cyrusr

Would rather have Keane to be honest. Better player IMO. We don't know Young is going to Spurs though do we? The only reason the press are linking him to them is because they made an inquiry in the summer but that collapsed. Now they don't want to pay the fee for him and are probably only going to go for him in the summer when he is cheaper.

Well the Ben Haim rumours were going before Chelsea had the issues with Mourinho, same as the SWP rumours, so they should build up again... Hopefully...

And who exactly has signed quality in the premiership so far this transfer window? Well...how many clubs are in our situation? West Ham Wigan Watford Charlton Sheffield United All definately need to strengthen their team or face the prospect of relegation. Out of those the only "quality"/significant signing has been Boa Morte, but seeing as he is 30 that is very much up to debate. Of those requiring/wanting quality signing/s Probably everyone else but Arsenal (The only team who's really come out and said they ain't going to buy players). And who have they signed? Only one I can think of (potentially) is Alnwick for Spurs. Arguable that Padelli for Liverpool is a quality player as well as that Fulham striker from Roma, but I haven't seen either play yet so can't comment on them. The point is though that there has been no quality/significant signings in this transfer window. It doesn't matter what position we are in this is always the case, QUALITY SIGNINGS DO NOT HAPPEN UNTIL THE SECOND HALF OF THE TRANSFER WINDOW. FACT. I want us to sign quality players, don't you?

And who exactly has signed quality in the premiership so far this transfer window?

Barton is valued higher than £5.5million there is no doubt about that, but because of the clause in the contract Man City would HAVE TO accept a bid for £5.5million. We could though just give a big contract to Barton, he's only on like £25-30K a week I think... I really, really, really, really want us to sign Barton; PLEASE!!! EDIT: Also just saw this on WILTORD INJURED With Lyon down a striker perhaps a renewed interest in Baros may be on the cards, and it also looks like they are resigned to losing Carew... Maybe the deal could be struck? Valued approximately the same I do believe as well...

Routledge had a lot of potential, the reason why he didn't make it at Spurs was because he got injured in the first couple of weeks of the season. He was replaced in the team by a certain Aaron Lennon... I think he has got bags of potential which MON could exploit, but isn't he on loan at Fulham atm?

Sorry but Bellamy for £12million? I find this particularly hard to believe, especially since Liverpool did only buy him for £6million and has he done so well at Liverpool to warrent a £6million value increase but not done well enough for Liverpool to want to keep him? **** lazy arsed journalists... I probably should apply for a job at the sun or somewhere similar, could writhe far, far, far better transfer rumours than that...

Not really. Pratically anyone could see that MON thinks Djemba twins, Whitts, Agathe and (4th one?) are not good enough for Villa and just were not going to be played by MON unless absolutely has no choice otherwise. Getting rid of them doesn't change the position we are in and therefore the prices. I think that MON was priced out of Bent, probably the most likely one anyway... Told Pardew where to shove it...

OK its friday morning, anyone having medicals? Anyone? Right then since they are not, MON and Lerner should resign, Ellis to come back and appoint Hoddle since they are obviously the better candidates...

I think I have said this before but the reason why MON and Lerner will not overspend on players (IMO in all their time here) is that Lerner is a businessman and will not overspend on anything that is not its market value/going to vastly increase profit. That is his main gain at this club is to make a profit. Yeah that doesn't sound too good for Villa but the best way to make a profit is to have a hugely successful club that will make the money. MON also is a guy who doesn't like being ripped off. Transfers he has done in the past have proven that and he would rather go for the out of favour player whose reputation is lower than buy a player who will cost twice as much because they have had a good season. Basically if someone told Lerner and MON to pay an extra 2 million for a player, they will tell them where to shove that player. Onto the statement MON made. Yes he said he wanted 4-5 Petrov class players, this doesn't say anything on how much they will spend on players in January, but given that he spent around £6million for Petrov, TRL's estimate of £30-40million ain't a bad one but this is something hard to predict. If he can't bring in those players he will bring in short term options. He has already said that Bardsley has been brought in to cover one of those positions, therefore I think we can expect 4 more signings in January, both long and short term. 2 positions are obvious: RM and ST along with probably LB and I think LM and maybe go back to 4-3-3. Whatever it is MON has got a plan A who he wants for the future and a Plan B for the short term and get the player in the summer. These players are likely to be based in England since they know the Premiership best but it would not surprise me if they were one or two foreign signings thrown in there as well. To be honest, we can only wait and see.

