NurembergVillan

Many people are getting impatient with transfer dealings at Villa Park, myself included. However, aside from the fact that these new players are going to have less time to gell and learn the system, there aren't too many reasons to panic just yet. Here's my 1 to 11 on why.....

1. THE BRITISH MEDIA, love to stir the pot. Take a look at the "transfer rumours" section of the official site. The media have linked us with enough players to fill 50% of the premier league squads! All these rumours do is fire us up into believeing we're getting all-kinds of players that we simply are not getting!! I actually believe the club are doing a great thing by publishing all these names - it serves to show us just how ridiculous the press and media have become.....

2. THE SO-CALLED BIG FOUR, plus Europe's biggest clubs will always get first-choice of available players. That is presently the reality. Agents are bending over backwards to get their boys into the top clubs. Over time we hope to change that.....

3. UEFA CUP QUALIFIERS get the next pick of who they want. The reality is that we are not quite there yet, and the lure of European competition is too good to resist for many players, especially established pros who are reaching the age where it's "now or never" for that new contract. Sure there are players who look at potential, but not many agents....

4. AGENTS have not only made players greedier and richer, but they have slowed down the transfer process to a ludicrous degree. Now, transfer dealings can take months, as agents negotiate back and forth with five different clubs at a time to get the best deal for their boy. Apparently, Gavin McCann's transfer to Bolton had been in the works since March.....

5. SUMMER TOURNAMENTS such as the Asian Cup that is taking place right now, or the Copa America, or the African Nations Cup etc etc. These all affect the transfer market as clubs and agents wait for their players to arrive back. Realistically, any player participating in any of these events has a very small window of free time to negotiate and put-into-place any transfer......

6. HOLIDAYS such as those taken by all of us at some point during the year are another key factor. Have you ever noticed how Fergie does most of his dealing as soon as the season ends, then ManUre do nothing for a few weeks? It's because he is taking a well-earned break somewhere far far away where The Sun cannot bother him. All managers and players do it, including ours.... who are we to criticize them for getting away for a few weeks?

7. THE TRANSFER WINDOW itself provides a very small window of opportunity. I understand the philosophy behind it, but the reality is that it puts an unbelievable strain on clubs and managers (and fans) to "get it done" in a small amount of time, especially factoring in all of the above.

8. OTHER CLUBS are figuring out their own squads befoire they are prepared to release other "good" players. I give you the Shaun Wright-Philips example. Chelski right now are chasing winger Royston Drenthe. IF they sign him, joe cole proves his fitness, and keep Robben, there is a strong chance that they will then (and only then) be prepared to sell SWP to us. But even if that happens, right now he's with them on a tour of the US, and won't be back until the end of the month. There are hundreds of similar examples throughout the world. I call this the Knock-on-effect.....

9. GEOGRAPHY. I was born and raised in Birmingham. I love Birmingham. Ron Saunders had a policy of never buying from a London club. Why? Because he felt, even in those days, that players from the "bright lights" would fail to settle and he wasn't prepared for them to commute. Now, in the modern era of fast reliable cars, short range private jets, and a modernized city, these factors are not so strong. However, would YOU choose Middlesborough over Madrid, Sheffield over Rome?

10. TIME. The club has a plan. Whether we like it or not, it's going to take patience to put this club where it belongs and to SUSTAIN that indefinitely. When Abramovitch walks away Chelsea will be in the same position they were when he took over. When Randy leaves Villa we won't miss a beat - quote me on that! Rome wasn't built in a day and if we want to live up to the billing of being a true big club then we have to have a solid infrastructure with a balance on the pitch. Randy could pitch silly money at players right now, but that won't guarantee anything.

11. MARTIN O'NEILL knows who he wants, isn't prepared to waiver on his standards, and will be patient to ensure he gets what he and the club needs. As has been stated many times, he is notorious for doing "late" deals. Despite the media hype, and the subsequent over-reaction by a small number of our fans (probably the same one's who spend most of their energy at games singing about Blues).

