Sidwell's off... see ya' then!

[garyshawsknee]

I'm not getting the bunting out till the ink has dried. When will Gardner be back from his injury?

[Mazrim]

I'm not getting the bunting out till the ink has dried. When will Gardner be back from his injury?

Should be fit by September/October or so I hear.

[garyshawsknee]

I'm not getting the bunting out till the ink has dried. When will Gardner be back from his injury?

Should be fit by September/October or so I hear.

That sounds good,hopefully he'll be pushing for a place on the bench come Christmas.

[Risso]

I'm afraid Sidwell has to go down as another very expensive mistake,  £5m transfer fee, plus another £5m in wages.

[Mazrim]

I'm not getting the bunting out till the ink has dried. When will Gardner be back from his injury?

Should be fit by September/October or so I hear.

That sounds good,hopefully he'll be pushing for a place on the bench come Christmas.

As highly as I rate the kid, I'd hope we wouldn't need him for at least another year. Even on the bench.

But if he makes the bench the odd time towards the end of the season or in the odd cup tie, I wouldn't worry about him. Hopefully we'll have Delph back by Christmas too.

[sfx412]

I'm afraid Sidwell has to go down as another very expensive mistake,  £5m transfer fee, plus another £5m in wages.

Why are you afraid, did you buy him for 8 mill, was you one of the many who predicted when he signed he'd be the answer to our midfield woes, that he was Barry's replacement?

He came with nothing, he stayed and gave nothing and he left for nearly nothing.

At least he's gone, along with Harewood, hopefully, now there's just Coker, Davies, Beye, Young, ........ Is Salifou still there?

[old man villa fan]

I'm afraid Sidwell has to go down as another very expensive mistake,  £5m transfer fee, plus another £5m in wages.

A player that was one of the most highly rated in the country when he went to Chelsea.  Couldn't break into the Chelsea team, whether that was because there were international players ahead of him or just that he was not as good as Chelsea thought when he was playing for Reading.  Was the Reading team set up to make him look better than he was.

He was on a very good contract at Chelsea and we had to make a good offer to get him.  When we were in for him, I saw him as possibly the Dennis Mortimer type player we needed in midfield as I remembered how he played for Reading.

As it turned out, his time on the bench/in the reserves blunted his ambition and his Reading performances masked the true abilities as a player (or should that be inabilities).  With hindsight, I was wrong, the manager was wrong, most people on here (if not all - cannot be bothered to search out the Sidwell signing thread) were wrong.  The problem is, very few can see into the future with great accuracy.

I suppose the 'Sidwell' mistake will be another nail in the manager's coffin according to some.

[ian c.]

I suppose the 'Sidwell' mistake will be another nail in the manager's coffin according to some.

But it isn't just the "Sidwell mistake" is it?

We have a list of players that came for quite high fees and are on big wages that don't get used: Beye, Davis, Young (L), NRC, Harewood.

Either they were not good enough to start with, or we have managed to make them not good enough ,or Martin just doesn't fancy them.

One dud may be considered unfortunate, but six?

Randy's rich, but I wouldn't imagine that he is happy about that, and I can't imagine that he wants to keep running the club at a massive loss each year.

[TheSandman]

There's a player in there somewhere with Sidwell. I'm sure of it. He'll probably do well at Fulham in the end.

However, we never saw the player that was in there somewhere and so good riddance to him.

[old man villa fan]

I suppose the 'Sidwell' mistake will be another nail in the manager's coffin according to some.

But it isn't just the "Sidwell mistake" is it?

We have a list of players that came for quite high fees and are on big wages that don't get used: Beye, Davis, Young (L), NRC, Harewood.

Either they were not good enough to start with, or we have managed to make them not good enough ,or Martin just doesn't fancy them.

One dud may be considered unfortunate, but six?

Randy's rich, but I wouldn't imagine that he is happy about that, and I can't imagine that he wants to keep running the club at a massive loss each year.

Most of these players were stepping stones to get to the top four, not top four players.  Anybody that thought they were bought for any other reason were being a bit naive.

The exception was probably Davis. Presonally, I think Luke Young adds far more to the team than Cuellar but I only see the players when they are on the pitch.  Beye was bought so that Young could play on the left as MON was having difficulty in getting his no. 1 target Warnock and when Beye became available the fee was not high for the player he got.

We can only put 11 players on the pitch at a time and MON goes with what he thinks is the best team.  Granted, he is a bit conservative at times but doesn't give players a game just to say that he is using players he has bought.

I think the reason for selling is to raise some money, free up space for young players coming through and to generally freshen up the squad.

[villa1]

He'll get a round of applause from me when he returns. Not because I thought he was good but because he didn't particularly do anything wrong.

[Lizz]

He'll get a round of applause from me when he returns. Not because I thought he was good but because he didn't particularly do anything wrong.

Agree. Whatever did or didn't happen in his Villa career, he never struck me as a sulky, moody type of player. That could of course be construed as a negative, thoug not for me in this instance.

I think we're now seeing the long-term results of some of MON's earlier signings.

[not3bad]

A move that did not work out.  It's for the best for both Sidwell and Villa that a parting of the ways has come.  And it will be interesting to see what Jol (if he is the next Fulham manager) can do with him.

[themossman]

Yeah, another mark in the wrong column for mon's signings. Although to be fair it had all the right ingredients on paper.

[villa1]

Yeah, another mark in the wrong column for mon's signings. Although to be fair it had all the right ingredients on paper.

I wasn't complaining when we signed him. Was hoping he'd return to the form he was in at Reading.