rjenkins

To be fair, there is a very distinct possibility whoever takes this job now could have a relegation on their CV come May. If it was me, I would want every assurance that I had everything I need to make sure that doesn't happen. If for Garde that means bringing in staff he trusts, it seems pretty reasonable to me.

No-one else seeing a 4-5-1 there then? That was my immediate thought looking at that team, with Gabby and Bacuna as the wingers.

We were cut apart with ease the moment Sanchez went off. Admittedly, we weren't too solid before he was subbed, but he was the best of our midfield three today. I'm a fan of his. He'd get into the starting XI most weeks for me.

I can't see us winning this one, but I'd love to be proved wrong. I'm not sure what Lescott or Westwood have done to keep being selected in the starting XI, and Ayew finally started to look good gainst the noses so I would have liked to have seen that rewarded with a start today. It still feels like we aren't starting our strongest team at the moment, but I'm sure that will correct itself over the season and we have been unlucky with a few injuries.

I don't want to get carried away here. I think that was our first truly bad performance of the season. I think that makes five now under Sherwood (Swansea home last season, as well as Southampton away, Burnley and of course the FA Cup Final) but I don't think claims he could be sacked are realistic or even fair at this stage, given that without him we would have been down last season. Yesterday was gutting, and what made it all the more galling was that the game didn't feel like a derby. Our players showed little to no intensity, except for maybe Gil, Richards and Sanchez. I expected a poor performance after what happened at Leicester, but we have to contain this and not let it become anything more than a slow start. I fear that if we lose a second derby in the week then the management team have got a lot of work on to make sure that this doesn't spiral out of control. It's early days but it looks like there are one or two dodgy purchases amongst our summer haul. Sherwood seems to have given up on Ayew already and Gestede is not the caliber of target man we are used to. Would one £13million striker have been a better option? I have a feeling that question will surface again and again this season.

Bacuna has his faults, but no one in our team got more assists than him last year. Admittedly he was launching the ball at Benteke's head and we don't have a striker of his ability now, but to discredit Bacuna or underplay his contribution in getting those assists only raises more questions about the rest of the squad for getting less. I feel like our squad is best suited to a 4-2-3-1 now though. I think we're going to need to get Sinclair, Grealish and Adama on the pitch as much as possible this season and with Sanchez and Gana holding, I think we can be solid enough to let those three support a central striker, whether that is Gestede or Ayew (or even Adebayor after his release today).

I've been very impressed with Amavi, Ayew and Gueye from that first half. Hopefully we can push on in the second half now. I'm looking forward to seeing Veretout play if he gets a run out.

Went to see this last night, and thought it was very good. Maybe a little short of being a really brilliant film because from a certain point the whole thing was obviously mapped out and a little processional but I agree there were moments where I had a lump in my throat. Gyllenhal is bloody good these days. Thought Forest Whittaker put in a decent performance too.

Haha Jack's commentary mind! 'A case of Bunn in the oven on this tour...' '[Cole] can still unlock the tightest of defences, even now in the Twilight Zone of his career.'

I agree I think it's a non-starter as a story, but I think he'd get more starts than not. The likes of Fernando and Fernandinho are hardly the best midfielders I've ever seen.

On a more positive note... Netherlands vs New Zealand has been much better than the opening game.

AEK Athens that was I think.

1. Brad Guzan - KEEP 2. Nathan Baker - KEEP 4. Ron Vlaar - KEEP IF NOT TOO EXPENSIVE 5. Jores Okore - KEEP 6. Ciaran Clark - KEEP 7. Leandro Bacuna - KEEP 8. Tom Cleverley (LOAN) - KEEP IF POSSIBLE 9. Scott Sinclair - KEEP 10. Andreas Weimann - SELL 11. Gabby Agbonlahor - KEEP 12. Joe Cole - LET GO / SELL 13. Jed Steer - KEEP 14. Philippe Senderos - SELL 15. Ashley Westwood - KEEP UNLESS GOOD OFFER RECEIVED 16. Fabian Delph - KEEP 18. Kieran Richardson - SELL 20. Christian Benteke - KEEP IF POSSIBLE 21. Alan Hutton - SELL 22. Gary Gardner - SELL 23. Aly Sissokho - SELL 24. Carlos Sanchez - KEEP 25. Carles Gil - KEEP 27. Libor Kozak - KEEP 28. Charles N'Zogbia - SELL 29. Rushian Hepburn-Murphy - KEEP 31. Shay Given - KEEP (COACHING?) 34. Matt Lowton - KEEP 39. Riccardo Calder - KEEP 40. Jack Grealish - KEEP

