jacketspuds

We should not pay more than £12m regardless of when we sign him. He's a good player but the difference with Young is that he had a few clubs after him. We are the only realistic option for N'Zogbia and if either the club or the player demands too much we move to other targets.

However, I can see this going through later this week as it Whelan is a showman and he could not say "we tried our best to keep him" if they accept the 1st bid that comes in.

Most clubs reject the 1st offer for a player. Aren't we apparently meeting with them today to discuss a bid. We should tell them a final offer (£11m MAX) and if they say no we move on. Dave Whelan as already mugged us off once this summer and we should tell him to either accept one last offer or **** off. They can not afford to lose him on a free in a year, no other clubs are willing to pay the transfer fee and wage package, so maybe he doesn't have as much power over this deal as he thinks.

Anything up to £12m for N'Zogbia would be worth it IMO. Regardless of his contract situation.

I would also love to see us go for Hoilett at Blackburn for competition on the right.

I agree. If Wigan are pushing for £15m then walk away but if it's about £1m then we should just pay it because, despite what some at the club may think, we are desperate for reinforcements. Our squad has been significantly reduced this summer and we need a number of replacements in the immediate future. Not long left until the season starts and we need the squad (including signings) to have played together a bit before our first game.

£10m bid according to SSN/Press Association

Downing does work hard. He's just a bottler. But his flair and directness are very good going forward.

The fact is he wants to go so we should sell him.

Decent enough keeper, probably relatively cheap, vastly experienced. keepers can and do go on to 39 and can have their best years from 34 to 38.

This. Although both are different styles of keeper based on their frames, Van der Sar and Schwarzer (along with Friedel) have all proven that age is not an issue in recent seasons.

Given would be an excellent shot stopper for us.

IMO it's become obvious in recent month that the people running the club simply don't know enough about football.

Agree. Done some great things for our club but when it comes to footballing matters - they are clueless. Whoever 'advises' Randy is doing an awfull job. Anyway, back OT. Downing is a tosser

That, I will agree with.

I dont question that Randy is the right man to take charge of this football club, but I question his choice of footballing advisors.

Agreed. Right now it seems that the top people at our club just stick their heads in the sand when difficult decisions need to be made and just hope that everything will work itself out.

We could very easily lose two of our best players this summer if Downing is sold, yet we could only spend very little on a new GK. There's nothing coming from the club except "we don't do our business in the media". This is commendable but when every other club is making us look more than useless at times it is not that much fun being a Villa fan.

I say take the £18.5m from Liverpool and start to rebuild the squad. The fact that we haven't signed anyone yet is frustrating, and hopefully just down to the fact that all energies have been put to sorting out compensation with BCFC for AMC.

I am so bored of waiting for one of our top players to be sold we should just get on with it as it is inevitable.

Won't really be annoyed at Downing as he's done ok for us and if we can get 2 players in for him then fine.

If Downing wanted to stay he'd sign a new deal. He isn't going to as he doesn't want to stay. He has 2 years left on his contract and as the General alluded to we need to be careful with players contracts as we shouldn't flog them on the cheap for the sake of it.

I'd sell him this summer if at all possible and let McLeish reinvest in N'Zogbia and Kranjcar.

SSN said his contract expires next summer? Crazy. £20m for N'Zogbia? No thanks. Imagine getting shafted twice by Dave Whelan in the same summer. Doesn't bear thinking about.

Agreed. Give us £18m, enough to bankroll deals for Adam & N'Zogbia, and Stewart "I look like the bloke from Inbetweeners" Downing can **** off to the biggest club in Liverpool.

The most annoying thing about Fifa 11, apart from the ridiculous way the computer makes your players slower and weaker at times, is the fact that BIG clubs don't really spend much money and even when they do sign a superstar the AI never puts them in the **** team. Pretty much in my 3rd season as Villa and Chelsea, Man Utd & City still have 10 out of the 11 players in the starting lineup every game. Fifa 11 needs to try and get a bit more like FM when it comes to other clubs/managers transfer plans.

