Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

Time Magazine

Yeah but he's not really a "midfielder", as much a forward as he is midfielder. And I can't seem him ousting anyone in the midfield.

eirebhoy

Why not? Maloney is too good for the Villa bench. He'll make the left side of midfield his own before too long. He'll soon be your star player.

Peyton Manning

Luke moore is a better player than Shaun Maloney imo.

Savman

Archimedes wrote:

Luke moore is a better player than Shaun Maloney imo.

How do you define "better"? Faster, absolutely. More complete finisher, yes. But how else? Silly comparison in fairness, they're in no way similar at all.

FWIW I think Maloney is a super wee player, could prove to be a bargain at £1m.

eirebhoy

Archimedes wrote:

Luke moore is a better player than Shaun Maloney imo.

I'm sorry but Luke Moore would not be Celtic's star player. imo Maloney was worth the money MON splashed out on Petrov.

Maloney's similar to Joe Cole. He'll set up a lot more than he'll score.

Peyton Manning

Sorry, that should have been Ashley Young, not Luke Moore. My mistake.

Time Magazine

eirebhoy wrote:

Why not? Maloney is too good for the Villa bench. He'll make the left side of midfield his own before too long. He'll soon be your star player.

Where would Gareth Barry go then? Central midfield? Who'd make way, Petrov or Reo-Coker?

See what I mean?

Villain

From teamtalk:

Aston Villa have beaten off competition from Premier League rivals Manchester United and Tottenham to sign Watford starlet Harry Forrester.

The 15-year-old was understood to have also attracted the interest of Spurs and United but has agreed to move to Villa in a three-year deal.

Midfielder Forrester attracted Villa's attention while playing for England Under-16s last season.

The club's academy director Bryan Jones confirmed: "We heard last week he had turned Watford down, were given permission to speak to him and he has agreed a deal with Villa.

"As always at this age, there is a long way to go with a player but we believe he has a great talent."

Time Magazine

A 15 year old?

Any sign of a signing that might help the U-18s never mind the First Squad yet?

Raekwon

I just heard that Villa are unveiling their new Nike home kit on Tuesday July 17 @ Harvey Nichols in Birmingham. So hopefully it will be on the website shortly after.

Ibid wrote:

Any sign of a signing that might help the U-18s never mind the First Squad yet?

Nope, not a sausage Even the Defoe rumored transfer seems to have hit the skids, apparently if Tottenham sell him, they would like to recoup most of the money that they spent on Darren Bent! Martin Jol must be having a laugh!

I agree with what was said a few posts up, we would be better off spending a few million strengthening the defense rather then splashing out on an over-rated striker (Gabi & l Moore are as good as Defoe). We also need that elusive creative midfield player that we have sorely lacked for the past few seasons, even more so now that Steven Davis has gone. My ideal choice would be Wesley Sneijder, but the way this summer has panned out transfer-wise, I seriously doubt anyone of that caliber is going to sign for us (I hope I'm wrong though).

DSB

At this stage it really is getting worrying.

Savman

Hardly worth panicking over. Davis was hardly a world beater in fairness, he shone in a crap O'Leary team that couldnt buy a win. Anyone else that has gone is noone of real long term value, that Villa era is over now we're into the Ashley Youngs and Reo-Cokers who will be the backbone of the squad over the coming years.

We're not gonna be winning the league this year lads, no matter who signs. Besides we have some great talent coming thru the ranks, the kind of youth you normally pay millions for

Raekwon

Savman, nobody expects Villa to be win the league or even compete with the top 4 but we do need to push out of the mid-table obsurity that we have found ourselves in for the last couple of seasons. Realistically I would like Villa to try and break into the top 6/7 and challenge for a UEFA Cup place. To do this we need to add to our squad so that we have strength in dept/quality cover in every position, this will insure that we don't have a slump in form like we did from November to January last season, when we got hit badly with injuries and suspensions and only had inexperienced youth to rely on. So with 8 players gone (make that 9 when Djemba-Djemba gets himself sorted) and only 1 new arrival so far it leaves us with an incredibly small squad and that is asking for trouble.

