Villa Signings and General Rumours Thread

Villain

We did well to come back into it, didn't create much going forward, Barry was the difference really, his corner made the first and his cross for Carew to get the second was top class.

All we can do now is beat West Ham and Wigan and hope Arsenal beat Everton and keep the 1 goal ahead on goal difference.

Helix

im convinced thats the result that just put us in europe

i can see everton only picking up 1 more point

Villain

Ah I can see them beating Newcastle, and we have to win our two games.

Helix

i dont think they will tbh, but i wouldnt expect it will matter

shoutman

Newcastle have been on great form frecently, is it 7 without a loss for them now?

Obviously we should just concentrate on winning the final two, its not yet a given.

Moyes' showed his tactical prowess there, sticking Carsley on Carew took him out of the game to be fair. If we didnt have set pieces we'd be fcuked.

If barry does leave in the summer (god forbid) we need to replace him with someone with a good left foot, hard to come by yes but none the less its absolutley vital.

DSB

We're so bad at defending. But there was alot of spirit in the side today and I think a draw was the deserved result. Also think thats the result thats put us in Europe.

invincibleirish

Great result today, to come back twice from being a goal down it Goodison Park shows great team spirit and a never say die attitude.

Villa should beat Wigan at home, West Ham are already on their summer holidays so hopefully Villa will mug them at Upton Park.

tomred1

What you think of Laursen not making the pl team of the year. I think he should be in there instead of Ferdinand. What about Bouma for left back also. I think if your not playing for the big 4 you just dont get noticed as much.

Nunu

I recognise Laursens had a good season, but I'd be amazed if anyone, even Villa fans, agree he should be in there ahead of Ferdinand!

Laursen got a handful of goals, but Villa haven't kept many clean sheets.
For me, Ferdinand has been the best centre half in England the last 2 seasons and the best in Europe this season.

Neil3030

Yeah, not a hope Laursen would get in ahead of Ferdinand, if anyone, Carvalho should be the one feeling hard done by.

DSB

Yeah Laursen's achievements have maybe been more impressive after the injury, but Ferdinand has still been much the better player.

krinpit

Let's talk business

What do people think of the likelihood of Villa finishing 5th? It requires us to beat both West Ham and Wigan and for Arsenal to beat Everton.

Are there too many factors here, or is it likely?

I think it's unlikely, but I'm definitely hoping.

Helix

tbh, i reckon us finishing 5th is more likely than everton finishing 5th

and for the record imo we only need 4 points to do it

6 would be far nicer tho

Bluetonic

Helix wrote: »

tbh, i reckon us finishing 5th is more likely than everton finishing 5th

Really thats your supporters heart ruling over realism.

You have a chance but Everton are in the driving seat regardless of the remaining games.

Neil3030

I just have this niggling feeling that Everton's slump won't go all the way to the end of the season, and where better than the Emirates to restore form. But having said that, Arsenal put six past Derby last night, hopefully they'll be back on form too.

spiderdan

I think there's another big factor in finishing 5th other then Europe, I reckon Barry is waiting to see if we qualify before he makes his decision on whether to join Liverpool!

Tomthepost

spiderdan wrote: »

I think there's another big factor in finishing 5th other then Europe, I reckon Barry is waiting to see if we qualify before he makes his decision on whether to join Liverpool!

Of bigger concern to me in relation to where or not Barry will stay is the players we are being linked to. If the aim is to break into the top 4 we got to have more ambition then bringing Crouch back to Villa Park.
5th would be great but we should still make UEFA with 6th by coming through the Inter 2bob .
The players we can attract will influence Barry more then anything else. MON will have to move quick when the window reopens to show the likes of Gabby, Barry and Young that he is serious about taking the next step with villa.

PHB

IMO Crouch is an good player, possibly even good enough for a top 4 club, he just needs to be first choice. Liverpool doesn't suit him one bith, he isn't on the pitch because of his height, he's on it for his feet. If his team mates realised this and stopped hoofing it to them, he'd do much better.
He'd be a great signing by whoever gets him.

Still, MON has a tough job in keeping the team together. That's always the toughest job to do after a successful season. He needs some big up and coming top class youngster to show that he is serious about the next level. Modric shows everyone in Spurs that.

