Wow... Damien, that is SPOT ON. Exactly what I am feeling at the moment lol. Even the rumor lol.

Good article but MON is not flying anywhere all the bbc commentry is being done in the studio's in london.

Its not martin o`neills fault that people have no patience or nothing more important to think about than bloody transfers.

[quote]Match of the Day's team in Austria and Switzerland includes Gary Lineker, Adrian Chiles, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Mark Lawrenson, Marcel Desailly, Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan.[/quote]

[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/5161070.stm[/url]

the fact he's doing it (in london or over there), doesn't really bother me. you can get back from there very quickly and communication isn't a problem these days .. but he's off and we're still four players down from last season

just a little frustration, which will soon be lifted as i'm off for a pub lunch later

dont worry we could always join a five a side league nxt season

So your panicking over what may be happening in the transfer market, and this information comes from???
Some on here are getting frustrated because we are not even being associated with the appropriate rumours.
I hear what your saying mate, but, if's but's and maybe's are not something that should be bothering us.
When they sign on the dotted line we should have a moan and not now.
Sit back and relax...take a chill pill...think of beaches and a bevvie in your hand...it will come all in good time.
AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! even i am running out of nails to bite!!
Good post mate!

a tad contradictory as you appear to be panicking. You are abit of a panic monger. Last week you told us barry was in talks with the scouse! Think we just all need to relax. Very few teams have bought yet. Altho i am envious of tottenhams early transfer policy.

also 3 of the players that left recently hardly touched the ball last season. Although i do agree with you that we some folk, i'd say 5 - 6ish.

Sidwell decent player but 7 million plus for a player who has hardly played in a year or so. Maybe we should up barrys price even more!

Jezus Christ! I know you run a website based on the Villa thats updated every day Damian, so i'm thinking a huge part of your attention is directed towards goings on at Villa, but seriously a spoonful of patience would not go missing right now.

[quote]We all bought into the stupid five year plan of obtaining a top four place[/quote]

When Lerner came to the club, O'Neill in tow, i would have laughed at any opportunity of being in the Champions League in 5 years. So instead of harsh doubting yet again, i'll have to refer you back again to the old black and white; going from 16th... to 11th ... then 6th, and still your mouthing off at 5 year plans as "stupid" and doubting his signings when the truth is you can have one of the bigger squads in the premiership and finish where Spurs or Newcastle are, or you could have players that a manager knows what he's doing with, and finish 6th... after finishing 11th... after finishing 16th.

He knows what he's doing and the only litmus test of a good manager: league positions shows exactly that. Its comments like this by sections of Villa fans that p*ss me off by showing they don't know how good they've got it at the moment.

Patience has worked for the last three years of this club, just because you dont like what the "manager points to" to state were bigger and better than Newcastle just smacks of sounding like a desperate Newcastle fan. The 5 year plan is working, back it.

MON's biggest problem is he's a gambler of the market, last year he showed his hand and paid over the odds for reo-coker, January before that he patiently waited for Young and carew snapping them up. Thing is the quality of players avaliable isn't better than what we've got to get the players we need we'll have to be patient. Because bigger names take longer to sign than the likes of huddlestone or sidwell. We'll end up signing Johnson from man city, and Bentley from blackburn. Two higher quality players than sidwell and huddelestone. Call it a hunch but i think it's them two who we'll snap up this summer window.

It is annoying that we haven't signed anyone yet but no-one else has really gone to town on transfers yet have they?
I imagine im like everyone else searching every single Villa related web page in the hope of some concrete info but looking at other teams speculation, thats all it seems to be,were biding our time like everyone else! Everton havent gone transfer crazy yet and they have something to play for this season, the same goes for Pompy etc.They do have considerably bigger teams than us but you could argue both of those teams could do with at leaast 3-4 players to help them through the cups.
Ideally (and i presume like everyone else) that i would like to see MON buy players (About 5 or 6) ready for pre-season & our intertoto adventure.
As for MONs be patiant shout out, i can only think this is because he wants to get the best players in for Villa and wants to examine all options before any half hearted signings.
I must say there are a few names that have appeared that do scare me (Cough** Richard Dunne)
I cant see us doing much untill the later part of the Euros so until then we will just have to wait and see.
Sidwell and big Tom i'd very much like to see in Villa shirts, dont know much about the Maggio's or Capagnio's of this world,but one things for sure, i hope we beat Liverpool home and away next year !!!!!!!!

