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Bad luck. It didn't really look like Angel was going to trouble the bookies tonight, did it?

Leicester signed Collymore on a virtual free transfer. He scored a hat trick on his debut. I can cope with that sort of signing.

I wasn't asking for reasons why you don't think he's a good player. I was asking why (if he becomes a Villa player and surely worthy of your support for that reason alone) why you're not prepared to even "give him a chance"?

How on earth can people say things like that? Because it sets rather a poor tone, considering Villa have certain aspirations, this signing would be a travesty. So you think it's right that he shouldn't even be given a chance if our manager decides that he is the player he wants to sign? You don't have to think he's a great player, you have the right to consider other players to be better options, but to not even give him a chance before he's even signed? (disclaimer - I don't think that he will sign, but I think it's very worrying if we're going to go through this horrific wailing and gnashing of teeth every time we sign somebody who isn't Thierry Henry or Ronaldinho)

A random and almost certainly fabricated link and people have got their razor blades out already. Absolutely ridiculous. How on earth can people say things like that?

Would be ideal. Although reports at the weekend said it would be closer to the end of the season before he was playing again. Would be ideal to pick up in the summer once Wet Spam go down.

His official site says that he is busy trawling France looking for someone to make use of his services. Lille apparently being the team most likely.

Maybe getting your knickers in a twist over some names conjured up by bored journalists is a little bit silly? If the press had decided to pull the names of Gerrard and Essien out of their bullshit hat instead would that have made everything smiley again?

It would be a strange one if it happened. It would basically be Le Guen saying "Well, you're not going to play while I'm the manager, but the door's open to come back if I get sacked". Would put out a strange message. It would be Le Guen's say-so, and he would have nothing to gain from a loan deal.

That's he's currently playing at the correct level.

Is he? From HERE Now I'm no gridiron expert, but I think that I can see a parallel or two. And I'm not sure that Ferguson will be one of the cheaper buys, when he went to Blackburn it was a £7 million fee. And this long after the days of silly money in the transfer market.

How are you so sure of that? I don't think (quite sensibly) that we have revealed how much we will be spending this month. It could be £2 million, it could be £20 million. I'm sure that we're looking at the right players that we need and fit into our budget. Whether that level is Abel Xavier and Phil Bardsley, or Barry Ferguson and David Nugent or Sean Wright-Phillips and Darren Bent, we'll find out. But right now, you have no idea what level of player we're going to be looking at.

Nice optimism. But: How is that going to help Angel get a goal? :winkold:

I would say that Keane and Bent aren't particularly realistic in January either personally.

That would suit me down to the ground until the summer. Rather have somebody other than Smith as the striker though.

Agreed. He would be much more of an 'intent' signing than the likes of SWP in my opinion.

He would be the ideal type of signing to get us through to the end of the season when we can start restructuring properly.

And I'm sure that there will be many more waiting to pounce before they've even played a game because they are not Ronaldinho.

Ah, I see what you're getting at. "Average" meaning "typical", rather than "average" meaning "mediocre"

Believe what you like. If you think that the average player is going to choose us over Man Utd or Arsenal at the moment then you are wrong. Simple as that. We've not been turning up for far too long, and it's not going to be a case of just turning up at the top table and expecting everything to be like it was in the early 1980s. Life doesn't work like that, and there's a lot of work to be done first. Are average players going to be wanted by the likes of Manure? No, didn't think so. I'm not sure what exactly you're arguing here :?

If you take a look at West Ham and their Mascherano/Tevez signings, you will find a whole dodgy network of agents, player contracts and dubious registrations designed to make money for a dubious sports agency. And that is something I am very happy to stay a million miles away from.

Ambition doesn't come into it. Anyone can say "well, let's go out and sign Henry, Essien and Ronaldo. And you're stupid if you say we can't get them". Doesn't mean a single thing. We're not in a position to actually do it at the moment, and complaining just because not everybody lives in an "everything is perfect" bubble isn't actually going to change that fact.

Believe what you like. If you think that the average player is going to choose us over Man Utd or Arsenal at the moment then you are wrong. Simple as that. We've not been turning up for far too long, and it's not going to be a case of just turning up at the top table and expecting everything to be like it was in the early 1980s. Life doesn't work like that, and there's a lot of work to be done first.

I bet Les Reed wishes that he had more fun while he was manager. Considering he hadn't scored a goal in two months before last night.

If we are ever to compete with likes of Arsenal,Liverpool,Man. Utd, etc (Chelsea are a different kettle of fish). Then we need to be signing players they would also be interested in. The slight flaw in your plan of world domination is that if the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal are interested in a player then they will be going to them. Not us. The next step on the ladder is attempting to sign the level of player that the likes of Newcastle, Spurs and Bolton are after. As much as that might hurt, it's the state we find ourselves in. We need to be attracting players of the quality of Parker, Anelka and Malbranque to make the next step, as for the last five years or so, we've found ourselves on a tier below them regarding transfers. At the moment we're not competing with the likes of "Arsenal,Liverpool,Man. Utd" and we're not going to be signing their targets. Not for a long while yet.