Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

One Cold Hand

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

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Sidwell--NRC(Barry)

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Bentley

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Young

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Downing

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Carew

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Jesus. I have a semi looking at that.

invincibleirish

As Villa are back playing European football, even if its the Intertoto its still Europe,and as its a brand new Villa thread so i'd like to dream a little:

Spot the prodigal son

V1llianous

According to Sky Sports Transfer clockwatch:

10.50 Slavia Prague defender Marek Suchy has revealed that Aston Villa and Newcastle United have been in contact with his agent Pavel Vandas.


He's a 20 year old centre back who can play midfield defensive roles too according to wikipedia.

Neil3030

Guardian and the Daily Mail both reporting we've agreed a fee for Friedel...

wynters

Sounds like an imminent signing alright...

Express & Star
July 17th 2008

Friedel deal not done just yet

Villa remain keen on signing Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel – but reports this morning that they have agreed a fee are premature.

Martin O’Neill hopes to sign the giant American in time for Saturday’s Intertoto Cup clash with Odense BK in Denmark and has up until 24 hours before the game to tie up the deal.

Rovers boss Paul Ince revealed his determination to keep the stopper earlier this week but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to hold onto the veteran with Villa prepared to pay £2.5m for a player in the autumn of his career.

Friedel, 37, can also expect a lucrative package to be put before him with O’Neill prepared to offer him a three-year deal – one more than his current contract at Ewood Park – and a significant pay increase.

O’Neill is desperately short of options in the goalkeeping department with Stuart Taylor the only senior stopper currently on Villa’s books following Thomas Sorensen’s release and Scott Carson’s return to Liverpool.

He has already agreed a deal to sign Friedel’s compatriot Brad Guzan but the Chivas keeper needs to be granted a work permit before his transfer can be sealed.

Meanwhile, the showdown anticipated between Martin O’Neill and Gareth Barry failed to materialise on the midfielder’s return to training yesterday as the Villa boss was otherwise engaged.

Villa are still awaiting a fifth bid from Liverpool but reports suggest Rafa Benitez has grown impatient with Villa’s refusal to drop their asking price. He may now drop his interest in the England man altogether.

Bounty Hunter

Im starting to expect Barry to be a Villa player this season tbh.


anyone here going to that Soccer beers being organised ? its not for another 2weeks but thought if i asked now people might not have anything else already organised.

and just for One Cold hand here is the linked 11 that we would like:

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Friedel

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Miguel

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Davies---Laursen--Bouma

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S.Sidwell---G.Barry

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D.Bentley

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A.Young

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S.Downing

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Carew

7 Man Sub bench: Guzan, A.Ferdinand, Gardner, NRC, Maloney, Agbonlahor, Delfounso



*i dont expect downing/Ferdinand and im only hopefull of Miguel/Bentley

edit: I miss the smiley face beside the Villa thread

Neil3030

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

edit: I miss the smiley face beside the Villa thread

+1

Made the thread so easy to find in the forum too!

Villain

Thats cos I created it with a siley face, but then the mods went and killed my thread!! :mad:

wynters

Well well well....! What have we here!!!?! It appears we've bid more for Bentley than Tottenham...?

Rovers battle to keep Bentley
July 18th

BLACKBURN have rejected a fresh bid from Tottenham for England winger David Bentley.

The approach is believed to have been made last night but was turned down by Rovers, who insist they want to keep the ex-Arsenal ace.

Chairman John Williams has refused to reveal how much was offered, although sources within the club have confirmed it was less than the bid Aston Villa placed last month.

Williams said: "We have had bids from two clubs.

"One came in when Mark Hughes was manager, the other was fairly recent.

"But they have both been rejected."