Raekwon

PHB wrote: »

IMO Crouch is an good player, possibly even good enough for a top 4 club, he just needs to be first choice. Liverpool doesn't suit him one bith, he isn't on the pitch because of his height, he's on it for his feet. If his team mates realised this and stopped hoofing it to them, he'd do much better.

I personally would not like to see Peter Crouch back at Villa Park, aside from the fact that we sold him for £2m and would probably have to pay around £8m to get him back, I just don't rate him as highly as John Carew. He would be better off going to a team like Newcastle where he would be a perfect partner for Michael Owen.

As for MON keeping the team together, now that is going to be the hard part. This is probably going to be the biggest summer of MON's managerial career and after a couple of very poor transfer windows he has no choice but to deliver on past promises and strengthen the squad (a right-back for the love of god!!!!). The trouble is now that Villa have had a good season and our best players are attracting attention for the top 4 MON will really need to break his habit of signing grafter type squad players and sign some top quality players first team players or risk the wrath of the fans and even worse, lose the best players that he has right now.

Over to you Mr Lerner & Mr O'Neill

Helix

Bluetonic wrote: »

Really thats your supporters heart ruling over realism.

you havent read many of my posts before have you?

Neil3030

Curtis to be back a month early, but probably not until October or November.

Neil3030

Villa Reserves draw with Arsenal Reserves 1-1 to win the Premiership Reserve League South

Villa have a play-off final against the northern champions Liverpool at Anfield next Wednesday.

Silverware!! :cool:

tomred1

Raekwon wrote: »

As for MON keeping the team together, now that is going to be the hard part. This is probably going to be the biggest summer of MON's managerial career

What are you on about! Barry is the only player to be linked with a move away. I have heard of no other player being linked to a move(apart from Berger). Mellberg is the only player leaving from this squad that MON does not want going. I dont think Barry will leave becuase he would have gone after O'Leary left, he just looking for more money.

Bounty Hunter

Neil3030 wrote: »

Villa Reserves draw with Liverpool Reserves 1-1 to win the Premiership Reserve League South

Villa have a play-off final against the northern champions Liverpool at Anfield next Wednesday.

Silverware!! :cool:

seems strangley like a post i made about a week ago

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Villa Reserves drew 1-1 with Chelsea's reserves yesterday which meant that after Reading drew with Pompey tonight, our reserves has now been crowned champions of the Southern League.

This sets up a play off fixture vs Liverpool at Anfield in a couple of weeks.

...great to see Villa win a trophy this year:D

add that to the Youths winning their league and things are definatley looking good for the future at VP.

Now just for the seniors to get into Europe, and considering that Intertoto should mean that even if 5th isnt achieved Villa only need 1 more win.

...GO TEAM!, woo organised sporting occasions

Raekwon

tomred1 wrote: »

What are you on about! Barry is the only player to be linked with a move away. I have heard of no other player being linked to a move(apart from Berger). Mellberg is the only player leaving from this squad that MON does not want going. I dont think Barry will leave becuase he would have gone after O'Leary left, he just looking for more money.

What’s with the attitude? Did somebody rob your lunch money or something? :rolleyes:

Barry is the latest player to be linked with a move away from Villa Park. Abonglahor was linked with a move to Arsenal earlier this season and Ashley Young has been named in the Premier League Team of the Season so I would be very surprised if bigger teams were not eyeing him up. Even John Carew came out last week and said that he would expect some big signings during the summer so Villa can push on (he was linked to Porto during the January window so no guarantees that he will stick around either).

Back to Barry. In the summer of 2006 he was virtually out of the door to either Spurs or Pompey but he stayed only because of MON's arrival and the assurance that Villa will be going places under the new regime (plus he as made captain and given a given a pay rise.......which obviously helped). He is now 27 years old and has given 10 years service to Villa but has not won any silverware in that time. He hasn't kept it a secret that he would like to play in the Champions League and win a few medals and with Liverpool & Chelsea showing interest him MON will have his work cut out hanging onto Barry this summer.

