I think you're right it is a bit odd that they are telling everyone now that we have plenty of money to spend. Seems a bit like the Ellis comments every year.

I'm guessing they are doing it to reassure the fans that Lerner is ready to splash the cash. Lets just hope it means we actually sign a couple of players!

Think I would pick Hoyte or Shorey over Young but any fall back would be welcome. :'(

I have to say this all sounds like spin to me but we're not the only ones doing it. I see Everton were playing the same game on Sky sports yesterday. You have to understand that like any good business you always have to keep the investors happy and in the case of a football club that means the fans. General Krulak has one job and one job only, PR. I have no doubt that there is money there but don't think that for one second its ever going to be thrown around as he suggests. The disappointing thing here is I actually now believe we are going to struggle this season just merely from the size of our squad and its lack of debt. I think we have a pretty decent bunch of players and a great manager in MON but unfortunately we have to be honest with ourselves that squad will not be able to compete in a league two cups and Europe even the most optimistic amongst us can see there will be two many tired legs. Without four five more players I think we would be really pushing it to finish 8th.

You are seriously taking this £30m out of context like all journalists are also doing. He simply said that if MON wanted a £30m player then Randy would open his 'check' book for him - not that there is a £30m player but he was saying [for the umpteenth time] that money was not an issue for MON and his transfer targets. So to talk about does this include salaray, agents fees and the rest is just plain unnecesary and shows you didn't bother to read the full quote in the first place.

Furthermore, I think the General will be embarrassed how his answer has been taken so literally by the world press and bloggers alike - don't think Randy or MON will be impressed either! He was just making a point...

Young, pretty average player but average is better than nothing. I'd take him. Can't see any chance we'd get Ferreira, he'll still get a good amount of games for Chelsea. Hoyte I still don't think is actually any good.

I believe we have all the money its just our manager aint woke up in the 21st century yet

AVGD

I don't want this to turn into anything, but the General is posting on forums, available to anyone on the internet.

I fully appreciate that he may have [i]only[/i] mentioned £30mn. for purposes to demonstrate that money was available.

My point is, Krulak is here for PR. He was a General in the Marines - he isn't stupid. He knew EXACTLY what was going to happen when he wrote that figure.

It's ironic is all because Krulak does it with PR and spin. The only difference is, Ellis used to tell the press directly.

AVGD spot on. Once again we take the media headlines (which are totally distorted and manipulative) and turn everything arse over tit. Kulak is talking figuratively not literally. The message is simple there is money AND there is an agenda, a player profile. If you want to read that as "spin" that's probably because you are reading the media version not the source.

Damian, if you could see the crap he gets on Villa Talk you would have some idea of the exasperation he wrote that statement with. We are all frustrated with the lack of transfers but he is the only Villa 'employee' that we can 'talk' to and he gets it in the neck from everyone! Whilst I agree that he is interested in generating good PR for Villa, I don't hink he wrote this with the intention of saying we are going to sepnd £30m and that PR was his primary reason for writing it - he just wanted to make the situation as clear as he can - he has been saying as much [without figures] for a long time - just because he wrote £30m it has grabbed the headline - he could easily have wrote £50m or £20m...

we all know MON by now and he saves al the good signings untill the last minute so there is no worry there is still a few weeks and mon will not send out our defence like this h said he wants atleast 5 players and i think thats wat he will get

Unbelievable...Damian, you're getting as bad as the tabloids. All the General was saying is that the money is there. The 30 mil mentioned was just an analogy to prove that point. I say again....Unbelievable!!

What the hell is wrong with you lot?They are not politicians he just made the point that money was there to buy players because some extremely thick people were already starting to take shots at our brilliant board.HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE SERIOUSLY COMPARE THIS REGIME TO THE ELLIS ERA?

PR and spin?Quite frankly i am embarrased to be a villa fan when i read crap like that.

I think the general was just making a point that MON has the finanical backing [b]IF[/b] he wants it. Seriously i think we really need to get a quality replacement for Barry.

