Villarocker

I read somewhere that Villa aren't looking to play Callum Wilson as a lone striker and that they want to play him and Watkins up front together. If there is truth in that no way do I see Villa playing 4-4-2. That suggests to me we would be playing 5-3-2 as that was the first formation change that Smith went to last season and it looked decent for a while. With that in mind, and the fact that we aren't really being linked with a right-sided forward, does anyone else wonder if Villa will start the season with a formation and lineup something like this: ------------------------Romero--------------------- --------Konsa-------Engels-----Mings------- Cash-----------Luiz--------McGinn---Targett ------------------------Grealish-------------------- -------------Wilson-------------Watkins----------- Cash and Targett are both good at getting forward and delivering crosses into the box. That formation pretty much gives Grealish a free role too. We can go 5-3-2 without the ball and a 3-5-2 with it. Obviously, that involves signing three players that are currently heavily linked with. I also expect that Smith would want another centre back to play in there instead of Engels. Maybe sign another left-sided centre back to play where Mings is and have Mings as the centre of the three? Any thoughts?

Sad news for God yesterday after his Mother passed away. What a lady she must have been to create such a legend! I endured the same pain 4 years ago and the hurt never heals.

Don't forget "Preparing a bid" after all, we do a lot of it.

Totally agree John. We need to play Grealish behind the striker and have two need wide forwards.

They want the extra £2m up front because they know: 1) He isn't going to play for England again. 2) He won't make the required number of appearances it will take to trigger that part of the clause. Get Watkins or somebody else, please.

But, his stats were done on the pitch, not paper. They speak for themselves and, remember, he is only 21 so has plenty of time to get even better. These are his goals last season...

I know there are a lot of people who would love us to sign Benrahma from Brentford but he is looking at anything from £25m to £30m+. What about Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford as an alternative? Not sure how much he would cost but guessing something less than Benrahma? These are my reasons for suggesting the alternative: Benrahma is 25 - Mbeumo is 21 = more room for improvement. Benrahma plays left-sided attack - Mbeumo plays right-side attack = Left side attack is by far our strongest side with Grealish, Trezeguet and Watkins (assuming he signs) all able to play there. We currently have El Ghazi down the right side. Benrahma scored 17 and had 9 assists last season from 3, 843 minutes of play. 226 mins per goal / 427 mins per assist. Mbeumo scored 16 and had 7 assists last season from 3,164 minutes of play. 197 mins per goal / 452 mins per assist. Just thinking that, considering Benrahma played around 7.5 games more and only scored 1 and had 2 assists more, Mbeumo may be more of what we need and be the better deal for us right now. Any thoughts? (I know, he is Championship and I've bemoaned this stage for attracting players but if we're going there he seems a better fit for us)

I was reading many good things about Romero yesterday that convinced me to look past the fact he's been back-up since birth then, someone said that they rated him better than De Gea and it dawned on me he cannot get a game over him at league level and it filled me with doubt again.

Are you sure that wasn't a typo?

I've just sussed out how to value Brentford players going forward. It is their original fee, plus any add-ons and £20m on top. According to his wiki page, you paid £2.7m for Benrahma with no mention of add-ons so I make that £22.7m and we have a deal, right?

Sooooo, you're the bastards to blame for the inflated price then Just kidding mate. Fair play if our business helps out a club further down the leagues. Hopefully, your club will spend the money wisely and you reap some rewards on the pitch from it

From what i have heard from someone at work today we are getting a top player. Apart from the Villatalk forum I don't think I have read one negative comment about the lad. Personally, I didn't think RB was the first port of call for change. That, together with Matty Cash being a Championship player, made me not have any great enthusiasm for the deal. But, it is done and now it is all about supporting the lad. I hope he does well for us. Having heard about him today, and read a bit about him yesterday, I have a feeling this could prove to be a great signing.

I hope they are all from the same household or we could have our first new signing fined by the government on his first day at the club. Nice to see that we have another player with a "Grealish" hairstyle. I was talking with an Albion fan at work earlier today who told me that someone very close to Matty Cash is a very good friend of his. He said he text him about this lad joining the Villa recently and he said it wasn't certain as Wolves were trying to get him late on into the negotiations. Seems like he may have turned down the old gold for the famous claret and blue.

This transfer has got a more positive vibe about it than our others so far. I think he will sign and for a cheap fee, which is great.

We need another player who can do something with the ball at his feet to lift the pressure off Jack.

Not for me. I'm actually happy Leeds spent so much on him as it looks a bad deal to me.

Same here mate. I see potential with Watkins as he can play two positions. I am uncertain as to where Cash will play as it could be RB or right-sided forward. Wilson seems a player whose career is in decline to me so not inspired at all by the link to him. I would love them all to be great signings if they do get signed but I am far from convinced they will push us forward.

Don't know if this has been said already but, in that pic, has Shakespeare had so many beers that he's mistaken a pint for his mobile?

What did he say? I've missed whatever it was.

John McGinn posted on twitter that Wes Edens had contacted some of the players directly to congratulate them on staying up after the last game of the season and said that reinforcements would be brought in to improve the team/squad and re-iterated that they wanted to take Villa back to being a leading force not just here but in Europe also.

You don't know he won't come back a stronger and better player. Nobody knows that.

Fact is mate, regardless of what anyone else has done, we are the team that finished one place above relegation and whose owners have promised players to strengthen to make us better. So far, we have bought nobody and nearly every link is to players below the level of the league we play in - that is all very concerning. Now, the owners may have all the best will in the world but if the club is unable to attract the quality needed there are questions that need to be asked. It cannot always be attributed to players wanting London. Will the manager be targeted for change or, in the worst case scenario, will the owners get fed up of not being able to attract such players and decide to bail out? That is my worst fear.

Wesley is not as bad has people think. He's a young guy with a very young family and mother in-tow. He was always going to take time to settle. He is young, has the perfect physique for the league and I have every faith in him turning out to be better than Callum Wilson.

I hope you're right mate.