Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

Neil3030

Chelsea 4 v 4 Aston Villa
Tottenham 4 v 4 Aston Villa

Tottenham 4 v 4 Chelsea

COINCIDENCE??!?!

Bounty Hunter

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill will pay up to £5m to sign Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson in the summer.

...supposidly

shoutman

Source?

Raekwon

Robinson is muck, he couldn't keep a clean sheet to save his life! £5m? More like £5.

Anyway, what are your predictions for tomorrow’s game against Sunderland? I'd say Villa will play rubbish but still win 2-0 with Carew and Harewood to grab the goals.

Neil3030

That story about Robbo was in the rumour section of F365 the other day, I think the Sun carried the story.

Gardner looks set to start tomorrow which is good news. I'm inclined to agree with Raekwon though, we'll see a poor and scrappy performance but an end result of 3 points. 2-1 or thereabouts with a nicely dubious penalty giving us the win.

Bounty Hunter

---

BBC TRANSFER RUMOURS
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill will pay up to £5m to sign Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson in the summer. (Daily Mirror)

---

not the best of sources although I am expecting Carson not to sign for Villa more and more as the season goes on and that we woud instead have Guzan or Someone else (like Robbo). Would hate if Villa were to just be Carsons development club though.

Villa 1 - 0 Sunderland

invincibleirish

Sunderland game has upset written all over it, they may not have got any points away from home but Villa have little left to play for other then the Intertoto spots.

Still however i'd expect Villa to take the points, but the results of the past 2 weeks have shook my confidence.

Due a big game:

Agbonlahor, Laursen and no howlers from Carson

2-1 to the Villa (im never right)

RE: Robinson, he has had a torrid time for Spurs, but his performance for Leeds V Man. Utd. a good few years ago was outstanding but he is living on past reputation, there is a good keeper in there somewhere, but to buy him will be a risk. Look at David James, Gregory saved him from Liverpool, he blossomed at Villa and got Back into the England Squad and has done well ever since. But remember Di Matteos goal in the 2000 cup final :rolleyes:

Esse85

Carson almost gifted Sunderland the lead

Neil3030

Howler from O'Donovan, should be at least 1-0 to Sunderland

Helix

carson has looked damn well ropey

again

Esse85

Long ball now till the end.

Osbourne on.

Im_No_Superman

Come on villa! I need them to win, everyone else on my accumulator is except them!

Time Magazine

Feck sake.

Esse85

What a fcuking joke

Esse85

Im digusted we lost to a crap Sunderland side. Im sickened by MON and his inabilities to sign anyone in January.

Im now wondering is this guy the right man for the job. Too many of his signings have been dismal.
Is he retarded to think that the likes of Gabby and Young can perform well in every game this season?
Knight, Maloney, Petrov, Carson please p!ss off somewhere else.

Barry is supposed to be captain, whats he done in the last few months, id give the armband to Laursen.

We dont seem to know any other way than long ball, it reminds me of Ireland under Charlton.
Im just so furious at how laid back his attitude is towards signings.

WTF did he sign ROutledge and Salifou for?

Going a whole season with no RB is criminal.

I cant wait for this season to end.

Raekwon

Awful performance & terrible result............I am totally disgusted right now :mad:

That was like a flash back to those awful O'Deary days. MON's inability in the transfer market has been apparent for a long while now but it was totally in your face today, we simply need more players. Everybody knows this, but MON still insists on his suicide transfer policy, he needs to cop the f**k on!

Neil3030

I never thought I'd agree with Phat Dolan, but I concur with his point suggesting that this loss will give MON a severe wake-up call with regard to transfer activity over the summer.

We've been found out now as one of the flukiest teams in the Premiership, with victories resulting from set-pieces and counter-attacks providing us with a false sense of security, so much so that naf all players were brought in during January.

I simply can't see how we are going to bounce back from this slump in form and I genuinely worry as to where we are going to finish come May.

Savman

I didn't see the game, but what a load of cock. You know what the worst thing about our recent demise is? It hasn't taken me/us by surprise. That says it all really.

