Act Now Martin!
Thursday, 04 June 09, 11:11 AM · Comments (25)
Now that Barry has flown the coop, the usual tedious cat and mouse game Martin O'Neill plays in the transfer market MUST BE ABANDONED or it'll be more than just Barry
leaving!
Barry leaving itself is not a shock really - but his move to Man City has left a major question mark over our ambitions - or that's how the press and some players might see it (not me though, i think they guy has made a major error).
Carew, Ash and even the likes of Gabby and Milner will become targets for other clubs this summer if they are not already and having already sold (through no fault of his) arguebly our best player O'Neill needs to act fast to strengthen the squad, show our ambition and reassure those players. With Laursen retired already we risk destabilising the whole team. We don't even have a natural captain left in the side as NRC is likely to leave and Petrov and Young are as yet untried with the band (they would be my candidates for captain).
If Ash or Carew left aswell we would go backwards by two years, if even 2% of the constant stream of transfer links are true than there is at least four players on the way. Trouble is i've never seen O'Neill swiftly and decisively in the transfer market - considering it took us about four transfer windows just to sign a right back!
O'Neill needs to take risks, which is not something i thought i'd ever say - all i know is the softly softly catchy a monkey approach - and massively overpriced best of British transfer window policy cannot take us forward any further than we are as we always lose as many players as we buy.
This season it burns me bitterly to say this but we are now no longer in my opinion in a position to push on and challenge for fourth - not with City and Spurs likely to splash more cash than us. No it is now crucial we make at least three high profile signings just to keep us in the game and consolidate our position in 6th.
You have the right to criticise me and tell me i am being impatient and negative, but every transfer window we come to is like pulling a razor blade over your eyeball and even though MON/Randy have made more good signings than bad - I still don't understand how our transfer policy operates and how affective our scouting network is. That's said none of us know what is happening behind the scenes and i hope I am completely wrong! But MON needs to prove me wrong!
Barry leaving itself is not a shock really - but his move to Man City has left a major question mark over our ambitions - or that's how the press and some players might see it (not me though, i think they guy has made a major error).
Carew, Ash and even the likes of Gabby and Milner will become targets for other clubs this summer if they are not already and having already sold (through no fault of his) arguebly our best player O'Neill needs to act fast to strengthen the squad, show our ambition and reassure those players. With Laursen retired already we risk destabilising the whole team. We don't even have a natural captain left in the side as NRC is likely to leave and Petrov and Young are as yet untried with the band (they would be my candidates for captain).
If Ash or Carew left aswell we would go backwards by two years, if even 2% of the constant stream of transfer links are true than there is at least four players on the way. Trouble is i've never seen O'Neill swiftly and decisively in the transfer market - considering it took us about four transfer windows just to sign a right back!
O'Neill needs to take risks, which is not something i thought i'd ever say - all i know is the softly softly catchy a monkey approach - and massively overpriced best of British transfer window policy cannot take us forward any further than we are as we always lose as many players as we buy.
This season it burns me bitterly to say this but we are now no longer in my opinion in a position to push on and challenge for fourth - not with City and Spurs likely to splash more cash than us. No it is now crucial we make at least three high profile signings just to keep us in the game and consolidate our position in 6th.
You have the right to criticise me and tell me i am being impatient and negative, but every transfer window we come to is like pulling a razor blade over your eyeball and even though MON/Randy have made more good signings than bad - I still don't understand how our transfer policy operates and how affective our scouting network is. That's said none of us know what is happening behind the scenes and i hope I am completely wrong! But MON needs to prove me wrong!
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Posted by Dan Collacott
| Comments (25)
25 Comments · Add yours
MON was the same at Celtic with transfers. A leopard doesn't change its spots. You can't teach an old dog new tricks etc etc
apparently we trying to sign martins huddlestone made a 7m bid for a player in spain called jose manuel juando and are goin to make a 10m bid for alexandre hleb from barcalona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UTV
"i've never seen O'Neill swiftly and decisively in the transfer market", looks to me like he not only got and took a great offer for a player with only a year left on his contract, but also managed to piss off Benitez in doing it. MON's transfer window activity so far looks good to me. He now has 12M more to spend than he did a few days ago.
Good Article. Only time MON ever acts swiftly and decisively is when he is selling players. Man City and Spurs won't have European games to worry about either. Its Now OR Never
bloody hell give the guy a chance! the season has only just finished and if you did'nt realise Barry left 12 months ago... well in his mind. 100% behind Martin will again deliver come season kick off, in Martin i trust...
whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
with the england squad every1 is sayin good luck at manchester city and laughing at the state of villa right now of all the strikers in the world you have emile heskey yes i'll repeat that emile hesley now i can play with a REAL striker in robinho and the boss assures me he will sign another top class striker as well as building a totally new top 4 challenging squad finally i can reach my potential. ps screw all u so called villa fans who call me a money grabbing no good piece of scum i have news for you i played over 400 hundred games for this club and i captained this team al though i regret that now i mean who would want to be in the same team as emile heskey ps. emile heskey is not in the england sqaud and lampard laughs at him we all laugh at him we all laugh at villa park and its terrible pitch byebye and i hope i score a screamer against u filth and i will celebrate like a mad man.