To summarize, we WILL be better this season, the club WILL be on firmer foundations and we DO have one of the best managers in the world.....

PS. I'll be in Toronto and Columbus next week. I'll be the one in the car park playing Villa videos on the computer, grilling up some food and downing the beers..... stop by and say hello.....

Great stuff, OBE. We missed you over the summer!

Well, it’s easier to get to than Toronto I’ll say that for it. Hednesford Towns ground is a modest affair with a main stand almost half a pitch long down one side, two rows of covered seats at one end and a covered standing enclosure on the other two sides.

I took the only team sheet they had and made my way to the standing area, where in a throwback to days of yore I could stand and smoke. Jealous?

Villa lined up in a 4-5-1 formation with Bevan in goal, a decent back four of Earls, O’Halloran, Lowry and Lund, Damien Bellon the holding midfielder, Hogg and Herd in the middle and Stieber and Yago Bellon playing wide of Mikaelsson.

Resplendent in our white away kit, we kicked off on glorious late afternoon sunshine. I’d hoped some of these youth players had spent the summer in the weight room; initially I was concerned they’d spent it in the tanning salon. Stieber looks a little bigger though and Barry Bannan has added a few pounds.

We started a little sluggishly and the poor pitch seemed to make it difficult to get things going. What chances there were fell to Stieber who was drifting in at the far post nicely, Mikaelsson was holding the ball up decently, but support wasn’t always forthcoming.

A late tackle off the ball on young Zoltan was the first bit of notable action, giving Kevin McDonald the chance to show our referee that he’d not spent the summer improving his vocabulary. Good for him.

Soon after, they scored. A cross from the left from Robinson (Their best player on the night.) finding their big lummox of a forward who battered a header past Bevan. Questions might be asked of our young keeper and also of Yago who might have offered Lund more support.

It fired us up and we replied with the best goal of the night. Hogg ran through the midfield and played a short ball to Herd. Herd played it on to Mikaelsson and got it back through a crowded area before smashing the ball into the top corner. The keeper’s chances: none.

The game was being played at a pedestrian pace; with frequent drinks breaks and we never seemed to find our flow. Hednesford in particular seemed to be in no hurry to take corners, leaving the linesman ample opportunity to show us his keepy-uppy skills.

Half time came and went and Villa made no changes for the second half, which started at a reasonable pace. We were keeping the ball well, but having difficulty in finding a rhythm, and we weren’t creating many chances. A couple of long range digs from Mikaelsson the biggest danger.

Hednesford woke us from our slumber on 70 minutes, as Earls got the wrong side of Ross Dyer who latched onto a loose ball and slotted home.

That was followed by a crunching tackle on Damien Bellon as legs tired and tempers briefly frayed. A high and dangerous tackle by obligatory lower league hard man Tom Ward would have a seen a red card in a competitive game, Chris Herd was no more impressed than Hogg who was stamped on by the same player a few minutes later.

The fracas was punctuated by a great chance for Hednesford, a cross from the left fell to the feet of Peter Knox (I think) who demonstrated why we’ve never heard of him by managing to miss the target by the slightest of margins.

McDonald waited until 10 minutes to go before unleashing the Bannan, and whilst I’m not sure Barry can take the credit for it, it seemed to help us produce our best football.

We started to play some neater short passes and worked one or two openings which invariably found their way to Mikaelsson with his back to goal. Still, pressure counted when big Mik finally found himself facing the right way, burst past a defender and was brought down.

Stieber took the ball and stepped up, scoring with confidence from a firmly hit strike after sending the keeper the wrong way.

We threatened to take an underserved victory home, but the final whistle reflected a fair 2-2 draw in which we’d never really got going.

A decent game though to impress the good number of Villa fans who’d made the journey.

