I'm going to my mother in laws to tell her I'm not going to her sisters wedding, so MON you better have some signings for me when I get back later to cheer me up or I will be very very upset!

;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

yid army
yid army

Even though I hope that Spurs don't bid for Davies as he's too expensive and we still have 5 other center backs (when fit) How are Spurs trying to 'hijack' Villa's bid.

We've been linked to Davies for the last six months :'(

Hijack your bid!! We've been in for 3 times now in a year & you step in at the last minute. Your manager needs to keep up. Its not the SPL now Martin!!

If Spurs are really interested in him then there is only one outcome. If he signs for Villa then he got less ambition than Craig Gordon, lol

What are you on about mate! We've been looking at him since last summer. You lot have only been looking at him for the last couple of months cos we're in for him. So whose doing the hijacking?

I'm not sure we hijacked the deal, but I'm not too fussed.

So many other teams are ahead of us now and we're just losing ground as time goes on. Marlow Harewood for christ's sake!! :'(

Hijack YOUR bid?! Arrgh that's outrageous when Spurs have been in for him since January. Villa are the hijackers with all the US dollars they find themselves with. Get the facts straight fella.

Get your own site skanks, no-one likes you!!!!!!!!!

You're all still bitter Ashley Young chose us over you!!!!!

I get the feeling we might hear something from the club today. Normally the official site has been updated by now, and in the past when they were releasing news, they are slow to update.

Not only that, news is overdue anyways.

I'm not gonna lie, the optimism is still there but the nerves are completely frazzled about new signings. I'm not sure how i feel about this davies bid, could be a good signing if we get him, wouldn't be the world's biggest loss if we didn't. I'm more concerned about a right back and keeper.

Losing Davies would be..like losing Gordon. Or losing out on youngsters internationally, like Drenthe. I don't agree with those who say this has so far been a good summer - unless we want to continue using the old Aston Villa parameters, when arriving 6th was seen as an amazing achievement. When buying Ginola at the end of his career was deemed a success, when bringing back Graham Taylor was also seen by some never say die optimists as a great way to bring back success at the Villa. Even Stevie Wonder could have told you the Turnip was gonna maintain the tradition of mediocrity for another couple of seasons - is it possible no one could tell at Villa Park? This is not 1989 anymore, the competition in the 1st tier of the English league is cut throat and in the meantime Villa have gone from challinging for the title against the Manchester Utd of this world to raving about a 6th spot finish. We have adapted to the mediocrity of the place, numbed as we've been by years of Fashanu, Lee bloody Hendrie, Liverpool rejects (James, Collymore, Staunton, Baros), foreign flops (Milosevic, Balaban, Angel, Curcic, Nelson, Baros - again) and the overall descend of Aston Villa FC into the 2nd tier of importance - million miles behind the top 4. The lowest point being Southgate and Boateng moving to Middlesbrough to further their career - how bad was that? So I'm not happy - because the likes of Gordon prefer Sunderland to us (allegedly), because it's the 8th of bloody August and still we have no squad in place 3 days from the Premiership start and because we seem to be losing out on just about anyone for players right now. I do have faith in this club - in O'Neill & Lerner - but leaps forward need to be done quicker than we've done so far: common sense indicates that - at this stage of the season - it would have been beneficial for the club to have a settled-ish squad in place. I know the players will come - eventually - but we need to look at things with more urgency, both as fans and as a board. Everyone seem to have bucketloads of money to spend in England these days, just about all of the Premiership seem to have managed to identify their targets and - on most cases - have managed to get them..we probably need at least 4/5 quality players to add to what we have now, how long before we start moving up a gear at the Villa?

Play at the Lane alongside England colleagues like Bent, Lennon, Dawson Robinson, King, Huddlestone, challenging the top 4 , in Europe........................ or Villa Park? Doh!

Does anyone wonder why we have only had 5 pre-season games?
And why yesterday's game was a reserve team except Cahill and Gardner?

Starting to get the feeling that MON is worried about getting no-one in and is geting the young-blood ready for this season,

Forget your question mate, it'll be 95% that feel let down, I think we will struggle to attract players now, we're starting to show desperation and clubs will raise their prices and make us look stupid.

Firstly i can see why Villa need davies, we've only got mellberg who can play week in week out. Cahill and Laursen as good as they are will always be injury prone. Spurs i can also see why they need him even if it's less urgent than Villas need. You's have King, Dawson, Rocha, Kaboul, & Gardner. King suffers from alot of injurys as everyone knows so that leaves 4 CB's and alot of spurs fans including Jol probably don't think Gardner is upto the standard they require to push into the top 4 So that leaves 3 Trusted CB's if king isn't fit that's why jol will want Davies. And personally i think he'd join spurs over even though i'd love too see him at VP.

liked what you said mick, only i didn't think Staunton warrented being labled with the rest of those losers. Celtic fans say that MON acts late in the transfer market, but he needs to put the Villa fans mind at ease & tell it how it is, not just come out and say "Yes we have money to spend but we need to find value". Marlon Harewood was a panic buy in my eyes & believe Cruz who has just signed for Blackburn would have been a better buy for the same kind of money.