O`neill is no gambler thats exactly why he takes his time to make sure the player is right,Otherwise we end up with unsetled players who don`t want to be at the club.

Can I just say that I never bought into the 5 year plan as I know a PR smokescreen when I see it. Saw an article about the local people of Aston not being able to afford ticket prices and Villa's PR guy defended the prices saying it is to ensure the signing of " top players" err excuse me but which ones are they? Good post Damian, I agree people aren't panicking, maybe when my gas and electric bill comes through this week but as for Villa signing players it's just frustration and also that I want them in the team asap to settle for next season.

Everton have got a squad similar in size to Villa, and have performed consistently well over the last few seasons.

There's a lot to be said about small squads against big rotation squads.

As for the article itself, it's a tad knee jerky, Moyes had a 5 year plan, he's now working on a second 5 year plan.

I'd much rather be an Everton fan or a Villa fan than a follower of Newcastle or Man City.

Some signings would be nice but i don't expect any soon :'(

Here's a scoop though, although an expensive one!

I was round a house on Friday nite and Joleon Lescott owns the place next door. His next door neighbour told me that he would have preferred Villa when he signed for Everton and would also love to come to Villa at anytime in his career.

We need a defender/right back so i'd just test the water. although it may take £15m when we could have got him for £5m a couple of years ago, but it would certainly be a statement of intent to the teams around us.

Doubtful it'd happen though..........

I think i'll email MON!! :P

Well I'm starting to bloody panic! I agree MON best man for job, 5 year plan and going in right direction etc, but we need AT LEAST a goalkeeper, a rightback, centre half, central midfielder (2 if Barry goes), right winger and striker (2 if Harewood goes). If we had signed 2 quality players ( such as Bentley and Sidwell) then maybe Barry could be convinced to stay. Do you remember when BFR went to the world cup in USA and all we got was a lousy Fashanu? God I need a lie down.

You either buy into the five year plan or you don't. To start changing your tune when we're just over half way through added to the fact that the 'plan' is working, if not exceeding itself, is simply impatience!

Ghosthunter

I but into the five year plan, only because, I think it's achievable, but this season coming up is an important one - especially with competitive football just over a month away.

I think we're on target, not necessarily ahead of ourselves, but we are where we should be after two seasons .. but you are right and you've hit the nail on the head .. I'm impatient - but not about the plan - about the players coming in.

Nice article damian, i'm sure there will be some Villa fans that agree with you. I'm not one of them.

I'm not sure what your trying to have a moan about really, you say your frustrated that hes gone off to be a pundit for the BBC, then you say it dosent really matter because hes only an hour or so away etc.

Then you say your not panicing but your clearly worried that two of our speculated targets (Huddlestone and Sidwell) are linked with other clubs. Also the panicing probably isn't helped by your buying into some of the emails you get, like the one the other day where Barry was apprently in Liverpool and we had bid for Bentley, if you don't want villa fans panicing, dont post like that unless your sure its legit, because if it dosen't start happening people start to worry.

I think the fact is, Villa fans on the whole are impatient and fairly fickle when it comes to our club. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that MON isn't the best performer in the transfer window, yet we've still improved 10 places in the league in 2 seasons, so we can't argue with him just yet. We al just need to cool off, chill out, maybe lower our expectations abit to avoid dissapointment, let MON get on with his job.

Also when you consider that players are either on holiday or on international duty (Euro2008 and a whole host of World Cup Qualifiers around the world). I'm not expecting any major action till atleast after Euro2008, ofcourse then we only have just over two weeks till the InterToto cup starts. But if you recall MON said he was going to mix youth with experience for the Intertoto cup, so maybe we will see the likes of Forrester, Delfouneso and Clark throwing in the the likes of Young, ReoCoker, Laursen and Carew who have all missed the pleasure of starting at euro2008.

