Villarocker

But, during Ellis's regime, back in the days of Little and Gregory, Villa spent a lot of money on players and challenged towards the top of the league. We also won a couple of league cups and got to their first FA Cup final for 43 years. Yes, there was lots of negativity and mistakes made during Ellis's last reign but the mistakes that have been made since he sold the club have threatened to see us get into serious financial trouble and have seen us relegated from the top flight.

Deisler123, you seem a very clued up and intelligent fella. In straight forward language, can you please tell us if the future looks good for us, average for us or, absolutely terrible. Basically, as a club, are we fire-fighting debts and in the meantime simply hoping that a miracle happens and we somehow get into the Premier League to sort out our problems?

How much he needs to "get" the club going or "keep" the club going?

I can't help but wonder what Bruce's take on our finances were prior to the play-off final. I mean, if he knew of the importance of our debt surely he has to go for it and not play that defensive shite we saw in the first half. Or, was it the fact that he was so scared of failure that he was too afraid to lose and then, once we went a goal behind, had no choice but to go for it?

I don't know about the CEO role but we certainly need Villa eyes and blood on the board at our club. Some of the likes of Brian Little, Dennis Mortimer, Peter Withe, Ian Taylor etc need to be included in the day-to-day running of the club to ensure that the heart of the club is being well looked after.

That's all well and good for the next 2 years but then what, if we're still not in the Premier League? We'll just be a further 2 years down the line and in another £50m worth of debt. if Wyness is to blame for the mess we're in it's yet another example of how things goes tits up when the owner is not around to oversee that things are working properly. Ellis might have been an old control freak but at least he kept an eye on the day-to-day goings on at the club, which is pretty much what we drastically lack now.

Seems like Tony Xia is surrounded by mystery about his wealth and bad luck in trying to fund Villa. Makes me wonder - if it wasn't for misfortune, would he have any fortune at all?

Excuse my lack of understanding if I got this wrong but, didn't the outstanding debt from the Lerner era get cleared when Tony Xia took over? If so, how on earth did we get into an even worse state within 2 years? The last few years of Lerner's reign were bad but I don't recall seeing anything about winding up orders and administration during his time of screwing things up. Also, is there a reason why Recon can't buy the naming rights to Villa Park to keep us afloat? I mean, given the choice of administration or having a stadium called Recon Villa Park, I would much rather take the latter option.

I might get slaughtered for saying this but, right now, I'd rather take the tight-pursed days of Deadly Doug.

We need some sort of stability and if that means keeping Bruce on then I'm all for it.

Remember when they were taken to court and had to pay something like 2 million to the taxman in the 80s? That was a proud family moment as it was my Villa-supporting cousin that took the case for the tax office

He's a father of two - he's a Daddy sauce

We need to get the big earners off the books now and concentrate on signing a few younger, more athletic players to combine with our good, experienced players. Adomah goes wide with Green out left. Hourihane, Grealish in front of Bjarnason. Elmo at right back, Hutton or Taylor at left back. New younger, quicker and taller centre back to partner Chester. Kodjia up front, or out left if Green not up to it and then have Hogan or Davis etc up top. No idea what happens to the keeper. O'Hare needs to be regularly getting game time this pre-season as his chance is close now.

You're spot on about Mitrovic getting Fulham up there - he was the difference for them! Fine margins is right too. Look at Grealish and his injury. If that injury had have prevented him playing this last season, we wouldn't have been in the play-offs in my opinion.

This is exactly the problem. We have paid too much respect to the better teams in the league this season and paid the price for it. I don't really mind him getting the team to stay tight after going a goal up but going into the games that way is just setting us up to get beat, IF that is what he does. It certainly seems that way as we did it too many times to make it feel like coincidence. I have no worries about Bruce staying just as long as he gets that defensive philosophy out of his head and allows us to play with the freedom to attack teams. However, to do this he has to change our slow players as they are the Achilles heel of the team.