I don't know if anybody else feels the same as me but its got to the stage were everytime i open news now or turned on sky sports, im actually worried about who we are going to be linked with. I dont Young or Hoyte would be great additions, decent but not great. What ever happened to Miguel.....

I also Guess the £30m includes the figure we get for GB and the next seasons transfer budget. Along with the need to sell Ashley the following seasonto Balance the books

AVGD

I look at the forums he writes on. I even used to use some of the content and link to it from here, but it became so repetitive, I stopped.

I also appreciate he has been saying since day one that money is available. He's also been saying from day one that actions speak louder than words.

But you must also see that he knew this would happen.

He put it in the public domain and as such it was as good as saying it directly to Bill Howell or Lisa Smith and he knew it would be taken out of context.

I just don't see any reason for him to have said it and if he does get all that stick from users of forums, I don't see why he doesn't just walk away for a few days.

I met him once and he was a really nice guy, short, but genuinely nice and I actually feel sorry for him because all he seems to do is answer the same questions, but this was always going to happen.

You can't write that in the public domain and not expect it to get out there and [i]get[/i] distorted.

Its comments like that that that the general has made that has got all the villa fans so bloody frustrated. How many times have we heard this since Mr Lerner has taken over. i don't know if its the board or MON that is the problem regarding us never making any ambitious signings. But i don't know how the hell MON expects to catch the top four, when the top four (and probably a few more teams) spend more money signing better players. and we go for their scraps that can't get into their team. I don't care how stable our team is we wont get anywhere with the players we have. another thing that frustrates me is that we never sign any of the quality young players that tottenham and everton seem to be picking up for nothing. i think MON is a great manager but he really needs to buck up his ideas in the transfer market.

i agree with keiran84 sum people just taking this over the top doug ellis done fuck all we nearly got relagated 3 seasons ago now look were in europe we gotta start lookin at the positive things

Why do they ned to come out and tell everyone that they have money to spend? What good does it do, the only way that should be done is by bringing in players.

Kieran84 We are not COMPARING IT TO THE ELLIS ERA just saying that it is similar to what Doug Ellis used to do each year. It's propaganda by the board to calm the fans. Doesn't mean we think the board is just as bad as when he was in charge.

I think the General just gets annoyed by certain fans in the negative brigade constantly questioning him regarding players, Lerner's ambition etc, and he just wanted to set the record straight.

For those who haven't seen his comment, here it us (unedited):

"If Martin came to Randy and said I need 30 million pounds for player "X"...that this player will fit right into what we are trying to do and is the type of player that will take us where we "both" want to go...Randy will have his check out before Martin gets past the player's name!!! Additionally, he will be equally ready to fund the other players that Martin says we need. I have said it before, Randy has NEVER said no."

It's clearly a purely hypothetical £30m and I'm sure he could just as easily have said £20m or £40m. He was just trying to make a point, so I don't think the question of whether it would include wages or not is relevant. He was just making a point.

kieran84: Absolutely agree with you! This is getting out of hand, but its just frustration among fans wanting big name signings. We have to be patient. 16th-11th and last year 6th place. We cant really argue.. Mon AND the board is taking this great club forward! Be interesting to see if progress is being made this season, but for som of our fans it can never be good enough, probably not even with a chairman like Abramovich! keep ut the good work Martin/Randy!

He has said that there is money available. MON has not said anything to the contrary so we have to accept it as the truth. Personally I believe the money is there and MON is waiting for the right players to become available.
IF for example, MON was told Henry might be available if Barcelona could sign a replacement and the player indicated that he would not be against a move, what would you do as manager? Wait in the hope that the deal could be done, or sign Andy Johnson? As I've said before I'm as desperate to sign players as anyone, but we have got to wait and see who we do buy (if anyone).
I think though you will find that London is a big draw to players especially foreigners.
Also, why does being an ex marine mean you aren't stupid? "He was a General in the Marines - he isn't stupid." You never heard of "Friendly Fire"?

