I didn't mean delusional in that he wouldn't get a job - though it is a surprise - rather that he has the skill set to do the it competently.

First post on this very special forum, so hello to everyone.

I can't blame him for applying, of course, and he's obviously very ambitious and seems self-assured. However, Villa have taken a huge risk in employing a manager who has overseen, I think, 28 games in his short career in order to save them. I never liked him as a player for us so I have no real interest in him keeping them up but I think they will survive, just.

On a far more important note, do we get to find out today whether Members are successful (or otherwise) in getting tickets for Wembley?

It is meant to be, yes. I keep checking my e-mail hoping for some good news!

ps. welcome!

perryman_fw, yep, welcome aboard!

I guess at least MotD interviews will give us a weekly sense of validation. I used to know a couple of Villa fans, I almost went looking for them today on Faceache ...

Oooh, applied for 2 tickets, got 1. Can't complain.

clean bill of health for the game tomorrow. i was wondering if this is the longest we've gone in recent times with a fully fit squad ?

Extraordinary isn't it; you play 6 games to get to the last 32.

8 games to the last 16 - at least by then all the tractor building teams from Ukraine or somewhere have hopefully gone back to the factory.

We have been lucky except for when we were struggling on CBs for a short time. The squad is large enough depth wise to accommodate a few players being out which is an improvement on previous years. With Kane being the only forward getting on the score sheet regularly and Ade and Sodaldo barren in the goal scoring department, that area remains our archilles heel though.

In terms of the number of games to get to the final it is the equivalent of playing like another half a season in Cups games. Since UEFA expanded the Europa League I have thought there are far, far too many teams in the competition now not to mention the Champion League failures parachuted into it.

I missed the boat completely. Tried to apply too early and got slung out of the booking system with a nice message then when my membership was eligible I had missed the deadline by a day when I checked back in.

Great win away at Forest in the FAYC last night. Kyle Walker-Peters and Ismail Azzaoui getting the goals.

Next up is a 2 leg Semi-Final against Chelsea!

Lloris (c), Walker, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies; Bentaleb, Paulinho; Chadli, Eriksen, Townsend; Soldado

Subs: Vorm, Dier, Rose, Dembele, Lamela, Mason, Kane

May be with one eye on the Spammers game, but then I think Soldado does tend to have a teeny bit more joy in European games, so probably why he's got the nod.

A bit disappointed with this team. They're one off the better teams in the tournament and I was expecting our strongest team. I could accept a weaker team if we were in a good position for the return with a view to Chelsea but not today.

That's more like it Bobby

so good, real intensity to the start - Fiorantina don't know what hit 'em

wow .. if that had gone in ..


yeah, looking good so far

Silly goal to give away - the defence could have done more there. Good first half though.

Poor second half. We took off the best players.

Tailed off in the second half, but I think the fact that we didn't concede again kind of shows how we had things fairly controlled.

Decent game but would have liked to have not given them an away goal to work with next week.

And in other news, apparently the judge is going to rule in the Archway case tomorrow ..

Pity we didn't get the second goal and gave them an away one. I thought Soldado after his first might suddenly discover his shooting boots and get a hat trick or brace at least. Tough dilemna for Poch - Do we send a weakened side to Fiorentina, to be at full strength for the LC final or a strong side and risk players being knackered for the final?

I do think we should of started with Kane and Mason to to try and get a decent advantage in the first leg.

The stadium going ahead is inevitable. The only positive outcome for Archway is that if the judgement goes in there favour then they may end up with a better deal.

I certainly think the stadium is inevitable, but I suppose it depends on how the club takes it if the judge rules for Archway. Obviously they'd be in a position to either have to give them what they want to get rid of them now or to try and re-negotiate all over again which would lead to even more delays.

As far as the side goes next week, I can actually see only a few minor tweaks maybe. I think Vorm is almost certainly going to be in goal for the final as he's played in all of the previous rounds, so Lloris would certainly start, but I could possibly see Dier in at the back as we could do with Jan's experience and level head at Wembley.

As far as midfield goes, Capoue or Stambouli could feature as well.

The most likely outcome is that the side will probably be largely the same and the players that Poch wants to start on the Sunday will come off after an hour or so.

I'm really hoping the Archway case is resolved today and we can finally start with the stadium construction.

I think it was Fiorentina that were in control. They had their away goal and made sure that they didn't concede again in the second half. Arguably Montella got his tactics wrong and was a bit lucky with the result. He says he expected us to start fast but went in with a 3-5-2 formation that gave Townsend so much room and we could easily have been three up before they scored. Their goal was a bit of luck with Loris punching the ball onto their guy's back and it falling perfectly for Basanta. Once they changed to a 4-5-1 formation at half time we struggled to break them down.