El Zen

Why would he want to call Lee Hendrie? Silly me. Of course Lee Hendrie still has a future at Aston Villa FC after this season.

Prefers to call himself Edu as well, so sign him up and give him Lee Hendrie's number and I know what I'll have on the back of my next shirt. :winkold:

Funny you should mention it, because I heard that FC Lyn Oslo's Nigerian starlet Chinedu Ogbuke is on trial with Wigan. Don't know if it's been mentioned, but he may be worth a look. I'd take him over his mate at Chelsea, John Obi Mikel, any day.

Hmm, FC Alicebands or Smurfs IF it is then. A Buffalo couldn't give a rat's about hygene Sorry, should really have done this by PM. Delete at will, mods.

Enga is short for VÃ¥lerenga, my local club and John Carew's first professional club. Of course, Carew would not be where he is today if he hadn't spent two years with the pride of Oslo (eh, Tarj? :winkold: ).

Why bother. Obvious PFE'ing :winkold: John Carew was with Rosenborg for half a season, while he was with Enga for two full years. A player's first professional club will always have great influence on his career. What are you? A friggin' Buffalo? Again, I'm sorry. This must make absolute no sense to non-Norwegians. Shake hands, Tarj?

That is not true at all. We gave him the chance to play at the highest level at the age of 17. He played more games for Enga than for Rosenborg. He won his first trophy (the Norwegian F.A. Cup) at the club. His first taste of European football came with VÃ…lerenga. Remember 3-3 in Istanbul and the quarter final against Chelsea? He got to work with Egil Olsen, who taught him a lot about the game. I think it is safe to say that VÃ¥lerenga has meant a lot for John Carew's career. So much he's made it clear that he will return to the club one day to finish his career where it started. I believe I've convicingly proved it isn't Sorry for going off topic, I just couldn't let that one pass.

I think he failed a medical at Fulham because of a knee condition called "jumper's knees". I've got the same condition and it effectively put an end to my "career", however it is possible to recover from. I don't think it has bothered him too much over the past couple of years.

He'd cause defences enough problems to allow Gabby and Luke to bang the goals in from open play and he'd be the target for corners and free-kicks. Spot on, both of you. Well, he broke through at (my local club) Valerenga at the very tender age of 17 and, due to his brutal physical strength already being fully developed, immidietly made a name for himself. Within three years he was playing regularly for Valencia. He's been a big name in Europe for over seven years, actually. Not bad for a young lad.

I agree. He's not a goal poacher per se, but he's brutally strong and actually quite fast. With a creative midfield behind him and a couple of decent wingers, he'd do a good job for us imo.

Think you missed my point. I was being sarcastic. Probably should've added a :roll: at the end just to make it clear. :roll: :winkold:

You mean, like Chelsea? That's all I wanted to hear, really. Ta.

Oh but if we start spending over the odds for players, we leave ourselves in a poor bargaining position for years to come. Nope, probably not. However, then we may say "well, might as well cough up £15mill for Darren Bent as well while we're at it" and the snowball is in motion. Other clubs will think "No point bargaining with Aston Villa and that billionaire Lerner, he'll cough up whatever we want anyway". We can't run the club like that. MON and Randy are NOT afraid to spend £10 million on a player, as long as that player is actually worth £10 million and not £5 million. Gettit?

Yes, because we'll end up like Chelsea who have to pay over the top for every player they want as other clubs know they've got loads and loads of cash. And that's no way to run a football club in the long term, imo.

He's a very good player, no doubt. Would prefer a more experienced, goal poaching striker though, and we already have Luke and Gabby.

Doesn't really change the fact that getting top class players in January is more difficult than in the summer window, does it? If a player is first choice at his club, he's unlikely to move in January, unless a much bigger wants him and is prepared to pay over the odds. SWP is hardly first choice at Chelsea, despite being a very good player, and is one of very few top standard players available in this window I'd pressume. And, who knows, SWP may still end up going nowhere. We've hard nothing official yet, have we?

I know what you mean, Tricella, but again I must stress that big moves are not that likely to happen in January. Clubs will, understandably be very reluctant to sell their most rized assets, as there is little time to bring in a proper replacement. Now, our squad was almost relegated last season. We have a lot of youngsters playing week in and week out, which is refleceted in our recent loss of form. I think that this window is all about getting players that will do a decent job for the remainder of the season, and then build from there. It is in the summer months you can really do business. I'm sure the board and the manager would love to sign world class players, and I think we have the money to do so. But if other clubs won't sell, what can we do but look for less fashionable yet decent alternatives?

Maybe, but I hope we can do a lot better too. I know I'm repeating myself and what others have said too, but we must remember this is the January window. Top standard players will be very hard to get. I think players like Alan Smith, Marlon Harewood and Robbie Earnshaw could do a decent job for us, and if nothing else add Premiership experience and more options. What I also like about these players is that they have good physical qualities, as we need more power in our team.

I agree with DDID. We could do a lot worse than Robbie Earnshaw.

I think we all agree with you there, and that's why this has been an entertaining evening on VillaTalk.com. January transfer rumours on internet message boards are always funny.

how many times did he say definitely? To be fair, he never said he spoke to Rain Man.

It's nothing personal mate, it's just that we get these stories every transfer window, and 99,9% of them are pure BS.

Since the 25th of August to be precise

And people accuse Awol and RandysVilla of being one and the same. This has gone too far, Drat :winkold:

To be fair, only one or two people actually think he's going to sign. Most of us are just having a laugh.