HalfTimePost

 

 

 

I only started watching it because of the death of James Gandolfini

 

 

 

I had no idea, gutted.

 

I've just started watching Firefly. I know I'm probably set up for incredible disappointment after reading all of the hype, but here goes..

 

I watched it because of the hype too.

The first couple of episodes were a bit jarring because of the bizarre genre mashup. After I got into it though I think its a great series. Definitely worthy of the hype, make sure you watch the film Serenity too

Luke Murphy signing for Leeds.

EDIT: Happened a few days back but I've only just seen. Ah well. 

Well this descended into farce fairly quickly. 

 

Julie B is still adamant he's signing, fair play to her, she isn't backing down!! Seems like if someone is feeding her info from inside Villa, Faulkner and Co would not be too pleased that things are leaking out.....IFF true at all that is!!

Peter Wittingham

 

Bicks, as she no longer posts here, and for the fact she is looking as though she may need some professional help, would you be able to remove her from your VillaTalk list? I have it as a column on Tweetdeck, I guess I could make my own... but effort

I feel a bit bad, both Colley and kendrick are having quite a dig at her tonight. Fair enough she's been giving it back / started it, but its a bit unprofessional from them surely? 

She hasn't as such been 'giving it back'. She has been bombarding their @mentions with abuse for the last 24 hours and they didnt reply to her until Kendrick, Colley and another journalist all put in their columns for today essentially saying this is a no-go and realised that this was going to wind her up even more.

Nothing on the Kicker website still

Really hope we give him a new contract if this is his last year. Last thing we want is for him to do well and leave on a free.

Bickster, can you remove Julie from the VillaTalk list on twitter please, I have it as a tweetdeck column and I cant stand the tirade of rubbish she's putting on there.

(How do we tag a user in a post on here?)

He would work wonders in our team. Hope we go back in for him. Do still think he'll cost too much though.

There is no chance we will sign Honda. 

The Impossible Dream.

Doubt Bayern would, more likely to sign a fully-fledged star and already have Kroos, Muller, Gotze, Shaqiri who can all play there aswell as Ribery and Robben. Surprised Dortmund haven't been linked they've been linked with nearly every other CAM in the world lol. There will be quite a merry-go-round of CAM's this summer you would imagine being one of the most coveted positions at the moment.

Sparked by Gotze moving to Bayern there will probably be quite a few, Dortmund likely to get at least two having sold Bittencourt and Leitner as well and so far only gotten Aubameyang in (I think?). Maher has already moved.  De Bruyne (may have already gone?) Erikssen, Wijnaldum, Draxler, Honda, Praet could all follow and there's probably a load more I havent heard of.

Where did anyone get the idea of £5-6m for Kiyotake? 

If there was a clause in his contract that cheap it would have been triggered by 00:01 of the transfer window opening if not sooner. Kiyotake is very much the Bundesliga's Benteke from last year.

Us saying £5-6m for him is the same as Spurs and Liverpool fans saying £15m for Benteke.

Yeah just came to post. Supposedly pulled out of his agreement with Kiev and changed his mind.

Good player. But hes coming across as an utter clearing in the woods. Kind of dont want him anymore. DoubT hes changed his mind for us tho

Belhanda Mk2

In before the lock

I've already taken the choice not to renew this year out of principle that the club hasn't adopted the Bayern Munich approach even though the PL now brings them about £20m more money.

The 'Bayern Munich Approach' involves buying up everybody from the other teams in the league, the best players in the league and throwing money at them in order to get them to sign.

Bayern Munich last year turned over €320m.

We turned over €98.6m.

#ReasonsWeArentBayernMunich.

Lambert’s six new ­recruits include Danish striker Nicklas Helenius , believed by many to be a ready-made replacement for Benteke.

 

Dont think anybody, at all, thinks that. So it's a little annoying to see The Mirror spouting it like this. Not that I'm surprised.

Aston Villa will slap a £25million price tag on ­Christian Benteke to scare off any club that gets ­serious about buying their brilliant young striker .

Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have been linked with the 22-year-old Belgium star, who hit 19 goals in his first Premier League season.

And Spanish giants Atletico Madrid are among Continental clubs keen on Benteke, who put off talks about signing the double-your-money £40,000-a-week contract that Villa put in front of him in May.

But boss Paul Lambert has been given the backing of owner Randy Lerner to play hardball over the future of his star front man, who has three years left on his contract. ­Insiders say that any club will be told to start talking at £25m, and include some extra clauses.

Benteke’s own position remains unclear – but Lambert is advising him to stay put, with the prospect of playing regular Premier League games to help him cement his place as his country’s first- choice forward for next summer’s World Cup.

 

Already in: Nicklas Helenius has signed for Aston Villa ahead of next season

Getty

 

 

Lambert’s six new ­recruits include Danish striker Nicklas Helenius , believed by many to be a ready-made replacement for Benteke.

But the Villa boss has been assured if anybody does make a big enough offer to take Benteke, he will be given the cash to find a replacement.

Aston Villa are ­targeting Belgium ­player Nacer Chadli as a new way of trying to keep Christian Benteke.

Villa have joined a host of clubs chasing FC Twente winger Chadli, who only has a year left to run on his contract.

And Villa hope that if they could sign Chadli it may help convince ­Benteke to stay at least another year.

Fulham, Tottenham, Liverpool and West Brom have also been tracking Chadli, who scored 16 goals for Twente last season.

 

Staying power: Villa want Christian Benteke to stick around for another year

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Although Chadli has played on the wing for Twente, Lambert wants a creative spark to play in the hole and would consider moving the 23-year-old inside.

Lambert may also need to start moving on ­unwanted high-earners Darren Bent, Shay ­Given and Stephen ­Ireland before ­launching a firm bid.

The journo, Matt Law, I think is a Villa fan. Not that it makes too much difference to the fact I believe this is bull.

Edit: Please don't put "Speculation" in title, use the tag instead, Ta

I wonder at what point, if at all, his wages will become a stumbling block. Assume he's on a hefty whack. 

If he keeps playing like he did last few months it wont be an issue but if he falls back into his poorer form again for a while, I wonder if Lambert would try and move him on in order to create some transfer fees and wages? And if that did become an issue, would Gabby take a pay cut to stay here?

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying we should be looking to do any of these things, just I wonder what the outcome would be if it did)

How on earth are those two on 20k a week? Who is the idiot that authorised that?

One of these idiots. 

MON would definitely be the one to have suggested Fonz on those wages. He didnt seem to rate Bannan though so I would guess at that being McLeish?

EDIT: I tell a lie, Bannan last signed a new contract under Houllier. 

EDIT 2: And Delfouneso signed under McLeish, cant blame O'Neill for this one unfortunately. It was Mcleish and Houllier.. either way ultimately it falls on Faulkner / Lerner

I know he works for The Mirror but Nursey doesn't often come out directly with Info that isn't good from what I've seen. (Think he might also be the journo that got Ireland in trouble for dishing out the dirt from within the club?)

Assuming he's right reckon this would take those available to go to:

Given, Hutton, Stevens, Bannan, Ireland, Delfouneso, Bent and potentially Nzogbia although injured

Yeah...so...Luna's had a cake baked for him by his friends....

Antonio Luna @ AntoniiioLuna

18m

Very Great surprise from my friends / hermanos...os want!! pic.twitter.com / AZdVjqefvB

 Picture of said cake: 

What I was saying was I also thought there was a rule that of those 25, 3 of them had to be keepers. If that was the case then we would have to register Steer and Siegrist (if Given left) despite them being U21 in order to fill that 3 keepers rule (if it exists). Similar to having to register U21s in the 25 man squad to fill up home-grown spaces if you dont otherwise have 8 homegrown players.

If the keeper rule doesn't exist, then yes, you are right.. I understand the rule.

I know, thats another mark against it