Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

Helix

was at the match meself, we absolutely destroyed them


nrc is gonna be a fantastic signing, he bossed the game vocally from start to finish. great communication

shoutman

What odds would you give on villa getting top seven this year?

Villain

Not very good at the minute if we can make 2 or 3 big signings with another 2 or 3 squad players we might push for top 6 but at the minute I can't see us getting above 8th or 9th.

Helix

id be happy with 9th/10th

if we didnt have a single injury or suspension, we could manage 7th, but its not gonna happen with the squad we have

shoutman

I got given 10/1 that villa wouldnt make the top seven. I think that is a bit too generous, it was only off a mate though.

Villain

It really depends on who MON brings in in the next two weeks shoutman, our odds could shorten if he signs quality players but he signs more players like Harewood you could get double those odds.

Esse85

The Hearts keeper Gordon is strongly being linked, as is Davies at West Brom

shoutman

We being linked to any right backs? I though Cahill did well yesterday but that said you;d prefere to have a natural.

Esse85

Jose Bosingwa was not in FC Porto's squad for todays friendly which could suggest that the rumours going round that he will be here next season.

Justin Hoyte is another one

Helix

shoutman wrote:

We being linked to any right backs? I though Cahill did well yesterday but that said you;d prefere to have a natural.

cahill was very poor imo, he gave the ball away every time he tried to cross it, and he was out of position quite a few times, but was lucky to get away with it coz inter never managed to switch play

i rate cahill very highly, but hes not really much cop as a right back

shoutman

Gordon chats to Cats and Villa

Mon 06 Aug, 12:58 PM

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon is set to miss Monday's Edinburgh derby after heading south for talks with Aston Villa and Sunderland. Two clubs, reported to be Villa and the Black Cats, have asked to speak with Scotland's number one about a move to the Premier League.

Gordon, 24, was the subject of strong interest from Fulham in January and Sunderland manager Roy Keane failed with a bid to sign him in July.

Rated by Hearts at £10million, the club captain has not asked for a move and has two years remaining on his existing contract.

The Jambos host Hibernian at Tynecastle in their opening fixture of the SPL campaign on Monday night.

Gordon could be on the way according to yahoo/eurosports.

JPA

shoutman wrote:

Gordon could be on the way according to yahoo/eurosports.

Supposedly he's at Sunderland at the moment resulting in news agencies and websites saying he's joining them but I think he's just going to check out both clubs and see what's on offer.
We're linked with Curtis Davies as well today.

Villain

Surely MON can sell Villa to Gordon better than Sunderland?

Davies wouldn't be a bad signing not top class but not bad.

Esse85

Sunderland is nearer to Scotland, he'll travel down to Villa later, he'll listen to both offers and decide.

Davies would be a solid signing, WBA had a bid accepted for a Stoke defender, so WBA are all ready sorting out his replacement.
However Spurs and Arsenal could pounce for the player too.

JPA

irish1 wrote:

Surely MON can sell Villa to Gordon better than Sunderland?

Davies wouldn't be a bad signing not top class but not bad.

Well both are very highly rated so we don't really know what they can achieve.
And I couldn't see him choosing Villa over us unless he wants to hear something like he's guaranteed No 1 which I don't think MON would say.

Villain

Media are starting to give the Davies story some space: http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,2483_2643556,00.html

What full backs we are going after is going to be interesting to see.

~Rebel~

who do you guys think will play week in week out of Moore, Gabby and Young. They all probably deserve to start i'd imagine but so does Carew. Have watched a few preseason games and all 3 have been very impressive, so which 2 would yee expect to pip it (im assuming one would partner carew and one would play in an attacking right role with Barry left).

JPA

~Rebel~ wrote:

who do you guys think will play week in week out of Moore, Gabby and Young. They all probably deserve to start i'd imagine but so does Carew. Have watched a few preseason games and all 3 have been very impressive, so which 2 would yee expect to pip it (im assuming one would partner carew and one would play in an attacking right role with Barry left).

I'd say Carew and Young will always start when fit and Gabby will probably start the season up front with Moore coming off the bench.

Villain

I think MON will probaby go back to what worked so well at the start of last season until Moore got injured i.e. 3 Central midfielders with two wide men and a Center Forward. I'd imagine Carew will be the main center forward with Young and Gabby wide then Moore, Moloney and Hareweood provind the cover MON likes to see wide men run flat out for 60 - 70 minutes then bring on fresh legs.

Helix

JPA wrote:

And I couldn't see him choosing Villa over us unless he wants to hear something like he's guaranteed No 1 which I don't think MON would say.

well mon sure as hell isnt gonna pay out £9m for him to sit on the bench while disaster sorensen does nets

JPA

Helix wrote:

well mon sure as hell isnt gonna pay out £9m for him to sit on the bench while disaster sorensen does nets

No he's not but you never tell a player they're guaranteed a start.
In saying that I feel confident we'll get him.
Also Man City are in for him now as well.

shoutman

Heard that Gordon is doing a medical with the black cats, would he do one with both clubs or is it a bad sign for us.

