timharding

I'm related to Doyle believe it or not and I've heard nothing since the original interest

No he's not, he held talks with them, got caught a la Cole, then came out and said he didn't want to join them. So they signed Luca Toni instead

First off Liverpool have every intention of selling Bellamy. defoe/Keanes future does not depend on Berbatovs because they are the options to play WITH berbatov so if he went they'd sign another 'big lad'. I think Defoe is the more like to go. Agree that Villa or Torres is out of our league but SWP and Klose are certainly not. Werder Bremen are a decent side but as long as a bigger clubs didnt go in for him then we could certainly entice him here, especially with Premiership wages.

Spurs are far from having a warchest. I've got a pal who is involved at Spurs and I know that, as unbelievable as it sounds, Jol is under pressure to deliver. The board wanted CL qual. this year and they might not even get Uefa at this point. Everyone knows that Spurs invested in youth which is admirable, but what people don't realise is that the investment was about 60m pounds since Jol took over. Any manager who spends at that level will be expected to deliver. Also, like any club that spends at that level, they've not much left in the kitty. They might spend a few quid tweaking here and there but any big signing will have to be funded by sales. i.e why the rumours about Keane, Defoe and Berbatov persist even though Jol doesn't want to sell any of them

I actually looked on the Browns site the other day and I couldn't find anything about the Villa. But then its quite possible that they wouldn't give a shit. Its different for us cos we became part of something special, but to a Browns fan we're just another business that Mr Lerner happens to own.

How about Tevez now? I know people have felt his transfer unlikely but things have changed today. Could we at least be in the hunt?

How about a PR role? Not a corporate PR position but he could concentrate on Liason with the fans. some sort of position with the SCG perhaps? I don't know, but I'd love to see him involved.

This is getting silly

But Bellamy was rubbish at Chelsea too. I think reo Coker is a good player. Not as good as the media seem to think, but potentially better than anything we hav, maybe petrov apart. I'm not saying I like him, in fact if the rumours are to be believed I think he has a lot to answer for regarding West Ham's slip this year. I think he, along with Anton Ferdinand, fell into the trap that many young players do and thought that they had made it. He's young and this will have stung him, so hopefully he'll learn. If we do get him, it'll be because MON think he could handle him. I think he'd be a good addition at the right money, similarly with Craig Bellend. The blokes a tit, he's never learned but for 90 mins on a saturday I'd be delighted to watch him in a villa shirt. I'd rather get Bent, but I'd take a Bellamy over an Allback. we're in a different league now boys.

General, I have to say the Man U hike is atonishing, but had our board upped the prices I would have been confident in the knowledge that it had been done for the good of the club, as you have all shown in all decisions you have taken thus far. I'm not sure the same can be said for Man U's current regime and I can only thank my lucky stars that we were blessed with the ownership we got.

Gordon excites me more than anyone else suggested, but I bow to those who have information that he'll go elsewhere.

I find it hard to disagree with this actually. Very very possible.

Are you playing Football Manager or something? Saviola, Riquelme, Heinze, Snjeider, probably Geremi, wouldn't look twice at a deal to us, c'mon now. Currently (yes that does say currently, the future will hopefully be different!) we are a step back, players of that calibre don't tend to take steps back just like that. Keane - ffs he is the captain of Spurs and lashing them in at the moment, even if Spurs say they will sell him, he won't leave them. Appiah and Muntari are surely just wild rumours too. The clubs interested in them before are way above us, we can't actually say we can compete on that level yet! I dont think Sneijder is unrealistic. If nothing else the lure of the Premiership is appealing. I keep saying it but remember Bouma's pedigree before he joined us. He left a CL semi finalist to join us. Don't ask, Don't get.

Southgate hasn't got a clue to be honest has he?

i'd love woodgate. The fit woodgate that Boro have had this year anyway. People are making a big deal about Boro being his hometown and I'd say for the likes of you or me that would matter, but I can't help feeling he'd have committed to Boro by now if he was going to at all. O'Neill or Southgate? A newly reborn Giant or a stagnant team of greedy bit parters. Boro are going nowhere and frankly, with woodgate and Viduka possibly leaving, next year they could be in REAL trouble. Woodgate must be tempted by career stability after such a turbulent period.

