rjenkins

Was at the game today, and that is as bad as I've seen us play under Bruce. Cardiff are not a particularly good side, but they are organised and every player knew what they were supposed to be doing. I don't know whether our players got bullied into not being able to execute our gameplan, or whether hopeful balls over the top to McCormack (who was useless again) really was an intended tactical move? A few things about Steve Bruce's selections are starting to worry me, not least dropping Gollini in place of Bunn, and when I saw the team this afternoon I just couldn't see goals in our team. I fear this could be a long January for us.

I read that he's going to China for silly money? Can't say I remember him from Blackburn?

I think Gollini has done reasonably well since coming here, and I'd always rather have him between the sticks than Mark Bunn, but if he wants to leave or Steve Bruce doesn't rate him then so be it. I don't believe his departure would be an Amavi/Ayew/Grealish sized disaster. I think it would be short-sighted to let him go permanently unless we received a very good offer based on the performances I've seen, but I don't see him in training or know how happy he is here.

Ashley Westwood is a hard-working midfielder with a decent passing range. During his time here he's had some good seasons, although for what I'm sure are various reasons he does not look to me as though he has improved greatly over that timeframe. There's no getting away from the fact that he is limited in terms of physicality, and he does have a tendency to tackle poorly or duck out of challenges altogether. We don't have anyone better at the moment, but I think we need to massively improve in central midfield over the next transfer windows.

I couldn't get to the game tonight so can't comment on this particular performance, but I haven't liked the 4-4-2 since pre-season and I hope it changes soon. We don't have proper wingers and despite all the signings I still feel as though we are still set up to play in the 4-3-3 Lambert utilised. We've signed some good players until RDM but the squad is still unbalanced.

I would have wanted Jedinak a few years ago when we signed Carlos Sanchez, but selling a 30 year old anchor man midfielder at a substantial loss just to sign a 32 year old anchor man midfielder doesn't make much sense to me. Surely there's a younger midfielder with Championship experience we could sign? We may as well get Jonathan Hogg back. (Part joking) I would be very happy if we signed Ravel Morrison mind. I was impressed with Tom Cairney from Fulham at the weekend and I feel that, more than anything this is what we need, a midfielder who can win the ball but can also bring it forward himself and create space and chances for others. We need to properly replace Delph in my view. Not getting linked to any right-backs either, are we?

Despite everything that happened last season, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to hate Gabby, and I would love nothing more than to see him score 15 goals in the Championship this season as a major contributor to our glorious promotion. I can accept that he is limited as a footballer, and often excused his dwindling goal tallies as a consequence of being played increasingly as a left winger. I know full well they are excuses, but football is about experiences and memories for me, and for so many years Agbonlahor has featured in the best of those. Getting out of shape was the most disappointing thing from my perspective as a fan, knowing what many of us would go through to ever have a chance of having Gabby's job. Obviously it's much easier to point fingers at those like Lescott and Richards whose Villa careers started much more recently (and aren't our leading Premier League goalscorer) but like them I feel like the fanbase has turned on Gabby in a way which cannot be recovered. Maybe for that reason alone we would all be better off were he find pastures new.

Asked a Cardiff-supporting friend of mine about McCormack today and he said: 'He's goals, goals, goals mate. About time he was at a higher-end club.' That'll do me.

I haven't kept track of Mo Diame's time at Hull, but when he was at Wigan I wanted us to sign him. If his release clause is only £4.5million then I think he's worth pursuing, but I thought he had all but signed for Newcastle?

There's a long way to go in this Transfer window, and I expect us to still make at least two signings especially now that we are starting to sell. There are some very good teams in the Championship but there are some incredibly average ones too, and I would be very disappointed if we were below 12th in the table come May. As it stands I don't think we have quite enough for automatic promotion, but an outside chance of a play-off place. There's nothing special about teams like Ipswich and Cardiff who have managed to compete for play-off positions in recent years so I see no reason why it is beyond us.

The post was hilarious for all of 10 seconds, but I don't understand why a prediction from a half-arsed manager who used to be famous would illicit such a response. It's for the best it was deleted, but as a general rule I don't mind Dr. Xia getting emotionally involved in Aston Villa matters. I like to think the club is more than just 'another investment'.

I like the look of both of those kits. I'm probably leaning more to buying the away because of the retro appeal, but both look to be really good efforts. I didn't have a major problem with Macron but I am excited to buy a kit again without Macron men on it! Yay!