I think Barry wanting to leave says it all, we don't have a choice though.

I don't think it was wise for the general to make the comments he did. It can only serve to get selling clubs to hold out for more when dealing with us making it even more difficult to make good signings at sensible prices.

What annoys me most is that is was Villa fans and the constant doom and gloom that virtually forced him into this. Well done, you have now potentially made it more difficult for us to get the signings you seem so desperately to want. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot.

Why can't people just be happy that we have a great manager and a great owner. Why are you always looking for some sort of hidden agenda. There are some genuinely nice and honest people in the world and I personally think that MON and RL fall into the category. Conspiracy theorists the lot of you.

Thanks for being a sceptic Damian, some of us appreciate it. I am less sceptical about the subtle workings of MON than I am about the PR spin that manages to get hopes up without ever indicating anything useful. I am happy with Randy Lerner, and Krulak seems like a nice enough bloke, but there is a business to run and no statement is unscripted. I work in PR, believe me.

Picking up on part of the Generals quote
"..that this player will fit right into what we are trying to do and is the type of player that will take..."
Ok, General perhaps you could elaborate on "...what we trying to do..."?
Doc has had a go at a long term strategy now let's hear it from the horse's mouth.

if an 18m play is leaving ,why would a 30m player sign , so it just makes the comment pointless.

I really don't understand some of our fans. Why do you take things so literally ? The General was speaking about how a lot of fans were getting frustrated over the 'Barrygate affair' and were getting personal on the blogs about the club lying to us, and others saying we have no money and needed the cash to fund transfers. The point he was making was, Barry and his agent went back on another agreement thus making the club and US look stupid, he was also reminding fans that although we don't have a bottomless pit of money like Chelski, Randy is still a billionaire, our club is financialy very well off, and they will spend whatever MON asks of them. Yet all of a sudden every one wants to know who we will spend £30m alone on !! Not rocket science is it ? or is it to some ?

[quote]if we didn't want clubs to know we had money, they do now[/quote]

Spot on Damo, Villa could get arse f**ked by greedy clubs now.

Ferriera, no chance, don't rate him but more importantly he signed a new 5 year contract recently and now has his national team boss at club level, why would he come to Villa?

Young, if true, is shocking because Villa could have gone for him last summer, therefore its either bollox or MON really is that incompetent.

Hoyte, do me a favour, Villa need better than him, but still youngish so time to turn it around under less pressure and with more regular first team football.

as usual i fear all the general has done with these comments is raised expectation even further and stoked the fire so to speak. we aint signing anyone for £30m. signing anyone at all would be a start.

Im tired of getting linked with second rate players.Nickey Shorey was part of a defence that leaked in 66 league goals last season and thus were relegated.Ony Derby let in more and to call Luke Young a mid-table full back would be a compliment.I haven't seen enough of Hoyte to make a fair judjement so i won't say antything about him.
Paulo Ferreria on the otherhand is the type of player we should be aiming to bring in, in my opinion.He has champions league and international experience and is the type of player we were told to expect over the lats few transfer windows.

Seriously folks, seriously.

ferreira is dodgy... he relies on his other defenders to get him out of trouble... hoyte would fit the MON mould perfectly... young and english with a bit of potential

what a load of crap! but where does the problem lie.

mr 'rambo' krulek comes out & states martin no-deal has got all this cash at his disposal.
firstly, this shows the american's nievity telling every man & his dog they can hike up any transfers we decide to go for,if we do that is, idiot.

secondly, if martin no-deal has as much as 30m plus for a single player, why does he persist in shopping at the 'aldi's' of this world for average players around 3m to 6m.
he keeps talking about bringing quality into the club, well Mr no-deal, you aint gonna gettem for that.

so where does the problem lie. personally i think it a bit of both. lets face it, the yanks have never been a shy in 'bigging up' things, everything has to be bigger & better to hear them talk.

