quick note. i've had to edit this for kevin as it came in 50 odd text messages and was a complete mess ... cheers kev!

my problem with marlon is that we still require a proper 20 goal a season man, which he obviously isnt, and if and when MON decides to invest in that man where does that put the likes of luke moore and kids like sam williams and mcgurk? we already have squad players, we now need top level players

of course this would suggest no new players at the kit launch tommorow! if they can't keep the harewood deal quiet there is no way anything bigger could be kept hush hush! oh well i am sure the kit will be nice!

Luke Moore will make his mark, Harewood will be a good addition to the squad, remember last winter ? we could have done with him then, even if he had only scored four goals, they would have helped immensley. I think he was on offer and MON took a look, £3.7m is peanuts for a squad player. And you never know, West Ham were badly run and in a mess for quite a while, fresh start may bring the best out of him.......like I said, you never know

why are we buyin west ham rejects when we are a bigger and better team that west ham, by the looks of things its gonna be west ham challengin for europe this season not us with these sort of signings

Marlon Harewood is Crap a poor mans Heskey.

Shocking siogning.

I don't want to be negative, but i get the feeling the only world-class new signing that will feature at Villa Park in the new season will in fact be unveiled tomorrow.....Our Nike kits.

Harewood is ok, but no better than the strikers that we have now, hes not better than carew, agbonlahour or moore and id rather play maloney or young up front. To take the club forward we need to sign players that are better than what we have like defoe or someone of that standard

Squad players arent all bad as long as it forces players to improve we allready have tallent up front and who knows this might be the season for one of them to hit 20

Bass2000 mate, we have the superstar in Marlon Harewood to be unvieled with our new kit, this is a bloody nightmare mate!

Well said huggy....Luke Moore can be that man, I really believe it. Strikers suddenly come of age and I think with the way Luke was going before his much needed op, he will definateley make the grade. Go Luke 15 this season.

Tomorrow's press conference will be interseting if we unveil Marlon "fishman" Harewood and Antony "Joke" Gardner, but, as we all say, Villa is in our blood and we will support anyone who pulls on the shirt, and that'll always be the same.

we cant sign a whole team ov twinkle toed superstars because we would'nt be able to play them all... we need players like marlon to get us throught a wet and windy 3rd round F.A cup tie at morcambe(even though we always draw man u)!!!

Who next Heskey?
More broken promises!

Kevin mate, just to make us all relax a little and as you seem so sure, can you tell us who "world class" is coming??

our squad is looking thin but the only area it is not is up front, i see the thought however. if big john carew gets an injury we are left with no physical presence, yes hes not the ´´world class player´´ we are all looking and hoping for, but we have to have a squad, backup is nessesary. i still expect another striker to come in tho. Harewood is big,strong he will do a job if called upon. seems like a bad signing at first thought, but will give us strength in depth and a different option up front that we have needed in times of struggle. any one agree??

I often wondered if new players are brought in, either suggest to the new manager that their team mate joins too. e.g Reo-Coker- Harewood,
Hadji-Kachloul, Berger-Baros (czech team).

What i just don't understand is West Ham only avoided relagation and Harewoods lack of scoring was part of the problem.

The poor man's Heskey?

Remember who was it that created the buzz around Heskey and got him into the England Squad?

OK so he is not a 20 goal a season player but a squad player doesn't need to be.

Where is the faith? MON finds diamonds in the dust and I am sure he has spoken to NRC about Harewood and how he might fit in at Villa Park.

Surely it is the manager that makes the man, what did Heskey do after Leicester?

Harewood can do a job, which is what we want.

i keep thinking NOOOOO!what are we doing!!! but come to think ov it would it be so bad !carew cant play every game! jus picture this we got the blues on the wrack!!2-0up and big john carews number comes up on the board to be subed!the blues back line even clap as he goes down the tunnel!then the tiring blues players see big marlon running towards them bundeling his way towards the goal!!scary isnt it!

