Amavi doesn't leave, Sam signs, to be a social media lad and pre-season meltdown

Sam Johnstone has signed up again. I'm not entirely sure if it is a permanent signing or not but I do know that the owner has tweeted a photo of him playing table tennis with him months ago and likening it to Steve Bruce playing golf with John Terry.

Anything for a bit of PR right or to be one of the lads. One of the lads on Twitter.

But hand on heart, I would have had Johnstone over Hart, but that's just me and for the bigger picture or the blind optimism. Call it what you want. But then I heard we lost a pre-season friendly match the other day and it all changed.

Melt down

Regular visitors will know that I care little for England matches. I mention this because one of the things I care even less for are pre-season friendlies. The results or performances in pre-season mean absolutley nothing. It's literally a means for players to start remembering how to play as a team.

But, you'd think that we were knocked out of the FA Cup the way some were acting on social media. But the thing is, those that over-reacted are the ones you can ignore right know. But that's just my view, you don't have to share it but it's pre-season - it means absolutely nothing.

But to fill up the page, the match will be embedded below. Watch it if you want to.

Not long to go though

And I know there isn't much going on, but the season kicks off in the not to distant future and the question I suspect many of you are asking is why haven't Gabby and Richards gone and didn't we sell Amavi? Turns out we didn't sell Amavi and also that we were not getting more than £25mn for him. Despite apparently getting an offer in that region just a few months ago, we were willing to let him go for less than what we paid for him.

I expected more from the owner. In so many ways. And I don't mean about Champions League. I hope he is learning.

And there is plenty of time to the start of the season and Richards and Gabby could be gone soon. If they're not, that problem is still going to persist at Aston Villa and we're going to be talking the same thing next summer and nobody will understand why. But there is time. Time for the penny to drop.

The match in case you wanted to watch it