If you want to stand a chance of competing with other blog sites(cough cough) then you're going to hurry up a bit. It has taken you 2 days to even begin to talk about Barry, and all you've done is a palrty 500 word article.
Not only is it late and short, it is dull, and now a little stale. We all came to these conclusions a little while a go matey. I don't know if you are getting paid for this, I know Damien was, but if you were then you are a seriously lazy individual. Pull your finger out.
Now off the rant, and on to more important matters. Personally, I don't believe MON has to take risks. I think there are tried and tested players out there who if the money is available will come. Here is my perfect wish list:
Carvahlaho - 8 million. Available- might want a champs league club, but worth a shot?
Defour - 16 million. Available, young, a better Fellani, and someone who can replace Barry. Has said he wants to come, if we offer up the right money.
Sturridge - Rumour continually links him to Chelsea, but we'll see. He's a villa fan, and he's out of contract and has incredible potential.
Others I would mind to see strutting there stuff:
Hangeland: Still hasn't signed a contract. Could replace Laursen.
Delph: Quick, left-footed, central midfield/winger. Could replace Barry, and we'll maintain our balance. I also think he will work better with Petrov than Brry did.
Owen: Proven Goalscorer and potential captain. Keep him fit and happy and would be a dream signing.
Huddlestone: Talented creative midfield, if a little inconsisted. Again, a little slow, but then again our CM has never been lightning.
he aint got that much money randy said he has less to spend than last year he will be looking for deals like lucan neill free transfer he will go in for him players that havent had great seasons so their value has dropped like bentley huddlestone tuncay boro have now gone down martins no one special hleb will not come to villa
My god man use some punctuation. Yes, City fans are obviously delighted their team has enough money to buy all the world's best players. Yes, it is inevitable they will be a force to be reckoned with in the premier league and Europe within 2 or 3 seasons. So what?? City will do well regardless of who now dislikes them (largely out of jealousy) but piss on everyone else's parade and, eventually, everyone will get you back... somehow.
Nick, I am not trying to compete with other blog sites - I am not Damien - and i am not syndicated to write a piece every day, it doesn't work like that - so sorry to quash your expectations. It's hit and miss - some of what i write gets a great response other times it doesn't, i accept that.
And regarding the 'lazy' remark - I have been posting about Barry in other posts since the moment it happened (check my last article), i didn't feel it was necessary to add to the other four zillion articles about Barry across the blogs and press - even if I had posted the second the news broke as a new article - i would have been competing with the national press and people who had the facts - which I didn't when it broke. I decided to leave it a while and see what was said rather than be specifically reactionary - the above piece is not purely about Barry it is about our productivity in the transfer market.
Your hit list of transfers is a good one - but I don't think we have the money you think Randy has for this - but I hope we can get half of those targets.
I am none the less amused by the person pretending to be Garet Barry - as clearly he has even more time on his hands than i do - so someone should sign him up, he clearly is more interested in what Villa fans think and say rather than the Man City boards or more likely the Birmingham Boards - that must be a heap of cr*p in comparison.
How much did Lerner give MON to spend last summer? Was it 48 Million, so if he says that he won't give us much, that could still mean 47M + 12M (for GazBaz) thats 59M and Mr Lerner is still true to his word.
Reply to Bank of England:
Man i hope so
Reading between the lines i think we will have about 30mil max - plus the 12mil from the sale of Barry.
Now selling Barry was good business considering, i dont think he gave up mentally a year ago though - as he still played very well for most of this season and not like a man going through the motions. My fear is 12mil won't buy us another Gareth Barry - especially if the likes of Defour will cost 16mil???
MON CHECK THIS OUT!!!
STEVEN DEFOUR 15M AMC- WANTS TO COME
FABIAN DELPH 5M MC - CLASS YOUNGSTER
OBAFEMI MARTINS 10M ST - PACEY STRIKER
MICHEAL OWEN FREE ST - PROVEN GOAL SCORER
DANIEL STURRIDGE FREE FC - CLASS YOUNGSTER
JOELEON LESCOTT 8M DC - COMANDING,GOALSCORING DC
IBRAHIM AFFELLAY 8M AMR- ANOTHER ASH YOUNG
GOKHAN INLER 12M DMC- SWISS FRANK LAMPARD
JOAO MOUTINHO 14M MC - CREATIVE MID, MOST IMPORTANT
MIGUEL VELOSO 12M DMC- EUROPEAN CLASS DMC
RICARDO CARVALHO 7M DC - PROVEN WORLD CLASS DC
ROYSTON DRENTHE 7.5M DL - GREAT LEFT SIDED PLAYER
MICAH RICHARDS 10M DC - FAST STRONG DOMINANT
YURI ZHIRKOV 12.75M AML- GREAT WINGER GREAT ABILITY
KYLE NAUGHTON 4M DR - GOOD YOUNG COVER
ALL THESE PLAYERS ARE ACHIEVABLE MARTIN IF WE COULD JUST HAVE A HANDFULL OF THESE PLAYERS WE WOULD ALL BE HAPPY!!!!!