Chill, go with the flow, if we haven't signed a soul by August, then panic.

chrisodon, don't think you'll be able to sign Johnson, not that he's out of your reach but we'll slap a silly price on him. personally i'm hoping he'll stay, when you see him week in week out you can see how fantastic he'll become.

its not all bad, i really dont want sidwell at the club, but huddlstone would be a great addition, as would micheal johnson from city

but theres still plenty of time and plenty of players left to get

plus any right back would be better than no right back, so the 2 top flight italians we've been linked with cant be all that bad

surely there is no need for MON wait so long to sign players. i would imagine (and hope) that he has been scouting players for months and knows who he wants to sign-so why hang about?!? especially consiering we will be plying our intertoto game in about a month. leaving it to the last minute results in players like zat knight, marlon harewood and wayne routledge.

Damian, I couldn't agree more (well I could jump up and down agree)
As the days go by MON sounds less of a manager of a club with a genuinely great opportunity to realise it's potential but more of an apologist for a chairman who doesn't really have the will to take the next (admittedly big) step.
Randy has got so many things right at the club since he arrived.Now is the time when only spending big will really do anything for us.By spending big I mean anything between £60-100 million.

Based upon all of MON's transfer activity over the last couple of years, it is clear that he does not have the freedom of other managers in the premiership to go out and spend 12 - 13m on 2 midfield players when priorities clearly lie elsewhere within the team... this I believe would represent a large proportion of the "open to buy" fund available.

Maybe the Barry transfer is the key, with two years remaining on his contract this would represent a figure close to 5m, with the two parties seemingly at a stalemate I would imagine it was in the interests of AVFC for Barry to request a transfer instead of this being initiated by the club....

The media have confirmed a return of around 3m for Luke Moore, this would need to be topped up to enable a cash bid for the likes of Sidwell - maybe this is the reason why the likes of Harewood and Petrov have been linked with a move away in recent weeks?

eddie - everton had a aquad with 7 more players than us last year - now thats 11 more!!!

Also, to be fair, we don't really need ANY extra players in before our games month. We should be able to grab 11 randoms off the streets and still comfortabley beat opposition in the Intertoto.

We still have more than two months before we need any signings.

Damian mate im very frustrated but im im going to wait a bit till i really start complaining about the lack of transfer activity but if Man city sign Ronaldinho and Jo im going to pull my hair out!!

Calling a plan 'stupid' doesn't really suggest you've bought into it!!

I can understand frustation at the lack of transfer activity, just as I understood it last year. I would love to see us sign someone soon but, if I recall correctly, a Celtic fan came onto this blog when MON signed for us and told us that this is pretty much what he was like with transfers.

Our few transfer windows under him allow us to make a judgement on how he operates. He clearly isn't comfortable spending vast amounts of money and likes to leave his transfers business towards the end of the window (don't ask me why though!!).

Personally I think we should applaud him for having a determination to, by and large, aim at buying british players and for trying to manage the club in a responsible manner. His refusal to pay ridiculous fees sets an example that other managers should follow and should also please Taglor (though he seems to want to have his cake and eat it!!). The questions is can he acheive success on this basis, time will tell but so far he's doing better than most!!

i can it the ebay syndrome, all stupid bids come at the beginning of auction but nothing happens till the very last second where it gets crazy.
Prove me wrong MON please!

I like MON but its getting really annoying that nothing ever gets done!!! if we want the players we wnat, there's no point in waiting for others to snap them up! >:(

Everyone needs to relax.

Damian
great piece,its been a bit boring but im not panicing in fact im more or less lying on the couch.
WE WILL GET SOME DECENT PLAYERS IN TIME! ;D ;D

they will come in time for now we should put our faith in MON look where his put us.6th isnt that bad.remember o'leary last time we had him and ellis we were close to relegation.

