Attention Villa fans - Jaap Stam

wynters

A lifelong friend of mine in Birmingham - also a Villa fan - has a brother who works at the club (shirt & tie capacity). Rumour has it that a certain Mr. Jaap Stam might be hooking up with the Villa during the summer. Villa were in touch with Lazio during the transfer window over the possible signing of French winger Ousmane Dabo on loan for the rest of the season. That particular deal fell through - after which Villa signed Nobby Solano for that position - but it was during the negotiations for Dabo that a possible deal for Stam was mentioned. Lazio are supposedly desperate to offload him during the summer. He's their biggest earner, and they still owe Man Utd the last instalment of the transfer fee from when he joined. He only has one year left on that deal after this season......

I don't know how I'd feel about him joining if it came about. He must be 31 or 32 now, I'm not sure if a player that old is what we're looking for. I'd prefer a younger player O'Leary can develop a la Woodgate / Ferdinand. Stam was always quicker than the average centre half though so I suppose he has 2 or 3 good years left in him at least. He'd have to take a drop in wages but he'll have to take a drop no matter where he goes..... he's nearing the end of his career.

He's experienced though. If anything we've too many young players at club now (Samuel, Barry, Vassell, Hitz, Whitts..... ) with more coming through from the youth team, and we're desperate for a decent centre half to partner Mellberg. Johnsen & Dion aren't up to it NOW, never mind next season. Alpay & Staunton are gone. Barry can play there, but that would give us a headache on the left side of midfield and there are even fewer left sided midfielders on the market than centre halves! Whittinghams not ready - too lightweight.

Alan Smith & Muzzy Izzet are another 2 players O'Learys supposed to be tracking for his summer rebuildling plans. Remember you heard it here first! ~

Any thoughts?

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

wynters

There'll be no takeover. The club own the ground and vast amounts of land around it. At the moment there's nothing more than car parks, some wasteland and a huge Siemens factory on the land adjacent the stadium. The area owned by the club excluding the ground is worth about £10 million at the moment... BUT.... if planning permission for residential properties is passed for the land - something which is expected to happen within the next few years - the value of the same land owned by the club increases to over £70 million. This is why Doug Ellis will not leave Aston Villa. His son is also on the board of directors, so the Ellis family stand to make a big, big profit if they hold out. On paper Elliss' majority shareholding is worth between £15 - £20 million depending on individual share price. That could increase signifigantly delpending on the value of the land owned by the club. Ellis himself said he would sell..... at the right price, which is the price based on the value of the land after residential planning permission. Which may take years to happen if it happens at all......

No one is prepared to offer Ellis what his shareholding MIGHT be worth, but Ellis will not accept anything less for fear of losing out on millions.

Ellis gave plenty of money to former managers. Turner, McNeill, Atkinson, Brian Little, John Gregory in particular, who spent over £30 million on 5 players who were 28+ and had no sell on value... the likes of Stone, Dublin, Merson, Ginola...., those managers wasted it. Villa fans now however feel that O'Leary is the one man who could get serious results AND not waste money, especially by investing in younger players who would have a definate sell on value... (e.g. Alan Smith, Andy Reid) We're only 4 points off the 4th Champions league place at the moment, who knows what could have happened had we signed another player or 2 in the transfer window. Newcastle & Liverpool are both having a tough time of it so the 4th spot was there for the taking.... Doug had a chance to speculate to accumulate, but he wouldn't.

He backed the wrong managers at the wrong time and now seems to be punishing the club for his own mistakes by refusing to release money to bolster a squad from which 11 players have departed in 9 months.

Even without the club releasing funds though, we'll still have the Premiership prize money, and money from our 2 new sponsorship deals with kit manfacturers Hummel, and whoever our new shirt sponsors are (rumoured to be either Lego or... wait for it.... Tescos!!! - pox) That's between £7 - £12 million to spend anyway so there'll be 1 or 2 signings at least. Transfer deals aren't cash up front nowadays either so anything could happen......

Seaneh

Stam has already signed for A.C. Milan for next season...

wynters

He hasn't signed for anyone yet........ but if the likes of Milan are interested, it's 'unlikely' that he'll be joining Villa.

Seaneh

03/02/2004. Lazio defender Jaap Stam has once again touched on his future, and it seems a move to Milan is not quite cut and dried.

"I still have a contract with Lazio until 2005 so we'll just have to wait and see what happens, but I will surely remain in Italy," he said.

"It's a very difficult time because no one knows what the future will hold. I just ask the supporters to show patience and have faith in what the club is doing."



Ok, so he hasn't signed for Milan just yet, but I reckons he will only move if it is to Milan, Juve or Parma...

AngelofFire

i cant see it happening. but he would be a valuable asset to us. Dion Dublin does a good solid job at Centre back. but he doesnt have the pace to match many strikers. johnsen is old and past it.his performance against everton was poor. Ridgewell looks good but we dont have the luxury of gambling on unproven players.

Rumour also has it that chief scout ian bloom was having a look at andy o brien. he wouldnt be a bad buy hes proven himself to be able to do a solid job at the highest level(ireland vs brazil, 02/03 champions league). Izzet looks almost certain to join us particularily if leicster go down. Him and Mccann would form a good solid partnership in midfield.

Smith will be hard to get as other teams like arsenal liverpool and newcastle will be chasing him if he signs for villa he`ll be on a maximum of £25,000 per week thats half of what the big guns would be prepared to offer him. but he would be a good choice to partner angel. Vassel`s a good skillful player but he doesnt perform his duties as a centre forward.

wynters

From what I hear Ian Broomfield's being doing a lot of work in France. He's also been in Spain checking out 2 Malaga players. Another Angel - Miguel Angel, and a guy called Marcelo Romero. They're both midfielders, South Americans.

If we can finish with a UEFA Cup spot that'll help us attract a better calibre of player to the club. O'Learys already proved he's not a chequebook manager, and we're definately a team on the up.

Signing a big name player or 2 isn't beyond O'Leary by any means..... remember that he took Ferdinand, Fowler, Robbie Keane from Inter, Viduka, Dacourt etc. .... when there where a number of big clubs in for them. They all commented how 'the manager sold the club' to them....

We wouldn't be able to afford the wages Leeds were bandying about back in them days of course, but performance & loyalty based incentives - e.g. Larssons deal at Celtic - a £250,000 a year loyalty bonus - can help balance out any shotcomings on a players basic wage.

If the likes of Boro can sign Mendieta, it's game on for everyone in my opinion. With all due respect I don't want us to sign the likes of Izzet, O'Brien. If we keep signing average players we'll always remain an average team. I'd prefer spending our entire budget on 1 or 2 quality players, than 4 or 5 average ones. Look at Arsenal for example. In the time Man Utd signed Forlan, Kleberson, Ronaldo & Jambo Jambo - none of whom have had an impact on the first team, Arsenal spashed out once on Reyes, who's slotted in well and looks sensational.

We have to go for it. If we don't show some ambition, we could lose our best players (.... and eventually our manager) because of the lack of it.

The likes of Joe Cole, Alan Smith, Andy Reid. These are the players we should be looking at....