Not gonna jump to any conclusions about MON being "retarded", he's still a fantastic manager for the club but the Premiership he left at Leicester was a different ball game to the one he came back to. This is an absolute pisser of a result, make no mistake about it, probably our worst of the season.

There's a whole lot riding on Season 3, Europe or.....?

Helix

Savman wrote: »

Not gonna jump to any conclusions about MON being "retarded", he's still a fantastic manager for the club but the Premiership he left at Leicester was a different ball game to the one he came back to.

as its well known on here, ive never been a fan of o'neill however what hes done at villa is make us the hardest team to beat outside the top 4 statistically since he took over, which is exactly what we needed

now, the question is, does he have what it takes to bring us to the next level? heart says yes, head says no

you dont accomplish anything outside of scotland with 11 big strong fast hoofers, which is what it looks like mon is intent on putting together

you also dont accomplish anything with a squad as small and one dimensional as ours. selling good young players and bringing in worse players doesnt help either

so that leads us up to this summer, if o'neill gets it right, we're gonna be in the shake up for europe come the very end next season. will he tho? thats the big question

ive seen nothing apart from ashley young (which looks more and more like a fluke the more i think about it) to suggest o'neill has the ability to do anything remotely like what we need in the transfer market this summer. if he doesnt, its time for him to go

now, i say that not in a "martin o'neill is ****e" way, i say it in a "martin o'neill has come in, improved us no end, brought through a few decent kids (well, the ones he hasnt sold), made us tough to beat and improved our standing and reputation no end, but he hes brought us as far as he can" way

if this time next season things are the same, the transfer policy is the same, and the squad is still obscenely small, its time for club and manager to go their seperate ways with mon being thanked no end for transforming the club and leaving us ready to take the next step, one that unfortunately i dont think he has the ability or knowledge in the transfer marker to make with us

Savman

Let's not start the transfer window discussion shall we? I think everything has been said a thousand times on that issue and we've an interesting summer ahead....hopefully.

It looks to me like Season 1 was about premiership survival, which noone argued with. Season 2 was about re-establishing the club in the top half of the table and making us difficult to beat and make VP a fortress once again. Europe was only ever an outside hope if we're all honest with ourselves.

You can't fluke success in 2yrs without irresponsible spending and huge transfers and wages. So far, despite the well founded criticisms laid at him, you have to say MON has done what he set out to do. He's been the victim of his own success now though, simply because the team over acheived this season and we all knew when we were making a break for the Top 5 or 6 that we were playing well above ourselves and that some sort of "levelling out" was inevitable. It's crazy that the same side that was 10 seconds from an away win at Emirates can lose at home to a Sunderland side fighting relegation, but that's Villa for you.

On the Ashley Young thing, I think you're not giving MON the credit he deserves for signing him up, at a price that raised eyebrows at the time, and has since turned him into an absolute gem.

Brutal result today, but a win at Old Trafford next week will sweeten me up again.

Raekwon

Savman wrote: »

Brutal result today, but a win at Old Trafford next week will sweeten me up again.

LOL! Cheers, I needed a good joke to cheer me up

Helix

Savman wrote: »

So far, despite the well founded criticisms laid at him, you have to say MON has done what he set out to do.

absolutely

however i think thats about the best mon can actually do

its all well and good saying dont go into the transfer market thing, but thats the problem here

either we get a director of football, or we get a new manager if things dont change

Esse85

MON should give Taylor a chance now in goals, surely CArson will be let go so give Taylor a chance from now till the end of the season.

Also stick Mellberg in CB and play Gardner RB, drop Knight.

We might as well change things round, because there's nothing to lose now.

I dont understand why Osbourne came on today at 0-0, when we needed a goal i think Petrov or a wildcard like Salifou might of been the better option.

Helix

Esse85 wrote: »

MON should give Taylor a chance now in goals, surely CArson will be let go so give Taylor a chance from now till the end of the season.

Also stick Mellberg in CB and play Gardner RB, drop Knight.

We might as well change things round, because there's nothing to lose now.