They're no Adriano in there, no ronaldo or rooney, i think all are realistic I also think People are overrating Van Der Vaart. He'd improve us, and he looks good on football manager but in reality he's no superstar and of the top four he would only get into the liverpool side.

And anyway we discussing semantics, what about the players? The feedback I want is your comments on the possible blend and whether/how they would improve our fortunes.

But so was Baros. To whom we would have applied Premiership financial attitudes to. My point exactly, we WOULD have applied Premiership financial attitudes to Baros until we were dealing with a continental club. If Chelsea had got him for 4m we'd have gone mad, yet when they're interest failed to materialise, we were left with one prospective buyer, and a european one at that, the valuation came down. Factors in the market that affect the price are usually player form, team form and success and competition from other prosective buyers. With these factors against us, i agree we could pay double, but with all these factors in our favour? I'll reiterate, the prices I mentioned are me in a fantasy situation, being Villa manager with the remit from the board of improving the squad whilst making sure we dont get fleeced.

Regardless of the accuracy of valuations, and I may have been conservative, our job is to barter down, as much as their is to barter up. In that regard I've stated that I'd like Van Der Vaart at 7m. I'd like him at 10m! No one will pay 14m for him captain or not. He was captain at Ajax, and yes I know I keep banging on about it lol! I think we are applying premiership financial attitudes to continental players. Carew was valued at 4m in his deal!

Rumoured values are controlled by the selling club so values are always quoted higher. We said we wanted 15m for Yorke and we got 12.5m for him. (I'm skirting round the fact Gregory wanted Beckham!) And please remember, I'm saying this would be my transfer stategy, I'm not evaluating them! Within any strategy you set yourself a price you want to pay,and if the selling club want more you either raise your price or abandon the idea. This is what I'm demonstrating, MY transfer strategy. Carson has no prospect of first team football next year. You may argue he will be patient but he's been there a while now, and he may force the clubs hand if he get itchy feet. Preston may WANT 7m but who will give it to them? Bent is the closest comparible transfer when he moved to Charlton with no experience of the premiership. £3.5m was the price. Newcastle would not want to let Parker go but he might want to leave after thefruitless 2 yrs there under a poor manager. Like I said its a strategy, the kind of thing you draw up in May before the fun starts, the foundation from which to start from. Theres a few ifs and it would taking a lot of negotiation, but then thats what should be happening now we've got astute business heads in charge.

How on earth do you add up the potential values of those players and arrive at £22 million? Remember these are approximations but, Van Der Vaart 7m Vanden Borre 5m Parker 5m Carson 1.5m Nugent 3.5m

Van Der Vaart 20m? No chance. His star is not as bright now as it was when he left Ajax and even then he left for 6m Euro's

General, Next season will be the first in years that I will be able to commit to all home games and therefore purchase both myself and my wife season tickets, which will finally restore a bit of faith in myself as a villan by committng to the club. This is because in May I leave the Royal Navy, a career which has often restricted me in terms of being able to get to Villa Park as often as I like (though this year I've been inspired to manage to get to more games). The flip side of this was that , in celebration of the great years the Navy had given me, I, along with a large group of friends, booked tickets for the ARMY v Navy rugby fixture at twickenham, and I know the corresponding American Football fixture is just as big an event in the states. Heres the rub.... Same date as the Shef Utd Game.... Something had to give! I'll get to the point! is there any possibility that I would be able to PURCHASE a commemorative scarf after the event? I would rather put a little bit into the club than swell ebays coffers ( though I will if I have to!) I'm sure you are very busy and I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time on such a self-serving issue but dont ask, dont get, right? Regardless of the outcome of this enquiry, may I extend my gratitude and express my relief at the work Mr Lerner, Yourself, Martin and the whole team at Villa Park have done and are doing. From Sailor to Warrior, I salute you. Go NAVY, Beat ARMY!