Ghosthunter why should we applaud him for buying mainly British players? Isn't a good player a good player whether they are from Venezuela or Brighton? It would be a very poor league if all managers adopted that stance.

we're still not quite two fifths into the five year plan. call it stupid, call it a PR smokescreen, but from relegation candidates to mid table to top 6 is undeniable progress.

i couldn't give a monkey's who we or anyone else signs. we can field a bunch of academy players next season for all i care.... after all, didn't someone famously say "you can't win anything with kids"??

apparently, some people are never happy unless they're unhappy.

progress yes dan

but lets not forget who we had managing us. a monkey could have had us finish in 15th in that season

the squad we also had back then was a top 8 squad - some might even say (as i did at the time) that with those players we should be finishing top 6

my roundabout point is - we were top 6 this season - which is fantastic, but other teams are going to build on where they finished last season and to finish top 6 again will be tougher (because we've lost 5 players already)

to break into the top 4 isn't just going to need more players, like what we already have, but some real class .. what do we want to do next season - cement top 6 or try to go for 5th or top four?

whichever one of those you pick, still isn't nice is it? it used to be about challenging - not it's about finishing top 6 ..
in the grand scheme of things, finishing top 6 is excellent. next season finishing top 6 will be seen as expected and to not move on will be seen as standing still

tho only problem with MON is he sells to many players.When you sell louds of players when youve got players who are better than them and thats how you keep the team running in the top 6!

nick123
It isnt frustraiting at the moment.If its something like a few weeks to go then its frustraiting. goota go. :o

yea but weve lost 5 poor players . o'neill wants good players , his own players just be patient. and damian if you think either sidwell or huddlestone are adequate to replace barry id love to know what football youve been watching the past few years. GB has been our best player for nearly 10 years. i cant believe you still dont rate him??!!!!!

kingswood prc

i just dont see what a lot of other people see, sorry.

sure he's a good player, above average, but he's not very good or better. you say he's been our best player for 10 years and i dont see that either

last season for example, when barry actually had a few good games, i'd still say laursen, young and bouma were better. bouma only just about and you'll probably say he was good or above average and then we'll be seeing the same thing but just with different players

barry does the simple things well and every 3 or 4 games he'll play 2 or 3 above average games .. but we dont know when they're going to be and when in the centre of midfield he goes missing against the better players .. his best run last season was when we scored all those goals over 3 games towards the end - but who were we playing against - teams getting relegated or struggling.

we need better in the centre of midfield if we're wanting to compete with the top 4 .. just my opinion

The problem I have with all of this is that we are having to rely on the media for information about our club and should all realise by now that a lot of what goes on in the papers is down to PR and Spin to fit the agenda of the player or every now and again the club itself.

Yes I am frustrated that we haven't signed 15 players including Lennon, Milner, Hud or Sid Shorey etc but then again we are having our expectations managed for us.

News sells papers, even if that info is utter rubbish and as fans its like a football equivalent of EastEnders. In this weeks cliff hanger will Barry leave the club that made him what he is or is the promise of extra money and love interest Gerrard enough to turn his head?? Du du dududdu.

Do you get the point I am trying to make? We are working on hearsay. We don't know what is actually going on. Its as simple as that. Therefore I will wait a transfer to happen and then react accordingly.

Anything else and I might as well watch EastEnders, Big Brother and buy the Daily Sport, whilst whispering to a friend at the hairdresser about the rumour of us signing Kaka!!!!

I am once again resigned to the fact that we will spend about 10-15mil on young english players, and only spending more if we sell more players (Barry Harewood etc). The five year plan is to make as much money as possible from changing uniform sponsor, changing the logo and selling our best players to the highest bidders, then buying younger replacements only to sell them again once the value increases. As much as it pains me to say, we are only a farm team for the top four. Im dying for Randy to prove me wrong.

Both Sidwell and Huddlestone would be good additions to our midfield but are not good enough replacements for Barry by any stretch of the imagination. That's why I think MON should take the money and spend it on a suitable replacement. You can only replace top class with top class and I'm sure MON realises that.

Ghosthunter -

[quote]"He clearly isn't comfortable spending vast amounts of money"
"Personally I think we should applaud him for having a determination to, by and large, aim at buying british players and for trying to manage the club in a responsible manner. His refusal to pay ridiculous fees sets an example that other managers should follow"

[/quote]

This unfortunately is your perception only, MON has never actually said that this is his preference - remember he paid 8m for Petrov when he had the money to do so - also he sold a british midfielder in Steven Davis and replaced him with Salifou from Togo!