I think we have the players in place to start a season but not maintain the season.

Just wanted to say that when villa do catch up with spurs which is inevitable with the money we have, we will be a far more superior in every aspect of the team from the stadium, training complpex, fan base etc. at the moment spurs have better players than us but i can't see spurs being the only ones challenging to push into the top four, eventually others will catch them. ie villa, newcastle, west ham (maybe?) etc, so enjoy ur superiority for as long as it lasts. all the bickering us villa fans are getting is the indicators of other teams getting nervous and scared that the claret and blue giant has woken!!!

23 days till the end of the transfer window. If we dont make any signings in that time i am heading straight down the bookies!! We will go down with our 19 man squad!!!

im beginning to think mon might be 'deadley dougs' love child.
we seem to have gone from a chairman who wouldn't spend, to a manager who wont spend. randy lerner is used to paying big bucks for players & wages with his american interests, so why should it differ here, it's down to the manager. it's a disgrace that we should start a season without a recognised right back at the club, he's had the best part of 3 months just to sort out that one position.
the slogan say's - 'proud history, bright future' at the moment only one of those is true, which one? you guess. mon needs to get his finger out because if we fail in the first few matches i feel he will suffer the wrath of a fed-up villa faithful, we had enough of this rubbish with the ellis era. c'mon villa (martin) sort it out!!!!!!!

by the way gordon has signed for sunderland, what a dissasterous career move he has just made, considering that he hasn't even been to see the villa and mon. maybe there was a bit of back handers going on ;)

blackburn bought the title once look at there decline since,mon is building a young team for the long term and is the only way to achieve constant sucess(ie man u)imo he has cleared the decks and is starting a new era

when that happens,we will attract bigger players(if we need them)

Lol Spurs have been bidding for over a year now! Youu're hijacking OUR bid! Crazy Villans, my dads one... he's bet a fiver on villa capturing Davies over us - is he going senile? :)

Let's just focus on the facts. MON has stated he needs at least 5 players in before the end of the month. He can only be judged at the end of the month. Yes it's a negative when you can't get your whole squad together pre-season but more important is momentum and if we get the result against Liverpool we will have that. Look on the bright side - if Villa have the money then they are being very very prudent as to who they bring in. That's great as far as I'm concerned, get the right characters, the battlers and winners. Stop worrying about looking sexy to the media and build a winning team.

Forget Davies he will only be a squad player for the mighty SPURS... but please sort us out a pub that doesn't charge three quid to get in then queue for twenty mins to buy a pint!

Whatever people say on here about looking to the future i agree with Tone i thionk we will get relegated this year. We have a far thinner squad than last year, with no extra quality!! We finished 11th last year so we 100% cant expect to finish higher than that this year and on top of that teams behind us last year have strengthened considerably!! Our squad is utterly Pathetic and embarrassing. 4 injuries or suspensions and we cant fill the bench!!! We are a laughing stock at the moment!!!

You villa fans are dreamland if you think your going to over take us, you ended up paying nearly 10m for young, lmfao, decent player but 4-5m way to much,lol, and as for having a bigger fan base,lmfao.
i'm just waiting for the cheer leaders at the first quarter to arrive,lol, birming yanks, we shit ya, lol

19 squad members is an absolute joke i brought my season ticket with high hopes now i getting ready for a relegation battle

If I were going for a keeper Id bring back Mark Bosnich just to play him against Spurs to wind up all these Tottenham W****rs

I'm a Spur, but i wouldn't be as depressed as some of you lot seem to be if i was a Villain. Randy Lerner is a business man, he's in it to make money and in order to do that he needs a succesful team.

MON is a fantastic coach and one of the shrewdest tacticians out there.

Your goal is to break into the UEFA cartel of teams, those competing from 5th down to eighth, once you've broken into that group you need to finish the best of the rest and from that position you can begin your assault on the big four. Get into that group and manage to stay in it and... well... I guess that's another story.

Here's the thing, no matter how many players you buy, the best you can hope for this season is a UEFA place. To even get that though you have to compete against all the investment going into teams like West Ham, Man City, Newcastle and Portsmouth as well as established performers like Blackburn, Spurs, Everton and Bolton. Just look at that list and realise that only two will qualify for UEFa via the league... MON's no mug, he knows this year's market is inflated unrealistically, but here's my question... what happens next year when all those other clubs have splurged their dosh?

Come next summer Villa will still be rich and arguably even richer, the likes of Portsmouth, City, West Ham et al will be running on empty, who's going to be able to out bid who next summer? At the same time player prices will drop and the next genration of Ashley Youngs, Royston Drenthes and Aaron Lennons will be filtering through and you'll be in a prime position to snap them up.

