Ronaldo

He probably didn't even know about the story. There's every chance that the quote was fabricated. There's also every chance he couldn't articulate what he actually wanted to say. Only those with an agenda will take that story with anything more than a pinch of salt.

From a mackem, reporting someone said by an non-English speaker.

He wasn't missed during the qualifiers. We probably could have done with him in the WC instead of Barry but it wouldn't have got us past Germany.

Ranger has potential but he simply shouldn't be a part of our squad right now, he should be on loan at a League One side. I still can't identify him as a striker.

Best and Shola are decent Championship players, Ranger isn't.

You're completely insane.

I still can't believe people peddle this guff. The lad's not even approaching ready for PL football.

He's been on borrowed time for far too long.

He's an abysmal footballer, man. Can't trap a bag a cement.

This. And as crazy as it sounds, I'd have Best in the pecking order ahead of him for exactly that. He can hold onto a ball and has a decent touch and whilst he isn't the greatest in the final third, he's a hell of alot less frustrating than Shola. We simply can't afford to have a player that can't hold onto the ball, especially if we defending a lead away from home. Agreed. Shola is absolutely useless at holding up the ball, but as a second striker I don't think he'd be that bad. I'd still rather have him over Best on any day, because playing a striker who isn't able to score simply defeats the whole point of playing strikers. Besides, if we were defending a lead away from home you'd put a midfielder on, not a striker. What on earth are you talking about? He has absolutely nothing required of a second striker.

I think he's an OK passer and crosser. His defending has looked poor, however and he's built like Mr Bean.

Barton DM?

That's rubbish, for a start.

Krul has done similar things before though... He was dodgy at Huddersfield last year It was at home, and dodgy isn't the word. He basically handed them 3 goals.

Give over, man.

Williamson's fault. But it was good play from SEB.

I would say Smith is more likely to be dropped, however Tiote could still be the one to replace him.

The Villa fans are just depressed folk in general. Their football was ok, even entertaining at times.

Except when it's Shola being booed by our fans, then it's fucking hilarious.

What? You mean yesterday? Look, if your team is in the Champions League and you lose to the relegation favourites who have a GD of -10 from two matches you have every right to boo. It's equivalent to if the Derby loss had come at SJP/sportsdirect. The Derby loss is a silly comparison. Spurs qualified for the CL group stage a few days ago, mate. When we played Derby we'd recently finished 14th.

The transition from Smith to Tiote won't be delicate.

The likes of Guthrie and Lovenkrands are luxury players to such an extent that we just can't afford to play them at this level and Hughton knows it. Hopefully Guthrie can develop but I don't like his chances of doing it exclusively with us the moment.

Come on, Mick. We scored in 2 out of 8 games with Shearer. We were clueless and abysmal. Keegan had Man U, Liverpool (away) and Arsenal (away) to play.

It should be unchanged though, Ben Arfa, Tiote and Campbell need to work their way into the team. Rubbish.

Luque ran his bollocks off in his first two games. Don't perpetuate that nonsense on here.