JPA

Barry still has heart set on Anfield switch

Jul 18 2008 By Mat Kendrick in Odense

Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry is refusing to back down over his transfer demands and re-iterated his desire to join Liverpool during his first meeting with manager Martin O’Neill following his suspension.
O’Neill revealed the latest complication in the Barry saga from the team base in Denmark where Villa, minus their skipper, are preparing for their Intertoto Cup third round first leg clash against Odense BK.
The Villa manager also confirmed that he has abandoned his interest in Blackburn and England winger David Bentley after having a bid rejected and will now pursue alternative targets.
O’Neill met with Barry and his representative Alex Black at the club’s Bodymoor Heath training complex on Thursday, but an injury has prevented the midfielder from travelling with the Villa squad.
Barry, a summer-long target for Liverpool, returned to training last week after being banned from club premises and fined two weeks wage for a stinging verbal attack on his manager in a national newspaper.
The protracted transfer is still some way off a resolution with Villa chairman Randy Lerner waiting to hear back from Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry after outlining Villa’s asking price for the England player.
“I spoke to Gareth and his agent on Thursday at the training ground and Gareth reiterated his wish to go to Liverpool,” said O’Neill.
“That’s fine that’s something I’ve accepted now for some time. There were discussions last weekend with Randy Lerner and Rick Parry, round about the time that we were out in Switzerland.
“We put something to Liverpool on Monday and they haven’t come back to us.
“So I have to assume that something will get resolved. I didn’t say there was no way back for Gareth. Gareth has reiterated it and I was as disappointed as I was before.
“All I will say is that Liverpool are the ones who are pushing the issue now that we’ve put proposals that we think are very fair to them we’re waiting back to hear from them.
“We haven’t heard back since Monday so I really couldn’t tell you what Liverpool are thinking.”
O’Neill cast doubt over whether even a fully-fit Barry would have been considered for selection against Odense BK at the Fionia Park stadium tonight.
The manager’s patience is being tested by the drawn-out deal and he believes a quick resolution would be in the interests of all parties.
“Gareth has reiterated his wish to join Liverpool so it would depend on frames of mind and would depend on all sorts of things,” said O’Neill.
“This is what I’ve said and that’s where it ends because I’m not in control of all this particular saga and it has been drawn out and I don’t think it’s been on our part.
“Gareth mentioned that he’d like to go way back at the beginning of June after he came back from with Trinidad and Tobago. He hasn’t changed so that’s it.
“Now it’s a matter of getting what we would consider to be a fair price and so far Liverpool have not responded to us since Monday.
“I think for all concerned it would be better if it could be concluded one way or the other but I would assume that Liverpool would be pressing forward now as they had done previously in the first issue.”
Meanwhile, Villa have ended their attempt to sign Bentley after a reported £10 million offer was turned down by the Ewood Park club.
“I will tell you we put an offer in for Bentley which we thought was fair but it was rejected,” added O’Neill.
“This was a long time ago and we’ve not pursued that since so we’re moving on.
“We’ve got outer people we would be very keen to bring to the football club, all pretty decent players.”

Click

Hhhhmmmm. Disappointing.

Bounty Hunter

doubt it was 10m (especially as it seems we have offered more than Spurs) closer to the 15m mark, but i guess the chase for Bentley is over, he is Tottenham's if the can find enough cash. Wonder who the alternatives are though...

invincibleirish

I admire MONs professionalism, if Barry & Black showed up in front of me after their Tabloid antics my only difficulty would be in deciding who to strangle with my bare hands first, MON however appears as calm as ever, fair play.

Bounty Hunter

invincibleirish wrote: »

I admire MONs professionalism, if Barry & Black showed up in front of me after their Tabloid antics my only difficulty would be in deciding who to strangle with my bare hands first, MON however appears as calm as ever, fair play.

If this happens to you strangle Black were not trying to get 18m for him:)

Savman

Carson gone to WBA for, wait for it, £3.25m
Somewhat short of the supposed £10m asking price, wouldn't you say? Unless that was a 'special price' for clubs with rich owners :rolleyes:

Still, good move for Scotty and West Brom, that might be his level.

therecklessone

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

bentley is already in the national team, he has gained that with his performances with Blackburn. the next step there is a regular spot ahead of Beckham - which i dont think is too far off, and which i think he could get while still at Blackburn.

