Does Sidwell coming signal the end for Petrov and Reo-Coker?

which ever way it works out il be happy- barry & SS, Barry & NRC, NRC & SS or all 3 with young and bently on the wings. i thnks its a win win situation. i wud like barry to stay but not the end of the world if he goes. SS is a very good player and its no coincidence that reading were not the same team this year without him. he was thier main man along wit doyle who also suffered wen SS left.

i'd love bentley ... him and young could be switching sides all day and causing so much confusion ;)

I agree with you on the Barry statement. If he wanted to stay i believe he would have come out and said so by now. I feel its all about us getting the most out of the deal at this stage. I see today that a few clubs are in for Damien Duff. Id like to see us go and try and sign him. If MON could get the best out of him there arn't many better wingers in the game. He would probably only cost around 4m and he can play on both wings.

i think its petrov who should be most worried. NRC is exactly the MON type player - hard working. petrov's just bad. i too am pretty much resigned to barry leaving, which leaves us with a problem - i know barry isnt the most creative of players but NRC and probably sidwell even less so. assumin we get into the UEFA cup we're gonna need someone with a bit of craft...maybe the togolese zidane is gonna come into his own next year :o

No,we are going to be in europe so weed need a bigger squad.

i really don't see that happening. you, the messiah and any villa fan realise that we don't have big enough squad to compete with the big boys. all it would do is increase competition and provide good cover for the inevitable injuries that have been missing from our last few seasons. if we went out and bought diego however, i would see petrov leaving; but we will wait to see if that happens.

Sidwell would play the holding role that Petrov has played recently behind Barry and NRC so I see no threat to NRC. Sidwell will be the new Scholes and out centre shape and distribution will massively improve so I hope this is true.

Reo is off to portsmouth

are you saying that because of the hair :D

If we get into europe we'r gonna have alot of games this season. The celtic boys tell me petrov ups his level in the big games, possibly debatable from last season. However i think we'll need petrovs experience in europe.

Damo not sure why you suggest we need 10 players then claim that petrov or coker could be off at the slightest hint of a potential transfer. Are you taking a leaf out of howells book

Would love to see Sidwell sign and would love even more if we managed to get Bently - however i feel the latter will be almost impossible! Not sure about Duffers tough?

i also think barry will go but only if mon gets ccver for him i;e sidwell and quite a bit more then the 10 million offered example player or players and the money, if barry was staying he would of said so a long time ago.

At this stage if Barry wants to go then we have to let him. I for one would not want a player playing for us who does not want to. I like the fact the the article on Sidwell states that he's willing to take a big paycut to come a play for us. If its true it shows us he wants to play football more so than watch his bank balance sky rocket.....

_aron_

i'm only asking the question. look at our central midfield if sidwell comes and barry stays;

petrov, reo-coker, osbourne, gardner, salifou, barry and sidwell

its a lot of people to keep happy and maybe it will be hard to keep them all happy ..

but please .. a leaf out of the book of howell .. come on ;)

i would keep both and put he player who doesn't preform on the bench

i know we are over subscribed in midfield and our squad needs to be strengthened in other areas but surely salifou, osbourne or even gardner would go before petrov. its not just about the numbers but the quality as well

If SS was at villa - would we have a better CM than we have now - YES. Are there better CM's out there available for Villa to sign - probably and hopefully. But even so - his addition would be a step forward to the current squad.
Damien you listed 7 midfielders there - three of which are not good enough for the premier league, 1 of which may be sold, 1 of which has ended the season well after 2 seasons of crap, the last being either a midfield destroyer or a player who can't pass wind - depending on your opinion.
I honestly dont think we can make top 4 with Reo-Coker. Irrespective of this - we cant be worried out replacing first teamers because we like them - no room for sentiment. If we can get better - then out with the old and in with the new

We want to be a top 4 club every top 4 club has 2 top players in every position. MON has always liked to have a good few midfielders at every club he has been at. If we sign Sidwell we will have him, Barry, Reo Coker and Petrov. Form Players will play!

I agree wit the Ruddmeister, we should play with a "your only as good as your last game policy" between NRC, Stan and sidwell if he comes, not to forget sally- Fou. I fyou play well u keep ur place, that was the problem with NRC and Stan last year, more so stan. He knew he could produce a Cameron Jerome style performance and would most likely still be involved the next game!!!!!!!!

