brummie

Your second sentence answers the question posed in the first. If I had my way, I'd put an end to this sort of nonsense at the other end of the scale. All that badge kissing bollocks and, worse than anything else, the "scored against you, but used to play for you, so deffo not going to celebrate" bullshit that seems to have appeared the last few years. Incidentally, Gueye was talking about playing for one of the big clubs in Europe one day. To get there, he's going to have to do extremely well for us, which is fine by me. We've just finished 17th. I don't think there are many Villa fans with illusions about that. If these days the likes of Southampton - Southampton FFS - are sometimes seen as a more appealing option to the likes of us and you, that's a reflection on the crushing lack of ambition some clubs - who should really know better - show.

Not really. Anyone who thinks players aren't almost all like that is kidding themselves. The only reason that is being reported at all is due to Delph's u-turn.

One thing I am enjoying so far is being linked with more interesting players. I've no idea what Anthony Martial at Monaco is like, or Breel Embolo, or Obbi Oulare, but they sound like players who suggest we've done some actual scouting and are trying to get promising players in, rather than hoovering up shit like we have the last few years.

Benteke is ace. People point to him struggling last year, for a spell, but forget he was out injured a while, and even when not injured, he was playing for that Lambert side which never got the ball to him. Disappointed he's gone to Liverpool, but him leaving is no surprise. If Sherwood gets the full 32 to invest then it's the right deal to do. Gueye and Amavi are both supposed to be excellent, and the other names we are linked with at least suggest the days of parsimony may be over. Adebayor can fuck off, mind

Also, re appeasement, that'd require them actually giving a fuck what the fans think in the first place - something they've not done for four or five years now.

He's supposed to be very good, but we've been linked with him for ages now, so it doesn't look like appeasement to me. To be honest, we need two or three more quality players at least. I suspect Gueye, who we have signed already, is the Delph replacement. I'm just encouraged we're not poking around 2-3m lower league dross yet, like we have in recent summers.

That's Euros and it is "up to" rather than "for this amount" Everything I have read reports it as 10m. Interesting, though, that we've remembered how to spend money. Someone must have remembered the PIN for the Visa card or something

I think part of it is that professional footballers are by definition extremely confident individuals, which is one reason they're in the premier league to start with. I don't buy the whole "it's about the money" argument when players go places like that, despite all the evidence to suggest they won't get a look in. I honestly think a lot of them think they're good enough to do it. I bet Rodwell did when he went there, I bet Scott Sinclair did too. It's not just about money. It's about success, too. It used to be in football that having money was no guarantee of success. What we have now, though, is a situation where the most salient fact is that not having money is a guarantee of no success. That's why we have situations whereby your board and ours think staying up is enough. Why Ashley can say he'll only leave when you win something and then adds "and by the way, I consider finishing in the top four winning something". Why the Arsenal manager can punch the air like he's won the league on the last day of the season when Arsenal secure a top four place by beating Wigan. I don't even think Man City want half of these players they buy. With the likes of Sterling, it's like a game of dare. Press link them with him. Liverpool want huge money. Stupidly huge money. At that point you just *know* they're going to sign him, because they have to, they've been linked with a stupidly big transfer fee, they have to make it happen. It's pretty fucking sad, really, to think how much emotional energy we put into this circus, and it's all for no reward.

I don't begrudge him going. We've been awful for four or five years now. We've shown zero ambition, we've had a tight fisted recruitment policy, we've demonstrated that all we care about is not getting relegated. I wouldn't fancy much more of that if i was a player. I can barely bring myself to watch it now, and I've been watching us for over 40 years. It's the way he has handled it that makes me want to vomit. I suspect Benteke is on his way out too, which disappoints me, but I don't really bear him any ill will. That's because he hasn't put the club through the sort of fucking circus Delph has, the last week and a few months ago when he signed his new deal. Deep down I suspect he knows he's a cunt. He apparently removed all pics of his family from his instagram account this afternoon. Ridiculously over the top, but he knows he's made himself look an absolute cunt. He didn't even look hugely happy in his signing photographs. I'm not one to get annoyed without good reason but the way he has handled this has turned me from one who'd wish him all the best to someone who genuinely hopes he spends the next three years sat on his arse on their bench before washing up at some grim hell hole like Sunderland or Stoke.

This is the statement on our official site. The curtness of it, for the club captain, says it all, really.

The amazing thing is that he will genuinely think that statement makes things better.

Vlaar has been a first choice since he came here. In three seasons, he's featured in 79 of 114 league matches for us. The ones he's not been in, he's been injured. I don't recall him ever getting dropped. That's basically 70% of our league games, he's been fit for. What's more, he seemed to specialise in injuries that'd do you a month at a time which made his appearances very fragmented. Apparently him and his agent have turned up in Rome trying to get him in at Lazio.

