ewwww
we should call luke moore up if we are looking at the likes of kevin doyle

I agree, why go for Doyle. Marlon coming off the bench has had a great impact this season and we do not need another like him.
We need someone who can play off Carew or someone in the mould of Fowler or Rush, This is something we have been lacking for years now.

spot on Bob Dunbar

for all the hype we've had, with the likes of JJ, DV, gabby and luke moore

we've never really had, since yorke probably, a real goal scorer

and we really do need one

If it's in the mirror, you can pretty much rule out Doyle to villa!

not good enough as you said we got marleene for that position and for less than 4m we could probably pick up saha from united a proven prem goalscorer

Being Irish im slightly biast towards Kev but i don't think there's a place for him in our squad. To only way i can see this happening is if we sell Marlon. Kevin's got a great footballing brain so if we were to lose one of our strikers he may be worth a punt.

BTW - let's not forget that when we were linked with Marlon Harewood everybody (including myself) were saying the exact same things about him that we are now saying about Doyle. Just something to think about :)

i have to disagree i would like doyle to sign, he played most of the season wide on the right and plus he was in a bad reading team.hes only 24 and this season was only his 3 in england having only played 3 seasons in the eircom league before that.i think he wud be a gud signing hes better than harewood, a better finisher than gabby and as good in the air as carew. this my opinion.

but Darragh ... most are happy with Marlon because most accept that he is a squad player

in fact when he signed - that's exactly what martin o'neill told us - he told us what we wanted to hear (i've only just figured that out)

i think most will accept that we've now got out impact player - and if we get a real proven striker we've then got gabby or carew as back up too .... we dont need anymore

although as mossiewalsh is suggesting - he could be good

we'll never know - and it's only £4mnn ...

Damian, i agree but i said in the previous post that i could only see this happening if Marlon or someone else leaves. Even if we do get him without anybody leaving i believe MON will turn him into a very good striker. We'll have to wait and see but i don't believe he is a 'championship' striker. Let not forget the 06/07 season top goalscorer stats:

1 Didier Drogba Chelsea 20
2 Benedict McCarthy Blackburn 18
3 Cristiano Ronaldo Man Utd 17
4 Mark Viduka Middlesbrough 14
Darren Bent Charlton 14
Wayne Rooney Man Utd 14
7 Kevin Doyle Reading 13
8 Dirk Kuyt Liverpool 12

The problem is that Mon never learns, if he really is looking at the likes of Doyle we better pack it in now!!

Rather than paying £4m towards a player who may be only a tiny improvement on our back-up strikers, we should be really focusing on getting a 15-20 goal a season striker from continental Europe. Berbatov was about £11m, and if we do our homework right and dont spend another £4m on Doyle aswell, we would be spending our money right aswell as showing ambition for Gareth Barry.

i wondered how long it will be untill we were linked with doyle, he didnt have the best of season last season but his first season he was superb. he scored goals and that was with a team with players around him that are not as good as villa's and i think if he came mon would make him even better, i think it would be a good signing but no better than we already have, we need some real quality upfront the likes of the defoe's players like that to play along with carew then we have gabby and harewood for backup.

Doyle is a very limited player and i say that as an Irishman. We need different a type of striker who can offer us a bit of guile. Gudjohnsen would be perfect or even someone like McFadden who can come deep and link up with the midfield.

He is quality and was played out of position this season and suffered a crisis of confidence. In top form he is a game winner. Snap him up.

We don't need strikers! Scoring goals wasn't the problem, it was conceding them. It all went t1ts up when Davies got injured.

We really really need two full-backs (Sorry Bouma, I do like you but we need better) and a goalkeeper. A backup CB would be good, but Bouma is a CB for his country so we should use him more there.

lets not forget marlon scored 16 goals a few years ago Darragh and we all know he is a backup striker. doyle isnt good enough. i always like players who are not just 6 or 7 out of 10's for everything. doyle is at best 6 out of 10 for everything. gabby is 10 for speed, carew 9 for hold up play etc. we need someone who is 9 on reaction and scoring, just how bob mentioned someone in the rush and fowler mould. that would complement what we already have.

@alextaylor24

That's a fair point and i would agree with everything you said. As i said in previous posts - Im Irish and slightly biased so i think ill leave ye lot to argue this one out :)

Kevin Doyle like all young players had a great first season but as soon as defenders became aware of him his game diminished. It happens to all young players and only the best come through it. Watch out Young and Agbonlathor

Totally agree with you Luke. Defense is the major weakness of our team at the moment.

The Guardian have picked this tory up aswell, and they have a slightly better stroy/truth rating than most.

I think he'd be a decent investment for £4m, especially if we are fighting on League, FA Cup, EUFA Cup and League Cup fronts.

Oh! I meant story.

