ErwinK1961

No I don't, and I never said he would. I think it’s a mental suggestion to say we’d sell for £32.5m or less, when we’ve just rejected £25m out of hand.

I mean, comparing that front 4 to Norwich is farcical, but expected to finish in the top 6 without Grealish? Wow. Bailey’s a good player, but if he was that much of a superstar a bigger club surely would have snapped him up at that price? Not sure id say Cantwell has improved massively either. Villa will finish above us, no doubt. But all this talk of them finishing in the top 6, I just don’t see it. They finished 11th last year and are looking likely to lose their best player.

You think we’ll sell for £30-32.5m, after rejecting a £25m bid and dismissing it as derisory?

Enjoying Armstrong in CM. Linked the play so well, great runs, lovely finish.

He’s clearly being directed / ordered to play that way, the issue is he just hasn’t got the ability to do it. Which just makes us not trying to sign another GK even more bizarre.

McCarthy showing zero ability with the ball at his feet. Again.

Diallo for Romeu only HT sub

Comfortable - we are the much better team. Djenepo, Tella, Redmond, Adams all look sharp. Long rubbish. Great to have Romeu back- him and Stu doing well. Defence untested so hard to judge - poor from Salisu for the goal.

Djenepo at LB is actually working here because he hasn’t really had to defend. Basically a second left winger

2-1 Redmond We look very good going forwards

1-1 Tella

GREAT FINISH SALISU!! Shame it was at the wrong end.

Just fcking bore off.

Can I ask what that is based on? Not seen much evidence of that so far. I would say we've generally been pretty good at getting good fees for players dating back to Les Reed's days.

I get the wage, but don't see that improving his chances of an England call up (didn't help Watkins as an example). I would also question the chance Villa have of Europe next season if they sell Grealish (which is looking likely) - they were turd when he was out injured last season. I really don't see him going as I can't see them paying us what we would want, but if he does go it'll be down to money, pure and simple (like almost all transfers).

Not in the squad for the game today.

Dear God. Ralph working with 1 hand and 4 fingers tied behind his back.

I still find it bizarre that young kids want to join the likes of Man City’s academy. What pathway to the first team is there, when they can just lay down £50m on a player to come straight in. I think the tide is turning a little in the 17-19 year old bracket (as being shown at Chelsea), but still happens far too regularly (across all teams of our size). Maybe I’m just naive.

Probably explains why you're not a football manager then.

Footballer in “rejects large pay cut” shocker.

Yeah you're most probably right, SS.

If we can get £8m for him, that would be excellent business.

Nice to see us getting involved with these types of signings - and also good to see some of these youngsters actually willing to fly the nest and make sensible career moves. Like others have said though, I hope this isn't our Vestergaard replacement. I was hoping selling JV would give us an opportunity to improve the defence, which has been so poor for the last 3 seasons. If that's the case, there is a hell of a lot of pressure on Salisu to step up and be the main man (and for Bednarek to sort his shit out).

They will. Not a chance in hell anyone’s paying £25m for him, even without the fact he’s got a year left. I suspect it’s the exact same with us and Ings. The later in the window, the less ballsy the club is and the lower that fee becomes. The advantage we have is if we keep Ings, we benefit from his goals potentially keeping us up and another £100m through the door. If Blackburn keep AA and he runs his contract down, they don’t have the same monetary reward. I doubt they would be able to turn down £15m.

Jesus - so offering extensions to FF and AM? We are doomed to GK mediocrity for the foreseeable then.