Kev, I had to edit quite a bit, as I think you must have had a few beers when you sent this ...

What is the point of this article? - it says nothing and is just a regurgitation of transfer thread rumours from other sites

This is onlt paper talk about him and Spurs and am already :'( like a bab and acting like a child

i think the point is, and i'm guessing now, but Kevin is saying that where are the bids? if bids have been made why haven't we been told? and if bids have not been made, why not?

i think then he summarises by saying that football is different these days and bids are not made until the deal is done and that while its not nice we've only got rumours to talk about

Your article had to be edited and it still doesn't make any sence, you make a point and then argue against yourself. its obvious why they don't advertise all there moves because they dont want the whole word knowing about their budget, and as a result of this, jack up the prices of their players. and its not 8 days into the transfer window, because it doesn't even open till july. The January transfer window was much the same, nothing happened till the end of the month for us, whilst at the beginning all the activity seemed to centre around other teams and i think we were the best placed at the end of the window I think you need to sit back and relax, and quit complaining.

I think all the bids and work is being done behind the scenes and not being made public. I don't think O'Neill is going to tell every club in the world who he is bidding for.

Look at Sissoko. Everton nearly signed him, it got public and Liverpool got in there. We don't want that to happen to us.

Why would he sign for Villa when Spurs are in the news more.... oh and you forgot the fact that we are a better, classier,richer and more desirable club with a better fan base,stadium and quality of existing team.... You are a small club in Birmingham

at liamo ..

kevin isn't around to defend himself, so i will. i'm pretty sure the transfer window is open as transfers are getting done. isn;t july 1st just another aspect. the window has been open since june 1st. i'll go check ..

its also not hype. the club have said there are significant funds so the club have done a good enough job of telling everyone money is available. i'm also surprised nothing has been done but i am confident it will be ...

i wouldn't want to miss out on a player though because we didn't move quickly enough

I believe we have significant funds available. But we need to buy quality. I believe that Spurs have quality in mind but it takes time. I do not believe Nigel Reo-Coker is better quality than we have in the midfield at present.

Just had a quick look on some Spurs forums. According to a couple of ITK's (supposed to be reliable) Spurs have had a bid accepted of 15 million Euros and that talks have already started between them and the player.

I'm not sure 100% but Spurs are listed on AIM so if they're putting in a €15mn. bid for a player they'd have to make this public as it's shareholder money ... or atleast I would have thought.

To anyone living in the real world,i think it obvious that transfers are a little more complicated than they once were.
Aston Villa are competing against a number of clubs with signiicent funds and unless you start throwing ridiculous amounts of money at things you may have to be a little patient!
Aston Villa have been in the doldrums for a number of years now and have to rebuild their reputation as one of the countries biggest clubs to attract the better players ,so my message to supporters is to remain positive and stay patient!

Damian,

No idea mate, haven't got a clue about stock market rules and regulations. Just reporting what i've read. Could just be bull of course. Who knows?

If he's a sound knowlege of all things prem, then why join spurs with there already silly list of midfielders? how many more does jol need? as for reo-coker situation god knows whats going on and sounds like a right balls up.

You only have to declare transactions to the stock market. You don't have to disclose a bid.

Only when a deal has been finalised do you have to announce it to the stock market.

Hi Spurs fan here. no, dont shoot me yet.

I dont think im being disrespectful when i say spurs had(still have to some degree)the same problem as Villa. good steady side, well off enough to stay in the comfort zone in the prem. like you we stayed in mid table/ bouncing off the top 6 for far to many years. our rep with players abroad was poor. yes we had a good past but why should they play for spurs or Villa now?.

Spurs spent a fortune on tring to lose that "happy with mid table (sleeping giant)" tag. I got fed up with the chavs, scummers, scousers, and man-ure all taking the glory and the piss whilst i new in part they were right. now spurs seenm to be on the verge of breaking into the top 4 CL spots (what do euafa do , thats right they vote to make it the top 3).

In short every long standing Spurs fan has been there guys. I respect Villa and what you are all going through. you have some class players ive met a couple. you had one of the best Keeper coaches there is, then O`Neil let him go (yes i mean Eric Steele)i like Sorensen he is a nice guy and a brill keeper, G barry is one of the best for his position in the prem.

keep your chins up fellas, it is worth the waite, but i assure you that its just as frustrating knocking on the door. COYS, COYV.

