o'malley

We lost to Stoke, Newcastle and Boro with him....

Laursen was skinned by Fuller on Stokes last goal not Carews fault, Boro were gifted a goal by Sidders nothing to do with big JC, and for Newcastle iirc we had Cuellar and Laursen as centrebacks marking the very fast Martins when Davies should have been marking him - once again nothing to do with Carew a MON error that last one.

Carew wasn't even playing vs Boro, far as I remember.

Not sure it really matters, the only ones I probably wouldn't give it to are Young, Agbonlahor, Milner. Pretty much every other first-teamer has been captain elsewhere at some point and would be able to do a fine job - and all this leadership on the pitch is a big reason we're doing so well.

I agree with the general sentiment that ideally we'd bring in 2, and let Harewood leave. 1 of the Carew-type, so we've got an alternative when he's injured (Heskey the obvious; RSC, Jones or Ashton if we want to spend big) and the other a goalscorer who could play alongside/instead of Agbonlahor depending on situation (be this Defoe, Owen, Bellamy).

Personally I think it'd be better if one of these was younger and not someone who'd expect first team all the time (maybe there's someone from the Championship who could step up?) - as I think it'd be difficult to keep Agbonlahor, Carew and say, Heskey + Owen happy. But if we could manage it, that would be a brilliant set of strikers to have...I do fear Agbonlahor will tire later in the season, so it would be particularly nice to have someone like Owen to take the pressure off. Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult in that, of those 4, at least one is likely to be injured at any one time!

In some ways, I'd quite like a different Newcastle striker, in Obafemi Martins. Younger, very pacy and has a bit of flair about him. Downside is that he's less consistent scorer.

Of course, there is always the outside chance we'll look further afield. Podolski would be brilliant, lots of potential and he strikes me as someone who'd fit into Premier League football well - downside being I don't think he'd sign for us! It would be great if we were at least trying to get someone of his calibre though, a young talent playing for one of the big international sides.

Finally, I don't understand the negativity on Heskey. As is acknowledged for England recently he excels at causing trouble for defences and making space for those alongside him. He doesn't have the skill of Carew, but he is probably more effective at that role of winning headers, holding up the ball. No defence would like to have Heskey the battering ram in the middle, and the potential of Gabby & Young running at them either side of him. He draws in two defenders, our pacy players can get in behind. It's a crude tactic, but it will get goals in the premiership.

Yeah, take it. This thing needs to be sorted out, it's dragged out waaaay too long. We've made the point, not caved in and Finnan's value is arguable, so we've got the price we wanted, give or take a few thousand.

I don't get the "17m + Finnan or we've backed down" attitude, as the 1m valuation on Finnan is just a figure plucked out the air by the papers.

To me (and let me stress, ME) it seems like

the entire thing is a little bit amateurish, I am not saying they are not professional, it's just that most of

them don't know a single thing about football.

i find this a strange point. these people professionally own and run a football club. if you accuse them of not knowing a single thing about football, it appears to me that you are accusing them of being unprofessional. i don't see how you can separate the two.

totally agree with the sentiment of this thread. i find all the panickers hilarious. very entertaining reading some other threads on here this evening. shoot me if i ever turn into one of those fine posters who vomit hyperbole in everything they post (but whose opinions are, of course, worthy of respect).

for my part, although (like everyone else) i know we need 2 or 3 more players in, i think having a close-knit squad and good team spirit will count for a lot over the season. i think of everton when they finished 4th. that was not a good squad on paper, but they were able to grind out wins and got the league position that no-one expected as a result. not saying i want us to play like them and try to grind out 1-0s all the time, but in terms of team spirit i think that's what we should go for, and that's what hopefully we have now. man city, west ham, portsmouth may have more glamour signings but that will mean nothing if they don't play like a team and perform on the pitch. i'd take our first 11 over theirs right now, for sure.

we've got a great first 11 (minus rb!) and some good options on the bench (berger, moore, maloney, etc.), add a little more squad depth (which we will by the end of the month) and i'm confident for a top 6/8 finish. shame we missed out on gordon, but c'est la vie. up the villa!

finnan would be an excellent signing for the next couple of seasons. an improvement on what we've got and it'd give us time to get a long term successor (contrary to what some seem to think, we are not going to be buying our entire team for the next 5 years this summer!). be surprised if liverpool let him go, but if they are getting alves or someone, he may not want to be backup at this stage in his career.

lahm would be fantastic. bayern not being in the cl gives a smidgen of hope, but i'd still be extemely surprised if a german international left bayern for villa

I dont understand why people not worry.

Teams that were placed around us in the table and above are investing in good players and every player I´ve seen so far will improve their teams. If we invest the same then it will be all on luck if we´re going to fight for Europe next season.

