Villa should have gone down 3 or 4 years ago when they had a stronger albeit still weak squad. If that had happened I have no doubt that they would be back in the PL by now and better for it.

There are lots of historically big teams that have gone down and struggled for years afterwards e.g. Forest, Derby, Wolves, Leeds (ugh), Shef Wed. It is highly arrogant to think you will be able to cherry pick the best players and walk the league.

Whichever two sides join Villa in the Champ will also be in a better position to go back up than Villa. Then there will be a further 6-8 teams who believe they have a good chance of promotion.

If Villa had been in the Champ this season with the current squad I don't think they would have done well at all but thats purely hypothetical.

where did I say we would be able to cherry pick the best players and walk the league?

Cherry pick - 7th paragraph

Walk the league - tone of the post

Villa will be very interesting next season. I reckon Paul Clement would be a good appointment or even get Brian Little back. That would appease the fans.

I said io would love to see them cherry pick, not that they will so not arrogant

More chance of going down again than going up.

And you won't be the biggest club in the Championship, nobody cares about Villa, except for Blues, Albion and Wolves. All of which are equally pathetic clubs.

Be surprised if you lot concede less than 5 today.

3 more clubs that do than give a fck about Leeds then eh

Aston Villa >>>>> Leeds, stupid Leeds fan

It'll be a mistake to think of too many new signings; it didn't work this season and it won't work next. We need to keep together a core formed of the best players of what we've, add to that players who address the obvious weaknesses in the squad (attack, goalie etc) and the odd tougher character (we're a bit too lighweight, especially in midfield, for any division).

I'd keep Veretout; he's taken time to settle but this is normal, and he'd be much better in a better balanced team. He scored 46% of Nantes goals last season and we've yet to see this side of him. I'd also keep Gana, Cissokho and Sinclair; Sinclair got Swansea promoted, and like Veretout I think he'd be much better in a better balanced teams.

Gabby needs to go; bomb squad if he doesn't. Westwood I'm not sure about but would probably keep; at least he got some shots off against Everton, and needs to do more that. I'd like to see Bennett back, as a stand-in left back or midfielder. I'm not sure about Traore or Ayew either; I'd probably keep Traore and let Ayew go, Ayew being lively but not great at end product.

The long term contracts of the younger players mean we can keep whoever we want.

its not a matter of wanting to keep them, its a matter of can we keep them?

Yes I know they are under contract but if a bid comes in I would imagine it will be accepted

I would for one like to see Gardner back

We can keep them. If others are looking to buy we put a suitably high price on them. My guess is that the only clubs interested in them will be looking for bargains. We don't have to sell them as bargains.

We have to start building. We can only do that by keeping the players we want. There's no reason to accept a bargain-level bid.

All of your players are rubbish anyway. Surely you'd want them all gone?

I guess u r having a big clearout hayemaker

Thanks for your input Haymaker.

Well thought out points.

Very worthwhile.....

"Villa will be THE biggest club in the Championship"

No-one does delusions of grandeur quite like villa,the drop into League Division 1 will be a painful one the season after next!

The Gayemaker
Leeds are a pathetic club that everyone was glad to see relegated twice and have been laughing at for years and years now,a massive bunch of total and utter losers,filth club with filth,lowlife,Chav fans!