In terms of outside the top 4 - if they are not interested i mean what is the point? he is not going to get champions league football at any of the clubs you have mentioned for a good few years.

Ince may be unproven, but so was Hughes when he signed bentley, blackburn took a chance on Hughes, as they are now doing with Ince.

Blackburn will fall behind the chasing pack in the next year or two, and if Bentley wants to prove himself continually even Uefa Cup football will prove more of a challenge than mid table in the PL.

He'll increase his chances of winning a trophy by moving to one of the chasing pack.

And like it or not, his chances of winning and keeping a place in the starting XI of the England team will be enhanced if he is playing for a side that is pushing for a top 6 finish, is competing in Europe or has a a good chance of lifting silverware.

dobsdave

Savman wrote: »

Carson gone to WBA for, wait for it, £3.25m
Somewhat short of the supposed £10m asking price, wouldn't you say? Unless that was a 'special price' for clubs with rich owners :rolleyes:

Still, good move for Scotty and West Brom, that might be his level.

£10m was the price Aston Villa and Liverpool agreed on at the start of the loan deal, last August I think?.
Obviously Villa thought it was a fair price at the time.
His form since then has seen his price drop, no mystery.

Bounty Hunter

dobsdave wrote: »

£10m was the price Aston Villa and Liverpool agreed on at the start of the loan deal, last August I think?.
Obviously Villa thought it was a fair price at the time.
His form since then has seen his price drop, no mystery.

1 year later Villa decided that he wasnt worth even near £10m, Liverpool publicly stuck to that price although Villa could have probably come back after some time had passed and offered around 5m and got him. Instead WBA IMO just got a real bargain but not a player I wanted to see at VP again this season. I would much prefer if the current speculation of Friedel and Guzan arriving very soon at VP is true.

anyone, is tonights deadline for players to play in the intertoto for both legs or just tommorows ?

Esse85

Thats really disappointing to hear that the Bentley deal is dead, Bentley must of made it clear he had no intention of joining Villa because there's no mention of an increased bid, if £10m was all we offered then thats pretty stingy but there's no proof of that figure so its history now.

I wonder who's the next target for RM, prob either SWP, Milner or Lennon.

Its surprising there's no mention of a RB, maybe MON has identified Finnan and he's waiting for Liverpool to get back to him over the GB sale.

therecklessone

Esse85 wrote: »

Thats really disappointing to hear that the Bentley deal is dead, Bentley must of made it clear he had no intention of joining Villa because there's no mention of an increased bid, if £10m was all we offered then thats pretty stingy but there's no proof of that figure so its history now.

There's the usual sh1te on Spurs sites that Bentley is a Spurs fan and had said he wants to come to us.

I expect he will end up at WHL.

shoutman

I'd take SWP or Milner both are at least on par with bentley imo.

Helix

said it before and ill say it again, id have milner over bentley

Helix

Esse85 wrote: »

Bentley must of made it clear he had no intention of joining Villa

technically, we cant have spoken to him since the bid wasnt accepted anyway

Bounty Hunter

well Friedel really does look likely

Sky Sports wrote:

Friedel: Set to leave

Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel has told the club he wants to leave Ewood Park.

Friedel's future has been the subject of conjecture in recent weeks with the likes of Aston Villa and Manchester City strongly linked with the American.

Rovers chairman John Williams has confirmed the former Liverpool custodian has asked to quit Ewood Park and that they have rejected two bids for Friedel.

"We've had two bids for Brad, despite my insistence to the clubs concerned we didn't want them. They've been rejected," Williams told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

"When Brad told us he wanted to leave, it was a bolt out of the blue - he had only signed his latest contract back in February, and a replacement keeper has not even been on our radar.

Unwelcome situation
"It's an unwelcome situation for us, and particularly for Paul, who has been concentrating on other targets, as well as assessing our squad and bedding in his new backroom staff.