Individually, O’Halloran and Lund stood out at the back with O’Halloran particularly impressive. He seems to enjoy playing against big forwards and was excellent aerially. Earls showed impressive energy and deserved more out of the game than he got, Hogg and Herd had good moments but never really got control of the game. Yago Bellon can be baffling and never looked comfortable and Zoltan Stieber flitted in and out. Mikaelsson tried hard as ever and held the ball up well; he desperately needs a burst of pace though.

Damien Bellon was the big plus for me, I haven’t seen him before but he looked good as a holding midfielder playing just in front of the back four. Almost a junior Mascherano at times, but without the bite as yet.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening; The reserves start their season soon after the first team start theirs, and games are usually played at either Villa Park or Bescot. It’s free to season ticket holders and I’m hoping the Holte Hotel will be open and quiet. I’ll see you all there.

Nick wont change his mind. Voldemort's troops have issued the orders so there's no going back-

The Tories opposed the move, saying it would be better to increase the number of people on the donation register.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The state does not own our bodies or have a right to take organs after death."

:wink:

http://tinyurl.com/2z9bku

It's not down to the kit per sé. It's the combination of getting everything right at the right time. Just like when Randy bought the club after we all thought he'd walked away.

I only agree to a point anyway...

I don't know mate. I'd need to look into that. If it's the case then our Spurs shirts would've had no sponsor logo on, but I've not heard that we did that.

NV, my mate at work is starting to get very panic-stricken about life at Villa, "nothing has changed" & all that... Anyway when I showed him your article he calmed down big time, like I'd given him a sedative or something.

You've done well there fella.

Happy to oblige Kimbo!

Brilliant on Football Manager. I kno we shouldn't mention it but as no-one's ever heard of him it's as good a reference as any. He's my second choice keeper on there. Top drawer. Fingers crossed he's so good in real life.

With stories that Villa are about to go mad in the transfer market after tying up Reo-Coker, Poise wondering who's going to be next.

Optimism is back at Villa Park. In some cases it disappeared for a short while after a slow start to the transfer window, however with Randy Lerner flying ton England this week and all the players and coaching staff's holidays ending, we can safely say that the coming weeks leading up to the start of the season are going to be very interesting for Villa fans.

There are several obvious targets I am about to run through. Some of whom would be great signings, others I'm not too sure about . . .

Jermain Defoe : Without a doubt, I would love to see this lad in a Villa top. He has all the qualities that I think would form a great partnership with Mr Carew up front. However, he has came out and said he is happy to fight for his place at Tottenham. Bad news for us. Maybe by January he will be sick of sitting on the bench.

Verdict - Can't see him being our next signing, maybe a January signing.

Craig Bellamy : Craig ' The Nutter with the Putter' Bellamy would be a reasonable signing. Not consistently as good as Defoe I don't think but when on form can be one of the most feared strikers in the country. Quite injury prone too, if we signed him I think we would need to sign another striker too just to be on the safe side.

Verdict - Good chance of him being our next signing, so long as West Ham don't sell Tevez and use the cash to bring him in before we do.

Jason Koumas : I'm not sure that this lad has what it takes to be a consistent Premiership player. Has had a good few chances in the Premiership and has always failed to show what he is capable of. Always plays well in the Championship which tells me he is a Championship player. His best bet would be to fight for promotion with Albion if you ask me. Would be a good squad player but the £6m asking price is a bit hefty for a squad player.

Verdict - Wouldn't mind him being our next signing, but I think there are bigger fish to be caught at the moment.

Curtis Davies : I think there comes a time in football where u have to take a risk. Signing Davies would be a big risk as he has next to none experience in the Premiership. However, every player has to start somewhere, and he showed great form for Albion last year at such a young age, there is a great chance he could be a star in the premiership, and maybe even a future England star.

Verdict - I would definately give this lad a chance and think O'Neill will make it one of his top goals to sign him up before anybody else does.