I dont understand why Osbourne came on today at 0-0, when we needed a goal i think Petrov or a wildcard like Salifou might of been the better option.

sure you can set your watch by the substitutions we make in games these days

Esse85

Taylor
Gardner Mellberg Laursen Bouma
Petrov NRC Barry Young
Carew Scarewood

Id like to see that team next game.

shoutman

I really cant fatham how just because we go through a patch of four games without a win, losing two to sides who we should beat, and all of a sudden MON is not the right man for the job.

Ridiculous.

Helix

shoutman wrote: »

I really cant fatham how just because we go through a patch of four games without a win, losing two to sides who we should beat, and all of a sudden MON is not the right man for the job.

Ridiculous.

its got nothing to do with 4 games without a win

ive been quite clear what its about, and i dont think theres any way it can be argued with to be perfectly honest

unless mon proves he can cut it in the transfer market in summer, hes taken us as far as he can

and for the record, ive been saying the exact same things about him since he took over, this is NOT down to a shoddy run

invincibleirish

MON OUT!!!!!

Only joking,but today was disappointing, if not entirely unexpected. I think MON needs to focus now on what to do in the summer and write off the season (not totally of course the Intertoto cup place should be secured). Blood some youngsters, maybe start giving Berger, Harewood and some of the kids like Delfuenso a taste of Prem football.

Villa have come far in the past year, the signings of Young, Carew, Davies and the emergence of Agbonlahor bode well long term for the club. There is the core of an excellent team at VP.

IMO, a few things need to be sorted out:

-Villa still need a 20 goal a season striker, this is nothing new, there has not been one in a Villa shirt for nearly 20 years they are hard to find, Carew is a good player, but the world and his wife knows he isnt a goal every two games kind of striker.Agbonlahor to me does not have that clinical touch a 20 goal a season player would have, we shall see next season.

-Defence is far too leaky 16 games since a clean sheet!, Laursen & Davies are a good pair but Villa have leaked goals all too easily this season, Laursen has had some goalscoring exploits but is he as good as Mellberg? no. again IMO Mellberg was/is the best CB at VP, he is in his 30s and we may have seen the best years of him but i for one would have gladly have had kept him if possible. no need ti discuss the RB/GK situation again. also Knight is crap, we knew when he signed, he was given the benefit of the doubt but he is mistake prone.

-Midfield, jury is still out on NRC but i think we will have to give him the benefit of the doubt, i think a problem for Villa has been a lack of goals from the centre of midfield this season , Petrov or NRC hasnt scored in the league this season but im aware this is because of MON chosen tactics which brings meon to my next point:

-Now i respect MON, and im just an average football fan with limited tactical knowledge, but its fairly clear MONs tactics; playing on the counter, pushing the ball down the wings and getting ball quickly into box etc., has made Villa play very well against the big teams, Villas results against the top 4 this season have been the best in years, but against teams like Sunderland today foe example Villa struggle to score, Villa seem to play well when they are up against it, but as favourites, as we have seen the past few weeks the team blows it and drops points.


We all know we have the answers and have our opinions like above^, we know MON has to buy players in the summer, but we know football just isnt that easy, but we've had a taste of being near the CL places and we liked it, i imagine the players like it and i certainly think MON might have liked it. as someone else said, next year is year 3 of the 5 year plan, Villa fans will take an Intertoto place this time round, but if Villa are doing the same thing this time next year then questions will be asked as to whether there should be a year 4.

Martin the honeymoon is over.

mike65

I'm tempted to say "know your place". Villa are 7th in a tight cluster and have Pompey/Everton ahead of them. Moyes has spent years developing his side and yet they could find themselves 8 points adrift of Liverpool after the derby game. While 'harry has spent quite big on the south coast over 2 seasons. Quite why Villa should be challanging the Toffees after 2 seasons of modest reconstruction beats me. A solid end to the season and top 8 should be considered a success.

Mike.

