Duck

Seeing as we're speculating a lot.. Those saying that we have a good thing with Fox, Reilly and Sherwood. What if one of Lerner's requirements was that those three are kept on. Maybe it's taken this long because he's had to turn down buyers that were going to make wholesale sweeping changes that would have possibly had a negative impact on the club. It's all speculation but just because new owners come in doesn't mean the old guard are instantly removed..

Based on how the clubs starting to turn round this might be the best way to steady the ship, at least in the short term.

Personally, I'm starting to think the deal is all but done, and any announcement is being held off until Tim can get his first targets in for as cheap as possible. As soon as the takeover is announced we'll be paying hefty fees all over the shop

So this was half done in Photoshop.... With the writing done in MS paint? Have we run out of money already? D:

<p>

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• 45]

  Jord ‏@fcbjord 14h14 hours ago

  @reluctantnicko Amavi to villa?

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  Alan Nixon ‏@reluctantnicko 14h14 hours ago

  @fcbjord Update on that tomorrow ... which may be decision day

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  Jord ‏@fcbjord 14h14 hours ago

  @reluctantnicko and Chery?

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  Alan Nixon ‏@reluctantnicko 14h14 hours ago

  @fcbjord Wants to come. Groningen trying to drain every euro out of u.

  Full trail of tweets from Nixon.

It's tomorrow... Where's our news Nixon?

Only villa would enter a period of exclusivity with a potential new owner and come out with just a bit of restructuring and spouting a load of investing in people bullshit.

Not guaranteed but looks like that's the way it's going and whilst it might steady the ship a bit, it's just not going to be enough to compete at a level that is worth getting excited about.

Especially when you have the baggies being taken over by Dalian wanda of all people

Right kick in the balls

Thought it was revealed that it wasn't actually Dalian Wanda. And I might be wrong on this as well but they only went to WBA because Lerner went ahead with someone else

I would much rather that we spend the £32.5m on a striker or two now while this saga is still going on. At least then when/if tekkers goes we won't be expected to pay over the odds by other clubs because we have money to burn. Also if someone does come in on deadline day we'll already have cover.

From Tims point of view I can see why he might be reluctant to get the ball rolling on a new set of strikers, we want to make Christian feel like an irreplaceable team member to convince him to say.

We still need at least one or two newbies up front whether he stays or goes tho

Maybe prince wills have him some inspiration to keep on while they were getting all friendly at Wembley

When he meets with Tim I am 100% confident he'll be given the straight facts.

1) go to Man city and he'll be warming the bench

2) he's an England international with the euros coming up, he needs to be playing weekly for a top flight team

3) he is the captain of a top flight team

4) villa is rebuilding and has vast potential this summer, for the first time in a long time

5) the club have stood by him and kept faith through the hard times in his career.

Tim isn't one to pull punches and will give him these facts to convince fabs that villa is the right choice for him. At least for this season.

If after the meeting fabs still wants out, good luck to him but he'll have lost respect from a lot of the fans and people who stood behind him here for years. I've full faith in Tim to sort him out if he has any doubts about staying.

In Tim we trust.

Unless it's a case of the new owners only buying in to take ownership. They might believe that Fox and the rest of his have all the ambition and skills they need going forward and the meeting will be a confirmation of new ownership, and business as usual.

Lerner would effectively be the only major change with him being replaced.

I'm probably way off the mark. An all staff meeting would hint at something more than just an end of season review imo

Fox was employed by Lerner, I expect via an executive search firm.

Lerner brought Faulkner in after first buying the club, mistake number 1. Faulkner was a nobody who had worked his way into the Lerner family office via a stint at MBNA, he was well known to Lerner but clearly out of his depth and added zero value to the club in his COO & CEO roles.

Lerner realised his mistake and sought to bring in somebody with both the skills and experience to fill the CEO role and take the club forward, enter Fox. His appointment had absolutely nothing to do with potential takeovers, Lerner simply woke up to the fact that without proper leadership on the business side the club would drift further into the abyss.

IF the club is taken over I really do hope Fox is retained, he's the best leader we've had ever.... If he leaves, it's back to square one again.

Completely agree.

#FoxIn

Has he left yet? Or are we expecting him to turn up on Monday for training?

Haven't heard anything regarding us letting him leave

Between Tim pulling off young Belgians and getting inside players it's no wonder so many are interested in signing this summer

Any takers for a takeover leading to a large sponsorship deal of the north stand? Obviously depends who if anyone is lined up to finalise the takeover.... But could see a healthy investment for us

Nothing radically new, but as we all know, the more linking, the higher chance for it to happen!

From voetbalkrant.com (googletrans'd, complete with engaging headline):

This award will give Aston Villa for Golden Boot

Aston Villa has been interest in Dennis Praet more than clear.

It even has an amount in mind. Wondering whether Anderlecht will be able to say no to an offer of 14 million euros.

