Marlon Harewood set to sign for Wigan

i'm so bored with the lack of transfer action i might actually prefer to watch some football... feels like forever...

well maybe we should go for harewood (joke) cause apparantly spurs want 18m for defoe!so harewood may be the only option left,but i really hope not!!

Not a bad finisher but not the quality we need, but then again not a bad price for a proven goal scorer, he might be our new Cyril Regis or Dion Dublin and might surprise a few people, last season was not so good for him but the previous two weren't bad.

As a Wigan fan I find myself with similar mixed emotions. Yes, we need a striker, but is Harewood the one? The thought of Marlon and Heskey up front isn't that inspiring. I know that you lot will love to have a pop at Emile, but his all-round game was fairly good last season. The trouble is, as a striker he simply didn't score enough goals. Harewood strikes me as more of the same.

You may well have had a locky escape (as I think we have had with Todorov) but only time will tell.

MB

Dont think we were ever in for him, not the player we need. But just reading about craig gordon, sunderland have had a 5 mill bid rejected. His agent says Hearts are talking to one prem team... You never know.

Harewood couldnt hit a barn door! He is a step backwards in my opinion. I agree with MolineuxBlue about Heskey - he dragged Wigan through some rough spells last season. Not an out and out scorer but a decent hardworking player that creates a huge amount. Look at how well Owen played alongside him.

The south American thing does make a little sense, and Afonso Alves (previous interesting link) is still out there in the Copa America, just a thought. Though i really don't think that O'Neil is playing it quite as cool as a lot of people seem to think, with secret transfers and Press conferences. Just look at his villa record, NRC long drawn out public transfer, Young long drawn out public transfer, Petrov long drawn out public transfer. Carew i think was opportunism, with Baros going the other way. Whilst things are obviously a lot better under the new management, I don't quite share this notion of the perfect run club, with smooth transfer dealings all wrapped up in a nice little package. They are scraping to get people in, the same as everyone else, only with no a reputation(history is quickly forgotten) and no european football at the moment. Spurs are/were in a similar position to us, but they are 2/3 years ahead of us down the line (with a growing rep and euro football)it didn't happen straight away for them. I do think things are on the up, and will improve, just not quite as fast as everyone else.

im very disappointed indeed with the total lack of transfer activity at our club, we need to bo signing top players and nothing seems to be happening. I just hope that Mon and co know what theyre doing, i dont think we'll sign swp, defoe or anyone of that stature

Marlon Harewood won't set scoring sheet on fire. But he can come off the bench and bully his way into a goal every so often. He would've been a decent signing. Oh well.

I don't want Harewood at Villa. He's not good enough.

He got worked out after his first season and doesn't have the ability to step up to the next level.

Looks like portsmouth have got john utaka as well, seem him play a few times.. fits in behind the strikers. Would have been a good buy for us..

We have just signed Harry Forrester, a 15 year old from watford according to skysports.com

HUGE sigh of relief that we are not going to buy harewood, sorry he is not a prem striker. As has been said he does put himself about a bit but his finishing is woeful.

As for the defoe price I have said all along we should sign him, but at that price, no way, 10 mill max. I did really hope we would sign him but if he's worth that much then why did they pay so much for bent when they've got an 18 mill striker on the bench already??

Nugent,another one who i think will go on to do well in the prem,
i dont think we have any deals in the offing sorry to be negative but we need players and need them now! no one has a bad word to say about mon lets hope this is still the case next year

Villa fans must be the most optimistic out there. Are you not worried by your lack fo transfer market activity? Don't go on about the faith in MON, he's sold loads having no replacements lined up. Man City now look to be about to spend big so you're being left behind. Why would Defoe give up European Football to sign for ye? He played more games than Keane last year. You don't want Harewood as he's not good enough. I'm afrad you have to walk before you can run. Only the likes of Harewood will sign for you because you're not in Europe so forget Drenthe, Sneijder and Van der Vaart you're dreaming.
MON has only signed Young(9.5 million for a youngster) and Carew who was the next big thing 10 years ago but failed to live up to expectations because of injuries, Petrov less said the better. Be realistic you should be going for Davies, Ashton etc without European football.