I don;t know Doyles political views :o

Luke - fair enough, we scored lots of goals, but all the teams in the top four have a stiker who will score 20 without having to even run. We haven't - we only score so many because of the way we play meaning goals come from all over the pitch - but imagine doing that will a Michael Owen in the team - we'd be scoring as many as Man United.

I agree though, the defence does need work - we let in ten more goals this season compared to last - maybe Sorensen is justified in his moaning? Afterall, the keeper's job is to keep the ball out of the net - Carson has failed in that aim in my opinion.

As an Irish Villa fan, I'd have mixed feelings about signing Doyle. He could be a good replacement for Luke Moore as a 4th striker, but would rather a top class striker who could score 20 a year. Also, Richard Dunne seems to be available, i think personally he'd be a perfect replacement for Mellberg in the squad as he has been top class for last few years, and would certainly help solidify our leaky defence. Why are we not being linked with a player who to me seems like he'd be a perfect addition to the team when he's being linked with half the teams in the Premier League?

I dont agree with anyone who says that we do not need a player in a certain position. What I mean by this is that to improve the first 11 - you sign players that are better than the current players. That means if we can sign a player that plays in the same position as Ashley Young but is better than him - then we should sign him.
Obviously the main areas to strengthen are GK, RB, CB and RW but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be trying to improve all 11 positions!
Players like Doyle, Bullard and Sidwell - are all average players that will strengthen our squad but not our team. If they are backup players and only fillers alond with a few big name signings - then everyone will be happy. On the other hand if they are our main signings, then patience will finally have run out with MoN and Randys transfer dealings.

I'll take Doyle if we add Diego, Van der Vaart, a couple central defenders, a couple goalkeepers and a capable 20-goal a season striker. Add all that, and sure, add Kevin Doyle too, why not?

I actually got excited when i saw this headline, because i wanted us to buy Doyle at the end of last season...whenever i see him play he seems to eek a quality that could never have been displayed fully at Reading. His first touch is above a 6, his heading is above a 6 and his finishing is definitely above a 6 alex taylor. I think you must have misread Doyle's statistics, because he's definitely worth buying at 4mil. I think Doyle has abilities that are in huge contrast to Marlon, he's more of a precise, clever player, whereas Marlon is all action. Frankly we didn't have enough choice of striker when Luke Moore was around, so we need Doyle AND a really quality striker...surely we could nab Louis Saha from Utd since they don't seem to want him any more. Any talk of Eto'o should be forgotten quickly, else it's not MON not living up to expectations in the market, it's our expectations being far too ridiculous.

Everything from the Daily Mirror must be ignored. They link us with every crap player around. I'm keeping a list now of who they've linked us with

Beattie
Mendes
Doyle
Sidwell
Chimbonda

i dont think he will be adding anything to the villa team but i also dont think he will take anything away, in my opinion i think it will just be a battle between him and harewood for the last 15 minutes of a game

Pedro Mendes, Kevin Doyle, Steve Sidwell.

No offence but if we want to kick on as it were, these kinds of players wont help improve us.

and iv read above that people are saying we dont need any more strikers because we scored enough goals, fair enough we scored alot but whats the harm in scoring more, we shouldn't settle for scoring alot of goals we should always be pushing for more, if ronaldo had settled for scoring 20 goals man utd probably wouldnt have won the premiership. goals win games and the more the merrier

The more the merrier, eh? But let's be realistic - unless your name is Manchester United, there are limits to how many goals you'll be able to score without opening the floodgates at the other end. Investing in a really expensive forward - and a reliable 20/year guy will cost a fortune - strikes me as a sub-optimal use of resources unless the club is willing to spend like the proverbial drunken sailor.

Now, that doesn't mean we don't need another quality forward, or that Doyle is the answer; just that forward is a lower priority than defence and keeper and possibly midfield (depending on how the Barry drama plays out), and our expectations should reflect the likely resources available.

Blitzballer, we've talked about how many players we need to buy this summer: eight, nine, ten? Given that we need so many, I wouldn't mind signing players like Mendes, Doyle, or Sidwell. Those three players won't carry us into the top four, so I will be bothered if those are the only three players we sign. But mixed in with a signing of a Diego or Bentley, they will strengthen our quality overall.

no point speculating on players because we are not going to sign anyone til the 1st of july

Act now, and act quickly MON.

LINK

Pretty much in full agreement with 'Villain from Texas'. These players will definitely offer us more strength in depth which we so obviously lack, but brought in with 2-3 players of real quality then we should have a strong squad next season.

Going forward isn't the problem for villa, we showed what a capable attacking team we are scoring 71 goals this season, of course we'd all like a '20' goal a season striker,but i think we have to start at the back.Carson is a top quality keeper but is he worth £10m?i think £5-6m and we should go for him if not Jussi might be the better option.
we need cover for Bouma at LB,now Mellberg is sampling pizza ans pasta we need a decent RB with cover coming in the way of gardner.
Bentley would be fantastic at RM,apparently we've already had a £15m bid turned down so it all depends on how many dollar signs we can dangle in front of sparky.with ashley on the left,rio-coker and (hopefully gareth)in CM. Carew,Gabby,Marlon,and if we can get an additional proven goal scorer like Gudjonsson,i think we'd definately be knocking on that top four door next season.