Woulfeman, the only thing that has not made me want to go crazy is you reminding me that Heskey has done nothing since MON was his manager! :)

I don't really want Harewood but if MON makes him score goals then so be it.

When first hearing this I was gutted. Upon reflection its not quite as bad. I can now see MON's thinking. If Big John gets injured or isn't having the desired effect in a game, we can bring on Harewood who is as strong as any other striker in the Premiership. However, I am still gutted as I think this might mean we won't now get a proven goal poacher, such as Defoe. Are we now running plan B as plan A has refused to sign?
World class players in my mind come from clubs that finished above you not below. OK I can see the merits of buying the likes of Young & NRC but these are not world class players. I know Americans like to hype things up (they are the best in the world at it) but surely the board wouldn't come out and say we will have some world class players and think we will be fobbed off with the likes of Harewood? He might be a good squad player but please lets move the bar up about £10 million in what we are looking for.
Villa have had an extra £30 mil in this year in TV revenue, we have spent £1 mil so far, this is before Randy puts any of his own cash in.
I work with people who support crap teams and they are taking the pea big time now after I told them to what out for our signings!

6weeks till the transfer window closes yet only less than a month to the start of the new season why did M.O.N say that he wants to take new players on tour with him and new players to train with so they gel togther ?? Was it just yet another villa blag

Villa rules mate, this is total crap, i feel as we're back in the Ellis era, and Kevin still waiting for you to tell us who the world class players coming to Villa are?????????????????

Vijay .. Kev is on a train, he sent this in via text message .. i doubt he's going to read every post ... you'll have to wait although i dont think he has ever commented using this system before but i may be wrong

Mon was the exact same at celtic, u hear nothing then 3 players sign in the one day! he wont waste money on someone he thinks wont take the club forward, what he will do is bring u a top 8 or maybe top 6 finish this season gurenteed!!

maybe MON just cant get his first choice signings, Defoe, Alves, Snijder so have to settle for 2nd or 3rd choice harewwod, gardner. its gonna be hard to get world class signings to villa with out euro cup at least. still i think harewood will be a bit player backing up gabby, luke and big john.

vijay i agree to this is just like doug ellis era im flammin sick off it people say we shouldnt rush cause we will get the wrong signings well why can man u arsenal chelsea fullham liverpool man city west ham wigan and other clubs sign players fairly quickly yet they dont get it wrong people seem to think if we sign new players quickly that they are not going to be right for the team how long is it these people want us to wait for to sign players 1 year 2 years 3 years and aswell villa say they wont pay over the odds for players well guees what these days u have to other wise u wont get fuckin no where proud history i agree bright future my fuckin arse

Where's our faith?? It's starting to be tested with news like this. I have seen Harewood play for Forest many times and now I have seen him play for Westham. The guy could not hit a barn door. This is not what we need. We dont need another 'squad player' striker. We need a good striker that has the back up of the young strikers we already have. Smacks of deperation. If we havent got the big names up our sleeves (which I doubt because you can keep nothing quiet these days) then this transfer window is a shambles.

I agree with smylhr. Some of our fans are voicing their disappointment at the lack of superstar signings despite the promises. Give it a break. Its like evolution, and lets not forget we are evolving. We just can't have a superstar team next season itself so be patient.
I think Harewood is an effective, cheap cover for Carew whenever he's injured. I think MON and the board are working very hard to get the right signings.

I mean lets face it, right now we are not fashionable enough yet to attract the likes of Babel, Saviola, Lahm etc. Even realistic targets like Defoe might not be interested in our offer of first team football every weekend. We need the Harewoods and the Gardner like squad players for now, so that we can sign the Lahms and Defoes in the next 2 seasons. Please be patient and dont build castles in the air expecting a superstar to sign for us. Lets just be grateful with what we're getting after years of suffering.

Sateeish mate, we're still suffering.....atleast today i am!

