timharding

Can't agree with you. Like the Sidwell issue, theres always a level of traffic BEFORE the signing. Saying you'll sign Bent imo is you making a very educated guess but nothing more. And even if he does sign, you'll turn round and say 'see, i told you it would happen' but it wont make this conversation, at this point in time any more factual. For the record I think either Spurs or Liverpool his likely destination, with villa 3rd likely, but thats an assessment, judging by the factors in play, not down to insider knowledge, much as I suspect yours is. In fact you even factored in 'provided one of the top 4 don't come in' to save face. I'm not trying to get on at you just cos you're not villa but its no different from the 'defoe is at a hotel' crap that we're always having to listen to.

To be fair that would have been an understandable conclusion as his dad is a spurs fan. Problem being Ashley himself is an Arsenal fan, and Spurs never went above £7m which apparently, wasn't enough.

i normally appreciate glastonspur even handed view of the villa, and if nothing else its nice to hear an outsiders genuine view of the club, but those bent and barnes links really are bollocks I'm afraid. Barnes was rumoured to be going here there and everywhere in Jan and there is suprisingly little traffic out there about Bent at the minute. In fact the most interesting thing I read today was that Ipswich have a 15% sell on agreement

Only two mentions of Bent on the whole of Spurs' newsnow page. In fact more space is given to Jenas £10m move to Everton. If the bent deal was as far gone as you suggest, I'd expect more traffic, esp when newsnow picks up stories worldwide

Almost certainly wrong on the first count, and probably (not definitely) wrong on the second I'm afraid. Bent is signing for Spurs - will likely all be finalised within next 7 days. I said a while ago in this thread that I had 90+% confidence of this happening - that's now increased to 95+%. Fee agreed with Charlton and terms agreed with Bent - all subject to medical and (in my opinion) no last minute arrival of a bid from a top 4 club. Without checking I'm not sure if Giles Barnes (Derby) has featured in this transfer thread previously, but if so you can very likely scrub him off the list of Villa 'possibles' because the word is he's a done deal for Spurs unless Derby get promotion via the play-offs. Web FTL Giles Barnes - Football Transfer Rumours Club Derby County League English Championship Position Midfielder Date of Birth 05/Aug/1988 Country of Birth England Here you can find the latest football gossip and football transfer rumours for Giles Barnes (currently of Derby County FC). Below that is the transfer history of Giles Barnes (that we have in our database). Football transfer rumours about Giles Barnes Rumour Date 31/Jan/2007 To Club Tottenham News Paper The Independent Transfer Amount 3.5m Meanwhile, the club are also in the hunt to sign £3.5m-rated Giles Barnes from Derby Rumour Date 29/Jan/2007 To Club Tottenham News Paper Daily Mirror Transfer Amount 3m Spurs will sign Derby County star Giles Barnes for £3m on transfer deadline day Rumour Date 16/Jan/2007 To Club Tottenham News Paper The Sun Transfer Amount However, Davenport is being used as bait elsewhere. Spurs hope to land Derby midfielder Giles Barnes by offering £2m and the defender in exchange Rumour Date 29/Dec/2006 To Club Newcastle News Paper The Sun Transfer Amount 3m Tottenham and Newcastle are leading the chase for Derby's £3m wonderkid Giles Barnes Rumour Date 29/Dec/2006 To Club Tottenham News Paper The Sun Transfer Amount 3m Tottenham and Newcastle are leading the chase for Derby's £3m wonderkid Giles Barnes Rumour Date 29/Nov/2006 To Club Tottenham News Paper The Express Transfer Amount Tottenham want teenage Derby midfielder Giles Barnes Rumour Date 19/Nov/2006 To Club Everton News Paper The People Transfer Amount And they will go head-to-head with Merseyside rivals Everton in January for Derby's promising youngster Giles Barnes Rumour Date 19/Nov/2006 To Club Liverpool News Paper The People Transfer Amount And they will go head-to-head with Merseyside rivals Everton in January for Derby's promising youngster Giles Barnes Rumour Date 14/Nov/2006 To Club Bolton News Paper Daily Mirror Transfer Amount Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has joined the chase for exciting young Derby midfielder Giles Barnes Rumour Date 05/Nov/2006 To Club Liverpool News Paper Daily Mirror Transfer Amount Everton are set to challenge Liverpool for the services of Derby teenager Giles Barnes Rumour Date 05/Nov/2006 To Club Everton News Paper Daily Mirror Transfer Amount Everton are set to challenge Liverpool for the services of Derby teenager Giles Barnes I refer yo to these rumours from January...

If any player, Bent included, is thinking about going to west ham then my advice would be to be patient and await the results of a second enquiry.

defoe to west ham apparently,even though they hate him and he hates them. hahahaha

JLS to arsenal, even though cliche was the best left back in the prem this year according to opta stats

I dont think any of us have anything definitive on what his clause is, just a basic overview from what we've been able to pickup here and there. One things for sure though, he'd have to take a pay cut to come here.

