Joseph Barton on Aston Villa

[DaveD]

Barton has always been erudite and honest by footballer standards. That hair trigger temper on and off the pitch though.

[old man villa fan]

It's quite easy to spot what is not right, we all do it.  The hard part is how do you fix it.

Take Barton's comments on Hutton, Cissoko, Ayew and Gill.  Who are the alternatives at the moment.  Sinclair on the left and Ayew inside, possibly.  Fullbacks, Richards or Bacuna for Hutton, we've been there.  Richardson for Cissoko, no way.

Until Grealish and Sanchez are fit, there are very few options in midfield.  Many have said that Richards, Gabby and Bacuna should not play again.  This is the situation Garde is faced with.

As I see it, we have options in central defence and that is about it.  The only untried option is to bring in a couple of young players.

[A Northern Soul]

I genuinely believe if we had gone bargain basement in January and made two basic signings in Barton and Rickie Lambert we would have been watching the Newcastle game with a lot more interest tonight. Might not be what we would have wanted, might be no more than just about average but both would have given us something more than we have for, what, a couple of million quid?