Aston Villa Thread

Rumour is £6m + Isiah Osbourne.

But I'd imagine any deal for player like this would include add-ons.

Leeds United can confirm that a fee has been agreed with Aston Villa for Fabian Delph.

Leeds United wishes to place on record our appreciation for the honourable manner in which Aston Villa have conducted their interest in the player.

The club has resisted approaches from other FA Premier League clubs since agreeing terms with Aston Villa.

Having given Villa our commitment to transfer the player (subject to medical), we had no intention of going back on that.

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Could they be insinuating that Man City and 'arry Redknapp were less than honourable in their approches

I've been on the Fabian Delph bandwagon for years but I worr about this move, he's not Premiership ready by any means, he's not England U21 ready yet. He needs time and space which he wont get in the EPL. Villa shoud have gone for David Prutton if they wanted the real genius of the Leeds midfield. But of course David Prutton is not young and sexy enough in this new Comoli footballing era.

Some players just make the step up naturally. We won't know if he's Premiership ready till he plays in the Premiership. Always the option to loan out later if he doesn't seem ready. He'll have better chance at Villa than City or Spurs

Villa will warm Delph up for his big money move to the Lane in 2011

O'Neill hinting we tried to sign Sneijder :

--
Martin O'Neill has expressed an interest in bringing the Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder to Aston Villa. The future of the 25-year-old at Real Madrid has been the subject of speculation this week.

Following Real's splurge in the transfer market this summer it was believed he would be surplus to requirements at the Bernabéu. The player's agent,
Soren Lerby, then claimed that the La Liga club wanted to keep Sneijder, but it had also been reported that Internazionale might take him on loan for €4m (£3.4m), with an option to but him outright for €18m (£15.4m). That interest, however, seems to have cooled and the ensuing uncertainty about Sneijder's next move seems to have caught O'Neill's eye.

"I think that the more creativity you have in your side the better chance you will have," the Villa manager said. "These are particularly special players who are not [generally] available. If there were players like Sneijder, who have great talent and might be surplus to requirements at a club that is
buying [new players], then I think you should be interested, even if that interest is not reciprocated. Because how else are you going to
try and improve your team?"

--
The 'not reciprocated' bit kinda puts a dampener on it, but hey, good to hear him talk about trying to sign top players..

He could always just hop over to looking at the other Dutch midfielder there; VdV may be more realistic

VdV would be ace for Villa. Almost as good as Tuncay.

VDV is the more talented of the two, but Sneijder has an element of reliability & consistency (when played as an AM) that the DISGRACE will definetly like.

------------------Petrov-----------NRC

Gabby------------------Sneijder--------------Young

----------------------Big E/Big John

Pretty Damn good.

that's a horrible team

MON needs to spend all his cash on a defender, I wonder if he's looked at Richard Dunne. The filthy pikey will probably sign someone from League 2 for £100,000 ad he'll win WPOTY because that's what MON is all about, he's a genius.

Hush Glenn

@MV

I ain't fussy...either would be great, as those are the types of players we never sign - fear that CL clubs would come in, if they are available (esp Sneijder), but ya never know.

Would have lots of options in that formation, as you could say:

Petrov/Gardner-NRC/Sidwell
Gabby/Milner-Sneijder/Delph-Young/Downing
Heskey/Carew

And there's flexibility with a lot of those players, e.g. Gabby could be lone striker, Young & Milner can play in any of AM positions, Delph could maybe play deeper or on the left - and obviously could play 442 also.

If we then added Distin, Warnock, Beye for defence (these are the strongest rumoured), I'd start to feel real confident about the season

Beye

Good shit.

Just seen MON at Riverside tonight, i wonder who he is watching, my money would be on Wheater.

Wheater's possible. Fits the bill..

Or maybe he's up there to tie up deal for Tuncay

Went to the Fiorentina friendly today. Pretty enjoyable game, we looked good.

Won 1-0, a neatly worked Heskey goal - Delph, Milner and Young combining to create, Heskey lashing in from Young pull-back.

Delph has impressive debut. Like the cut of his jib. Confident on the ball against players far more experienced. If he plays like that in the Prem, he will soon establish himself in the team. Although, I can see now why he got booked so much for Leeds - likes to jump into tackles! Good when it works, but can be dangerous. Could see him picking up a red or two if he doesn't tone that down.

Albrighton, Fonz & Clark also show they good enough to be in 1st team squad. And Barry Bannan paraded the Peace Cup at Half Time

Feeling pretty positive about the season now - we do tend to be a little predictable in attack, but still not easy to defend against. Playing with Young, Milner, Delph & Agbonlahor all switching round and combining, and all the pace they have - not many teams will keep them out for 90 mins.

Question is whether defence will be good enough. Hopefully Cuellar and Davies can establish partnership & step up.

Add another 2-3 signings and we should be on for another top 6 - and hopefully more able to compete in cups & Europe. Regarding Europe, it's nice that we've beaten Porto, Juve and Fiorentina in friendlies - CL teams all.

--

Got locked in a pub after match, due to troubles outside. They foolishly had Villa, Brum and WBA all at home today. There are worse places to be locked than a pub.

What's a jib?


Bannan

The cut of someone's jib is their general appearance and demeanour.
--
The jib of a sailing ship is a triangular sail set between the foretopmast
head and the jib boom. Some ships had more than one jib sail. Each
country had its own style of sail and so the nationality of a sailing
ship, and a sailor's consequent opinion of it, could be determined from
the jib.