Yiddo you are a shit head. some good points but your a shit head!

The Official Website has announced the kit unveiling as next Tuesday.

Oh, and Yiddo - Pipe down you irritating little moron. We appreciate constructive critism on here and I agree with some of what you said but say it in a constructive way and not in some nasty little sniping way. We need 2 years to catch spurs but we will, mark my words. How old are you? I'm guessing 14.

Oh and by the way Y(k)iddo, we have just signed a future 'wonder kid', Harry Forrester, that your little club were trying to attract. A small victory but a sign of things to come.

Well i have to say Yiddo.. You say were optimistic, but come on you've just payed 16.5 mill for bent..!! But you never know we might go for kanoute... Remember him..? LoL.

Man Utd and "real big" teams have had money for years, and as much as we love to despise the successful teams who dominate for years, and love to hate the fans labelled "glory supporters", but they did always have one thing going for them; they had far more class than the majority of spurs, newcastle and west ham fans.

The arrogant over inflated self ego seems a reflection on the type of supporters teams like that attract. Very poor. It's really no fun debating with them as they have no genuine clue about the reality of football.

Villa fans know where we stand, we had Doug Ellis as a chairman for 20 years for crying out loud.

Yiddo, just forgot, remind me how many european cups have spurs won, lets face it the uefa cup is the mickey mouse cup of europe and you couldn't even reach that final. Your not that much better than we are, i believe we lost less games than you last season, maybe if we had turned half of our draws into wins we might be playing in the mickey mouse cup. You only finished 10pts above us & we only had half a squad for most of the season and only had one striker.

Was just wondering, just how rich is the Portsmouth Chairman, i know he's got a few bob and he's from a wealthy family but they have Just signhed Nuggent & John Ukata, two players villa were supposedly interested in.

:) ;) :D :-\ :'( :( >:( :o :P :-*

IM BORED SIGN SOME PLAYERS ALREDY

Im glad Harewoods not coming he would be a waste of money but im not sure mon has any striker lined up maybe we should not have let so many players go before signing some maybe im wrong would not be the first time

Glad to not have got him as I said before when his name came up before MON is not that stupid.
He a know for waiting till the last minute to get in players but I hope he is not caught out, like with Millner
I expect there to be plenty of action in the last week of window and some action before kick off, maybe about 4 more in before season starts and then 3 more in last week of Aug.
Going by MON history according to me!

I am getting very worried we need at least 5 GK,RB,LB(cover),RW,ST still........after NRC!!! Fingers crossed mandana,l young,antunes,swp and either alves or defoe still to come!!! PLEASE GOD LET US HAVE SNJEIDER TOO

Quite glad really that we are not getting marlon as id prefer to see a player with a bit more quality forlan for me aswell is a bit of a risk he didnt do to well over here his first time round when he was at man u defoe wouldnt mind seeing just cant see it happening id like to see us maybe try a bid for yakubu.

I was positive, now I'm scared, if things were really going professionaly we would have players in already for training, I don't want them having to gel and learn how to be a team once the seasons already kicked off, the time now is important, I was in the fire service and it takes a while to pick up on other team members traits intuitively and perform at your best. If we had one of the smallest squads in the league last year where does that leave us now? Strength in depth is so important, O' Neill is a fantastic manager and I'm sure he would like the players there now and that's what worries me, why aren't they? I know we will still sign some, but time is running out to train together and for them to move home as well! ps Is the white borfer on the emblem only going to be used if there's a claret background? I hope so, otherwise it's ace! Oh and my tenous link to Harewood, thank goodness he's not here, wouldn't exactly send out shockwaves to the top 4 that we mean business

I think everyone is a little anxious about the lack of signings, myself included, but I think we have definately got rid of the deadwood ! and will continue to get rid of a couple of others !