"We are very keen for Brad to stay but to deny him the move he clearly wants after a lengthy stint with the club is difficult.

"We know we have good players and are constantly rejecting unwanted overtures, but it's particularly difficult to accept players leaving for clubs in and around us in the league.

"We have told Brad that, in any event, we cannot even consider a move for him, unless we can satisfy both our football and commercial requirements.


Value
"Looking at the market for proven keepers, we haven't got a bid that anywhere near meets the commercial part of the equation.

"I know some observers will feel that we should take Brad's age and service into account, but it's not that simple.

"We have not earmarked any funds for the goalkeeping department. Why would we?

"And on the football side, Brad Friedels don't grow on trees.

"If he doesn't get his move, although disappointed, Brad is the ultimate professional and I am confident he will remain focused on Rovers.

"But there's no point in denying that this is a tricky situation."

Esse85

Helix wrote: »

technically, we cant have spoken to him since the bid wasnt accepted anyway

Ha ha like this rule is respected;) Just ask Sir Alex

Helix

yer man nicholls on the blackburn board maintains theyre just holding out til they get spurs to agree a fee with them for robinson, then friedel is off to us

wynters

I'm startin to get a major pain in me t*ts with this transfer window. It's turnin into last summer all over again...

I just can't understand how all our transfer dealings are still so much more protracted in comparison to other clubs. I thought that was just an Ellis thing...? Obviously not.

I love O'Neill, but this will be his 5th transfer window (or part thereof) and we hear the same noises coming from the club every time "we're working on signings... we're doing all we can... quality not quantity... signings are coming" but before we know it, it's the last week of the transfer window and we're scrambling to sign our 2nd, 3rd or even 4th choice options, or panic-buying Celtic-rejects as stop-gaps because we didn't get the finger out properly in the first place.

We should be much further towards completing the squad considering we're back in competitive action tomorrow... but I've a feeling we might still be complaining about this come mid-August.

Who knows.... maybe O'Neill is hoping a guaranteed UEFA Cup spot might help attract a better calibre of player (which is a gamble to presume we'll qualify going with what we have!), and maybe it is a peculiar transfer window whereby clubs want to secure replacements before they sell, and then there's the old 'one transfer might have a domino-effect' etc. etc. But when you hear O'Neill saying things like "we've had a bid for Bentley rejected, so we're moving on", it doesn't demonstrate to fans that the club ARE doing all they can to sign players. No improved bid?!?? We're giving up that easy?!??? Why bid in the first place...? And how must Bentley be looking at that comment in terms of 'How much do Villa really want me???' It's just the wrong thing to be saying publically...

I just wish the club would really compete, and show that they're competing for better players. Potential signings might even take us more seriously!

The Young, Carew and Reo-Coker signings apart, I can't really think of any other O'Neill signing who's made a big difference to the side... (Davies is very promising but he struggled to break into the side originally and then got injured soon after he began to do well). That's only 3 decent signings in 5 transfer windows?, so if it is the more high-end quality players who are making the difference to the team, maybe the club should be trying much harder than it would appear they are to get them in.

Anyways. There's been drink taken. Back to the porn. Good night.

Savman

Actually let's be fair on O'Neill here, his statements and his conduct this Summer have been far more bullish and ambitious than in any previous transfer window.

He went out and got Sidwell, a move which everyone knows was only held up by the notable lack of a manager at the bridge. Then he got his yankee keeper, permit pending. It now materializes he is on the verge of getting Friedel and he's also confirmed he made a bid for Bentley, a player everyone seems to rate so highly.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what more you can realistically expect at this stage, in comparison to recent years the club have been much more pro active by a long shot, possibly due to the Intertoto speeding up preseason affairs.

DSB

Savman wrote: »

Actually let's be fair on O'Neill here, his statements and his conduct this Summer have been far more bullish and ambitious than in any previous transfer window.

