John

I was there. Did the overnight rail trip from New Street to Dover and then on to the final by coach. Got to Rotterdam around 11.30 and we were in the bar about 15 minutes later. Memories of that goal going in, that clock taking so long to get to 90 minutes at the Bayern end and my mate saying the cup was "as big as a man's chest" when Sir Morty lifted it. We were all on cloud nine afterwards and things got better on the way back when the coach driver missed the last ferry out of Boulogne and we hit a bar that was just closing and asked the bar owner if we could have a swift one and he replied "of course you beat the Germans". 4 hours later we left the bar made the ferry and got the train back being applauded by commuters as we went towards London that morning like conquering heroes (back then everyone backed UK clubs in such games). Those memories live on for those of us who were lucky and old enough to have been there and as Villa fans we should be proud of our history and I hope our younger fans get to see the same at some point in the future.

Whilst we have paid silly money in the past and we do need to move players on that are not doing it on the pitch for us we should not 9 years on from paying JPA £38k pw (to quote Jimzk5) be looking at only signing players who will take near the same or less now. Football, players and their agents expectations have moved on since then so we need to be realistic on what wages we will need to pay to sign and to keep players. What has happened in the past should not cost us that bright future.

"Plus the guy who started this Mertens rumour was also adamant that we were signing Kelvin Leerdam and/or William Kvist in January". I wonder if we might have looked at them when we thought we might have had the money to have bought one of them back then HalfTimePost? Clutching at straws I know but he looks quite a player but no doubt he would be too costly for us. Oh what the hell, shock us and everyone else Villa and go for him now. He like Benteke will only be worth more when sold on and will therefore represent "profitable player trading". It will also be fun to watch the likes of him in a Villa shirt for a season or two as it has or will continue to be with Benteke.

"he even gave SHA advice when their pitch froze over a few seasons back". Fair play to him Meath-Villan and I note they took his advice because they have spread and have been playing a lot of s**t on it since then...

What has football come to when a groundsman moves on for CL football, the glamour of Paris and no doubt a higher wage?<br /><br />But, if the worst does come to the worst we can just put sand on the mud as we did well enough back when we did so all those years ago...<br /><br />More seriously, he did a great job and I wish him all the best and I hope his French is up to the demands of the job!<br /><br />I see we now have Paul Mytton and Graeme Farmer (who have between them spent 17 years at the club) taking over at VP &amp; Bodymoor respectively. They both have big boots to fill and the proof will be out there on the pitch for all to see at the end of next season. Good luck to both.

This might have seen us play the first team against CSKA 4 years ago but to qualify and then to go on to win the Europa Cup seems a long way off for us at present. But if Randy was prepared to spend to try to gain CLs qualification back then it might be a reason for him to back the manager a little in the next couple of years in the hope that we could win a cup and then another...(it is another nice chilled Cobra I am sinking as I write this by the way bradarmstrong..

Positive news. Happy for Stan and for us as he will do a sound job.

Now is not really the time to speculate on this and the details of the incident will become clear either in court or before that. It is just a terrible way for anyone to lose their life and I trust that all of those responsible will be charged and a jury will decide on their guilt or otherwise in due course. My earlier point is that his family would fear for his safety when he is on active service but would be more relaxed when he was in the UK. My thoughts are with them.

"For anybody to be butchered on a London street is beyond belief, their job is irrelevant." Agreed on the first part samjp26 but I think his job may well have been relevant to his death given a Cobra meeting was called.

For a serving soldier to be killed or wounded when on active service is hard enough to take but for him to be targeted and butchered on a London street is beyond belief and acceptance. What a horrible way for him to lose his life my thoughts are with him and his family.

"It also heavily assumes Simon Jones knows his arse from his elbow when it comes to the internal workings of Villa this close-season." Yes he may be taking a calculated risk that we will not splash the cash BOF & daggy_333 and it is just a line rather than a headline. But it was the first suggestion of this so I thought it worth a mention. "So we sold collins and brought 8 players? it wasn't sell to buy last season." It was the January window I was referring to villan_007. "Sell the likes of Ireland, Bent, Given et al and bring in more Lowton, Benteke and Westwood types". I cannot see doing that without adding funds to the transfer pot would bring in enough of those types to fill the places we want filled StanBalaban.

Anyone else notice the following line in the Daily Mail N'Zogbia story from Simon Jones? "Aston Villa will have to finance rebuilding from within". That would (if it is correct) suggest that we will be going down the "sell to buy" route as we did in the last transfer window rather than backing the manager with something decent on top of the fees that come in and the wage savings that departures from the club produce.

