Pez1974

Betting suspended on Gestede joining us - seeming to confirm a fee has been agreed. I'm not sure why we need him and Adebayor; I think we need a superstar forward (no idea how we get one!) rather than 4 'decent options' - plus Gabby.

100% agree. Take the emotion out of it, and I don't know what he brings to the team/squad. He can't play upfront because he doesn't score enough; we have much better wide forwards. If we want fast - sign Adam Gemili! He does a similar role as what I think Crespo will do for the defense - but on about 8x the wages!

Guzan Bacuna Richards Clark Amavi Westwood Veretout Grealish Gueye Sinclair Ayew Bench - Steer, Crespo, Okore, Sanchez, Gil, Gabby, Kozak Which still leaves: Bunn; Baker; Richardson; Cole; Gardner; Robinson (plus a shit load of kids who may be able to step up) To be sold: Hutton; Senderos; Bennett; Cissokho; N'Zogbia; Tonev That seems like a decent first 11; a good bench; decent back up and very little chaf (although I think Crespo will simply do a fill in job for a couple of years until a couple of kids come through)

This ones feels the same as the last few - with details creeping out and being picked up on others. The media will usually print anything, but the language of the articles are more 'factual' than the usual gossip mongering so I am feeling quite confident, and would be bloody delighted. It also feels a bit like the Delph saga - which whilst many of us were disbelieving of, the journos will pretty much on the money.

Like others, I reckon this is a utility player who will start 38 games on the bench giving us some cover across the park. I have heard the fee is about £500k and you wouldn't get Jordan Bowery for that. Flexible and experienced - Does this mean the defensive now looks like (in no particular order): RB - Hutton; Bacuna; Richards; Crespo CB - Clark; Okore; Richards; Baker; Crespo; Senderos LB - Amavi; Bennett; Richardson; Crespo; Cisshoko And that's without including the U21 players coming through. From that I think we could easily lose Hutton, Senderos, Bennett and Cisshoko and retain a strong defensive squad for the season. Crespo fitting into all 3 roles helps with the trimming of the chaf.

No papers are reputable - they all regugitate garbage for advertising revenue and hide behind "other people reported it", and then herald their 1 in 100 correct guesses. I would be staggered if he left, but other than coming here for a look, will not lose a blink of sleep until the club confirms it.

How do you know this? I'm not arguing about whether it does or not, but where was this confirmed? I've not seen anything credible saying that there is such a clause let alone how much the trigger value is. Lots of people are posting that this is a fact and I've not seen the evidence. Exactly I can't know for sure but surely if the clause is there then it's not leaving Avfc in a good position. I get your point, however, if the clause was a requirement for Delph to sign it at least means we can get a fee of some sort. Additionally, I would say we are less likely to get bids now he has seemingly knocked back Citeh, as other clubs would not want to be in the same position.

I really think that this is a massive boost for the club, and will make us a more attractive proposition for players to come here. A current first team England player has just turned down Citeh's riches to stay here. Other's will probably want to know why. I do think that the club missed a small trick with the statement - it was a chance to really big up the club as a justification of why he stayed - the 'this is my club' is brilliant, but makes him look like a fan, rather than a professional who finds his place of work to be the best he could ever wish for.

Liverpool know the price of Benteke - so it's £32.5m or bugger off. There problem now is that with £50m in the bank (less the chunk to QPR) the fees other clubs will want from them has just gone up a notch, both because they have the cash and they need to replace their best player. As a result, I now think it's more likely they'll cough up in full, as our fee won't/can't change. Which means that Man U are more likely to buy him - because he's a better fit and it'll piss off the scousers!

I think too many people complicate things.... It certainly appears there is a release clause of sorts - and I reckon Citeh met it. The comments from Tim suggest there was a good chance he was leaving.And the club in some way confirmed this to members of the media, who assumed that the rest (terms, medical, etc) would be easy, so Fab was off. For all his love of the club, Delph would be bonkers to not at least talk to Citeh, in my opinion, which is probably why the story didn't die before it really started (his missus is due to give birth any minute, so Delph probably didn't dart up there immediately). However, he isn't stupid and knows how great things are for him at the Villa, and although things could get better at Citeh, it could easily go wrong and his career come to a grinding halt. He decided to stay. Obviously I am filling in a few blanks, but there is nothing in that version that is unlikely or unusual - other than a footballer not grabbing the maximum amount of cash.

