Peter Griffin

So SJ is saying that Gerrard will be judged after next season and that he needs to get Villa into the top half of the table. Sounds like a reasonable argument, much better to suggesting Gerrard should go or be judged on Aug 6th

Its a great position for the club to be in. We have a squad/team we believe capable of challenging for a European spot, its over 10 years since we could say that. If Gerrard succeeds then brilliant. If he fails. we sack him and get a new manager. I suspect given the quality of our squad and the ambition of our owners which they back up with financial support, it won't be too difficult to get a good manager in. I would think it perfectly reasonable to realistically go for a Pochettino type manager after Gerrard. Maybe NSWE and CP know exactly what they are doing and maybe they are using Gerrard to show the football world exactly how big our ambition is. If Gerrard works out then great, if he doesn't we are still in a far better place than when he joined us

I don't believe that is the case, do u have a link?

He has been given the job as Villa manager/Head Coach or whatever his job title is. That is what he has done that justifies every Villa fan giving him a chance

What is there to dismiss, he hasn't been charged with anything? I am sure I read that this full episode is behind him now.

Yes, by young the implication is inexperienced too, hence the term 'rookie'. Would I have preferred Gerrard to have had 2 years in the Championship before joining us? Absolutely. However, that is not where we are now as CP decided to take a punt on Gerrard. So far the pull of Gerrard appears to be helping our transfers, we would not have Cout and Kamara without Gerrard imo. So Purslow got one aspect of it right. Whether Gerrard will become a good manager or not is still up for debate but I can't understand why any Villa fan shouldn't give him a chance to prove himself

Based on people get things wrong occasionally. Gerrard is a rookie manager in the PL. None of us know whether he will be successful or not. We have our opinions but we don't know how he will adapt to this step up in his career. Its a huge job for him, he has a massive budget and he is expected to deliver. It is difficult for a young manager and we won't see the real Gerrard as manager until he has proven himself to some extent. He needs a confidence booster to show he is doing the right things. Obviously this may not happen, I hope it does, but we simply don't know what sort of manger he will turn out to be. So far, in the transfer windows I am very happy with him. He is identifying the positions that are weak in our team and he is getting in players that look like good quality. I am not convinced he is the right manager for us but I am happy to see how it works out. Thankfully, so too are NSWE and Purslow, it would be madness to be changing managers too frequently.

Have you considered the possibility that you could be wrong about Gerrard?

We buy Carlos for 26m and u think we shouldn't answer the ph for less than 60m for Mings from Toon

If only there was some basis to your posts I would be very happy with that

If u care to read the rest of my post I said that we need succession planning. Elliot and Carvalho will not be immediate starters next season for Liverpool. They will be eased in to the team. But PL teams need to react to the now and have players that can immediately deliver. If you think Elliot and Carvalho are first team starters for a club looking to win the league I think it is you that is talking bullshit

I agree but on top of that, the days of planning for the future and building a 5 year plan are more or less gone. Yes, u need a plan for the next 3 to 5 years but it is nearly impossible to build a team over that sort of period. Succession planning is always needed but the PL is now about immediate impact and getting players that can deliver in the next 12 and 24 months. I think we are just adapting to the marketplace that is Premier League football

Giving the police a little credit I suspect that they may have already taken copies of all his social media posts.

Its funny how people differ. He is one of the ones at the top of my wish list. Kamara was ahead of him but I never considered getting both. Getting one of them was enough for a hard on

Sky has reported that he has signed an agreement to sign a contract with us. Only a failed medical will stop this happening imo

I thought he was cleared of all that

I love the idea of using Ings to get Bissouma, I hadn't thought of that

I agree but it would be nice to get another CB and a striker in too

Thanks, but don't we always agree

Given the performances of our CB pairing last season I don't think there is much risk. It is unlikely Carlos and a new CB (Tarkowski or Bassy or Botman) can be as fragile as what we have just gone through this season. Also, we will have Kamara in front of them which will make their jobs easier and hopefully Bissouma too

I agree, but at least we don't have a 'sell before buy' policy. Lange must be confident about offloading some players which suggests we have had a some interest from other clubs.

Clearly we would have got there because of the money spent and a decent manager would have got Champions League or won a cup or won the league.

He has played CB every game this season under Gio. Steve played him as LB and Gio moved him to CB and he started to shine

Lovely game to kick off the season with a good result.

We signed an agreement today to sign Diego Carlos when the transfer window opens on June 10th. Can't wait for the official announcement...Tick Tok