In terms of what I'd like to see arrive at Villa, a sense of realism has to be adopted. Some of us remember being conned in to thinking we were getting Gazza, Koeman, Bergkamp and Danny Blind to name a few. In terms of our level of attraction, there are some players to whom even having big money to spend is not enough. They do not want to join a revolution, they want to slot straight into a winning side. But to me these are the top players and the TOP clubs, the one capable of WINNING the champ league not just appearing in it. And this leaves a very large pool of experienced talented players. In the Champions League teams, we would struggle in my opinion to attract the TOP players from the clubs like Milan, Inter, Barcelona, Real, Valencia, Bayern and our own illustrious English Brethren. Notice I said TOP players, this still leaves a lot of fringe players at these clubs who are still good enough to improve our side. Then there are the clubs I ommitted from the TOP list, all with CL experience year in, year out. The likes of Ajax, PSV, Benfica, Porto, Werder Bremen, Galatasaray, Lyon, Lille........... I think five signings, 2 foreign, three domestic. Of the foreign signings one will be a glamour signing as we tend to get better value for money abroad on the players with a bigger reputation. There is then a settling in period to consider, which isn't generally as big a problem with dutch or scandinavian players. So I am left with Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart. Sneijder is my favourite ofthe two due to his ability to play a more disciplined centre mid role. However, V-Der-V would slot into a role that Berger can not do forever and provide a new creative output. AsI mentioned earlier in the thread, everyone though he would go to a top team when he left Ajax, yet Hamburg got him for 6m euro's. Out of our league? If V-Der -V were to come then I think we'd need a more defensive option for the centre of midfield, and I think Scott Parker would be the man. He can't be happy up there, he's effectively treading water! Not getting near the England squad, a change of scenary, to join a club who will certainly have a higher profile next season must surely seem appealing, especially with the MON factor. If Sneijder is the preferred option then without the added tenacity of a Parker character I would be tempted to tighten up the back four, and I would do this with the experience and quality of Patrick Muller from Lyon. They've sold him once before, he'd be relativly cheap and he's very comfortable on the ball. In addition I would buy Luke Young who's proven at premiership level, despite not having his best year. In fact this, in partnership with the possible relegation of Charlton, would drive the price down, and whatever we think of him, on the list of english right backs, only Neville and Richards pip him. Certainly better than Bardsley anyway. Throw in Craig Gordon from Hearts to either replace of compete with Tommy and spend the largest chunk on Bent. The only club from the top four that would have looked at bent would have been Liverpool, but with the takeover their bar has been raised so I think it will come down to the likes of Villa or a club LIKE Everton which again will bring the original price down slightly. To finish the final three places in my second strategy I would make my second continental signing Vanden Borre for right back. Could turn out to be a dud, could turn into a superstar, but you may notice that the second list of players involve more risky signings and the first contin more wroven players. Not only could Vanden Borre do a job for us but it als make good business sense as he is certainly a player I would consider an investment. Who know's how long Randy's money will go before he expects us to self finance like Abramovich eventually hopes chelsea will(never happen!). A player like Vanden Borre would command big money if he mature as expected over the next few years. A gamble on a keeper in the shape of Carson with another striker gamble on Nugent which wouldn't actually be that big a gamble if we are planning for Gabby and Luke to step up. Sneijder-Luke Young-Muller-Gordon-Bent Approx 24m pounds Van Der Vaart-Vanden Borre-Parker-Carson-Nugent Approx 22m Pounds I'd just like to say any player who doesn't appear isn't me saying they're not good enough, rather that this is my Fantasy Transfer Strategy, not my fantasy transfers, and I wanted to apply some logic rather than bandy a bunch of names around. And forgive my ignorance, but the likes of Muntari for example, I haven't seen enough of. In addition there are players in Europe like Vincent Kompany who apparently is destined to play for the Top sides, but I'd say the haven't moved for him so far have they? How about a cheeky bid? If I was to change anything from my list it would be the Keepers as whilst I would like abetter keeper/competition for Tommy I don't believe that is as high a priority as the others. However I have included them as I'm trying to gauge the climate at Villa Park at the minute. Sorry that was so long!

Can we deop the 32red thing now? They gave us Nike, they gave us the training ground, they gave us the holte hotel. We need to leave them some miracles to perform next year you know!