Taglor - what are you on about?? Why would it be a very poor league if managers adopted the stance of buying a good player from Brighton over a good player from Venezuela (assuming they are of equal calibre as I think you are trying to suggest)??

All I'm saying is that I think it's good that MON is looking at British players to try and fill his requirements before scouring the continent.

If Villa don't sign anyone straight away, you panic. If you don't know what the new shirt looks like, it's the end of the world. Get a grip!!

1. MON is the best manager around and knows what he's doing.
2. What other club has made a significant signing so far
3. The only site wirth following re transfer news is the official one. Newpapers and other websites sensationalise gossip, so that you read them and add extra clicks to increase the Google ratings.
4. GB is under contract and will only leave if MON thinks it's in the best interest of Villa. Anyway, all this crap from Gerrard is just that. Gerrard only thinks about Gerrard. If he got a decent offer from Mourinho he'd be off without a thought for GB.

So for f*= s sake stop it your doing my head in!!!

rbbb

its people like you that "do my head in" - read the post again

1. i agree with your first point
2. are you sure you want to ask question 2?
3. the official club site also publishes gossip and the [b]fact[/b] is you get news of signings from other sources first. also - clicks do nothing for google ratings
4. i dont care one iota what the shirt looks like - never really have

i've got a suggestion for you though, if i'm doing your head in, don't come back .. i don't mean that in a mean way, but if that is what this website does for you, then you shouldn't

although, i'd love you to come back because it will help the site with google ;)

Is it not just typical villa and shouldnt we be used to missing out on targets ?

The problem is players and agents dont like to wait around talking bubbles and drinking tea like martin o neill players and agents want things sorted out sooner rather than later

The more martin thinks it's best to wait the more players we will miss out on

I don't know why everyone is sweating. We only need a couple of defenders and we are a better team than last year.

Guys i think some perspective needs to come into villa park at the moment. You are probably going into the 3rd year out of 5 into your regeneration. You have just finished 6, doing very well in the transfer market, getting a strong defence and good young attacking players.

You remind me of Everton a couple of years ago, and if i were you, i would expect a season in midtable this year. MON knows what he is doing, and what kind of squad he wants, and will be backed by Lerner. If you do better than mid table then it would be a fantastic achievement as you won't spend the millions that man city and spurs will spend. I cant imagine everton will have it as easy this coming season either, but i feel we are further along in squad terms of where we want to be than villa. We both have good young english players, and strong defences, but need to both improve in the midfield areas, especially if Barry moves in your case.

Mellberg and Barry (IF he goes) will be number one priorities for you to replace. Whilst we look like keeping all our players this year, with the exception of Carsley, who we will certaintly need to replace.

All in all, i expect O'Neill to buy fairly conservatively, but well, and to keep improving the squad at villa. After all, you dont want players that want to use the club as a platform for better things, you want them there to build the team for the future.

I dont agree with the buy brittish crap we need some creativity in the team that we haven't had for a long time we can't expect young to do it all on his own next season bently would be the only british player that would be worth a look. Instead of sidwell and hudelstone why not go for diego, elano and schweinsteiger? Nelson would be a class right back, shay given is an excellent goalkeeper and put in a bid for huntelaar that would be my wish list for the summer with maybe a good center back

in the end.
it would make me feel better if he would sign at least someone.
worth in the 5-10 mil range.

i just dont want him to wait around till were stuck with bench warmers of forest or something like that,
maybe some better pics than routlage or saloufou
or however you spell those damn names.

I see it as MON is just taking his time in the market. No Villa fan should be panicking because there are still a couple of months left before the window closes. I am confident that MON will bring in some unknown gem from EURO 08 and maybe a couple of big names
UTV!!

does anyone know who we are actually after?

AVMark a couple of defenders are u haveing a laugh

If was two by just two defenders and start next season like that it will be a nightmare season because once a couple of midfeilders or strikers get injuerd we only have youth players to come in and play for us which really isint going to help us push the top four

We got lucky with injurys last season i think the most time a player was out for was just under a month which was gabby

So what happens if gabby carew petrov and reo coker got injuerd with the team we have now and your two defenders ?

Il tell u what will happen we will be fighting relegation

Anyone ever bought a season review?

It is £6 cheaper on a well-known online shop than through an official villa store (Net or Real).