Shaun Wright Phillips : At the moment, (realistically) there is no one I would rather see sign for Villa than this man. I think he would be an incredible signing. Chelsea wouldn't sell him to a fellow top 4 club and if he wanted to play in europe he would have to go to Spurs, Everton or Bolton. Spurs don't need him because of Arron Lennon and Everton and Bolton aren't exactly appealing offers I don't think. This leaves teams like ourselves, Newcaslte and Man City. I personally think what with Man City getting Sven as manager and getting a bit of money to spend that he will end up back at City, but still honoured to be linked with him.

Verdict - I think it will be between ourselves and Man City if he does decide to move on from Chelsea but I think the lure from his old club, team mates and the chance to work with Sven again may be too much.

Alan Smith : Good player, but not the sort of player we are after. We need someone who is fast and can get us 15+ goals a season. Someone to play off Carew. I don't think Smith is this special someone.

Verdict - I hope not and I don't think he will be.

Luke Young : There aren't many good English right backs around these days, but this man is one of few who can do a job. He's very steady and is good at getting forward. We need a right back after losing Hughes and Bardsley and I think Young could be the man to fill their boots.

Verdict - Definate possibility but I still think O'Neill is going to chase bigger targets first, then aim for players like Young shortly after.

Harry Kewell : I don't see where Harry would fit in for us. We have Gareth Barry who plays on the left side, and there's no way hes getting dropped. Ashley Young plays out on the left wing so I think Kewell would be a pointless signing. He is also very injury prone.

Verdict - I don't think O'Neill is stupid enough to sign someone who has barely played for the last 4 years.

That was just a small list, there are a few more out there that I'm sure O'Neill has his eye on that we don't know about yet. I'm optimistic that there will be more signings sooner rather than later.

Our starting eleven next year could possible look something like this :

Sorenson

Mellberg Laursen C Davies

Wright-Phillips Petrov Reo-Coker Barry

Bellamy Young

Carew

With Agbonlahor, Bouma, L.Young, Koumas, Moore, Taylor, Gardner, Cahill, Ridgewell, Osbourne to choose from subs.

OK, a simple question and not a transfer speculation thread - who will we sign next?

Unlikely I'd say.

Great Post. But I still think its a very small minority of fans who are getting worked up and in a frenzy for no reason. Let me explain....For arguments sake lets say theres 40K passionate villa fans and 2K of them come on this site. Out of that 2K I'd say about 20 maximum are acting like its the end of the world and are being very negative.

So my point is I still think most fans are very exited to be a villa fan at the moment but are remaining quiet and patient while letting the club do what they have to do in a professional manner.

Good point, well made.

absotutly fantastic NV and we all know your background so what you say s based in FACTS

Well, it's a combo of facts and some sort of logic, at least. They could well unveil Marlon Harewood in the Hummel kit tomorrow and make me look daft. I don't have any "info", just a hunch which may or may not be right.

It's not down to the kit per sé. It's the combination of getting everything right at the right time. Just like when Randy bought the club after we all thought he'd walked away.

The VT messageboard has turned into one long episode of Dad's Army of late, with panic and calamity seemingly around every corner and several lines trying hard yet ultimately failing to raise a smile.

It can't be THAT bad, surely? If you were an outsider reading the Kit Design thread and Transfer thread (which has had more sequels than Star Wars, and that was crap too) you'd be forgiven for thinking we've got no kits and half a squad and (a whole 3 days into this 62 day transfer window) will start the season playing naked 5-a-side at Stumps, leaving Villa Park as a smoldering memory of what used to be Aston Villa.

Plainly that's nonsense, as a great many things are in football today, so I've had a little think and tried to make some sense where it appears there is, well, none. It's there to be shot down, but it's just a theory which may or may not prove correct. And at least it's a theory based mostly on facts and past experience rather than being based on the fact that it keeps raining this summer (the day it stops, the press conference will happen).

So, here goes - we will be having a press conference where at least one, maybe several MAJOR players will be unveiled along with our new kit.

Nothing new there, then. It's been said on the messageboard already. But let's look at the facts and make some sense as to why this is a credible theory.

[*:06c2238558]Martin O'Neill is a very good football manager. Presumably, therefore, he knows how many players we need, and in which positions, in order to get us through the season.

