Ironsid

I read a report that Dortmund's wage bill is lower than ours. I wonder if this is reflected in Bundesliga wages generally. If their bill is lower than ours how can they contemplate signing Benteke as reported?

Just spotted the YouTube byline at the top. I'll be pointing some of my Bluenose mates and, some American relatives I'm trying to educate, in its direction.

I loved watching that. We don't seem to do "tap ins" do we? Have you put it on You Tube? It deserves a bigger audience.

Not everything. I wasn't too keen on the pies. Overpriced and the meat was chewy.

I think Lerner made decisions based on advice from "experts" who purported to know the workings of the Premier League. Douglas made decisions based largely on his own "expertise". Since second guessing the the operation of our great club is not my area of expertise, I'm probably way off beam.

I like the Saunders analogy. He knew how to build a team. It didn't happen overnight but it was worth the wait. Progress next year will be hanging on to the sort of points we dropped this year. Improving the defence is key to that but I'm desperate to hear that Benteke and other major contributors have been secured first.

Egbeta! If other clubs have spotted him it could be a scramble to get him.

If we keep our better performers and add a bit of quality to the defence, plus the potential for goals from midfield I think we will end up between 12th and 9th. One good thing is that we won't be spending the first 5 or 6 weeks of the break looking for a new manager. Lambert will already have targets in mind and the present squad have bedded into his style of play. The players seem to have a good relationship with the manager and seem together as a squad. Hopefully we won't be waiting until the last day of the window to sign players. The biggest downside to this is how easy we will find it to dispense with the players who are surplus to requirements.

"Douglas Ellis buys Manchester United. Is quoted as saying, "They will make a good feeder club for Aston Villa".

I think we need a L.B. C.B. a defensive minded midfielder, a box to box midfielder who can create and score goals and a striker to replace Bent. I'd put that as a minimum and if we could bring in a wide man as icing on the cake I'd be satisfied. The major outs would be those listed by the majority of posters on here. I wouldn't want us to go for players just to bulk out the squad like MoN did. I trust Lambert to unearth some more gems, probably from Europe. So I'm going for 5 in.

At least Delph had a couple of shots against Chelski. Has he been told to have a shot more often?

If we're not going to play him I'd say "sell". He's being given a lot of money to sit on the bench. Get Kone in to replace him if Wigan drop.

Spurs reported to be after a fullback called Pereira to replace Asspou Ekotto. Read this somewhere last week but I can't remember where he's from. Sorry, bit of a flimsy link but if true then it would limit Rose's chances.

We'll struggle to win games with this defence because no matter how many goals we score we'll continue to throw points away with poor defending. I can't see us getting enough points to create daylight between us,Wigan, Reading and Southampton and even Q.P.R. are likely to scrape enough draws to close the gap on us. Goal difference will be the nail in our coffin.

I like Rodwell but his dodgy hamstrings keep him in the treatment room too much. We'd get a couple of games out of him then he'd be out again.

Don't let the goons at the top of our club get the idea that we're ready to embrace the consequences of relegation. Scare them with the thought of the shit storm that'll descend on them if they allow it to happen.

Who's the noose for?

No argument, start him if he's fit.

In case my post has been misconstrued, I broadly agree with Big John. Sorry if I appeared stupid.

I'm definitely looking at this year in total isolation because that's where we are. I haven't got a crystal ball so I don't know where we will be in 1,5 or 10 years time. This year concerns me because this season will determine where we are playing next season. Mr Lerner has undoubtedly invested heavily in the past and hopefully sees the need to continue with sensible investment. On the pitch I can't see a significant improvement.

"....a better club than Villa.."?

I wonder if our new foreign scout, Henke, has spotted some gems. Are foreign clubs likely to as attuned to our desperation as clubs in this country and try to take advantage? There seems to be more value in Europe than here. Look at the likes of Michu this season and Newcastle's scoop with Cisse last January. And of course Benteke.

I have to confess to an ignorance of football finance beyond the cost of my tickets. As someone said earlier I tend to assume that those in charge of finances generally know what they are doing and take it on trust that, if they are spending money, they can afford it. This probably explains my futile correspondence with H.M.R.C. Hopefully Randy can rustle up a few shillings for Lambert and hopefully he will be able to bring in the players of sufficient quality to drag us up the table. Surely we can manage to be better than 4th worst team in the league. Be interesting to see how much we bring in from sale of players.

Southampton look like they're playing better than us and while they're shipping goals they're scoring more than us. The game against them in January will give us an idea of how big a task we have especially if they turn their game in hand into points.

Sorry Guzan : bloody spellchecker!