FCVilla2011

lolololol Fluked his way to two European Cup finals and the highest points total not to win the PL title? wow. I actually feel sorry for Benitez, the English media really have **** his reputation which leads to comments like this. ^

Lol confirmed interest, a meeting scheduled, Whelan saying he's in Miami for talks and two pics of Henry and Martinez together...why are people saying it's fake? :|

I don't understand this way of thinking at all. He had done a fantastic job at Wigan with a around £3.5m profit on transfers since he's been there. Not to mention Rodgers is getting all of the accolades from the foundations RM put in place at Swansea. What do you expect him to do at Wigan exactly? - Guardiola had no experience and was promoted from the B team. - Benitez had a pretty poor CV, sacked from his 1st job with 2 wins in 30 or something like that. Valencia, who had reached back-to-back CL finals, took a punt on him from a lowly club in tenerife. - Klopp, shite at Mainz then went on to win 2 titles with Dortmund. Plenty more examples too. Doesn't matter where they come from, the character and football philosophy is what matters and at just 38, I think Martinez could be a top manager.

Whilst I agree that Benitez did a good job, there was a pretty good squad to start with. Has he ever had to start the building job? I don't know, so it's a genuine question From one of the articles... Surprisingly poor squad left by Houllier, in hindsight.

Some interesting articles on Benitez... http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/02/lucky-rafa/ http://tomkinstimes.com/2009/10/some-rafa-facts/ http://tomkinstimes.com/2009/10/the-benitez-myths-series/ Also he had a net spend of around 78m in 6 seasons, about £13m a year. Two Champions League fianls and 4 points of the title and some would want Brendan **** Rodgers first.

Torres, Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Mascherano, Alonso, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Luis Garcia, Bellamy, Lucas. ^^^ A lot of wordclass players in that list, not to mention some bargains like Rodriguez for £1m. He bought some crap but what manager doesn't? A lot of players he turned a profit on btw...something that could be crucial for us.

This is so true. Not to mention he bought a lot of these players, like N'gog, to sell them on for more £££ because of a lack of funds towards the end. Even more impressive really.

IF we have anything like a decent budget then it has got to be Benitez, he's genuinely a word class manager unlike the rest we've been linked with. It's a no-brainer. Failing that I'd probably go with Martinez, he's done a fantastic job at Wigan and could surprise a few imo.

:winkold:

Thought as much. Nite.

The Sun 12/11/2011 "Kenny will Stew on £100m spree" Tailed in other newspapers also on that day. Birmingham Evening Mail article about the price being £25M... ASTON Villa have told Liverpool to stop wasting their time on Stewart Downing – as Alex McLeish focuses instead on raiding Blues this weekend for his potential new assistant boss Peter Grant. It has emerged that Kenny Dalglish’s side originally had a £12 million offer for Downing rejected out of hand three weeks ago before returning with an improved £15 million bid on Tuesday. Villa are insulted by the Anfield giants’ valuations of Downing, particularly the opening gambit which was the amount Villa originally paid for the winger when he was injured two years ago. A mooted third bid predicted to be around the £18 million mark has not materialised and the claret and blues are keen for Liverpool to now divert their attentions away from the England wideman. Randy Lerner, Paul Faulkner and McLeish are adamant there is no need or desire to sell the former Middlesbrough favourite who still has two years on his contract despite rejecting a new deal. Even if Downing attempts to force the issue with a formal transfer request Villa are prepared to stick to their stance and keep him against his wishes, unless Kenny Dalglish returns with an irresistible offer, possibly as high as £25 million. B'ham Mail July 9th You said the owner publicly stated he'll be backing Kenny with £100m, that is an article which adds up the fees Liverpool may have paid, not taking into consideration Torres £££ I might add. The owner said nothing. Why are you believing the the Birmingham Mail about the POSSIBLE, POSSIBLE £25m bid the other day, yet when tonights actually says a £20m fee, you dismiss it???

What part of he handed in a transfer request do you not understand? **** me, not difficult this. Do keep up. It's not £19, it's £18.5m. Possibly rising to £20m. Ok, lets start off with....where did their owner say he'll be spending 100m??

