Feyenoord

Douglas is very overrated. He has his Dutch passport already btw so a work permit is not an issue anymore. He is however extremely error prone and just lacks concentration. He had a brilliant season two years ago but has fallen back to his usual mistakes to when he first joined Twente. He has already been overshadowed by youngsters Stefan de Vrij and Bruno Martins Indi who are picked ahead of him in the Dutch national team. Vlaar is also a better player and is preferred to Douglas in the squad. Douglas is maybe worth a gamble if you can get him on a free transfer this summer. He is approximately earning 525.000 Euro's per season at Twente.

I haven't heard anything about Leerdam moving to Villa so I very much doubt these rumours are true. There are some talks about Bundesliga clubs (Wolfsburg and Bremen) and a couple of Russian clubs. He's not a very good player and every Feyenoord fan is happy that he's not in the team anymore. We call him our Eritrean Child Soldier because he looks like one even though he's 22. He has played a lot of games for us because we haven't had a decent right back in the last few years and he was the least worst player we had in that position. His natural position is in midfield though but he doesn't add anything to our play whatsoever. I suggest Villa stay well clear of him.

I think he is in the wrong team to be honest. He was excellent for us last season but we play a much more attacking game than Villa. He was not really the passer in our team but really hunted down the opposition (in their own half) and retrieved a lot of possession. I've seen a fair amount of Villa games this season and he just needs to sit too deep and defend too much.

Maybe a good free transfer option? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royston_Drenthe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deXsXZI2us8

Done okay. Hardly had anything to do. Most boring Holland - Germany game ever.

Vlaar is starting today against Germany ____________Vermeer__________ V.Rhijn_Heitinga_Vlaar_Martins Indi __________N.de Jong__________ ____Affelay____Van der Vaart____ Schaken_____Kuyt________Robben Subs: Krul, Zoet, Janmaat, De Vrij, Mathijsen, Willems, Clasie, Emanuelson, Van Ginkel, Elia, Huntelaar and Dost _____________Neuer_____________ Howedes_Hummels_Mertesacker_Lahm ____________Bender_____________ ____Gundogan_______Holtby_______ _Reus_______Muller_________Gotze

I'm glad you're happy with them. I watched a lot of Villa games and I believe there is a lot more to come from both of them. I'm not sure what Vlaar his tasks are but he seems to do a lot less with the ball than when he was with us. He used to come into midfield a lot more to start the build up play and it seems like he is only allowed to give the ball away to a team-mate as soon as he gets it. Defensively he looks quite solid and similar to when he was with us. Luckily we had his departure covered as our current back 4 are all part of the Dutch national team. El Ahmadi looks a completely different player in not a very good way. We miss him the most in our team compared to last year and that includes goal machine John Guidetti. He looked a lot more energetic with us and had more freedom to hunt down opponents and get the ball back. We are missing a player like him very badly. I think the 4-4-2 that Villa play doesn't suit him really. He needs to have more players in front of him so that he can get the ball to them and win the ball back for them. I hope their and Villa's performances will improve because it would be a shame to see these guys in The Championship next year.

The ajax academy is quite overrated. They haven't produced a lot of talent over the past 5 years. They have only managed to sign some good foreign players at around age 16 like Vertonghen, Fischer, Eriksen and, Andersen. They play these guys in the U19's for a year and they will then move to the first team. That's not really producing players. The Dutch players they have produced from a younger age are very minimal. Van der Wiel, Van Rhijn and Siem de Jong are the only ones worth mentioning. Feyenoord's academy has been the best by far over the past few years. The Dutch national team will be overloaded by Feyenoord youth products within the next 5/10 years. Now that Johan Cruijff has returned to ajax...he is copying everything that Feyenoord have done in the youth academy over the last decade. It will take them a few years before they are ready to be considered a proper youth academy again.

Vlaar and El Ahmadi saying goodbye to the Feyenoord fans on Sunday.

