GeordieVillan

Wow. He just made something happen in my trousers. Decent back up in a team that isn't struggling I think.

Marry me Tim, marry me now.

If we were able to pay £100k a week, I'm pretty sure we would be signing someone better or more reliable that Adebayor!

This plus a centre-half, and I will have facials with myself and anyone else who wants some.... Sanchez from behind in the Veretout thread if you fancy it. The last time I got DM'd and had facials I couldn't walk or see for a week....

This plus a centre-half, and I will have facials with myself and anyone else who wants some....

If the Gestede and Adebayor rumours are true, then I don't see where Libor is going to fit in with our lone striker formations, which is a real shame. The guy has never really had a chance here, so if he goes we (as fans) will never know for certain what he's capable of. However, its entirely plausible that there may be times when we are wanting to play with 2 strikers up front, as we did last season, in which case there's no reason why Libor won't feature from the bench at least. You could also argue that Adebayor is only a short term signing, and Gestede would be the long term replacement for Benteke... Maybe we just aren't used to having a strong bench to choose from!

Agreed. We must have someone lined up...

And he actually only scored in 9 games! Regardless, he's gone now and we are very much going into a new era. Onwards and upwards!

Its shame as it would have been great for both him and Clark to make the grade and be long term centre-back partnership for us. But, like many of our promising, it probably just won't happen for him here. I suspect some of our young players have been "damaged" by the last few years, whereas some of them will be stronger for the experience. I think we'll see a bit of him around the premier league in years to come...

I'm pretty sure we are in for Bale....

I think ability to gel quickly has been taken into account when assessing a new signing I'm sure the fact alot of the guys coming in are young lads from the French league will mean they can all help eachother settle. I also think that we now have a much stronger set up with people like Wilkins who know the European (and World game), so it will help the foreign boys to bed in....

Watched a bit of this guy on youtube, he plays a bit like Cabaye but with a more ability to drive forward on the ball. Snap him up. Even with 50% hit rate on some of these signing, we're going to have a good season! When was the last time we were the busiest club in a transfer window!!!

I think he's going to play a big part for us. If we are playing some version of 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 then we need players who are comfortable in wide areas. We now have a few of these players in our ranks - Sinclair, Gil, Grealish, Ayou. That doesn't even include Gabby. I'm assuming Nzogbia won't feature much, and Joe Cole neither. I also don't believe all this "we had to buy him" stuff - if that was the case then surely we would have bought him in January and not just had him on loan with an option to buy.

I just watched this video of Gestede, because I literally didn't know anything about him.... Looking at his goals, he seems to be the lovechild of Benteke and Bent - a mix of powerful headers and unstoppable strikes, and then a few fox in the box type goals where they bounce off his arse/elbow or take a wicked deflection!

This seems the most likely explanation. We've played hard ball everywhere else, but it might just be that we really needed this signing as Tim wanted him, and also because we need a "name" of some kind to replace Benteke. Even at £7.5m, if he scores 12-15 goals, he will probably be regarded as a success.

The last time I felt like this before a season started was Brian Little's first season in charge. It was the year after Big Ron nearly took us down and Brian came in and just saved us (1-1 draw at Norwich on the last day wasn't it??) That summer we signed Southgate, Draper and Milosevic. Two players from relegated clubs and Savo a guy who no-one had really heard of. I can't remember when exactly, but I think we also brought in Alan Wright and Gary Charles - again, not household names by any means, but players who we needed. They weren't big name or marquee signings, but it just felt like we had some kind of plan and you could just tell we would have a good season. I've got that same feeling about this season. We have totally rebuilt our midfield and attacking unit. Gil and Kozak will be like new signings, and Grealish will get his first full season. Gaby hopefully has a renaissance. Adebayor to provide the goals with Kozak. Fullback positions look stronger, and bar Guzan's flap towards the end of last year, I don't think anyone really doubted him. Bunn looks solid anyway in the short term. The only thing missing at the minute is a centre half. Can't actually believe how optimistic I am. Its like a totally different club, and I put it all down to Tim.

This is up there with Ginola and Pires in terms of a marquee signing that would be very unlikely to succeed. 2-3 years ago it could have been the realms of Merson but now I don't think its a good idea. However, I don't think its impossible. We are signing young players and seem to be moving on alot of others - someone like this will certainly raise the profile of the dressing room, and as others have said - he's good player to have in the squad. Don't think he would ever be a starter though....

THIS. We have been shit for years now. The spine has arguably been ripped out of our team by Man City and Liverpool, but I'm so glad that we seem to have embraced it and thought - "its time to reinvent ourselves anyway".

I'm really excited for the season to start. Havn't felt like this since MON. It feels as though we actually have a strategy in the transfer market for once, and even though we've lost a couple of our main players, there isn't the same doom and gloom which has normally accompanied this previously (Yorke, Young, Milner, Downing etc.) I don't know how you've done it Tim. You've made us believers again.