Wallace above is bang on correct. The media get their heads around something they see as fact. Another one for us was that we were "a strong counter attacking team" and had "lots of pace up front". We were a very good counter attacking team, yes. Under O'Neill, over five years ago. As for the pace up front, Weimann has none, Benteke doesn't have a huge amount, and Agbonlahor has lots but doesn't have a brain. We'd hear it all the time. It's much like the way the media talk about you lot and go on about how you won't accept cockneys, or you drove Pardew out or whatever. Vlaar wasn't rubbish for us, far from it, but the problem is, as was said, he had an amazing world cup. That came after a mediocre season for us, and was followed by more mediocrity and further long term injuries. I see he needs another knee operation this summer, so he's currently without a club and has got knee knack yet again.

Ha ha http://i.imgur.com/I0HvUSy.jpg

If Benteke is going to Liverpool, Delph will have known this last week, as will Benteke. In the case of Delph the whole thing is made a bit more galling by the fact we spent 8m on him, watched him be almost permanently injured for three years, gave him a new contract, stood by him, got him into the England squad, and watched him do this. I wouldn't blame him if he'd just sat out his contract and fucked off to Man City, but all this other shit around the transfer, totally avoidable.

The problem for me with the Delph transfer, it is what it says about both the club and the player. When he signed his new contract a few months ago, the club made a massive deal of it, absolutely wrung every last drop of publicity, had him do a big video thing which they showed on the screens at VP before the next match. Then it turns out he's re-signed, yes, but with a pathetically low release fee (the same as we paid for him). Quite clearly, the whole thing was a case of "I'll sign a new deal to make sure you don't lose me for nothing" but with a really low release fee to make sure he could get a move. Then they stick him in all the promo pics for the kit launch last week, then it turns out he's off to Man City. That's the stuff that reflects badly on the club - fucking idiots to have made such a big deal out of the new contract and then the kit launch thing, too. Then Delph, this time last week, comes out with all that shit about it being his club, how he's loyal etc, only to fuck off a week later. That's the bit that reflects badly on Delph. The really sad bit in all this is this is the sort of bollocks that goes on all the time in football, and as usual, the only people who really suffer are the fans who, unless they get bought by a mental human rights abusing middle east prince or a thieving Russian oligarch, are expected to keep forking out more and more money to watch this pointless, futile rubbish year after year.

We don't need to replace Vlaar to change much - last season he was either injured or shite. We've brought in Richards and Gueye - who looked to me like a Delph replacement when he signed. We've still got a lot of signings to make, but our form under Sherwood was totally different to that under Lambert, and far more representative of the squad. Going back to Vlaar, though, it makes me laugh when I hear the media or fans of other clubs go on about how we'll miss him. Ask Villa fans, you'll get a different story.

They were the worst team who didn't get relegated last season and they've lost their best two players. Sherwood has a massive job the next 6 weeks. Not in the last third of the season we weren't. Until Lambert got the sack we were one of the worst top flight sides I've ever seen, let alone last season.

Don't know, he might still feel things. Fans of other teams still feel things, apparently. No. I am annoyed about the pathetic u-turn to the original u-turn, but we've already bought Gueye, who is practically the same player Delph is, so he's replaced already.

Vlaar's leaving (he's a free agent now) is worrying absoutely nobody, believe me. It is impossible to have a player be part of the spine of your team when he's constantly injured.

Fabian Delph. If true, pretty staggering, even by the wank low standards of professional footballers.

Our home and away for this season are very nice. Our away one last year was nice. Every single other one they've made us in four years has been fucking horrible.

Sherwood is correctly saluting the British way, at least. I don't know what that awful effort from Ramsay is, though. He wasn't saluting, the glow from Sherwood's ego was getting in his eyes. I think he foolishly inhaled the scent of Sherwood's 50% plus win ratio.

One thing I'll say about Sherwood, for all the bullshit, sometimes his honestly is refreshing. Someone here mentioned Carles Gil and where he disappeared to. Sherwood has clearly decided he likes him, and said this today. What pleases me is he's realised he's a good player, but also I quite like the bolded bit, which is harsh but undoubtedly true. With Lambert we'd have had a few inaudible grunts and he'd have been sent out to the far field to play frisbee with whoever constituted the rest of the "bomb squad" at the time (Hutton, Given et al).

It's a salute which was seen a lot of whist our soldiers were helping us to build up an empire covering a third of the world, mind, so not that much of a joke. And don't even get me started about the ABSURD American pronunciation of lieutenant.