What about isaiah osbourne, is it time for dat boy to move on?

Not that I'm going to vote conservative in the next election, but if, as it looks likely, they do get in, we will have Villa fans in very prominent positions. Prime Minister, the second in line to the throne, the Governor of the Bank of England. Wouldn't that, surely, make Villa the most powerful club in the country?

lets not forget The Mighty Steve too

Will it signal the end for Coker? The answer is no because MON has coker tinted spec's & thats a shame because you don't get in the top 4 with rubbish like him. As for Petrov if he was played as an attacking midfielder just behind the front 2 you'd see a different player.

Get Sidwell in, sign him up.

Sidwell is a replacement for Barry, i hate to say it but he is gone now :(

if sidwell comes in we mite see barry out left and young out right wit NRC in the centre with 2 up top. barry always said he prefers left wing, maybe he told MON he wud stay if he was playing on the left. i dont no just gussing not much else to do till we hear something from the club

re ,players to keep happy.

We havent signed Sidwell yet, Osbourne ,Gardner and Slifou are never going to be first team regulars so that leaves 2 in the team 1 out so there isnt much needed to keep anyone happy at the moment

We need a bigger squad, if we do qualify for UEFA cup and avoid the Mancs in round 3 of the FA cup we could be playing a lot more matches next season.

I believe Barry is waiting to see who we buy and show some ambition, so lets get Bentley now! Why not Micah Richards too?

either
carew aggy
young sidwell reo-c petrov
barry(cdm)
bouma laursen ?????
????

or we keep rotating the players such as
week 1 young barry reo-c petrov
week 2 young barry siddy petrov
week 3 young barry siddy reo-c
week 4 young siddy reo-c petrov

You know what? I never bother reading into anything that Bill Howell says anymore! That story has blatantly come from him! He just doesn't want to get wolloped by the messiah again! To be honest, i think sidwell is a second rate player, and if Petrov can carry on his form into next season then he will be very valuble to us, look at his european experience.

I do think we need to go out and get David Bentley, hes quality, has the same decent delivery as Ashley Young and is consistent.

Of course this aint the end for Petrov or Reo-Coker. Damian the midfielders u mentioned earlier not all are good enough.Osbourne is not good enough and either will be loaned or sold next season, Salifou is still getting used to the premier league and will get a game everynow n then so he aint bothered, Gardner will be the same or may get loaned out to, that leaves the rest. Plus we need cover and a bigger squad so its good that we have cover in every postion becuase with the games we may have extra next season, MON wil rotate. As for Barry i think he is waiting to see who we buy and i think MON has already shown him the list, so Barry will bide his time and c what happens. Players for next season who i think we should make bids for is Bentley, Henry, Carson, Guzman, Nelson, Hoyte, Shorey, Vaart or Diego, and then youngsters like them two from Leicester and some from Palace.

I don't see it changing anything. It will just mean we have more strength in depth and positions for players to play for. I really don't get Petrov in the holding role, though his performances have been better I think he needs a more attacking role behind the top 2. Then we can see more of his scarily accurate shots from outside the box!

realistic target i.e. lets not take any of this van der vaart diego talk

guzan, carson, jasskilinan
hoyte, miguel
dunne, ben haim
riise
sidwell, duff, quaresma, mendes, barnes
doyle, kitson, crouch, saha

breaking news: barry settled!!

It's a position you can never have to much competion in. Barry, Petrov, Hokey Cokey, Sidwell. it's a very well equipped midfield for europe & prem. Barry (holding role), Sidwell & Hokey Cokey (mids) Young & Gabby (if we don't sign bentley or another RW) playing down the wings for europe. And revert to our usual formation in the league.

Celtic_Villain: Diego and Van Der Vaart are unrealistic and Quaresma is realistic? I wish!

The thought of losing Barry has me down. If we can't keep our best players from leaving for the top four clubs, then how can we ever become a top-four club ourselves? And if only four select clubs ever have a chance to finish in the top four, then why even bother to compete? So that we can shoot for fifth?

how about we forget sidwell! everybody goes on like he's mega quality! If he was, he'd be playing for england and chelsea! I could get in their team in front of fat frankie and ok, maybe not ballack, cuz he's the ballacks! or essien! but defo fat frankie!

