Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

Helix

Savman wrote:

Anything other than a UEFA cup spot this season will be a bad achievement

youre away with the fairies if you think thats in any way realistic

Ibid wrote:

In which case, if he does just that, and we finish as high as last season, are you going to call MON a miracle-worker?

no, he'll just be an incredibly lucky man who managed to get out of a hole he dug himself by somehow avoiding any considerable injuries in a paper thin squad

shoutman

Helix wrote:

no, coz it shouldve been done 6 weeks ago

Ahh be quiet Roy.

Villain

My very quick 2 cents, MON has failed to prepare the club as the fans would of liked but lets wait until the 31st before we write MON off.

shoutman

I think that its crazy to say just because he has had a very unsuccessfull summer we should write MON off, even if he wasnt to sign a shedload of players in the next ten days, which he is unlikely to do, football is still a results based business and we can still end up having a good season. Everyone is thinking of worst case scenarios imo, we'd be unlucky if a few of our key players were to get injured at the same time.

One Cold Hand

By 'can' do you mean 'can't'?

shoutman

Are you saying we are not capable of having a good season with our current starting 11?

One Cold Hand

No I'm not argueing with you, just wondering if there was a typo in your post? You said that 'we can write MON off' and then argued why we shouldn't write him off.

Anyhoo, I've said earlier that I will in no way write him off, even if we do have an very average season (although I do think he's under performed with his summer signings)

shoutman

Sorry I left out a few words lol.

One Cold Hand

no worries! just couldn't understand your post! I completely wholeheartedly agree with you......i think!

Esse85

shoutman wrote:

Are you saying we are not capable of having a good season with our current starting 11?

We need a good squad i.e 22 not just a good first 11.

There's a lack of goals in our first 11 at the minute, there's potential there but this has to be fulfilled sooner rather than later.

MON is not spending his own money after all, yet he's still acting like a scrooge.

Im not saying we should sign over priced players for the sake of it, just pay the going rate.

DSB

Streaming the Villa game at the moment. How can we realistically keep playing Stilian Petrov? This man has no footballing ability.

Helix

DSB wrote:

Streaming the Villa game at the moment. How can we realistically keep playing Stilian Petrov? This man has no footballing ability.

careful now, you dont want to be labeled a "fan" for doubting the infallible martin o'neill

sure who are we to say if petrov is any good or not, we're not professional footballers or managers

DSB

Petrov taken off at halftime and we've totally looked like a different team. So much creativity. This is the Villa we need to be seeing every week.

eirebhoy

Maloney can finally go into my fantasy football team.

PHB

eirebhoy wrote:

Maloney can finally go into my fantasy football team.

I just did the same, remembered your hint, counting on ya :P

DSB

Hopefully now O' Neill can see that a Villa without Petrov is far superior.

eirebhoy

He already has the best goal to minutes played ratio in the premiership!

Esse85

With Petrov off we played a lot better.

We deserved the victory today, apart from the goal Fulham got, they hardly threatened at all. We were all over them in the 2nd half.Young played well but it final ball at times was poor.

Worryingly Carew missed some great chances and Gabby is finding it tougher.

I like to see this team for the next game.

Carson
Gardner Mellberg Laursen Bouma
Gabby Reo Coker Barry Young
Carew Moore

Unless we bring in some quality players in the mean time which is highly unlikely, i hope im wrong though.

Savman

Helix wrote:

careful now, you dont want to be labeled a "fan" for doubting the infallible martin o'neill

sure who are we to say if petrov is any good or not, we're not professional footballers or managers

Christ, get over it will ye.

FWIW I think Petrov should be benched. If we're gonna start having to accomodate these moody special players we might as well bid for Riquelme and send Petrov packing.

Raekwon

Seems like Shaun Maloney is still homesick and could possibly being going back to Celtic before the transfer window closes. This would be a really big blow for Villa because he is one of the most creative players in the squad and he should really be starting ahead of Petrov.

Shaun Maloney wrote:

"What is the situation with my own future? I have struggled to settle"

"I have spoken to the manager and he seems to be all right with me at the moment. There is nothing really to say at the moment".

"Am I going to be here until at least January? Am I going to Celtic this week? I can't say at the moment".

"Homesickness has affected my form. I haven't played well enough to play in the team and I think that has shown, so hopefully now things can change".

"I haven't found a place to live yet down here. I haven't done myself any favours with the travelling I've ended up doing up to Glasgow and things".

"Hopefully things will get sorted out one way or the other and I can start playing well. I haven't done that since I came here to Villa".

"Are talks planned with the manager? No, nothing like that. I spoke to the manager a few weeks ago and he is quite sound with me. I don't need to see the manager".

MON has since come out and said that Maloney is not going anywhere, but then again he has said alot of things over the last few months, so this one seems to be still up in the air.

Savman

Dont understand the Maloney issue, he's been at Villa since January.
Wouldn't like to lose him though, always looks threatening when he gets on just needs to sort his head out.

V1llianous

I'd give him a starting spot against Wrexham tomorrow. Give him a chance to have a good full game would probably do wonders about all the stuff in his head.

Savman

I'd be surprised/dissappointed if he wasn't in the starting 11 for the Wrexham game.

Actually tt's just the tonic, playing a ****ty cup midweek game against lower level opposition, him and Petrov should feel right at home

Helix

aye mon said hes gonna start him tomorrow night

Villain

3 Days to go.... If by Friday night at midnight we haven't signed at least 3 players we could be in real trouble, I mean there is leaving it late to get one player but leaving it late to get 3 or 4??

