brummybloke

just a quick one, i see you have volenteered your services for a day as part of the premiership charity event.

very commendable thing to do.

thankyou for respresenting our club.

General Krulak here:

1. The move of the kit to 4 October and the issue of getting kits at "remote' locations are all tied together. As I explained a month or so ago, we signed our contract with Nike late in the manufacturing process. We signed late because we had to wait a period of time to get out of the Hummel contract. The fact that we signed late put us at the end of the queue for manufacturing of kits. As a result, kits are first being sent to the Villa Park and Center City stores to fill inventory at those locations. As more kits are made, they will immediately be sent to other Nike outlets and stores that sell Nike gear. The delay in the away kit is caused by this same issue...everything has been backed up. At the end of the day we had to make a decision....go with Nike and accept the delay or ramain with Hummel for another year. We felt that in the long run, going with Nike was the best thing for the Club. Yes, we will lose some money over the year but we felt that the quality and the brand (Nike) were "worth" more to the Club and Fans than the lost revenue for the year.

2. I have notified Craig Gardner about the thread...he will be pleased.

3. Printing on shirts...at a Club shop...is not unusual. It is done at locations where other printing services are not available. When I was at MBNA, we had a

? i was getting quite into the printing story but it just cut off?

the shirts are great although i cancelled my away shirt order due to the delay and went just with the home one for me and my son, and that red polo shirt.

are there any plans to have concessionary outlets in the midlands department stores? or any plans to have a retail outlet in the merry hill shopping centre?

well as of now our squad is weaker than last year when we got 11th. teams bellow have strengthened, a couple havent so 11th would be a good season for the squad we have got.

i also am playing by the rules o this thread and so am quite suprised that people think with a worse squad than last year we would finish better?

we may or may not have been turned down by Barton & Parker. if so. take it on the chin, we aren't Barcelona all of a sudden

and neither are west ham, however at least 1 of the 2 is going to them.

i really cant understand the logic of koumas? just because he is playing well in the chumps league does not make him a super talent for our team now we have the investment and management team in place.

if we use this logic that because he is good in the chumps league, we should also scrap any plans for darren bent an try and snap up kevin phillips.

koumas has been given the chance in the premiership and blew it, be it his attitude, his talent or what ever, he blew it.

we MUST be aiming for higher profile, more talented players if we go for people of koumas age, they have to be players who are ready made, who will go straight into the first team. and as for koumas as a squad player? so we sell someone like davis and replace him with someone older , more expensive, higher maintenance? no thanks.

koumas is what we would have been aiming for 3 years ago, before MoN, before Randy.

we should have put pressure on teams like charlton in january for darren bent, when we had the money and no other team did.

this season will be unique, a one off for a handful of teams to close the gap on the big 3.

the teams willing to gamble big on star players and decent sized quality squads will reap the rewards.

this season coming up will have 2 main sorts of team.

teams willing to gamble to make the gap up between themselves and the top 3 ( look at wet spam, they have started buying players, improving their squad, bidding for other players, hustling, getting their name linked to quality players)

and teams like the knuckle draggers, they wont buy loads of players, they will try and borrow players and hope to make money this year by merley staying in the premiership and then next season buying some players.

just a side issue, but will it make a difference who we sign by the way we deal with the agents?

that program by panarama has reminded me how managers like harry redknapp and big sam managed to get loads of players in who were of a decent standard. however, as we are normally 'whiter than white' to quote a corrupt polititian, do people think it will hinder us in out bid to sign some of these top european players?

after all, most clubs will now have the money to spend, so there needs to be a 'deal breaker' in most cases to tempt players. i know in a perfect world we would only have players who wanted to bleed claret and blue, however, in the real world a good deal of football players will be in it for themselves and will go to who pays the most and who their agent earns the most from the deal.

the pros and cons for going for bellamey or bent

randy and co appear to like the family, tradition side of football. they appear to like people with honesty and integrity, who can represent their companies without bringing disrepute.

who is going to be the better ambassador for aston villa?

mr littleman angry bellamey, who courts controversy where ever he goes? who is now coming up to 29 years old and who hasnt consistantly hit more than 12 goals per season ever. or darren bent, club captain, younger, stronger and more versitle.

darren bent record

Overall career totals

Apps As sub Goals Yellow Red

Total (Club) 219 (28) 91 6 0

League 192 (19) 78 6 0

FA Cup 9 (2) 5 0 0

League Cup 13 (3) 7 0 0

European/Others 5 (4) 1 0 0

bellemy record

Overall career totals

Apps As sub Goals Yellow Red

Total (Club) 345 (37) 119 54 2

League 276 (29) 92 42 1

FA Cup 12 (0) 5 3 0

League Cup 20 (3) 9 5 0

European/Others 37 (5) 13 4 1

both have decent records, however bellemy is the same sort of player we already have in moore and gabby, a fast pacey player who can score.

we donthave a player who can play upfront on his own and still bang the goals in, darren bent is just that player. he has played for 2 teams, ipswich and charlton, both are shit, ipswich only finishing in the top 10 once, charlton didnt while he is there i think.