The bottom line is, if MON doesn't bring in a few top class players during the summer then alot of his current crop of highly rated players will be beginning to wonder if the club are actually matching their own personal ambitions. Remember a football player’s career is short and if opportunities present themselves to play among the elite of Europe and win trophies then 9 out of 10 times they will take it (or live to regret it).

Neil3030

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

seems strangley like a post i made about a week ago

Weird is that, why are the Brum Mail reporting they only won it with last night's draw with Arsenal?. Well they either won the southern league last week or last night. One of you was wrong, I'll leave the two of you to sort it out

Bounty Hunter

that is a funny one... I still claim im right and Villa's local newspaper is brimming over with wrongability. This was the reserve table before Villa v Arsenal and only 17games are played total

Aston Villa 16 10 3 3 36 15 33
West Ham United 17 9 4 4 32 19 31
Reading 16 8 5 3 29 13 29
Fulham 17 8 4 5 27 24 28
ARSENAL 16 7 5 4 23 16 26
Birmingham City 17 6 4 7 25 32 22
Chelsea 17 5 6 6 22 20 21
Tottenham Hotspur 17 5 5 7 20 22 20
Portsmouth 16 4 3 9 10 24 15
Derby County 17 0 3 14 12 51 3

probably shouldent have quoted you anywhoo not like you were stealing my news tis all good tho Villa won a league afterall.

All Liverpool reserves games are shown live on LFCTV which is free if you have setanta, wonder will the playoff also be available there also...wouldent mind watching that match.

tomred1

Raekwon wrote: »

He is now 27 years old and has given 10 years service to Villa but has not won any silverware in that time.

What about intertoto cup in 2001!
I hate reading this crap about if MON doesn'yt buy new players that other players will leave. When has this ever happened? Carew is a journay man if he wanted to play CL football that bad he would have stayed in France. Barry is just trying to get more money. Anybody can see that Liverpool aren't really that much better than us, we are only 11 pts behind them(with our small squad)and if he went to Chelsea he would be a Sidwell. I really believe we will be challenging for a CL place next season. All the players know that Villa are going places and alot of our players are playing there best football under MON. Villa biggest challenge is holding on to MON.

shoutman

I think it is a big too optomistic to think that Villa can break into the top four next year. At the moment we have a very good core eleven, but honestly how many of them are of good champions league standard. It is said that to enter europe you need 4 more players then you would for a normal premiership season, we already need about five players to have a normal sized premiership squad and unless Ol' Harry R was appointed I can't see Villa getting 9 players off quality during the summer.

Yes I think it would be a huge loss if MON was to leave but at the moment I can't see that happening in the next two years, I'm not sure if anyone would agree but I could see him being the next united manager, wasn't he touted as the top candidate when Fergie was to retire a few years back?

Neil3030

MON emerges as a frontrunner every time a big job comes up, he was top of the list to replace Benitez there a couple of months ago, before that it was England after McClown got the boot. He is being touted as the next United manager and no doubt his name will be brought up if Grant gets the shove this summer.

Best case scenario he establishes Villa in the top 4 over the next 5 years and won't see a move to any of the afore mentioned as all that much of a career move... Wishful thinking, I know...

Raekwon

tomred1 wrote: »

What about intertoto cup in 2001!

What about it?

tomred1 wrote: »

I hate reading this crap about if MON doesn'yt buy new players that other players will leave. When has this ever happened? Carew is a journay man if he wanted to play CL football that bad he would have stayed in France. Barry is just trying to get more money. Anybody can see that Liverpool aren't really that much better than us, we are only 11 pts behind them(with our small squad)and if he went to Chelsea he would be a Sidwell. I really believe we will be challenging for a CL place next season. All the players know that Villa are going places and alot of our players are playing there best football under MON. Villa biggest challenge is holding on to MON.

Well you might not like reading about it but that is the reality of the situation. Garth Barry was quoted saying that he needs to be 'selfish' about his future, I assume that he means both wages and success. At Villa he is on around £50k per week, he knows that at Liverpool, Chelsea & Arsenal he can earn double that figure and challenge for the Premier League and Champions League each season. Can Villa offer that?