Defense was the major weakness, more specifically Carson and Knight were the weakness and we were a little exposed on the right side of defense sometimes.

Agree with Villain from texas. Though i still think we could get better squad players. Signing Kevin Doyle wont improve AVFC.

I think its important to sign a real quality player for big money sooner rather than later, the likes of Diego, Farfan, Van der Vaart or Huntelaar. Then we're in a position were other players will be more inclined to consider a move to us also.

Why the 1st of July?

kevin doyle really is not good enough to play for our reserves as we have marlon down there who is better than him and also our least talented striker
this is nothing more than a pathetic rumor

Guys, can we all please forget about Diego? He would be playing in the CL next season with Werder Bremen, why would he move to a team on the periphery of the top teams in England and compete in the UEFA cup? That's not even taking into account the wages and transfer fee he'd demand...

kevin doyle was and is in a bad reading side. In my view, he's twice the asset harewood is, he's more mobile, has not got a problem with his fitness and knock a ball through the eye of a needle. No-one has suggested that MON throw even 3mill on the table and really secure the bargain he is famous for. He is also an international but suffers from the lack of quality of that final ball. He's a wonderful header of the ball and given the right service he could prove very influential at Villa. UTV and the Republic.

well said irishvillain 100 doyle will go on to prove how good he really is, i just hope its at villa. while we araea signing doyle we mite aswell go for shay given and richard dunne aswell, 3 irish lads to bring back the good days of the early to mid 90s when we had 4 irish lads, fighting for the league and winning cups!!!

this is just as bad as man u trying to buy dean leacock. absolute rubbish!!
>:(

doyle is a goodish player but i cant see him playin 4 us often but if we gave him a chance he would use it.
:)
UTV

Excitement rating 1/10

Kevin Doyle - Not good enough for Aston Villa.

;)

Always been a fan of Kevin Doyle ... we have 3 strikers at the minute, need 4 for rotation if we want to go far in competitions next year.

Sign him up!

Goody, lets sign a player who is worse than Harewood, will be lower on the pecking order than Harewood, and see less pitch time than Harewood. We'll have 4 strikers and still no 20 goal a season player.

Id love to see Kevin Doyle come to Villa and make a big impression...his qualities have been mentioned above....but first id like to see some proven quality arriving in the defence and midfield, and maybe one 25 goal a season striker. Doyle would hit 15 in that Villa team right now.

Gareth Barry is not going to stay for Kevin Doyle, I agree with Darragh in that we need to start buying players that are not 4mil bargain basement squad players but real quality that can move this team forward. That kind of player is around 10 mil, really pisses me off the way we are linked with players like Beattie and that level of fodder, bollocks

We should spend the most money on defenders. We allow way too many goals. But having said that, i feel its essential that we should splurge out on a 15mil midfielder.

Defence needs shoring up, but I would like to see a creative midfielder alongside Barry. We need a proven goal scorer for Gabby to learn from and compete against.

What is it with all these big babys cryin that we haven't been LINKED in THE SUN with big name players!

So what ... MON is known for not letting stories out!
I'm more bothered about who we ACTUALLY sign, couldnt give a sh!te who we are linked with!

Doyle, yuck yuck yuck. I,m not sure if the speculation is true but Eto is interested in a move to Tottneham next season? If this is true why do we not go in for him, him and Carew would be immense upfront together. What have Tottenham got to offer that Villa havnt.

LoveDon ... the answer to your question is London and Juande Ramos who he knows from La Liga .. also wages!

Damian - why do you think that signing Kevin Doyle would be enough to convince Barry to stay, yet it isn't even enough to convince you that its a decent signing?? You seem to have changed your mind half way through the article...

JG

it was sarcasm

Guaranteed European football, though I'm sure there are many clubs with Champions League football to offer who would be interested in him, despite him being out of form. Still think it's worth a shot though, if you don't ask you don't get!

^ Referring to Eto'o btw.

If we have the money, why not? Just think of other clubs with players like him, add him to a squad to beef it up a litte, its tiny

[b]Wow, let me tell you guys a little story about a young blonde Irish player who once played in the Irish League. He didn't really rip up the league but scouts seen something in him. Reading signed him up to play on the bench, but low and behold this blonde haired guy broke into the team and was instrumental in their survival. The same blonde haired irishguy then took the english league by storm scoring 13 goals for unfashionable Reading...not bad for a guy that was told theres no point joining reading..you won't make it. The following season the guy was played on the wing, this player has so many qualities yet idiot fans like on here can't see this.

Kevin Doyle you are a hero...I would want you at CSKA Moscow any day.[/b]