Thanks for the message Damian!

hey guys let me tell us the truth that kind of world class players that we are thinking about will not come to this club of ours why bs we are not big club, we just have money but that is not the main thing here, world class players wants to play for the big four, we can just buy what we see in the market, thats just what it is, i am very sorry to say that but is the truth or the mater

Completely agree with what Brett said...

If we want to really move things forward then why buy players who are worse than in the positions we have already...?

I see Luke Young is up for sale at around £2.5m. I know we've been linked with him already but thats a bargain if you ask me..

To those who say keep faith and stop slaggin the club off il ask this question to u again why did M.O.N say that he wants to take new players on tour with him and new players to trian with so they have time to gel ? now they have less than a month to gel because the season kicks off soon and u want me to keep faith ha ur havein a laugh aint ya

Another point, putting aside what we are feeling as Villa fans. West Ham are about to coup a staggering 12.5M on Reo-Coker/Harewood (should the flop deal go through) Both players together cost WHU a combined 1m just a few years ago. So well done hammers not only on money making but that you wanted both players to leave anyway. I love MON but remember he took a flop from us a few years back, his name was Stanley Collymore. Only this time we receive one.

One thing i admire about our MON is that he like to turn flops into good players.
Have faith in you MON! just not Marlon.

Bollocks to all that think Harewood is a cheap cover for Carew etc. He is a poor mans Hesky full fucking stop.

This is a shit day boys.

World class signings my arse another reject from West Ham.

It is a very difficult one. Harewood is a horrible signing but who knows how good he can be under o'neill. I am still very worried about the lack of quality signings and as for the kit unveilling tomorrow, that is all it will be, no new signings will be paraded then, guaranteed. This is football, not eastenders. Still love o'neill and hope so much he doesn't let us down.

harewood could work out, i guess if the reports said we were going to sign andrei shevchenko (world class striker) we would all be happy? look at what he did last year he hardly set the premiership on fire and he had world class players all around him! big names and big money is not always a good thing!!!

To Satheeish.
We are only saying we are expecting top class signings because the club came out and said we will be signing world class players. Don't get our hopes up if you have no chance of getting world class players.

If they have a press conferance to onveil Harewood i'm sending my new plastic card back....Thats when i get it. It's like when we signed Collymoore in 97, record season ticket sales & then no more signings.
We have been taken for idiots again.
I can't believe whats happening.

Everyone seems to forget Marlon singlehandedly killed us two years ago. And the only difference between top 8 West Ham and almost relegated West Ham was the form of Marlon & Nigel. When Aston Martin blarney-stone charms the pair of them back to form the Hammers will be sick.

With a maturing Gabby and Luke taking turns alongside big John and with Marlon backing John up in terrifying defenses it could even be like the good old days when John Deehan couldn't get into the starting 11! We may not even need another forward!

something worth lookin at!!
[link removed] as breaking page

Sorry but 2 players from a team that should have been relegated this isn't exactly what I was hoping for, if we sign great players tomorrow or by the kick off great, but if this is the way things are quite frankly it sucks and how can you get excited by these players.

youve gotta laff, hopefully things will start looking up soon, i just hope he isnt in the new kit at harvey nichs 2moro! Im just hoping oniels got a few more decent signings around the corner, but with defoe saying he wants to stay, robben going to real (which means SWP would stay at the bridge) our options are looking slightly more reduced. im trying my hardest to stay optimistic but its getting a little tighter now and i dont wana slag anyone off yet but i hav to say im a little disapointed at how much we've been promised, and whats actually been delivered, theres a long way to go yet and i think we will get some decent players, i just dont think the board and MON should have promised so much so soon.