bellemy has played for liverpool, newcastle, blackburn, norwich, celtic and coventry.

you would expect him to have a far better goal record than bent as he has played with better players, in better teams with more attack minded players, however bents goal record is far better than bellemys.

a no brainer for me really, the stats, the newspaper headlines, the team moral, the future, the longevity of bent compaired to bellemy, the image we want to portray.

everything adds up to bent.

i just hope we can get a player of his quality as i would expect newcastle, liverpool, spurz and arsenal to be some of the clubs fighting for this sort of quality in the summer.

and looking at the bookings also although as a forward it isnt the main priority but

darren bent has 6 yellow cards in 192 league games

bellemy has 42 yellow cards in 276 games

Scott Parker is the absolute epitome of the average Premiership footballer, and not the kind of player we should be signing.

And who on earth thinks Liverpool are going to want to sell Finnan, who has been one of their most consistent players this season? And more's the point, why would Finnan want to leave a CL semi final (at least) club for a mid table one?

well as liverpool have been tracking daniel alves for quite some time and are also rumoured to be after another right back, i cant see finnan being the number 1 choice.

scott parker, would that be the same one that when fit, gets picked for the england squad?

at first reo coker and bellendamy were players i wished we could sign, that was in DOL's last season.

my expectations are higher then players like them now, be it unrealistic or otherwise, neither of these players make me think we are moving forwards.

players we should be capable of getting this summer include the likes of

Yakubu

Wayne Bridge

MGP

Parker

Finnan

Greg Halford

Matt Murray or some goalkeeper that everyone is saying we are getting

although i have never seen him so cant really comment.

we also need at least 1 good centreback

i think we need at least 2 STAR players, by that i mean players who people would think " ooh, hang on, how have they got them?" type players.

1 should be a centre half, the other should be a midfielder.

but we should be aiming for the above list or higher in my view for this coming season.

Jez: Newcastle are alone in the class really, they are a hopeless club with a hopeless owner, management and scouting system

Too bad Woody will sign for Boro, what the hell will he achieve there?

well while mclaren is manage of england, he knows he will be guarenteed an england squad place, he is also carrying out his life long dream of playing for his boyhood club.

some people moan about players being money grabbing and so on, this time it appears that like alan shearer before hand, a player is following his dreams rather than chasing the money.

no doubt he will also get paid shit loads of money but that is the luck of the draw.

thought angel named his child geronimo or something?

how long was paul mcgrath at villa for? it wasnt 10 years, he was good but did just as many stupid things off the pitch that hendrie did.

10 years nowdays is almost unheard of, however he has actualy been at villa alot longer than 10 years, he was a villa player aged 15 or even younger.

he was promised a testamonial, now bearing in mind i doubt anyone bar gareth barry, will ever come close to doing 10 years at our club again, it may be a very rare thing indeed.

i would like to see players from dwight yorke ( grrr), paul mcgrath, bosnich, kevin gage ( the real super kev), sid cowans, ian taylor ( hendries debut he sent taylor clean through to score in a european game), benito carbone and other legends and semi legends.

to some hendrie will never be a legend, however people always go on that we need a nasty b@stard in the middle, well he was a semi nasty b@stard with a fair bit of skill to link up play.

always seemed to be in the team when ever we had our most successfull periods.

he wont play for us again, ever so i would like to go and see him play 1 last time in a match which would be upto hendrie what happens to the money, im sure his accountant would advise him that it worth him giving 50% to charity or something.

it will be an emotional night, infact if the new board offered hendrie £100.000 to NOT have a testimonial, im sure he would turn it down, in order to play 1 last time for his team.

now THAT would say alot more about him than any swipes at his off field activities.

if you asked again in 12 months time, im sure people would be amazed that there was any question over the ridge and cahill, i voted laursen and the ridge but laursen wont be around next year,. we will see the emergence of the two young guns and they will do us proud for a good long time.

that huntalaar's agent appears to be mooting him around, hinting that he would prefer an english team.

he is apparently the canines testicles, however also appears to be a costly player.

on the other hand, is there and feyanord players who are any good? now they are out of europe.

im hoping the liverpoo take over doesnt happen just yet, otherwise it is yet another club who will have more of an advantage over us. we need to make our financial advantage count now before it actualy counts for nothing.

chelsea splashed loads and loads, but they got the players they wanted to get, why is it any different for us? we have money, splash over the odds if it means we get sthe players MoN wants now. what is to say they would come in the summer anyway, we could be in the position of waiting until the summer, then the player doesnt want to come anyway, which would leave us again, with no players. or more likely, all premier teams have extra money, this makes buying ANYONE from anywhere in the world a more expensive proposition.

speculate to accumilate is the old saying, enough people wanted it when the last chairman was here.

i thought MoN was saying 2 weeks ago that we needed more players, more help for the youngsters, more help for the squad, this wasnt 2 months ago, this was 2 weeks ago.

