Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[TimTheVillain]

McLeish continues to monitor Scott Parker’s situation at West Ham, but reports Villa have made a bid for the 30-year-old midfielder are premature, as they are reluctant to commit themselves to a £7million fee and £60,000-a-week wages for a player with little sell-on potential.

Mat Kendrick

I don't think that would be a bad bit of business, 3 year contract - 3 years service from a top notch player.

[mazrimsbruv]

Thankfully we scored almost as many as the previous season, mostly scored by Bent and created by Young & Downing whom the Board have now sold.

So if you were the board you would have kept Young and Downing? Riiiiight.

I think it's symptomatic of the kind of club that we have become that many posters on here are now resigned to the fact that our best players will always want to leave, and it then simply becomes a debate about 'whether or not to try and force them to stay against their will'.

Hardly anyone questions why these players are queueing up to leave in the first place, or whether it's a reflection on the way the Club is being run and the ambition the Club is showing.

If you sell your best players every season it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It sends a message to the players that are left behind that this isn't the place to be, it's somewhere else. Once the rot sets in that's it. O'Neill knew this and was off like shit off a hot shovel.

When Barry wanted out, we all said: 'Ah well. nothing you can do. He's only got a year left. We need to cash in now or he'll go for nothing next summer."

If we'd have stood firm we might have lost the chance of £12 million (he cost us nothing anyway), we might have had to stick him in the reserves, but we'd have sent a message to the others and maybe stopped the rot right there.

It's ironic, but that decision might ultimately cost us a lot more than £12 million. 

[Mister E]

Wow, 9th. I can barely contain my excitment for the coming season.

What i want to see is Given, Parker, N'Zogbia, Dann, a full back and maybe another centre forward come in to replace, Freidel, Walker, Young, Downing, Reo Coker and possibly Cuellar.

Then, we might do a bit better than 9th, provided some of last seasons turds get sufficiently polished to make an impact this time. Looking at you Ireland, Warnock, Dunne and Collins.

Lest we forget, the kids of last season are now a year more experienced; that will make some difference - I'm expecting Bannan, Albrighton, Clarke, Hogg, Weimann, delfouneso and perhaps Baker and Lichaj to be more involved and hav emore impact.

[Mazrim]

Wow, 9th. I can barely contain my excitment for the coming season.

What i want to see is Given, Parker, N'Zogbia, Dann, a full back and maybe another centre forward come in to replace, Freidel, Walker, Young, Downing, Reo Coker and possibly Cuellar.

Then, we might do a bit better than 9th, provided some of last seasons turds get sufficiently polished to make an impact this time. Looking at you Ireland, Warnock, Dunne and Collins.

Lest we forget, the kids of last season are now a year more experienced; that will make some difference - I'm expecting Bannan, Albrighton, Clarke, Hogg, Weimann, delfouneso and perhaps Baker and Lichaj to be more involved and hav emore impact.

Quite so.

[Concrete John]

Thankfully we scored almost as many as the previous season, mostly scored by Bent and created by Young & Downing whom the Board have now sold.

So if you were the board you would have kept Young and Downing? Riiiiight.

I think it's symptomatic of the kind of club that we have become that many posters on here are now resigned to the fact that our best players will always want to leave, and it then simply becomes a debate about 'whether or not to try and force them to stay against their will'.

Hardly anyone questions why these players are queueing up to leave in the first place, or whether it's a reflection on the way the Club is being run and the ambition the Club is showing.

If you sell your best players every season it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It sends a message to the players that are left behind that this isn't the place to be, it's somewhere else. Once the rot sets in that's it. O'Neill knew this and was off like shit off a hot shovel.

When Barry wanted out, we all said: 'Ah well. nothing you can do. He's only got a year left. We need to cash in now or he'll go for nothing next summer."

If we'd have stood firm we might have lost the chance of £12 million (he cost us nothing anyway), we might have had to stick him in the reserves, but we'd have sent a message to the others and maybe stopped the rot right there.

It's ironic, but that decision might ultimately cost us a lot more than £12 million. 

It might surprise you to hear this, but I actually largely agree with you!  I've been saying for a while now that we have to address WHY these players want away. 

However, I do think Randy has shown ambition by buying the likes of Milner, Ash and Downing in the first place, not to mention the other spending he's sanctioned.  But these players look at the results and we never made it to the CL, so all the intent in the world won't matter to them.

[Toronto Villa]

The CL has a lot to do with this. It's now the be all and end all. It has created a massive division where even teams like Spurs, who are better situated than us right now will find that being out of the CL will start to really hurt. If they sell Modric this season, and don't qualify for the CL next season, then expect to see VDV, Bale and others start to get itchy feet. Irrespective of how a club is run the top players want to be in that competition. It is really ruining football from a competitive balance standpoint. You then throw in agents and the ludicrous money some of these players want to move then it compounds the issue.

