Merse: Villa need to go for Thierry

I have faced the truth that we will buy mediocre and there's nothing we can do about it. There will still be people praising MON even if he signed Robbie Savage. MON has no international knowledge and his signings have been awful thus far
Routledge ?
Salifou?
Maloney?
Knight?
Harewood?
Petrov?
Reo-Joker?
Carson?
How many of them would get into a genuine top 4 side?
Henry? how I wish but that is all I can do as I have woken up to the fact there is no miracle going to happen at Villa park.

my workmate heard that henry had agreed to join man utd an had sorted personal terms but was told by the barca staff that they wanted him to stay. wud love him a vp to be honest, he is the best foreign import the premiership has seen next to bergkamp. but jus cant see it happenin.

i saw the interview too and whilst i think suggesting henry is taking the piss, i think merse was right in that wee need a "holt end hero" cos as good as carew ash and barry were last year i cant remember the last time we had someone truely inspirational

i just wish the club either made another angel type signing, where yes he's unknown but the reputation was huge, or a massive well known signing like van der vaart or diego

if we get rejected then we get rejected, i for one wouldnt be embarrassed, id still be excited if one of them said no

If Man City go for Ronaldinho we should too.

We don't necessarily need a household name, if I recall the last household name we bought was David Ginola, 'nuff said.

but Henry is a gooner and wouldnt play for anybody else but The Arsenal in England, Barry, Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young to Arsenal though? Thats more believable.

If Man City do manage to sign Ronaldinho and we don't even make an effort to get him that will tell me everything i need to know about where we are going with MON and learner. And before anyone starts with the usual dressing room disruption crap the world coverage that his signing would bring on Villa would be worth its weight in gold and would make it a lot easier in the future to sign the likes of an Henry or Diego.

I too have my concerns with regards MON's signings thus far. Though I think he got in these players under false pretenses; he does not believe any of these players to be anything more than squad players other than Reo-Coker (who has been solid and subject to being given more license to roam will improve) and Petrov (who just hasn't settle). These players are interim buys who will contribute if we can get a couple of cup runs going, something we haven't done recently.
This summer MON has to stop spending the money as if it were his own. Big names who fit with the philosophy must be purchased. Aspiring players want to play for villa because they will actually get to play.
As far as big name player any 2 or 3 from this lis (to accompany all the obvious young cheap english talent will inevitably will buy):
Midfield: David Bentley, Morten Pederson, Aaron Ramsay, Bastian Schweinsteiger
Strikers: Darren Bent, Dean Ashton, Giampaolo Pazzini, Louis Saha, Eidur Gudjohnsen
Any of the above are gettable, given what we can offer both monetary and potential success.
MON this is how you win over all the fans and gain success buy big players.
Interest to hear your thoughts

we need a big name thats for sure.we all love barry, young gabby etc but they arent known world wide we need a henry or ronaldinho so everyone wud see we mean business.i think the lack of signigns are down to MON because if the funds werent there then he wud have left or wud have been talking about it. i think the funds are there and he just wont go and spend.We need a few names that will get everyone excited.

Yeah, agree we need a big name at VP, unfortnately we need a bigger name first, namely Chapions League. The best players in the world play for the Champions League first and their club second.

I wouln't knock MON's transfers on the whole, he has been efficient and spent wisely. Players he has bought in until now have bought into a club operating in the bottom half of the league. Let's not forget our club's record signing who has been a sensation (unlike Angel and Collymore) , swapping Milan for Carew (has a better deal been done?)and most importantly keeping Barry, making him captain and transforming him from a left sided utility player into one of the finest centre midfielders in the best league in the world.

Now, we need to get through the intertoto and remind Europe what they've been missing. Maybe the eufa be that little bit of extra encouragement quality players need to join a massive club on an upward curve.

UTV

Why do we need a "big name" i hate that whole attitude it is what i used to think when i was 12 its pathetic grow up.

Having had a season ticket for the last 10 years, I have to admit that its never been better at VP. However, at the time that we should be taking full advantage of our financial and new found league status, it seems that once again the clubs around us are more ambitious when it comes to the transfer market. I'm getting more and more anxious reading about tottenham's hopes for the market, giovanni dos santos, samuel eto'o, diaz from getafe who is class and a host of other top players from spain and italy. I have full faith in MON, but i worry that clubs such as tottenham and man city will jump leaps and bounds ahead of us in the following seasons if we continue to be shy and predictable in the transfer market.
So, why not a bif for Henry, Diego, van der vaart and samuel eto'o? We need to start showing some real ambition as far as im concerned.

so come on randy and MON, start splashing the cash!
UTV.

