VillaChris

Disappointing draw and Rodwell benched. :shock:

What's going on there?

England and U.S both through, no sweat.

Paraguay to be ahead of Italy on goal difference.

This should be a good group to watch. Essien is a massive miss for Ghana and Aussies just too old so same top two as Hanky but maybe Serbia topping the group...

I think Nigeria will get through the group aswell either though their team is very much like Argentina's in being unbalanced with so many attacking players and it not being a patch on their 1998 team (can't believe Kanu is still there!)

Argentina and Nigeria top two I reckon.

got a feeling its going to be a very quiet summer for us!really do hope not tho

Very surprised you think that given Shorey, Sidwell, Luke Young, Beye are all likely to go and likes of Milner and Luke Young might aswell.

So we're going to have to sign some replacements for them?

Crespo was a brilliant striker in his day but never really settled in this country, still had a decent enough scoring record for Chelsea though.

Just run out of puff through old age now.

IN

Ireland, Striker, Rightback, Clyne, Matthews

Clyne and Matthews are both RBs aren't they so doubt we'd need a third one.

If we swopped Milner for 15m + Onouha + Ireland our defence would be sorted and we'd have a creative midfielder to throw into the mix alongside defensive ones like NRC and Petrov.

Given I would expect us to raise 15m ish from the sales of Davies, Shorey, Beye, L. Young, Sidwell and Heskey (please) that's 30m to find another top notch central midfielder so we don't leave ourselves short in that area with Delph not back until next year and a good striker in the 10m bracket.

That shouldn't be beyond the manager should it?

Exactly and Everton haven't struggled too badly when they sold Rooney.

All clubs lose their best players, it's just a natural process, Man. United losing Ronaldo, Arsenal losing Fabregas this summer etc.

id rather Ireland and 20 or even 25m.

I'd take 15m cash + Onouha + Ireland so valuing Nedum at 5m and Ireland at 10m which seems fair to me it still gets to 30m.

We get two very good players and with other squad sales we would have around 30m to still spend on a quality striker and another central midfielder.

I think if Milner won't sign another contract we'll have to sell him as we saw with Barry how value decreases over 12 months.

Joe Cole to Man. United is what I heard.

Next season's Michael Owen.

Villa Park

Britannia stadium

Hawthorns

Bescot

Emirates

Stamford Bridge

Ewood Park

Not too many really.

Pato is a tremendous young striker, Dunga just dosen't rate him.

He should be in the world cup squad if he was fit, much better than Grafitie for a start.

I would be happy with something like this...

Ireland + Onouha (both in a Milner swop).

Clyne or Matthews (maybe Clyne with Palace in administration so possibly cheaper)

Veloso (long term Petrov replacement)

Rodallega (only one of the striking links that actually excites me).

Would give us a decent range of options, either 4-5-1 or 4-4-2.

Dzeko was brilliant the season before last but seemed to have gone off the boil lately with Wolfsburg stagnating. Looked pretty average in their two games against Fulham.

Another forward for City to try to fit in somewhere.

When is MYSTRYMAN going to get his act together and get us some info? Come on mate get your fingers in the pies! :winkold:

He posted what he thought would be our targets a week or so back so concentrate harder. :winkold:

On that Matthews bloke, where was he in the play-offs? Injured?

Yeah he was excellent at Santander but flopped at Valencia.

Signing that could go either way really.

This will drag into July.

I think Yakubu could well be Carlton Cole's replacement.

And I'd rather have the Yak than Cole.

Not sure what the point is as they've got Rodwell in a manure shirt and he's just signed a new deal with Everton.

Of all the players we've been linked with thus far none have really blown me away. I'm yet to see a link and think "that's the one" I can't get excited about Keane or Jenas or Ireland, try as I might. I'm guessing it might be a long summer.

Ireland would at least be an attempt from MON that he's trying to sort out our mediocre home form and general lack of creativity.

Maybe Keane aswell but I can't get worked up about signing him either.

Carew wasn't a regular starter for a lot of this season and scored 16 overall, 10 or 11 in the league.

For all his many faults, he's worth keeping as we need as many goals in our squad as possible and that won't help by getting rid of him and keeping someone who can't even outscore Harewood for us.

No chance of Hart leaving City.

I agree.

Given won't make the start of the season so Hart will be number one and it will be his shirt to lose.

Much rather have Onouha than Richards as he's simply a better defender.

I would do the deal at 15m + Onouha + Ireland so 30m package in total.

Carew only has 1 year left on his deal which complicates things.

Rather have him than Heskey as you know which out of the two will comfortably reach double figures goals wise.

I know it's unlikely, but would it be good or bad news if Jimmy didn't make England's 23?

Bad surely?!

Man. City won't suddenly just drop interest if he dosen't make the cut whereas if he's in and has some good games that will obviously add a bit more to his price.

As ever it will come down to what the player wants. It didn't with Barry initially but the difference was that the club that wanted him couldn't afford the fee we were demanding and we know Man. City won't have any trouble doing that.