Even if our job as a club is to get to where Spurs are today, if we don't consistently win things or achieve top 4 status, then I expect for us and every other club in a similar position will consistently see the better players want to leave after only a few years.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Thankfully we scored almost as many as the previous season, mostly scored by Bent and created by Young & Downing whom the Board have now sold.

So if you were the board you would have kept Young and Downing? Riiiiight.

I think it's symptomatic of the kind of club that we have become that many posters on here are now resigned to the fact that our best players will always want to leave, and it then simply becomes a debate about 'whether or not to try and force them to stay against their will'.

Hardly anyone questions why these players are queueing up to leave in the first place, or whether it's a reflection on the way the Club is being run and the ambition the Club is showing.

If you sell your best players every season it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It sends a message to the players that are left behind that this isn't the place to be, it's somewhere else. Once the rot sets in that's it. O'Neill knew this and was off like shit off a hot shovel.

When Barry wanted out, we all said: 'Ah well. nothing you can do. He's only got a year left. We need to cash in now or he'll go for nothing next summer."

If we'd have stood firm we might have lost the chance of £12 million (he cost us nothing anyway), we might have had to stick him in the reserves, but we'd have sent a message to the others and maybe stopped the rot right there.

It's ironic, but that decision might ultimately cost us a lot more than £12 million. 

Players want to leave for two things: more money and more trophies.
Most players are impatient due to relatively short careers at the top.
We nearly broke the top 4 with MON but didn't quite make it. If we had I virtually guarantee we would still have Barry and Milner. Ash would probably have gone to ManU anyway. Downing clearly thinks he's got more of a chance to get more money/trophies with Lpool. At this moment in time he's probably right.
Messing about with players is not gonna make them want to stay!

[JUAN PABLO]

Shame West Ham dont need a Heskey and Beye and we can do some sort of deaL 

Heskeys wages would nearly cover Parkers and Beye's £2 million a year wages would have helped with going towards the fee , what bloody idiot signed those two ...   

[Clark W Griswold]

Wow, 9th. I can barely contain my excitment for the coming season.

What i want to see is Given, Parker, N'Zogbia, Dann, a full back and maybe another centre forward come in to replace, Freidel, Walker, Young, Downing, Reo Coker and possibly Cuellar.

Then, we might do a bit better than 9th, provided some of last seasons turds get sufficiently polished to make an impact this time. Looking at you Ireland, Warnock, Dunne and Collins.

Lest we forget, the kids of last season are now a year more experienced; that will make some difference - I'm expecting Bannan, Albrighton, Clarke, Hogg, Weimann, delfouneso and perhaps Baker and Lichaj to be more involved and hav emore impact.

I'd kind of included that in the thoughts. We need at least 18 players performing well to get something like MON's last season.

[Dante Lavelli]

Are there any of our youngsters that West Ham could have on loan?
You never know, if they sell Cole then Heskey could be on their radar but we'd have to wait a few weeks at least and I'm not sure the Villa faithful could wait that long.

[Toronto Villa]

I'd be happy for the last year of their contracts we paid half of their wages if it meant selling Heskey and Beye.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Are there any of our youngsters that West Ham could have on loan?
You never know, if they sell Cole then Heskey could be on their radar but we'd have to wait a few weeks at least and I'm not sure the Villa faithful could wait that long.

Exactly what I was thinking....Cole goes, WHam snap up Heskey!
How are they off for shit right backs?  If Cuellar is going for 2m (and I hope that's only a nasty rumour!) then we should be paying them to take Beye off our hands!

[mazrimsbruv]

What he is saying is the side that challenged for the top 6 without DB would be able to again with DB if BF, AY and SD are replaced. It makes sense to me.

Thats it! Of course!

Doesn't matter if you keep selling your best players. Just replace them!

Like parts in a washing machine! (As opposed to footballers / human beings). Just replace Part SD with Part CNZ, nip up with a spanner, flick the switch!

Job done. Same performance as before.

Football management eh? Piece of piss.   

[Toronto Villa]

certainly not easy, but it can be done with good management. Spurs managed to get better despite selling their best players, and got in players that made them stronger. Man U have done it, Everton have stayed competitive.

Selling a Stewart Downing isn't as big an issue if we trust the replacement(s) will ultimately be as good, if not better. Over the years, not just the past 3, is where we've come up short in the replacement department.

[Karl Bridges]

When it comes to wether or not to sign Scott Parker I would say, when you look at the teamsheet  which name would you rather see, Parker or Petrov?