Come on people, lets calm down for a second, i would love it if we signed some like henry who wouldnt, but the chances of that happening are probably 1 in a million right now. Yes we need beter quality to just take us onto the next level, and who knows who that could be. But with people who are bashing MON because he doenst make "Big name signings" are clearly ignorant of what it takes to be a manager, and personally i would much prefer to listen to MON who erm.. lets face it is a great manager, to some random football fan who thinks we need big names instead of people we ACTUALLY need. For example, harewood, big name? no, expensive? no, does the job? er yes, to come of the bench and do what he has done, is all we need for a backup strike and then some. MON knows what he is doing, having shown that by getting us 6th this season, and it could have been so much better had we not dropped a few points here and there, but thats what team building is for, MON is building a team that he wants, and buying the players he needs to make this system work, not big name players who WONT work in the system. Yer we need more quality to really push on, but if MON can do what he has done with the players we have, i'd trust almost any purchase that he makes coz he knows what he is doing.

I second Merson's sentiments but his example is just wrong: he's either living on Cloud Cuckoo Land or he is still pissed. Henry has said that if, and that is an if, he comes back to the Premiership, it would be to Arsenal. I'd rather take Eto'o anyway.

Tags, first off, Reo-Coker had a great season in front of the back four, and did well to move play forward under O'Neill's rejiggered formation during the run-in. Petrov finally found a role in holding mid at the end of the year. Also, Harewood has been a super-sub, and was never intended to be a starting striker.

Salifou was a free, and we still don't know what we have with him yet, and Maloney cost an earth-shattering million.

At the moment, Routledge is still TBD. Remember, Ash Young didn't get bags of time with the full squad when he came over last January, either.

Add to the fact that MON's brought in Davies, Carew, and Young, and his record looks quite good indeed.

Although Henry did say that, he must have changed his mind. He had agreed to join United, but Barca pulled the plug. He is obviously not happy there and my guess is that Barca were afraid that United would get even better with him. Let them underestimate us, we would be getting a truly world class player.

taglor said:
I have faced the truth that we will buy mediocre and there's nothing we can do about it. There will still be people praising MON even if he signed Robbie Savage.

[b]There will also be people slating him if he signed Ronaldino.
[/b]

i agree that we need to buy a big name player, but tbh if we continue to by players that have lost their way, we can still move up. the caliber just needs to be better. duff for example, crouch is another(i wouldnt say no, but he is far from my 1st choice), sidwell etc. and if we can buy a top player supplimented with guys like that, we will be as good a lpool in no time - tho of course it if imperitive we keep barry.
i worry that mon is too concerned with upseting other managers. we need to beheave a bit more opportunistically and start swooping for players that are unsettled against their managters will - dunne, jasskilinen, bentley etc. personally i wil honestly be close to devestated if we dont buy jasskilinen, dunne, duff, shorey and someone else does...

What would really brighten to the mood around Villa Park is if we went and got Ashag Fortaglor. This could really be the start of happy times around Villa Park.

Excitement rating 10/10

With Randy taking over as CEO I think we could be on for some beauts of transfers maybe not Henry but some big ones! Henry is wanted by pep Gaurdiola therefore will not be leaving. Randy has obviously now got the Villa bug pretty bad so I feel he is going to push everything out to make them successful

Ronaldinho clearly won't be moving to Man City. I wouldn't say Henry is a realistic signing but I think we are definitely capable of bringing in one big signing. If Spurs can, then why not.

We have gone from 16th-11th-6th in three seasons. Why do we need to spend 20 odd mil on one player to make everyone happy. Lets not forget how many goals we have scored this season with no, one, all important player. If we want to go forward we first need a great hardworking squad of which O'Neill is starting to create. When that has been achived then we may start to see bigger names but that wont be for a couple of seasons. O'Neill is doing it the wright and inteligent way and if a big name does come this season great but for me i couldnt care less. We have been the best performing side compared to our squad in the premiership which is O'Neils game so why do people feel we have to spend 100mil to get in the champs league. Come on villans just be patient.

We should not break the bank for him like merson said but theres nothing wrong in offering £15 Million for him whats the worse he or barca can do say no wow

But i do think he will be off to america or to france cant really see him playing for another prem leauge club and if it is a prem club it would be arsenal cause i do think Wenger would take him back

We aren't going to sign Henry, Ronaldinho and whoever else along those lines. For one main reason; we haven't done anything. We've won absolutely nothing in the last 15 years and don't try and say the coca cola cup.
The reason why teams like Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool have been so successful and can sign players like Henry, Ronaldinho is because of their youth team and buying shrewdly. Man u for example; Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Ince, Irwin, Butt, and the imported gems of Cantona, Sheringham, Yorke and Cole. They built the foundation and won things with those players.
As soon as you start winning things (champs league, prem league, fa cup..)with your academy and good shrewd buys, you can then attract the mega stars.
Arsenal have done the same with players like Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Parlour and the many shrewd buys wenger has made(including Henry). Those players have made arsenal successful, not the huge megastars.

