Jackanory time: Aston Villa to make a bid for Ferdinand of West Ham?
Thursday, 19 June 08, 07:09 AM · Comments (45)
I was taking an hour to cut the grass and play with my new trimmer when someone sent me a text message saying 'Bill says we're going for Anton Ferdinand'. I had to come back in to see if it was true and guess what, it is.
It's maybe not true that we're going to lodge a bid for the player, but it's true that Bill is publishing the story.
Now, you all know my views on Bill, I won't go over that again, but the annoying thing is, you can't discount absolutely everything he writes. The media department at Aston Villa are stuck in a 90's media time warp and there is every chance they'll feed him bits of information, to keep him sweet.
After getting humiliated by Martin O'Neill recently, he's sure to have said something to his buddies at Aston Villa and no doubt he's going to have expressed something, possibly anger, and in return I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to feed him a story or two.
Which is why we can't just laugh this off, or what I normally like to do when I read a Bill article, curl up on the couch and doze off.
So, there is every chance Aston Villa will be putting together a formal bid and every chance Bill is spot on. After all the club leaked it was going to be Acorns on the shirt to him and they did give the Birmingham Mail confirmation of the shirt a good few hours before the launch last year.
So, take this as you want to (the reason why I am likely to title every post about Bill in the future 'Jackanory time'), but Bill will be getting bits of information - it's just which ones are made up and which ones are real?
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
45 Comments · Add yours
There is a bit of truth in it. He is available for about £5 million and most sports reporters in the west ham area see Villa as a very likely destination for him. Could be he has heard these whispers and ran with the story
i bloody hate both the ferdinands! cant wait to see his rude boy celebrations. brap!
Damian, i'm starting to share your views more and more. Many a time i have read Bill Howells articles and had alittle chuckle.
The thing is..i remember in the build up to our take over...Bill was spot on about alot of things. So although hes wide of the mark alot, i always read what he has to say just on the off chance he gets it right.
I wouldn't mind signing Ferdinand, just as I wouldn't mind signing guys like Frankie Simek. These players can come to Villa and play a role: sit on the bench and spell our first team on occasion. As we all know, we need to bolster the squad's numbers. So we'll need to sign some players whom we may not want starting for us every week.
He had his goal of the season like 4 years ago, which i admit was good. But if we really wqant to push on i don't really think he is the material we need :(
Well he is best mates with NRC so.....
i think he could be a potential bargain!!
We need another centre half...Ferdinand is available...he's young, English, plenty of Prem. experience...it all adds up imho. I think Bill Howell has been unfairly criticised, though. He was spot on about the takeover and he's been spot on about Barry - even if he was only stating the bleeding obvious!
He's about as good as Zat Knight, he thinks he's his brother and he's not! No thank you
I mean. . .we will need a center back until Curtis gets healthy and fit, and we could do a lot worse. We could, for example, start Zat Knight every game until Davies is back.
Hi all.. I'm actually working in the same newsroom as Bill Howell. I'm doing a placement and writing for the Sunday Mercury and Birmingham Post for a few weeks. No new news today I'm afraid..not yet anyway!
I'd rather have anton ferdinand starting with laursen than knight until davies is back, but hardly anyone seems to mention playing bouma at left centre back he did good the other night playing there for holland just another option.
I'm now looking forward to when the euro's are over so the real transfers begin not just rumours!
Bill Howell - now there is a real journalist!
Sign em all up, make em all captain - great days great times.
Damian - do you feel the love or are you still angry?
There just aint this level of anger on a proper website like heroes and villains!
I think at 22 Ferdinand would be a good player for the future and MON would certainly get the best out of him in time. I also like the fact that we go british for our players it makes for good communication on the pitch and dressing room. I do though feel a little continental flair wouldnt go a miss someone in the mould of diago maybe.If i were MON I'd be looking at bringing in bently for barry i would would really push for that.
Something i would like to bring to the table inrelation to bringing in players is the amtmosphere within villa park. Any team that came to villa park last season would of seen the place is buzzing. I travelled to 80% of away games last season and was not impressed with nearly 70% of them. Players must see and here the love we have for our players and be attracted to that. So cum on MON lets see you bring in some real quality not just squad players.
Sounds like a MON signing! A once superb prospect with england ambitions, ailing career, black, young!
Or, i bet they got names in a hat and they draw names to see which one they put in the paper! SO i reckon bill drew Emile Heskey, Titus Bramble and Anton Ferdinand this morning.
Gary Cahill anyone? Still can't understand why we sold him :o
And tomorrow will be: Kieron Dyer, Colin Kazim-Richards and Lee Bowyer
the question, though, Nottm, is who plays left back while Bouma's in the center. I don't think O'Halloran's ready yet, and Barry, you have to assume at the moment, is out the door.
Another Big Bad Bill story is that we are preparing an offer for Paul Robinson. I've been told theres a lot more to that than the Anton Ferdinand link. Im unsure about Robinson, but if available at the right price (£2-3 million) better deal than £* million for Carson.
i sai buy him! martin laursen is a gr8 playa bt isnt gettin any younger, he'll proberly hav 2 or 3 more seasons then retire. so buy anton 4 da future. throw him on da bench until laursen retires, then villa will hav englands future centre backs! Davies n Anton =) siik!
we need an extra centre half and sure why not buy a young english player for a change!! good signing if MON can get him back on track. cant complain about the other 2 west ham players MON bought so ferdinand would fit in and why not bring rob green in aswell.
just seen a picture of bill. he does look like a fella that is easily confussed, poor chap.
