window shuts.

I wasn't a fan of the Sherwood appointment but has to be said he is doing a great job so far.

 

 

IF we replace Delph and more importantly Benteke i agree

 

 

We don't need to replace Benteke in the capacity he was playing

 

Yet we desperately need to replace his goals as they're the only reason we're still in the PL. At the moment our current strikers (by that i mean Gabby, Kozak and Robinson) would be lucky to score 10-15 between them and then we have Ayew who it's hard to predict, even if he hits the ground running i'd say 12-15 would be a surprise, and we have no idea how many our midfield will chip in either

Gil might get a handful if played, Grealish never looked like scoring last season, Westwood one or two, Bacuna maybe similar to Gil but i doubt he'll play much

Gueye, who knows ?

You can't underestimate how badly we need GOALS in the side

so now we're down to Richards (still think he's a better right back), Clark and Senderos (who Sherwood doesn't seem to rate given his lack of pre-season starts)

bloody nora

hope we've got a good one (or even two!) up our sleeve

Our squad is going to look so much stronger by the time the window shuts.

I wasn't a fan of the Sherwood appointment but has to be said he is doing a great job so far.

IF we replace Delph and more importantly Benteke i agree

Our squad is going to look so much stronger by the time the window shuts.

I wasn't a fan of the Sherwood appointment but has to be said he is doing a great job so far.

IF we replace Delph and more importantly Benteke i agree

Post match musings

positives:

Bunn looked decent

Amavi looked very good first half, seemed to tire a bit second

Richards seemed decent enough

Clark would have been my MOTM

Gueye looked good, think he'd look a lot better with a decent player alongside him

Westwood did a steady job which mostly went unnoticed as usual

Kozak scored two good goals, but i didn't see anything in his game that made me think he'll start any time soon

the fans, both sets turned out in big numbers for a meaningless match on a Tuesday night. can't be faulted

negatives:

Hutton, bloody terrible. hopefully this Crespo bloke is a damn sight better

Sinclair, bloody terrible. for someone trying to impress a manager i doubt he's doing very well. 

Gabby, bloody terrible, REALLY bloody terrible

Baker, bloody terrible

Bacuna, mostly terrible apart from the odd flash of form. 

not seen enough to make any opinion, Ayew (obviously) and Robinson

Have to say, every time I watch Kozak i can't wait to read what the folks that moaned about Bent have to say

He scores a few goals and does nothing else. 

There's nothing to his game that brings any kind of thrill or excitement, he just scores the odd goal. Before he scored his second last night we were all moaning 'get him off'. Weird

If he becomes a half decent premiership striker i'll camp out. I'm fully aware that could come back to haunt me but it's the honest way i feel after watching him again. Hopefully i'll be proved wrong

Has Stan had a bang on the **** head or something ?

NO **** THANK YOU

Can't see anyway we'd sell Clark after last season. Not to mention believing we'll sign Veretout, Praet and aonter midfielder

Not to mention Grealish, Gil and Westwood

But you never know i guess. 

I'm refusing to believe this one, until i see him hanging around BH

Maybe the Nantes president is just trying to flush out an actual bid from Liverpool/Spurs

Hope i'm wrong mind

Gil is completely wasted out wide. Needs to be played in the 'hole' behind a striker, or preferably two strikers

we got 1.5m for Sylla ??? you bennin ???

who's Percy ???

Needs a new contract and the captains armband based on last seasons turnaround

Just for the sake of discussion then, is it not feasible that a good £10m striker could in theory score a similar amount of goals for us? 

Of course it's feesible, if we're very lucky

But Benteke did a whole lot more than score goals in our side. His whole game will be missed not just the goals. Someone like Austin (for example) wouldn't replace what we'd be losing at all IMHO

EMBOLO

Make it **** happen, we have the money now go and spend it FFS

Genuine question coming up....

 

In previous seasons, I remember that goal against West Brom and the third against Liverpool where Benteke was in full-on beast mode and created the goals out of nothing. Then there's the assists for Weimann against Man U and Liverpool again.

 

Can anyone remind me of a Benteke goal from last season that was above and beyond the remit of any good striker? Genuine question, I simply can't recall.

Palace away ? United at home ?

If sherwood could get gabby confident and scoring again like he did with benteke and Abebayor we might have a decent striker. If I was coaching him I'd have him training extra hours of finishing.

the problem with that is, to get someone scoring 'again' they have to have been scoring previously. Gabby has never been a goalscorer, which for a striker is a bit baffling

I do wonder if people at the club think us supporters have some sort of love for Gabby hence nobody trying to get rid of him ?

He's been next to **** useless for about 4/5 years now and i don't know anyone that wouldn't be in favour of selling him, absolutely no idea why he's still at the club

I think if there had been no buyout clause he'd have gone for no more than £25m.

 

So the 2 scenarios are :

i) With the buyout clause, he goes to a club that most of us hate, but Villa get £32.5m.

ii) Without the buyout clause, he goes to a CL club that we prefer over redscouse, but Villa get £25m.

 

I think given our current lot, I'd have to bury my own prejudices and go with option one, but I do so begrudgingly.

why on earth would we have bothered selling him for 25m ?

I'd be **** off if we replace a top class 24 year old striker, that we've sold for 32.5m with a loan signing of a 31 year old

Mad as a box of frogs in fact.

We barely stayed up with Benteke's goals, if we have the money in the bank from selling him we must replace his loss with TWO strikers that will score not only the same but more, because what we have left is bloody poor to say the least

He wont get any boos from me, and i **** hate Liverpool with a passion

and that journo Nixon said his Villa story tomorrow is nothing about Praet either