markavfc40

I've still got one but this thread has made me realise I probably haven't used it for about 2 years but for some reason I still have it sitting under my dvd recorder. I still have the odd thing on tape so until I convert them onto dvd I suppose I'll still keep it but its doubtful I'll ever use it again.

tell me what we can offer Bent over Spurs, other than the better manager, which can easily be changed if Jol has a bad run

Well along with the better manager we could very well offer him higher wages, we now reportedly have the best training facilities in Europe, which the club believe will be a major attraction in obtaining players, we also have the bigger stadium and are arguably the bigger club based on history, tradition, trophys won and fan base.

I'd say when competing with Spurs for a players signature we'd have a great chance of coming out on top.

BBC rumours site says Diop has turned down a move to Wigan.

Available for around 4 mill. He'll be 29 in 2 days. Think I'd prefer someone slightly younger but hes a decent player.

He's a fairly non-descript looking bloke, are you SURE it was him?

Good player for the record.

My best mate who was with me, is a Pompey fan, he was convinced, I am 120% sure it was him.

Stroke of luck that having a Pompey fan with you to identify him.

General first time I have posted on this thread. I would just like to apologise for some of the over the top negativity that has suddenly swamped Villatalk over the past month or so. Where some of these recent members have been hiding is anyones guess but they have obviously been waiting for a sticky patch so they can mouth off. I doubt wether some of these posters are indeed Villa fans but rest assured General that 99.99% of Villa fans are right behind Randy, Mon and the rest of the board and have every faith that the vision that they have for Aston Villa will ultimately, given time, be achieved. We had the right men for the job back in August and we still have the right men leading us now.

With the squad we have now Villa are in a very dangerous position. Injuries and we might end up a Championship team next season!

MON has to buy players...at least 3-4 new signings is a must!

If Mon believed this current squad was in danger of being relegated then if he couldn't get the players he wants to move us forward he would sign stop gaps till the end of the season. You can rest assured though that Mon is no fool and if he believes, as appears to be the case, that this squad is good enough to finish above the relegation zone then thats good enough for me. For what its worth I believe that this squad, although small, is way too good to go down.

Fair play to Mon as although it appears Randy is willing to be back him to the hilt he is not prepared to pay over the odds for any player.

From todays Sun. Speculation regarding Baros, Ashley Young, SWP, Bellamy and Gera. Seems like we're being linked with everyone all of a sudden.

http://tinyurl.com/yetxy7

Spanish strugglers want Baros

By PHIL THOMAS

January 09, 2007

MILAN BAROS is a shock transfer target for La Liga strugglers Levante.

The Spanish outfit have made Aston Villa striker Baros, 25, their number one priority as they battle to avoid slipping into the relegation scrap.

The Czech striker only turned down a move to Spain recently, when he knocked back an approach from Real Sociedad.

Yet that was when fanciful talk of a dramatic swoop by Chelsea was in the air, and now it has come to nothing, he would give Levante more serious consideration.

Baros cost Villa £6.5 million when they landed him from Liverpool 18 months ago.

But he has failed to sparkle since moving to the Midlands, managing only 14 goals in 49 appearances.

He was on target when he came off the bench in Sunday’s late FA Cup defeat at Manchester United.

Yet he has slipped behind Juan Pablo Angel and Gabriel Agbonlahor in the pecking order, while Chris Sutton will also be ahead of him when he returns from injury.

Manager Martin O’Neill has publicly admitted that there is uncertainty over the long-term future of Baros, and he could go for around half what Villa paid for him.

Levante are woefully lacking firepower, with just 16 goals in their 17 league games this term - and only six of them from front men Riga Mustapha and Olivier Kap.

Aston Villa last night signed Manchester United full-back Phil Bardsley on loan for the rest of the season.

The 21 year-old defender is Martin O’Neill’s first capture since the transfer window opened again at the start of the month.

But Bardsley will have to wait until January 20th to make his debut against struggling Watford at Villa Park because he’s not eligible to play against his parent club when Villa return to Old Trafford to play the Premiership leaders on Saturday.