I dont think its the end for either realisticly you need two for every postion and probably even 6 to 8 for central mid you take four experienced players and four young talents who you want to mould into the senior lads......so currently it's
osbourne - reo coker
gardner - would be sidwell if he joined
salifou - petrov
and ideally if Barry stays I think Joe Ledley or Aaron Ramsey would be great understudies to him.......Maybe if a top quality player did sign such as Diego or Van Der Varrt then I think it would be Petrov to go but who knows really.... Any thoughts?

IN MON WE TRUST........ UTV

Conservative leader David Cameron has been flying the flag for Aston Villa during a live television debate.

The 41-year-old politician had been taking part in a discussion on the human emnbryo debate when he was asked who he thought would the Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

The Tory leader said it was of little consequence to him because as far as he was concerned there was only one team - the Villa.

Cameron told GMTV presenter Ben Shepherd: "The first game I ever went to was an Aston Villa game and so I am an Aston Villa fan. We have had a pretty good season ourselves.

"I don't really mind who wins the Champions League although it would be nice if an Englishman could contribute so lets go for a Frank Lampard hat-trick."

Cameron is the nephew of former Villa chairman Sir William Dugdale who took him to his first ever game as a 13-year-old.

The politician is one of a host of famous Villa fans including Prince William, Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Digby Jones, world renowned violinst Nigel Kennedy, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and Grammy-award winning singer Amy Winehouse.

^^^^ Even cameron is a fan now lol ^^^^^

We will need all 4 if we are going to have quality players in these positions to play the extra games. I don't where a lot of you are coming from with NRC, he has been tidy in the games i have seen and has a good engine to covber the back four. Yes he has had his dodgy games but then so have all the team. Sidwell be a great addition to what we have. I agree that Reading have missed him dearly this year.

if young plays the free role again we'll need 5 decent centre mids. 3 to play, 1 on the bench and 1 as back up. there'll be plenty of chances for them all to play even if there aren't that many injuries (i.e. carling cup, early stages of the FA cup if we don't draw a big team, early stages of the uefa cup when we might draw part timers). has the potential to be a 60 game season coker does love to get suspended.

Does anyone else suspect that our pre-season friendly against Reading has anything to do with us signing Doyle?

sidwell only looked so good because he played alongside harper at reading a player he'd been playing with for years (they were at arsenal together before reading), a good squad player but never gonna get to barry's level

i also read somewhere earlier in the season that cameron was asked to name a villa player and couldn't! still the band wagon keeps on rolling

barrys been seen in liverpool.

VILLA RULES .We could have just clicked on the link provided if we wanted to read that

i think keef made a good point re barry. he maybe stallin to see if villa really back up the promise of this season wit sum quality signings an investment in the squad.
on the sidwell front, i wudnt mind us signin him, but just not sure if he is the type of player to take us to the next level. but as a squad player, he may be useful cos we are gonna need a big squad if we plan on doin somethin serious in the uefa cup an challenge for the top 4 next season.

Bazza - where did you here that?

Bloody Hell Amy Crackhouse supports the villa,she must have thought we were a pub or something.

I don't think it would be the end of Petrov he has been outstanding of late and the true form that MON sees. Reo lol coker I feel is the weaker link and would see less first team football. However I feel that in time the squad will change and players who are in currently will be sidelined for champions league quality later on. Its too be expected really.

You have changed your tune abit Damian, didnt you only about a week ago post a whole article saying that Barry was staying. Personally I dont think Barry has fully made his mind up but has a good idea what he wants to do. He is saying the right things to us so that if he does end up staying we wont taunt him for wanting to leave if the deal were to fall through. He also isnt saying no to the rumours as he probably wants to leave.