I'd like to see MON retreat to that tactic Irish1 was talking about, I know gabby has stated he thinks he;s better as a forward but he has always been very impressive outwide for me. If MON was to play two up front I'd quite like an in form Moore partening Carew up front with Young on the right.

JPA

shoutman wrote:

Heard that Gordon is doing a medical with the black cats, would he do one with both clubs or is it a bad sign for us.

I'd like to see MON retreat to that tactic Irish1 was talking about, I know gabby has stated he thinks he;s better as a forward but he has always been very impressive outwide for me. If MON was to play two up front I'd quite like an in form Moore partening Carew up front with Young on the right.

Hopefully the medical is just part of the contract negotiations. If he does join them then I think we weren't in for him. Maybe that's a bit arrogant.

As for Gabby playing out wide, noooooo!!
The end of last season he was up front and was in fantastic form. I think his spell out wide was for his own education and up front is where he belongs.
I like Moore and hopefully he'll have good season but Gabby is ahead of him in the pecking order thanks to his great form last season.

Villain

Well we could mix it with Carew playing up front against more physical sides and then Gabby up front supported by Young and Moore against the more footballing sides, like they did against Inter Milan where the pace of the 3 caused major problems, I know we ended the season well but we started it even better with Gabby and Luke out wide.

Villain

I saw this post on VillaTalk and just had to post it, its an interesting thought.

Do you think that the manager and chairman's goal for next season is a Euro spot? I would be more inclined to see next season as a continuation of the building phase, getting us into a position to launch sustained attacks on the Euro spots in the seasons following. MON is building a young team and a platform for future success, why would we need that success to be immediate?

We constantly look at teams around us and who they are buying, West Ham, Spurs, Newcastle all need to be in Europe come the end of next season and if that doesn't happen the season becomes a failure - managers sacked, players sold and new ones bought. It's an never ending merry-go-round and an unstable platform, take for example Leeds and Blackburn.

Leeds bought a team that would get them into Europe, it worked! But the team were basically mercenaries and fell apart resulting in the success not been repeated.

Blackburn spent the money and won the Premiership a success that could not be repeated because the platform although a success could only last for a single season.

Now on the other end of the spectrum building for sustainability and taking for example the manager who MON is most commonly compared to - Alex Ferguson.
He took over Utd in 1986 and had a first season in charge very similar to MON's finishing the season in 11th. Ferguson then brought in a couple of "top quality signings" and they fired up the table to finish 2nd. Everyone expected a lot but the next season was a failure dropping back down the table to 11th.

Ferguson then changed his philosophy doing a major clearout including one trouble maker who would go on elsewhere to become God, Fergie did this amidst the press and fans calling for his head (glad to see we aren't the only fickle ones). But for some it was clear what he was doing - by bringing in young English talent such as Ince and Pallister, Fergusson was building the platform for Utd's future success but that success would have to wait that season 89-90 despite winning the Cup they finished 13th.

90-91 things got better in the league finishing 6th. Nothing to scream about but Ferguson’s side was slowly growing in talent and quality.

Then finally after five or six years they win the league piping us to the post.
Next year - The Double.
Next Year - Bad Luck losing FA Cup Final and League on last day.
Next Year - Double
Next Year - League Title
Next Year - Squat
Next Year - Treble.... and so on.

When things started to slip Fergusson would rebuild the foundations thereby ensuring the platform for success.

Now back to us, - What if we could have this success? and why can't we? We have the manager to do it, a chairman who wants it done this way and has the patience and a great squad to begin with. Should we be comparing ourselves or even paying attention to EggHeads boys? Spuds? Barcodes? I don't think we are even in the same league as them, on paper maybe but in the long run Villa under O'Neill are looking to do what UTD have done under Ferguson. We the fans should be delighted at that and prepared to give him the time to do it, even if it does take five years.

What's another 5 years without major success, compared to the last 25 years of ****e. Sure Randy could open the pocket book, MON could take it spend lavishly on a few renegades, who knows we may get into a CL quarter Final or pickup a couple of League Cups but then in 4 or 5 years Randy would be gone, the manager would be gone and the remaining players would have moved on to their next short term project. Honestly I believe there are many Villa fans who would prefer it this way notably those who were calling for the managers head during our mid-season slump and those so vocally opposed to the current lack of transfers. And honestly I will say it, I can only wish those fans would go off and follow the Spuds, Barcodes etc because I really don't want to have to keep listening to their incessant moaning for the next few years before they sweep it all under the rug to embrace the glory when it finally comes.