However, O’Neill is hoping to bring in at least two more newcomers this week, with Watford’s £6 million-rated striker Ashley Young amoung his targets.

He’s also being linked with Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy and West Brom’s unsettled Hungarian forward Zoltan Gera.

“We just want to start building the squad up up a bit to give ourselves a chance,†said the former Celtic boss.

“We’ve got a gruelling schedule ahead and we’re a bit bit threadbare at the moment.â€

SHAUN WRIGHT-PHILLIPS will reject a £9.8million move to West Ham because he reckons he still has a future at Chelsea.

The out of favour winger is instead hoping to clinch a loan move to Aston Villa for the rest of the season.

And he is determined to prove to Jose Mourinho that he is good enough to become a Stamford Bridge regular.

England international Wright-Phillips, 25, has NEVER played a full 90 minutes in the Premiership for Chelsea.

Now Mourinho is ready to cut his losses on a player who cost Chelsea £21million when he signed from Manchester City in July 2005.

But the little winger still has three and a half years to run on his £60,000 a week contract.

And he is not yet ready to call time on his Chelsea career despite his failure to meet Mourinho’s demands.

Wright-Phillips’ refusal to join the struggling Hammers on a permanent deal has forced Chelsea to rethink about lending him to a Premiership rival.

It was only last week that Mourinho insisted that none of his squad would be allowed to leave on loan.

But now he is willing to let Wright-Phillips go even though both Joe Cole and Arjen Robben are currently out injured.

Manchester City and Newcastle are also eager to take the player on loan for the rest of the season but Wright-Phillips is thought to favour a move to Villa.

Villa boss Martin O’Neill has also made a £6.9million bid for Watford winger Ashley Young.

But he prefers Wright-Phillips and knows the player has a point to prove.

Spurs boss Martin Jol is also keen on Young and believes he can lure the England Under-21 international to White Hart Lane.

But struggling Watford are demanding players in part exchange and Jol is having trouble convincing any of his squad to move to a club heading straight back to the Championship.

Wayne Routledge, currently on loan at Fulham, refused to move to Vicarage Road at the weekend and now Spurs are trying to get centre-half Calum Davenport to join Watford instead.

Can anybody confirm how tall Peter Withe was/is ? - I always thought he was 6ft 1 - but someone a while back said that this was a much used myth, he was actually only 5.8 - he certainly looked bigger than 5-8 - anyone confirm ?

Are you having a laugh? If Peter Withe was 5' 8" Gary Shaw must have been about 5 foot.

Craig Bellamy is 5'9" and would struggle to win a header against Alan Wright.

Bent, SWP and Ashley Young are clearly all available. This is a fantastic opportunity to sign 3 young, hungry, quality players. All 3 have the potential to be lining up for England in the next 2-3 years. They would instantly give us the one thing we clearly lack which is an attacking threat. I doubt players like this will become available too often and this is a fantastic opportunity for us to turn ourselves from an average side into a very good side instantly. I think we should do what ever it takes to bring in all 3 of these players and completely turn the playing side of this club around and make a massive statement that we are back amongst the big boys.

Does someone know something we don't? Is it a load of rubbish?

Check out Skybets latest transfer odds.

Interesting reading

If we got some of those we were linked with I would be delighted.

**** me we are favourites for ashley young ,shauwn wright phillips and joey barton , if we got them three i think id ejaculate.

Lets hope the old saying that bookies are rarely wrong proves to be true.

Watford are clearly going down (10 points from safety) so I'm sure even though Boothroyd says hes going nowhere they will have a breaking point. I'd have thought somewhere in the region of 7mill would secure his services.

Villa, Spurs and Liverpool is fighting to clinch deal for Ashley Young, Watford. I hope that Villa can get him, if Watford will sell...

Where did you hear this?

I just have a feeling there will be some action today, not sure why

Richard I'm with you and am expecting something to happen today and definately before the end of the week. I'd say we're further forward on a couple of incoming transfers than any of us realise.

I think its fantastic that nobody knows how much we have to spend and if we are shoppping in Harrods or Matalan. It shows we have very shrewd people running the club.

