Press standards

[dave.woodhall]

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/01/over-the-border/

[Mellin]

Dave, whatever happened to 'IT'S OUR YEAR!'? A sign of how bad things have become.

[ROBBO]

That performance could finally end any ideas Bruce may have had about Westwood being capable of holding down a midfield spot and i cannot fathom why Gardner was given a new contract. Bruce has excuses but he really needs to find players capable of playing midfield in this division

[Villafirst]

A very valid point on the timing of Gestede's imminent  departure;  surely Villa could've engineered it to their advantage and insisted he was part of the squad for Monday? Who knows, he might well of come off the bench and scored or set up an equaliser. Still we'll never know.

[VillaAlways]

Agree on Gestede. Nuts to let him go now. Feels like something that would have happened in the Lerner era. Makes no sense and may have been an effective sub yesterday . Gardners new contract is looking like a terrible decision.

[brian green]

Bleak but appropriately blunt piece.

As for the Gestede long goodbye we have an ingrained inability to think ahead.  We have become the masters of suckering ourselves.

[darren woolley]

Spot on Dave.

[cdward]

Hoping that Gestede going is because we have someone lined up.
We will win the FA Cup again, just not with these players.

[Ad@m]

Boro may have put a time limit on getting the Gestede deal done.  If Bruce has decided Gestede isn't part of his plans, better to get rid of him early than risk keeping him until the Summer at the earliest, especially if that frees up funds to buy a decent midfielder, where our real problems lie.

[Rigadon]

We have seriously rich owners (as confirmed by them) so if we are in the realms if needing to free up funds that would be a tad disappointing

[Ad@m]

We have seriously rich owners (as confirmed by them) so if we are in the realms if needing to free up funds that would be a tad disappointing

Weren't we something like the 5th highest spending team in England over the Summer?  If so, it wouldn't be surprising if Dr Tone had told Bruce he needs to generate any funds he wants to spend out of the current squad.

[eamonn]

Xia will also have likely been briefed by our Finance Director (has Robin Russell actually been replaced?) and maybe even Round/Wyness, that balancing our books where possible is advisable especially after the summer splurge. Maybe there's exceptions should a big target become gettable and likely to impact whether we make the play-offs or not.

Re Rudy, it could be that talks have reached the medical stage in which case jeopardising the deal over a possible injury at Cardiff may have been considered risky.

[damon loves JT]

Lost count of the number of times you've wondered aloud whether Westwood will ever be allowed to play for us again.

As you say, it's as if he has some quality we mere mortals are unable to perceive.

[cheltenhamlion]

Lost count of the number of times you've wondered aloud whether Westwood will ever be allowed to play for us again.

As you say, it's as if he has some quality we mere mortals are unable to perceive.

I had a bit of a Facebook meltdown about that useless sod yesterday.

[levico]

Brutally honest.