I agree with you about it being a challenge to keep MON. He is a top, top manager and I'm not surprised that alot of big teams would like him as their manager. But I think he is happy at Villa where the chairman, fans & players all worship him and he hasn't got half of the pressure that other clubs put on their managers. Take Sven Goren-Eriksson's situation, he has had a very good first season at Man City yet his eccentric chairman is rumoured to be looking to replace him. Avram Grant & Rafa Benitez are both under the same sort of pressure even though they have both done exceptionally well at their respective clubs. I doubt very much that MON would like to be in their situations.

Helix

Olof Mellberg today placed his Villa Park farewell against Wigan in jeopardy after falling ill.

The Swedish defender, set to Juventus in the summer, is suffering from a virus and missed today’s training session at Bodymoor Heath.

Manager Martin O’Neill said: “Olof has rung in ill, but it’s too early to say whether he will miss Saturday’s game. We’ll play it by ear.”

O’Neill has insisted Mellberg’s farewell is secondary to Villa’s ‘must’ of getting three points against Wigan this Saturday. Long-serving defender Mellberg will bid goodbye to Villa fans if he makes his final appearance at Villa Park before his free transfer.

The Swedish international is guaranteed a special send-off and fans are marking the occasion with ‘Mellberg Day’.

Many plan to wear yellow shirts in honour of the 30-year-old, who has made 261 appearances since joining the clun for £5.6m in 2001 from Racing Santander.

But all sentiment is lost on Villa boss O’Neill, who is only concerned with garnering another three points.

Asked about the crowd saluting Mellberg, he said: “That may well be. I don’t know. I was looking more at the general picture of how difficult the match will be.”

O’Neill insists a meeting with Wilfred Bouma’s agent to thrash out a new deal is imminent, after a clause in the Dutchman’s deal stating when he needed to know a decision expired yesterday.

He also played down reports on his presence at Coventry last weekend where he checked out Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey.

i draw your attention to the second last paragraph

Tomthepost

whilst he has had a fine season im not a huge fan of Bouma to be honest. Would nearly prefer if we signed John O Shea for that role.
I hope O Halloran can make a full recovery and push for the position next season.

shoutman

Tomthepost wrote: »

whilst he has had a fine season im not a huge fan of Bouma to be honest. Would nearly prefer if we signed John O Shea for that role.
I hope O Halloran can make a full recovery and push for the position next season.

I think Bouma is easily as good as if not better then John O Shea.

One Cold Hand

Tomthepost wrote: »

whilst he has had a fine season im not a huge fan of Bouma to be honest. Would nearly prefer if we signed John O Shea for that role.

Haha!! Your funny. The only reason that I won't ridicule you is that you included the word 'nearly.'

Neil3030

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Haha!! Your funny. The only reason that I won't ridicule you is that you included the word 'nearly.'

Like how Villa nearly won the league this year...

One Cold Hand

Yep. And Man U nearly got relegated!

invincibleirish

Villa to hammer Wigan on Saturday, for flip sake Villa have to beat them!

One Cold Hand

I'll take a win of any description.

I don't care if their keeper throws it into his own goal in the 95th minute for a 1-0 win.

tomred1

Bouma is a very good defender. He has been great this season. John O'Shea is nowhere near his level.

Helix

Tomthepost wrote: »

whilst he has had a fine season im not a huge fan of Bouma to be honest. Would nearly prefer if we signed John O Shea for that role.
I hope O Halloran can make a full recovery and push for the position next season.

but if he goes for free we have to sign a replacement for him, regardless of whether we buy another left back

that means less money for other areas of the pitch

Helix

invincibleirish wrote: »

Villa to hammer Wigan on Saturday, for flip sake Villa have to beat them!

i fancy us to stick 3 or 4 past them to be honest

Savman

Tomthepost wrote: »

whilst he has had a fine season im not a huge fan of Bouma to be honest. Would nearly prefer if we signed John O Shea for that role.

I see that you don't post here that often, so was that some attempt to wind us all up or wha? Because you couldn't actually believe what you just posted.

Neil3030

Maybe he was on the wind, but all jokes aside, there has to be some accountability to our defence's performance this year and it'd be extremely naive to assume that our back 4 and keeper are immune from criticism.

