NeilS

Gattuso - best player at the world cup for me. I'd give my right leg to see him in a Villa shirt.

Well, not litteraly. Maybe a finger or two.......

P.S. My god, did you know he used to play for Rangers??

Agreed, I'd love Gattuso at Villa Park. and Yes I think he's married to a scottish woman.

Papa Bouba Diop?

Too many injuries IMO. We need an experienced player for that position but not one that will impede Ozzy's progress.

I agree about the point regarding Bouba Diop's injuries. He's yet to show much since coming back from his latest injury.

With regards the Ozzy's progress comment, I think we shouldn't worry about that too much. If he's good enough he will make it. Playing with the best players often brings out the best in young players and will hopefully help his development in the long term. If we want success we can't afford to be too sentimental.

I never thought of Petrov in that role

if you think about it, gravesen was bought in at celtic as petrov was leaving

Yes I guess so, I just thought of Petrov in an "all action role" getting up and down the park. He can do the job, but I think you just lose a bit from his game if he sits anchoring midfield. I guess Davis could come in to do Petrov's role if it came to it.

I think Petrov will acclimatise to the Premier and will be able to 'do a job' in the McCann role if needs be - until the summer at least. I certainly think a right winger is a major priority both to give Gabby an opportunity for a rest and to give much needed cover if he gets injured, not to mention allowing him to play up front from the start.

I also think this Davis/Milner swap talk is evidence that Villa have contacted Newcastle about resurrecting the Milner deal in January and it is Newcastle coming back with a request of their own. Regardless of whether it happens - it certainly looks to me like Villa have still got the bit between their teeth regarding Milner.

I never thought of Petrov in that role, I suppose that I wouldn't want him to play in that role as it would hamper his surgeing runs forward. But, I suppose with a new Left Back (Bridge), we would have Barry back in Midfield as well which would cover injuries OK.

Regarding January, give me SWP or Goldenballs on the right allowing Gabby up front and bring in Bridge and I'll be happy. That would be a very big January window for me. Then do the rest in the summer.

That would be nice, still think we need a midfield general to challenge/cover McCann. Osbourne will eventually fill this space but he's not quite ready to take it full time should something bad happen to McCann.

That would then do us till summer when further numbers can come in.

i think people are aiming too low,,,,

klaus huntalaar ??

I don't know alot about him i'm afraid, he didn't look very impressive when he came on against England recently, and there is the worry that he may go the way of Kezman who also done well in the dutch league. Of course on the flip side he could do as well as Van Nistelrooy.

i heard that O'Neill never use to play him at celtic, and he was just a back up to someone like Mcgeady, if thats true i can't see why martin would go for him

I thought that it was the other way round, that he never played McGeady because Maloney was his first choice?

Yeah thats what I remember from when people were saying about going for McGeady. That McGeady wasn't MON's first choice and that Strachan has had more involvement in his development.

After last nights chastening experience, does anyone else think that we are wasting our time looking at players like Nugent and Eastwood. If we are to achieve MON's stated aim of competing with Chelsea, we need to aim much higher.

I agree, we definately need 3-4 top quality players to add to the side, preferably with the "winning" attitude and "bottle" for the big games. I think this is something we sorely miss, because whenever we have a big game that can mean something we tend to blow our chances by not turning up. I can think of numerous games over the last ten years.

I'm not writing off completely the idea of a lower league player or two to supplement the top players. 1 or 2 who can develop into stars of the future for example Gudjohnson at Bolton before going onto bigger things. I think thats what MON is suggesting when he states that he isn't writing off the possibility of lower league players.

Seems as though sha will be selling Upson in January, should we be interested

A good player. but seems injury prone. Do we really need another injury prone defender?

Richards

Appiah

Sidwell

SWP

Bent

Klose

Which are unrealistic targets there?

Which comes first? getting into the top 5 or getting the players to get you into the top 5? Arguably if you get to the top 5 with the current squad then you already have the players to get there!!

I'd say that Klose would be the least likely of that list. The rest are definately gettable. Though there is no harm in trying as you never know otherwise!

I think that we could sneak into the top 5 this season if we have luck on our side with injuries, but we'd need to buy better to maintain top 5 for next season. Reaching top 5 this season will allow us a better chance of getting the best available players to the club.

"I've always had to work hard to establish myself and be successful. I don't think that would be any different at a top club such as Real Madrid or Barcelona," he added.

No matter how good we are getting, I'm not sure that we're quite on his radar at the moment.

Thats what I thought when reading the article. I think a few years of catching up needs doing first.

Though its worth enquiring, you don't get if you don't try. Stranger things have happened.

blandy wrote:

Combinations of bidders is very iffy - too many cooks and all that. "I wanna do it this way" "No, we should do it that way" "we need to invest now in players" ""No we should spend on the ground" ""Neither - we should sell such and such and get some money back" - too much potential for disagreement and loss of direction.

This paragraph sums up why I want a sole owner and not a consortium!

I agree. I have had dealings in my work with a foreign consortium from various parts of the world, and it took ten times the time to conclude that deal, most deals at my work take 5-8 weeks to sort but this one took over a year. What with contacting them and transfers of their share having to be raised. It was a right pain in the backside. Not sure Whether it is actually relevant to the Padfield deal or not, but it's how I imagine any consortium would work.

I guess a simple takeover isn't exciting news so they have to have a shocking headline every day. Go out and find one of the few who has reservations, make them seem like representatives of a large sect of Villa fans and mix in their quotes with quotes from Padfield and then throw in an unfounded statement that his bid is close to being accepted! Fantastic journalism.

I tend to agree with this. I've been thinking this for a couple of days.I'm 90% convinced of this. It's just the nagging 10% that is telling me this is Villa and it's bound to go pear shaped. I'm just counting down the time till it's settled. With time seemingly going at half pace. Thankfully my internet has been down this morning so I haven't been looking at updates every five minutes so far today.

The one thing I don't get, is how can they (AV06) be so far behind. Surely they would have known about Villa being for sale for quite some time. It seems they are a bit whimsical in their interest.

Chief Said:

Things are so quiet, makes me think something is going to happen.

I hope so. Thats what I keep telling myself its driving me mad, it seems to be taking an eternity. My Dad said on Wednesday that he'd heard something about Friday being the day for it to happen, I almost hit him as I said another 48 hours, its always another 48 hours.

I just want it to be done so we can start afresh, judging by Villa's previous dealings re: Baros/Berson it'll probably run on and on and on ..........

Randy Lerner for me as well. Just simply because the popularity of the game in America could be about to take off, and my experience with Americans is they don't do things by half. If we can get into that market it could net us lots of money.

I also like the views of the Cleveland Browns fans who seem to like him. It's important for me to know what people with experience of the guys running of a sports team/business think. As we haven't heard any bad things from Browns fans then i think we're safe to assume Randy is a good man.

has he got just the one private plane?

If so RL may have been needing it for his own use and his associates would have to go via alternative methds?