He went out and got Sidwell, a move which everyone knows was only held up by the notable lack of a manager at the bridge. Then he got his yankee keeper, permit pending. It now materializes he is on the verge of getting Friedel and he's also confirmed he made a bid for Bentley, a player everyone seems to rate so highly.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what more you can realistically expect at this stage, in comparison to recent years the club have been much more pro active by a long shot, possibly due to the Intertoto speeding up preseason affairs.

But still nowhere near active enough, with 5 youth players in the 21 man squad for Odense, this certainly implys we need at least 5 new players, probably more. Do we look like achieving this? Not at all.

Bounty Hunter

I hope Villa put a bid in for SWP's now if MON is going to keep going the english route he is probably the best available. I would also like to see it become a double raid on Chelsea with Villa going after Boulahrouz

Savman

DSB wrote: »

But still nowhere near active enough, with 5 youth players in the 21 man squad for Odense, this certainly implys we need at least 5 new players, probably more. Do we look like achieving this? Not at all.

I think you and I are gonna have this every transfer window

There hasn't been significant movement in the PL yet by any club, bar the odd transfer. We know for sure Villa are in there bidding and haggling, if the signings don't come it won't be from a lack of effort. Anyway, not opening a can of worms again, 31st August!

wynters

Savman wrote: »

Actually let's be fair on O'Neill here, his statements and his conduct this Summer have been far more bullish and ambitious than in any previous transfer window....

... he's also confirmed he made a bid for Bentley, a player everyone seems to rate so highly.

I know what you're sayin, but I disagree Savman. Just to be clear on this, I'm a big O'Neill fan, and I am TRYING to be fair on him . From a tactical and motivational point of view, there's no-one I'd rather have in charge. It's also important to acknowledge here that much of the work involved in signing players is the responsibility of the board, not O'Neill, so I'm not just criticising him here, it's the entire approach.

But when you hear him saying we've taken the first 'No' for an answer (re: Bentley) and just giving up at the first hurdle, that's not the kinda thing that fans want to hear. You can't help wonder if that's bene the club's attitude with every initial rejection we get...??? How many players might we end up missing out on if that's the case.

You're saying he's been far more bullish this transfer window compared to others. In terms of his attitude on Barry - yes, Deffo. But in terms of potential signings coming in, I really don't see that at all. He definitely needs to be more aggressive in the transfer market.

Esse85

Us the fans have no real idea what goes on behind the scenes e.g regarding Bentley. I dont believe that MON just made 1 bid, accepted that it was rejected then decided not to pursue the player any more. I reckon something was said e.g Mr.Bentley doesnt want to play for Aston Villa so there's no point in even agreeing a fee with Blackburn so you may take up plan B.

There's no doubt that the transfer window is a very frustrating time for a Villa fan, we all knew from experience though that MON does it the hard way.

Whether we qualify for the Uefa cup or not i cant see this having too much bearing on the caliber of player we sign. Nowadays it seem to be the CL or nothing.

At the minute things have not improved from last season, they really do need to pick up as we wont be as lucky as we were last season with regard to injuries.

Bounty Hunter

Esse85 wrote: »

Whether we qualify for the Uefa cup or not i cant see this having too much bearing on the caliber of player we sign. Nowadays it seem to be the CL or nothing.

everybody's favouritse Villa player doesent agree with you though

Zat Knight wrote:

'If we can qualify for the UEFA Cup that should help the manager bring in new players. Every player who comes to the Premier League wants to play for a team in Europe. So if we can get there in the next two games there's still a month left in the window, so it's definitely going to attract players.' Adding 'This is a massive club with a big history in Europe and the Premier League. Hopefully qualifying for the UEFA Cup would open a few players' eyes and help us attract the bigger names.'

He also says that the addition of Steve Sidwell is a good one and 'if all his summer signings are of that quality we'll all be happy. Everyone can see we've got a small squad and we're trying to add to it. He's taking his time about it and he won't just bring in anybody to make up the numbers. He's trying to bring in quality and that's what we need.'

