macandally

I think this is done and Whelan is just being a media whore. I am guessing here but we have probably made a 9m bid in our usual manner, discretely.

Whelan decides that rather than advise Villa he wants 10 million by phone or fax, he will do his talking via Sky Sports. PF will probably give him a call and say, fine, heres your 10 milllion and we get to talk to NZogbia. The only irritant is that once again, Whelan has blabbed his gob off and the world knows how much we have spent.

Apart from that, not much to see and I think this will go ahead.

5 years!!

I think they had the contract written up for foster and just did a cut and paste for Givens name!!!

A good keeper but thats a long contract for a 35 year old with a dicky shoulder.

At least with MON you knew there was a chance of breaking top 4. Now we have no idea if we'll finish top half at this rate.

.....what the ****?

Cant really argue with that mate can you? The club was more stable under o'neill than I and MANY others can ever remember it being, with 3 consecutive finishes of 6th and really look like breaking the top 4 in 2 of them seasons.

Yes I know some people think he spunked a load of cash, but all the blame cant land at his feet, there must have been somebody sanctioning the deals. And I cant really remember ANY villa fans moaning when we brought the likes of Sidwell, Beye, etc etc. At the time everyone seemed happy that we were building a squad that could push us on those extra couple of places. I can also remember people moaning how long the deals took to go through, and if I remember rightly this was also chalked down as MON fault also. Funny hey!

And his point about us finishing in the top half at the moment is not far off in my opinion, where do you expect us to finish with how things stand at the moment?

just cant see what point you were trying to make with that comment.

To be honest, I dont know how "What the ****......" can be regarded as a comment??

Have some cahoonas, call his bluff and walk away. This guys may be a 10 million pound player in the current climate, but he is not much more!

So in the the "current climate" CNz is half the player JH is?

Is JH worth £20m? No imo. however when looking at other deals this summer, including those of two of our very own left wingers, you would have to conclude that in the current climate CNz every inch a £10m player.

We are flush with cash after said sales and desperate for a winger.

forget what was offered in Jan, its supply and demand, we are desperate.

DW knows this, and for the life of me cant understand why anyone is so shocked over his stance, we would, and have done exactly the same with our players the last couple of years.

Players are worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for them. It doesnt matter who is half as good as who and Liverpool are spunking cash left right and centre so your point to me is a mute one.

There are better players out there for that money and if we had an innovative manager who had fans support, we might just take a chance on them instead of playing it steady and buying only from the premiership.

Jesus, this is just like ONeill but with worse players and we know where that ended up.

Have some cahoonas, call his bluff and walk away. This guys may be a 10 million pound player in the current climate, but he is not much more!

Some fantastic advice on here about what to do next in this deal dispite not actually having an idea of what has already happend

Indeed.

Any information we get from SSN or the Birmingham mail has been made available to such sources because it's so out of date that the disclosure of such information would not affect the negotiations.

I.e. Yes a bid probably was rejected, but that was probably some time ago and the club are probably (hopefully) in the process of negotiating with Wigan as we speak.

No one in the media really knows what's going on.

Considering Dave Whelans level of confidentiality, they probably know everything!

Bicks i don't think Liverpool got a bargin, they have got a very good player but they have payed good money for him.

Our player of the year last year (imo at least) with two years on his contract goes for just above what we got for Ashley Young with 1 year left on his contract (who wasn't as good as Downing last year), they got a bargain

Agreed.

Thirded.

English, International, Premier League experience, left footed and in his prime.

Bargain at 20 million when you LOOK at what is being paid for the likes of Phil Jones and Jordan Henderson.

Personally, I would have told him he was going nowhere and if he worked hard this season, we might sell for next. We would have still got IRO 15 million for him.

Everyone elses players seem to be valued much higher than our own on this forum. How many times do you see:

"He would cost XXX way out of our range"

"He is only worth XXX, we got a good price"

Crazy :shock:

Gutted, I had heard we were gonna play rush goalie next year!!

Seems like thats not going to happen now!! :-)

If we sign anything of the quality of Young and Downing I'll be staggered.

N'Zogbia nearly done. Hes on par if not better than those two. IMO of course.

This?? The deal is nearly done. :winkold:

Oh, so the deal is not nearly done?? Which is it?