MON is one of the greats when it comes to playing mind games with the media but I'm confident he has a few surprises up his sleeve for us all.

I wouldn't mind us going for Crouch and Earnshaw and pairing them together. We could sign the pair of them for 10-12 mill. They are both in their early 20s, experienced internationals and have scored goals in prem and would make a great partnership IMO. They have both lived in the area before so would settle in straight away.

It would also fit in with MONs previous tactics of a little and large partnership ie Heskey and Cottee at Leicester and Sutton/Hartson and Larsson at Celtic.

Ashton would be an ideal target man IMO. I'd think it would take a bid in excess of 12mill to get him though.

Newcastle are very poor at the back and its dubtful they'll throw their new forward straight in so that leaves them with Ameobi up front. Although they have a strong midfield I'm going for a 2-0 win to Villa.

Overdraft!!!!!!!

It's generally though that there is a facility of £20m o/d. We were o/d by £12.1m 31.5.06. So anything left in there plus any fees recieved for Phillips and Berson are available now it appears.

A guestimate of about £8-£9m

If there is 8 mill left of the overdraft to spend that should be enough to buy £15 million worth of players given that most of the time fees are paid in instalments and rarely is the whole fee paid up front.

I'm beginning to think its a good thing that Doug is becoming life president. He will obviously see the role as a way of keeping himself in the public eye and as some sort of figurehead at the club.

For this reason and with him having a rather large ego I'd imagine he'd have it in his head that in 3 months, 6 months, 9 months etc he can pop up in the media and proclaim what a great job he did by selling the club to such great new owners so any success that we may achieve is really down to him.

For the above reason therefore he is hardly likely to sell the club to a bunch of tossers and the fact that the AV06 bid may pocket him another couple of million will mean very little to him. At the end of the day he is 82 and the likelihood of him being able to spend it is very slim.

Therfore the main factor in Dougs mind to who he sells to will be whether the new owners can be successful as he will have it in his mind that any success will then be partly down to him and he will absolutley revel in that far more than an extra couple of mill.

AV06 have so far been all fart and no shit and I honestly can't see that changing. If it does and they put a better package on the table for the future of our club than Lerners then great. If not what a fantastic time we appear to have ahead of us with Randy.

Richard I've never heard him say that. Hes obviously even more doo laly than I'd realised.

A Villa well bought is an apple well sold.

Richard I'll have a pint of what you've been drinking or a drag of whatever it is you've been smoking.

And from all the information we have the best is Lerner. End of.

Couldn't agree more. And if Lerners best gets bettered by AV06 then that'll be even better.

At he moment worst case scenario is Lerner because the olny way AV06 can prevail is if they better the Lerner package. How fantastic is that.

and Mark this is not just about money and never has been

It is about the future plans and direction of the club.

the new owners have to act and think big and whilst AV06's people hide I will not trust them ....

Ian I never said it was about money. One of the stipulations of any bid seems to have been that Rothchilds would only recommend bids that showed that the clubs future would be in good hands and that their were plans in place to show this.

Therefore if Rothchilds recommend the AV06 bid as it as matched or bettered Lerners plans for the club and they are also willing to pay 8 mill more I can't honestly see why Ellis would not accept.

As for AV06 people hiding Rotchchilds will obviously know who they are before recommending any bid and so will we if the bid is accepted.

As has been said before this is a win/win situation as the only way AV06 can prevail in all this if there bid is the better overall package than the fantastic package already on the table.

Richard Iwish they would go away because I know how Lerner hates this unnecessary publicity and I don't want anything to go wrong.. Comprendo??

He will also be aware that if he is the prefered bid, if he is who Ellis wants and he is who the fans want, that there will not be a problem.

If Rothchilds contact Ellis and say we are recomending the AV06 bid as they have matched or bettered what Lerner has put on the table in respect of running the club and future finace etc and he'll also pay another 8 million does anyone honestly think Lerners will still be Ellis's preferred bid?

If the AV06 bid is the better overall package it will be accepted, simple as that so why people are worrying is beyond me.