So until Villa win some things with our current group and any other shrewd buys, we're not attracting any sort of megastar.

...in my opinion of course.

Merson?

Was he drunk or has he placed a bet on Henry? ;)

if spurs can why cant we? london vs the birmingham riveira thats why

spurs have now been linked with hugo lloris, star GK of the france U-21s

obviously spurs arent gonna sign half of these players but at least the place is buzzin

Merse is absolutely spot on we should go balls out to sign henry or someone of equal calibre and profile.We need that one player to wet the appetite,and blow the roof off villa park.I dont buy into the theory "he will never come" the likes of Ravanelli,juninho,emerson all turned up in a s**t hole like middlesbro,why? cos the place and the team were sold to them by a very ambitious manager and a ambitious supportive chairman who would back his team and manager regardless(even though robbo is crap manager)the same should apply at villa park sell the place to the big players go that bit extra mle rather than be put off at the first hurdle or else mediocraty becomes obligatory

Taglor, you're - as always - an optimistic ray of sunshine brightening up these dull, rainy days ;)

And by the way, I agree with every single word typed by redmond: once again, if we're going to go somewhere, we need to show ambition way beyond Steven bloody Carr and Jermaine Penishead. This summer's the proof of the pudding - no more "consolidation" - the key word should be "ambition"!!

I fully agree with Redmond and mick70.

we finished 6th in the most watched league in the world, the league which has the most money - i recall some crazy tv revenue figures quoted on this blog a few weeks ago.

People say that Ronaldinho wont sign for city. And you know what they are probably right....but thats not the point. The point is Man City have shown their ambition to everyone. Quality young players and continental players are going to say - well they must be going places if thats who they are looking at.

MoN has said about a thousand times that he needs to add 'that wee bit of quality' - look at who everyone else are signing and how much they are spending on players. I will be absolutely sick if this transfer window ends up like the previous three and the 'In Mon we trust' brigade tell us how Steve Carr and Jimmy Bullard are typical O'Neill shrewd bits of business...

And finally anyone who tries to defend signings who have been here for over six months and a year respectively and have not played over 10 minutes between them - well I think thats hilarious.....why didn't we just send them their wages and tell them not to bother even coming to the club.

Why wont ppl get of Reo's back?, next season you will see he is the best midfielder we have at the club.

i'd just like to see some attempts at signing a quality player rather than just links. how is it that Spurs have gone and sealed Modric and now Gio Dos Santos, while we are still guessing which day Sidwell will walk into bodymoor.

Put these words into a sentence

Million Chance A In No Years...

You honestly believe Henry would sign for us..hahahahahahaha

I'm pretty sure it'll be another summer of buying the top 4's fringe players or nicking poor team's best players.
However, this time next year when we've established ourselves as genuine top 6, we'll bring in some quality (I hope).
I hope I'm wrong and when I pick up the paper tomorrow to see Henry, Van der vaart and Bentley at a Villa press conference ;D

swin, finally a villa fan who talks sense and understands the game. well put.

astonvillafan.com

if O'neill doesnt buy some qualiy this summer, its the last time i get my hopes up! The foudations are there, we cant let it slip away!!

Diego
Darren Bent (we wont get henry)
Miguel
Sidwell
Jussi
Joaqin

"Gareth Barry came off the bench to set up team-mate Steven Gerrard to sidefoot home the second goal." from BBC site - match report from the England game…

Lets face it. London's got everything and Manchester Utd has the name and money. Who's gunna come to Birmingham? Enough said! I love The Villa, always have, always will, but unless they build a club that can challenge for everything like Man Utd then forget it. It aint gunna happen overnight, so hopefully we can build steady over the next couple of years without setbacks( I still believe we should have built better in January, but thats another topic!). If we do step backwards then weve fuXXed it for another 10 years! UTV

to be honest, id rather we had a team of salifous or harewoods. winning with a team like that would be so much better than winning with £100m of summer signings. its just not the same atall.
id feel dirty every time we won if we just did what chelsea have done and spend bucket upon bucket loads to gain sucess :/

Stan Collymongrel has uttered and spewed shitflakes to the BBC. He has bent over and taken royally a good shagging by the red press, coughing up his last memories of Villa in a sickening pile of dog biscuits. Here's the link if you don't believe me... LINK

Reports are we are launching a bid for Joe Hart

[url]LINK[/url]

Would be a good addition!!!!!

Totally agree with Mick70, we have to start showing some real ambition, not in the shape of steven carr, kevin doyle and jermaine penishead. It's all well and good saying that we've gone from 16th to 11th to 6th, but the top four is a different kettle of fish altogether. We aren't going to break into the top four signing the likes for bullard and doyle.