V1llianous

Lot of rumours at the moment that Zat Knight (Fulham) will sign today for £3-4m. Born in Solihul and a Villa boyhood fan, probably will be instead of Curtis Davies and mainly will be cover I expect.

Also Routeledge rumour is circulating too.

One Cold Hand

Thats an absolute joke. Zat Knight??!! Jesus christ! World Class my hole!

Savman

I haven't seen much of Knight so I'll sit on the fence

Raekwon

As expected lots of transfer speculation in the media as we near the close of the transfer window. The Daily Star has us linked to a £20m double swoop for Jermain Defoe and Curtis Davis. While the Guardian has us linked with Spurs winger Wayne Routledge.

Also according to a few sources (BBC being one of them) the Zat Knight deal is nearly finalised and he could be a Villa player later today. This is a strange one, IMO Liam Ridgewell is a much better player then Zat Knight, so why pay nearly double the money for an inferior player? (Value for money?)

We still desperately need a right back and with the Jose Bosingwa deal apparently dead it looks like MON could swoop in for Chelsea's Glen Johnson. Hopefully we can get at least 4 players in before midnight on Friday.

I am still bewildered by MON's tactic of signing players at the last minute though. Didn't he learn from the James Milner incident on deadline day last year???

Helix

knights at vp at the moment apparently

absolutely abysmal signing

Helix

Raekwon wrote:

t looks like MON could swoop in for Chelsea's Glen Johnson. Hopefully we can get at least 4 players in before midnight on Friday

id be happy enough with that i must say

One Cold Hand

Hmmm things are getting a bit interesting.

I'd be happy if we got Glen Johnson. I don't rate him too highly but he's better than Aaron Hughes, so that would be an improvement, even though I think we should have kept Hughes as cover. So fustrating, Mourinho had Johnson and Ferreria and wouldn't sell either of them til he got Belletti.

Anyway Zat Knight is sh!te and always will be sh!te. If he's the only CD we sign I'll be disappointed. If we do get both him and Curtis Davies then I think we'll be quite strong in this department: Mellberg, Laursen, Davies, Cahill and Knight.

I also think Defoe would be a good addition. He's a proven goal premiership goal scorer and I rate him.

At this stage I don't really care about prices and I don't think Martin should either, it's not his money.

~Rebel~

Knight had a decent season a few years ago alright, so maybe MON could bring the best out of him. Still dont rate him very highly myself though, but decent enough cover i guess. Johnson would be good for yee alright. Bad move from chelsea though, im really unconvinced by Belletti, dont think he'll add much(if anything) over Johnson. He's decent going forward but suspect at the back while johnson is more of an all rounder. Would fit the villa team too i think with the pace on the flanks.

DSB

Zat Knight? Oh god.

Villain

Zat Knight is Fulham captain and can offer cover for Mellberg Laursen and hopefully Davies so as a backup player I'd be happy for him to sign as long as Davies signs. As for Glen Johnson I wouldn't rate him at all just because he is at chelsea doesn't mean he is good before Chelsea signed him he was on loan at Milwall where he couldn't get his game.

Defoe is interesting but I'd rather see a right back, at least there seems to be some action so lets just wait till midnight Friday and see how the squad looks.

~Rebel~

irish1 wrote:

Zat Knight is Fulham captain and can offer cover for Mellberg Laursen and hopefully Davies so as a backup player I'd be happy for him to sign as long as Davies signs. As for Glen Johnson I wouldn't rate him at all just because he is at chelsea doesn't mean he is good before Chelsea signed him he was on loan at Milwall where he couldn't get his game.

Defoe is interesting but I'd rather see a right back, at least there seems to be some action so lets just wait till midnight Friday and see how the squad looks.

Johnson did have some fantastic performances last year at Portsmouth.

Helix

hes a good player, better than our existing right back anyway

ie none

and seeing as bosingwa doesnt look like a runner, i see no alternative. wed get him for relatively little too

DSB

I'd definitely like Glenn Johnson.

Raekwon

I think Glen Johnson is a very decent player and I would be delighted if Villa sign him. Realistically we would need two rightbacks and I think if we could sign Justin Hoyte also then we would be have ample cover in that position.

The (potential) signing of Zat Knight doesn't inspire me with confidence though. It is true that he is Fulham's current captain but he was only awarded that because regular captain Brain McBride is injured and because of his loyalty to the club (he has been at Fulham since 1999). But then again, Liam Ridgewell is now the current Birmingham captain, he is 4 years younger then Knight and he cost around £1.5m less then what Knight will cost. Don't teams usually sell players then replace them with better quality players??? Oh dear :rolleyes:

DSB

We're just a club without ambition. And it is really heartbreaking.

Helix

to be fair, i think we're more a club with a manager without ambition than anything else

DSB

Hahaha true but we've employing managers without ambition/talent for quite a long time though.

Helix

i dunno, gregory had ambition, as did little, well a bit anyway

dol tried his best

One Cold Hand

Wrexham 0 Villa 1!!

Guess who?

Shaun Maloney!!!

MON you have to drop Petrov permanently and leave Shaun in!!

Helix

3-0

moore and nrc with the others

Helix

4-0

maloney again

Savman

We have to keep this fella at VP.

Helix

5-0

harewood

One Cold Hand

5-0 FT

I know it's only Wrexham, but it's good to see a few goals going in and we had 5/6 non-first team people starting. Good result in my opinion.

Time Magazine

Savman wrote:

We have to keep this fella at VP.

Maybe Petrov could play right-back?