The phrase became used in an idiomatic way during the 19th century. Sir Walter Scott used to it in St. Ronan's Well, 1824:

"If she disliked what the sailor calls the cut of their jib."

So it isn't racist slang then? Sounds like racist slang.

Sounds a bit like hijab, I suppose. But he wasn't obseving the hijab in his attire.

Some positive pre-season results for Villa. It'll be an interesting season for the club. Can't see a top four finish, but I'm sure Villa will look to consolidate their 'top 6' position.

Odds have fallen very quickly on Dunne going to Villa !

Yeah, hopefully these are just rumours..Would not be my first choice of CB to buy. Or second...Or tenth.

debaser wrote:Peace Cup at Half Time

Feeling pretty positive about the season now - we do tend to be a little predictable in attack, but still not easy to defend against. Playing with Young, Milner, Delph & Agbonlahor all switching round and combining, and all the pace they have - not many teams will keep them out for 90 mins.

Young is good at crossing as is Milner and Delph is good at running at people but do you still miss a real creator who can thread little through balls through.

Aren't teams just going to defend deep at VP and deal with crosses ?

Crosses v an organised defence are the easiest attack to defend and it would still concern me that Villa have no plan B.

Creative players tend to be lacking physically and that's where I think O'Neill has a problem with them.

The midfield is looking strong with Young, Delph, Milner, Downing, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Sidwell and Gardner, it has a nice look to it.

You just need at least one more CB in.

Who will be first choice right back Young or Beye ?

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

debaser wrote:Peace Cup at Half Time

Feeling pretty positive about the season now - we do tend to be a little predictable in attack, but still not easy to defend against. Playing with Young, Milner, Delph & Agbonlahor all switching round and combining, and all the pace they have - not many teams will keep them out for 90 mins.

Young is good at crossing as is Milner and Delph is good at running at people but do you still miss a real creator who can thread little through balls through.

Aren't teams just going to defend deep at VP and deal with crosses ?

Crosses v an organised defence are the easiest attack to defend and it would still concern me that Villa have no plan B.

Creative players tend to be lacking physically and that's where I think O'Neill has a problem with them.

Agree to some extent, but I think Young and Milner are improving in terms of cutting inside more, not simply looking to cross every time they get the ball. And though if it's horribly impure percentage play, even the most organised defence will struggle to keep out every cross, if they've got Heskey/Carew battering them and Agbonlahor outpacing them all afternoon.

Re: creative player. Yes, would be good to add in that respect - the more hopeful rumours link us with Sneijder or VdV, one of them would certainly improve us on that front (more realistic is Tuncay). We do need someone who can hold onto the ball and play smart passes from the middle. Petrov does to an extent, but he's not a creator, plays quite deep.

Sgoater1 wrote:The midfield is looking strong with Young, Delph, Milner, Downing, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Sidwell and Gardner, it has a nice look to it.

You just need at least one more CB in.

Who will be first choice right back Young or Beye ?

Young's injured for start of season, so it'll be Beye at first. then I guess it depends how he plays.

Also, Shorey is probably the weakest in first XI - and Young could play there again, as he did much of last season. Having said that, we've also been linked with Warnock for a while.

One CB is a definite. Reckon Distin still might happen, although it's dragged out a while. Ciaran Clark, who played 1st half yesterday, is good prospect, so might well be 4th choice CB (and Beye can also play there).

Elsewhere, I imagine someone will come in for Harewood by the end of the window (likely Hull, when everyone else has rejected then).

debaser wrote:

Sgoater1 wrote:The midfield is looking strong with Young, Delph, Milner, Downing, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Sidwell and Gardner, it has a nice look to it.

You just need at least one more CB in.

Who will be first choice right back Young or Beye ?

Young's injured for start of season, so it'll be Beye at first. then I guess it depends how he plays.

Also, Shorey is probably the weakest in first XI - and Young could play there again, as he did much of last season. Having said that, we've also been linked with Warnock for a while.

One CB is a definite. Reckon Distin still might happen, although it's dragged out a while. Ciaran Clark, who played 1st half yesterday, is good prospect, so might well be 4th choice CB (and Beye can also play there).

Elsewhere, I imagine someone will come in for Harewood by the end of the window (likely Hull, when everyone else has rejected then).

Do you think Delph will start the season in the first Xl?

Quite possibly.

MON after game yesterday:

"Is he making strides to get into the side for the game against
Wigan? I don't see why not. He is capable of playing, the crowd have
taken to him and he can only get better. He is a proper player.


"Asking him to step straight into the game against Wigan? We will
see. We will have a look. But he's done himself no harm at all."

---

He looked good, confident. Also, Petrov is a doubt with injury, so I could see us starting with Reo-Coker-Delph in CM.

More misery.

Lose 1-0 at Vienna, which means we need to beat them at home three days after Liverpool match.

Speaking of which, this reminds me awful lot of last season - going into Liverpool away game with playing poorly and completely lacking confidence. Another 5-0 on the cards? Possible

Oh, and Davies went off injured, which means a debutant will probably be starting at Liverpool (either youngster Clark, or possibly a new signing, if we get on and actually sign someone).

Not that Davies has been good this season, but ya don't want a new player in for a game like that