It was Colin daggy-333.

Colin Gibson said on Radio WM on Monday evening "I actually think that the chairman should look at what job the manager has done and reward him by enabling him to spend a little bit of money and to trust his judgement because what has gone on with other managers has gone now I think Paul has earned the right now for the job he has done this season to give it a go".

"Rumors are Hull are interested in signing Bent. I heard it from a pretty reliable source so hopefully its true." I would doubt Bent would be interested in signing for them HeyAnty and that they would be able to get near to the fee we want or to his wage demands. Hull are likely to be playing Small Heath both this season (in a friendly) and next (in the league below us) and would we want to sell to a potential rival in the relegation mire which would make them stronger? Not really serious on the last point by the way (says me hiding behind the sofa) because if we need to start the season seeing Hull on an even playing field to us we have really sunk to a new low.. I think he may move abroad or to a Fulham type club. I think we may need to lower the price so he does not take a drop in his wages to make the deal happen and would guess at us getting around £5m - £8m for him which is more about the way his stock at our club has dropped than his ability to get goals has decreased. We sold the players that fed him and that he joined us to play with and have now introduced a new playing style that does not suit his style. If he does go shortly I hope we will not by the start of the season be without him and also Benteke and/or Weimann. That would be a real doomsday scenario.

"Ron Saunders delighted to see his name is on The Scottish Stand". "Former Villa chairman insisted upon the change and gifts the club £30m to spend on players in the summer transfer window" "Messi & Ronaldo ask Barca and Real not to stand in the way of their dream moves to Villa Park". "Moyes unhappy with "Lambo Time" as Villa clinch yet another title against his once competitive Manchester club". "Benteke hits his 215th league goal and his 49th of the season to equal Hampton and Pongo's Villa scoring records". "Chelsea, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs are unhappy with SKY's Villa bias". "Liverpool aim to become a feeder club for Aston Villa". "Aston Villa once again hold the record number of FA Cup wins as they clinch their 10th double".

We need to keep him here in much the same way as we need to keep Benteke. If one or both leave it will be a big blow to us and it would suggest we are but a feeder club who bring players on to make a profit rather than to improve us as a football club. If we make him an offer that shows him we appreciate him I think he will be the more likely of the two to stay and if we do not then there will be other clubs that will and we will be back to square one.

I have no problems with wanting players who are hungry and looking at players with character, not those who just want money. But I do want to see Lambert backed with enough money to buy the players he will want that will make us safe before the 37th game next season and it would not seem unreasonable to give him up to £30m to spend in this window on say a couple of £7 - 8m signings and 2 or 3 @ around £3 - £4m. I also think we will need to offer Benteke something on a par with what Gabby is getting and show some ambition with our signings if we are to seriously try to keep him and show we are not a selling or feeder club.

I have gone 4 whether this would be more players in than out is open to question.

It does very much depend on the in and outs during the transfer window. The first target for me is to not spend any time in the bottom 6 during 2014 and to be safe during if not before April. I would be happy with a higher league place than we end up with this season and with progress being our aim for the next 4 seasons and yes it does sound a lot like the 5 year plan we once had folks. So somewhere around 10/11th and possibly a cup run that ends better than our LCSF defeat this season would be the aim. As things now stand I think we might do that.

I wonder if we're going to get linked with Dale Stephens again..... We might just cut out the links and sign him Khizzy!

Well done to the players and manager for their late season performances.40 points should have been enough and was. It was a big bonus that Arsenal unlike WBA against Norwich and Wigan had something to play for when they came up against Wigan and had the worst happened tonight we had Spurs well up for beating Sunderland on the last day. But I am so glad this was sorted before the last day of the season and we avoided playing Small Heath next season. Do not let us face a relegation battle again Randy!

Newcastle got £35m for Carroll and he is half the player that Benteke is. Anything less than £35m should not be considered by us and if we do have to let him go for whatever reason (which I really hope we do not) the money should all be used on players rather than say 50% of it on the balance sheet and the rest representing our transfer budget for the next window.

"It was pure karma for Terry to then get properly injured." Mason could have prevented his injury by giving him 2 yellow cards Raver50032...

"I disagree I think Cole would have got back. Sylla is no slouch but Cole is rapid and there wasn't much of a distance between them." As I said to Oaks "I am not 100% on a straight red for the first" either for the reasons you have mentioned Houlston.