BigJim

As much as I love McCann for his attitude and effort, sadly I just don't think he's good enough for where we want to be going. He's currently irreplaceable within our squad, but we need a DM who is more adept with the ball at his feet.

A lot of people have said similar things about McCann. They're all probalby right.

So If GM is "not quite good enough" why in the world have we not signed anybody to at worst deputise for him when he's out, or at best to replace him altogether??

It's not that bad Big Jim. FWIW, if there was midfield cover available which was better than what we currently have then I think we would have signed them. McCann is an important player for us no doubt but we have more flexibility in the latter third of the pitch now which means, to me anyway, that we can cope better without him than we could in the first half of the season.

1. Yes it is, it's terrible

2. I said before the window opened that the "nobody available" line is pure, unadulterated BS. Nobody available in the whole of the footballing world better than Tina and Oz ? Do me a favour.

3. We can have all the flexibility in the world in the forward line, but if we can't get the ball off the opposition there won't be much chance to exploit it.

I'll be extremely disappointed if we don't get any midfield cover.

At the very least we are going to be in trouble if or rather when GM is out.

Can't believe it really.

Oh yes sorry for this, but take your pick... John 'the heading' Carew, Craig 'the pacey' Bellamy, Kevin 'the tap in' Doyle or Nicolae 'the finisher' Dica?

Forced to make a choice, I'd take Bellamy - Gabby-like pace and a consistently proven finisher, can't understand why Benitez would let him go.

Okay show me where the Cleveland Browns have had a set busget when it comes to signing players?

Erm, I don't have access to the Browns' internal planning documents. You obviously do.

As for bugets. Rubbish. We have no budget. It is, as always will be under RL and MON, that Martion will say who he wants and how much he will cost, Randy will then say yes or no. Simple as, then Martin will either accept or argue the case. No 'here is your budget' crap, just simple 'you want him, how much? oh okay if it's reasonable go ahead' stuff.

Budgets = rubbish??

Look, we have a very successful and professional businessman for our new chairman. Professional business is conducted with planning and budgets have to play a huge part.

Your Victorian idea might work if we had no time restraints and could buy players one at a time but this is a high pressure situation where I hope we will be bidding on 6-10 players with the idea of ending up with 3 or 4. If I were Martin or Randy, I would want a budget in place to be able to deal with that.

I like SWP but I somehow doubt we will be paying 10m for him (or anybody else) at this stage.

You've also got to think of the wages he will be on at Chelsea.

A superstar fee and superstar wages for a player who's not really a superstar.... I can't see it.

We will most likely see players not playing regularly for their team, solid MON type players o'shea smith etc for example now them type of players i do think we will sign.

I think you're on the right lines Jez. I am expecting MON to sign "unfancied" players with Prem experience and get a lot more from them than has been seen previously. Players a bit like McCann, if you like, who nobody particularly noticed before.

I'm not terribly excited about this prospect, but it seems to be accepted that this is not the time to get exciting players in.

Martin being so upfront and honest and everything, I tend to believe what he says. If he says he doesn't know his budget, I believe him.

Jim, why don't you just stop believing everything people say and have a glass of this instead...

im not reading too much into EVERY comment made by o'neill...

Yeah, let's all just stop arguing about what others say, and believe what we want to believe.

Eat drink and be merry guys. Happy Christmas.

Pablo, I think everyone will assume he's got plenty to spend, whatever he says or doesn't say on the subject.

But Martin being so upfront and honest and everything, I tend to believe what he says. If he says he doesn't know his budget, I believe him. And it bothers me.

So why say "I honestly don't know how much money I've got"

instead of something like: "I'm not so daft as to tell you how much I've got to spend"

You could be right Sam, but I just don't see that as a very professional way of operating and it would certainly make things very difficult in a tight transfer window. To get more than one player in, you've got to have multiple combinations of bids at the ready- fall back options if your targets don't materialise. I don't see how you can plan for that unless you start out with a budget.

This I find worrying:

O'Neill told icbirmingham: "I honestly don't know how much money I've got, but we're going to try to strengthen the squad."

Don't know when it was dated but it doesn't sound very professional to me. How can MON plan to bring in players without knowing his budget???

Almost sounds like the DOL/Ellis farces ffs.

We need 11 new players, maybe more. Nearly all need to be better than what we have already. Some of the kids should be learning their trade somewhere else next season. In January we need a premiership quality LWer, RWer and CB - and a few other stop gap cover players to get us back on track. The real building can start in the summer.

I'd agree with most of that, except that I'd say we need four players in January - two fullbacks, a powerful central midfielder and a right winger.

Hello, good evening and welcome General.

You and your partners have already brought so much joy to the fans of this football club... a big thank you for going the extra mile and taking the time to chat to a privileged few of us.

some of the suggestions on players are rather odd. for example kieran richardson? the guy is pants. id rather ahve bouma or samuel at left back and would rather have barry on the left than him.

Agreed. Richardon and Bridge two overhyped very ordinary players.

Mccann is playing well atm, but for how long? I do not think he is good enough to play at the very top level and that is where we are aiming and heading for.

You could say that about everybody in the team.