According to the latest rumors Aston Villa are keen to enhance namely with Dennis Praet. In recent weeks and months, the playmaker was still associated with some Spanish sub-elite, but according to the Daily Telegraph, beckons a move to England.

And The Guardian knows more: they know the exact amount found The Villans over the Golden Shoe: 10 million pounds, converted a thick 14 million.

Manager Tim Sherwood is therefore a great admirer of the purple-white number 10. This offer seems to be a future of Praet in Belgium almost nonexistent.

glad google translate was able to clarify this. Was struggling there for a bit

Judging our transfer activity already - Richards and Gueye seem to be like for like replacements for Vlaar and Delph (if he leaves).

Tims no mug and I'm sure he's already trying to source a new striker to replace Benteke... But so far all we've been linked to is Austin and that seems to have died down.

I'm clutching at very tiny straws but to me the lack of links for us with attackers gives me the impression we've no intention of letting him leave any time soon

Just looked at our top scorers from last season....

Am I missing something or are we a bit screwed atm if tekkers leaves?

He was always going to be our top scorer but I didn't realise just HOW reliant we were on him. Weimann was our third highest scorer after gabby (.... Albeit only on 4 goals)

The longevity is going to be all about DLC... There are so many planets to go to - though the game modes might not change, the scenery and mission objectives are pretty limitless in the Star Wars universe.

Still don't know whether to jump for joy, or treat it all with caution...

This is the problem for me. It's EA so obviously this will happen within a month or so of release. £3.99 for a double map pack or something at the very least.

That plus the fact that it's EA... Who 9/10, will botch a release with game breaking bugs which are patched to a point until the game is a year or so old.

I'm on the fence on whether to get battlefront. I so badly want it to be great and everything I'd want it to be.... But it's EA I know it'll probably be unplayable until at least the new year. I hope I'm wrong, but I'll probably avoid until the first wave of updates

I guess whether or not you think a takeover might go ahead comes down to whether your an half glass full person or a half glass empty person.

Glass half full or glass half empty. Being pedantic.

It's either half full or half empty. It's 50/50

Yeah as I said he didn't want to leave on a free so maybe this is his way of giving us something back.

There's nothing to suggest he will accept any contract offers that come his way this summer. He's not a stupid lad, he's not in the game for a huge pay day I don't think. I'm sure he doesn't want to warm benches in the top 6 for the next few seasons, he'll want to play.

Next few weeks, as we've said COUNTLESS times already.... are massive, MASSIVE, for Aston Villa FC.

When he renewed his deal in January I remember him saying he was here for the long haul, that he was happy and loved the club.

Altho he did say he didn't want to leave on a free at the end of season....

I don't know how to take this

Should i hold out for FM 16?

Haven't played any yet but use to love lma manager n prem manager.know this is completely diff and more in depth but ps4 is boring me now just not sure its worth gettin FM 15 now?

I had the same view before I first played fm12. If you enjoyed lma manager and the like id say it's a no brainer to get into FM.

15 is on Amazon for £17 atm which is probably worth a punt. There's usually a few bugs in the month or so after release so I wouldn't pick up 16 on release day.

While this is a fascinating argument, I fail to see what it has to do with Micah Richards age

Football manager has his date of birth as 24th June 1988.....

Happy 27th birthday Micah

Yep pretty much.

What I found with the latest FIFA on Be A Pro was the difficulty settings were broken, basically.

One setting I was scoring pretty much every game right from the start. So I turned it up a setting and it was just impossibly difficult.

Difficulty settings on single player has always been Fifas undoing. There's no half steps between difficulty levels, you either score 5 against Chelsea or concede 5 against port vale.

The last few versions I've opted for longer matches (10/20 minute halves) and the difficulty just doesn't scale up at all. I've settled on playing pro difficulty for matches which can generate great games.... But then the occasional 8-0 drubbing by hull happens out of nowhere.

The whole situation has even handled brilliantly by the club IMO.

Lambert, fox and sherwood have done amazingly well in the last 12 months, renewing him last year when he wanted to leave, adding the high release clause and then revealing it before the summer.

As it's been said, we're in a great position as a result.

Does anyone know for definite that the clause is 32.5? I know it's the reported fee, but I would laugh so hard if it ended up being so much less and the big clubs being put off by it

For what it is worth... This is what I would now do after the latest Benteke revelations :

Man Utd are meant to have enquired about Benteke…. I would ask for £28m and maybe sell for £25m.

Sorry, but it's a no from me. The only way we should even be considering a sale to anybody is if they meet the reported 32.5m clause. Granted we might lose him next season for less money but I can't see us getting a replacement of his standard alongside the rest of the spending we need to be doing.

Selling for 25 would not be good business by any stretch

Hopefully Gil get his chance in preseason

I don't get it

Is it not pronounced Hil? So maybe hopefully he'll get his chance?

I don't know I'm tired