Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

One Cold Hand

irish1 wrote: »

Anyone know anything about draw been investigated as we the video of the draw seems to show we were drawn against team 25 which is Boro not ManU???

Didn't really hear anything official, but the discussion is gathering a bit of pace on villatalk.
I don't really see why they would fix it.

Here's a video of the draw

Apparently this is a photo of it:

Villain

Defo looks like 25 to me??

_blank_

irish1 wrote: »

Defo looks like 25 to me??

It also looks like it was drawn in MS Paint tbh.

One Cold Hand

DesF wrote: »

It also looks like it was drawn in MS Paint tbh.

But it also looks like 25 in the video. And for some reason he half covers the 'no 25'(ie 24? I'm confused now!) ball when it comes out.

One arguement against the theory was that the 4 in the 24 had a 'dot' under it and therefore looked like a 5. But why would it have a dot under it. Surely the only numbers that could be confused would be 6 and 9?

Tomthepost

25 years since we won a major cup (European) Maybe that is some kinda good omen:D

Nunu

One Cold Hand wrote: »

But it also looks like 25 in the video. And for some reason he half covers the 'no 25'(ie 24? I'm confused now!) ball when it comes out.

One arguement against the theory was that the 4 in the 24 had a 'dot' under it and therefore looked like a 5. But why would it have a dot under it. Surely the only numbers that could be confused would be 6 and 9?

No conspiracy.

All the numbers are underlined. Pause the video at 39secs and you can actually see the number 24 ball in the pot with both the 2 and the 4 underlined.

Helix

irish1 wrote: »

Anyone know anything about draw been investigated as we the video of the draw seems to show we were drawn against team 25 which is Boro not ManU???

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2007/12/the_story_that_never_was.html

not being investigated, load of bum

Savman

Ah well, so much for the web crusade. I shpose we'll have to dispose of 'em the old fashioned way

One Cold Hand

It's a facinating story i think!
There's 3 images at the top of the link in Helix's post. In the two to the right the numbers look the exact same. I appreciate that the first one is 24 underlined, but the second one looks exactly like it.



ps. This may be just me grasping at straws hoping we don't have to play United again!!

Raekwon

It could have been an even worse draw for us in all fairness (ie: away to Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal).

Anyway I reckon Fergie has his eyes on winning the league & CL this season so the FA Cup will be most likely be an unwanted distraction for him. He'll probably end up fielding a weakened team against us (hopefully!). Utd's second string ain't too bad but we should be able to knock them out if our current form continues (although it has to be mentioned that the last time that we beat Utd in the FA Cup was in the 1957 final ).

---

3rd Round 2008: Villa 2 - 1 Man Utd ???
3rd Round 2007: Man Utd 2-1 Villa (last minute howler from our onloan keeper Gabor Kiraly).
3rd Round 2004: Villa 1-2 Man Utd (1-0 to us at halftime.......you know the rest)
3rd Round 2002: Villa 2-3 Man Utd (we give a 2 goal lead away with 20 minutes to go).

Tomthepost

Goals Galore After the transfer window

Carson

Bosingwa Riisse

Laursen Mellberg

Young Barry

Reo-Coker Back to Form Petrov

Gabby Carew

Villain

Bosingwa is unlikely I think Porto want 14 million for him and if even if a price can be agreed he will probably still have Champions league football in January. I'd like to see him but not sure.

Maloney will leave in Jan and I'd expect MON to sign another winger.

Tomthepost

The main problem with Maloney is that he is just too small. Could see him try Sunderland for a while.
14m is alot of bucks. Is there any good right back in EPL,SPL or the Championship that MON should target. It is badly needed.
I love Olaf to bits but he lacks pace for right back and a good winger will give him a good skinning one of these days.

One Cold Hand

Tomthepost wrote: »

The main problem with Maloney is that he is just too small. Could see him try Sunderland for a while.
14m is alot of bucks. Is there any good right back in EPL,SPL or the Championship that MON should target. It is badly needed.
I love Olaf to bits but he lacks pace for right back and a good winger will give him a good skinning one of these days.

Disagree that he's too small. He's no smaller than Ashley and he's been brilliant. He just hasn't settled at Villa and I don't think he will. Pity.