You've dodged pretty much everything, going off on one, taking the convo onto other irrelevant things. I very much doubt that and as I said before the Downing to Liverpool story was EVERYWHERE weeks ago. So much for ITK. :winkold: The player agreed terms, do you mean?

Whats that got to do with it? Your theory has just been exposed as bullshit unfortunately. He handed in a transfer request Tuesday and the third and successful bid came in Wednesday night. Then the right bid did come in and guess what? A £20m deal agreed. :winkold: Villa want to make this deal look as good as possible, if a 'huge' offer had come in like you suggested (for some reason), the club would want that to be out in the public. :winkold: Villa don't normally disclose fees. Like I said I was told 2 weeks ago it was a done deal but only if it was the right price. Can I just ask why winkolds appear after every sentence in your posts? Do you have a tick? Move over Ricky Gervais, COMEDY GOLD this stuff. :winkold: Really?? 2 weeks ago?? Shocking stuff this. It was common knowledge, all over the papers etc, so lets not even go there. Who said anything about disclosing fees?? If they wanted the HUGE fee to be in the public domain, they could leak it. Simples. £20m. Accept it. You seem to make grand statements...then when you get quizzed further, you either ignore it or found to be talking gash. :? :winkold: :winkold: :winkold:

Whats that got to do with it? Your theory has just been exposed as bullshit unfortunately. He handed in a transfer request Tuesday and the third and successful bid came in Wednesday night. Then the right bid did come in and guess what? A £20m deal agreed. :winkold: Villa want to make this deal look as good as possible, if a 'huge' offer had come in like you suggested (for some reason), the club would want that to be out in the public. :winkold:

Now read it again. What came first in that... the transfer request from Downing or the bid from Liverpool? I would suggest that the quotes imply that the bid from Liverpool came in first and Downing submitted a formal transfer request once he was informed of the bid. So by a means of dedcution...surely The bid in itself however much it was......was obviously enough to tempt Villa into selling this time. Sorry if I'm doing my Miss Marple impression but wanted to make the point that the fee I think you'll find is higher than is being reported, but I would suspect both clubs would like it undisclosed. Transfer request handed in YESTERDAY. The fee is £18.5m rising to £20m by all accounts. I'd imagine Villa would put it out there if the fee was higher if that was the case, to placate the fans.

Thats not true, is it? :winkold:

Not very much more than £15M though is it really? Don't forget they advertised they were going to spend £100M the idiots and spent £20M on Henderson?!!! So the fee for Downing agreed is less??!!... I think not! Have Liverpool said how much the fee is at all? Liverpool who had to pay how much to get Andy Carroll off Newcastle? Where did they advertise they were going to spend £100m? As someone else has pointed out, I think you fancy yourself as abit of an ITK. Stop passing Kendricks tweets and articles off as some sort of inside info. :winkold:

Apparently it's £18.5 rising to £20m with add ons.

Top post. What makes you say this?

Good post.

What recent history makes us better? Villa Park maybe more modern but Anfield has a bigger capacity...which is more important? As others have pointed out, their ground is one of the most iconic in the whole of sport. How do you know we have better training facilities, or more to the point, who cares? How do you know we have more kids coming through, haven’t pool got something like 8 of the England U17 squad at the World Cup atm? (Sterling looks like a potential super star) Some cracking young lads in the first team at the end of the season too I thought Better financially? Based on? I don’t see us splashing the cash like them... Richer owner? If you or anyone follows Baseball, their owners are fantastic at the Red Sox... Better players? Really? How many of our players would get in their side? Didn’t Liverpool sign the biggest £££ shirt sponsor in the world not long ago? You go anywhere in the world and Liverpool will be amongst the top 5 clubs in world football. Thats just the way it is and we can’t compete with that. Sad but true. It’s a little delusional to think otherwise really, we all want Downing to stay but come on! Although saying that and getting back on topic, if we were to swap Downing for N’zogbia and Foster, that would improve the team overall imo. Be the smart thing to do considering he looks as though he’s had his head turned.