Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Savman

orourkeda wrote: »

Woooooooooooo. Touchy Touchy

Touchy your pigballs? No thanks.:)

JPA

This got weird, fast.

orourkeda

Indeed. Lets get off the pig organs

invincibleirish

My heartfelt apologies to the Villa threads Jewish & Muslim population. Shalom & Allah Akbar.

shoutman

Can I ask if given the reigns for a day, is there anyone here who would sack MON today?

Helix

not i

mirwillbeback

shoutman wrote: »

Can I ask if given the reigns for a day, is there anyone here who would sack MON today?

on the basis of our terrible fall from Champs League contenders to a measly 6th place, losing our long term midfield stand out with no apparent replacement, a lack of both transfer nous overall and indeed action to date, i would.

but if MON proves me wrong and gets some good and maybe even GREAT players in, I will stand corrected.

but as of this minute, O NEILL OUT :eek:

Helix

youre youre past mid june its too late to be changing manager unless things go horribly wrong mid season imo

as soon as the season is over is when chairmen should do their hiring and firing. have the new man in place long before other managers even go on their holidays

orourkeda

mirwillbeback wrote: »

on the basis of our terrible fall from Champs League contenders to a measly 6th place, losing our long term midfield stand out with no apparent replacement, a lack of both transfer nous overall and indeed action to date, i would.

but if MON proves me wrong and gets some good and maybe even GREAT players in, I will stand corrected.

but as of this minute, O NEILL OUT :eek:

Retard

mirwillbeback

thanks for the vote of confidence, though on your past posts you don't appear to raise constructive arguments, mine are there to see, where are yours?

JPA

We don't want Villa fans getting banned, edit the posts.


Looks like the Tuncay and Downing signings are a real possibility at this stage.
I'd be happy with them although not sure at what price.
£16 million for both woul be about my valuation although Boro probably value them much higher.

Downing's injury could complicate things although he is expected to be fit by early October.

invincibleirish

We have to be accomodating here. Certain abusive posters might be on their period for example. Just laugh it off.

I wouldn't sack MON either, for now. If we start next season as awful as we ended last season then who knows.

V1llianous

I wouldn't sack O'Neill now - he never discloses which transfer targets he has in mind and surely we'd all like a class player to come in in 3 weeks times instead of a championship reject yesterday.

As I think Helix said quite a while ago I think this will be a make or break season for MON and I think he will be judged at the end of it. I hope for his sake he's done well in this transfer window and some of his previous signings make significant improvements to justify their purchase ala Petrov.

I'm as disappointed as anyone else with our plummet from 3rd to 6th but it will take time to build the squad - even if we had the millions like City and bought 20 world class players they would take time to gel. Even a Man City fan friend of mine is predicting they'll have a serious blip and is expecting Hughes to be sacked in the next 10 months.

Regarding replacements - if O'Neill did go (whether jumps or is pushed) I'd prefer to see a good man manager who can purchase astutely on limited funds to replace him someone in the Moyes mould rather than a flash harry spend big charachter.

Bounty Hunter

V1llianous wrote: »

As I think Helix said quite a while ago I think this will be a make or break season for MON and I think he will be judged at the end of it.

ive seen many people say this and I do in a way agree as in I do think this will be his biggest season and if we improve again (which i maintain we have done each season under him so far) then itl be massive but it could so easily go the other way.

but what for people here would constitute a break season for MON?

most Villa fans ive spoken to dont honestly expect (hope yes) Villa to break the top 4 this year and honestly most expect Man City to leapfrog us also in a new top 5. So is it equal last years position(6th) or bust for O'Neil in your eyes?

JPA

Only if Villa were relegated would MON go.

death1234567

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

most Villa fans ive spoken to dont honestly expect (hope yes) Villa to break the top 4 this year and honestly most expect Man City to leapfrog us also in a new top 5. So is it equal last years position(6th) or bust for O'Neil in your eyes?

6th is really the minimum we should be aiming for after having finished 6th two years in a row. Ideally we should be challenging The Arse for that 4th spot along with Man Citeh. I'm sure man citeh will find a way to make a balls of all the money they have in true Man citeh style. The Arse are a club going nowhere, Wenger has no money to compete and his ability to pluck star players from the french league has dried up. The main thing for villa is for MON to spend any money given this summer wisely and to make sure we are a much better side next season than we were last. Some silverware would also be nice.

Helix

JPA wrote: »

Only if Villa were relegated would MON go.

if he doesnt better 6th, or top 8 and a cup win he'll walk away

hes always said that he'll leave when the team stops improving under him

~Rebel~

O Neil used to always work on a rolling contract from year to year so if he wasn't doing the job he could be gotten rid of easily, or alternatively if he did an amazing job that he could be free to move onto a top tier team.

Is this still the case or is he nailed down to 3 or 4 years?