Maybe we're just trolling the Spuds!

I thnk it's harsh to question his signing, it was what we needed at the time. However, giving him a 5 year deal, on such a high salary, was mad. 2 years should have been enough, maybe 3 at a stretch. A good pro, all the best Shay.

We don't always do too badly out of player exchanges. We swapped Baros for Carew (a straight swap I believe). And didn't we get Milner for a year when we flogged Nobby back to Newcastle - and he fell in love with the club. And with that, I await a list of swaps where we got robbed

It's pronounced "Gay", although I fully expect Sky Sports News Exclusive HD Bolox to find a tweak to that to make them sound intelligenter.

That Stirling fella might have a bit of resale value. I'd consider him

i thought all footballers were getting pissed on their summer holidays? He's taking his holidays 'to the next level' Which is how he'll end up playing for the 4th best team in Turkey

Can we move this thread to the ex-players section please? He's gone and we should just let him go quietly like the irrelavance he has become.

Reports on Talksport of £7m + Enrique and Lambert. I would be furious at this as it would value the man at about £12m in my opinion. I think it was Mick Quinn - so another scouser talking balls to try and benefit their club. Why don't we get a few Villa fans who appear in the media - Hendrie, Petrov, Dublin (he does talk us up), Taylor, etc - to start sounding off against the move and change the headlines a bit?

Sell him for £32.5m, and we reinvest - no problems. He signed the contract, so would have no reason to sulk if the price wasn't met - hopefully no problems. BUT - and I have said this for years - any release clause should be time bound - i.e.by 31 July each year, otherwise all bets are off. There is **** all point getting a good price for a player only to get bent over, or miss the boat totally, on getting his replacement because it all gets done at the last minute.

Wow - VT gone 100% positive. That's got to be worrying! Really pleased with this. Brings know-how and a very good reputation with him. But despite his stature, I think he knows that he is a number 2 ( ) rather than a manager, so he would bring stability. Also please with where KMac is going to focus - I just hope he is. Just a couple of things left now - the squad and the owner.

I believe we will have 2 approaches to players going forward: Getting in the right player where possible to fill an immediate need in the first team. For example, if Benteke goes, we go out and get the replacement. Getting in players whose value we can boost to make a profit, with the hope of them becoming first team squad players. I suspect people will start getting angry with the second of these, but I think it makes perfect sense IF it doesn't detract from number 1. Sako is an example of option 2. So was Bowery, Westwood, Bennett, Lowton, etc. Not all of these will work but we should be able to make a profit and an extra few million into the coffers would be very welcome every season. I understand why people might get angry with option 2, as it seems to have largely dominated our plans for a few years, but if we get the balance right it would be a good thing. And it's what Chelsea do, but at a higher level. De Bruyne, Courtois, Saleh, even Cahill on a free a few years ago

I know what you're getting at, but I would understand why Tim would prefer Sanchez over Westwood in trying to keep Yaya Toure in check (although I suspect neither would do a great job as he is exceptional physcially). I think there are other games where Westwood should get the nod - they will give us better insight.

The situation with CB is not uncommon for clubs in our position..... His worth to us is much more than his potential worth to other clubs; he is part of our system that we know he fits into - for other clubs he is a purchase risk. So, we hold out for the value we want - see £28m for Bony. I think we should be looking at £30m+. With that £30m, we need to do something that Liverpool and Spurs failed to do...sign a replacement. If that takes up £20m of that money, so be it. If it takes up all of it, you question why we are making the sale at that value. We then use the rest of the cash to 'solve' another problem area - and hence, purchase risks aside, the club is stronger. Liverpool and Spurs tried to sign 8 players to replace 1 - that doesn't work when you are already Champions League level.

A load of people in the next tier in front of the screen were Red Scouse - they seemed to be cheering at 1-0. They were corporate type seats, so perhaps this is the limit what we can do. Although with the ticket allocation for the final we'll be lucky to fit in an "AV"

Cissokho against Man City might be the better option over Richardson.