brummie

It's pretty impressive that he's managed to unite the fans of all three Birmingham clubs, by having them play football so sphincter-shatteringly bad, they all loathe him.

The best thing Bruce did with us was send up Glen Whelan (of all people) to take a 90th minute penalty which would have secured a home draw with mighty Preston North End. I mean, Glen fucking Whelan? Anyway, he did. He missed, and Bruce got sacked.

It seems nuts to be saying it, but I really wouldn't (for us, I mean). Imagine the attitude he'd come with.

Although you are definitely right in that things seem much quicker when you’re not all over every detail of them.

not sure about that - Digne was out of the blue, and Coutinho was a surprise to everyone

i saw this tweet about the match which I thought was marvellous and summed it up. We need to be more mentally tough

I am going to be interested to see how we play both Coutinho and Buendia next season. Coutinho is on a different level technically, but Buendia is absolutely brilliant and in the latter half of the season really started to come out of his shell after his move.

i reckon he thought “I’m going to the Villa, fuck these guys”.

I would be very very surprised if that Bissouma stuff were true. And a bit worried as it might mean not enough money going elsewhere where it is needed.

We apparently run a strict wages policy - Coutinho had to fit in with that too, hence the 70% pay cut. If there's a difference, it is as Kamara said - we sent Gerrard, Lange (head of recruitment) and Purslow out there to see him several times, including Gerrard going to see him at his home. Whatever we're paying him, he could have got elsewhere. I didn't like the Gerrard appointment, but I must admit, the Coutinho and Kamara signings suggest that we're using his profile to sign players Dean Smith would never have been able to sign. Think about it - 17m for Coutinho and Kamara. If we'd been offered that several months ago, we wouldn't have believed it.

re Lampard, let's not forget his time failing to get Derby promoted, despite having a FFP busting squad which included Mason Mount and Tomori

It is difficult to rate Gerrard, as he came into the club in challenging circumstances, but he does have a way to play - likes the front three narrow, and the full backs pushing up. Although he's changed set ups a few times. I wasn't keen when he signed, but he's got to get at least a couple of windows and a season, really. He's inherited an unbalanced squad which had just lost our best player in decades, and hadn't settled in terms of the new purchases.

I agree.

I still wake up sometimes in a cold sweat and in my mind, I've seen Bruce do that 'world-weary, winking, self aggrandising' "That's the Championship" thing. Fucking hell, I still feel sick if i think of that.

I was listening to a Villa podcast today and they were saying how Lampard said keeping them up was the biggest achievement of his career, and one of them pointed out that he'd managed to take over Everton when they were 16th and 4 points off the relegation places and guide them to, errr, 16th and 4 points off relegation.

I think so. We offered for Bissouma in January but they wanted stupid money, and I am pretty sure Phillips will stay at Leeds anyway. We have desperately needed someone in this position for ages now - at least 3 years - and the three options out there were always Kamara, Phillips and Bissouma, We're only going to be looking for one of those, so I would be amazed if we were still prepared to spend huge amounts on either of the other two. Only thing that makes me wonder re that Telegraph stuff is that it came, I think, from John Percy who is basically always correct in what he writes about us.

No, because they're not pissing it away stupidly like Everton did. They're different to Lerner in that respect as it's part of an actual sensible approach rather than just burning money because you left Martin O'Neill in charge. Two signings so far and the season only just ended - Coutinho and Kamara for a total of £17m in fees. That's sensible spending (and yes of course Kamara will have picked up a big signing on cheque).

They have had no choice - when they came here four years ago, we were literally one day away from going into administration. They've been great though. They're also putting a ton into the new inner city academy (next door to the ground), and are rebuilding the North Stand after this coming season. They've set up a group company and are bidding for the new MSL Franchise in Las Vegas, Las Vegas Villans. They are in it for the long term, clearly.

Ha ha ha.

Ha ha the Dogheads.

FWIW DM is a position we have really suffered from not filling for a few years, it is absolutely our number one transfer requirement this summer, so not at all surprised if we have thrown money and effort at it to sort it out quickly. All three of those are great players, though.

Innit. The difference is, it won't be costing us anything like what Bissouma or Phliips would as a fee. Gerrard said a few weeks ago that they know who their targets are and want them all in place before pre-season starts. I rate all three of Kamara, Bissoumna and Phillips but regardless of what happens to Leeds, any moves for Phillips and Bissouma would drag on for ages as Brighton and Leeds extracted as much money as possible.

BTW - if we are signing Kamara as a free agent, it'll involve a nice signing on fee for him, I am sure.

Coutinho and Digne are both within our wage structure - which doesn't go above 125k a week. (I know, it is fucking OBSCENE that that figure is now considered par for the course, and I feel sick even typing it tbh)

We were going down under Smith, Gerrard's record here is much better, tbh.