Helix

my target for this season was 10 points more than last season and some decent new players in making for a bigger, stronger squad

we're currently 1 point worse off than last season, but with 7 games to play so that target is definitely doable, and ive already covered my discontent with the others

i honestly dont know what is a realistic expectation for next season, if the transfer window goes in line with previous ones, then a top half finish would be a good accomplishment, and a step back will be taken

DSB

I think he should go. It isn't about the league position. Moreso his decisions. We don't need a manager who can't sign players. An excuse could be made if he'd just been avoiding signing crap players, but Zat Knight, Stilian Petrov, Didier Agathe all suggest otherwise. Salifou and Routledge so far both seem pointless signings too right now. With a squad the size of ours we needed players that could contribute, clearly Martin doesn't believe they can.

As mentioned before, alot of luck has been on our side. Have we even gotten to the quarter finals of a competition under him? 11th place last season wasn't impressive and we do look like slipping in that direction at the moment. Does anyone see him being able to spend Lerner's money wisely enough to push us in the right direction next season? I don't. And I think he should be replaced with someone who can.

Savman

mike65 wrote: »

I'm tempted to say "know your place". Villa are 7th in a tight cluster and have Pompey/Everton ahead of them. Moyes has spent years developing his side and yet they could find themselves 8 points adrift of Liverpool after the derby game. While 'harry has spent quite big on the south coast over 2 seasons. Quite why Villa should be challanging the Toffees after 2 seasons of modest reconstruction beats me. A solid end to the season and top 8 should be considered a success.

Mike.

Yep, we've found our level. The CL talk was mental, a total distraction and far too premature. Top 8 beckons, wheyyy

Can we blow up this season early ref?

Neil3030

DSB wrote: »

Salifou and Routledge so far both seem pointless signings too right now. With a squad the size of ours we needed players that could contribute, clearly Martin doesn't believe they can.

Agreed. Looking at the performance of the players today, Salifou and Routledge must be turning up to training naked.

Helix

DSB wrote: »

Does anyone see him being able to spend Lerner's money wisely enough to push us in the right direction next season? I don't. And I think he should be replaced with someone who can.

its either that or a director of football

but i say give him another season anyway, and im far from his biggest fan

its just that 3 years is a fine amount of time to judge anyone, we're not going backwards, but we seem to have stalled

if he cant deliver in the summer, and we have a repeat of this season then he needs to go next summer, thats for certain, and the martin o'neill myth can be put to bed after all

solid manager, will establish teams in midtable with a squad of grafters, but doesnt have the knowhow in the transfer market to challenge for titles in decent league

ill be the first one to thank him for stabilizing the club and making us tough to beat again, but i wont shed a tear even if his replacement doesnt achieve what we hope for, once he actually gets us playing entertaining football most of the time and gives us a bit of excitement in transfer windows

we wont win anything under o'neill, so we may as well not win anything with added enjoyment and excitement

prove me wrong martin, if you have it in you

Esse85

Its his failure to capitalize in the transfer market in January that infuriated me, we were positioned close to 4th in the league, this was a fluke but instead of taking advantage of this situation, he rested on his laurels and chanced the rest of the squad to get through the second part of the season.

It was only a matter of time before the goals dried up, Laursen went through a purple patch and when this came to an end, there was nothing else to back it up.

When people hear im a Villa supporter, they go on about how MON is a great manager, when i think of the people that say this to me they no fcuk all about soccer. They probably only read the back pages of the paper once a week.

How can he be classed as a great manager, (i wont mention his time at Wycome because i know little about that time). At Leicester he kept them in the PL for a few year's, got into Europe by winning the Carling Cup twice, the big teams played weakened teams, hardly worthy of "great" status. Didn't Sam Allardyce do similar things with Bolton, kept them in the PL, took them into Europe, they lost the Carling Cup final, made poor players into average players, both play similar type of football where set pieces are key and long balls up to the striker are prolific.

At Celtic he lead them to 3 Scottish Premier League titles and the final of the Uefa Cup(didnt Middlesbrough reach this final recently) Without inheriting Henrik Larsson, how many league titles would he have won?