I would be massively worried about his shoulder injury, so let's hope our medical team check him over thoroughly.

I also think £5m is too much for a 35 year old keeper.

The thing about him putting in a request is that he will forego (sp?) any severance pay so in theory the price can come down slightly. I'd take £18m if he puts in a request and we don't pay him a **** bean.

He's really gone down in my estimation the little **** weasel.

He changed his mind because Liverpool approached him. Maybe even GH has had a hand in it I don't know, or care TBH as that's part of football.

The one thing I am certain of is that we need to sell him if he wants to go. The last thing we need is another drawn out transfer saga that derails our own plans because we are waiting to sort out a sale. It could be the difference between signing Rob Green or Ben Foster.

Get rid of any player that wants to go, including Habib Beye, and get cracking with building McLeish's own team.

MM - Didn't you say in Jan that we hadn't finished "loading the basket" or something to that effect after we'd signed Bent but we were being quoted ridiculous prices for players after the Bent deal? Just curious really as I want to understand financially what has changed since then as surely if GH was to be backed heavily in Jan why wouldn't McLeish be backed heavily now, which I think he will for what it's worth.

N'Zogbia & Adam Johnson for me.

We also need a new GK, CB to replace Cuellar, LB & RB, DCM & ACM.

So 8 players. Can't see that happening. Let's hope Ireland can fill the ACM void if he pulls his finger out.

The Mirror article is a bag of shit. Why would a shit Mirror reporter know that we financed the Bent deal with the Young money? I bet if you look back to when we signed Bent the same **** would claim that we used the Milner money for the deal. Nobody has a clue what we do as we do our business behind closed doors.

The thing that really pisses me off is the way that Villa will have nothing to spend on attack as McLeish is apparently happy with selling Young & Downing and we only need a GK & a defender. **** that no manager in their right mind would sell Young & Downing and not replace either. The Liverpool love session in the article is also pathetic.

It's sequel to that game and, as I said, the 360 version comes with a slightly tarted up version of the original game too.

Doesn't the PS3 come with a downloadable version too? I couldv'e sworn I saw it on the box yesterday. Maybe I was just being blind and was looking at a 360 box instead.

I don't actually remember Ireland saying anything bad about us though. Yes, he had issues with GH but I think we need to give everyone a fresh start as we're not really in a position to be writing off any players just yet.

Oh, except Beye...he can **** off.

Hopefully we'll see what Gary Gardner is made of next season. We can see if there is any reason why Inter were allegedly after him.

Sanchez Flores won't get the job because he is a foreign manager with no prem experience. A guaranteed failure like...

Mourinho - Failure

Benitez - Failure

Ancelotti - Failure

The article even mentions bringing in Ayestarian who was the main reason Liverpool were so good for a few seasons.

Still can't believe McLeish will be our manager.

So far neither BBC nor SSN are reporting anything other than the 1st set of talks were productive and an announcement is due tomorrow. I'm still hoping that Randy sees sense.

Fingers crossed it's breaking down and Avram Grant is the next on the list.

Hi General,

Did Gus Poyet come under consideration at all? He is a top manager in the making and probably wouldn't take him long to get to London for a chat with Randy before he makes a decision.

My point General is that a significant number of fans, more than you wouldv'e thought, have stood up and showed their utter frustration at how we have been managed of late.

There are more questions to answer but PR responses will not cut it.

I have said it before. If you want to unite the fans go and get a young manager who plays the right way and is respected within the game. McLeish is not that man. Look at where Moyes came from, a man who is now a successful manager at Everton. McLeish is damaged goods and we are potentially going to do exactly what you said would not happen. The Houllier era was a farce but as things stand this is going to be 100 times worse.

Listen to the fans. Yes we moan, yes it can be difficult to please everyone, but by appointing McLeish you will alienate your fans from the board and from each other.

Go get Poyet. Trust me.