I think that the expectation levels at Villa Park have gone through the roof since Randy Lerner took over and in the back of the fans minds we were all thinking about Champions League football in a few seasons. This coupled with the fact that chief executive Richard Fitzgerald told the fans that Villa would have "significant" transfer funds (rumored to be around £30m) has understandably raised the expectations even higher. But 5 weeks from the start of the new season Villa have spent £7.5m (+1m future add on fee) and recouped £6m. So we have basically only spend £1.5m this summer so far. That is actually quite embarrassing considering that Ryan Babel received double that figure as a bonus just for signing a 5 year contract for Liverpool.

Also you talk about the talent that we have coming through the ranks, the kind of youth you normally pay millions for, well Steven Davis is a prime example of the excellent player that our youth setup can produce and he only cost Fulham £4m (a year after he was linked to an £8m move to Man Utd after scooping every player award that Villa had to offer).

Villain

FFS What in the name of god is going on at Villa Park and in MON's head??

Marlon Harewood at Bodymoor Heath for a Medical?? Someone please tell me it isn't true???

Magic Pips

im speechless...

shoutman

I've looked at my diary and its no where near April 1st! I really do no fancy having to look at that donkey up front for Villa... surely we can attract better quality then Marlon Fcuking Harewood!

Villain

I'm not I'm FÚcking shouting, Richard Fitzgerald and his "EXPECT TOP CLASS SIGNINGS" my ass, seriously WTF like???

V1llianous

I am presuming he is being signed to replace Chris Sutton, not Chris Sutton albeit in his prime but Chris Sutton with his unfortunate blurred vision

Bounty Hunter

I really dont see the logic in this, we actually have decent (better than Harewood) forwards in Carew, Gabby, Young, Moore and even Maloney. Defoe would be an improvement and make Gabby and Young more likely to go out wide but what does Harewood add?

Raekwon

MAY 8 - Birmingham Mail
"VILLA chief executive Richard Fitzgerald believes the opening of the club's new training ground signifies real intent of the club's ambition.
And he promised some "top class" players are expected to arrive at Villa this summer."

Marlon Harewood a ''top class'' signing?????

Paying £3.7m for a 28 year old who couldn't hit a donkeys arsé with a banjo is criminal, what is worse though, if he does sign, then he will probably push Luke Moore further down the pecking order and that is unbelievable, because Harewood isn't even good enough to clean LM's boots.

The other news today is that Villa are apparently interested in *Peter Crouch so Benitez has slapped a £20m price tag on his head! So Crouchy is worth £4m more then Henry? :rolleyes:

*A player that we bought for £6m then sold for £2.5m

DSB

****ing hell.

Time Magazine

Did he even score last season?!

F*ck sake. I was complaining about adding Defoe and now we've gone and added someone not fit to be his understudy.

Sneijder my arse.

Raekwon

Here

&

Here

Villain

Yea seems whoever leaked the photo of it on a pallet a few weeks back is in trouble! No sign of the Away Kit yet.

Oh and Harewood has signed!! Seriously annoyed at that signing!

Raekwon

You mean this pic? (wasn't me btw). The away one will be unveiled early next month. It is rumored to be white with light blue stripes, like the retro 82 away jersey.

Yeah just noticed from the official site that Harewood has signed. Shocking stuff!!!!! We paid approximately the same money for him as Fulham paid us for Steven Davis ........where is the logic in that??? Plus to add insult to injury we have given West Ham £12.5m in the last few weeks and they have spend £14.5m on arguably two better players in Scott Parker & Craig Bellamy.

Calling this summers transfer activity an anti-climax would be a huge understatement.

Savman

I've no comment on Deadwood. Think I'm in denial.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

He can only prove us all wrong, but if he don't the fans wont be brown nosing MON for very long. Honeymoon period well and truly over.

DSB

Yeah he really has a job to do now. Gonna be so much justified pesimism surrounding the club. Unless of course he does manage to bring in those few high-profile signings that were discussed. But I seriously can't see that happening now.

Raekwon

This is the type of player that I hoped Villa wouldn't sign. A player that scored 3 goals last season for a side that missed relegation by the skin of their teeth and we stumped up nearly £4m for him!?! :eek:

I have a horrible feeling that all the talk of pushing on and challenging for a top 6 finish was just that..............TALK.

Outside of the top 4, teams like Tottenham, Newcastle, Man City, Fulham, Portsmouth, West Ham, Sunderland and even our arch rivals Birmingham seem to be heading in the right direction and are signing decent players to make their current squads stronger. Villa are alarmingly doing the opposite.