The manager and club have my support to build a legacy, do they have yours? or would you rather waste this wonderful opportunity to see your club reborn for a flash in the pan.

Up the mighty Villa of 2010 we have waited this long we can wait until then!!!

Bounty Hunter

8mil for Davies, would that mean Mellberg would be our RB this season ??

and although its not been confirmed by anyone other than the Beeb im perplexed at the idea of Gordon signing for Sunderland over Villa. not convinced its true either just yet as all reports yesterday said he would have his final day with Keane and Co. today before heading to the midlands and meeting up with MON.

Esse85

Looks like Gordon is gonna join Sunderland alright,

Mellberg will play CB along with Davies if he signs.

A new RB should be arriving soon.

Raekwon

Curtis Davis would be a great signing for us & so would Craig Gordon, but at £8m & £9m respectively they are not exactly the value for money that MON is always harping on about. It actually raises the question; if MON was going to shell out £17m on these two players then why didn't he do it back in June and let them gel into the team instead of waiting until the last minute??? But nothing is set in stone and if the media reports are right then it seems that Gordon will end up between the sticks at Sunderland and Davis will be playing in Europe with Tottenham this coming season.

In other news I read that Villa are giving a 19 year old French rightback called Arsene Menessou a trail. The bad news is that he is coming from relegated Le Harve in the French second division and he was not offered a contract at Ipswich last week after being on a similar trial there. Didier Agathe springs to mind :rolleyes:

One Cold Hand

Esse85 wrote:

Mellberg will play CB along with Davies if he signs.

Laursen will be a first choice centre back, if he's fit. Laursen will be brilliant if he gets an injury free run. At the minute our defence would have to line up as follows....

Mellberg - Cahill - Laursen - Bouma

With only O'Halloran as a sub! Not looking good at the minute!

Looks like Gordon is gone to Sunderjoke. To be honest I don't really care. £9m is a ridiculous price, and we need defenders more....

Raekwon

One Cold Hand wrote:

Mellberg - Cahill - Laursen - Bouma

I think MON will go with:

Gardner - Mellberg - Laursen - Bouma

Using Cahill as cover for Laursen. We seriously need at least one right back and another centre half though.

I saw this quote from MON on Yahoo Sport:

"Randy Lerner has not put a cap on anything I might spend and it is about me trying to find the proper acquisitions for us to be of a reasonable strength."

"I have had a number of conversations with him. He is leaving things up to me and he has, and will continue to be supportive, and that will be shown."

"We have a nucleus of a good side. Not numerically speaking, but in terms of quality I think we are getting there but I have every intention of adding to the squad."

"Ideally I would like to go back to the size of squad that we had at the end of last season. We've lost six or seven players and only improved it by two so far."

I wish he would change the record and make a few bids, actions speak louder then words.

Savman

Having read the odd Celtic fan forums, it seems MON has a reputation for deadline day panic buys. I'm not really that bothered about losing out on Gordon, thats a lot of money for a keeper.

O'Neill better play a blinder in the next 3 weeks or he won't have many friends in the Holte end when things go bad.:mad:

One Cold Hand

Raekwon wrote:

I wish he would change the record and make a few bids, actions speak louder then words.

Completely agree. This could have been a quote from the start of June.

On the defence, I thought reports from the friendlies were that he tried Gardner in RB and he didn't get on too well. I think it would be better to play
Mellberg-Cahill-Laursen-Bouma, while Lausen is fit. If he's injured then revert to Gardner-Mellberg-Cahill-Bouma? I dunno, I just don't like the way everyone (including MON) is assuming Laursen won't survive the whole season. Means were even thinner than it appears.

I swear to god I'll scream if we don't sign a centre back after selling Ridgewell.

Esse85

Its turning into a joke alright, he's had loads of time to bring in players. Even if he does bring in a few before the deadline, they'll need time to settle in.
These players should of been brought in before pre season started. MON is threading on thin ice.

Villain

Not sure whats going on MON is either a rabbitt stunned by the light i.e. the challenge to buy top class players or he has some real tricks up his sleeve either way though we will either have a very stretched back 4 and keeper against the pool or we will have new top class players who haven't had more than a day or two to train with the squad.

Either way we are starting the season un-Prepared and tbh I expected better from MON.

V1llianous

Even if we still had Aaron Hughes he wouldn't be playing on Saturday due to injury.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6936828.stm

Raekwon

Sky Sports Aston Villa 07/08 Season Preview.

They basically echo what we have all been saying in this thread over the last few months, although TBH I am not too happy with their 12th place prediction. IMO the season will hinge on the quality (& quantity) of the squad additions that MON has to make between now and midnight August 31st.