Reply to dodge avfc:
hell yes
I have got to agree with your post, I feel very nervous at the moment about our chances especially with increasing rumours surrounding our over stars.
Reply to dodge avfc:
I would completely agree and I guarantee if we tried to sign them the majority would be just begging to come due to the alure of europa and premier league football. some of them if not most of them really would push us forward, now in my personal opinion if we could sign Mountinho from sporting cp that would be a massive signing he is equally as gd if not better than barry. Would also love to see Owen and Bentley, but we will defs need more than that! Any of these would be quality, we should really go for Yuri Zhirkov.
I think it's important that MON gets his finger out pretty quickly with signings as the likes of Young, & Carew will want reassurances about where we're heading. In terms of who we bring in Huddlestone looks a great player to me with something of the Cowans about him, 2 great feet, a football brain, and a good shot. I'd say forget Bentley as you can't play him and Milner in the same team. Martins alongside Carew would be pretty exciting with Ash providing the ammo.
A few might disagree but I'd be happy to let Gabby go unless there was a drastic change in his attitude and work rate, for the last half of the season he was doing a great impression of Luke Moore. Also lets clear the decks of the not good enough fringe players Harewood, Sidwell, Heskey, Salifou, Osbourne, and even NRC, might bring in about 10 to 12 million to add to the kitty.
Finaly, lets see Bannan and Albrighton get some games next season, and I still think we have a potential gem in Gardner if played in central midfield, he's the best striker of the ball at VP.
Well barry has gone mon hasnt spent straight away and people are getting negative, but not me i personally feel we have a ready made replacement for barry at the villa in milner, hes hard working has a bit of skill and can pass i think he could do a great job in the middle.
As far as buying id love owen at the villa on a free still thinks hes a great player and mon could get the best out of him again plus ahs youngs crossing ability,owen would thrive. I saw the rumour about hleb, id like it to be true but cant see it, i think bentley would be a good signing, aswell as defour abd at the back id like to see wheater from boro or carvahlaho think he may come.
So i think we can still challenge for top 4 without barry and id be happy for mon to still take his time in the transfer maerket, i just hope young doesnt go as ive read in some papers.
Up the villa
Even chelsea are after Ashley Young now
We cant become a selling club otherwise we will never ever be in the top four
Act now martin replace barry which can be done easier than some make out
And just go all out in the market we need to spend a good 30-40 million this year to even think of compeating while your at it please send Heskey packing guzan could score more than him and his on the bench half the time
Reply to Monarmy:
I laughed my happy sacks off when I saw Arry Redknapp had:
1) Tried to sign Barry
2) Is being linked to signing Ash
I think one of the many Spurs fans in the London media - and trust me there are many are trying to drum up some fake ass transfer news - because presently Villa are being linked with their players - rather than the other way round.
But just the arrogance of Redcrap thinking Barry would be interested in signing for his sh*tty little team.
Hey Harry how about we give you 8mil and a bag of shop soiled mini-babybels for Bentley and in return we send you a pair of Ash Young's shorts to sniff?
Guys, Chillax!
Sure, Carvalho is proabbly going to Inter, Vermalean is going to Arsenal apparantly and Lescott aint going nowwhere according to Moyes but that still leaves Haagland and Cahill to maybe come here....I am sure there will be SOME players left to bu when MON comes back from holdiays!!
ah no, we'll be fine...we knew Barry was going one way or another, just like we KNOW young aint going nowhere...if MON can f*ck off Liverpool when they want Barry...he won't have any problem with Redknapp and his merry band of lilyshites
Essential to replace Barry and Laursen, obviously gonna be hard to replace Laursen. Especially with doubts over how much money we have.
Love to see him get Defour, Vermaelen/Richards, Owen (worth a gamble) and then just a few good, young squad players to bring through
Reply to gareth barry:
wow your grammar and spelling is astoundingly good!!!! not really alot more to say than your obviously a sad bluenose wanker looking for reactions from real fans so you've got one now pal, oh and by the way if robinho was a real striker then why does mark hughes continue to play him on the right like a winger. Roque santa cruz is a great player but a striker he aint mate!! so your front line consists of vassel bojinov (durable guy huh) and benjani WOW now thats a dangerous and prolific strike force, it will strike fear into any sunday league team!!! enjoy your usual scrap for 11th with wigan pal!!!
WE NEED A GOALKEEPER Brad just dosent do it for me and other brad maybe still to early to bring him in i think so Mon come on do us a favour and maybe get the cheque book out it would be most appreciated