I just hope MON has something special up his sleeve, but then again I have been saying that for over a month now and nothing seems like changing anytime soon.

Raekwon

irish1 wrote:

No sign of the Away Kit yet.

Scratch my earlier comment about the away jersey, here it is. Looks pretty nice too

New kit line up

One Cold Hand

Just got access to Soccer forum.

Up the Villians!!!!!!

So yeah saw the home kit a few days ago, but didn't have access to tell ye!
Away kit is really nice!

Marlon Harewood?! What the fúck?!? It's fair enough if we go an sign Defoe as well, and use Harewood as back up to Carew, but I can't see that happening.

And I see Spurs are set to make a move for SWP. He'd be a great player if we could get him. Also Luke Young seems to be on MON's radar. But all these deals seem to be really slow in happening, starting to loose a bit of patience.

However, remember that in the middle of last reason we signed Carew, Maloney and Young. I sort of consider them as new signings as we didn't offload anyone in that period, and they will only really get going this season. Same with Petrov. All MON's signings have really good so far, with Harewood a bit debatable. Anyway I think Harewood may have some potential, he scored 17 goals 2 seasons ago, so if anyone is going to get that potential out of him it's MON.

I really feel we need a few defenders. One central defender and one for each corner. Luke Young would be a decent addition. I think we need backup for Ollie and Laursen. Cahill and Ridge have potential but are a but inexperianced.

Anyway up the Villa!

shoutman

New kits are nice enough, still prepared the old crest to this one though.

I'm not getting overly disheartened about the Harewood signing, MON's comments show that he has brought him in to be a "squad player" ie backup if one of the better lads get injured. I think paying 4m for that type of player is nonsense but to be fair to the lad he did very well two years ago. Does anyone feel that MON is trying to do like he did at Leicester maybe make Harewood into what Heskey was at Leicester, not that I would want heskey. But anywya hopefully he is just knocking down all the supporters confidence before he unvails some superstars during august.

Time Magazine

shoutman wrote:

New kits are nice enough, still prepared the old crest to this one though.

Badum tish .

I'm not getting overly disheartened about the Harewood signing,

Me neither, just disheartened at what has gone out relative to what came in. I wouldn't cry at selling Agbonlahore/Moore if we were to get someone like Defore or Wright-Phillips. But selling Davis and getting Harewood? That's a bit crap.

Villain

Yea if Harewood is happy enough to warm the bench for when Carew, Gabby, Moore and our new Top Class striker (TBA) are injured then fair enough.

But we need to get top class corner backs in and a Center Half badly.

Bounty Hunter

honestly im not too happy with the Harewood signing although with the amount of players who have left a high number are expectted to sign before the season starts so 1 or 2 unfortunatley are going to just be squad members, as will/should be the case here. Plus as well as how he may be backup for Carew i can also see MON using him as backup for Gabby when he employes his 4-3-3/4-5-1 tactic.

edit: still expecting/hoping for something like Gordon, Drenthe, Luke Young, SWP and 1 more in. esp seing as MON has a rep for last minute deals (and i dont just mean last season where he had no alternative)

JPA

Ibid wrote:

Badum tish .

Me neither, just disheartened at what has gone out relative to what came in. I wouldn't cry at selling Agbonlahore/Moore if we were to get someone like Defore or Wright-Phillips. But selling Davis and getting Harewood? That's a bit crap.

:eek: Moore maybe but sell Agbonlahor? He's only going to get better. He'll get 15 goals at least this seaaon.
There is ALOT of negativity going on with Villa fans ATM , on the net anyway.
I have complete faith on the other hand.

One Cold Hand

I suppose if we just see Harewood as a replacement for Sutton!

Savman

Ibid wrote:

I wouldn't cry at selling Agbonlahore/Moore

:mad:
Shirley you can't be serious. I won't even go into the reasons why that's an absurd statement, other than to say Agbonlahor (not Agbonlahore) was our top scorer last season.

invincibleirish

JPA wrote:

:eek: Moore maybe but sell Agbonlahor? He's only going to get better. He'll get 15 goals at least this seaaon.
There is ALOT of negativity going on with Villa fans ATM , on the net anyway.
I have complete faith on the other hand.

villa fans being negative never!:D

i have to say im disappointed alrite with summer signings so far but im keeping the faith in martin o neill,remember he is the manager who made emile heskey play well and get liverpool to spend 13.5 million on!i remember harewood scored a hat trick a few seasons ago against villa and he looked good then,id say their may be a few more signings but none of the high profile ones we may like to see,(john hartson to rescue villa;) )

Time Magazine

Savman wrote:

:mad:
Shirley you can't be serious. I won't even go into the reasons why that's an absurd statement, other than to say Agbonlahor (not Agbonlahore) was our top scorer last season.