Leaving the issue of squad-depth to one side for a moment, the way I look at it, in terms of improving on this year, nine clean sheets and 47 conceded goals is where significant gains can and need to be made. We score a lot of goals, but we are a long way off the Brazil team of the 1970s. Keep in mind that 8 of the goals we scored only got us 2 points because of our defensive frailties and another 15 came against piss poor opposition over the last few weeks (we had a GD of +8 on the 4th of April).

So even taking a conservative look at some of our results this season - Chelsea away, Spurs away, Fulham away, these games could easily have resulted in nine points instead of two if we had a stronger defence. (Putting that in perspective, we’d be on 66 points, four behind Liverpool with two games to play – but that’s not what I’m getting at.)

Now if we want to be a bit more liberal with the analysis - Knight’s blunder against Sunderland, the two howlers away to Portsmouth, the careless late equaliser conceded at the Emirates; yes, we’re getting slightly abstract here, but it’s not beyond the realms of plausibility that we could have gotten at least two draws and a win out of these three games, giving us another five points, if we simply had a steadier defence.

Now before anyone takes a shot at me for wasting time mourning over what could have been, I’m not. These examples simply highlight how the key moves over the summer should not be a right-winger or a 20 goals striker. Ironically, we need to bolster up an area that a lot of players have supposedly had a good season – Laursen, Davies, Mellberg*, Bouma et al.

Our defence is not poor, it’s simply average. And when you hold it up in comparison to our capabilities going forward, it stands out as our weakest link and the area MON needs to pay the most attention to in the Summer. Bringing in the likes of SWP, Källström and Pazzini will look great in the papers, but the fact of the matter is that we will be lucky to finish 5th-7th place next year, if we concede 45+ goals.

Defence wins championships, or could at least Villa next year, all other things being equal, get us into the top 4. Unfortunately though, all other things may not be equal if Barry leaves due to the lack of “inspired signings” this summer, and likewise the majority of fans will not be content with the acquisition of only a couple of defenders and maybe a new keeper, and get the grumble-mill churning.

So to keep the fans on his side and our best player in the changing room, MON will need to buy big in areas where, comparatively speaking, we do not need improvement. But I’ll be looking out for key moves in defence to see where we are really heading next year. If MON brings in the glue aswell as the glitter, I’m going to be very optimistic. But if we line up in August with Gardner, Knight, Laursen and Bouma, in front of an overpriced Carson or an un-proven Guzan, regardless of who comprises the midfield or forward line, it’s going to be a long year…

[* I understand Mellberg’s praise has been more due to his filling in where needed, rather than excelling at the RB position]

Mr Alan

Liverpool have tabled a 10million bid for Barry according to Tony Barrett in the Liverpool Echo, who is about as reliable as they come.

Villain

10 million lol double it and you might have some chance

Mr Alan

not sure, maybe it'll involve Carson as well?

Savman

Neil3030 wrote: »

So to keep the fans on his side and our best player in the changing room, MON will need to buy big in areas where, comparatively speaking, we do not need improvement.

Have to agree with you here.

As for Barry, if he wants to go he'll go, aint no stopping it. For the record though, there are no teams immune from having their best players snatched from under their noses. Real Madrid after Cristiano Ronaldo is one example, there's also countless rumours about Lampard, Drogba, Fabregas, the list goes on. Good players will be wanted and someone, somewhere will have enough money and/or stupidity to make it happen.

I'm more worried about losing Ashley Young than Barry, Young strikes me as one very ambitious SOB whereas at least Barry has shown considerable loyalty in the past. If he chose to move on, nobody could really argue tbh.

Still love him to stay though.

tomred1

Totally agree that we need defenders more than any other areas. I think we should stay with Laursen, Davies, Bouma. We just need a good right back and keeper Carson is only average. We need better squad players for defance as Knight is not good enough and Garnder is a midfielder.

Villain

Mr Alan wrote: »

not sure, maybe it'll involve Carson as well?

Don't know if MON still wants Carson tbh he said he hadn't decided recently and when you think Pool were meant to be looking for 10 million for Carson you'd have to laugh at them offering 10 million for Barry.

IMO Barry shouldn't be sold for less than 16 million Pound Sterling