I don't think we'd have to pay €14m for Bosingwa. I'd say around the €8m mark, which is still a lot of money. Hoyte is a very good, young player and I think MON should look at him.

Raekwon

One Cold Hand wrote: »

I don't think we'd have to pay €14m for Bosingwa. I'd say around the €8m mark, which is still a lot of money. Hoyte is a very good, young player and I think MON should look at him.

I think MON should snap up both Bosingwa & Hoyte, two rightbacks are better then one (or none in our case ).

What are your predictions for the Pompey game?

It won't be easy but I'd say 2-0 to Villa with Carew & Barry (peno) scoring.

One Cold Hand

Raekwon wrote: »

I think MON should snap up both Bosingwa & Hoyte, two rightbacks are better then one (or none in our case ).

What are your predictions for the Pompey game?

It won't be easy but I'd say 2-0 to Villa with Carew & Barry (peno) scoring.

Hmmm it think it'll be a tough game and will be tight. We need to win, but a draw wouldn't be a complete disaster. I can see Pompey scoring, so I'll go for 2-1 win for us.

Savman

MON named Manager of the Month...Gabby named Player of the Month...
http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~1185838,00.html

It's all good baby

shoutman

Indeed it is Savman.

In other news its reported that Risse has rejected an approach from Valencia wiith his agent saying that he wants to stay at anfield for as long as possible.

Esse85

Im not sure we really need Riise, if we dont sign Botswinga, who else is there to consider?

I expect 3 points tomorrow, if we play like we did against Arsenal in the second half then its a home win.

I ve been hearing good reviews about Salifou the Togo international we signed, id like to see him make his debut soon.

Raekwon

Esse85 wrote: »

Im not sure we really need Riise, if we dont sign Botswinga, who else is there to consider?

IMO Marek Jankulovski would be a good signing for us at leftback, I doubt he will want to leave Milan but he is 30 now so he might want a fresh challenge in a different league. Others will obviously disagree but I thing that he is a decent player plus he weights in with a few goals now and again (Czech Rep 1-0 Ireland being a good but painful example ).

Time Magazine

Craig Gardner isn't half on-fire with putting balls in the back of the net. Pity it was ours.

Aston Villa 0 - 1 Portsmouth

Time Magazine

Feck. 2-0.

Savman

Some finish by Muntari though.

JPA

:mad:

Esse85

What an awful display there. We were absolutely clueless going forward. It was long ball after long ball after long ball against the best pair of defenders at heading a ball in the league.

Not once do i recall Young beating his marker, or even attempting to take him on.
Young, Barry and Carew were all off form today.

I think its time to give Davies a chance instead of Knight now, he's awkward and clumsy and we were only going to get away with him for so long.

Harewood and Berger are hardly the answer when we're 3-0 down, Berger was very sloppy and doesnt really seem interested, we need more strength in depth for the bench.

If the price for Carson is gonna be in the region of £10-12 mil then i suggest looking elsewhere, that sort of money for him would be crazy.

On a positive note i taught NRC was our best player, he was unlucky to get caught out after a poor kick from Carson. He won his tackles and really got stuck in to pompey.

Savman

Hoofball hoofball, whatcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when we come for you :rolleyes:

Whatever about Knight, he was his usual self however you view him, Laursen was all over the place today.

Credit where its due...2 absolutely stunning goals by Muntari, quite frankly we have no player capable of that.

Raekwon

What a rubbish performance :mad: We were poor in every department today. Our defence failed to close down players quick enough, our midfield was totally transparent (we missed Petrov) & our forwards were on a totally different wave length.

It's hard to believe that was the same team that beat Blackburn 4-0 and played Arsenal off the park (in the second half).

I just hope this is a slight blip in our current form and hopefully we can return to winning ways a.s.a.p.

Savman

Raekwon wrote: »

we missed Petrov

Never thought I'd hear anyone mutter those words. :eek:
That statement alone speaker volumes about his character.

Time Magazine

Savman wrote: »

Never thought I'd hear anyone mutter those words. :eek:
That statement alone speaker volumes about his character.

Beat me to it!

