roadoftrinity

It really feels like year in year out transfer windows are exciting times for every club but us. We have to suffer the same frustration every single time!

I work with Stoke, Baggies, Wolves and Blues fans and they all feel Villa have it better than thenm during transfer window.

This whole drawn out saga is becoming yet another embarrassing example of our clubs inability to close a simple transfer deal. Are we really talking about a measly million quid. I hoped I'd seen the last of this type of thing. Ellis F***d up over Robbie Keane. please Randy, don't do the same over N'Zogbia. We should close this deal now, or find ourselves being classed as penny pinching also rans.

Why is it embarrasing? From what the reports are, we were told £9 million would be what we need, we bid that. It gets rejected yesterday, with the chairman saying we nee to be £10 million.

Now, it is most likely that we will pay the £10 million, but surely when you are agreeing to pay out them kinds of amounts, it needs full authorization etc. It's not football manager where you just bounce the bid they require straight back them.

Maybe we gave him a 5 year deal to pay him a lower weekly wage. Good way to lower wage budget for fair play rules.

Anyway, cracking signing

To give a 5 year contract to a 35 year old is simply insanity.

Pretty sure everyone said the same thing when we gave 37 year old Freidal a 3 year deal.

Bruce has just confirmed that Sunderland wont be going in for him, he has said the deal is to expensive for them.

I would have much prefered Foster and thenhave him here for a number of years with a resale value at the end should we not have progressed.

I think he would have been a realistic and more ambitious signing but there you go.

I couldn't disagree more, for me Given is a far more ambitious signing that Foster, who like most English players is vastly overrated and will probably have about as much sell on value as Given in 3 years time.

So is £20M a ridiculous offer then? (copywrite A MCleish)

Would you want them to turn it down and let it drag on all summer?

So Mcleish can get the best out of him but Redknapp (who I despise by the way but still recognise what a decent manager he is) cannot get the best out of him?

He couldn't get the best out of Darren Bent but Houllier and Steve Bruce managed too.

Maybe Hutton is the other player in the world that Redknapp never managed to get the best out of.

I couldn't care less what he said. It's his ability I'm not sure on, I wasn't when we signed him and I'm still not now.

However, McLeish can get him playing well then that's another position sorted without signing anyone.

I think that would have been a good number 2, sell Guzan and recoup some funds if possible.. though i'm ok with Guzan as number 2 if we are to keep him.

Agree with this, Ben Foster look average at best when he was at Man U, and I never thought much of him at Watford, however now he is worth 10 million and he's two years older than Guzan.

Guzan is still young for a keeper, there is talent there so maybe a new goal keeping coach can sort him out.

Agreed, albrighton is not good enough to be our starting winger next season. If downing goes we need to go out and get another one.

Think that is extremely harsh on Albrighton. We do need more than two wingers, no doubt about that and we wouldn't want to rely on Albrighton all season so if N'Zogbia came in I would start with him and Downing.

However, when he played consistantly in the team, he was one of our best players, it was when he was in and out the team when he struggled more. So to say he's no good enough, I would completely disagree.

I'm not sure I call signing a 35 year old who has made one domestic appearance in the last season and who has a questionnable shoulder is all that solid myself.

If there is still an issue with his shoulder then surely that will show up in his medical?

We never signed that French lad because of a problem that came up in his medical.

As much as I would love Foster, Given makes more sense. We would pay twice as much for Foster and in a couple of seasons he would likely leave us for Arsenal or Spurs.

Given on the other hand will hardly any resale value and keepers are in their prime at their age.

When have Arsenal or Spurs ever signed a decent player off us? It just doesn't happen.

And if they brought Foster they wouldn't be either.

Not at all. Depends if you call them top class. I wouldn't. Decent players (when they can both be arsed) but top class? Young at the time, remember, was considered very, very overpriced and was actually dropped for a while. Even if you consider him as top class now - he wasn't when we bought him.

Well I would call them better than Phil Bardsley who you chose to name.

Unfortunately Zidane has recently retired.

I think any suggestion of signing top class players, I don't even remember it been said, would be down to naivety other than trying to lie to the fans. Anyone with half a brain would know that we would struggle to sign really "top class" players.

I'd say all the spin and bullshit (remember the club coming famous 'top class players' comment and then we went on to sign Philip Bardsley on loan - it streches as far back as then) previously thats been spoonfed to us since they've arrived shown that. But that's not about Downing.

And we signed John Carew in the same transfer window as well, along with Ashley Young. Strange how you forgot that isn't it.

Like Big Feck has a say over transfers out of the club if a big enough offer comes in.

Like we can realistically believe a words that comes out from AVFC.

End of the transfer window is probably the best time to see if we can.

He has to if he has any aspirations of playing for England at next summers Euro's.

Exactly, if McLeish makes Downing stay, it will show McLeish in a decent light as well. So what, we will lose a bit of money when/if Downing leaves next season, but he will only get to go to a decent club if he plays well for us all season.

no wonder NRC wanted more money seeing the likes of this clown get paid more than double what he was on.

All the clubs are fighting to snap up NRC aren't they.

Lets be fair, if somehow McLeish can get him to play well next season and do something for the team, then I couldn't really give a shit what he said about Birmingham.

You can be pretty sure he isn't the first, and wont be the last football that we sign who doesn't really like Birmingham, Ireland is just a bit more stupid in interviews.

If you read the press today, basically they don't have a clue what is happening with Downing, nobody does at the moment. One thing we know, from with Gareth Barry and Milner, Villa are more than happy to play hardball over player values.

Why would Villa sudenly change this and let our best player from last season go for less money than he is worth to us?

Whats happened to all the Downing will be a bigger loss than young bollocks??

It is amazin what happens to a player when hes off

Would you prefer it if everyone was on here crying saying we are finished?

If he leaves we just have to accept it, losing both is a massive loss and every Villa fan knows that, but we are a bit stuck if he kicks up a massive fuss and insists on leave. We make him stay, the fans will get on his back so quick when he bottles a tackle.

Isn't Andy Carrol in Barbados? There were pictures of him there over this week with Rooney/GMac etc?

San Miguel in Barbados?

Here

the headline reads" ancelotti (to go) to aston villa"

Same as if you looked on Sky yesterday, the headline would say "Hughes to Villa".

In the video, it is just saying he is one of the favourites along with Mark Hughes.

All that video is saying is that Anchelotti is one of the favourites for the job, no where does it say he is going to take the job.

Who would I want? Is that like so kind of threat for pointing out the obvious?

No, it's a question, which I followed up with an explanation on why I believe Hughes would be leaving.

I ain't that interested anyway so don't worry about it.