Gordon Strachen has won the league the last 2 years in a row, and got them further in the Champions League than MON ever has.
Strachen is hardly a great manager, he did ok at Coventry and Southampton.
This shows managing Celtic to success is not all that rare.

During his time with Villa, he's wasted a lot of money so far in wages and transfer fee's. The following signings have not been a success: Zat Knight, Marlon Harewood, John Carew, Shaun Maloney, Scott Carson, Stiliyan Petrov, Moustapha Salifou.
The jury is still out over Nigel Reo-Coker while Ashley Young and Curtis Davies have been a success.
The sale of Gary Cahill was another slip up, whether he wanted to go or not, was this because Cahill was told he'd be behind Knight in the pecking order?

Next season will determine whether he’ll still be in the hot seat for year 4, if he continues how he’s going then I think we’ll see a new manager for the start of the 2009 season. By all means he hasn’t been a disaster, but when quotes come out of VP from officials stating that we’re gonna spend big, attract top players then this doesn’t really help anyone, especially the manager as straight away then expectations soar.

shoutman

I honestly can't believe some of the absolute tripe being posted over the last day.

People actually saying MON should be sacked! The vast majority of knowledgable football supporters whe league, a position which a lot would say is probably above where we should be.
To say that MON has wasted a lot of money is also a ridiculous statement. Zat Knight and Petrov I agree have been a failure, but you cant expect a manager to never sign a bad player! Marlon Harewood has done wonders for us, a real impact substitution who has scored some important goals and seems to give the team a lift every time he plays, I would imagine him training with the squad would give most players a push as he seems the ultimate "effort man", MON spent nothing on John Carew as it was exchange for that piece of ****e Milan Baros, Carew too has been good this season, quality at times, obviously running hot and cold but definately not a failure. Shaun Maloney is definately worth in excess of what MON paid for him. Scott Carson was got on Loan for 1 or 2 million quid and to be honest, despite his few howlers, he is still an awful lot better then Sorenson, Moustapha Salifou is still an unknown quantity, he is a young player who once again was not signed for a fortune.
Reo-Coker has been a definate success imo, even GB has said himself how much of an unsung hero he has been this season. Sale of Gary Cahill was shrewd business imo, there is no way he is worth the money paid for him.

MON is still the man for the job, there is markable improvement at Villa Park, and the key instrument to this improvement is the manager! As has always been the case he is very specific at who he wants and IT HAS WORKED so far. If we don't get to europe this year so be it. Three years ago I would have given good odds for us being in this enviable position.

When things are going swimingly MON is seemingly a demigod, but as soon as there is a few bad performances and bad results, a lot of fairweather supporters are right on his back once again.

Some people just don't know when they are on to a good thing.

Just tell me one thing, if MON is not the man for the job who would you like to be at Villa Park? I hear Steve Staunton is on the look out....

DSB

I'd be more impressed by Martin Jol's managerial feats to be honest.

Helix

shoutman wrote: »

I honestly can't believe some of the absolute tripe being posted over the last day.

People actually saying MON should be sacked! The vast majority of knowledgable football supporters whe league, a position which a lot would say is probably above where we should be.

people arent saying that mon should be sacked now, people are saying if after next season things are the same, its clear hes taken us as far as he can. theres a difference

shoutman wrote: »

To say that MON has wasted a lot of money is also a ridiculous statement. Zat Knight and Petrov I agree have been a failure, but you cant expect a manager to never sign a bad player!

ive no problem with a manager making mistakes in the transfer market, once theyre mistakes of action, as opposed to mistakes of inaction

shoutman wrote: »

Marlon Harewood has done wonders for us, a real impact substitution who has scored some important goals and seems to give the team a lift every time he plays, I would imagine him training with the squad would give most players a push as he seems the ultimate "effort man"

agreed about the hare, i was totally wrong about him in that hes played out of his skin, but hes not the kind of player we should be looking for. grafters only get you so far

shoutman wrote: »

Shaun Maloney is definately worth in excess of what MON paid for him

hed be worth more to us if the manager played him more and didnt take him off to stick gabby out there where hes neither effective nor comfortable after 60 minutes in every game

shoutman wrote: »

