O'Leary targets Irish star Reid

thejollyrodger

It would be a great move for Reid. Villa are a solid team pushing for Europe !!

O'Leary targets Irish star Reid
25/11/2004 - 10:28:16
http://breaking.tcm.ie/2004/11/25/story177518.html
Aston Villa manager David O’Leary has presented chairman Doug Ellis with a wish-list of players as he looks to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window – with Nottingham Forest winger Andy Reid remaining a potential target.

O’Leary believes Villa have to bring in five quality players to bolster one of the smallest squads in the Barclays Premiership if they are “to try to move onto the next level”.

But he is realistic enough to realise that finances would only allow him to sign a couple when the window reopens in just over a month.

O’Leary has been a long-time admirer of Reid and watched the Ireland international in action against Reading last weekend.

Forest have debts of around £15m (€21m) and it is believed Reid and defender Michael Dawson may be offloaded in January.

Reid came close to making the move to Tottenham in the summer after Spurs tabled an offer for the 22-year-old.

O’Leary is likely to be given the £6m (€8.5m) which had been earmarked for him to spend in August on Southampton striker James Beattie before a possible deal failed to come to fruition.

O’Leary said: “I gave them a list of names when we had a meeting last month and they didn’t recoil when they saw who they were.

“The people I’ve said are gettable for this club, not dreamland stuff. I haven’t given them names we are never going to get. I’ve given them names we’ve got a chance of getting.”

Several Villa players including Juan Pablo Angel, Lee Hendrie and Gareth Barry have stressed the need for O’Leary to be able to bolster his squad if the club are to sustain a challenge for a European spot.

Töpher

Haha, fúcking class!

Villain

No Thanks, for 5 million

Töpher

Call me crazy (actually, please don't), but I could see Forest letting him go for around 1.5m. Just something I have in my head.

[/stupidity]

krinpit

I think it would be a good move. Reid has so much potential. I reckon we should take a chance on him. His workrate is unbelievable and that is just what Villa need in midfield. We already have an amazing defence and a hard-to-improve-on-with-little-cash forward line. Midfield is definitley where the money should go and Mr Reid would suit our purposes.

Villain

Einst&#252 wrote: »

Call me crazy (actually, please don't), but I could see Forest letting him go for around 1.5m. Just something I have in my head.

[/stupidity]

Nope Forest have £15 million of debts and won't let him go cheaply. Solano is doing a good Job on the right and I wouldn't fancy spending a lot of money and a sub for him. If we got him for under 2.5 million then I'd happily welcome him to Villa park.

eirebhoy

irish1 wrote:

Nope Forest have £15 million of debts and won't let him go cheaply. Solano is doing a good Job on the right and I wouldn't fancy spending a lot of money and a sub for him. If we got him for under 2.5 million then I'd happily welcome him to Villa park.

Given about six months, Reid wouldn't be a sub in any premiership team minus Arsenal and Chelsea.

AthAnRi

Solano is doing a good Job on the right and I wouldn't fancy spending a lot of money and a sub for him

True but isn't Andy Reid left footed? He would certainly give Hitzlesberger a run for his money. I was at a few Villa matches this year and Hitz contributed absolutely nothing from play. I mean nothing. He does score good goals but there few and far between. Solano is also very hot and cold. I have seen him at a few matches and he is very very lazy. I think both Reid, Villa and Ireland could benefit from the move

krinpit

AthAnRi wrote:

He would certainly give Hitzlesberger a run for his money.

Absolutley. He's very half hearted when going in for tackles - or else he just doesn't bother. Lee Hendrie is the exact same.

wynters

You're right about Hitz he has a cannon for a left foot, but the rest of his game is sloppy, his tackling in particular - he always seems half a second too late....

I wouldn't pay anymore than £3.5million for Reid. Reid looks decent, but players moving up a division to the Premiership are a huge gamble. Look at the amount of decent Division 1 players who've come up for big money only to flop. Akinbiyi, Morrisson, Connolly, Lee Hughes, Huckerby, Crouch.... the list goes on and on.

We've only seen him do it for Ireland against the likes of Cyprus and the US... He's unproven and an £5m - £7m price tag is undeserved.