That's a Dutch expression for missing out on something good when it was within your grasp.

Vitesse are a weird club at the moment. They are the only club with foreign owners in the Eredivisie. Their Georgian owner is called Merab Jordania who is basically Roman Abramovich's slave boy. Their management team is full of thugs and a former bar owner is technical director. They had agreed a deal with ajax a week ago as well to buy Vitesse cult-hero Theo Janssen and came back a day later saying that they wanted to pay 100.000 Euro's less. Ajax denied to accept this, every Vitesse fan absolutely pissed off so a few days later they ended up paying the original amount and got him in the end. I think Villa can be glad that this deal hasn't gone through. Bony is quite a good player but I'm not sure if he is Premier League material. He's really lazy and not very quick but his technique, hold up play and calmness in front of goal is really impressive. He would do well in Serie A.

First 20 minutes were quite impressive but very average in the rest of the half. I feel that N'Zogbia and Holman are not playing very well but also make the pitch very small by cutting inside constantly. Lowton and Baker are staying back and it's pretty easy to defend for West Ham because everything is coming through the middle. Ireland and El Ahmadi should have space to create so I hope N'Zogbia will start on the left in the 2nd half and Holman will move to the right and keep the pitch as wide as possible. The game is nowhere near lost yet as West Ham is really average and their defence is error prone.

Diame is quite a good player but Diarra is way over the hill and slow. El Ahmadi has the pace, energy and tenacity to win against either of them.

Poulsen formed a great tandem with Brett Holman last year at AZ. Poulsen kept bombing down the left flank and Holman moved into the middle to creat space and cover for Poulsen. Poulsen is not great defensively but excellent going forward. I'm sure he would improve your team..especially if you play him alongside Holman.

Yoshida has a pretty decent jump on him as well... Not a great defender though. Definitely not Premier League material. VVV have a pretty decent selling record. Keisuke Honda and Ahmed Musa have been sold for 8 million Euro's each to CSKA Moscow and Maya Yoshida is going to be sold for way too much money as well. If there is anyone you should sign from VVV it's Yanic Wildschut. Can play anywhere up front and it's very strong and extremely quick. He has 1 year left on his contract and should only cost about 2 million pounds max. He scored 7 goals in 29 games last year and great potential (he's 21 years old).

We haven't really missed them. We have missed John Guidetti more than Vlaar or/and El Ahmadi. We missed so many chances against Kiev...it's unreal. We missed a lot of chances last weekend as well but still won 0-1 against FC Utrecht. Luckily we have a good draw for the Europa League against Sparta Prague so we are probably going into the group stages. We have signed Joris Mathijsen on a free transfer from Malaga as a replacement for Vlaar and our young centre backs Stefan de Vrij and Bruno Martins Indi have been called up for the Belgium vs Holland game this week. Joris Mathijsen is also there while Vlaar is not in the squad this time. I'm looking forward to see how Vlaar and El Ahmadi get on the PL. I hope they do well.

The reporter in this clip says that Ron himself is hoping to be involved in tomorrows game. He is ready to go.

Ron Vlaar is better anyway....seriously

http://twitter.com/RonVlaar4

Medical has gone well so just a matter of time before it's announced. Vlaar was watching Feyenoord yesterday in the Belfry Hotel. Feyenoord lost the first leg of the Champions League (Dinamo Kiev - Feyenoord 2-1).

Congratulations guys. A proper centre back for 4 million Euro's is not a bad deal isn't it? It seems that Villa didn't have the money available yet to complete the transfer a week ago so I guess Lambert must have sold a player. Villa also paid us 100,000 Euro's more in the El Ahmadi deal so that they could pay a part of the transfer fee next summer instead of the full fee right now. Such a bad time for us to lose ''Concrete Ron'' with the Champions League coming up. Thankfully the Premier League is getting a bit more interesting with 2 ex Feyenoord players at the same team. Looking forward to see how they get on this year.