Scott Carson was got on Loan for 1 or 2 million quid and to be honest, despite his few howlers, he is still an awful lot better then Sorenson

agreed on that, however i think its time to give taylor an extended run for the rest of the season. i cant see us keeping carson, and sorensen is out of contract, so give taylor a go to see if hes capable of doing a job for us

shoutman wrote: »

Moustapha Salifou is still an unknown quantity, he is a young player who once again was not signed for a fortune.

and hes been getting absolutely rave reviews in every reserve game hes played in, yet only has 2 15 minute sub appearances to his name

shoutman wrote: »

Reo-Coker has been a definate success imo, even GB has said himself how much of an unsung hero he has been this season

agreed, nrc will be incredibly important for us in the years to come

shoutman wrote: »

Sale of Gary Cahill was shrewd business imo, there is no way he is worth the money paid for him

thats debatable, 2 places in the premier league are worth roughly £5m. cahill gone means less cover, which although unquantifiable could mean losing a couple of places

shoutman wrote: »

MON is still the man for the job, there is markable improvement at Villa Park, and the key instrument to this improvement is the manager! As has always been the case he is very specific at who he wants and IT HAS WORKED so far. If we don't get to europe this year so be it. Three years ago I would have given good odds for us being in this enviable position.

yes, hes definitely still the man for the job. no use bringing a manager in for 2 seasons. the question is will he be the man for the job in year 4 if he again shows his complete lack of nous in the transfer market and the incredible shrinking squad continues to dwindle?

a managers job is as much about making sure he has the correct playing staff, and enough of them to cover, as it is doing well on the pitch

o'neill buys grafters, always has, always will. i dont think he knows any different. thatll win you things in scotland, itll keep leicester in the premiership, and itll make aston villa tricky to beat. will it take us to the next level tho? i dont think so

shoutman wrote: »

When things are going swimingly MON is seemingly a demigod, but as soon as there is a few bad performances and bad results, a lot of fairweather supporters are right on his back once again.

o'neill has never been a demigod in my book. he has always been overrated and clearly lacking in the ability to build a football team based around anything other than big, tall, strong, fast workhorses who give 00% no matter what

shoutman wrote: »

Some people just don't know when they are on to a good thing.

mon was absolutely positively the only man for the job when he took over. hes everything we needed at the time, and everything we still need. the aim was and still is to make and maintain us as a damn hard team to beat. the point ive made over and over again, that you completely ignore, is that o'neill has never shown anything, with any team, that suggests he can take teams beyond that, which is what we're going to need after next season

nobody is saying o'neill hasnt done what was needed, we're saying that unless he proves otherwise, its possible that he wont be able to do whats needed to be done in the future. different stages in clubs developments are not necessarily overseen by the same people, o'neill was perfect for aston villa phase 1, we're just worried hes not the man for phase 2

Savman

Whoah. Chillax on the multiquotes :eek:

Helix

its easier to read that way lol

krinpit

I'm a big fan of Martin O'Neill and I think he is currently the right man for the job.

Does anyone know what Aston Villa's 5 year plan is?

Year 1: Keep Villa in the Premiership
Year 2: Consolidate and finish top-half of league
Year 3, 4, 5: ?

shoutman

So DSB, you are looking for MON for next season, and if he doesnt sign a squad consisting of highly paid world beaters (who probably wouldn't want to move to VP in the first place), and if that doesnt happen get Martin Jol in?

PHB

Maybe MON was the guy needed for phase one, and you need somebody to take you to the next level, but I can't say that Jol is that person.

Raekwon

I still think that MON is the right man for the job and one bad result won't change that but his transfer policy does worry me. He obviously only goes for certain types of players and he doesn't seem to want any big names in his team, which is fair enough but as Helix said you can only go so far with grafters in your team.

I'm also unclear about his 'value for money' theory. If he signed a few young players like Justin Hoyte or Giles Barnes for relatively low transfer fees then it would seem like good business (they will improve & their values would increase) but he insists on paying stupid prices for average players and IMO that is anything but value for money.

