What is going on?

After all the PR from RL’s henchman since 2006, for the club to suddenly freeze up and not say anything that is meaningful to the ordinary fan is a big mistake i.m.o.

What is also of concern is that – accepting all the arguments why Villa have to be less profligate – players of the ilk of Parker, Cole and Hargreaves (players who are good but probably past their best) this week chose to say ‘no thanks’ to coming to Villa Park.

And with the lack of in-depth cover for the first-team players of any quality that we do have, this could be a rocky season – again.

And will attendances recover?

We saw how many attended the Wolves match - a derby for goodness sake! - even Wolves' fans stayed away.

To bring in the crowds, better signings were badly needed, and not only signings to put us higher in the League (for morale purposes at least) but also to help Villa win a cup or two. By "better", I mean creative.

We keep talking about League, League, League, but the cup competitions still mean something - in the fans hearts at the very least, I suggest. Until 2009-10, it looked as though Villa was willing to give up on cup competitions in the 21st century, but I say Villa need to get back into that theme.

I still clearly remember those four cup years between '57 and '61 (1 FA Cup win, 1 League Cup win and two FA Cup semi-finals), which greatly helped to raise the fans' morale.

More of it please. Whether we can with the squad we have remains to be seen. Bolton in the League Cup may provide a glimmer of whether we can.