Gabby was very good under MON very consistently. He was a regular starter and one of the main attacking threats in a top 6 team. But he needs other dangerous players around him to ease the burden (Young, Milner, Downing, Carew etc.). The only other decent dangerous player we have had in recent years has just left us for Liverpool. He has suffered as the last 5 years has seen one of the worst selections of Aston Villa midfields I have seen in my lifetime. Christ we've been a bit of a laughing stock for 2-3 years because we can't keep the ball and can't create chances. Remarkably during this time Benteke has still scored goals - but thats probably because he is another level of player to Gabby and was probably too good for where we currently are. I think Gabby will have until Xmas to show Sherwood that he still has something to offer, otherwise I think he will be gone in January or next summer. I think he could still make a living for himself in the Premier League, even if he left us.

Seems like a decent signing, nothing flash, just a tidy bit of business. We have lost Vlaar, rumours that Senderous and Baker may follow, maybe even Clark - so we need this kind of no-nonsense destroyer type player in the squad. I would be worried if we were signing him to be first choice at centreback, but I don't think thats the case. I suspect our centre back pairing will be Clark and Okore with Richards at right back. If we play 3 at the back, then Crespo is an ideal player to have on the bench. For those saying he coming from a relegated team - years ago we signed Southgate and Draper from relegated teams and they changed the whole dymanic of our team. Also - Man City and Liverpool have just signed 2 players from a team that was nearly relegated last year - I don't think are worried about them being "losers".

You're gonna have to change your name mate - "Delphinho123" is not looking good now! Grealishinho?

I think that at that point for whatever reason when he backed out then he was dead set on being a Villan player so let your communications team print those words. Now they lookl to haunt him but if his career is to take the direction that he hopes then you'd imagine time will forget it. On your other point, he's probably not good enough play against a firing on all cylinders Barca. But he probably IS good enough to play against 16 of the 20 teams in the PL with no problem at all which will allow other players to rest for the Barcas rather than 2 games in 5 days. And if he performs well enough then he can earn his spot in the first team. The idea that he's never going to play when we've got Lampard getting 30 games for us last year is a little unrealistic. 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 But this is what I'm saying - you think he's good enough to play against everyone other than the top 4 and the elite of Europe - thats not the case. He has never consistently played well against the Stokes, Evertons, Southamptons etc. He is a mid-table player, he's not good enough for a top 6 club. But you will see this soon enough. He may improve though playing with better players. I'm not fuming at all with the club for the £8m clause. Delph could easily have run down his contract and gone for nothing this summer, and the club manager to get him to sign a new deal and the club received £8m as a result. And if you are valuing Delph at somewhere between £18-23m, you are crazy. He is a £12-15m player - if there was no clause and you had bid that much, no Villa fan would have said we had been conned. The fact you are looking at McCarthy for £25m is more a reflection on you than us.

I don't see us digging our heels in on this. If they have agreed to pay £32.5m over 5 years, we will probably ask for is over 3 years for example - but I suspect Sherwood will want the money so he can re-invest in other areas of the team. Thats assuming he hasn't already been given £50m to spend.

Let's get something straight off the bat here - I came here to read the reactions of Villa fans and posted to point out that P3te's "this is 100% fake" post was laughable and that the deal was happening. Then I responded to several members including yourself had a pop at me for apparent trolling (despite what I said was going to happen is now literally happening) and the club that I support in an unfair way, I'd expect no different from you or anybody else on our forum. I'm not trying to rub anybody's noses in it, with the possible exception of the Graphic Designer who was clutching at straws harder than a pissed up Tarzan, and have spent most of my time responding in kind. I have no problem with this at all and can take it as well as I can give it, but almost every post here including this one has been in reply to an insult from other people. Why don't you go back and see who started this little conversation between you and I? You want to wallow in self-pity and blame the ills of the entire world on Man City then that's absolutely fine, but don't then suggest that it's anything but this He is/was one of our better players, but we have been shite for 5 seasons. He is/was the main player in one of the worst Aston Villa midfield I can ever remember. The fact that last week the reaction of many Villa fans was "ok, lets get someone else instead" rather than being gutted should say a hell of alot. The anger today is not because we are losing a good player, but because if this is true (which it looks like it is), he's shown himself to be a real scumbag. There was no need for him to make a statement last week, he's made a massive error by doing that if he wasn't 100% certain that he was going to stay. I'm sure he will play games for you, but you will soon realise that he's not good enough to be in your first team. He's not good enough to play against Barcelona, Bayern, Real Madrid etc. he has struggled at times to help us beat lower league opposition in the domestic cups. If I can compare this to Milner - when he left, Villa fans were 100% united in their disappointment, he is a class act and a fantasitc player. Delph isn't there yet, but who's to say he won't improve. Don't expect miracles from him, he's not THAT good.