18 Aug 2013 10:40:44
Real Madrid have put in a £7m bid for Villa frontman new-signing Nicklas Helenius to lead their B side frontline and be a future Madrid striker. My sources at the club have apparently said Helenius is not for sale and will be staying at Villa.

1.) 18 Aug 2013
He's been there a a matter of weeks! doubt he'll be moving again! I call bs

2.) 18 Aug 2013
Spain's second league with a possibility to maybe play for real madrid in a few years or the premier league now? Not to mention that this is a world cup year and he will no doubt look to get a call up which will not happen is he's playing for real madrids reserves. Also we aren't going to buy a player then agree to sell him a few weeks later. I'm not doubting your sources, but this all sounds like a bit of a wind up to me. Maybe somebody had a few beers after the game last night, said 'helenius could play for madrid' and it all escelated from there.

3.) 18 Aug 2013
I doubt this very highly

4.) 18 Aug 2013
You can't move twice permanently in the same window

5.) 18 Aug 2013
You can move to a different league twice in the same window

6.) 18 Aug 2013
Cannot happen this season, however did we sign him before the new season cut off?

Either way, I doubt this very much, I am now very excited about seeing him play for us!

Everything is coming up claret and blue roses this week. One new signing in the middle and I will start getting very carried away. I cannot decide whether a new holding midfielder to use in a 4 3 3 or a creative player for the 4 2 3 1 is the more imperative.

7.) 18 Aug 2013
A DM is more important, going forward we are very good, defensively we still look poor, more protection for the back 4 is needed

>Scg87

8.) 18 Aug 2013
I'd say against Arsenal we didn't set out to be defensive Scg87, we missed Sylla for sure though!

9.) 18 Aug 2013
What's setting out to be defensive got to do with it? Last season we played 5-4-1 at times an still were poor defensively, an if we set up in the same manor this season we'd still be poor defensively. We don't have a proper DM, yes sylla may well do that job to a very high standard in the future but I'm not convinced he'll be able to do that consistently this season.

I just feel that our defensive side is the only thing that will let us down this season, I'm not concerned about us scoring goals, with Benteke Gabby an Weimann as our front 3 we will always be a massive threat going forward


>Scg87

10.) 18 Aug 2013
How did we miss sylla mate? u must have watched a different game. KEA, delph and westwood were all superb especially delph.
sylla will find it hard to get back in the starting line-up on evidence of our midfields showing at arsenal and even more so should we dip into the market again which I doubt we will personally.

11.) 18 Aug 2013
Not one of the three can excite the fans just need someone who has a footballers brain

12.) 18 Aug 2013
The problem yesterday was the defence again! Look at their goal, matt lowton has gone forward (well within his rights) he has lost the ball and had to run back, so we had 1 defender out if the game. Then look at ron vlaar, while we have 3 at the back he decides to sprint past the midfield into the arsenals half and then misses a tackle making him the wrong side of the ball, leaving us with 2 defenders, therefore meaning baker had to go over, and luna had to mark both giroud and walcott. It didn't happen again, and we didn't concede again! If you ask me, I personally think vlaar is the problem, too busy trying to be a midfielder most of the time! Luna and lowton can go up the pitch because 9 times out of 10 they're back to defend but why on earth is our centre back running in front of our midfielders to make tackles half way up the pitch? He is meant to be our captain, so why didn't he stay in position and shout at somebody from the midfield to go and cover the right back slot so we still had 4 in the defence!

13.) 19 Aug 2013
The issue with the Arsenal goal was not solely down to Lowton getting forward, it was the tackle we missed leading to the ball to Oxlade-Chamberlain. Shows the need for a sitting midfielder who is able to cover when the full backs go forward

14.) 19 Aug 2013
Had you read the post properly you'll notice I didn't blame lowton, I blamed vlaar for his missed tackle half way up the pitch. Which then means that sitting midfield or no sitting midfield, ron vlaar is still going to run past the midfield and leave us short at the back.

15.) 19 Aug 2013
Have to agree that vlaar is the weak link too many errors for me. clark came on and was a lot more effective in his overall defensive performance and 90 percent of us thought he was the weak link.

16.) 19 Aug 2013
Agree mate, clark had a bad season last year but he was very good on saturday. I would like to see vlaar taken out of the defence just to see if we're organised back there. It seems a bit hypocritical to give him the arm band, let him tell players where they should be then ignore his position and play as a right midfielder. I don't mind him making a move up field if we're atracking and have the full backs in defence, but for a centre back to run to the half way line when we are defending is really the most ridiculous thing I have seen in quite a while, not to mention the fact we were already short in defence.

17.) 19 Aug 2013
EthAVFC

Seem to remember that Vlaar was up the pitch to take a free kick following a foul on Benteke and that it wasn't him that missed the tackle on the guy that played the ball to Ox-C. Let's just celebrate a great win, because after the goal Arsenal had very few chances in the first half and not many more in the second. When they did the brilliant Guzan was on hand.

GreatBarrVillian

18.) 19 Aug 2013
Just double checked mate, it was vlaar. We did manage to stay pretty water tight but if we keep giving away cheap goals cause of awful position we'll be in trouble still.