I woke this morning and turned off my PC. I then went fishing for a few hours, because I didn't want to think football or work, let alone Aston Villa.

Now I've got home I see I've missed out on loads of speculation, Martin O'Neill talking about a trip to Germany and the club site using, pretty much, the exact same article published a couple of hours earlier on the Express & Star site.

I wasn't surprised to get confirmation that the club site is run by a bunch of monkeys but I was surprised at the names mentioned today.

First off the bat is Nélson from Benfica. I wrote on deadline day that a deal was in the offing to bring in a right back and I got loads and loads of stick, from some. I didn't mention the name until the deal had officially broken down late in the afternoon, but then I got even more stick, from the same.

Anyway, it's nice to see his name mentioned and Martin O'Neill has a history of denying speculation; do I hear my phone ringing to tell me this isn't true? No, that was my alarm telling me I've got an appointment at the pub and to quickly wrap this up.

Moving on. The other two rumours are, unsurprisingly, from the match that Martin O'Neill went to Germany for. The speculation is focused very much on Bayern Munich centre-half Daniel van Buyten and Getafe right-back Cosmin Contra.

Hands up, I don't know that much about either, so I'm not going to comment, but if you do, post it below. However, I'd doubt he Contra rumour, only because he'll be 33 this year and as for van Buyten, he's just turned 30, so again, it doesn't appear to fit into the master plan we've been watching for two seasons.

Anyway, big day tomorrow and I suspect Gary Cahill and Smiler McCann, if they're both playing, will get a good reception. Samuel on the other hand might get a little stick - will be interesting to see. Up the Villa and pray for attractive football and three points.