Rocafella

I think the German players fancy the German league almost as much as the English, sometimes even more because of the obvious historic hatred between the nations, you know everything from use of language to intense affairs on the football pitch. They make money over there as well, not on lousy paychecks such as in many French and Dutch teams.

Mertesacker would be great though, I have always fancied him but I guess he was the sort of player to leave for Real Madrid or Liverpool.

I see he has a minimum release clause on FM, is this just random or is it bound to actual facts about contracts etc? It's 10M btw

Is he a regular for Werder Bremen?

Are they going to the Chams league next season?

Question is; why would he leave them for us?

The sole reason for Lerner to pick Nike is because it is the biggest and best in the world right now, Man Utd and Barcelona wear them and for a good reason.

Sure, I read a lot about this "swoosh" and "trendy", "fashionable" etc, and these people are right in their own way. BUT, and there is a big one, what has this got to do with anything? Is it negative? Is it negative wearing the stuff people recognize as the best, the most trendy, the kit they would like to wear themselves?

Ask 19 fans from 19 other Premiership clubs this question: Who produces Villa's current kit? I guess 2 or 3 would give the right answer

Without cheating, who produces the kit of Blackburn, Fulham and Sheff United? No idea, no idea and no idea. (Answer: Lonsdale, Airness and le coq sportif)

Who produces it for Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool and Wigan? Umbro, Puma, Adidas and JJB. I remembered those

Now who will produce for Man Utd, Arsenal and Aston Villa next season, and, ehrm.... Fulham? Nike ladies and gents

This deal is all about making money and getting more recognition, the use of the word trendy is hardly negative is it?

Villa is a club with very little recognition abroad, very little fans (and we want the Asian ones!) and brand name. Nike is the first step to correct this

Rocafella do you know of any Norwegian players that play in France?

I am pretty sure that there are none, certainly none worth mentioning

West Ham have won 4 major trophies in their entire history, Villa have won 20. Yet they feel they are just a little bigger than us.

**** up fans

John Carew is Per A. Flod's main client.

- Carew makes 200.000 pounds a month, Flod takes 10K of this sum

- He pays Carew's bills

- Buys real-estate for him and takes care of renting it out to people

- Does his media appearances, although it's not happening in England

- Invests his money, which means he contacts the bank 4 times each week

- Takes care of Carew's insurances etc etc

Flod has been Carew's agent for 10 years

Per A. Flod is really a lawyer, like many other agents. I really don't think he has many clients, if any, except Carew. And does he have anyone outside Norway? Not sure, but I am 99% certain. He has never been mentioned with foreign players in the media

I seriously doubt Per A. Flod is the agent of Fred.....

I think his agent is the Norwegian Per A. Flod. I don't think he has any clients in France.

It's brilliant how fans work....

Newcastle and West Ham go out and buy players - surely they must be buying too rash and too soon! Villa will end up with the best ones

Villa rumored with Jason Koumas - I wonder if his reputation on here got a little bit higher than it would be if he was linked with Birmingham or Derby

Villa linked with a troublesome NRC - surely MON will cure him just like he will cure Carew's scoring and settling problems

Who have newcastle and west ham signed?

and who said anything about Carew being our Goalscorer? From the day he joined i've known what to expect from him, a glut of goals is not what Carew's reknowned for.

What's Carew settling in also got to do with it?

To say Carew is one of your fellow country men, you don't half bitch about him. I'm bloody proud to have big John Carew at our club and i honestly believe he's settled.

I was kidding dude, hence the smiley. I adore Carew

Olof Mellberg needs to chill down and play the ball short instead of hoofing it up the field, we lose the ball 90% of the time. A simple pass to one of the backs is easy, and it generates attacks not a counter against.

It's brilliant how fans work....

Newcastle and West Ham go out and buy players - surely they must be buying too rash and too soon! Villa will end up with the best ones

Villa rumored with Jason Koumas - I wonder if his reputation on here got a little bit higher than it would be if he was linked with Birmingham or Derby

Villa linked with a troublesome NRC - surely MON will cure him just like he will cure Carew's scoring and settling problems

It's amusing to see that people who want to sign players such as Koumas try to ridicule others by saying "you don't want him because his name isn't exciting enough, he isn't fancy enough etc etc". This is amusing because everyone on here just wants someone better and couldn't give a rats ass what he was called. No-one has said it either.

I mean, who wants this strange foreigner we haven't heard or seen of? That's bullcrap dudes, it's quality and not quantity for me right now. We have the squad-fillers, at least in midfield, now let's bring in the quality.

And if you were MON, wouldn't you attempt to sign the best players first and sign the fillers afterwards?

A link is a link, and TEAMtalk is more reliable than Tribalfootball and FansFC who pick up stuff from forums

Wes Wants out

Villa boss Martin O'Neill is a fan of the 22-year-old Holland international and watched him in the Dutch Cup final against AZ Alkmaar, while Spurs chief Martin Jol is also an admirer of his countryman.

But Spanish side Valencia remain the favourites for his signature and have already had two bids for the player turned down by Ajax.

