Ashley Young: Staying or going?

[hawkeye]

As I recall it Tottingham made a really derisory offer of Callum Davenport, Routledge and a few extra million tacked on.

Watford said get facked and eventually accepted our offer (which was lower than West Ham's) as the player wanted to come here (partly on Boothroyd's recommendation, which is unusual).

As Maz says, had Ash been so desperate to force the issue he could have played for time and waited for Tottenham to either come back with an improved offer or wait for Watford to buckle.

yeah right, you are completely correct, it went exactly as you and Maz say well done

[TheSandman]

So whose ITK dad is bigger then?

[hawkeye]

So whose ITK dad is bigger then?

sadly ego has got in the way of facts

[KevinGage]

As I recall it Tottingham made a really derisory offer of Callum Davenport, Routledge and a few extra million tacked on.

Watford said get facked and eventually accepted our offer (which was lower than West Ham's) as the player wanted to come here (partly on Boothroyd's recommendation, which is unusual).

As Maz says, had Ash been so desperate to force the issue he could have played for time and waited for Tottenham to either come back with an improved offer or wait for Watford to buckle.

yeah right, you are completely correct, it went exactly as you and Maz say well done

That was how it was reported at the time across various papers (with different papers including the same set of Tottenham players to be swapped).

In fairness, they probably didn't say fact, 100% fact, fact me sideways or any other similar variation though. So you probably trump them on that one.

[hawkeye]

the same papers repeating the same , that makes it true, no chance of them copying each other at all, so your information must be fact because it was printed in newspapers, i guess you should give up now

[KevinGage]

Aye.

It's a fair cop.

I can't compete with your invisible friends, voices in your head or anything else you're passing off as fact, so I guess I'll fact off. The cricket is on and the second string bowlers are looking good.

BTW, I'm not passing off my recollections of Jan 2007 as certain either. It was four years ago. Sometimes I'd struggle to recall what happened last week.  It would just seem fairly obvious to me that anyone who has to tack the f word onto the end of every other sentence might not be the most reliable contributor on the subject in question.

It's as if you're trying to convince yourself. Why underpin it would be my immediate suspicion, just let what you say stand or fall on it's own merit if you're that certain of what you say.

[hawkeye]

mr gage i have sent you a pm if you dont trust me after that then ---------

[eamonn]

If Spurs had matched our offer who would he have chosen?

[adrenachrome]

If Spurs had matched our offer who would he have chosen?

I seem to recall that Ash's  Dad was very influential at the time, he may even have been his agent, and MoN had convinced him that Villa would be best for the player's development.

[Californian Villain]

If Spurs had matched our offer who would he have chosen?

I seem to recall that Ash's  Dad was very influential at the time, he may even have been his agent, and MoN had convinced him that Villa would be best for the player's development.

Given his opportunities in the Villa team since he joined versus the upheaval at Spurs and West Ham, and whoever or whatever convinced Ash to choose us, it was the right decision. Having said that, our team is now falling away following the sale of our better players (Barry, Milner) and the retirement (Laursen, Bouma) or decline of others (Carew, Petrov, Dunne, Heskey). We can hardly blame the player if he sees now as the time to move on to supposedly better things at a club playing in the Champions League. The alternative is to stay put in the hope that our current crop of youngsters make the grade over the next 2-3 seasons; by then the bigger clubs may not be quite so interested as they are now.

[Olneythelonely]

mr gage i have sent you a pm if you dont trust me after that then ---------

It's like reading the fourth book in the Millenium series.

[Merv]

Anyway....

Seems a strange one to me, as Arsenal already have plenty of players in a similar style to Ashley Young. In fact, Arshavin plays almost exactly the same role - either wide left, cutting in, or supporting the striker.

Then there's other wide attacking players such as Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott and Van Persie, who's best playing just behind a centre-forward. I'd have thought Wenger needs a top-class 'keeper and centre-back as priority, but there you go.

Even with 18 months of his contract left, Young would cost at least Ł15m. Doesn't seem to be Wenger's style at all, this one. We'll see.

[Villa'Zawg]

I think we shouldn't sell Ashley Young.

[Mister E]

I don't see Arse as a bidder for all the reasons listed above. But I do think he'll be on his way ... not to our disadvantage, IMHO, as long as the money's sufficient.*

*This is an opinion; I have no "friends" feeding me privileged information.

[Jimbo]

Selling Ashley Young would not be a good move for the club in any respect. Just like selling Milner wasn't. But that's where we are as a club, unfortunately, and it wouldn't surprise me or depress me like previous departures might have (and did). We'll survive without him if he does decide to go, and there's an outside chance that we'll find a better replacement. I'd rather not take the risk, but there's nothing I can do about it so I won't be getting worked up over this.