Ah feck off it's the hardest name in the Premiership to spell! Okay Gabby (happy? :P) might be an exaggeration but if we sold Luke Moore and got in SWP I wouldn't mind that much, they're about the same, that's what I mean. But we're not getting in SWP-or-better quality players in, and we're getting rid of Davis quality players. That's why I'm not happy with the Deadwood signing.

One Cold Hand

According to football365 this morning:

'BORO IN FOR YOUNG AS VILLA PULL OUT
Middlesbrough, says The Sun, 'aim to snap up unsettled Charlton star Luke Young after Aston Villa backed out.

'Boro will meet Charlton's £4million price tag for England defender Young, 28.'

Martin O'Neill confirmed yesterday that his next target is a right back - Villa only have Mark Delaney or an out-of-position Olof Mellberg. Where he's looking if he has decided against Young, we're not sure.'

Bit disaapointed by this, if it's true. We needed some more depth in this position.

Savman

I'd still like to see Moore stay and develop. The club have to deliver serious players, or the fans will turn nasty. They bloody "top class signings" statement will come back to bite them in the ass unless they can pull off some major coups.
Like others, I will support Harewood when he pulls on the Villa jersey, I hope he does well for his own sake because he has scapegoat written all over him and he seems quite a decent fella.

Helix

JPA wrote:

:eek: Moore maybe but sell Agbonlahor?

moore, if he stays, will be the most important player at the club within 18 months

Villain

Moore was looking good before his shoulder injury but I don't think he will ever become the 20 goal a season striker, Gabby on the other hand I think could become a top class player. But imo we need a proven top class Premiership Striker if we are serious about going for Europe.

Villain

Oh and GOD (aka Paul McGrath) is running away with been voted the best Villa player of the past 100 years, delighted for him pure Legend god how we could with a player of his ability now.

See:http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/HeadlinesDetail/0,,10265~1074666,00.html

Helix

irish1 wrote:

Moore was looking good before his shoulder injury but I don't think he will ever become the 20 goal a season striker, Gabby on the other hand I think could become a top class player. But imo we need a proven top class Premiership Striker if we are serious about going for Europe.

moores definitely a 20 goal a season man, ive zero doubt about that

Raekwon

I wouldn't worry about Villa selling Moore or Agbonglahor anytime soon, although, we do have a bad habit of selling off our youth with Luke Moore and Liam Ridgewell the only two players left at the club from Villa's 2002 FA Youth Cup winning side.

The one thing I would worry about is our small squad and lack of transfer activity, but hopefully that will all change in the next few weeks and these quote from MON (below) suggest that more players are on there way (I just hope that they will be better quality then Harewood).

"We have signed Marlon Harewood but we are already looking to strengthen again, especially in the right-back position. It is hard to say just how many more players we need, but certainly we need a few more to bolster the squad".

"If the season were to start tomorrow then we would probably be all right but we would not be able to sustain things for too long".

"You need a big squad if you are going to be in the business of rotating players but we are not at that level yet and so we need to make more additions if we are going to compete at the next level".

"To be honest, I would like to have made all the signings I wanted by now but I always knew the summer was not going to pan out like that".

"There is still plenty of time left before the transfer window closes though".

Source

DSB

Thank ****.

eirebhoy

O'Neill does most of his shopping in the last few days.

Savman

Expect the MON post-match interviews in mid-October about how his new signings need time to "settle in".
But that's just life, he has until Aug 31st to get the players he wants, I think after that the fans will be a helluva lot more demanding than last season.

Noone needs reminding that last season we suffered our worst ever run of losing games, something like 11 on the bounce IIRC. I remember MON coming in for some serious criticism, even though it was our "transition year".
Different kettle of fish now...

Villain

Especially as we now have the money to spend Savman. I'm not sure if MON despite been a proven manager is used to signing top class players for big money.