Helix

Esse85 wrote: »

Whether we qualify for the Uefa cup or not i cant see this having too much bearing on the caliber of player we sign. Nowadays it seem to be the CL or nothing.

itll make a HUGE difference to the calibre of players available to us. at the moment we can get players who arent massively pushed on playing in europe, when we're there, we can get players who have it as an essential

cl doesnt come into it, we arent good enough to be able to get the top cl rated players anyway

Savman

Esse85 wrote: »

Nowadays it seem to be the CL or nothing.

Very true, that's the level we have to reach if we're ever to tempt Top Class(tm) signings to VP.

Helix

theres a difference between top class and zat knight, the uefa will bring a better standard of player to villa park. not world class, but definitely a step above the level we would be able to attract without uefa cup football

remoteboy

Slightly OT but does anyone know if there's a stream for the Intertoto game tonight?

Helix

its on setanta sure

leninbenjamin

remoteboy wrote: »

Slightly OT but does anyone know if there's a stream for the Intertoto game tonight?

TVU player stream on http://www.rojadirecta.org/

DSB

Savman wrote: »

I think you and I are gonna have this every transfer window

There hasn't been significant movement in the PL yet by any club, bar the odd transfer. We know for sure Villa are in there bidding and haggling, if the signings don't come it won't be from a lack of effort. Anyway, not opening a can of worms again, 31st August!

I agree with you. But unfortunately most other PL sides aren't as desperate for the same quantity of new signings. They can afford to wait for that one target that they want. We can't. If we can't get our number 1 target, we need to go for number 2, and so on, and so on. Believe me, I hope O'Neill gets all his first choice players. But if he can't do that, we need to sign alternative options. None of this waiting for another window for that player.

Bounty Hunter

One thing thats annoying me is, I think Uefa cup might make a real difference in quality and Birmingham wont be an issue if MON is willing to look outside of England. get some quality foreign talent to VP martin please.

I know friedel/Guzan are americans (like Randy) but one plays for Blackburn and one was being tracked by Celtic first not exactley using the scouting network atm despite all the portugese RB links (which have dried up). Marko Marin, Valon Behrani (SP?) etc the talent we need is out there just they seem to not be MON players

Helix

right

time to go get some cans for the match

woooo! first game of the season!

homah_7ft

/turns off light in thread before leaving to watch match.

Esse85

Oops...

Helix

erm.. nothing so see here

(wrong thread lol)

Villain

Well only one good thing can come of tonight MON needs to hurry the f*ck up and sign players

Helix

look, if mon didnt know how desperately we needed players before tonight, theres something not right

Villain

Oh I think he knew we needed I just think he might not have realised we need them before the Intertoto games not after.

Ok I know we should easily have enough to get through but the more pre-season time new signings have the better, I mean even from a set piece point of view, we saw again tonight how we rely on them so much, if we sign a new winger he will have to get used to the set plays that got us so many goals last year.

I say go back to Blackburn and pay what it takes to get to talk to Bentley to see if he wants to come.

DSB

Villain wrote: »

Oh I think he knew we needed I just think he might not have realised we need them before the Intertoto games not after.

We'll get through this tie no problem. But its not the point. Tonight was only an excercise in showing how badly prepared O'Neill is for this new season. Even if he gets players in, its much better for us to have them early, instead of them needing time to gel. I don't know why he insists on this policy of waiting ages to pursue targets and doing everything so slowly. It hasn't had any success for him in the transfer window thus far.

Esse85

As well as being leaky at the back due to Knight and having no RB, i think scoring goals will be a problem.

With the loss of GB who scored 9 and had 10 assists, Ashley Young will get extra special attention from defenders, Laurson will not repeat his goal scoring feat from last season, i expect Carew to get 12-14 league goals, Gabby is just not a clinical finisher, where are the goals gonna come from? Reo-Coker or Petrov, hardly:rolleyes:

We're not far off a shambles at the minute, and what really p1sses me off is listening to bullsh1t comments from MON speaking during the week saying we could be introducing a few new signings into the team for today. Well Martin where are they?