Nightmare scenario

should go in for SWP or Bellamy although Wages may be a stumbling block

Hang on. Bent is our best player. OK if Downing went and we couldn't get a replacement we would have a large hole up front (if Ash also hasn't been replaced), because we need good players who can attack, score goals and feed Bent. That hole won't happen if we insist Downing stays, as I think (and hope!) we will.

If he does go, then we'll definitely have to get someone good; if as you fear N'zogbia isn't coming, then I'd hope we'd look for someone from abroad. Not SWP, please no!

If the worst came to the worst, up front we'd have the pick of Bent, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Albrighton, Bannan. And Ireland, sort of. The gap is obvious; Albrighton is good and will get better but I don't think is ready for a season of match after match, Bannan also has promise but is a lot further off. Ireland has only ever looked good with some very good players around him and he's a big risk. We'd have to stick Agbonlahor on the wing. A couple of injuries and we're sunk. We'd be lucky to scramble 10th place.

Keeping Downing improves things a lot, but we'll still miss Ash. Swap Downing for N'zogbia and it's not quite so good because he'll need time to fit in, and although it's a good choice we don't know how good. Keep Downing and buy N'zogbia, then we start to have some very good options. Let's hope.

According to that guy on sky sports news earlier Arsenal made an enquiry for Downing but were told that the player only wants to join LFC! He also said a fee should be agree in the next 24 hours! Have said many times on here, good player but not worth £20 mill of our money even though i understand Villa wanting the best fee they can get for a player they dont want to lose!

Albrighton will be better than Downing, much better. Don't always assume the worst will happen. If he leaves, he leaves. No one player leaving will bring down a club such as ours. We have survived plenty of quality players leaving e.g. Barry, Southgate, Balaban (joking!), Cahill, Mellberg etc.

I should have mentioned Delfouenso as well. Trouble is, we're strong in out and out strikers (almost too many in fact), it's the class wingers which we had in Ash and Downing that we're short of. Albrighton I have great hopes for, but he can't do it all on his own.

I'm pretty sure N'zogbia can play in the hole, effectively replacing Ash in that role. So Albrighton, N'zogbia and Downing would be a class line-up. Couple that with the options of Bent, Agbonlahor and Delfouenso up front, and we're looking good, with enough flexibility to cope with injuries, heavy schedules and so on. You could start thinking of good PL performance and good cup runs. Don't know where Heskey would fit in.

Drop N'zogbia and Downing from that list, and you'd have to rely just on Albrighton and maybe Agbohlahor on the wings. If Bent plays up front, with Heskey as back-up, then you'd have to hope Delfouenso fits in somewhere and Ireland comes good. Nothing like as good and with injuries we'd struggle.

Put Downing back in and things are better, still a lot of work to do to create a working combination.

Im sure you have more winger targets than just Downing, otherwise someones head should roll for sh*te planning.

I think Villa should look at this as an opportunity to rebuild a brand new team designed around making the best of you youth players. Look at Sunderland, they lost Bent and Henderson, but have gone on to buy 9 players (notably Westwood, Wickham, Brown, Oshea, Gardener, Larsson) with that money and look like they might nick defoe aswell. This in my opinion would leave them with a far stronger squad than the one that they had. If villa can sell Young and Downing, and bring in 6 quality players to supplement the likes of Albrighton, Clarke, Bent, Gardener, Delph and Bannan, then you can push on from the last few seasons. For the love of football though dont buy Hutton and Bentley.

Im sure you have more winger targets than just NZOGBIA otherwise someones head should roll for sh*te planning.

Im sure you have more winger targets than just NZOGBIA otherwise someones head should roll for sh*te planning.
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Dead right we should. But do we? Don't know. I like your 6 quality players idea. If Houllier had stayed I think that'e exactly what we'd be looking at, mainly players from abroad he'd identified through his very good contacts.

But we're in a different unknown world now. We don't know if Lerner still sees it that way. Or if he does whether McLeish has the vision and contacts to put it in place. Looking at the way things have gone since Houlllier left it's difficult to be confident of anything.

But the signs are that McLeish (with his wipe-the-slate approach) intends to give all the existing players a chance, which hardly fits in with getting in the fresh blood we need.

Have you thought about Scott Sinclair?