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

[Vanilla]

That article about Lerner is just plain stupid.  Ok, he made the decision to hire Eck which a majority of us not happy with but we have to show our support for the club and players.  Regarding the sales of players, it wasnt Randy Lerner that sold them.  AY was in the final year of his contract and wanted to join MUFC.  Downing was tapped up by liverpool and wanted to join them so we had to do what was right and sell them for extra cash.  Eck obviously feels that Makoun is not part of his plans or cannot guarantee him football week in week out so loaning him out was the only option (or selling him).  The manager has had time to access his squad and he is making decisions which he feels are right for the team and his set up.

Hutton will be a good signing.  All the negative people out there saying he isn;t good enough etc etc, how do you know?  Just because he didnt do well at the Spuds doesn't mean he wont do good for Villa.  We have to start being realistic about our signings.  Gone are the days where Randy will be splahing his cash on players on high wages.  We cannot sustain that sort of expenditure.  How many of you lot whould want that and then turn out like leeds?  We have to now play with our means.  Aston villa spent more than that was generated last season and a club of this size cannot continue to be run like that.  We also need the stay away fans to come back and show their support so that we can generate more funds to buy players that will push us up the table.  Staying away is not helping the club at all.

Fair enough we have to lower our expectations, but your argument that we should lower our expectations and attract the stay away fans are contradictory to say the least. If being realistic is the key, then adverts in the Birmingham Mail should say 'Please come along, we may score a goal, and we may win'.

Also, the point you made about not it being RLs fault that we have to sell these players, well who agreed to the Milner /Ireland swap, as we didn't have a permanent manager in post at that time?

The milner/ireland transfer was a done deal while MON was still there.  It was finalised after MON left (contracts signed etc).  Again, Milner expressed a desire to leave for City and like many people say on here and in the real world, why keep a player that doesn't want to play for you?  So are you saying that RL should have said no to the deal as there was no manager in place?  Get real mate.  Everyone knows the milner deal was agreed in principle while MON was there.  RL continued ahead with it after MON's departure.

Also, real fans support their club through thick and thin.  Yes, there is a lot I do not agree with with whats happening at VP but whats the point in staying away??  Whats that going to do to the clubs finances?  We need all the money we can get right now so that next season, we have a decent size kitty to invest in new players.

I agree about Milner going to Man City, but it was obvious MON didn't want Ireland. So when MON left, someone somewhere thought it would be a good idea to take him in the deal, rather than take the extra £8 million, even though the next manager may not fancy him. Houllier didn't fancy him, now it looks like our current manager doesn't either. So with wages, that is £10 million wasted on a player who has barely had a kick.

Also, it is estimated that the compensation to MON, Houllier and Blues for the current manager was about £10 million in total. Who is responsible for that? That could have got us a tidy player.

I agree we do need real fans to stick with the team, but if our attendance is an average of 32,000, we could be losing up to half a million a game with the money lost on ticket sales and extras.

[eastie]

arsenal very busy today with mertesacker and santos fee agreed , confirmed a striker signing this morning and now in talks with benayoun- i would love us to go out and bag 4 players tomorrow but i wont hold my breath on it.

[Rick_avfc]

Yes the milner sale was going to be done , but buying a player without a manager is something that randy should not have done -houllier was landed with someone he didnt want and mon cannot be blamed for that.

Again, Ireland was part of the deal which was in place while MON was there so what was RL supposed to do or say?  The deal is off because we didn't want to sign Ireland without a manager in place? 
It seems like everyone loved RL when he was splashing the cash but now he has realised we cannot sustain the level of spending we were doing and making cuts, all of a sudden he is becoming a hated figure.  This is just stupid and people need to get real.

[john2710]

strong words but i feel this gentlemans pain-


JimmyVilla
11:34 AM on August 30

We were OFFERED Benayoun and had to turn it down because of WAGES?!?!

This club is a joke at the moment, I don't care what the optimists say......A really bad joke.

How pathetic this makes us look. There is literally no other club coming out with rubbish like this, and those other clubs haven't shed the amount of dead wood/stars we have so far this offseason.

Although he's a decent player, he's never been a regular at any of his clubs.

Also, are we obliged to take him because he was, allegedly, offered to us??