I respect your opinion mate but, for me, the heat of the day and the Villa pressure would have taken its toll on Fulham at some point if they had an additional 40 minutes playing with only 10 men. Also, I think Bruce would have made his attacking changes a lot sooner, which would have helped us get back into the game.

The first half tactics were disgraceful for such an occasion but, there's no denying the fact we should have been playing against 10 men for an hour, not 20 minutes! Decisions like that can win and lose you games. I believe we would have had Fredericks been sent off in the first half.

I think Xia, Wyness and Round have to have a meeting with Bruce to discuss the future ASAP. First, they need to know if he wants to continue managing the club. Bruce may want a break from football after the year he's had in his personal life. Second, if Bruce wants to stay on, the board have to ask his ideas for the future. They need to be blunt with him and ask if that his the style of football he wishes to play or, if he feels that's forced on him by the players at his disposal. Third, if the style is what Bruce wants, the board have to question if that's good enough to get us up. If they accept it, they then need to work out how they go about funding replacements on the field. If they don't accept it, they need to find a new manager first and foremost. Fourth, if Bruce thinks he would rather play a better brand of football, the board need to look at finding him more money so that he can buy the players capable of doing so. Personally, my hope is for the fourth option. I would love it if Bruce and the board came out and publicly spoke about that style being forced because of what we had and that it won't be like that going forward. We can have continuity at the club then and have the optimism of better football to watch. That's my hope. However, I'm not so sure that 1) it isn't Bruce's preferred style and 2) The board can raise the funds for the personnel needed not to play that way.

I had a brief chat yesterday with a guy who claims to be cousin of Mendez-Laing at Cardiff. He said he called his cousin and asked how such a shit bunch could get promoted. The answer was something like: We've got togetherness and fight for each other.

During the last bad spell the fans were moaning about how negative we are and that we shouldn't play that way. Lessons needed to be learned but they weren't because that first half yesterday was exactly the same as that away at Wolves, back in October. Pace and height are our weaknesses. The lack of height and pace in the central defensive areas is killing us. He plays Jedinak to give the added height at the back and he's slower than both Chester and Terry and because of that we have the full backs tucking in to protect them and then the wingers come back to cover the full backs, nullifying our attacking threat and inviting pressure. We needed to replace Jedinak with Bjarnason at half time yesterday and get Kodjia on earlier than he did. We lacked pace and that cost us dearly. That needs to change. No more Jedinak and Terry please. Bring a faster, taller centre back in to partner Chester and either stick with Bjarnason in front of the back four or buy/loan another player to play there.

I saw Elmohamady has a positive simply because Sessegnon was ineffective in the game. Cairney was our problem and that fell at the feet of the midfield. They didn't close him down or track his runs and the end result of that was the winning goal.

Spot on! The officials effectively cost us the game by not sending off Fredericks.

His failings this season have been to set the team up defensively alarm today and at Wolves. When we play on the front foot were a better animal. Today showed up two major flaws in Bruce's management 1) To pay too much respect to the opposition and 2) Make substitutions either at the wrong time or the wrong changes - or both! Forget the past, think future. Bruce clearly didn't think our future starlets are good enough so will he change his mind next season? Personally, unless Xia finds millions from somewhere, I'd go with a fresh approach IF the right man becomes available.

Can't allow Kodjia to go - he kept us up the season before and may have to again! Grealish showed today that we were a one man team so he's essential to keep. I've no idea what we do but know we need to keep, Chester, Hutton, Hourihane, Adomah, Grealish and Kodjia. Bree can play right back, De Laet too. Whelan stays with Jedinak going. Bjarnason is vital because of his utility. Taylor can go. Snodgrass to go with Green going to left wing and Alby switching. Hogan or Grabban? One needs to go. Hope Steer goes number one not Bunn - he's appalling!

Without doubt! We would have played one hour against 10 men had the 4th official told the ref about the stamp by Fredericks, assuming he didn't! Many many decisions have just been wrong and so questionable you have to wonder why he got this game?