To I Hate Arsenal

You are not a better, richer and classier club with a better stadium. When was the last time a FA Cup Semi was played at WHL??
We have a bigger fan base but due to previous owners trying to kill fan enjoyment we have smaller attendances.
We need to be patient on the one hand as fans but the club really need to be doing some smart business right now. With Freddy Sheppard now agreeing to sell his shares to that bloke that will increase the transfer funds that Big Sam has to play with.
Lets get in there get our money spent, know who we are getting in for pre-season training and get the team gelled whilst everyone else is picking up panic buys.
Up the Villa

We are not a small club in Birmingham, thats why we were the only team in the prem last year.Just because you will always be in Arsenal's shadow.

The Reo-Coker thing I believe will go ahead. But at the same time we shouldn't be held to ransom by the Hammers. If we can wait and bring in Reo-Coker for £7m then why not, I don't think another club will get him to be honest. Only free transfers go through at this time, the real window opens on the 1st July.

There are a few key factors here, we are still rebuilding, and to be honest, who has come up with the Sneijder link? It's the papers, and so far, we have heard more garbage than truth from them, so is it really true? OK so MON went to watch the dutch cup final but there were also another 21 players on show there. The club is playing things very closely to their chest which is frustrating but also contrasts to West Ham and Spurs who just seem to be bidding for everyone to buy their way into the top 4 top 6 or whatever.

As much as i'd love to see Sneijder if the rumours are true, i'm sorry i just can't see it happening for the time being. But it won't be because the club have not tried to bring him it.

Rumours are starting to get stupid, if you look at the official website there are more than fifty players linked to VP and many of them are no were near good enough. I'm gonna stop panicking and just wait and see what surprises come our way. If were all saying this player would be good and that player should come you can bet someone like O'neill is busting a gut behind the scenes to make his team stronger and more capable of competing with the big boys, and if he has all this money to spend on players i don't think we should panic i trust him, he knows a about football than me so, CHILL.

were are these pictures of the new kit ? or is this a wind up.

re. shirt ... i didn't get an email yesterday

Villa don't have to announce anything to the stock exchange anymore. We are no longer a PLC

spurs buy their way to top? like spending 11 million on Ashley Young? a player who wanted to come to WHL but was clearly overpriced by Villa? West Ham yes are trying this, not spurs (parker 90k a week? Neill 72k a week? etc etc)

Spurs always will be preferred by Ajax and Ajax players..First two clubs are partners historicaly (only 2 Jewish Clubs in Europe)secondly majority of Ajax fans and players are Spurs fans..WHL is full of Ajax fans every week,even Bergkamp was a Spurs fan,2 seasons ago Davids told Spurs that he wanted to sign for them as he was a fan.If Sneijder has 2 to choose from there will be only one winner.

O dear to the villa fan that said they have a bigger fan base.. WAKE UP.. you can go all around this country and ul find spurs supporters.. you go on holiday you'l see spurs suporters.. you go to africa.. asia.. america u see spurs suporters i know this because i have seen it with my own eyes.. i have never even met a villa fan!!! As for us bying our way into the top four most of our squads players were piked up for a few million here n there lennon.. robbo.. dawson.. huddlestone.. etc. berbatov n zorkora are only real expensice ones from the last season or so!! You have nio chance of getting a class act lik sneijder or even coker so lik i sed wakie wakie villa fans your going no where fast

To villain76: We don't have a wealth of midfielders anymore. Why? Because Ghaly is worse than crap. Tainio is so average nd always injured.

That leaves Malbranque, Zokora, Jenas and Thudd and Lennon. Sneijder would make 6 first team midfielders. Not too many. Consder all the cup runs as well and take into account unlucky injuries that always plague us.

Anyway, Sneijder is a brilliant player and I'd love to see him at Spurs. Although, sadly, I don't think he'll be coming to either Spurs nor Villa. Rumours are rumours and I think he's big fish looking for more champions league.

COYS, COYV.