We already have Bannon / Ireland to fulfill that role. Priority is a solid, mobile defensive midfielder which allow us to then drop Petrov & replace Heskey with Bannon.

[eastie]

yes, he should have insisted on a cash only deal without a manager in place!
These fans will be here long after randy and his crew have gone , ive praised him for many things and criticised when due too, and far from hating him i accept the situation we are in but randy needs to decide where the future of villa and his ambition for the club lies- i will not back him if i feel he is doing the wrong thing and why the hell should I -each to their own but i will not go around thinking randy can do no wrong.

[Concrete John]

At the time I said it was the right thing to take Ireland as he was a suitable replacement for a reasonable fee, so won't change my mind now with the benefit of hindsight.

[eastie]

At the time I said it was the right thing to take Ireland as he was a suitabkle replacement for a reasonable fee, so won't change my mind now with the benefit of hindsight.

I  think many of us rated ireland but as chairman if he didnt know who the manager was going to be then he should have taken the cash rather than risk wasting £10m including wages on a player who wasnt wanted .


Redknapp confirms parker signing agreed and expects it completed tonight, but says he knows nothing about hutton apart from what hes seen on tv.

[Rick_avfc]

From a business point of view, he is doing the right thing to balance the books again as we are/were spending way too much compared to what we were making.  He has to take this action for the good of the club.  Not sure what fans really want in the situation we are in??  Do we want to be in an Everton situation?  Or do we want to end up like Leeds?  Im sure that once the finacial side of things has been sorted then we will spend again.  This season is about saving money by reducing the wage bill and utilise the youth /reserve player we have as they have been praised for long enough and need to step up to the plate.
From a fans point of view, it is frustrating as we have been used to being very active in the transfer markets.  For the short term, we have to make do with spending wisely and lowering our expectations and hope we can at least win a trophy.

On a lighter note, someone on twitter tweeted this which made me chuckle:-

Sky Sources:  Randy Lerner isn't sanctioning any transfers until a voucher is availabel on myvouchercodes.co.uk 

[Concrete John]

At the time I said it was the right thing to take Ireland as he was a suitabkle replacement for a reasonable fee, so won't change my mind now with the benefit of hindsight.

I  think many of us rated ireland but as chairman if he didnt know who the manager was going to be then he should have taken the cash rather than risk wasting £10m including wages on a player who wasnt wanted .


Redknapp confirms parker signing agreed and expects it completed tonight, but says he knows nothing about hutton apart from what hes seen on tv.

Sorry, but that says to me "Do what I want and what I'd do if I were you, but I reserve the right to criticise if it goes wrong."

[eastie]

thats ok rick but you cannot stand still even in this league or teams will go past you, we have massively weakened our squad this summer having struggled in the relagation area for a large part of last season, if cutting cost did end up in relegation then god knows where we end up.

[ozzjim]

I think there is a bit of madness going on in the world.

At least McLeish is predictable, I think I went for NZogbia, Foster and Hutton as his first 3 signings, Given was a real curve ball! We are still a wide/ creative midfielder short, 2 holding players short for the current formation and a first choice right back short.

If all we get it Hutton, we are 2-3 injuries from some real hidings.

[Walmley_Villa]

Have we been inked with No Juan yet?




Sorry.....

[brice jovial]

Ok so hutton in but is there any talk of any more?

What time does window close?

i think alex mac may be tempted to bring in a few more though so all is not lost. Will be very interested in which signings he ll be making tomorrow

[Toronto Villa]

I really do hate the transfer window

It's a big bag of glutenous shite.  It really does bring out the worst in people.

I really do hate the transfer window

It's a big bag of glutenous shite.  It really does bring out the worst in people.

Especially Randy and Co!

Just imagine how our competitors this weekend are feeling them about their board and manager? Fuck all appears to be going on anywhere because the window has made every selling club, agent and player into as greedy a bastard as possible. In the end, there will be desperate last second deals, and/or numerous good football players that will decide that reserve football at 50 grand a week is better than 30 grand at another team.

[brice jovial]

With givens groin i would nt be surprised if big eck make a loan move for gk craig gordon of sunderland i tend to think he favors scotts esp with this imminent signing of 'hutts'. Its good to have several choice of keepers thses days - spurs man u and arsenal to name a few. We dont want a chelsea situation with hilario and turnbull.
I think big eck migh surprise us with a few signings like this.