TheTransferWindow

Did he sign for DLC in the end?

He played for AZ against Ajax today

Wait, no he didn't. I was watching the Olympics too so don't mind me...

The Browns President Mike Holmgren is speaking right now and has said Lerner is giving up controlling interest of the team, so it's not just him bringing in investment. Follow the tweets here:

https://twitter.com/MaryKayCabot

Klinsmann has a job. California is his home and he has the only job outside of MLS that allows him to stay there. He's not going to abandon the USA job right at the start of 2014 qualifying.

That Euro break is kind of convenient...after the 28th Molde don't have another game for about a month. That would be a good time to leave if he wants to give them time to prepare for the rest of the season without him.

Probably another hr until Khan is up. How good is the guy he's fighting?

Yep, looked good on the highlights.

Just a bit worried he's unsure when to come off his line, think he'll struggle at Stoke but be relatively o.k in the other games.

That's where he struggled a couple of seasons ago, in all those cup games against Blackburn where Big Sam would have his players bully him on crosses. He also hasn't played much since he left Hull last season so it could take him a couple of games to get to top form.

Heskey is keeping Gardner out of the team

He can join Delph and Bannan on the bench to learn how it's done from Big Emile.

Depth what depth, we just sold our only experienced right back. Lichaj has had one premier league start and was awful and Herd is a centre mid but did a decent job filling in for 1 week.

Lichaj has 3 league starts was good in 2, bad in 1 but is now out 4 months with a hip injury.

Let's just hope the price doesn't become 11m if we bid 10m. Are there any other clubs legitimately in the bidding? Bruce said he's too expensive, Everton don't have the money, etc.

I don't think Guzan will want to be backup again, though with Given's injury history we probably need a solid #2. It will be interesting to see if he stays or goes.

Lol @ Everton finished above us the last 7 seasons. I seem to recall finishing above them 3 seasons in a row.

They have finished ahead of us in 6 of the last 7 seasons, with '09-10 being the exception.

However, it seems they won't be able to compete for Charles money wise unless they sell someone else

Judging by the statement on the official site, Downing has left on very bad terms, Ashley Young got a whole page devoted to him.

Exactly my thoughts when I read that, 2 whole sentences. I don't think he'll be welcome back any time soon.

So FIT! Alex Morgan, USA

I love you internet...

:shock:

Alex Morgan is the winner!

She scored a nice goal against France too

The most frustrating thing imo is that we have no replacement as usual. We shouldn't be getting into the position where have to replace the player going out as teams start to drive the price up as they know we're desperate.

This shouldnt get lost in the wave of other posts.

If we had anything about us, we could have agreed the price but asked Liverplop not to disclose it until we brought in a replacement, probably NZogbia.

Now Dave Whelan knows what we have in the kitty, he is in a position to play hardball!!

Prettty shit and amateur planning full stop!!!! :x

Whelan has admitted he has to sell N'Zogbia because he's not signing a new contract and has 1 year left. He's not in a position to play hardball. All his posturing in the media about the value of other players in relation to his player won't change the price too much.

Well this window is starting to have shambles written all over. I'm not surprised that Downing has gone. He put a 'for sale' sign over himself the moment he stalled on his contract negotiations. £20m is the lowest end of my expectations but if he put a transfer request in he has forgone quite a bit in bonuses.

Throw in the expected departure of Young plus the uninspiring appointment of AMcL and who we seemed to be linked to it's all pretty depressing.

We have brought in £36m in transfer fees plus saved massively on the wage bill so every fan is expecting some really decisive moves in the transfer market. I was very optimistic at the end of the season that the only way was up. Sadly we just continue to spiral downwards.

AMcL is a decent man but so far off a marque appointment its untrue. RL for some reason has seemingly done a complete U turn in how he sees the club. I think he is like Ellis now in that all we need to keep is a seat at the top table and nothing more.

I have no idea what Paul Faulkner brings to the party and I am sick to the back teeth of being patronised by General Krulak, someone who clearly knows little of Villa and nothing of football in general.

I would love the club to surprise me in the next few weeks but I won't hold my breath. The best we seem to have to look forward to is the arrival of a too old semi crocked cast off goalkeeper on high wages.