Still need players, here's a few names that have been heard before a few others I think it would be good to see !

Keepers - Cudicini ? Carson the guy we have on a trial
Defenders- Woodgate, Distin,Lahm, Alves, young, A, Ferdinand
Midfielder - Sneider, SWP, Bentley, Scholes
Stiker - Defoe, Keane, Martins,Saha, Smith, Fowler

I have to dissagree with some comments made regarding us being 2/3 years behind Spurs. Lets look at the bigger picture for a minute. When Jol took over, and after I watch Spurs play us in his game against us, I said to my brother that I think he will do well for them, which he has, so there is no anomosity on my part towards Spurs. Having said that, I believe that we have a better infra-structure than them. We have in a short space of time (less than 12 months) aquired one of the best mananger's there is, an owner with real intent and vision (not to mention lots of cash)and training facilities that are second to none. In addition to this, we have bought two of the most talented young players (Young and Re-Coker) in the country, and have a great crop of youngsters coming through the ranks. Bearing all this in mind, Spurs finished just 10 points (3 wins and a draw) above us. Given the headstart they have had, it's not that great a distance to make up! I have a saying...It's not how long you've been on the road, but how far you have travelled on it that counts! ;)

i went 2 garath barrys stag weekend in las vegas a month ago and luke moore told me he wanted to join boro because oneill and him dont get along
if he does go i say we need 2 strikers a winger a goalie and a right back
some people say that we need another left back as cover but i dont as the players speak highly of young ste oholloran

at villa youth ,ya could cause trouble in the camp with comments like that mate be careful! your right about o'holloran though he's the buisness! will be one of the best left backs around in a few years! amazing player

Spot on jaf regarding Craig Gordon & John Utaka mate. We nattered a few days ago about them , remember?
I haven't posted for a few days and have tried to again take stock of the situation.
I watched some Channel 4 tonight and can only liken the current situation to Big Brother. I mean this in the way that thousands of Villa fans are showing their thoughts, views and giving away deep psycholgical stuff (unwittingly) even in the way we write.
What i'm trying to say is that Randy, MON, The General, Scouting Staff even down to Ofiice employees and Stewards read these posts and they know full well who we want to see at AV next season.
MON (in his own mind) may well have been interested in Koumas, Bellamy, Harewood etc for all we know but after reading our comments, who is to say that he may have decided against going any further due to anticipated wrath of the fans if things went wrong.
They know who WE want, make no mistake and they know what we are expecting. I too am getting pretty pissed off with going on text or news now every ten minutes checking for sniffs.
I do think that the club should realise what a stir this is causing as it's even started to cause us to argue amongst ourselves in some cases !
Lets have a feckin announcement and soon ! Come on MON and Randy...Let's av' it !!!!

UP THE VILLA

Good post av33 i can understand totaly why ur gettin a bit pissed off at waiting for some decent news im not at that stage yet but i will be if we havent signed someone by monday and as if allways allways said when it comes to the transfer market we are the snail allways have been and seems like allways will be luckly im used to it now and it dosnt bother me to much iv just accepted that we are a snail when it comes to make signings but like u my freind if come monday and theres still no news off a player or 2 i will be a bit pissed off myself im still in the hope that friday saturday or sunday we will have one or 2 in lets hope so anyway...And if anyone at the club reads this go and sign yakubu will u for christ sake lol....

Well AV33, i just hope we dont leave it to late getting deals sorted out. But i trust MON lets hope he has something up hs sleeve. Ive seen a few people mentioning Yakubu, i think hes a good finisher but i also find him a bit lazy.. We have to forget about Defoe (18 mill..!) A couple of days ago i mentioned Van der Vaart, hamburg are not in europe next season so hes not missing anything if he stays there..

let marlon go he's not good enough, we should look at santa cruz at bayern instead, makaay has already gone for peanuts

I don't think Marlon is the man to take us from drawing 16 to winning most of them.
But, most of the people who can do that are at bigger clubs with European football and demand huge wages, so let's get realistic with the players eh?