Trinity-Tom

Faust, his primary business interests include the Cleveland Browns a sports business and MBNA a credit institution. Therefore, I think he has chosen a football team in order to have a bit of fun as he has good knowledge of other industries. Plus, he has hired backroom staff as well as directors with knowledge of this industry, he could have done that with any business. However, he has chosen Villa as this gave him the opportunity of having such fun whilst also creating the potential for turning around an underperforming team, thereby, making himself some cash.

It is also important to remember that we will not sign "stop gaps" until we have exhausted our "quality" options which might not be for a week or two.

My god this is getting ridiculous. You cannot criticise or question reliably what someone has not done when there is still plenty of time to act. If come the end of the transfer window we have not got in at least a few stop gaps and then added real quality in the summer, feel free to moan. Until then, some people ought to grow up and realise that what they want and what is best are 2 different things.

I would like Lauren and seeing as he is out of contract in the summer he should be a bargain. As for Beckham, considering he is not playing that much these days, why would Real offer him a pay rise of reportedly £10k per week unless he was making them significant amounts of money. I think he is a good player and would attract other players too and thus would like him.

I am a season ticket holder but heard nothing about the £5 ticket offer other than what I saw on this site.

Would anyone like Danny Murphy. I think he would be a good, cheap signing and I think we could get him without too much fuss.

If SWP was presented with a choice of Villa or Spurs with the general packages being similar he would choose Spurs. The fact that he went to Chelsea over other teams in for him at the time, like Arsenal, gives me some indication of his priorities i.e. money. I won't criticise him for that as it is his choice and I would certainly be happy to sign him as he is a very good player. The main thing I would hate us to do however, is focus on say SWP only for him to go to Spurs whilst in the mean time, another club has swooped for Young.

Does someone know something we don't? Is it a load of rubbish? Check out Skybets latest transfer odds. Interesting reading If we got some of those we were linked with I would be delighted.

Harewood could be a very costly error. I always thought he was a one season wonder and would be extremely disappointed if we signed him.

He may be the owner of both of these teams but he isn't running them as Ellis did. He has taken a backward step and allowing those with the requisite skill and knowledge to run the clubs. Of course he will stay in the loop but he doesn't need to spend every hour running the clubs. He, Mon and the other directors will have an agreed plan of action and unless something unusual happens, I imagine that Randy will not need to be disturbed.

To be honest, I know a couple of people who have used under 16 tickets any way at VP so I doubt it will make much difference.

I must be honest, when I saw the Ferguson story I thought that he would be a great signing but as others point out, I think it is unlikely. I would love to see some movement by the end of the week but I can't see it happening so quickly.

He is certainly a good confident finisher but he is also good in the air. He reminds me alot of Dean Ashton.

The more I think about it, the more I want Nugent. Defoe or Bent would be great but I think Nugent could be a bargain at half the price.

I think Defoe is getting a run of games and Jol said what he did in order to put him in the shop window and yield the best price. With his recent form I think £12 million would get him and I for one would be delighted. I think I would rather him to Bent actually.

Defoe would be an excellent signing if you ask me. I think he is a potential 20 goal a season player. Crouch, excellent player but depends on the fee. I would much rather have Ashton but that is unlikely.

I completely agree Faust, I can see the club gaining a value close to £300 million in the medium to long term future i.e. 5 to 10 years but we would need sustained profit making/growth for a few years to acheive that. I think over that period of time, Randy may pump in over £100 million of his own money but only at a steady rate i.e. £20 million per season (with prize money etc... also being used for team and facilities improvement).

Randy Lerner has millions to spend. It shouldn't be automatically assumed that Villa have millions to spend. I'd be very suprised if we spent more than £40 million from january till the start of the next season. Randy hasn't got money that expandable, with a fortune of around 800 million, minus the club purchase it soon starts eating away. I'd say Randy has set asside an initial £100 to £200 million to spend on the club to get it turned around (including the purchase) You think Lerner would be happy to see a quarter of his personal fortune spent on Villa? If he's envisaging that amount of initial outlay, how long would it be before he could expect to see a return on his investment? Even if we post profits of £20m a season for ten seasons, with all of that cash flowing into Lerner's account, he'd still only be breaking even. He'd get a better return on investment by leaving the money in a current account! My assumption has always been that, after this coming window, our new management will be hoping to fund everything else from some hefty long-term sponsorship deals, increased TV money, higher league finishes and higher gates. At the time of the merger, I guessed that Lerner might be willing to spend a further £30 million of his own money to get the ball rolling - I still think that figure will prove about right. One thing you aren't taking into account in this summation is the club value. If he gets us to a position where we are posting profits of £20 million + then I think the club would be valued in the hundreds of millions which would ensure he sees a return on his investment.

Lets just say Mr Six that you are not the only one who has mentioned this Am I entitled to read alot into that? (With your contact and all :winkold: )

Do you not think my idea about student ticketing would solve the problem i.e. the cash back idea?

All I can say on this is that I bought some tickets for some friends to come to the Chelsea game with me and they weren't selling them to anyone without booking history. I can only assume that the same sort of thing is being done for other games.

There is no reason why you can't give student discount to all students who provide proof that they are a full time student. Perhaps it could be done in a cash back way for those over 21 to avoid the previous problems encountered i.e. you pay adult season ticket then at the end of the season you get a letter from college or Uni saying "so and so has been a full time student for the last 12 months" or something similar and then you are reimbursed the difference between an adult and a student ticket.

Why can't he do both? Scout players and future opposition?

Apart from his free kick taking, what else do people know about Bale? I have hardly seen him but can't help noticing that Southampton seem defensively unsound.

And when I was watching the Champions League game last week something was said by the commentators about him going to Atletico Madrid!