Our team is a team for place 11...maybe top ten...but to go into Europe there has to be a huge investment now because other teams that are ahead of us or has had a disappointing season will get better.

Newcastle will get much better with Allardyce...

Manchester City will get better when the new ownership is done and Ranieri steps in...

Everton, Tottenham, Portsmouth and West Ham will be up there...

Blackburn feels a little bit difficult to decide on how they will go...

Reading and Bolton will take a dip...

It will take more than the type of players like Taylor and Naismith to make us serious contenders for Europe next season and that is exactly why I worry. Do we have the chance on getting players we need to close in the gap? Do we have the finance to make such a huge jump on the ladder?

Everyone seems to think that we will be the winners when the transfer market closes...there are a whole world out there looking for players...and there are not endless amount of players that would suit us or MON.

MON might have something up his sleeve, but what happens if he misses out on his main targets and players like Parker has already slipped us by?

There is no safety belt for this ride and we might end up as the transfer markets losers even though we have MON and Lerner. I dont doubt that they have the skill to do things right for the club...not at all...but it is not an easy job to make Villa run riot in the league again...especially not having Europe as a bait to lure high profile players for next season.

I´m not complaining about MON or Lerner but as a supporter to the club I cant be blind and not count in the reality that comes with this world of football.

People say that we got Young and Carew in the end of january and we had been moaning through the middle of january that we havent signed anyone yet...well...Young was MON´s doing...but was Carew really MON´s deal or was it Houllier´s? :winkold:

I am quite sure that Houllier wanted Baros and he used Carew as bait...it was a great deal for us and I am happy for it...but can we be certain that this was a deal that we can give 100% credit to MON?

I want to discuss things like this so please try to keep a respectful discussion level.

your worry seems to be based on only 2 things: us not being linked with high-profile enough players in tabloid newspapers and other clubs signing players that you would like (but o'neill may have no interest in). we haven't missed out on parker, distin or whoever if we never tried to sign them.

it's completely reasonable to point to ashley young as an example of why not to worry. the board was prepared to fund £8m or so on an up-and-coming player and outcompete teams around us - west ham, spurs. there has been absolutely nothing so far to suggest we can't do the same this summer for the targets o'neill has chosen - which, lest we forget, none of us know the identify of. obviously there's no guarantees in football. deals may fall through for reasons beyond our control, but so it goes. it's the same for every club. i'd still rather be waiting to try and sign first choices than going for second or third choices now, even if that may mean having to make a couple of rushed deadline-day deals if the first choice falls through.

with the point about the carew deal, whether or not o'neill instigated the deal, the result was good so it's entirely a positive as far as o'neill's transfer credentials go. he wouldn't have sold baros without signing a striker and he decided exchanging him for carew would improve the team, and it did. that strongly suggests to me he knows what he's doing with this team.

exactly. i see him as a similar to riise and i don't rate riise that highly. lots of effort and a spectacular goal every so often is fine, but there needs to be more for him to be a real top level player.

We're not in a position to get really top level players as yet. The odd one like Carew we may get lucky with but generally we're looking at player to take us to the next level. Until we get Europe it isnt really going to happen.

i agree with what you're saying. maybe i didn't say it the best, but i was more meaning i don't think he is someone who can take us to the next level because he's no better than what we've got (other than his penchant for stunning goals). as i say though, he'd be okay as a squad player. just i'd be a little disappointed if he was being brought in as 1st choice, e.g. young-petrov-barry-taylor, to me would be very little enhancement on young-petrov-mccann-barry.

I've lived in Pompey for years now and Matty Taylor is nothing more than an average prem performer. Kieran is right, he does work very hard but you dont get much more of a contribution. He get the odd spectacular goal but thats only a few times a season and over 40 games he aint too hot. I would be very happy with him as cover, and then obviously he'd have to get in the side on merit but if he's having 'talks' with Villa why haven't pompey confirmed a bid has being accepted.

He scored 9 goals last season.

Which is a good return, but in the games where he doesnt find the net he doesnt do anything.

exactly. i see him as a similar to riise and i don't rate riise that highly. lots of effort and a spectacular goal every so often is fine, but there needs to be more for him to be a real top level player.

don't get me wrong, he'd be a nice option as a squad player, but with bouma/barry/o'halloran as options for lb and barry/maloney/young/berger for lm, i can't see him getting that many games.

i don't think taylor is all that great, outside the shooting. wouldn't see the point in getting baines either, as he'd cost £5m, want to be 1st team and bouma is better. he's off to newcastle anyhow.

