Friday, 19th June

So at the end of last weeks column I was bored of Grealish and Benteke talk. Guess what? 

Anyway, Kieran Trippier is not joining as he's off to Spurs, however it looks like his mooted swap with Matty Lowton will be 50% accurate, as he appears to be heading to Burnley.

Saturday, 20th June

I might just start referring to the Grealish and Benteke stuff as GaB. In fact, let's try that...

"There's more GaB talk today...."

Hmm. It could be misinterpreted as being about Gabby. We'll have to go with BaG.

Away from BaG (that's better), there are reports that originated in the Italian media suggesting we're in for Ternana's Uruguayan U20 international striker Felipe Avenatti. So I did the standard YouTube vid search. He's like Kozak in stature (big lad, 6'5) but reminds me of Savo in his play. So there you go, you now probably know as much about him as I do. In fact, you quite possibly know about as much as I do about Ternana and the Uruguay U20 team now, too.

Y'know, on the official site, they have a Q&A with Cyrille Regis today. He'd be right up there on my list of players I wish we'd signed when he was a lot younger.

Sunday, 21st June

More BaG stuff. Delph is to mentor JG and L'plop may be looking elsewhere away from CB, is the talk today.

Monday, 22nd June

Lowton to Burnley is official. As is Sylla to Rennes. Both permanent moves. I wish both well. I'm not convinced that Lowton 'has it' defensively to be a Premier League player. As for Sylla, while I think we'd all agree is no great loss (good song aside), whatever way you look at it, the only proper good run Paul Lambert had as manager was when Sylla was pretty much starting every week! Anyway, good luck to both of them.

Local journalist Mat Kendrick, who is the only member of the Meaning Evil* Villa team over the past decade or so that I have found remotely tolerable, writes an article suggesting that Villa and Gabby would benefit from a parting of the ways. Regardless of opinion on the subject matter, I find it an odd choice; he signed a new contract less than a year ago, he's done nothing to warrant a move to a club at the top end of the league, and I don't really see him taking a backwards or even sideways step.

*That anagram doesn't really work any more as it's the Birmingham Mail these days rather than the Evening Mail... sorry everyone. Sorry. For what it's worth, it was a much, much, much, MUCH more respectable paper when it was the Evening Mail, though.

Tuesday, 23rd June

Jeffrey Schlupp (Leicester) is the latest transfer link. I'd be okay with signing him, purely because his name is kinda fun to say. Go on. Emphasise the 'Sch' and 'pp' a bit. *Sscchhluppppp*. See? Fun.

Wednesday, 24th June

I haven't even bothered mentioning the BaG stuff the last two days but here's a thing - talking about CB today is Tony Cascarino, and talking about JG is Harry Redknapp. Now there's two people whose opinion I rrrrrreally care about 

There's been whispers lately that Amir Begovic from Stoke may be on his way. I haven't mentioned it yet this week but it's actually made it into some of the papers now. We're also linked with Jazz Richards, who apparently plays for Swansea.

I feel like Jeffrey Schlupp and Jazz Richards should trade first names. Although while someone called Jeffrey Richards has a world of options of what to do with his life, anyone called Jazz Schlupp should definitely work in the adult film industry.

Thursday, 25th June

So I was working until 4.30am, and therefore woke up a little later than usual, and pretty much the first thing I found out about events on Earth (partly because I look at Villa news before the rest of the planet) is that we've brought in Ray Wilkins to be assistant manager to Sherwood. I for one am pretty happy about this. He's got good pedigree in football, and has worked with some top managers. Also, while Sherwood in terms of age isn't really a young manager, he actually is in as much as that's not what he's been doing for the majority of the time since he stopped playing; again, the experience of Wilkins may help to counterbalance some of Tim's lack of managerial experience.

The Begovic story has advanced a little. The talk is that we're apparently not willing to pay the £10m fee that Stoke supposedly want. This leads to some people moaning about us doing things on the cheap, and while I understand that initial reaction, the fact is he only has a year left on his deal. I'm not convinced that £10m represents good value in this situation.

I haven't mentioned the takeover again this week.... until now! The Wanda Group announce they are to buy 3 more sports firms, and this leads to the ultra-optimists believing Villa are one of them, the ultra-pessimists believing that WBA are one of them, and those of us in the middle just sort of shrugging our shoulders, figuring that it could easily be neither of us.

So another week closer to death has gone by, we're still not sure what's going on with the takeover, we are sure that some people are a little obsessed with Jack Grealish, and Christian Benteke is probably leaving or probably staying depending on who you want/choose to believe. I feel like there's an excellent chance I'll be writing the same thing in 7 days time...