Yes please! Yes please! Ferdinand fits the bill and will be in the England squad within a year guaranteed. If he's available for £5m I might raise a loan myself as an investment!
While Boumi is on the left center, we bring in Zirkov (?), the russian locomotive that's been running non-stop in switzerland so far! looks really great. Wouldn't mind Arsjavin as well, to replace petrov:p
Villa to make a bid................Don't make me laugh it's not Mid August.
Anton is like knight falls asleep at the wrong time but i think he has the quality to stop doing and to become a great defender worth bidding for anyway
i was more interested in the miguel story below the anton article.
Anton just..and i mean just a bit better than Knight, not good enough, id fear with him and knight at the heart of our defense
he needs a move out of london to further his career and I think a move to villa with his old soldja boy buddy nrc could be the right move.
but if we sign him we might be seeing more of this:
LINK
i thinks his problem is he's confident on the verge of arrogance without having the talent to back it up
that said rio was the same for many years and if anton turns out half as good he'd still be better than knight
You all rate anton as good as Knight your mad. Anton is a more capable and captain like player. he is ten times better than knight and i could seriously see him and davies as future england centre halfs. they want 5 give them 4 mill and its a bargain. ;D
I dont think that Anton is a step forward in terms of buying players to take us to the next level, he is a decent defender but no better than the likes of Knight who wont get a game once Davies is fit.
Anton would be a great buy - 22 is still young for a centre-back. Most young defenders make silly mistakes (even Terry and Rio F did and look at them now). He'll only get better. Great signing if we get him. I agree though, would have loved Cahill to stay.
One comment - everyone is moaning that the players we are linked with aren't top class. We need a squad! We can't buy 10 £15m players. Anton would be a great cover/competition for Davies and Laursen and is plenty better than Knight. If we get 3-4 top players and 5 or 6 good players then I'll be well happy, as we already have some top players in our squad and just need some cover for them. Like it or not, Villa aren't good enough (yet) to have a bench full of £10m players.
If we get Bentley it will be amazing, likewise with Miguel and some of the other foreigners we're linked with. We need some bodies too though, and that's what people seem to be forgetting.
I'm suddenly feeling confident (if we actually sign some players before the last week of August)...
who cares about anton ferdinand. as long as we get a few signings around about now to the start of july we will be ok in gettin other signings.
UTV ;D
Yes damo we know what you think of bill howell, and we know what you think of GB your boring me with that a bit now, did you come on to him and got blown out? I'm not saying he is the best journalist in the world but he does get the odd thing right, if thats luck then so be it, I don't seem to remember you being right all of the time either, we all know of your views so change the record, maybe try writing an objective article instead of ramming your personal views down our throats all the time, there was once a time when you was quite good at that!!! oh sorry in my opinion. As for ferdy, no thanks not good enough to drive us forward, he is another player for the future and we seem to have enough of those.
LINK
errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?NOOOOOOOO(!!!!!!!!!!!)
My name is taddy
I am real ladee
Dont sign up Anton
he defends like a flee!
MON wants to get of his cushdy seat at the bbc and start doing some work back at villa. at this rate we're gonna have no players and strugglin to get in top 12. please MON lets not have the failures of january again. oh and anton ferdinand, i could do a better job there's a reason why west ham are selling him and thats because he's no good
Ferdinand's bad news and would upset things at the Villa. Also he's no better than Knight, who is crap, so a total waste of time. Why do you think West Ham are pushing him out the door? Let's buy a top defender, not one who needs the "MON Magic" and all that rubbish.
Noooooo!
Seriously seen some of the above comments and has made me laugh - Anton Feridnand is NOTHING like Rio .
Seriously don't even DARE to compare the two.
Rio had an England senior debut at age of 18 or 19 or something whilst playing at West Ham and DID he did have all the key attributes when on the ball even at that age - he was prone to lapses but grew with age.
Anton Ferdinand is NOWHERE NEAR anywhere what Rio's ability was when he was young ...
Anton is a AWFUL.
Ppl slag off Zat Kinght - but trust me he's better than Anton Ferdinand is - on EVERY and ANY level - despite Anton being younger - Anton Ferdinand is proper shit
Would anton come to villa and if so who do you leave out? You can not drop Laurson, he had a terrific season (MON'S words not mine) and i believe we need to play curtis when fit as he could be the next rio. Zat is a good backup and deep down probably knows he is 3rd choice, but with UEFA a possibility we need more than 1 back-up. Maybe MON has ideas for roatation, but i feel the reason we had a good season is because the palyers got to know each others game, just look at the last time we won the league. It would be nice to see him at villa, but for me its unlikely.
here we go again....having some other clubs rejects..
Lets take the bull by the horns and go for Lescott. I know won't happen, but imagine if we oferred Barry to them in exchange. How much that would p**s off those red gits!!