N'Zogbia fee agreed!

Looks like he'll be confirmed within the next 48 hours. Glad and relieved that we have finally signed him, and I hope he is worth the wait. His performances for Wigan for the last two seasons would suggest he is. For me, he's a better player than Downing: more skillful, quicker, less one-dimensional, scores more goals, stronger. I wouldn't be surprised if we build the team around him.

However, I do hope that he doesn't prove to be our last signing, or last major signing, this summer. I do hope we can add another central midfielder as Petrov is now 32 and we can not be too sure how Ireland will perform come the new campaign. Thomas Hitzlsperger will be a welcome addition and although he would be signed primarily as a squad player he would get his fair share of games in claret and blue I'm sure. He's also available on a free and has played here before so I don't know why we aren't looking at him. Then I would hope that Lerner would give McCleish around £20m to strengthen a poor defence. OK, Dunne and Collins may perform better next season but they're not great players. We need another Laursen in there and I really hope we make a big bid for someone like Hangeland or maybe Cahill. Then a right back like Hutton (who's a good and underrated player) and I would see us as competitive.

I must say I never was in favour of McCleish's appointment, but I have been pleasantly surprised by who he's brought in so far if N'Zogbia is confirmed. He got a lot of stick but hopefully he will do a solid job at Villa. He seems a decent bloke and appears to be trying to make Villa as competitive as possible, and for that I will give him my backing and I hope other Villa fans will. But I do think it's important that he continues to strengthen other areas of the squad if we want to do better than last season.

Guys i'm not being funny myself but you have not improved...... if anything you have got weaker. You finished midtable last season ( well jsut above) and so far you have got weaker so i don't see why you guys are so optimistic? You have sold your best player in Young and Downing was also your best player last season. You have replaced a reliable keeper for another reliable keeper.... evens........ You have replaced Stewart Downing for Nzogbia who are both similar in ability .... Evens........ You have lost Ashley Young..... Weaker!! The only positive thing i can think of is you sold downing for 20mil and bought Nzogbia for 9.5mil so you done well there but another part of that was bought on Given while An old but reliable Brad Friedal was released on a free.......Not to mention you hate your manager

Hence the reason why I said 'half a squad'. Yes we are weaker than last season- but stronger in a few ways.

1) Young's loss is undisputable. Massive blow for our creativity from width and set pieces. He will take some replacing.

2) Warnock is back, just like a new signing
3) If Ireland can find form, again, just like a new signing.
4) Effectively, Downings sale will not affect us as we have replaced him with a better and more exciting player
5) Don't forget Makoun who didnt feature much at the tail end of last season, he should be fantastic for us this season with a pre-season under his belt.

I am not saying things are rosy by any means, technically our squad is weaker than last season, but if you read my points above, not by much. Villa fans have a little more reason to be optimistic than 24 hours ago, lets just enjoy it boys, after a season we'd all rather forget.

I do hope we can add another central midfielder as Petrov is now 32
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Good point. I'm sure Petrov will play his part, but we can't expect too much of the younger players if he struggles. Under MON it was the midfield which protected the defence, and we're no longer that strong there. Why did we let Rio go?

Why did we let Rio go?

I can't understand that either, what also puzzles me is, why there isn't more teams queuing up to buy him.

Makoun will be more than enough to replace Petrov I think.

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But the Villa fans voted Downing as their player of the season.
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I represent all Villa fans do I? That is my opinion. He had a half decent season, but he is in no way worth 20 mil. Crazy figure for a very average player. Also, the fact he was voted player of the season should be taken with a pinch of salt- did you see how we went last season?

I think its refreshing that Villa fans are optomistic, theres nothing worse than reading doom and gloom comments.

We havent had much to cheer about having watched our club move from problem to problem since MON abandoned us.

maybe now, there is some hope...

N'Zogbia is not that good guys! He had a couple of decent months back end of last season but the rest of the time he was very inconsistent! Also has a bad attitude and if he does well with u will want a move to a so called 'bigger club'! I wouldnt get carried away with this signing! Downing will be a good buy for LFC, overpriced yes but what LFC need!