Take for example Reo-Coker & Harewood. West Ham paid £750k each for those two players when they were young and unproven in the top flight. Villa come along and pay £7.5m for Reo-Coker & £4m for Harwood, that is a profit £10m profit for The Hammers. Harewood will probably leave on a free transfer in a few seasons and Reo-Coker's value will most likely be half of his transfer fee in a few seasons. How is that value for money? Zat Knight is another one. We paid £4m for him (:rolleyes:) and sold Gary Cahill for £5m. Knight is utter rubbish and his career is in decline at the age of 28. Cahill is 22 and is a very promising centre half who chips in with a few important goals (a lá Laursen). I just don't understand this policy at all

As for the 5 year plan, when Randy Lerner took over he was harping on about bringing back the spirit of 1982 and he said that he would like to see Villa in the Champions League in 5 years time. We are 2 years into that 5 year plan and things are looking pretty much on course. The only problem is that MON doesn't believe in 5 year plans (here) so there could be a conflict of interest there between chairman and manager. I'm sure that behind the scenes they are working together to try and take the club forward and the next step in that process would be to recruit players that can push Villa on to the next level and consistently challenge for a top 5 finish.

Time Magazine

Raekwon wrote: »

Cahill is 22 and is a very promising centre half who chips in with a few important goals (a lá Laursen).

Cahill only scored once for Villa.

Raekwon

Ibid wrote: »

Cahill only scored once for Villa.

And it was a peach But seriously, he only made 28 appearances for Villa in 4 seasons so he would have weighed in with more goals had he been given the chance.

He was also very successful on loan, he was named Burnley's Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year and did well a Sheffield Utd, he even scored the deciding goal in a 1-0 over Stoke.

Helix

PHB wrote: »

Maybe MON was the guy needed for phase one, and you need somebody to take you to the next level, but I can't say that Jol is that person.

i dont think jol would be a bad shout for a year, but i think the next man we bring in has to be for a minimum of 2-3 years, like mon

someone who can continue mons work, but who has the ability to step the squad up a bit in the transfer market

christ id be delighted if mon stepped aside at the end of next season, we got someone in for a season to sign about 10 players, and then we brought mon back in to manage those players

lol

Neil3030

Helix wrote: »

christ id be delighted if mon stepped aside at the end of next season, we got someone in for a season to sign about 10 players, and then we brought mon back in to manage those players

lol

Em.. call me crazy but I'd favour the vastly simpler option of hiring a director of football!

This is descending dangerously close to a full-blown discussion on who to appoint as MON's successor...

One Cold Hand

Couple of things:
Every team has a bad run (look at Arsenal) don't think we should be jumping on MON's back after 2 bad results.
I fully agree that MON has fcuked up with transfers, and I feel that the summer is his last chance for me (and many others I've spoken to!)
I think this season has been a step forward, even if we don't qualify for Europe.

Helix, I think it was you that mentioned a director of football. That would be something that I would be against, especially for MON. We saw the situation at Spurs where Comolli (sp?) was effectively buying the players and Jol had no input into the purchases. I know MON wants complete control over the purchases and he wouldn't settle for that.
It's a role that I don't really understand, like take the situation at Newastle. They brought in Wise as Director of Footie. Why? Do they not trust Keegan?

Finally Raekwon, you mentioned transfer fees. That's the way the cookie crumbles, West Ham took a gamble on unproven players and they proved pretty useful, so their value goes up. And I don't think NRC's value will be halved in a few years. I think he prove to be a very important player for us.
I think £5m was a stupid fee to pay for Cahill and MON was argueably right to take it. £4m was also a ridiculous fee to pay for Knight.

Helix

Neil3030 wrote: »

Em.. call me crazy but I'd favour the vastly simpler option of hiring a director of football!

This is descending dangerously close to a full-blown discussion on who to appoint as MON's successor...

im all for a director of football, i dunno of o'neill would go for it or not tho

and its only a discussion on his successor if he fails again in the transfer market and we dont go for a dof