Few things - What does it actually consist of?

1. Every goal from every game.
--Related question - Just goals WE have scored, or those conceded also included?
--All competitions (Not that it adds much).
2. Extended highlights (30 mins) from the 5-1 hammering of BCFC.
3. Any other content?
Obviously, as it comes out on tuesday, these answers can only be based on PAST editions.

Thanks in advance.

Now Hughes has gone to Man City maybe we should put in a cheeky bid for Santa Cruz and also Bentley.

Do you really think MON is that stupid to piss off and let his transfer targets slip through his fingers?.....no i didnt think so.If those players mentioned would rather go else where, then they really didnt want to play for Villa so were better off with out them.

i agree with taglor, test the waters, maybe even throw in a bid for samba

MON also seemed to be very much a fan of artur boruc on MOTD, where he's working with strachan...

Brett and taglor
i agree with you but i think man u have got an intrest in santa cruz and to be honest i think man u will get him if they put a bid for him.we can get bently if everton does not put a higher bid.
Good looking out know. ;)

The fact is we have a diminished squad from last season (fact).
we start in the intertoto in july,with what looks like being a diminished squad(probable).
The intertoto is our way into the uefa cup proper,a significant
competition that a club of Villa's stature deserves(fact).
Gareth Barry is probably going if not now then the following season,we need to prepare now(fact)plus a rigt back and goalkeeper asap.
MON is planning to use a mix of youth and old heads in the intertoto,is this how much he values the uefa cup as the intertoto is our only way in,we should be all out to ensure we qualify(comment).
No i'm not panicking,but with a so called world scouting set up we for some reason cant find suitable players for Aston Villa,i may be a sceptic but i detect a smoke screen(conspiracy).

Gareth Barry leaving is by no means a fact.

Just because 99% of people believe that MoN is the right man for the job - his does not mean that there can be criticisms of him - his dealings in the transfer market have left himself open to this.
Fans are genuinely concerned that we had a tiny squad last season and now it is 15-20% smaller!! The summer break is almost half over and our manager is at the european championships working for the bbc.....
Man City look to have signed Jo, an 18millin pound brazilian striker and are in talks with Ronaldinho - there owner is in the press saying he demands success and challenging the top clubs.......MoN says that we cant challenge the top four??? Where is the AMBITION?
S[us have signed Modric (who is absolute Gold), they signed Hutton and Woodgate in january....How can we compete with clubs to show ambition and back it up??
As for Barry - I only fear that the time spent on the whole ssituation is lessening our time to concentrate on transfers. I think he is gone - so get it over with or else announce - he is not leaving or he will rot in the reserves...end of argument

I see it as MON is just taking his time in the market. No Villa fan should be panicking because there are still a couple of months left before the window closes. I am confident that MON will bring in some unknown gem from EURO 08 and maybe a couple of big names
UTV!!

Villa_Rules - to answer your question, midfield three of Salifou, Barry, Osbourne or Gardner. Attack - Young, Harewood, Routledge. With the exceptions of Salifou and Routledge all tried and tested - I will back one of those two to come good after a pre-season.

That still is not enough mark really u cant say we dont need many players cause we clearly do how on earth u think osbourne salifou and gardner are guna keep us up there somewhere if main players do get injuerd is beyond me thats just crazy

We need at least 4 defender 5 midfilders 2 more strikers if we really want to compete and keep players fresh

This is officially the best post i've read on this blog it's current, it's fresh, and everyone's opinons are valid and who the hell knows whats going to happend next... God it's like watching "Dallas" :D but i tell thee i soon rather wait to see than be seen believing everything i read... Go on your hols and get some rest... The season is comming... Keep up the good work.

i thought we had pretty much signed sidwell.
Buy a player MON we need atleast 7 at the rate we are losing players.