If we sign anything of the quality of Young and Downing I'll be staggered.

N'Zogbia nearly done. Hes on par if not better than those two. IMO of course.

This?? The deal is nearly done. :winkold:

Not interested in NZogbia but its good to hear that the Ginger Ninja has been on the phone to let you know that the deal is nearly done Stu!

I am hoping that Randy has signed off a 35 milllion triple swoop on Man City to pick up James Milner, Adam Johnson and Shay Given. That might tempt me out of this melancholy attitude to all things AV.

Oh i think this has been thought through, and it been thought through alot. McLeish would be fully aware of Downings situation when he sat down with Lerner at the interview stage. Hes made it clear as day he wants to leave. If anything, McLeish has played a blinder by eventually making Liverpool pay what we wanted to pay. That money will now go a LONG way to making the squad much stronger all round, rather than a couple of primadonnas on the wings who think the world revolves around them.

Stu you genuinely life in your own little world of optimism. I have no doubt that we will spend some money, but I think it will be no where near 40 million.

Two prima donna wingers?? Thats what you call the former creative hub of our team, England internations in their prime. Seriously??

Whelan has admitted he has to sell N'Zogbia because he's not signing a new contract and has 1 year left. He's not in a position to play hardball. All his posturing in the media about the value of other players in relation to his player won't change the price too much.

I think that there will be an extra 5 mill tagged on for good measure now that the transfer window dealings are moving in earnest.

He was going to blues for what, 10 mil?? Lets see what he goes for in this window

Where have I ignored something?.. I've answered every point you've raised!

I've been posting on VT for long enough now for people to know that I don't spout tosh.

No wonder people don't bother posting ITK stuff anymore.

You don't know what is going to come out in the next week or so, who is going to sign... or what McCleish is going to say to the fans

The same person who told me Downing was going for definite had agreed terms in fact ALSO told me Milner wanted to come back

for definite at the same time. Which is why I thought he was wrong!!

You've dodged pretty much everything, going off on one, taking the convo onto other irrelevant things.

I very much doubt that and as I said before the Downing to Liverpool story was EVERYWHERE weeks ago. So much for ITK. :winkold:

The player agreed terms, do you mean?

Mate have you even read this forum before?? You have come on here badmouthing people who actually are just either putting an opinion across or drawing logical conclusions based on what is out there either on twitter or in the media.

You, as far as I can see have caught this bad habit of just commenting on other posters instead of contributing anything of value yourself.

The most frustrating thing imo is that we have no replacement as usual. We shouldn't be getting into the position where have to replace the player going out as teams start to drive the price up as they know we're desperate.

This shouldnt get lost in the wave of other posts.

If we had anything about us, we could have agreed the price but asked Liverplop not to disclose it until we brought in a replacement, probably NZogbia.

Now Dave Whelan knows what we have in the kitty, he is in a position to play hardball!!

Prettty shit and amateur planning full stop!!!! :x

Well this window is starting to have shambles written all over. I'm not surprised that Downing has gone. He put a 'for sale' sign over himself the moment he stalled on his contract negotiations. £20m is the lowest end of my expectations but if he put a transfer request in he has forgone quite a bit in bonuses.

Throw in the expected departure of Young plus the uninspiring appointment of AMcL and who we seemed to be linked to it's all pretty depressing.

We have brought in £36m in transfer fees plus saved massively on the wage bill so every fan is expecting some really decisive moves in the transfer market. I was very optimistic at the end of the season that the only way was up. Sadly we just continue to spiral downwards.

AMcL is a decent man but so far off a marque appointment its untrue. RL for some reason has seemingly done a complete U turn in how he sees the club. I think he is like Ellis now in that all we need to keep is a seat at the top table and nothing more.

I have no idea what Paul Faulkner brings to the party and I am sick to the back teeth of being patronised by General Krulak, someone who clearly knows little of Villa and nothing of football in general.

I would love the club to surprise me in the next few weeks but I won't hold my breath. The best we seem to have to look forward to is the arrival of a too old semi crocked cast off goalkeeper on high wages.

Rant over......

I dont see that as a rant Harry, a pretty truthful assessment of our current predicament.