One Cold Hand

Very disappointing match today. Just looking at the stats at the end, Pompey had 2 shots on target, and they scored 3!!??

The difference was we didn't take our chances. We had far more clear cut opportunities and we didn't convert. We had far more possession than Pompey (to be expected as the home team), we had around 63% for long periods of each half. I think the lack of depth in the squad was shown. When Martin was forced to change he brought on Berger and Harewood, who were rubbish.

I just felt it was one of those days, that we were never going to get the win. After they scored we had a huge amount of ball and had a few clear chances (Laursens 2, and Gabby). That was the time to equalise and we didn't take it.

Ah well, must win away to Sunireland next week.....

Bounty Hunter

most frustrating match ive viewed in quite some time.

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Very disappointing match today. Just looking at the stats at the end, Pompey had 2 shots on target, and they scored 3!!??

that really stood out for me to. It was (and i hate to quote Andy Gray) a classic smash and grab by Portsmouth which just underlines Villa's real need for an out and out goal scorer. We had the chances including two great chances for Laursen and when Gabby hit the bar and forced a great save from James.

Gabby's great but he is our developing superstar. Carew is a top forward but he is our man to hold up the ball, get a head to something and maybe create a chance for others. Harewood and Moore(could still surprise me but i had expected bigger things already) dont seem up to the standard we need. Be it Anelka or Alfonso Alves or whoever we need goals. This could be a knee jerk reaction and nobody was saying this post Blackburn but on the balance of play today a villa win by a couple of goals would be what id expect but it didnt happen.

Raekwon

Savman wrote: »

Never thought I'd hear anyone mutter those words. :eek:
That statement alone speaker volumes about his character.

It's true though, Petrov was in fine form before he got injured against Arsenal and IMO he would have been much more effective then Gardner or Reo-Coker were today.

Still, we really do need to add a top quality creative midfield playermaker to our squad. We are too one dimensional at times (hoof it up and hope for the best :rolleyes:) and we really do need a player (or two!) that could give us a cutting edge.

Savman

It's not knee-jerk to assess how far we've come after whatever amount of games, the January window cometh soon.

Also, it looks like the little hothead agrees...

MON on avfc.co.uk wrote:

"I think we have got loads of determination about the side, loads of spirit - we just need a wee bit more quality.

Couldn't agree more, it's all huffing and puffing but no real class or composure. Let's speculate that we were to get someone like Wright Phillips, it would give us so much more balance down that Right side and take a lot of pressure off Ashley Young to make things happen. In fact I'd go so far as to say Young seems to be our only real outlet for anything going forward and any decent team will cop onto this.

Goals don't just create themselves and its clear Young and Agbonlahor are at the centre of everything we have to offer. When the pundits talk about "the pace Villa have" you know they mean Ashely & Gabby. Barry will chip in with the odd important goal, hopefully Petrov soon enough too but NRC couldn't kick snow off a rope and Carew doesn't appear to have 20 goals stamped all over him. I hope I'm wrong though, but based on the season so far we have been found lacking in the creativity department and its no surprise 3 of the Top 4 have beaten us at our place even if we did push them close.

One Cold Hand

Yeah just looking back on the Arsenal game, as in the second half that we had all the possession for, we didn't really create too much in that. Again it was mainly long balls to Carew. It got to the point where they weren't marking Carew, just trying to deal with the konck ons (which was great but the knock ons weren't working). It was the same against Pompey, but Campbell was able to deal with Carew a bit better. I just think the long ball is sometimes used a bit too often, considering how good we can be on the ground. It should only be used a last option.

Esse85

Its grand for playing a team whose central defenders are not the best in the air, but trying it against Distin and Campbell is stupid.

We need at least 3 quality players to come in January, rumor has it Wes Brown is stalling on a new contract, he'd be a good signing. Im not convinced on Defoe.

Bounty Hunter

According to todays rumours we are now favourites to land Giles Barnes ahead of West Ham from Derby in January. He would slot in perfectly in RM and fit the current mold of the team young english ect... would also take some pressure off young as there would be a real outlet on both sides now. He could be our Young for this season, the one real quality player poached from the relegation certainty side.

