VILLA SET SIGHTS ON EIDUR - REPORT

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is
reportedly weighing up a £10million January double transfer move for
Eidur Gudjohnsen and Justin Hoyte.
O'Neill is ready to join the race with Newcastle and Manchester
City to sign Barcelona's Gudjohnsen after being given the go-ahead by
owner Randy Lerner, according to the Daily Star.
The 29-year-old striker has made it clear he wants to leave the
Nou Camp after having seen his chances in the first team limited under
Frank Rijkaard, and with O'Neill looking to boost his attacking options
a move to Villa Park would appear to suit both parties.
Barcelona are willing to listen to offers of around £6million
for the Iceland international although his reported £70,000-a-week
wages could be the major issue preventing such a deal.
Villa have also been strongly linked with Arsenal defender Hoyte
after their attempts to sign Jose Bosingwa were dashed by the player,
who wants to remain at Porto for the rest of the season.
Hoyte has reportedly been on O'Neill's radar for the past few
months and in Thursday's papers it was suggested Villa have now made
enquiries with Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. Meanwhile O'Neill says there has been "substantial" interest in defender Gary Cahill.
The 22-year-old returned to Villa Park this week after an impressive three-month loan spell at Sheffield United.
Blades boss Bryan Robson has already indicated his desire to
secure the England Under 21 international's signature in a £2million
deal in January.
But O'Neill has confirmed United could face a real fight to
secure Cahill's services with interest coming from a host of clubs,
believed to include Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Derby County. "There has been a substantial amount of interest in him and I
think Gary is aware of that because people have been speaking to his
agent," O'Neill told the Yorkshire Post.
"I will sit down and speak to him to run through things with him."
O'Neill has already said he would not make a decision on
Cahill's future until he has resolved contract negotiations with
defenders Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen.
Cahill, who is set to sit out the Christmas period after
undergoing surgery on a facial injury, has already stressed his desire
to play regular first-team football.
Birmingham, Wigan and Derby are all looking to strengthen next
month and can offer Premier League football but Cahill may opt to stay
at Bramall Lane and further his career with the ambitious Championship
club.

Typical MON signings imo.

Hes slowly building a nice unit of players there though.

O'Neill dealings has been really baffling to me in the market since he came ,why did he bought Knight and Curtis Davies(for 8 m?) and send Cahill on loan when he had Mellberg and Laursen and why isnt he giving them new contracts.
Why he bought Reo Coker when he had Craig Gardner for 8 m , Petrov hasnt been impressive at all but his signing was expected and reasonable enough.
Why hasnt he bought a RB till now
Why he need a forward when he has Carew , Agbonlahor , Young, Luke Moore and bought Harewood for 4m.
Though Eidur is a very good player.

Eidur is getting on a bit. Certainly think £10m is excessive for the both of them. Barca will be keen to sell for a start, and IMO he could be got for £4m. Hoyte I couldn't see costing more than £3m.

I think when your at a middle club like Villa, you have to take players as and when they become available, its not like say Manchester United who can come along and slap a huge bid on the table to take the player when they want them.

If i'm not mistaken hasn't Luke Moore rejected a new contact, and Mellberg stalling on his, this might explain some of the above.

They have excersied a clause on his contract extending it to 2009.

Doesnt have to be MU to be smart in your dealings , ok you can fail in people you bring in people can be flop but is Harewood better then what they got or can he improve them ?
Zak Knight is he better then Cahill?
Thats stupid rather then on limited funds which he didnt had , 10 m on Young round about 20 m for Petrov , Reo Coker , Curtis Davies. 6-7 m for Knight and Harwood. Now 10 m for Carson?

I meant Luke Moore , Mellberg isnt extending but Laursen was crying out to extend his.

O'Neill seems to suffer from the same disease as Keane in that they don't seem particularly experimental in the transfer market and tend to stick to players they've seen play against them (or for them).

It has its merits but equally, it limits the ability of the manager to pick up a real gem. You couldn't imagine either picking up a Corluka or Elano for example.

or Santa Cruz or Nelson or Arteta or Utaka etc.

f@ck off and buy someone else comes to mind . I'm expecting the next story to be that We'll scrap Gudjohnsen plans after Magnusson left

We'll go for Eidur again in January...if Villa go for him then it'll be down to him.

Idiot, he should be signing Bardsley who he liked and surely is very available for him.

That's ALOT of money for a 29 year old with a dodgy knee and Hoyte.

hoyte - is possible. although i'm hoping we're going to be a little more ambitious. we need a right back, not having one. but he's not someone i'd imagine taking us forward much.

eidur, he'd be a good signing for us i think, as he'd be different from the other attackers we have.

but anyway, it's the daily star. not worth taking too seriously.

@ darksavant

i agree o'neill's signings have been hit and miss. for the record, davies is on loan with a view to permanent next summer - it may happen, but as he hasn't gotten a start in the prem yet, perhaps not.

saying why buy reocoker when we have gardner seems a bit odd. we have a small squad (22 players), it's hardly extravagent to have a good young player like gardner as backup to a more established one.

harewood - not a great signing, but so it goes. knight's been solid for the most part, but again not really one to take us forward. i think both were kind of security buys for if the more ambitious targets didn't sign - and it seems they didn't in the summer! decent squad players with plenty of premiership experience, but nothing more. the longterm plans are more in the signings like young.

it'll be interesting who we bring in in january, i'm pretty sure there'll be a couple (esp with moore and sorensen both likely on their way, as well as mellberg in the summer, i think laursen will stay). carson may become permanent - 10m sounds crazy, but he has been very good for us this season.

Reo Coker isnt probably a grade up from Gardner or Osbourne(which I have seen very little so you can have a go) 8 m for him dont really work out for me and O Neill is no newcomer that he cant scout Europe because of lack of experience whatever.

You just answer this is Knight better then Cahill I dont think I was impressed whenever I have seen the guy.
You will probably buy Curtis as Mellberg seems off good for you if you dont.

reo-coker's better than gardner at the minute. gardner's got promise and a good attitude, but is still relatively inexperienced. reo-coker was expensive at £8m, but is a good premiership midfielder - not someone who's going to win us the league or anything, but an improvement on last season (mccann) and capable of improving himself as he's only 22/23ish. he's been generally good for us this season.

knight vs cahill. it's a fair point. i'd rather cahill was in there, as he's potentially a long term solution. equally, i'd rather we'd just kept ridgewell than sell him and sign knight for twice the price, but there it is. knight's a decent defender - has made the odd costly mistake, but then so has laursen. cahill's back from his loan now, i think, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. the davies thing is more weird - i'm surprised o'neill hasn't given him any premiership starts yet.

o'neill has generally been pretty conservative in his signings in the way he's signed players he knows well. certainly i'd like him to look a bit further afield at times and be bringing in some classy imports, but maybe i just gotta be patient or just accept the way he's building the team. proof is in results anyway, and so far this season is going along nicely.