:) delighted, i would rather have harwood than defoe, defoes a pussy where as harewood is a absolute beat, him and carew upfront, trust me villa fans he will be worth every penny we spend on him, he will be out top scorer next season easily. the only reson why he played so shit last season ( no offence marlon ) was beacuse west ham did not have the quality 2 feed him and their only quality midfilder who was capable is now playin 4 da villa :D , and beacuse confidence was low at west ham this would not have helped him. but when he comes 2 villa he will come in2 a camp totally confident and will have much better players playing around him so he will shine, jus wait n see, but im delighted at this news

Who the F*ck do we think we r? AC Milan? Barcelona? Man U? What the frig do we expect, put yurself in the player shoes, a big name wudent choose villa ATM it's obvious, were starting to sound like 'the best team in the universe' Newcastle fans.

Harewood is a nightmare..... WHU for Europe and we re to battle relegation

I dont really have a comment on this one, Harewood is an awful player from a boring team, although I trust MON i have no idea why we went in for this moose.

Ok I’m from a family of West Ham fans- they are a complete pain in the a** most times but I know how the Hammers' fans rate players. NRC really is a quality player and I think he's ideal for Villa. Just what we needed. This talk about the next Gavin McCann, no chance. GMC was good but I believe NRC is going to be huge. How about the next Roy Keane?
As for Marlon Harewood, the season before last he was awesome. Before that, at Forest he was incredible. He's only 27/28 and is yet to deliver on his potential- O'Neill loves this type of situation. People yap on about Nugent and players from the lower leagues. Forget them, Marlon showed way more potential than Nugent & others ever did yet people think Nugent is all of a sudden the next Shearer.
Look up interviews with Marlon and he is a top man too. Probably too modest in fact. This is evident on the pitch, the Hammers will tell you he's a complete confidence player. Imagine if O'Neill starts getting through to him. Id like to give the man a chance. I’m getting browned off lately along with everyone else and in the past few weeks would loved to have got Defoe. But the more I hear, that guy seems way too big for his boots and deserves to rot in the spurs reserves. Do we really want to be held to ransom by his club (£17m if you believe reports) and to add insult to injury have to then practically beg the player to come to Villa. He could be trouble. I trust MON's judgement and believe that if we get Harewood, it could be a very shrewd purchase. £3.75m for Harewood versus £16m for Bent? Little over a year ago, Harewood was just short of going to the World Cup.
DOWN WITH SPURS
UP THE VILLA!

now i see what direction we are going in and its not the direction we was promised by none other than M.O.N and the board i do like .M.O.N and think he is the one for us but the signings he is signing are not the one for us reo coker yes a good signing marlon hardewood = going backwards and yet all the club keeps saying is be paitent be paitent exactly how long do the expect and want us to stay paitent stringin us along like a bunch of muppets

Can we watch the new kit launch tomorrow on tele/internet?

LoveDon...i'd be interested to watch the press conference live also. I hope someone recommends how we could watch it. Also, i'd heard that the tour games are being shown on Fox Soccer Channel. Does anyone know if it will be possible to watch the live games on the internet?

Villa_Rules...don't get too down mate. You seem more pissed off than ever about the Harewood news. I understand your frustration cos' i feel very much the same. I put something a little negative up on the previous thread and one or two had a bit of a pop at what i wrote. They said i was behaving like a spoilt kid but i thought my points were quite valid. They ended up splitting hairs over the phrase "world class" which is what the thread we're reading now is titled !
I'm gonna try and be positive mate and i suggest that everyone else does the same...at least until 2 o'clock tomorrow ! (lol)

I thought & hoped this one had blown over with Wigan set to sign Marlon, but i suppose they needed someone in to show off the new kit. I hope MON has got this one right, everyone keeps making MON out to be some kind of messiah, this might prove him to be or not to be. Marlon seems to be a good honest pro and if he signs i hope he goes on to prove his many doubters wrong, as i said on a previous forum, he just might turn out to be our new Dublin/Regis.