How would this signal the end for reo ? Thats got to be one of the all time maddest aston villa questions. Errrm let me think reo or sidwell reo wins all day long

It may be the end of petrov i dont no but why get rid of players we need as much back up aswell possible all 3 will do just fine as its what we need pleanty of cover then in midfeild and a nice little battle for places

The end for reo i really have to laugh :D :D :D :D :D

I really struggle to see any improvement for the club if some of these speculated targets come to fruishen!! Sidwell(who) riise??? doyle???? come on guys these are players are ok but very predictable

Our midfield 3 next season will be Barry-Reo Coker-Salifou. Mark these words

Steve sidwell is a great signing. I think we're forgetting the fact that we have a tiny squad, and at some point, reo or petrov will be benched. At least having a 5th first choice midefielder gives us options!... Gardner and petrov on the bench, Bergers gone, Salifou is unknown, and Isiah Osbourne doesn't cut it..!

Just seen on BBC gossip column west ham will try and cash in on Dean Ashton!.. please can we sign him!.. He's a great finisher, causes defences all sorts of problems with his stength, and i think he'd be the perfect Carew replacement. Ashton is also young, english, has a great goalscoring record, and i think will will be part of the england set-up for the next 6 years. He'll solve our lack of physical stegnth upfront... rooney can't do it all!

reports on bbc website say sidwell to sign by end of the week

Sidwell should arrive to complement the squad, not to replace players..we're wafer thin in numbers so it'd make sense. Damian, you really have a grudge against Bill whatshisname, are you sure you 2 didn't use to date bud? ;)

i jus think if sidwell arrives, we will still need to add to the midfield cos im not sure if he is the type of player who will help us challenge for the cl.

Sidwell would be a good signing Mon could improve him just as he as done to Barry,I think we should go for Arda Turan he is young with lots of ability suit our young growing team.

Why does one player in have to mean one player out? If we sign Sidwell, surely all it means is Petrov will have more a "rotation" role for the club. We are trying to strengthen numbers after all, so replacing players is not on the agenda. To be honest, Sidwell isn't exactly likely to start every game himself, so there will be plenty of opportunities for Petrov to remain a prominent part of the side.

I'm just worried that signing him means either there's no RW coming in or there's now definitely no hope of signing Van der vaart or the likes for the midfield.

I struggle to see what people like in joker. He cant pass a ball and when he does its sideways! I havnt missed a game all year so feel a little bit qualified to make a comment like this. We brought him to break the game up be our"ugly player" but his best games have come at right back! Sidwell is not a step forward , surely just another body just in case .

I Think it's pretty much each to there own kinda thing.

off topic and I have no grounds for this whatsoever, but I fancy us to get Louis Saha…

I wish people wouldstop slating Stephen Sidwen. I think he will be a top class signing

Sidwell would be great, if Chelsea signed him he can't be bad.

Let's face it Barry is off. Good luck in his 15 games a year!!

I think Mon will be watching the Euro's very carefully, however with the Intertoto that could be too late to make a move as prices, wages go up if a player has a good tournment

Damo mate,

If you want a pacey winger that can go either side (similar to ashley) then Wright-phillips is the man. And he aint getting a game for Chelsea. There is even talk he wont make the bench for them tonight.

Bentley is great also - but he would play right midfield for us.

So if you want another winger then wright -phillips is your man.

If you want a right sided midfield player then is Bentley. ;) ;)

Two things:
1) I don't think Barry will leave Villa as Rafa has said he will look at Downing if he doesn't get Barry. Obviously this means he sees Barry as LM or utility player (CB,LB,LM and CM.) Barry is not stupid, he realises he suffered with being a utility player for years and playing CM only for the last 2 years has shown people exactly how good he is.
2) Just because you bring in players doesnt mean others will leave. I've said it before on this site but Villa were lucky with injuries this season, they never had many out for long periods at the same time. Compare this to Spurs, Chelsea etc. If (and they should) Villa get to UEFA cup they will need around ten players to compete in 4 competitions. You may think this is extreme but remember Boro, Everton and Spurs in recent seasons, all flirted with the relegation places trying to compete on 4 fronts. Spurs throughout the season gone had Robinson, Bale, King, Dawson, Jenas, Zokora, Lennon, Gilberto and Bent for weeks at a time and several players together.
Happy hunting this transfer window and good luck for next year.

Barry is leaving according to his wife. Not too bothered. Ive said it before but there are better players out there.

To signing news; Hardly compares to Diego or Henry but i have it on good account Villa will complete the signings of Sidwell and Nicky Shorey towards the end of the week depending on medicals ect.