Fair enough, you want success now, but even there MON might be right. Your pre-season's been none too shabby, you ended last year as one of the form sides and there's a lot to be said for stability - especially when everyone else is busy chopping and changing. I can see Villa having a very good first half of the season, but tiring around Christmas. With enough momentum you might scrape sixth, seven could be enough for UEFA and a CC final is also a possible way in. Whatever happens - and even if it seems depressing now - I reckon it's season '08/'09 you should be looking towards and I think it's then if at any time you'll have a chance of making the break-through.

what is going on with the villa site it hasnt been updated from last night waiting for the paper talk wonder if we are set to sign somebody or they just havent got no one to talk about as we arent in talks with any player >:(

nick 123, hear what you are saying, but who's showing the greatest ambition at the moment i.e transfer fees and wages, thats, the be-all & end-all for players these days. we need to make our minds up whether we are competing or not with the likes of the 'big 4' or even the sunderland's of this world.

Thanks Tartaruga, you speak sense. I would like to see Davies at the Villa, but we shall see. Spurs would appear a more lucrative offer at the moment, but perhaps he has settled in the West Midlands - the guy came here from Luton so presumably knows a thing or too about London. Davies and Hangeland would be two very positive buys.

tartaruga that was the most sensible thing anyone has said so far. its about next season and we need to compete this year. we need to aiming to start beating some of the top 4 and obviously the blues
if we can add couple more players and blood a few young guns, we may be able to scrape 8th and if we can get to a cup final, it can be deemed as a successful season as long as our style of football is improving.
keep the faith

Tartaruga - very sensible comments. I'd also add that I think it's very dificult for teams who are not competing in Europe to manage large squads (in terms of managing morale etc.) could Spurs hang on to all their forwards without the extra games to rotate them around? I doubt it.

Thanks Tartaruga, It's nice to see opposing fans who are able to have honest opinions. Appreciate it.

Ive been saying that for the last 2 months, This season may not be our season, but next season could be when we make our mark.

I completely agree with tartaruga in that villa will benefit more in the transfer market next summer after all the investments etc have taken shape and the novalty has worn off.

Not only that, we have a very young team, Gabby, moore, young, cahill, gardner, NRC, osbourne. And davies is also very young and im sure the right back we brin in will to have age on his side. These players are only going to get better.

Keep the faith

I read in the rumours today that both us & Spurs want him but are not prepared to enter into a bidding war.

I think that is because they both realise at £8M they would be paying abit over the odds for him.

It would be rational to say that he would pick Spurs but it wouldnt be a huge shock if he came to Villa. We have MON and he would get straight into the first team (Someone said somewhere that Mellberg plays RB for Sweden so Davis could come at CB and then Mellberg at RB.) He would be close to his home and wouldnt have to move or commute to London everyday.

im undecided on this one, i havent seen very much of him so i cant call it. But if these top clubs are after him then he is odviously good.

True about Davies and Ridge being practically the same player, and Ridge had more Prem experience, although what i've seen from Davies, he doesn't turn into an idiot when being chased down by a striker, something we saw a lot of from Ridgewell during his senior days.

Call it hijacking, call it what you want

Fact is, if both Spurs and Villa offered the same free to WBA and indentical personal terms.

He is always going to pick Spurs.

Look at Darren Bent, he turned down 75K a week at Wet Spam because he wanted to be at Spurs.

Whilst you and a few other clubs continue to sell out to the Yanks and buy average foreign players (or the odd reject :D) Tottenham continue to sign up the best young talent around.

To the guys that say that Villa will be relegated next season..please fellas, go easy on the booze - I may be a little edgy about our transfer activity so far but seriously, let's not talk out of our backsides eh? ;-)

no doubt that will be another one martin will let slip away

tartarruga i think you speak alot of sense and im happy for oppsition fans to come on here and say stuff like that but when thay come on here and disrespect our team and manager its a disgrace. i mean havent thay got better things to do weve just recently got rid of sum sunderland scum..

Davies needs to move for professional reasons, I think we all understand that. And if he is going to realise his potential and make the next step then let it be to a club that wil play him. England also needs these players coming through as much as the premiership needs good english talent to keep the passion of some of the fans.

As a spurs fan, I would gladly see Davies lining up alongside michael dawson as I think it could help show once and for all if he has what it takes to put himself amongst the elite.

Having said that, if he doesn't come to us then I'd be happy to see him at another club where he plays regularly and is given a chance to shine.
Out of the 'traditional top 4' I can only see this sort of thing happening at liverpool and even that would be on a squad rotation basis.

Under MON he would devolp as a player and as a potential england player for the future when terry and rio finally pack up / persist in injuries. So if he doesn't come to us then yes Villa, Reading (copell also an under-rated manager) or even everton would be good foundations for him professionally speaking. Of course I'm biased and would dearly love him to come to spurs, but I'd understand if he didn't why not.

I agree with some of the comments below in so much as, I know that not all fans are patient, the 'one game' mentality that is propogated by the media (win=champions league, lose=relegation) and often doesn't take into account steady and well managed growth. As opposed to the boom or bust scenario that has shown itself in its worst form with spiralling decline of Leed FC.

For you I think steady progress and uefa qualification (even if through intertoto) would be a reasonable ambition and a platform on which to acquire better players and push further. You have a good manager, who knows what he's doing, give him time to weave his magic.

Of course I'd like six points off you lot to help in our push to break top 4, but your keeper normal plays a blinder to keep us to a draw. Also if you could take a few notchs out our nomadic colleagues down the road it wouldn't go amiss. ;)