Does everyone think that Christian Benteke represents good value for £32.5m? As in, if Benteke played for Sunderland and we were offering £32.5m for him, would we be pleased as fans? 100% yes I do. In a good team he'll get you 20-25 goals a season guaranteed, and at 24 you could even still feasibly make a profit selling him on in 2-3 years time. But that's not what I'm asking As an Aston Villa fan, in our current state, would a £32.5m Benteke from Sunderland be considered "good value"? I'm only wondering because pretty much everyone seems to want to cling on to keeping Benteke (and rightly so from a playing point of view) but £32.5m is a huge wedge - especially to us. (Obviously this opens up a wider issue of how much we'd actually have to spend from this etc, but still...) I think the big issue would be do we have £32.5m to spend. Liverpool, Man United and Spurs would have bigger warchests than us so that does bring a new dimension to the whole question, as you've alluded to. If he had the three Premier League seasons for Sunderland that he had for us, and we could do the deal, I'd do it still. For me there are very few better all-round Premier League strikers, and even fewer that we could realistically attract.

Does everyone think that Christian Benteke represents good value for £32.5m? As in, if Benteke played for Sunderland and we were offering £32.5m for him, would we be pleased as fans? 100% yes I do. In a good team he'll get you 20-25 goals a season guaranteed, and at 24 you could even still feasibly make a profit selling him on in 2-3 years time.

Gabby, for all his many faults, does offer more than Weimann though. He may not have the pace he used to, but he's strong and a nuisance and can cause a bit of panic as he stumbles at speed towards defences. He also does still have those games (about 3-4 times a season these days it seems) where he's just in the mood for it and can cause havoc. Weimann, although his effort is commendable, just doesn't have that in his locker. He's scored some important goals for us and I wish him well, but it's no good for either party if he stays here as a bit-part player at this stage of his career.

I'd keep Carlos. He does go from the sublime to the ridiculous but with a pre-season under his belt I hope that type of performance will occur less frequently.

I thought Okore started nervously today and got better as the game wore on. That's not to say he was brilliant or anything, and he's got a lot to work on certainly, but I think he'll come good for us given time.

I'm not whether we were physically spent or just choked. Either way it was disappointing that we couldn't bring our best game to such a big stage. I wouldn't have picked the starting XI that Sherwood did today, but I've thought that before and we've played well so what do I know? I certainly think it'll be last time we see a few of these players. Richardson probably had his best game for Villa today, and a couple of players had their worst. Oh well, roll on next season.

I don't think we need major changes this summer. In order of priority for me I think we should look at: 1. We'll need a striker to either challenge or replace Benteke 2. Try to sign Tom Cleverley on a permanent basis 3. Sign a first choice left back 4. Make a decision on Guzan / 'keeper situation 5. If Senderos is broken, we'll need a centre back

Tried that PositionDial website, and apparently I'm 'Left, in the Centre, Eco-friendly, and strongly Progressive' 83% Plaid 81% Labour 75% Lib Dem 70% Green 32% Tory -34% UKIP Actually scored the highest with the SNP bizarrely, but living in Wales hinders that irrelevant.

The performance was poor today, but I think we were on a hiding to nothing given the formation and selections. I do sympathise with Sherwood having limited midfield options but starting Weimann is inexplicable really. We always knew that the QPR game would be massive and so today hasn't really changed anything in that regard. I just hope the players turn up because our performance against them earlier in the season was embarrassing. On the plus side, I think Clark and Okore are still looking like a decent pairing and Benteke grew into the game as it went on I thought.

Only problem with this joke is that, in the Sasha Grey scenario, surely all 10 men score?

102 miles for me.

The Matri - Sci-fi in which all human life is the projection of an Italian striker. Bi Trouble in Little China - A young man comes to terms with his sexuality in an intolerant community Roll 2 - Famously bad low-budget film about basic gymnastics completely unrelated to Roll 1. The Man with the Ron Mask - Villa fan fashions a visage of the Dutch defender to avoid identification during pitch invasions The Da Vinci Ode - Musical about the life and times of Italian painter Lack Snake Moan - A silent film about snakes Cream - 90s Wes Craven horror classic about teenagers being stalked and killed by Eric Clapton House of Flying Aggers - Liverpool defender is cloned at home and goes to pilot school. Hose of Sand and Fog - A fire crew tries to save Iranian refugees with unorthodox equipment Twelve Moneys - Documentary studiying the aesthetic value of world currencies