[*:06c2238558]Randy Lerner has lots and lots of money. More than everyone on VT put together. Including if Doug Ellis is a member. Well, he is a member, but not of VT. He wants to spend a portion of this on Aston Villa.

[*:06c2238558]Richard FitzGerald is one of the world's leading CEOs. He has said that we're going to sign some top players this summer. He's trying to secure further major sponsorship alongside that which he has already secured with Nike. You don't do that by telling lies.

[*:06c2238558]Nike (our new suppliers) are the world's biggest sporting goods manufacturer. They turn over around $15bn per year. That's more than adidas, Reebok and Puma combined.

[*:06c2238558]As the world's leading sporting goods supplier, they have an excellent logistics system, allowing them to locate any order, anywhere in the world - on land, on the sea or in the air. They will also have people on hand in factories to monitor the status of every outstanding order.

[*:06c2238558]Martin O'Neill wants to continue being known as a very good football manager. Randy Lerner wants to own a very successful football club. Richard FitzGerald wants to make Aston Villa into a desirable brand. Nike wants to sell lots of football shirts with the brand of Aston Villa on them.

So take a minute to digest all of that... Thanks. Nike will know EXACTLY when Aston Villa shirts will be available in the shops. Home, away, the rumoured third kit. All of them. They will also have at least one of each of them, somewhere in their Hilversum campus, in order to do a "kit launch". You only need one of each and a player to go into each of those ones.

Therefore, Nike could put an exact date on the kit launch now (except they haven't). They can choose exactly when they want it to be. They could have it tomorrow if they wanted. Because they already have some of the kits at their disposal. Whether they unveil it tomorrow, or Friday, or next week wont make any difference if Gareth Barry and John Carew are wearing them - Aston Villa's faithful fans will buy them as and when they become available.

But if, when these kits were launched, they were being worn by John Carew, Gareth Barry, Wesley Sneijder, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nigel Reo-Coker, Jermain Defoe... Well, then it'd be in all of the papers. And people would get excited, and see the new brand of Aston Villa, and would buy Nike shirts. Lots of them.

And then everyone would think Martin O'Neill was still a good manager, that Randy Lerner was building a successful football club, that Richard FitzGerald was building a desirable brand and Nike... Well, they'd sell a shedload more football shirts. Cos that's what they know how to do.

So don't fret. The kit's ready, the signings are being lined up (even if they haven't been talked about - that'd spoil the surprise) and it'll all come together as and when the time's right. Remember - this is Randy, and Bob Kain, and Charles C. Krulak we're talking about.

The Americans are in town. Only this time they've brought their mates.

That's a tough one to call. It depends on the end date of the Hummel agreement, although I'd imagine that was "the end of the season". In terms of other merchandise I'd say that it will probably all land at the same time as the production timelines will be the same for all of the products. You can probably expect the product offering to keep growing right the way up to Christmas, though, as priority will have been given to some things with other stuff to follow later.

No problem!

Got the album off iTunes last week. Top drawer.

Don't you guys EVER get bored of all these arguments for which there are no proof? There's going to be no winner because people's minds won't be changed one way or another.

We can't prove who MON has or hasn't tried to sign so just forget about it.

Get back on topic or it gets locked until you've taken a chill pill.

Be nice please girls

He's played well in a badly managed Hamburg side. I'd sign him.

West Ham and Newcastle are signing the obvious. I think we have better and less predictable signings on the way.

That's what certain people have been led to believe, too.

I like them, and I've got a good taste in music

Saw them live at The Academy and was suitably impressed. And they're Brummies. You can find out more here - www.myspace.com/thetwang and here - www.thetwang.co.uk

A user has been banned for using this thread to display a distinct lack of intellect and manners.

There were lots of posts in here about it deleted too. They'd have been better off as PMs to the Mods who would have been able to sort it out.

Thanks to Richard for bringing it to my attention.

He can play right back and in midfield.