I said we had raised the white flag on competing for the top four with the appointment of McLeish, what did we expect the more ambitious of our players to do???

I think Randy will recognise what he has done when season ticket sales and gate attendances drop, plus shirt and merchandise sales fall.

We are not in a good place.

according to yahoo:

Liverpool's £18.5 million bid for downing accepted.

So "we wont accept anything less than 20m" then?

Tbf it's a great price for a player of his ability.

Milner - Bought for 12m, sold for 26m

Young - Bought for 9.65m, sold for 18m

Downing - Bought for 12m, sold for 18.5m

Not bad business really, all things considered.

of course its bad business. because we havent replaced any of them with better players and have thus gone backwards

in what world could that be considered good business ?

not that we've agreed to sell Downing for 18.5m of course

It's good in a purely business sense. Three players wanted to go, and we got good prices for them. Never forget that people laughed at the time for the fees we paid for all three.

Thats crazy, if Downing goes we will have sold three England internationals!! How in any warped sense can that be good?????

Having players on the pitch is what wins things, no prizes for cash in the bank.

Sometimes I am amazed!!!! :shock:

Or maybe I was just commenting on the "Good Riddance I say" in the post I actually quoted?? Did you read that bit or do you open your mouth only to change feet?

There are a number of such posts on here which I find hard to fathom considering he was last years player of the year.

If you were commenting on ONE post from ONE poster then why put 'fans' ? Plural?

Because although I referenced the post above, I stated in my response above that there are more than one post of that ilk on here.

Do you have anything else to do but pick apart semantics?

Just heard from a reliable source that Liverpool HAVE come back with an improved offer and we HAVE accepted it. Downing will be talking to them today or tomorrow.

Will post more if i hear anything.

And sorry will be off line for the next hour or so as still at work.

Good riddance i say!

Gutted if this is true. Cant believe Villa and its fans give up that easily.

Just see Darren Bent sat in the changing room now saying WTF??

In fairness, what can we the fans do about this?

Maybe fans could protest about the proposed sale, that kind of stuff tends to work...!

Or maybe I was just commenting on the "Good Riddance I say" in the post I actually quoted?? Did you read that bit or do you open your mouth only to change feet?

There are a number of such posts on here which I find hard to fathom considering he was last years player of the year.

Just heard from a reliable source that Liverpool HAVE come back with an improved offer and we HAVE accepted it. Downing will be talking to them today or tomorrow.

Will post more if i hear anything.

And sorry will be off line for the next hour or so as still at work.

Good riddance i say!

Gutted if this is true. Cant believe Villa and its fans give up that easily.

Just see Darren Bent sat in the changing room now saying WTF??

Opinions are just that, seems like the rest of the Villa players and a large number of fans support mine over yours as to his worth, considering he was voted POTY etc.

And Downing is a decent player but by your own admission........

As for player of the year, easy to shine in a pile of shit.

I agree we were not great last season which is probably why Downings head was turned so easy.

That post was about Scott Parker, who was playing for a team who were relegated by some distance playing some of the worst football I have ever seen.

Downing played in a team who actually at times played some enterprising football, trouble was, we forgot how to defend.

Not the same in my opinion.

Well done Macandally. You win. Can you leave me alone now please.

Thanks.

Yes of course, my apologies for interrupting you holding court with an alternate argument.

No he doesn't.

Doesnt he?? Who is that guy he does that then, looks just like him??

Dont know why im justifying my opinion to you...but look back at my posts and you will see ive never really rated Downing. Always thought he was a pussy footed shirker with not enough end product. Thats just my opinion though.

Well thanks for sparing your valuable time, but maybe if you write "I" instead of the Royal "We" then I would have understood you were giving your opinion not speaking for all of us.

Opinions are just that, seems like the rest of the Villa players and a large number of fans support mine over yours as to his worth, considering he was voted POTY etc.

20m is ALOT of money and that will be put to good use in other more important areas. 6 months down the line and we will have forgotten all about Downing.

I dont think so. Its amazing how as soon as a player looks like he might leave, his quality suddenly disappears and he goes from being 2010/11 player of the year to an average Joe who we should grab 20 million for.

Downing is a quality player, works hard, tracks back to help his fullback, is an England international with proven premiership quality.

Players like that are two a penny arent they????