Theres been rumours linking us to Steed Malbranque aswell.... On Skysports.com today there was a piece about Chris Coleman denying stories that the club are ready to offload him in January.

A choice between paying £4-5m for Reid or paying £6-7m for Malbranque is no choice at all. Malbranque all the way. Quality player.

......... 5th in the league and being linked to players like Beattie, Malbranque, Scott Parker etc. makes a welcome change.

Super Villa!

eirebhoy

wynters wrote:

We've only seen him do it for Ireland against the likes of Cyprus and the US... He's unproven and an £5m - £7m price tag is undeserved.

He never played against the US.

I'm actually going to copy and paste this from another forum:


Canada - Assist for Keane goal, Man of the Match.

Brazil - Ran Cafu raggid and Cafu actually got booked for one of his many fouls on him.

Czech Rep - Again one of our best players

Poland - probably our best player but nobody played their best football.

Romania - Good game

Jamaica - As above

Holland - The Dutch panel's man of the match

Bulgaria - Scored and Man of the Match

Cyprus - Scored and Man of the Match

Switzerland - poor game

France - Good game

Faroe's - No worse than anyone else.



About teams not taking friendlies seriously. We were the first team to beat the Czechs since the World cup and we played Holland in their last game before Euro 2004. Bulgaria had their players time wasting when we played them. Everyone else certainly took friendlies seriously with the possible exception of Brazil. 12 games at international level and consistanly the best player for Nottm Forest is proven IMO.

wynters

It was Canada I was thinking of.......... apologies. :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong, I think Reid's a good player, but we've had our fingers burned in the transfer market SO many times in the past. I'd lilke him to join us, but if we're only gonna be bringin in 2 players in January, then I'm of the opinion that signing proven Premiership players - who'll hit the ground running as opposed to a player(s) who'll need time to adapt to the Premiership - is a wiser option....

An interesting piece from SKYSPORTS.COM.........
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aston Villa have once again become a force to be reckoned with in The Premiership, thanks to the appointment of David O'Leary.

Despite having one of the smallest squads in the top flight, Villa's recent form has propelled them from a club that was floundering at the wrong end of the division into a team that is challenging some of the major forces in Premiership football, with no significant investment.

Indeed, in 2004, only Arsenal and Chelsea have picked up more points in the calendar year.

Posn Team P W D L GD Pts
1 Arsenal 33 22 10 1 44 76
2 Chelsea 33 21 7 5 34 70
3 Aston Villa 33 15 11 7 14 56
4 Liverpool 33 15 9 9 17 54
5 Manchester United 33 14 11 8 10 53
6 Bolton Wanderers 33 15 8 10 4 53
7 Middlesbrough 34 15 7 12 4 52
8 Newcastle United 33 12 13 8 8 49

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the beginning of the season I thought 4th spot was a straight fight between Liverpool & Newcastle, but with Liverpools current striker crisis, and Newcastles bizarre choice of Graeme Souness as manager, I really feel we've a decent chance...

We've lost only 2 of our last 23 league games - way to Arsenal (naturally) and away to Charlton. December could well be a dodgy month for us.... We've got Liverpool(h), the 1st Birmingham derby(h), Boro(a) Chelsea(a) & Man Utd(h) in that order. If we're still floating around the top 7 after that then we've gotta seriously strengthen in January to push for that European place.

If we qualify for the UEFA Cup or heaven forbid, The Champions league! we'll have even more money in the summer AND we'll be able to attract a better calibre of player to the club (particularly quality free transfers & loan signings - the Larssons, Saviolas & Morientes of recent times)..... so if we do spend in January, I'd prefer the likes of Parker, Malbranque or Beattie to Andy Reid or Darren Bent.

Opportunity knocks.

eirebhoy

wynters wrote:

If we qualify for the UEFA Cup or heaven forbid, The Champions league!

Actually, good news for teams with a realistic chance of a European place is that ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are stll in the Carling cup. If any of them win it (and finish inside the top 5) the Carling cup place goes to the 6th place premiership team.

wynters

Sunday papers are saying we're after Jermaine Pennant in January too....

Interesting. Cannot wait for January.