Gabby15

General, just wondering if there is any plans to or if it is possible for a pre-season friendly cup/league. Ajax do one against manchester united, Fc Porto and Inter Milan and is given alot of TV coverage and if we were to play against some bigger european, south american or asian teams it could be a good way to boost the clubs profile.

That is the VillaBlog Gabby15, its a load of shite i'm afraid.

Ah, thanks for that.

Just found this VIA Newsnow

It's all rumours right now but according to more than one website Manchester United player Alan Smith is at Bodymoor Heath for a fitness test.

Apparently he was also seen at Villa Park earlier in the day so the numbers add up, but how true this is we may never know.

Aston Villa had a bid for Smith accepted when he was at Leeds but the player turned it down. At the time I suggested it was because he had played for the previous incumbent before and wasn't stupid enough to do it again. Maybe I was right!

Well, we're still waiting for confirmation on the Shaun Maloney rumour and someone has said that the Freddy Adu rumour we mentioned earlier might not be as ridiculous as I had thought.

As and when I hear you'll hear. that's if I'm not walking to the fridge to get a beer.

Click

The kitstealers just had an £18mill bid rejected for Darren Bent :shock: , glad we didnt go in for him at that price

Really? I would love to pay that rather than watch him go elsewhere...

He's a good player but not worth £18mill IMO, there's plenty of other strikers in the world who are just as good, if not better for that or less.

The kitstealers just had an £18mill bid rejected for Darren Bent :shock: , glad we didnt go in for him at that price

I suppose Figo is too old even for us isn't he ?

He signed for some Saudi team yesterday, would have been nice though.

I think get Young in for £7mill,

F*ck me, I'd rather have bardsley on loan and spend the £7 million wisely in the Summer, he's no where near worth tha met, no offense. If I was paying £7 mill for a right back i'd want someone world class. Some one tell me the last right back that went for that sort of money!? I bet he was a bit better that Luke Young of Charlton!

I think he ment Ashley Young, the midfielder at Watford.

Having seen Liverpool-Arsenal I'm even more convinced that Crouch isn't the right man for us. Glad we got rid of him.

Now, Huntelaar is another matter.

Would anyone consider Lauren as rb? Is he injured or can't he just take a place in the Arsenal-team?

Still injured i think.

Don't know if these were posted but from the SSN website on the rumours page (where you send your own rumours in)

I have heard from excellent sources in Asia that Lee Chun Soo, who starred for South Korea at World Cup 2006, is on his way to Aston Villa in the January transfer window.

Paul Meehan - Singapore

I was at dinner in a well known restaurant last night in Soho and was sat on a table next to Martin O'Neill and Nigel Reo-Coker and one other who I assumed to be an agent

Mark Jackson - Poole, Dorset

Rumour has it that despite PLG's departure Barry ferguson is still on his way out of Ibrox possibly to Villa in a £4.5M deal. David Murray has apparently told Ferguson that the new manager will need funds to restructure the team and because of this and Fergusons conduct recently he will be moved on.

Bob Fairley - Larkhall

Gareth Bale will snub Southampton and sign for Arsenal with Theo Walcott his pal. Liverpool will look at Fernando Torres if they can offload Peter Crouch for £11m to Newcastle, Juventus or Aston Villa

SSN

Don't know if these would be very reliable but reo-coker would be a good signing. There was also a rumour on there about Van der Vaart going to West Spam which i've heard from a few other places, wouldn't mind him either!

D'alessandro is currently on loan at Real Zaragoza however i heard him say somewhere that he thinks he can play in the same team as Pablo Aimar which suggests he doesnt get many games there so i wouldnt be suprised if Wolfsburg ended his loan spell.

PLG has just gone from Rangers, chances of Ferguson have just gone down.

^ Neill would probably cost less than £3mill as he wont sign a new contract, Bale would cost around double that i think and Boa Morte for £4? yes please :winkold:

Why are people worried about who other teams have already signed. So far all of the players have been rubbish bar maybe Larsson and then most would agree he is probably too old, these players that have been signed by other clubs wouldn't improve our squad so what are people getting worried about?

I think it's just the fact that player's have already been signed and announced as joining in jan.

Yeah, but SoccerHQ, read the other thread and you'll see O'Neill has given up on Milner. Bale and Bent would be nice, but I'd probably prefer Baines and Defoe. Either Farfan, SWP or Navas for the right wing.

while Navas is a quality player i've heard that he gets badly homesick which is never good.

Hearing the £12Mill being banded about for Defoe i'd rather see us spend that on someone like Huntelaar at Ajax, aswell as a great season last season he gave Arsenal a real hard time in the Berkamp testimonial which shows he'd more than likely adapt to the prem well, not sure if he's a realistic target ATM though.

Just found these two articles

Boss targets striker Fri, Dec 22 2006 13:44

Reports suggest that Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has entered the race to sign Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka.

The Australian international is out of contract at the end of the season, and admits he is not sure if he will be offered a new contract to stay on at the Riverside.

Viduka told Sky Sports: "I don't know to be honest about my own future.

"There's been no approach from the club towards me for any sort of renegotiation. So it's all up in the air at the moment."

It is now being reported that O'Neill sees Viduka as the ideal player to bolster this thin squad and add some much needed fire-power, and an offer in the region of £2million could be on its way to the Riverside in January.

Viduka

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill has revealed he hopes to land a mixture of long and short term deals in the January transfer window.

The Irishman is expected to be one of the big spenders in the new year, as he finally gets to spend some of new owner Randy Lerner's fortune.

O'Neill told the club website: "I have two trains of thought really. If I can get the quality of player to be a healthy part of the team and improve it for the next four years in January, then that's what I'll do.

"There might be other short term things that might have to tide us over. We won't be the only club looking at that.

"Just don't hold me to it. I'm going full bloodedly to try and improve the team one way or the other."

"Ideally, I'd prefer someone who has the capabilty of playing Premiership football and who has, or is, playing Premiership football. But it doesn't mean I'd be so tunnel-visioned as to be making other things unavailable just because of that.

"The foreign players who have done well here have done so because they are very good footballers. There have been a lot of foreign players who haven't made the grade here. But I'd hope to have done enough homework on someone that might be capable, regardless where he's from."

Link

Not sure how reliable the two sites are but i don't rate Viduka at aall and think we could do ALOT better.