No. Tevez etc were dodgier than a West Am fan and Owen went to Newcastle because nobody else wanted him and he is greedy, the latter being why everyone goes to the barcodes! So if we sign one of these big champion league wanting players you can come back and tell people to stop but as that is very unlikely to happen you cannot Doesn't matter WHY they moved, its the fact they moved there at all. the point rocafella made is my opinion too. That strange things happen. IMO the only player we cant get are the top players at/targets of the following clubs: FC Barcelona AC Milan Real Madrid Internazionale Bayern München Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal AS Roma Manchester United Valencia I may have missed a few so don't jump on me immediately. But that leaves an awful lot of quality players. Each of the clubs listed above will have the areas they need to prioritise, maybe Milan will need a right back, maybe arsenal cant afford ribery, meaning that there is always a chance, providing one of these clubs aren't challenging us for a signature, that we can get some top talent. Then there is the fringe players (or just the player that aren't neccessarily the stars) at these clubs. Gudjohnsen, Pizzaro, Geremi, Demichelis, Deisler, Edu (yes the former arsenal lad), Giuly, patrick muller. All very good players playing at the top level, yet certainly not players that are out of our league. The upper extremities of 'our league' yes, but not untouchable.

Can I just say regarding Sneijder. I've trawled all kinds of media sources looking for justification as to why he would be out of our league. I found some information regarding european clubs and I found one fan site for Man U where a fan stated he would like to sign him, and another fan site for Liverpool that is TWO YEARS old. He is far from unrealistic, in fact I think he is exactly the level of player we're after. Ribery is a stretch I agree, but we're not talking about Ronaldinho here. what are the reason's we could not attract Sneijder? 1) He will go to a bigger club. 2) He's too expensive The leaders in the race for his signature are so far Valencia and Bayern. I'm not saying Villa are near these clubs at the minute but Valencia have not yet met Ajax valuation. They have offered 8m euros with an additional 4m euro's as an add on. £8m total then. Bayern have offered a straight 14m euro's though Bayern doesnt actually hold a massive allure as it used to. In fact Bayern fans have actually described themselves as being a smaller club than Bremen now and have missed out on Champions League. If we were to match Bayerns bid, with the lure of the prem I think he'd be very interested specifically with all the new facilities and commercial partners. Never underestimate how fickle footballers are, these small details count.

Can i just say i was told I was full of crap (overly harsh imo) because I repeated something I had read in a national newspaper (a shit one to be fair) stating that Big Sam would look to offload martins when he takes the NUFC job. Apparently cos Big Sam would be 'mad' to let his 'best' striker go. Given Sams take on football there could be any reason he doesnt fancy Martins like workrate, lack of discipline (in that martins is an instinctive player and not very positionally disciplined, not in regard to professional discipline).

Why would we go after Defoe when we could have Drogba or Henry? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

General, perhaps we could register our position officially with the Prem Lge? Something like we accept that the decision has been made and as a signatory we support it. However, for the good of football, and this whole thing has been embarrassing for english football, we would like a possible amendment to the rules added to the agenda for the next prem lge meeting? Could this be diplomatic enough to show that we are unhappy.

Young and Maloney being able to do a job isnt good enough for where we want to be. We need dedicated striking options. If Carew gets injured we're left with two and we need another on the bench to come on and change things.

How about Kevin Kuranyi? 15 league goals 1m 88cm tall, could play with or as an alternative to john carew?

drogba was 24m himself

No

Spot on for me, I've said over and over that I'd prefer Bent or Pizzaro or a number of different options. My point is simple in that MON is far from crazy to be interested in Defoe as he scores goals, always has, and Defoe himself is FAR from being the chump people are making out.

I think the problem is we've concentrated on one season. Over the course of his career Defoes records reads: Overall career totals Apps Goals Total 282 (79) 116 League 242 (68) 86 FA Cup 17 (5) 12 League Cup 17 (3) 15 Euro/Others 6 (3) 3 Make your own mind up whether this is good enough. I've tried my hardest to make this legible. Failed miserably. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think we need a powerhouse striker, not a squishy, pacy midget who cant score more then what we already have. Our top scorer has 10 in all comps. Defoe has 18.

Dinamo Bucharest! If he can score against a european powerhouse like that, he must be good. I think his goal against Sevilla was after he come on as a sub. Appearances as sub don't count, so goals as a sub don't count either. :winkold: Well one minute penalties don't count but sub appearances do, even if it was an 87th minute substitution. Both camps in this argument shift the goal post so much it is beginning to become silly. Fact Defoe has consistently scored goals. Fact no villa player has since Yorke. Whether you want him here or not is the area to have an opinion on not the facts. But on the flip side stop quoting stats and passing them off as fact cos thats how these debates rage out of control.

TRL who would you like to see as an alternative?

These were goals that he score for Liverpool, the 05/06 is villa goals. Plus his are in all competitions. his total for Villa from 05 to 07 is 9 goals in 42 games. The goals he got before that are the reason we bought him.

Andy Johnson 'earned' and scored what? 10 pens for palace? Hate to say it but he was certainly effective. Having a record FULL of pens does detract slightly but I donbt think it puts effectiveness in doubt.