Gav is first name on the teamsheet at the mo, judging from MON's comments ("If he's fit, he plays")

But for that very reason, MON must be looking at bringing someone else in for the position, because the implication is that we will be struggling in that area if Gav is injured. (That much was pretty obvious last season).

I don't think I'd want to bring in a slew of new players at once. I think it's important to keep a coherent core of players and then bring in quality players to upgrade targetted positions. For January, Milner would be a good buy and then a left back to free Barry to play in the midfield. Bridge would be ideal but I can't see Chelsea letting him go unless he really starts to make noise about being unhappy. They don't need the money, they're not going to find a better replacement and they'll need the depth at the position for Europe and domestic cups. A quality alternative to McCann would be welcome as well I suppose, how vital he is was demonstrated on Saturday and his playing hurt showed we're pressed for options at that position.

Agree mostly with these priorities, but I think we should be able to find a better player than the hugely overrated Wayne Bridge, and for a lot less money.

I would add a top striker to the list. (Lancs, what do you have against Klose?)

Plus I wouldn't be surprised to see us bring an American or two over.

Thanks Bickster, yes I had read that R was supposed to be at the game, but I just assumed it was because it was the first home game, etc. It never occurred to me before that the whole operation might have been synchronized to this degree.

Sure someone else must have posted this or thought of this ages ago. I am a bit slow so it has only just occurred to me that it looks like RAL's bid was DELIBERATELY TIMED so that it would be final by tonight's match.

Sorry if that was obvious to everybody days ago.

Let's face it, until we really start winning things, nobody is going to pay us any serious money. There's no way it will work the other way round, i.e. somebody gives us enough money for the name for us to build a team of world beaters with.

Lets face it, theres no way Ellis is selling the club

Lets face it there no way Martin O'Neill will become our manager

Lets face it theres no way Aston Villa will be owned by a Billionaire

Just a few things that people have said will not happen in the not to distant past, It might just happen.

Let's face it, Villa won't finish top 3 in MON's first year...

(I'll keep trotting them out, you make 'em happen )

I wouldn't want it renamed unless it really brought in mega bucks.

Let's face it, until we really start winning things, nobody is going to pay us any serious money. There's no way it will work the other way round, i.e. somebody gives us enough money for the name for us to build a team of world beaters with.

So instead of calling it 32Red Park for 5m, I'd rather stick with things the way they are for now.

When we've raised our profile a bit and someone can offer us ten times as much, maybe it will be time to consider it.

This whole thing about possible other bids confuses the hell out of me.

I understand that Ellis and Petchey have signed irrevocable commitments to sell to Randy, and the Board is recommending the bid to the shareholders at large.

I understand that these commitments are "soft," in other words, can be altered if a better bid comes in.

So can someone tell me now:

What happens if a new bid comes in, which Ellis goes for and Petchey doesn't (or vice versa)???

This whole business of revocable irrevocable undertakings seems lkike a nonsense to me.

we're stuck with Aitken/Steele for the first few games of the season.

Or here's another dark scenario:

What the hell happens if all this negotiating and excitement is too much for Dougie and his ticker packs up?

No way would anything useful get done before the New Year.

FFS Randy, sign the cheque, man! Tomorrow may be too late!!

Increasingly worried - Padfield is starting to sound like a chancer like Neville. Why would he need to join forces with Neville (or vice versa) if either of them already had the money in place? And why does he (like Neville) suddenly need to start sucking up to Ellis and the fans? Just get the job done, stop the self-publicising.

And does anyone really know that Lerner is back on board? - we seem to be placing a lot of our hopes on the semi-literate Ellis-controlled puppet from the Evening Mail on that one.

The whole thing seems to be taking an embarrassingly long time to come to any concrete conclusion - can anyone remember anything remotely similar dragging on for so long? Clearly we have to take into account the Ellis factor - is he simply incapable of doing anything at something less than a slug's pace these days (cf. the excruciating Berson transfer saga etc etc etc etc etc)?; or is the self-centred little sh#t making ludicrous and delusional demands re finance and his future role which is putting people off?; or is it that ultimately he has no intention o f selling and is indulging in his 3 favourite pastimes (apart from counting his shillings)?, namely laughing at us proles, garnering lots of column inches for himself however unfavourable, and using particularly heightened smokescreen tactics to ensure that he stays in power but doesn't have to spend anything before the transfer window shuts? - if it was anyone else I wouldn't believe that this last one was possible but I genuinely believe that there are no depths to which this power-crazed ogre won't sink, he's the Idi Amin of football. And with every day that we are left to speculate and pray whilst nothing much happens my hopes are sinking. Please let me be wrong

Who knows if they will join forces?

Who's sucking up to Ellis?

Beware of the comments as explained in the Forum rules reagrding individuals, includin said Journo

And as for the Ellis comments - Rothchilds won't allow him

I share most of Slab's fears.

As for Rothschilds "not allowing" Ellis to do this or that, I wouldn't bet on them being able to stop him. Oh, they would no doubt gripe an awful lot afterwards - "Shocking don't you know, really bad form that Ellis chap" - but what can they do to him really?

Take him to court? But the poor old man is too frail, we couldn't possibly, and besides, he's got the perfect defence: insanity