I am very sceptical about scottish league players, i hope we dont sign any more of them, unless it is gordon or boruc.

but some great players do have spells in scotland. think gattuso, arteta, larsson, viduka.

maloney's looked promising and petrov - while not always convincing - definitely has potential to do very well. so i don't think players should be automatically written off because they come from scotland.

Sorry for being a bit more realistic, but I see Richard Wright has been released by Everton.

Would do for back up goalkeeper, would he not?

not much better than taylor and injury prone so he doesn't seem worth it. i reckon he'll drop down a level to be someone's 1st choice after being backup for so long, back to ipswich perhaps.

sissoko?

liverpool are signing another cm in a brazilian called lucas. if they keep mascherano as well, momo could be about 4th/5th in the pecking order. okay he can't score to save his life and his passing is inconsistent, but he's still got a lot of potential. he'd be like a younger, stronger, more energetic and just generally better, version of mccann

Don't shoot the messenger as I personally don't think this is true (so I probably shouldn't post it but I love any snippet of news so I thought others might?)

I have just been told by somebody with inside info (110% honest guv) that we will sign Defoe by this time next week?

...

This info. may well be correct (not the timing necessarily, but the deal itself).

It's looking more and more likely that Bent is signing for Spurs, in which case Villa looks far and away the the most likely destination for Defoe.

clearly. because hearsay + hearsay = fact. it's indisputable :winkold:

according to some dutch folk on another forum i frequent, ajax have turned down €15M for sneijder from valencia. and he's also turned down bayern.

depends what league he wants to go to, but you can't see him choosing us above valencia the way we compare at the minute.

--------------------Boruc------------------------

L.young-------Laursen-----Distin---------Bouma

A.Young------Snjeider-----Barry---------Nasri

----------------Bent------Agbonlahor------------

subs:

Maloney

Carew

Mellberg

Petrov

Sorenson

Sorry, but that is terrible. I'd surely be asking questions if that was the squad.

what like: how did we manage to pull off such a coup of signing two of europe's hottest properties (nasri and sneijder)?

i'd question whether a midfield with 3 very attacking players + barry would work and i think we could get better than l.young, but otherwise that would be a fantastic team. if you think that is terrible, you'll probably be hugely disappointed whatever we get next season.

a popular suggestion, i see!

no to zenden, not even for a squad player, we need better than that....our current midfielders should be squad players next season and I'm not convinced Zenden would get in that team.

zenden is a good player. not being in the first team at liverpool doesn't mean he is not and i think he'd have played plenty of games for us this season if he was in the squad.

i was mainly thinking, with europe obviously the ambition over the next couple of years, he has experience that the likes of mccann, gardner, davis, young, even barry, do not have. it is noticeable that a lot of players people mention have little or no european experience, e.g. sidwell, barton, reo-coker. having a few experienced heads like carew & petrov will be very useful, and zenden could be another one in that group.

couple of ideas:

zenden - as a squad player, rather than necessarily a 1st team signing. his contract is up with liverpool and they may well not keep him - depending on who they get in - so he'd be a very experienced, reliable player to get on a free.

pizarro - long shot, but he's almost certainly leaving bayern (again, contract is finishing this summer). linked with spanish & portugese clubs, but if he fancied england, he would be a very high quality signing. a bit more realistic than eto'o, if nothing else!

Just had a thought last night after the Milan game. How about Cafu for RB?

if we're talking golden oldies (bear in mind cafu will be 37 by the start of next season) why not philip cocu? classy midfielder, a leader who's done it all at the top level. already announced he's leaving psv, but that could mean he's retiring.

personally i think both would be just a bit too old to adapt to the prem, having never played in the league before and i'm not sure what their motivation to join villa would be, when we're not in europe.

Juan Román Riquelme

offer him £120,000 a week, £4 million signing on fee and pay whatever boca want for him. That'll be the midfield solved... [/dream]

he's a fantastic player but he would not be suited to the premiership at all. at villareal and for argentina in the last world cup, he starred because they built the team around him, and he was always being given the ball with time and space. he just would not get that here and i think games would just pass him by, because of the pace and style being so different to spain/south america.

What about these three Dutchmen/or/Dutch league?

1. Van der Vaart

2. Sneijder

3. Jefferson Farfan

all great players but i'd say van der vaart's the only one we'd have an outside shot of signing. sneijder and farfan would both be going to one of the top champions league clubs if they did move.

another suggestion:

Tuncay Şanlı of fenerbache. contract up at the end of the season, i believe. fast, tricky left winger/attacking mid. quality player.

nolan ain't that great. he's a battling cm who can get a few goals, but he's not really going to add anything significant. of the other english cms who always get suggested, i'd rate him below barton, parker and reo-coker. plus he wouldn't be cheap.