Rant over......

I dont see that as a rant Harry, a pretty truthful assessment of our current predicament.

I said we had raised the white flag on competing for the top four with the appointment of McLeish, what did we expect the more ambitious of our players to do???

I think Randy will recognise what he has done when season ticket sales and gate attendances drop, plus shirt and merchandise sales fall.

We are not in a good place.

Downing had been tapped up in the England camp and changed his tune about a new contract well before McLeish was even discussed as a possibility. Him putting in a transfer request was just the final nail in the coffin and prevented a summer long saga.

Didn't realise they played last night, i take it USA took a bit of a beating then.

Yeah went up 2-0 and lost 4-2. Our RB got injured and Lichaj moved there and the replacement LB had a game that made Jon Spector look like a solid fullback. I imagine it would have been a great game for a neutral fan...Dos Santos' chip was brilliant.

He was the best of a terrible back 4 last night. I don't think Barrera would have been made to look world class if Lichaj stayed at LB.

What 'reports'?

The Moyes part is twitter bs, but thetrees said Lerner will be back in Brum Monday morning.

Can you make that pic a bit bigger, I can't see it from the moon.

Everybody seems to forget how Bolton completly bombed down the table and got spanked in the semi final

This.. they looked out of depth, he looked out of depth.. he looked clueless when they got spanked in semi final... no plan B.. nothing, no thanks to Coyle.

He basically had Megson's squad plus Holden and Sturridge, a free transfer and a loan. Those 2 were out for the final and Holden was out for the last 2 months of the season. He just hasn't had any money to spend to improve their squad. He had to play Elmander at CM a lot down the stretch run of the season.

Another earlier tweet from that Coop_86: '@MatKendrick @carlroney do you know what I know Mr K ?! Haha what a week !!'

which was a reply from the tweet

@MatKendrick

Mat Kendrick

@CarlRoney Not so much back-tracking as moonwalking #isthatBad?

its mark hughes re michael jackson ref

Does sound like it from that reference, but he wouldn't be able to be named tomorrow due to the 1 month clause in his Fulham contract.

That coop_86 timeline does make for interesting reading...sounds like he's been told whoever the new manager is and it's not RM. Teale is gobsmacked about it...

Anyone else bracing themselves for a really shit appointment like Coyle or Martinez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Explain how these are shit please?

Randy Lerner bought Aston Villa and had a vision to take us to the champions league.

He had a five year plan that involved Martin O'Neill, it back fired and we fell just short.

Next he bought in Houllier who had a plan to change the ethos and the way Villa played. He had alot to change in his first season and would hev done well if he was fit to continue.

Houllier was the right idea, now he had to go and get somebody that could continue what Gerard had started. rebuliding the sqaud who had knowledge of Europe who could work with youth and who had vast experience and knowledge in doing that. van Gaal was probably never on his radar and I doubt he has ever heard of him.

Coyle started well with Bolton had them in 6th then they completly crumbled got spanked in the biggest game in the clubs history and Martinez is a quitly spoken nice man who keeps Wigan 5th from bottom year in year out.

Coyle and Martinez smack of lack of ambition so ifts either of them sit back and enjoy mid table seasons. Please tell me who Coyle and Martinez are going to attract to Villa Park?? Martin Petrov and Hugo Rodallega lol

Coyle took Bolton to a semi final with a poor side (missing his best player - Sturridge) and lost. What a tosser eh? .... Didnt O'Neill do the same!?!?

Holden was their best player and he was missing too.

Would Marcelo Bielsa cause a meltdown? That's the first out-of-nowhere type name I thought of.

I don't want to build peoples hopes up I really don't and I don't want to mislead people my earlier post is what I know Hughes not considered McClaren considered but that was it Ancelotti definately considered and wanted to speak to him . I don't know anymore than that but something just tells me there is a ' Bent meltdown ' coming . Don't know why but just a snippet of info which I am not going to post leads me to think that not everything we are hearing and sseing is maybe what we are doing because if it is right it will take it's natural course and I don't want to mess it up either .

Another MM post.

I take it by Bent meltdown he means an unexpected hiring that will get everyone excited.