Raekwon

Villa could launch an investigation should an official complaint by Harry Redknapp be made to the FA in regards to the abuse that he was subjected to at Villa Park on Saturday.

Seems like abit of a storm in a teacup really.

shoutman

Probably just proper ettiquete(sp?) to say that. The investigation will probably consist of the security gards being talked to and encourage them to stop any hardcore abuse of opposition managers or something.

One Cold Hand

Sounds like something fairly minor to me. It's football FFS, if he can't take a bit of abuse at this stage there's no hope for him.

On another note, I see Wes Brown may be leaving ManUre. Newcastle and Sunderland are apparently interested. Surely he's be a good signing for us a right back?

Time Magazine

Wes Brown would be welcome at the right price. What price are the papers talking about?

I've been underwhelmed by Reo-Coker so far this season. I think a signing like SWP at right-wing to create a bit of competition between Petrov and Reo-Coker to partner Barry could be good, as well as giving us an outlet other than Young. It also gives us an extra bit of depth in case Barry gets injured.

I still hope Mellberg gets another year.

One Cold Hand

Were also being linked with Derby's Giles Barnes, £5m. He's highly rated youngster, only 19. In the under-21 English set-up. He'd fit in nicely with MON's young English players.

I think his biggest asset would be that he's a right sided midfielder so I think he would be a good second outlet and alternative to Young, who seems to be getting a lot of attention these days.

Villain

Nicky Shorey won't sign a new deal at Reading I think he would be a good signing.

Savman

Some mutterings from the camp would suggest Mellberg & Laursen will be off by the Summer. Great as they both are, I can kinda see MON's logic tbh.

One Cold Hand

Savman wrote: »

Some mutterings from the camp would suggest Mellberg & Laursen will be off by the Summer. Great as they both are, I can kinda see MON's logic tbh.

What? I can't.

Savman

Both have, if we're lucky, a good season or 2 left in the Prem. I'd be more optimistic about Olly but not at RB facing Ronaldo, Bale etc every week. Then there's aul dodgy knees himself, MON is a lot things but a fool he aint. If he lasts the season injury free it'll be a miracle.

Only sensible we start looking at other options for the future.

One Cold Hand

It's true about their age and how long they'll last. But I reckon Laursen has been our best player. We should at least risk offering him a one year contract. We have the money now. And they're very experienced players to have in the squad.

I think Ollie will go to Juve, but there's some hope for keeping Laursen.

Savman

It's all well and good saying that now, but he's one injury away from calling it a day. He's playing exactly like he should: a player making up for lost time.
I'm not doubting his ability, but I fully understand the club's apparent reluctance to throw a new contract at him.

And the quotes in the media don't help things either, something about MON "tactics" :rolleyes:
You're an older player, you're playing for a new contract, that's football.

Raekwon

I think if MON can secure Laursen's services for another season and sign a good rightback then we would be in decent enough shape at the back. But if Mellberg stays on to partner Laursen in the centre then we would be in even better shape and have a very solid backbone, especially with the talented Carson between the sticks.

I can see why MON brought in Knight & Davis during the summer, but the problem is now that Laursen and Mellberg are both playing out of there skin this season, the thought of them leaving and having Knight/Davis/Cahill making up our central defence is beginning to look like a frightening prospect.

But in saying that, I'm sure MON knows what he is doing and I have every faith in him.

shoutman

I agree with raekwon.

shoutman

eurosport wrote:

Mellberg admits Juve move talk

Wed 12 Dec, 11:00 AM

Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg has done little to quell rumours linking him with a move to Juventus by admitting a transfer is possible.The Sweden international, who has been at Villa Park for seven years, is out of contract at the end of the season and would be free to open talks with interested parties in January.

Italian media reports claim that Mellberg will sign a pre-contract agreement with the Serie A side once the transfer window opens.

And the centre-back has failed to reject speculation about a possible move to Turin, telling the Daily Mirror: "Juventus, I cannot deny it."

Villa boss Martin O'Neill also faces a fight to keep hold of trio Martin Laursen, Thomas Sorensen and Wilfred Bouma, who are all out of contract in six months time.

Doesnt sound great.