but then we have Mr Martin (no-deal) O'niel, don't get me wrong here, i am not knocking his man-management or style of managing, but his transfer policy is crap to say the least.
throughout his managerial career he has never signed, what you would call a big named player he has always tinkered with the medeocre.
why is this? is it because he can't handle the 'baggage' that comes with the so-called big named player, or is it because there simply isn't that sort of cash there. I THINK IT'S HIM.
he put his own valuation on a player he is interested in, which is normally way below the asking price, alerts all the other clubs to the player, then he either give up, or we lose him for the sake of a couple of million.
the football 'meat market' is about supply & demand, if youv'e got it, you want top dollar for it, so likewise, if you want it, you need to pay top dollar for it also i.e 'barrygate'
so come on Mr No-deal, get you act together and do your job & us proud, use Mr lerner's money, get us in the c/l and perhaps them he can re-coup some of it. SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE.

UP THE VILLA!!!!!

BYE THE WAY, IF G.B (GREEDY BASTARD) NEEDS A LIFT TO LIVERFOOL, HE CAN JUMP ON MY BACK, I'LL TAKE HIM FOR 18MILLION.

Well if we have 30 Million to spend why not make an offer for Arshavin ! He is a good playmaker and would be a good replacement for the scab Barry !!
Why do we always say we have big money to spend but do never go for these good players, im very puzzled at the moment and also worried that with the scab going to scouceville we will struggle to get in the top 10 next season. Mark my words we need to buy big not buy other teams shite and cast offs ! Come on Martin and Randy youve got to make moves for World class players ASAP otherwise fans will be questioning your ambitions and future.

MON will sort it out! I like the idea of hoyte but young doesn't fill me with any kind of excitment. I think we will buy the necessary cover before the transfer window closes and i elieve we can continue to progress without spending huge sums.Iforone am glad our manager doesn't throw Randy's money around. Leeds done the quick fix and enjoyed some short term success (without winning anything - apart from a good run in CL) Support Our Club and Our Manager...............When are L'Pool borrowing enough money to buy G Barry?? They are pissing me off!!!

I think part of what he was saying was that fans with a brain would read the situation as it is. There are things you can say and things you can't say. I detect more indications of exasperation emanating from VP because yes as Americans they may not have appreciated how duplicitous the media are here or how petty minded and ungrateful some of the fans are. Unfortunately because of the internet, one of the downsides of great (thank you Damian) sites like this is the proportion of thankless, unintelligent and inexperienced in life-skills fans appears larger than it is.

Many have said it well, Krulak was just getting fed up with the constant stream of negativity, being called a liar and spin artist, and he just threw out an example. He gets the same questions over and over again, like "When is MON going to get the RB sorted?!!"

Something else he said later yesterday:

"1. I want to ASSURE all of our Fans that MON and Randy are fully aware of the concerns, frustrations, worry and, yes, compliments on running of the club. Although I cannot say whether MON or Randy come on VT and reads the thread, what I can say, FOR CERTAIN, is that I have PERSONALLY passed on your thoughts."

So, if anyone's wondering whether MON or RL have any idea of the fans' frustrations, it would seem they do. And at some point, when getting stick about RL's commitment and intentions, he talked about Villa being a "passion" for Lerner and reiterated that he had the Villa crest tattooed on his leg. For what it's worth.

Now, maybe RL shouldn't have gone and done that. I know it didn't work very well for me and the ex-wife, the tattoo thing!

THE GENERAL. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Im full of respect for a General, and i go on the site he comments on, however whenever i call the PR man i get people blasting me left right and centre, its so obvious, i wish everyone had a brain big enough to find it out, i mean, what exactly do they think he does!?

I think the "General" meant 30 million lies, Damian.

He's currently notching up his 1000th so congratulations, mister Krulak.

"Aston Villa FC have agreed personal terms with Nicky Shorey and he is due to move to the midlands club in the next 48 hours"

The above quote was on nicky shorey wikipedia page.

its simply a typing error,he pressed the m when going for the space bar

with 30m please get lennon or milner

Ghosthunter, I had the same thughts as you and would have put them here had you not got there first.