It turns out there was a third bid received by the club today, despite them telling us a few hours ago that there wasn't. Well, they've back tracked and confirmed that there was.

We all know Barry wants to go but we just don't know what the bids were or the valuation, but I hope this doesn't backfire for Martin O'Neill.

MON has disciplined GB for his outburst in his unauthorised interview with the News Of The World.

The skipper has been suspended and thus will not be returning to training tomorrow. This follows his childish rant to the NotW regarding his desire to leave Villa Park for Liverpool.

With most of the talk focused on what players are coming in, it's easy to forget that in a little over two weeks we're playing European football - a date where we'd hope to see quite a few of these new signings.

But before and after we sign all these players, there are some other dates worth putting in your diary.

Martin O'Neill doesn't need to be at Bodymoor Heath or Villa Park to conduct his business, or so General Krulak PR would have you believe, but I'd put money on the real business of the summer starting very soon, now that the managers summer job at the BBC comes to an end tonight.

One of those first bits of business, I'm reliably informed, will be a £1.6mn. deal to bring Joe Mattock from Leicester City to Villa Park.

My opinion on Barry is well documented so you're not getting that today. Instead, what you're getting is the man himself; Gareth Barry.

He clearly isn't happy, has a huge dig at Martin O'Neill and he isn't doing any favours for the person, from the club, that says the club 'are doing everything to keep Barry at Aston Villa'.

I woke this morning expecting to see loads of rumours and I've seen nothing new so instead of going over old ground I thought I'd look to the future.

The club have announced a free to attend kit launch on July 7th at Brindleyplace. Basically both kits will be unveiled and you can attend. Anyone that wants to take a few photo's and email them in will win themselves nothing, but no doubt the Mail will get 'an exclusive' about three hours before the event, much like last year.

I was taking an hour to cut the grass and play with my new trimmer when someone sent me a text message saying 'Bill says we're going for Anton Ferdinand'. I had to come back in to see if it was true and guess what, it is.

It's maybe not true that we're going to lodge a bid for the player, but it's true that Bill is publishing the story.

According to reports doing the rounds, Aston Villa have agreed a fee for Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell, thought to be £5.5mn. and when you think we paid £4mn for Sasa Curcic, over ten seasons ago, it's a very decent price.

Now, you all know I like Sidwell and think he's a very good player and if the Martin O'Neill effect has it's usual impact, we can all take guesses at what this could mean.

Despite the club pitching it as one of the biggest days in the summer, it really isn't. However it is interesting and the BBC have just published the fixtures for next season.

First up for us is a visit from Manchester City, then a trip to Stoke. We have Newcastle at Villa Park for the last game of the season.