Its 11th of January! PLEASE FOR GOD SAKE PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN **** PATIENCE! Or would rather we signed Jon Stead? Or David Unsworth? Or how about Nigel Quashie? These are the sort of players that are going at the moment. Take a look at last years transfer window: JANUARY 2006-ACCORDING TO THE BBC By the 11th of January the only significant signings were Vidic, Benjani, Evra and Niemi, of which Vidic and Evra were (at the time) brought in as back up. The significant signings (Walcott, Ashton and Samaras) didn't happen until 20th, 23rd and 30th respectively. The vast majority of signings actually happened from about 12/13th onwards, a week or so for clubs to do their talking.

Get a grip? Why? The fact is Beckham is a celebrity and I don't want celebrities playing for our club, I want **** footballers.

Beckham: He is a good footballer but there is one fundemental flaw to him: he is a player that is bigger than the club. Fact. The media circus that surronds him is prove of that to begin with and it was the reason why he left Man Utd, and Man Utd are a pretty big club. Yes he will bring in a massive revenue (he will also cost a bloody bundle as well) but are we exactly short on cash? My point is that the financial question is irrelevent. I think that will would almost certainly ruin the wage structure and therefore probably make a lot of people unhappy. Yes he is good at free kicks etc but he doesn't really add much more to the squad and for the damage he is likely to the squad I really do not think it would be worth it. I would much rather have SWP or Young at the squad than Beckham. Has MON not been likened to Ferguson, and he doesn't like the prima donna types, therefore it can be a good assumption that MON doesn't either? Therefore the Beckham link IMO is irrelevent. EDIT: Just read that Beckham is leaving Real Madrid in the summer. Not going to hear the end of this... .EDIT END Laursen: this guy would be a good signing and should not cost too much. I would like us to be in for him.

Yes but that means relying on a player who has played 20 games in 2 and a half seasons and I don't think that's very clever. If Laursen is fit, fine, we can send one of the younger lads on loan. He's usually not fit so one extra defender would come in handy IMO. No. I am relying on Mellberg, Cahill and Ridgewell. Two of those has to bee injured or suspended before we need someone to play out of position. It's not ideal, but Hughes, Delaney, Barry and Bouma can all play there in an emergency. It would still be fine to have another central defender, but I would not make it my first priority. Don't forget Samuel. Agreed though, other positions required first (RW! HINT HINT!) and perhaps that is what MON was looking at instead of Davies.

I don't think it really died, it has only been a couple of days that the press have mentioned. It should be in the papers tomorrow or Thursday. They have to rotate these things you know It is looking more likely that SWP is joining on loan which I think it will be good, however I would like an agreed fee for in the summer so that he can join us then permenantly. SWP isn't wanted by Chelsea, once he joins us on loan and sees how awesome it is he will want to come. I also hope he signs by the end of the week so he can play against Man Utd, give us a bit of a better chance this time. I don't think the Young transfer will be done until after the Watford game to be honest, its just too soon to be playing against your old club. Expect that transfer to happen 22md January... Bellamy - no. I don't particularly want him and I don't think Liverpool are looking to sell him, they did only kind of buy him in the summer. I also think the reason why Crouch and Bellamy are being linked away from Liverpool is the number of games they have played. Have the press forgotten about Rafa's rotation policy?! Neither will move in January. EDIT: Muntari? Never seen him play but he is awesome in FM! Sign him up! Or Barton...