As a Spurs fan I would like to wish the Villa a successful season. You are an honest club with good traditional values. I suggest that you be a little patient, turning your club around will take time. To go out and spend all your budget in one window would be foolish, spend your money wisely....go for young british talent that will show some degree of loyalty to you over the coming years. Look at Newcastle as an example....they are not really addressing their underlying issues within the club (overpaid and underperforming players that seem to spend most of their time on the tratment table).
Villa are a big club like Spurs, probably with equal fanbase....and to be honest both our stadiums are sub-standard compared to some of the others, so to get into a slanging match about who is bigger than who is a little silly.

if spurs are a bigger better club then y are there fans on a villa blog site? id never gone on a spurs blog site!

why havnt we bought any players we are just selling players!!!!!


>:( >:( >:( >:(

Spurs have the added kudos of being situated in London but for me this is slightly overshadowed by the fact Arsenal and Chelsea are much bigger with greater financial muscle (although currently arsenal are somewhat restricted due to the stadium move). I believe that Villa are fastly becoming an attractive option with several players of international ilk (carew, laursen, barry, bouma) and the lure of MON charm and randys cheque book should see us collecting some decent signings. I would be delighted if wesley joined the club and think he would prosper under our new direction.

To: mickeywya

the reason you get spurs fans on your site is because it comes up on newsnow. and if you are so closed minded as not to go to other fans sites then all i can say is good luck with your sheltered life. and with regards to the article, wern't spurs after Sneijder last year?

Do people actually realise the transfer window opens on July 1?

Clearly the author of this piece doesn;t.

Deals can be agreed now like they can be agreed in March but they don't go through until July. The window is 1200am July 1 to 1200 am September 1.

I don't think I'll be panicking while it's still the start of June.

oh, and as for this

[quote]if bids have been made why haven't we been told?[/quote]

Why should we be? Why alert other clubs to our targets? Why risk looking stupid if the player turns us down?

I had enough of talking under the old regime.

Keep it quiet until the deal's done. Please, some of you, have faith.

at JR

i'm defending Kevin on this as he's nowhere near a PC ... the transfer window is open if you are trading registrations, from what i understand, i.e. buying a player from a club and the clubs transferring registration papers. july 1st is when free agents (i.e. with no papers registered at a club) can join a new club

re. why shouldn't they tell us ... i think its a case of Richard FitzGerald bigging up this significant funds and then reo-coker coming out saying a bid has been made ... surely, as fans, we deserve to know one or the other?

Damian, I'm sorry, I know you know your stuff footballwise but you're wrong. my wife works in the legal department for a football club (unfortunately not Villa, or even a Premiership one) and the window opens on July 1. That's a fact, I promise you.

Like I said, we can arrange deals now, just like we could in March. Look at Hargreaves - joined United, but doesn't officailly become their player until July 1.

Anyway my point was just that it's too early to worry.

And no, I disagree, as a fan I'd rather not know - because then I know our rivals don't know either.

at JR
i'll bow to your better understanding (actually, not yours but the wife)
however, its not stopping clubs signing players

again, at JR, sorry
just did a little digging and if you [url=http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/Postings/2005/01]look here[/url] you will see that the fa say 'Transfer deadlines are governed by the rules of the competitions, such as the Premier League, rather than The FA'

so then, when you look at [url=http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=setSelectedId&nextPage=enSpecFeatures&id=70743&type=com.fapl.website.features.SpecialFeature&categoryCode=PLWeeklyColumn&breadcrumb=about_breadcrumb]the premier league website[/url] they actually say that the window opens, i'm quoting now 'the close of the season'

while this may be out of date, i cant be blamed for thinking otherwise ... ;)

;D

No, don't blame you at all.

They are the old regulations, you'll note transfers stop at 5pm on Jan 31 and Aug 31 under those rules, it's now midnight, and all four divisions are in line.

Anyway, I agree with you deals are being done now, and will go through whatever, so it makes no difference!

I think were all being a litle impatient here. It was a long hard slog under Doug with little room for optimism, then along comes Randy and MON and it's like a breath of fresh air. For the first time in i don't know how long,i really feel as though our great club is being run by serious people with serious ambitions.

There is definatley some hard work going on behind the scenes at Villa. It's frustrating not knowing but that's just the way things are at the moment. It won't be long until were on here discussing a few suprises.

I think currently Spurs are a bigger club. They went pretty far in the UEFA cup losing to the eventual winners and were seen as joint favourites (that has to say something) You can say that almost all clubs in the PL buy their way to success and we should be no different. Spurs buy quality to try and compete with the top 4 and whats wrong with that? You need to spend the money to go places in the premiership.