Av33 only problem is our club tells us to keep faith and be paitent how long really do we have to wait and why is it allways villa fans that have to wait i just hate the way things are ran at the club im behind the players and M.O.N and even mr lerner but its allways allways the villa fans that has to wait and be paitent theres only one more club that iv heard say these words which was roy keans sunderland nobody else has said it just sunderland and as allways villa

Villa_Rules...i'm with you there mate. Please have a read of the thread under this one on the home page and tell me exactly where the faults are in my opinions. They seem to be similar to yours and i just think that you may find it an interesting read.
Although i'm not knocking Harewood as a squad player, i can't see him joining to sit on the bench when he could start nearly every game at Wigan. MON would obviously have to convince him that he would be an integral part of his plans in order to make him join but if he told him he wanted him as back up for Carew, surely Marlon wouldn't accept anyway...I just think we should be aiming much higher.
There is a great post on the forum titled "Newcastle and Big Sam v Villa and MON". You really cannot argue with what is said.
Anyway chap, chin up...let's see if tomorrow brings something good !

Villa could be offerd ronaldinho for 50p and the club would still no we need to watch him and make sure he is the right one this is why we dont get out targets because the club wants to watch em for so long and make sure they will be the one sometimes in football u have to take a risk on a few players but ohh no not villa there to busy in watching players instead for months and months and months

am sorry to say i expected a higher class of signing than marlon harewood no disrespect to him.MON may have seen something we havent but if he's not good enough for west ham is he good enough for villa.I do apologise for being on a downer but i was at least expecting "Top class " players or is this the calm before the storm???

As i said bud, take it easy for now and don't have a direct pop at MON and Randy just yet because we may all be very pleased with things come the start of the season. It's just that i don't get it...we're told that top players will be signed this summer (don't start again you lot ! lol) but we are only linked with replacements for what we have lost. These are the kind of players that we are used to buying under Ellis and in no way show signs of intention to the rest of the Prem that we are intent on bigger things. I say again, read that Forum post comparing Newcastle and Villa.
IMO There are two ways this can go:
We sign the likes of Harewood etc as squad member replacements and start the season with fewer numbers than last.
OR
MON & Randy still have something up their sleeves and major signings will come, either tomorrow or in three or four weeks and we're all happy bunnies !

Just would be nice to know which way we are heading. If nothing happens tomorrow at the PC, i will be worried.
I'm trying to stay positive but i must admit i'm starting to get really concerned with the silence at our beloved AV !

UP THE VILLA

ever the pessimist, but this wont help the carew to porto rumours go away

I am starting to get a little frustrated at the minute with us been linked to mediocre premiership players rather than these world class signings we were supposed to be signing. Harewood, Gardner and Smith wont improve our squad at all, if everyones fit none of these would even make the bench, get in Defoe, Young, Gordon and Wright-Phillips.

davesayers...imagine this...we sell Carew and bring in Harewood as his replacement. This really can't happen, am i in the middle of a nightmare ?
I dunno what to think any more, my head's mashed !!
:'(

we been given permision to speak to haerwood yet i bet you all it takes untill next week for us to actualy sign him because as i say we are snail at signing players

How can you argue with the signing of any experiance prem player for that kind of money? If Marlon doesnt perform in training then MON wont play him. If he does perform then we will be a very happy bunch ;D

Cheer up guys: Marlon could turn out to be the new Savo. Errr..

What an awful signing this would be. He is slow, a poor finisher and not wanted by West Ham which tells us a lot! The likes of Newcastle and Tottenham are peeling away from us and im starting to get worried, both these clubs have made great signings and we're not keeping up with the pace..... at this rate the best we can hope for next season is top 10

the 2 seasons before tevez come he got west ham into europe by scoring 16 goals and i no for fact that mon can turn that 4 goals last season bk into 16 goals and with the 13 million training complex i bet he can turn 16 goals even higher come on mon isnt stupid guys

O'neill will get the best out of him, he bulldozzes defences, he's quick, strong and as long as he is in a forward line defenders have to pay attention to him, so this leave's one or two other players with more space. He will get atleast ten goals i predict now, but he is mainly a back up/decoy squad player who will give Mon 110 percent, especially when he tells him how good he is all the time and gives him a little cuddle AAAHHHHHH.