Helix

heres one for yis. if money is tight, and we need to sell young, who would you accept from the summer window to make up for him leaving? realistic options only?

id go for:

bentley - £9m
downing - £9m
huddlestone - £7m
tuncay £5.5m
distin £2m
upson - £8m OR hangeland - £13m
dunne - £4m
miguel - £7m
naughton - £5m

total £56.5m with upson, or £61.5m with hangeland

£30m for young + £12m for barry + £2m for harewood = £44m income, so a net spend of either £12.5m or £17.5m.

never going to happen like, but its just a hypothetical.

Helix

~Rebel~ wrote: »

O Neil used to always work on a rolling contract from year to year so if he wasn't doing the job he could be gotten rid of easily, or alternatively if he did an amazing job that he could be free to move onto a top tier team.

Is this still the case or is he nailed down to 3 or 4 years?

still rolling

Neil3030

Helix wrote: »

heres one for yis. if money is tight, and we need to sell young, who would you accept from the summer window to make up for him leaving? realistic options only?

id go for:

bentley - £9m
downing - £9m
huddlestone - £7m
tuncay £5.5m
distin £2m
upson - £8m OR hangeland - £13m
dunne - £4m
miguel - £7m
naughton - £5m

total £56.5m with upson, or £61.5m with hangeland

£30m for young + £12m for barry + £2m for harewood = £44m income, so a net spend of either £12.5m or £17.5m.

never going to happen like, but its just a hypothetical.

That net spend wouldn't even be half the TV revenue from last year, Lerner'd be getting away royally lol. I might forego with Dunne and try get Van Nistelrooy instead.

I really can't see us selling Young this Summer, not least for all the obsequious comments MON makes about him.

Neil3030

Talk of Gardner going to Boro on a year long loan as part of the Tuncay/Downing deal. Win win imo.

Helix

nah i think gardener is great

purely coz hes a villa fan and loves to cripple former players

Helix

Neil3030 wrote: »

I really can't see us selling Young this Summer, not least for all the obsequious comments MON makes about him.

itd be worth it for that shopping list tho wouldnt it:D

Neil3030

Helix wrote: »

nah i think gardener is great

purely coz hes a villa fan and loves to cripple former players

I like the guy too, but a whole season of regular play will do him wonders.

Neil3030

Helix wrote: »

itd be worth it for that shopping list tho wouldnt it:D

I guess it'd depend on how well Young develops at his new club, but yeah adding that group to our squad would be just what the doctor ordered.

JPA

Helix wrote: »

itd be worth it for that shopping list tho wouldnt it:D

Good list but I just wouldn't want Young sold for anything.
I just couldn't be happy about it no matter who we sign.
There is no left winger as good as him in England, but what is going to happen if Downing signs?

JPA

I couldn't see Gardner being too happy at going down to the Championship.

matrim

Helix wrote: »

bentley - £9m
downing - £9m
huddlestone - £7m
tuncay £5.5m
distin £2m
upson - £8m OR hangeland - £13m
dunne - £4m
miguel - £7m
naughton - £5m

While they are all good players, we'd be with only Bentley and Milner for fully fit wingers until at least November. Which is one of the downsides of signing Downing (if we do)

And IMO we still wouldn't have a proper replacement for Barry from our current squad and that list.

On top of that I don't think we need Distin and Dunne and Hangeland\Upson. We don't need 3 new CB unless you want to get rid of one or likely 2. If we got 2 CB's from that list we'd have 4 CB's that can play first team and Knight for backup.

Helix

id get rid of night pretty quicksmart

best make that dunne or distin, not both... thatd probably work a bit better

re no replacement for barry, id go with a 3 man midfield with petrov and huddlestone just behind tuncay who takes the lead role in terms of creativeness. we dont need a direct replacement for barry, because him and petrov dulled us from the middle imo. petrov to break up the play, huddlestone to pick the passes and tuncay being creative would be the best midfield combo we could hope for i think

also looks like downing will be back in october apparently, tho that could just be bs pr to get him offloaded for a good price asap

Helix

JPA wrote: »

Good list but I just wouldn't want Young sold for anything.
I just couldn't be happy about it no matter who we sign.
There is no left winger as good as him in England, but what is going to happen if Downing signs?

if we plan on keeping him (which i assume we do) then therell be a bit of musical chairs on the wings. downing on the left, and either milner or young on the right with the other one going in the advanced central role (milner would be the best for that role imo, hes got more legs and hes a slightly better tackler)

of course if bentley signs too, that all goes out the window. i cant see a situation where we sign bentley AND downing without young being on the way out

JPA

I think downing is in the gym now, doing light work, so he's on the road to being back anyway.

Helix

spuds just had a bid for the big jc knocked back

matrim

Helix wrote: »

id get rid of night pretty quicksmart

best make that dunne or distin, not both... thatd probably work a bit better

re no replacement for barry, id go with a 3 man midfield with petrov and huddlestone just behind tuncay who takes the lead role in terms of creativeness. we dont need a direct replacement for barry, because him and petrov dulled us from the middle imo. petrov to break up the play, huddlestone to pick the passes and tuncay being creative would be the best midfield combo we could hope for i think

also looks like downing will be back in october apparently, tho that could just be bs pr to get him offloaded for a good price asap

Knight would be a decent 5th choice CB mainly because he's willing to sit there on the bench. Although if we have any up and coming younsters who are good then we don't need him for that

I was thinking of that 3 man midfield but would MON go for that. From the end of last season it doesn't look like he likes that.