At db1 you cant critise us for outpricing you over Ashley Young who as you say wanted to go to Spurs. Didnt the wonder kid Gareth Bale want to go to Old Trafford but he was priced out of the move by Spurs? Thats hypocritical of you to say something like that.

Up the Villa

Try again.

Personally I think the last contributer is talking bollocks!
Spurs are most definitely not a bigger club, who is the 4th biggest club in the history of English football, not Spurs. If MON
and Villa are serious about this guy Sneijder they will sign him , this is all paper talk and speculation about this guy, far more realistically they are more interested in signings who know about english football Koumas is far more realistic signing as a player who is experienced with the English game.
Dont fear Spurs when competing with players, We are Aston Villa FC with great traditions it makes me laugh when I hear other pessimistic Villa fans LAUDING up West Ham or Portsmouth as our nemisis in the premiership, any player who chooses these clubs is an idiot an not worth signing is if indeed Villa are interested. they have never achieved anything and never will, I firmly believe MON and Randy have targeted players and will get them especially if they are young and have resale value.

remember Villa could be another Man u or Liverpool
Portsmouth and Newcastle and West Ham will never be

To Damian and Kevin

1. the transfer window opens July 1. FACT

2. I have a feeling that we are not going to miss out on players just because oter teams just happen to be signing players at the moment. MON and the villa staff wont just be sitting around, and they are not going to read the newspaper and start chacing a signature just because there are rumours floating about. I don't think they will be that unorganised.

Surely they will have a list of players that they are interested in, and talk with there agents will have started. But it will take time with some players. I dont think the MON would have let McCann go unless he had at least another 2 midfielders lined up. lots of players will be on international duty or holidays at the moment. this process will take time be patient. as i have already said it was the exact same during the january window, we didn't look like we were going to sign anyone, lots of rumours and talk of big money were flying around regarding other teams, and then when the business of buying players started Villa and MON came out on top.

Be patient! I'm a spurs fan, and i can relate to how you feel.. three seasons ago we went through phase as you are now - new management, an ambitious board and similar board statements.. We dreamt of (and was in the tabloids linked to..) big name players ( like van bommel and Ronaldo) that ended up in Real madrid, barcelona, chelsea and different big clubs throughout Europe we just couldn't compete with., Insted we bought players from CC like Lennon, Dawson, Robbo and Carrick, and a lot of players you probably never heard of.. and even though it was a bit dissapointing then, some of it paid of!

As much as i hate to say it Frank Arnesen (Judas - that left us for cheatskij), may be the man that lifted us from mid-table, to a consistent uefa-cup challenger.. not by signing big names, but by signing young quality players. We now have a base of good players, and for the the first time since the ninetees we are in a position to attract interest from top-class players.

Don't take this as arrogance - I really do feel Villa belong amongst the top clubs in the premiership, as Villa - like spurs - are a big club in terms of history and tradtion.

My point is - you can not make a footballclub great overnight, just by injecting money - and you can never be sure of wheter an investment will pay of - so don't bet it all on one horse. Encourage your club to BUILD a squad, and be patient. Take a few chances and buy young players that at least will have some sell-on value if they don't succeed..

I believe you've got one of the best managers in the premiership, and i think you have every reason to trust his judgement.

As for Sneijder - I sure hope he ends up in Spurs! ;)

I HOPE BOUMA CAN TRY HIS BEST TO PERSUADE HIS NATIONAL TEAMATE TO COME HERE!!

yiddo4life .......... little comment for you mate, you can't be that knowledgeable and all knowing if you cant even spell the word yido right ...... idiot

Er...the transfer window opens July 1st mate!
Mccann is still with us until then, so is Samuel.
MO'N likes to take time on buying players (which is much smarter than buying quickly to impress people) he wants to know that the player he's looking at is perfect, i know we didn't do that in January but he did it at Celtic season after season, give him time, there's still 3 months to go until the transfer window closes, calm your frigging self down about buying players!!!