Sneijder is under contract at the Dutch club until June 2009 and technical director Martin van Geel said on Sunday he wants to keep him in Amsterdam.

But Sneijder appears determined to move on and insists he wants to be at another club by the start of next season.

"Officially, I have heard nothing about it yet, but the last words have yet to be spoken about this," Sneijder said. "The only way to break with Ajax is by kicking up a riot. But that's not who I am."

He added: "This is the moment for a transfer.

"I have been playing in the first team at Ajax for five years. And Ajax doesn't want to let me walk out for free in two years' time?"

We spent 10M on a right winger half a season ago, so I would pretty much guarantee that MON could do it if he wanted to.

Anyways;

Let's laugh a bit in these times of no signings

I am not really just discussing Koumas, he could be a gem I haven't made the conclusion about him. I am simply saying there are better players out there who are proven, whom we could afford and had European experience. Koumas IMHO is not proven and would be a risk, and at a price of 6M I think that would be too much for a 27 year old (which someone said he was.

£6m may be a bit steep, I agree with you there. But a wise man once said if the manager wants him enough then I couldn't give a stuff about the fee.

Are there better players out there at the same cost (or cheaper) with European experience? Proven at the premier league level?? Surely that's only an opinion......

The price is irrelevant now, at least that's what I like to think. I am not saying we are going to spend 20M on one player but you get pretty much what you want at 10-13M.

I am not about concluding facts. People are different. I would say that I hate heavy metal music and I don't really understand why it's called music as much of it is just noise to my ears. Yet, millions would say I am wrong and their opinion is just as valuable as mine you know. I would go pretty far saying that we could do better than Jason Koumas in the market right now..... talking about Tim Cahill, why don't we bid for him?

I can't recall any interest in Bent either, other than the "player will be sold" + "linked with every club, not top 4, with money" link that goes around

So because Tim Cahill became a great player then Koumas is bound to be one too? Why?

I never said that. They were both at the time the best midfielders at that level before they moved up (assuming Koumas does move up) and neither player could be classed as a 'youngster'.

You seem to have skipped over my point about Koumas's premiership experience under Robson. You seem to insinuate that he is medicocre, with little evidence to prove your point. That's why I say you don't seem open to discussion. I don't mean that in an offensive way, I just have this feeling you are against any signing that comes from a lower level.

FWIW, which is probably nothing, I can't see a great deal of difference between the quality of leagues like Holland and the Scandanavian leagues and that of the Championship. Yet you seem quite open to suggestions of players from those leagues.

I am not really just discussing Koumas, he could be a gem I haven't made the conclusion about him. I am simply saying there are better players out there who are proven, whom we could afford and had European experience. Koumas IMHO is not proven and would be a risk, and at a price of 6M I think that would be too much for a 27 year old (which someone said he was.

people only wanting "trendy" players and signing people because they are good on FM. He doesn't know anything about other posters knowledge so he sticks to the abusive line to make his own points look better.

Why is it abusive? Its not abusive at all, all i hear about on here is 'fashionable' high profile signings (whatever word i am allowed to use) rarely a solid players discussed ironically the one's i think MON will most likely go after.

van der Vaart van der Vaart van der Vaart van der Vaart oh Matt Taylor, not as exciting, not as good, not as interested..

Is this not normal, dreaming about the European class players? Is is unrealistic? Not really, because they play at clubs under our reputation. Sure they can reach Europe but the Premiership has a huge reputation everywhere in the world. You seem to mix up the word (trendy/fashionable) with (better). Compared to other sites such as West Ham (kumb.com) we are much more reasonable in our suggestions, they are raving about players way out of their league and I am talking Torres, Beckham and David Villa.

When you say van der Vaart, Matty Taylor not as exciting. Not as interested. Is that wrong? Van der Vaart would be two steps up filling a vacant position and Taylor would only bring competition as we already have capable left-sided players. If we had Tim Cahill already and not Bouma I'd same the same thing. We wouldn't need VdVaart but we would need Taylor as we didn't have a LB.

Oh and this bit made me laugh though Wink

Rocafella wrote:

I am not writing off Jason Koumas, not at all

.....

Rocafella wrote:

he has been in the Prem without doing well, he has relegated and not managed to get back up

1. I am not writing him off because I don't know him 100% as well as I know Barry, Angel, Carew and Mellberg. He could be the next Gerrard, even though the odds are against him.

2. My point is that we can't afford to take such a chance. Why should we? There are better prospects out there and I guess you agree on that as well. If MON has other targets and he doesn't get them then fine, we have to sign him and take a chance on him. I wouldn't complaint at all, I would just realize we didn't have the power of signing players as I thought.

If Koumas was our ONLY singing this summer then I'd agree. But that's not what is being suggested. He'd come here as a squad player fighting for a spot.

Competition for places. I know it's a novel idea at a club that in the past couldn't afford to take risks, but it's something we need if we're going to take the next step. He might turn out to be cack, but from watching him play I seriously doubt it.