He hasn't had a medical. He has also been fit for 3 seasons now.

For the millionth time. Feyenoord do not want to sell Vlaar! Feyenoord want to keep Vlaar. They have tried to extend his contract recently but then Villa came in. Vlaar has a release clause in his contract which means Feyenoord cannot reject a 4 million bid coming in. When Vlaar made it clear that he would like to join Villa, Feyenoord obviously wanted to have a decision asap with Champions League games coming up soon (whichever way it goes) Feyenoord's Managing Director said the following yesterday in this clip (3min33) ´´When a player from the Eredivisie can make a step up to the Premier League it´s near to impossible to keep the player´´ ´´I think the way Aston Villa conducted themselves towards Ron Vlaar in this transfer is inappropiate. They invited him over, showed him the stadium and gave Ron an exciting feeling about moving there'' ''It seems logical to me that when you invite a player on Sunday and promise to get in touch, you get in touch. Martin van Geel (technical director) and myself haven't heard anything from Villa. I believe that that is very inappropiate for a club of that stature'' ''On the other hand, and we have said this many times. The club Feyenoord is stronger with the human and footballer Vlaar, than without. It's unfortunate that this has been a week where we've been living in insecurity and we haven't been able to as much as we would've liked'' I know what you are saying Feyenoord. I just don't believe it. Feyenoord do not need to comment as much as they have. And why inform people that he has a clause? Seems they are fishing for more interest. Just don't understand their need to comment so much and keep the transfer in the public domain. Genuinely I have never seen a club comment so much on the potential sale of their 'prized asset'. Tells me they want him sold. It was already well known that Vlaar had a release clause in his contract before the technical director confirmed it. Feyenoord started to get vocal from Thursday onwards...4 days after the visit of Vlaar. That may have been a bit premature as Villa still had a day to get in contact... Feyenoord wanted to get it over as soon as possible. There is no point in fishing for more interest because it will not inflate the transfer fee. A yes or no from Villa would have been more than enough.

For the millionth time. Feyenoord do not want to sell Vlaar! Feyenoord want to keep Vlaar. They have tried to extend his contract recently but then Villa came in. Vlaar has a release clause in his contract which means Feyenoord cannot reject a 4 million bid coming in. When Vlaar made it clear that he would like to join Villa, Feyenoord obviously wanted to have a decision asap with Champions League games coming up soon (whichever way it goes) Feyenoord's Managing Director said the following yesterday in this clip (3min33) ´´When a player from the Eredivisie can make a step up to the Premier League it´s near to impossible to keep the player´´ ´´I think the way Aston Villa conducted themselves towards Ron Vlaar in this transfer is inappropiate. They invited him over, showed him the stadium and gave Ron an exciting feeling about moving there'' ''It seems logical to me that when you invite a player on Sunday and promise to get in touch, you get in touch. Martin van Geel (technical director) and myself haven't heard anything from Villa. I believe that that is very inappropiate for a club of that stature'' ''On the other hand, and we have said this many times. The club Feyenoord is stronger with the human and footballer Vlaar, than without. It's unfortunate that this has been a week where we've been living in insecurity and we haven't been able to do as much as we would've liked''

Vlaar´s agent Arnold Oosterveer has spoken out about the Villa saga and he has said the following. ´´Vlaar´s transfer was put on hold by the Villa board at the very last moment. They made it clear to Paul Lambert that he had to sell players first before Vlaar could come in´´ ´´Aston Villa never informed us about this situation prior to coming to Villa Park. If they had informed us, we would have never come to Birmingham in the first place and let Villa do their business first´´ ´´Ron never thought that this transfer could collapse. He was told by Paul Lambert that he would be an integral part of the new team and one of the most important players. From my understanding, Paul Lambert also never thought that this transfer would collapse at the last minute´´ ´´Ron is a big calibre player, this is not how you treat any calibre player´´