For those of you who thought the Reading friendly was a strange one (when was the last time we played championship team in friendlies?) this is part of the Nicky Shorey deal.

Now for Darren Bent or Dean Ashton (20 in both of them)

Expect a top european team down villa park again this summer in a prestigious friendy. Probably week before big kick off again!

Up the Villa.

I think that sidwell arriving would be a good move, because it will hopefully cause competition between Petrov and Reo-Coker. more signings should be: Milner, Wright-Philips, Van der Vaat, Nolan(squad player), Carson, Drenthe, Van Buyten etc etc.

Unrelated but i always get slated for saying this to the lads but id love to see bouma at centre half with laursen and davies.

Foster

Davies Lausen Bouma
Hoyte Shorey
Reocoker/Petrov Sidwell

Young/Diego

Carew/Bent Gabby/Ashton


All player gettable. Can anyone do any better (realistic!)

Would love to sign Nicky Shorey ... Then we can move Bouma back to centre back, his favoured position!

Sidwell would be a great signing we need the players [u]badly[/u].remebr what he did to us, he was reading until he left.
Realisticly we should go for the likes of Hoyte Sidwell maybe a pop at bently 15mil. Diego, well hes already in the champ lge with leverkusen so he wont come here to play in the intertoto.

they got no chance of bein dropped they 10 times better than steve sidwell he should cum and go straight on the bench hes not even that good

Joe .. he plays for Werder Bremen.

ooooops ;)

oops i dont pay much attention ;)

get ur facts right villa to sign henry,sidwell,hoyte,diego yh in my dreams well i dont want sidwell hes useless.

Steve Sidwell excitement rating 3/10.
If Steve was a card in top trumps he'd be a shit card

Well k4avfc mourihno wudnt av signed him if he didnt think he was good enuff ,altho, hr left so he could of been trying to make chelski look like a pub team.

Doesnt mean the end of NRC at all,but it could for Petrov.Does it really matter tho? I like Petrov but if we sign Sdwell and he turns out to be the quality player I think he is, Petrov will have to make do with the bench. He hasnt been good enough to be honest.

If we are evr goin to challenge for the CL places, we need 4 centre mids anyway.

Apart from Sidwell and 2 keepers, who do people think we need/are after?
IMO we need 2 RBs, a RW and a striker too.

if barry goes we should go for downing rafa must think he is available and sidwell hes used to sitting on the bench picking up is 65 grand a w/k why should he come to us for half that wage and still get splinters in oscar arse

Taglor...you really make my day with some of your comments mate. That one about Sidwell's top trumps card made me howl ! Keep it up bud, we need a few controversial views on here from time to time.

NorthStand HolteEnder...I reckon you may have something with the Nicky Shorey / Reading friendly thing. I'm sure I saw the date for the match in the mail tonight and also a high profile but un-named European team will be coming to VP pre season.

On the Sidwell thing, you can't say that he's a bad player but we really do need to sign someone like Diego or Van De Vaart to liven things up and get them all talking about Aston Villa again.
Someone to deliver that killer pass from midfield so as we can dont have to rely on long balls to Carew or trying to hit Ashley all the time.
That Diego looks shit hot, i don't know if it would be possible to sign him or not but he really does look like one of them little gems.

UP THE VILLA ;)

correct if im mistaken, but didnt MON play for the most part of last season (esp the backend) a 4-3-3 or (4-3-2-1) formation:
carson
bouma davies/knight laursen mellberg
reo-coker
barry petrov/gardner/maloney
young abby
carew
?? i dont think the signing of sidwell means the end of reo-coker... possibly petrov but his euro experince would be useful.
in either case, we need a good 6 or so central midfielders who can hold their own... we got lucky this year in terms of injuries and i think MON recognises that...
but either way, coker is safe

Just seen this link...

How to turn defence into attack Diego style !
Petrov's strike was good but this is something else.

LINK

Hope the link is ok !

no it woudnt signal the end for barry if sidwell come it would work for villa as a whole as if barry needed a rest reo-coker sidwell there to help and this year we havent bin allowed to do that as we have needed barry to much this season !!! barry to stay

COME ON YOU VILLA BOYS

no this is to replace barry i think as i reckon a deal is already dne and wont go throught till we get a replacement
in the form of sidwell