UTV ;D

Villa_Rules I'm winding you up really mate sorry. My point really is that it isn't part of the plan to be competing next season is it? Assuming GB don't leave then 2 quality defenders would improve our team drastically and I forgot a goal keeper of course!

il start getin jittery wen teams around us start signin players instead of hearin rumours, and we do nothin. at the mo im jus frustrated but thats jus expectations takin their toll.
stil , i got faith in mon so im forever hopeful

we are being lied to by a bunch of pr spinning bullshiting yanks. if oneil had any money he would be spending it, instead he is on a jolly with the bbc??????????? something is not right here peope.

stig you say that randy lerners bulls**ting and doesn't have money but the reason why martin o neill became manager because he had money to back him financially. Have faith in MON for f**k sake

gnylale1

just a question. but just because martin o'neill said he was going to be backed, doesn't actually say that he's going to be backed with money needed to get into top 4

what martin o'neill might have said (i cant find a quote) is; randy lerner is going to back me in the transfer market

what he wanted to say could have been or never got round to saying was:
randy lerner is going to back me in the transfer market to the tune of £20mn a season - not enough to get champions league football but we should secure top 6 with a bit of luck - or at the very least we should get top six every two or three seasons

what i'm trying to demonstrate is it doesn't matter what we're told. its what actually happens. we're now owned by an american who is here to make money out of the club - not lose it

[url=http://www.avfcblog.com/content/view/2277/70/]this is an interesting post to read[/url]

Damian - that post you have provided a link to was well researched and written but to me it just read of conspiracy theories and cynicism.

You can only judge on what we're seeing and that is that RL has invested in training facilities, given some nice touches to fans with regard to scarves and transport, given away next seasons shirt sponsorship etc. etc. Added to this we have improved our league placing each season.

I accept that transfers are not exactly what we might of been expecting or hoping for. There is also the argument that if we had spent more on players we may have finished in top four this season but that is purely conjecture. There are plenty of teams who have spent more than us and signed 'bigger' named players who have not acheived what we have. We scored more goals than all but one or two teams, we are widely regarded as the most exciting team outside of the top four. The list goes on.

Maybe I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes but I don't beleive I am. What I am is proud. Aston Villa is consistently been held up as an example of how to run a football club and for that we should be grateful, especially given the preceding years before MON's and RL's arrival.

The actions of the club just don't support the argument that there is some hidden agenda and, until it does, I'll take some convincing otherwise. We should take things at face value and enjoy it!!

Ghosthunter

I am taking things at face value .. and while I know I wouldn't make a very good football manager, I know that it wasn't that difficult getting us from 16th to 11th.

But, the training ground and the pub for example - are both investments in the net worth of the club - the scarves and the free coach hire - excellent PR for very very little.

But to face value - as it stands now, Lerner could probably sell and make a profit. We've been told of a five year plan to get into Champions League and because of that there is breathing space, because we could finish 10th next season and 10th the one after - it doesn't matter because we bought into the 5 year plan of Champions League and whoever mentioned the five year plan could say - it's still going to happen.

But I'm a huge fan of O'Neill and while other clubs have spent more and not achieved (as you say above), I believe if O'Neill had spent more he would have got more out of them and maybe we would have finsihed 5th last season, but like you say that's all conjecture.

But, I think we can all agree on one thing (I hope) - to get into the top four is about spending some real money - in all departments.

With European football in just over a month, I believe we'll see some of that money getting spent, but if we don't we should still do okay (again me hoping) - but the most important point is we move forward from this season and we won't know that for about 11 months although with other clubs spending money (which some have and others will), we area also going to need to do that.

But again, I believe we will - I just hope it's on the right players to move us on from this past season.

Actions speak louder than words ... this coming season is the important one.

I think we need a Director of Football for the club. He can go find the best players and Lerner can buy 'em whilst MON just keeps count of who shows up to training in the morning.

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;)

Turn off newsnow - it will send you mad!
Turn off BBC website - it will send you mad

Go away and do the garden, make love to a beautiful woman ingest something mind altering and create soething beautiful.


MON has done well in the transfer market and although the 5 year plan has an unfortunate title, bringing to mind Stalin and the detruction of millions of Russin lives, it is the best plan we have. MON has delivered on the first 2 years.

Flinching and griping at the latest rumour/ speculation will wear you out & when we are in the quarter finals of the UEFA cup you will be spent like Eric Djemba Djemba's career earnings.