Trotskij - Thanks for your comment and the kind tone that you have used. However, I personally think that the new infrastructure at Villa is quite different to what you have experienced. In fact, I would go as far to say that we have the best structure, chairman etc. etc. of any club in the premiership, including the likes of Liverpool and ManU. I agree that it will take some time for that to bear fruit but I am convinced it will. This is not just blind loyalty speaking it's my considered opinion, otherwise I wouldn't say it. These are very exciting times at Villa and I doubt many non-Villa fans realise quite what's going on. Any player that looks at the setup rather than just money is going to be very tempted to come to Villa.

How am i talking bollocks? I said currently. I didnt say on history. Spurs competed in europe last season and will again this season they sign internationally known players. Im not be pesamistic (sp) im being honest. currently they are a bigger club currently. You cant just rely on history all the time.

I think over the next few seasons we can overtake spurs again but currently spurs are a bigger club than us. Its the facts.

I never said that West ham or Portsmouth are bigger than us because i dont believe that.

Sometimes you just have to be honest and realise that clubs are bigger than your club at the moment.

mate the size of a club doesnt vary from one season to a next on who finishes higher!!!

villa are a big club due to fan base, ground and history over a long period of time.

bolton for example have been in europe for a few years now but they have a long long way to go to come anywhere near the size of villa

yes but are they bigger than Spurs. Over the past few years spurs fan base (which was already big) has grown alot bigger. They have history aswell. The more you achieve the bigger your fan base becomes and also the better your faclities (sp) like a stadium extention. Alot of the big club tag does come from league position. Look at chelsea their history wasnt great before their money but now they are creating history on the pitch by winning alot. and that means that they are a big club.

I was perhaps wrong with some of my points but i do believe that spurs are a bigger club.

look at spurs three years ago, they were no where!

by gettin into europe a couple of years in a row doesnt suddenly leap frog you up.

when we had john gregory we finished top 6 every year, did that make us bigger then?!!?

size of a club doesnt change over 5 or even 10 years! spurs and villa in my opinion are so similar you couldnt choose between the two.

Will be very surprised if Sneijder signs for us or Spurs, he will end up at a club playing C.L football next season.

To be honest, I would rather us bulk the squad up than blowing big chunks of our transfer budget on single purchases.

Who knows, perhaps in a couple of years we can attract players of Sneijder's quality to come and play at Villa Park.

Forget all this nonsense about Randy and the other Americans spending big bucks. It aint gonna happen, not at Villa, not at Liverpool. Even United are spending significantly less of their gross revenues on wages now the fat ginger has taken over. These guys are in it for a return, not to spend money (and who can blame them? The clubs mean precious little to them emotionally). And before some financial illiterate writes some pap about spending to get into the CL and therefore increasing revenues, it simply doesnt make financial sense. Spend to stay in the PL makes sense. Spending 5 times as much to gamble on finishing 4th doesnt. You think the Randy-man is a saviour, that he couldnt be worse than Ellis. While the latter may be true the former most definietly isnt. He is an investor and like any other investor in private firms, he has no interest in an increasing cost base. If he sticks it out, which I sincerely doubt, my guess is that in 5 years time you'll be a mid-table side playing in an identikit boxy 50,000 stadium near the NEC, with Villa Park converted into housing. Dont believe me? Look at US sport, which,like it or not, is the blue print for these owners' plans. As for big money high profile transfers, forget it.

at Paul F

well said but a little extreme ...

Randy Lerner is here to make money

however, the only way to make money in the premeirship is to be successful and there will be some speculation. the question is does his £600mn. fortune cover that?

That's why he's already bought Petrov for £8m and Young for £9.65, plus broken our wage structure for Carew...

Good one, Paul.

Aston Villa great club

Children, children, play nicely. who cares which club is bigger? Spurs n Villa I would say are about the same(its pointless to argue over the odd cup win that seperate us). You have had your moments so have we. When we languished in mid table bouncing off of the religation zone more times than i care to remember you guys were enjoying finishing in the top 6, I actually envied you at the time. The rolls have reversed for a short while. your tern to secretly envy us.

Like you we have 25k worth of season tickets and a waiting list of 20k. IF we ever upgraded WHL we would need to add 20k seats at a minimum you have the same problem.
In the end its a sad fact that only 4 clubs can be in the top 4. to be perfectly honest its about time the whole top 4 changed. liverpool, arsenal both have their own problems that MAY just distract them long enough for both spurs and villa to break into the top 4.