So you're team would probably be

---

Friedal\Guzan

Young\Naughton - Upson(or Hangeland)\Distin - Culleur\Davies - Bouma\Miguel

---

Petrov\Reo-Croker - Huddlestone\Gardner

Milner\Bentley

---

Tuncay

---

Milner\Downing

---

Carew\Gabby\Heskey


I do think that that team would cause hassle for most teams but I think we'd have problems (in the center of midfield) if we wanted to swap to a 442 to mix things up


On Downing the reason I said fully fit was because of the October rumor. If he's back in October it will take at least a month for him to be fully fit

JPA

You forgot Sidwell! He lives!

Helix

ill be amazed if mon goes with 442 next season tbh, it was an absolute disaster this time round

Helix

matrim wrote: »

---

Friedal\Guzan

Young\Naughton - Upson(or Hangeland)\Distin - Culleur\Davies - Bouma\Miguel

---

Petrov\Reo-Croker - Huddlestone\Gardner

Milner\Bentley

---

Tuncay

---

Milner\Downing

---

Carew\Gabby\Heskey

I think we'd have problems (in the center of midfield) if we wanted to swap to a 442 to mix things up

nah, just put tuncay up front and play the rest of the midfield as a flat line

matrim

Helix wrote: »

nah, just put tuncay up front and play the rest of the midfield as a flat line

But I don't see that midfield being mobile enough if it's petrov and huddlestone or Gardner or Sidwell .

Helix

itd be no less mobile than petrov and barry if we're being fair

barry seemed to just lose all creativity last season, with him and petrov playing the exact same role

at least if we were to have something similar with huddlestone in there you know theres always the chance that he'll pick a great pass and create something

alternatively, hud off and nrc on. let the chap play in his natural box to box role and see what happens

Esse85

Why all the talk of Huddlestone, does he look certain to join us?

Helix

strongly mooted for a while now

Mr Alan

is it looking like Villa are going to sign Tuncay? or is that just speculation from yous?

was hoping we'd sign him after we were linked with him at the end of the season

JPA

Mr Alan wrote: »

is it looking like Villa are going to sign Tuncay? or is that just speculation from yous?

was hoping we'd sign him after we were linked with him at the end of the season

Linked with him and Downing, stronger speculation than most.
We'll see.

Helix

Mr Alan wrote: »

is it looking like Villa are going to sign Tuncay? or is that just speculation from yous?

was hoping we'd sign him after we were linked with him at the end of the season

downing and tuncay doubler getting loads of press today, far more than the usual bolloxology rumour, so there might be something to it

matrim

Helix wrote: »

itd be no less mobile than petrov and barry if we're being fair

barry seemed to just lose all creativity last season, with him and petrov playing the exact same role

at least if we were to have something similar with huddlestone in there you know theres always the chance that he'll pick a great pass and create something

alternatively, hud off and nrc on. let the chap play in his natural box to box role and see what happens

But that lack of mobility was one of our main downfalls last season. We were constantly leaving our defenders exposed (especially at the end of games)

Helix

hence the nrc alternative

the problem we had at the end of games is that the defence shat itself and hoofed the ball straight back to the opposition every time they got it. thats grand once or twice, but for 10 minutes solid at the end of a game youre GOING TO concede

invincibleirish

Yes the lack of mobility in the centre of midfield in the last minutes of a game was a huge issue. A class DM in the Palacios mould should fit the bill. Don't think NRC has what it takes tbh, 25 years old and years of PL experience yet still has issues with his passing. Sidwell could be the box to box midfielder we need, but i doubt he has what it takes either.

Time Magazine

Helix wrote: »

spuds just had a bid for the big jc knocked back

Link?

Helix

The Economist wrote: »

Link?

twas on ssn i believe (i dont have it any more)

Bounty Hunter

The Economist wrote: »

Link?

i think it was said on SSN earlier its been talked about on Villa sites for most of the day. Carew doesent want to leave and whealer dealer Redknapp probably isnt willing to pay what itd actually take to get Carew 10m+ (My estimate).

I dont think A.Young is going anywhere, he has been linked only to Chelsea (has died down since Zhirkov signed) and Spurs (sideways move tbh), The man utd stuff was just wishfull thinking on behalf of their fans if im correct and the Barca link was probably bollox...

but to answer Helixs question about what id want to see in if he did leave and in doing so use some realism i.e going by one of the Young links and only who we have been linked to In maybe the below.

...........................Friedel

L.Young....Hangeland...Davies/Cuellar....Bouma

.....................Petrov.....Jenas

Bentley/JM.........Tuncay/JM..........Downing/JM

..........................Carew

Subs: Guzan, Davies/Cuellar, NRC, Sidwell, Winger, Gabby, Heskey

JM = Milner, and the Young deal is the Bentley/Jenas swap which im sure wont happen