Helix

Raekwon wrote:

Curtis Davis would be a great signing for us & so would Craig Gordon, but at £8m & £9m respectively they are not exactly the value for money that MON is always harping on about

and the best value for money in the entire transfer window, luke young for £2.5m, was completely ignored by mon despite us not having a full time right back at the club

unfortunately, its looking like im about to be proven right about o'neill

Esse85

I agree i was amazed he didnt try and sign Young.

The days just keep on passing and still no more faces.

Helix

id say the fact that there has been relatively little action in the transfer market is why gordon didnt even bother talking to us

One Cold Hand

I just still can't believe that he sold Hughes and Ridgewell before signing anyone. Ridiculous.

Helix

oh ive no doubt we'll sign 3 or 4 grossly overpriced and underpar players on deadline day

Raekwon

Helix wrote:

and the best value for money in the entire transfer window, luke young for £2.5m, was completely ignored by mon despite us not having a full time right back at the club

I agree.

Another potential signing that we have been strongly linked with is José Bosingwa. He is a 24 year old Portuguese international with Champions League experience and he would be available for around £3m. Oh, and crucially, he plays at right back. Why haven't we made a move for him??? Even his Wikipedia page has us linked with him!!!

Esse85

MON should of done what Sven has done at Man City, i.e bring in the players he wants first, then get rid of the deadwood.

I just hope to god we dont try and sign Danny Mills

invincibleirish

have a bit of patience lads,there is still 3 weeks left!keep faith with MON, remember money has gone crazy,9M for a nobody hearts keeper who has struggled!luke young isnt the kind of player MON is looking for,remember the deadweight he cleared hughes,sutton,samuel,angel(sigh) etc. theres no point buying replacement players who just replace whats gone before,reo coker,young,carew and emergence of agbonlahor are genuinely better players then the ones that are leaving,luke young wouldnt have hada look in at villa for the past few years,soemone said MON should have done what sven did at man city,are you serious? sven in club management is the same as dave o leary,throw money left right and centre,MON builds teams,remember he was the man who made Heskey worth 11.5M,lennon,savage even collymore for a while!,and made larsson,sutton and hartson look unreal!even made agathe look good(didnt he dave o leary?)

Savman

Media reckon a loan deal for Scott Carson is on the cards. Wouldn't say no to him on a permanent deal, loans suck.

Esse85

invincibleirish wrote:

soemone said MON should have done what sven did at man city,are you serious?

Im deadly serious, my point is players should of been brought in first and then off load the wastage.
At least we wouldnt be stuck for players that way.

People are saying relax, its 3 weeks till the transfer day closes, but the league is starting Saturday F.F.S
Saturday should of been our deadline, why leave things till the last minute, we might have 3 games played by Aug 31st.

eirebhoy

The problem O'Neill has is he does all the dealings himself. Most managers would leave the negotiations up to the chief exec and other staff.

shoutman

Sky sports best possible Villa XI
Sorensen, Bouma, Mellberg, Laursen, Barry, Young, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Berger, Agbonlahor, Carew

Ahhhhhhhh what? Is that Bouma or Barry at right back? Even if Berger has been training like a 15 year old I still dont think he would be getting a look in as a starter at the moment....

DSB

Get Maloney in there ahead of Berger. Berger is a class player to bring on for the last half hour though.

Helix

invincibleirish wrote:

have a bit of patience lads,there is still 3 weeks left!keep faith with MON

nonsense, what was wrong with the last 14 weeks? when the deals SHOULDVE been done to let players settle in?

invincibleirish wrote:

remember money has gone crazy,9M for a nobody hearts keeper who has struggled!luke young isnt the kind of player MON is looking for

what? you mean a decent right back with england caps? again thats nonsense, we shouldve been in for him. and you forget that we were in for gordon, but he chose sunderland over us without even speaking to us, which youd have to imagine was because of the fact that zero ambition is being shown. how many more times will that happen in these magical 3 weeks youre expecting?

invincibleirish wrote:

remember the deadweight he cleared hughes,sutton,samuel,angel(sigh) etc. theres no point buying replacement players who just replace whats gone before

no, you replace and improve. we have done neither. 2 words

marlon harewood

invincibleirish wrote:

luke young wouldnt have hada look in at villa for the past few years

thats absolute rubbish in fairness. seems to me to be a typical case of "we didnt get him so hes rubbish" to me, had we got him youd probably be singing his praises

invincibleirish wrote:

soemone said MON should have done what sven did at man city,are you serious?

its only common sense to buy before you sell when you have a squad as small as villas. wait til november when we're naming 16 year olds from the academy on the bench to make up numbers

invincibleirish wrote:

MON builds teams

which is why hes sold 11 and brought in 1 first teamer and 1 bench warmer, for what was already the smallest squad in the premiership?