I propose we begin to call MON Magnificant Martin to reflect what he has done so far at Villa. (Taglor, don't worry, we can call him Onanist O'Neill if it all goes pear shaped)

Damian

The whole point of the five year plan is that we need to improve year on year without which we require a spectacular investment in players which we all accept is not going to happen.

I would suggest that improvement needs to be demonstrable and sufficient. However it cannot be measured purely in league finish or European qualification - there are too many factors beyond our control including injuries, luck, regulatory decisions.

There are a very significant list of improvements that occurred last year regardless of where we finished. I would suggest most notable were the fact that some of the younger players showed that were not one season wonders, our brand of football brought in increased crowds and TV revenue and (at last) we had a team capable of rasing their performance levels to compete with the best teams (except for Man U).

If this season we invest sufficiently to increase season ticket sales, keep Barry and improve our terrible defence then I suggest that that is real improvement regardless of where we finish. Yes we could get hammered through injuries but we do have some real emerging young talent that will be given their chance.

For that reason I don't agree with you. I think it's 2009-10 that really maters not the next season. You say actions speak louder than words whereas what you really mean is you want to see big glamour signings and compete for the top four. We all want that but it aint gonna happen next year and any player potentially in the market we an agent worth his salt knows it too.

AVMark

That's why I say next season is the important one, for me anyway.

As it stands now and without the 'spectacular investment' you talk about to 'improve year on year' also as you talk about - it's going to be very tough.

But, like I also say - we've got wait 11 months until we find out but after his first season Martin O'Neill did what he had to do - turned those draws into wins and defeats into draws - if he can do what is needed next season, then there is every chance ..

Damian, give me something, I need an argument this inactivity is driving me nuts!

Apparently Jussi Jaskelinnan or however you spell it has rejected villa and wants to stay at bolton. You have got to be kidding me.

I would like Villa to sign Artur Boruc as I am also a celtic fan and know he is a good gk. Aiden Mcgeady would be a good buy also hes the scottish leagues ronaldo and would be interestinto see if he can step his standards up in the premiership.

Did anyone see Padolski against Poland I thought he played brilliant and scored one hell of a goal after one of the germans fucked uup lol. I think he is trying his hardest to show people how good he is. I have heard he wants to leave bayern munich because he isn't happy there. I am an admiarer of Padolski and would love villa to put a £10 mil bid in for him.

And theres also Adriano he is a world class striker who Mourinhio is getting rid of. I think Villa should at least put bids in for players of these standards, If people look at us signing them sort of players it may attract more quality players instead of players like Zat Knight.

Just my 2 cents

Apparently we have made a bid for Maggio

[url]http://www.teletext.co.uk/football/news/d86337ff8c59ab80ce4c4f45938c27a0/Villa make Maggio offer.aspx[/url]

Maybe, just maybe we are starting to make a move....

Damian, I do agree a bit of quality is needed, mainly in that creative midfielder department. Obviously the good RB, and perhaps a better option on the right of midfield.

But I think MON was saying what he meant: "I know what we need, relax."

Because he hasn't spelled out his plans or intentions, it can be a bit frustrating trying to decipher what he's up to. But from what we've seen I think he and RL are trying to build an organization wherein the bottom line is sound, youth is given the time to develop and come up from within, and the squad is given time to play together and gel. This is what the five-year plan seems to be about to me.

So this next year will be about trying to compete in Europe while maintaining league position, not necessarily pushing into the top 4. I think we'll see Villa in the next couple of seasons trying to accomplish just this, and then there'll be a more experienced side used to the rigors that's ready to push on for the CL spot and be able to compete.

But it means that MON thinks that we'd be overreaching at the moment to be trying to get it all at once. Shinawatra obviously has a different idea than RL and MON. We'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out. But no need to panic. There'll be European nights at Villa Park next season, and an exciting league campaign. Villa are trying to close not just the quality gap, but the financial and development gap. It's a lot to do.

Oh, and I also meant to say that it seems MON is quite happy to take the starting 11 that finished 6th into the Intertoto, and I can't see any reason to argue. Well, minus Olaf.

But we will sign players, and as we do, we'll get more clues to the puzzle!

Who knows, maybe Salifou is a gem, MON hasn't wanted to rush him, and he knows that he's already got something there.