Home draws against crap teams like Fulham and Boro, the capitulation at the hands of Man City, the away form being no better than last few seasons. I am not doubting his credentials, but I do think he is slightly hyped up by the media, but like with every manager before him I am willing to give him every chance. But you forget that last season the only thing that we were cheeering about was our away form, which if our home form was similar then we would have been in a much better position. Did you also forget the capitulation by Man City last season as well? Although we are on a poor run atm, we are 100% better than last season and the main reason for that is MON. However can understand yours (and many others) paranoia, after all we have had to put up with Ellis for over 20 years, but this is a new era, a new beginning, a new Villa. I cannot wait for next summer for it will be a glorious one. You will see soon enough :winkold:

That is probably exactly what is happening. Regards to Bent. I do not think he will leave Charlton in January. Just because Charlton have said they will listen to offers for him, they will only accept at least £15million minimum, probably more likely to be £18million. Now I do rate Bent very highly but that price is very high, especially for a player who is out for 5 weeks and will require a few games to get back to proper fitness. He will unlikely be back properly until March/April time and for me that is too much to spend on the player. I think that his price will go down in the summer because Bent will want to leave the club. Charlton will either be relegated or close to it and Bent will be one of England's top strikers. People are saying however that we will have competition for his signature in the summer, but hang on, don't we have it now? With Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham, Newcastle, Tottenham, Man Utd, Portsmouth and probably a few others linked with a move in January. This list shouldn't increase in the summer since, who else will be able to afford him? I say unless Charlton reduce their price to around £12million (ideally less but I would be happy to pay this. Like I said, I am a fan of Bent) they will not sell him in January.

1. The press doesn't pick up on every transfer, only the ones (generally) that the either or the clubs tells about. 2. Preston probably don't want other clubs even thinking that Preston could potentially sell. If they see one club going for a player they want then they will also try to get the player. The more clubs interested the more likely the player will want to leave. It is in Preston's and Villa's best interest to keep it under the hat until an acceptable bid is made, then Preston will probably blurt it so they could try and push the price up. 3. Talks are probably preliminary so it was unlikely to be done before the Man U game. Plus he said "Unlikely" which means there is/was a small chance that a deal would go through. To me this gives the impression that we got things going on behind the scenes that are yet to come to fruition. So, IMO none of those 3 things would have/n't necessarily happened if we have put in a bid for Nugent. I really think you need to be patience. If we are in the same situation on 1st Feb, then I do think about 99% of Villa fans will be thinking the same as you :winkold:

The bid could be in there, our chairman just doesn't like to blurt it out and to be honest I prefer it that way.

To honest though, A) Charlton want £17million for Bent who is also injured atm, There is a lot of competition for his signature and lastly and most importantly C) IT IS ONLY THE 6TH OF F***ING JANUARY! There is still plenty of time to get players. Yes it would hav been nice to have a couple straight away but it doesn't always work like that. Plus if Charlton go down, not only will Bent's price probably drop, but he will also not be (probably anyway) injured for the start of next season. It will be a much, much better financial deal in the summer.

Not neccesarily, If you just want a temporary replacement or want to fully check out a player before purchasing, then you loan the player. Did Chelsea not loan Maniche (I think) from a russian side last year, and you wouldn't exactly say they are strapped for cash...

Like it has been said many times before January is sellers time. If we want Young, Bent SWP we are going to have to pay over the odds. Players in other leagues need time to settle and the vast majority of clubs need players who can do well immediately. This means there are less players out there in the market and the selling club can to a certain extent name its price. I think get Young in for £7mill, Bardsley on loan, possibly SWP on loan or £9/10million, Dica for £2.5million and I think I will be happy with that. Then in the summer really improve the squad and push for Europe

But Aidy wasn't manager in 2005 was he?

Was checking out whether Aidy had 3 or 7 clubs when I came across this article: Dated 31st January 2006 Does this mean that O'Leary might have actually understand what talent was?!?! But where does it say 7 clubs have bid? If so we would certainly be one of the 7. Probably along with Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, Portsmouth, Newcastle. Thats pretty stiff competition though...

Wouldn't mind as a short term option but I wouldn't pay any money for him. A 34 year old out of contract in the summer? They will be lucky to get a fiver.