I know everyone is a tactical expert after the match, but to take Leicester's Premier League win as an example, solid defensive coaching and a clinical counter attack can make a limited team greater than the sum of their parts. As a Welshman I have seen it in action over the last couple of years and, although everyone points to Bale's quality, we're still a team with Wayne Hennessey in goal and Sam Vokes up front. Northern Ireland did the same and their 'Bale' and 'Ramsey' are Lafferty and Davis at the end of the day. A better coaching set-up will take England a long way, because the players are there. Your centre-backs aren't great, but are no worse surely than MacAuley, Jonny Evans, Ben Davies or James Chester? It seems to me from the outside looking in though that a culure change will be needed in England's style of play. Whoever the next manager is needs to pick a team and develop it, bringing 'flavour of the month' players in steadily. It seems like Roy Hodgson tried to do this, and then s**t the bed over the season Spurs and Leicester had changing everything at the last minute, as well as bringing Rashford which was daft if you're not going to play him and Wilshere who was garden-gate rusty. I've seen the England set-up go through numerous rinse and repeat actions at the top now without much difference being made on the pitch. Maybe it's time to drop the hype and start with the system rather than the big names.

Really enjoying A Moon Shaped Pool so far. Superb.

I've given 'Burn the Witch' a few listens now, but I'm still not sure about it. Thom is sounding good, but I don't think there's much to the song. What did you think of The King of Limbs, out of interest?

I travel up with a few other guys from Cardiff/Valleys area and we've all said we're renewing. I think only a price rise would make me think twice about it, simply because it'll eat into my annual leave with the extra midweek games so I don't want to get stung on two fronts.

Thats what scares me. If he's the leader, what must the others be like??

Of all the parties who are to blame for this mess we are in, I think Garde's portion is very, very small. However, as he's very unlikely to still be our manager next season I'm not sure it matters much anyway. Playing Veretout on the wing was a strange move yesterday, but generally I think we've been getting better under Garde despite being prone to the odd lapse (yesterday, Norwich away etc)

If I remember rightly, Sherwood said our dressing room was quiet and Micah was a natural leader there. To add to that, Bacuna and Hutton are not Premier League full backs either really and none of us knows what the future holds for Lyden. Our entire squad really is a mess.

I've seen enough improvement in our performances under Remi Garde and his staff so far to think that he is a decent manager. We'll never know whether a diferent manager would have got different results up to this point, but given that Sam Allardyce hasn't done a great deal better at Sunderland maybe a bad squad is sometimes just a bad squad. If he stays until the end of the season, then good on him. I appreciate him sticking to the task. I cannot think what would motivate him to stay beyond that time though after what has transpired in this window. We were definitely a hard sell to potential recruits and we were unlucky with Kalinic but to not even bring in a loanee or two was baffling.

I think a player low on confidence could fear either situation. It is just as easy to imagine a player fearing that they will be embarrassed by losing to a lower league team as it is to envisage a player bottling the game on a big occasion.

Given that it would be the Summer Transfer Window at the earliest when we would consider selling Jack / Jack may want to leave, there's still time for an awful lot to happen which could dictate a potential transfer fee. A good run of form may be enough to bump up the price, whereas he isn't going to impress anyone if he cannot start in this Villa side, regardless of his age. I have a feeling he may have no choice but to stick around next season, and then if we don't get promoted then we may start having to fend off offers for his services.

According to Transfermarkt, the contracts of N'Zogbia, Richardson and Senderos are all up at the end of the season. At the end of this season a lot of players will be going into the last year of their contracts too; Bunn, Hutton, Guzan, Kozak, Lescott & Okore. The only one from this list that I am certain is good enough is Okore. I don't know what his stock is like in Europe after the injuries he has suffered but he seems to be the only one from this list we would get any real money for. If I were him I wouldn't sign a new deal just before we go down so we may regrettably have to try and get some money for him while we can. We'd probably be able to sell Guzan and Hutton to some poor souls too, so, if possible, I would move them on too. Given that Kozak could well be heading out of the club in the upcoming January window that would leave only Bunn and Lescott from that list who could still be at the club come the opening day of next season. Out of those players who have longer contracts I find it more difficult to guess who may leave, as with parachute payments we could possibly take the risk of holding onto them in the hope we go straight back up. Given that Remi Garde has only been here a short time too we don't know who he rates highly (if any of them). Based on reputation alone, I would guess that Ayew, Richards, Sanchez and Veretout would all have suitors elsewhere. As some other posters on this thread have highlighted though, the likes of Gana, Grealish, Sinclair and Westwood could all depart also. Amavi may not get a move straight away because of his injury, luckily for us. So, based on that I think (minus any incomings) we could be looking at a squad of: Bunn Steer Amavi Baker Clark Crespo Lescott + Youth players Adama Bacuna Gardner Gil + Youth players Agbonlahor Gestede Robinson + Youth Players We could be looking at needing another massive re-build. In reality I imagine that we won't lose all of the players I mentioned above, but midfield looks particularly concerning to me and we will need to bring in real steel for the Championship.

All season long I've allowed myself to get optimistic before a match, convincing myself that this will be the result where we turn the corner, and then Saturday comes. This is the first game this season where I think we have no chance. For me we are definitely going to be relegated, and it's a simple case of lack of quality. I can see Newcastle scoring a few. For this game I would line up with: Guzan Richards Okore Lescott Bacuna (only because I'm not sure how Okore would do on the left-hand side of the central defensive partnership) Sanchez Gana Adama Veretout Ayew Gestede

I got Brian Little!