Fair enough - but do we need another benchwarmer when we already have Berger in that perfect role? We have Gardner as well, a player I rate in the EXACT same bracket as Jason Koumas. Then there's Davis who isn't sold yet. Osbourne is a central midfielder who played a bit this season, Sean Maloney can take the attacking midfielder role if he isn't played anywhere else. Point is; we have too much of the competitive players already, but none of them are really good enough for bringing us to the next level. I think bringing in Koumas would be a great chance, firstly because of the price mentioned, and secondly because I don't think he is better than Berger/Davis (on form) so they would just be pissed off with someone similar coming in.

I am not writing off Jason Koumas, not at all, I am just saying he has been in the Prem without doing well, he has relegated and not managed to get back up even though the team is far better than anyone else down there and he has never shown anything at the top level

But you're not willing to listen to any arguments that may shed some light on those 'facts'?

If he was THAT good as you claim he would have been snatched by a Premiership team a long time ago, that's how it works.

Like Tim Cahill, who was snatched up at the ripe old age of 24 after 7 years at Milwall.

So because Tim Cahill became a great player then Koumas is bound to be one too? Why?

24 is not 26 is it?

I am willing to listen to any argument, I am not against signing Koumas (well, maybe at that price of course which is ridiculous) I am just sick and tired of Jez' drive on here about people only wanting "trendy" players and signing people because they are good on FM. He doesn't know anything about other posters knowledge so he sticks to the abusive line to make his own points look better.

[And there it is again, the use of the word "trendy". It is you mentioning it every time, nobody else is. There is a reason he is linked with Reading and Wigan and not Spurs/United, because he is an unproven Championship player. He was up here in the Prem and he didn't make it, so didn't his team and they relegated. Sure he could cut it here, but I don't think he will at our level, at least the level we are trying to reach.

Well he is linked with Everton and we are aiming where they are and Reading finished above us from what i can remember. People need to stop thinking above our station because we are not there yet and we need players to get us there, Koumas being a type of player to do that.

Sneijder is not being linked with Spurs/Chelsea/Liverplop does that mean he is not all that?

How about Van der Vaart, he has not been linked with Utd or whoever, should we not go for him? I wonder why them 2 players are allowed to be talked about but a less fashionable player is not?

I dont care if players are linked with Real Madrid or Scunthorpe i care about whether MON wants them.

Your arguments are worthless you know, you are making up facts to justify your owns claims and it's getting ridiculous. Sorry to say. I agree with you that we need players to push for where we want to be, we are not there yet. NOBODY is saying those players are van der Vaart or Sneijder, they have been suggested by a few but we all know there is a minimal chance of that happening. If it happens then cudos to MON, if not then I guess he has other targets. Does that automatically mean that he has to go for mediocre players in the Championship such as McShane, who isn't even sure if he's a RB or a CB? Jason Koumas is a decent enough player, I have seen him many times and he would probably end up as a squad player (tops) here at Villa. He is 26, it's not like he is 19 and has all the time in the world in front of him to develop. If he was THAT good as you claim he would have been snatched by a Premiership team a long time ago, that's how it works. We have those players already, we have McCann/Davis/Osbourne/Gardner/Berger. We need the extra bit of quality to challenge Spurs and those teams who finish above us. I don't have the answer but I hope MON does. You seem to be angry when someone talks about your suggestions and claim they aren't what we need. And when someone else suggests something it's become either a "trend-thing", "you play too much FM" or "this is rubbish", well, just because they aren't agreeing with you.

I am not writing off Jason Koumas, not at all, I am just saying he has been in the Prem without doing well, he has relegated and not managed to get back up even though the team is far better than anyone else down there and he has never shown anything at the top level. Sure he has some good internationals under his belt but that's not enough for me, I want proven quality on top of the fillers we already got and don't tell me it isn't going to happen, Koumas is not proven.We are the 4th most successful club in this country and we have money to challenge the big guns. If West Ham can get Tevez, if Boro can get Ravanelli and Juninho and Spurs can get all sorts of great players then why couldn't we?

And the price mentioned, it's 6M or something. For an unproven 26 year old, forget it!

Jez - It also depends on who you concider to be a 'dream player'. Players like Sneijder are worth discussing because they are within our reach, even if the are on the outskirts. What I'm trying to say is we don't need to be bought down to earth everytime players such as that are mentioned, most of us are already fairly realistic in our ambition.

306 - Koumas would be a solid signing under any regime IMO. There's absolutely no question he's premiership quality. If he went somewhere like Everton or Newcastle we'd all be wondering why we didn't take the risk, I guarantee it. Another Tim Cahill in the making.

Yeah, i agree with both of them actually

Prepare for a backlash about Koumas though, dunno what it is perhaps not trendy enough, but Koumas is a cracking player.

And there it is again, the use of the word "trendy". It is you mentioning it every time, nobody else is. There is a reason he is linked with Reading and Wigan and not Spurs/United, because he is an unproven Championship player. He was up here in the Prem and he didn't make it, so didn't his team and they relegated. Sure he could cut it here, but I don't think he will at our level, at least the level we are trying to reach.