And the three players released have been no help at all

but they would have been available if called upon.

they may not be great players but they are players who are employed by aston villa, do you count laursen as not an aston villa player due to his absence through injury? what about delaney? well they are still classed as in the squad, yet are not available if called upon. same for luke moore, not been available for best part of 3 months.

most teams who have a reasonable sized squad will have players that never get a game, they are there for emergencies.

i thought MoN was saying 2 weeks ago that we needed more players, more help for the youngsters, more help for the squad, this wasnt 2 months ago, this was 2 weeks ago.

we are also 3 players down.

MoN started the season with the squad, he has let players go out on loan and got rid also.

of the players available to MoN from the squad, we have 3 less to choose from, no matter how many games they may or may not play.

this is the player action since the summer, when we finished with a small squad.

INCOMING

Stilian Petrov Celtic £ 6500000 30-08-2006

Didier Agathe Celtic Signed 12-09-2006

Chris Sutton Birmingham Free 03-10-2006

Gabor Kiraly C Palace 13-12-2006

Phillip Bardsley Man Utd 08-01-2007

OUTGOING

out on loan

Patrik Berger Stoke 23-11-2006

Eric Djemba-Djemba Burnley 12-01-2007

got rid of

Didier Agathe 11-01-2007

Mathieu Berson Levante 01-08-2006

Kevin Phillips West Brom £ 700000 22-08-2006

Ulises De la Cruz Reading Free 25-08-2006

Pete Whittingham Cardiff £ 350000 11-01-2007

Gabor Kiraly C Palace 13-12-2006

i would be extremely disapointed if we did not get anyone in before feb, even if it is for cover, and if it is for cover, what would be the point? we have people out on loan or sold who were cover.

I'd take Danny Murphy in a heartbeat...

Maybe 4 or 5 years ago..................

Still a class act and his missus aint bad either

teeheeeheee

she forgot her underwear.

Is Danny Murphy still at Spurs ? - thought he went charlton ?

he went from charlton to spurz, having been sold by liverpoo for 4 million about 3 or 4 years ago

Just seen this what do you think?

A Gareth Barry move to Spurs had been mooted earlier in the season and Villa were also linked with Robbie Keane. These two items have come together in a rumour of Barry to London in exchange for Keane plus Danny Murphy. It sounds plausible but if Villa are trying to build for the future Barry has the capacity to be a club talisman and it would test the fan’s faith if it happened.

Clicky

not a chance, MoN has stated that barry above any other villa player, is the one who could play for ANY team in the premiership, if he thinks that, he thinks he is our best player, if he thinks he is our best player, he wont sell him unless he has to. does he have to sell anyone?

"wee bit" can mean either loads or a little.

i doubt MoN or any manager would say they are going to sign loads of players or indeed, only 1, it gives the game away and may also upset the small squad we have at our disposal.

BB, the sponsorship is being sorted out now, irrespective of players

Aalso your point ignores the fact that some clubs won't sell until the summer, it is always the best time, especially in May/June b4 preseason

i know clubs are not keen to sell now, hence paying the inflated price for the services.

im sure the prices will be even more come summer time when there is a dutch auction for players, especially when there will be most of the premiership with money burning a hole in their pockets. at the moment, there are not many teams who are in a postion to buy, in the range we are looking to buy.

arse, chelsea, man ure and liverpoo aside, and they would at this stage have different targets i guess. this leaves spurz, west ham and maybe everton with cash although everton are in a lot of debt.

it just feels that for once, we have the advantage and by wafting money under the noses of the targets we want, may do the trick.

come summer time, we will be on an even keel with the majority of the teams and any advantage ( unless we qualify for europe) is gone.

just a thought.

would it not make sense to buy in as many of the ones MoN wants now, rather than wait until summer time when all the teams will start spending the money before they get it from the new premiership deal?

i would rather we paid 10 million for bent, 10 million for swp and so on, now, rather than have 8 teams fighting it out for each player and the prices going even more inflated.

we are in a position now where we should be able to grab the players we want and need now, then in the summer the new spopnsorship deal can come in and recoup the spending.

we would also get alot more money on sponsorship having a couple superstars or at least top quality players in the team.

i remember the crazy days of anyone in a premier team costing £3 million at the very least, no matter how rubbish they were. at least if we got players in now, we would be saved the even more inflated prices come the summer time.

also gives us time to have a proper preseason build up on the pitch and off it.

is bent injured? or is it a ploy by chorlton to sell him now and spend the money on replacements, stating that he wouldnt be playing for a whole month anyway? a way of appeasing the fans of chorlton.

swp

bent

finnan

dystin

gamst pedersen

thankyou.

looks like i saw through the thinly veiled " we wont sell him ever" stance.

just thought i would point out

joe cole, michael carrick, glen johnson and jermaine deffoe, did we all considered them crap?, as they all played for west ham the season they got relegated, not sure if lampard played any part in that season but with those players all part of that team, they went down.

im no fan of the shrunken headed one, however as we are lacking firepower and players all over the field, a premiership forward, not at the end of their carreer would be a welcome boost.

i also agree though that why should we be the ones linked to him as west am want to sign bent? ok so bent played for curbs before, but why play in the championship next ear when you can play for the real claret and blue?