Chap of Steel

I think we'll be OK this season and have a refreshingly uneventful campaign. 11th or 12th for me. 

I've always wanted us to do a press conference signing multiple players, we used to have the "how many chairs" jokes, but it could genuinely happen this time.

Makes you wonder if they might be planning something like that. By all accounts Adebayor and Veretout are close to being done. Sherwood hasn't given an interview in a while so perhaps they're thinking such a conference would give the club a lift?

Imagine the reaction on VillaTalk if we signed Chester for £8m!

Apparently QPR's Caulker is having a medical at Southampton ahead of a loan move. Slightly odd transfer if you ask me. 

On that Facebook account a picture of Villa was uploaded last month too. Find it hard to believe a genuine account would be so blatant?

Taught English for 19 months in South Korea.  It's **** great, I'd go back if circumstances allowed.

Awesome. I actually spent a month in South Korea on a summer school thing and absolutely loved it. Not sure I'd make a good teacher but I must admit it's something I often consider.

Interesting to see how the club respond to this. Did they genuinely believe was staying when they posted that statement?

 

 

I said this on our forum but if I was a Villa fan I'd be absolutely outright fuming at whoever's decision it was to stick a £8m clause in there during a time where we were looking at James McCarthy for potentially £25m or Barkley for potentially £40m. He's singlehandedly cost you probably £10m-£15m which is just negligent

 

Only it isn't given that if he hadn't signed it you could have signed him on a Bosman this summer already.

 

Getting him to sign the deal has earned us £8m not cost us £10m-£15m.

 

So its like you say, only completely the opposite.

 

Would he not have signed at £9m? What about £8.5m?

And if he's earnt you £8m then it's handshakes all round, job well done and thanks for the memories Delph isn't it? He's done you a favour here by signing that deal and letting himself be bought for £8m rather than walking for free like Milner did for us (to a potential rival, who we congratulated, thanked him for his time and put up nice videos of him on the OS).

If that is, he's earnt you £8m as you say

 

Even if it is better than nothing, it's difficult to be pleased that we've earnt £8 million when reports suggest he was signed for between £6-8 million.

What's remarkable for me is how unaware Villa have seemed about Delph's decisions.

Sky Sources now on the yellow ticker. It's a full house on people reporting it now... Looking a bit bleak.

Yep, BBC, Sky Sports and The Guardian now reporting it. Looks like it's happening unfortunately

This would be very, very strange.

A couple of days ago Sherwood said this in a Sky Sports article (link here):

"Obviously we can try and sway his choice by telling him the pros and cons. I told him what we are trying to build here and he obviously liked the sound of it. It’s up to us to strengthen now and put some real quality in and around Fabian Delph and others.”

Although that article also said Benteke is expected to stay...

That Norwich kit is quite nice, not sure about West Ham's away one though

Sherwood to Nice:

I can see it now.

Moves to City, starts in Cup games and the odd match in Europe.

Then after a season or two he'll join a mid-table team on loan and say how he's relishing the chance to play regular football again...

I hope that doesn't happen.

For me it took an ominous turn when Richards revealed Delph had asked him about City.

Up until then I had dismissed it as transfer gossip, but that suddenly made it seem worryingly possible.

Really not enjoying season two unfortunately. Seems really muddled and the writing is dull. The ridiculously cast Vince Vaughn is annoying me too...

Asamoah Gyan is moving to Shanghai SIPG. Apparently getting upwards of £200k a week!

'Error - stream not found' for me

Can't see why the unveiling would be takeover related but it's surprisingly elaborate in comparison to past seasons.

Strange.  You would think the club captain would be involved in the kit launch.

I agree, can't get my head around this one, especially considering Benteke, who looks the more likely to be leaving, is involved in the pictures!

To be honest I thought we'd have heard some news by now, although the club do seem pretty secretive with news these days. 

Sky Sports just tweeted a picture of him at Brum airport but they've deleted it for some reason...

I'm excited about this considering Marseille and Southampton were after him 

Judging from that preview pic just posted on Twitter it looks like it will have quite a nice collar. Looks good from what I can see!