On a seperate note does anyone else think MON looks like the Jewish dad character on American Pie.

Muzzy izzet and emile heskey next it really would not suprise me ohhh and probley a bid for neil lennon even tho he only just joined n forrest

If it's true that the tour games are being shown on the Fox Soccer channels then download SopCast. You can watch loads of sport on it, it shows ESPN, CCTV-5, STAR sports, Shanghai Gsports. Basically you can watch A LOT of sport on it. I really hope the tour games will be shown!

Who cares who we sign as long as we finish above blues and get into Europe.
new season, new dawn

COME ON YOU VILLA BOYS

Typical Villa, as ever we are proving a joke in the transfer market. To be fair we were (again) promised big names and let's face it Marlon Harewood does have 14 letters in his name so that's a fairly big name! Young is apparently available at 2.7m why are we messing about as usual!

i think we need to stop all this, cast your minds back to the days of gregory, taylor and o'dreary! surly no one writing on this can say they were not over the moon at MON becoming villa manager? now ask yourselves why? he is a top manager that knows his stuff and as someone pointed out if harewood does it we will all sing his praises and if he doesn't o'neil is big enough to admit it and ship him on. i am right behind MON and trust him 100% put it this way if you told me 2 years ago we would be in this position i would have snapped your hand off!!

VILLA TILL I DIE!

You guys shouldn't bellyache so much about Harewood. As others have pointed out, he scored 14 goals in 2005-2006. Why should we not sign a player like that for 3.7 million? He can make a solid contribution as a sub.

You guys dislike the talk about Harewood not because he's Harewood, but because he's not Sneijder or Hunetlaar. We need to separate potential signings like Harewood from those like Sneijder. If we don't sign Sneijder, it won't be because O'Neill signed Harewood; it'll be because he didn't want to come to Aston Villa.

32 played

10 games of 80 minutes plus

12 games of less thean 45 minutes

3 goals

harewood last season was a joke who is now shouting from roof tops??????????

For a extra 300k we could get james beatie who for me would be a better bench player than harewood the cone head i hope he reads some of msgs and think forget that fans hate me il go to wigan hahahahahaha

carew wont be able to play ever minute, for 3 million its a pretty good signing....gotta feeling nrc and harewood will be able to connect better at the villa......need to stop checking every 10 mins for a new player

I've tried so hard not to write this for fear of looking a prat if nothing happens tomorrow but i've just had a look at the official site (ever optimistic !)
Although there is a mention of talks with Harewood, the rumour section doesn't seem to have been updated since the 13th which would appear a little wierd. They also state that the new kit will be unveiled at 2pm tomorrow at a "major media event".
I'm not gonna speculate any more, but could this be a little for thought...maybe ???? ;)

AV33, as much as I hope that you're correct, it sounds like a bit of a stretch.

stay optimistic people, MON knows what hes doing

just a quick not to villa_rules, beattie had the chance to join us and went to everton and look what he did for them! beattie goes out a lot where i live and he thinks hes gods gift to everything, i would have harewood any day over beattie!

on a lighter note, have we found out if we can watch the "major media event" live any where, are sky sports news covering it?

just seen that vassel is up for sale for 1.5m surely noone thinks that woul have been a good move for the villa?

would never have vassell back at the villa. it was only when he left us you actually realised how bad he was !!!! He always scored against us though - what a plonker

i woudlnt have vassel back either. we dont need him anyway not with moore, young an agbonlahor

do we know if we can watch it live yet?????? please its only 2 hours away!!!

re. the media event and watching it live, i'm afraid i dont know

you'd think that how its been billed by the club it will be available via villa world ... but i just dont know. sorry

if you pre order your shirt can you get it before august 9th. cant believe we have to wait that long to buy it

Well i suppose Spurs will keep Defoe now, Mido has gone to the Blues...