We cannot afford to stand still consolidating and building a 'strong team spirit' cos Tottenham, Everton and Man city wont wait for us.

Some ambition must be shown this summer, and in MON we trust!
UTV

before people crucify MON can i just say people who are sooo desperate for MON and Lerner to spend, look at spurs??
last season they spent:
£16.25 mill (more then wat barca spent on henry) on darren bent?? effectiveness as a sub?? id have harewood anyday!!
£12 mill on gareth bale - effectivenes?? he played about a dozen games, ok he was injured but he didnt even play the first game of the season!!
£8 mill on kaboul - the kid is just about GONE under ramos!!
were did spurs finish? 11th!
we didnt even spend £16mill last season, where did we finish? 6th!

wat im tryin to highlight is that money does not buy success!! people wont MON to go ape sh!t with lerners money but seriously, wat for?? we have a good structure in place that ensures we are not doomed if something happens to lerner! if abrahamovic pulls the plug on chelesa, they are gone, but if lerner does the same we are still financially stable!
of course i would love nothing more then for MON to sign henry, ronnie and the rest but the truth of the matter is we just cant do it! MON is developin a team, and a quite effective one at that! IMO if MON signs shorey, sidwell et al in similar situations, i have every belief that under MON they will be fighting for england spots, just look at young and gabby! in a couple of years i would not be suprised to see reo-coker in cappellos squads!
at the end of the day, i too am worried that if vilal dont spend they will go backwards, but i have faith in the ability of MON to find the RIGHT TALENT and bring it into the club! i just hope he makes at least 8 signings and brings up some of the youth talent we have, cos at the end of the day, we need numbers! i would be happier if MON spent £20 mill on 3 players which all played as well as reo-coker this season, then buy a diego who at the end of the day may not fit into the premier league!

The only realistic way we will break in to the top 4 is if MON is allowed to spend copious amounts of cash on players who would normally sign for other clubs if given the choice. We don't have the pedigree of Liverpool, Man.U or Arsenal so how else do we propose to lure players in? MON has done exceptionally well to date and taken us as far as he can with his current resources. We really do need a couple of world class players to make everyone sit up and notice we are serious contenders. Belief breeds confidence which will bring results. TAGLOR - Household names? You would have been one of the plebs slating Ferguson who nurtured those unknown mediocre players at Man.U a few years ago. i.e. GIGGS, SCHOLES, BUTT, NEVILLE.G, NEVILLE.P, BECKHAM.

Yay, let's sign Stan Collymore as well. And Yeboah. And Ginola and Cantona and fuck it, let's sign Heskey. Or if we were wanting to comepete, Rafael Sobis.

On several occassions last season I heard football pundits state that we were the most exciting side outside the top four. Big name signings are great and could help us break into the top four but I really don't think it's going to happen this season nor do I think it's essential. We scored more goals than anyone other than Manu - without the 20 goal a season striker we all craved (including me). We finished 6th despite all the exact same comments we are hearing about transfer dealings now!

I know people are going to say look at what could have happened if we had signed a 20 goal a season striker and you might be right but it's specualtion and I could easily argue that it could of had a detrimental impact. Truth is, we'll never know but I am personally happy that we finished 6th could be playing Uefa Cup football next season (not a certainty though!) and that we are seeing some exciting play at very long last!!!

I agree with a lot of comments on this subject. Lets not start slating MON, for the money spent against the position in the table and goals scored no team in the prem has improved as much as Villa! A bit more ambition in the transfer market could be enough to show people we do mean business, but its no guarentee off suceess.....look at SPURS !!!

Lets all stay positive, at the end of the transfer window we can kick off if all we have signed shite....

Taglor are you a blue nose???

As much as i admire Thierry Henry's ability as a player, i don't think that it would be beneficial to us!

A household name is just a novelty, and if im honest, Henry could come in, think he's Lord of the Manor and upset the superb togetherness and team spirit.

Henry at the Villa? Nah. . . No thanks

I don't know why you are calling Taglor a bluenose Villa101 everything he said in his last comment was spot on. Not one of those players would make it into any of the top 4 team sheets. 2 years into MON and Learner's new Villa and we are still looking at cast off's and cheap signings while the likes of Spurs are bringing in the best of young talent in Europe. Its about time Villa put down a marker for our future ambition and deliever on what we were promised last summer and when Learner arrived. Otherwise we will be facing our usual midtable mediocrasy with nothing to play for after Jan.

Goalkeeper: Lehmann free Guzan 2 million

Right back: Nelson 5 million
Centre back: Alex(chelsea) 6 million Per Mertesacker 10 million
Left back : Risse 5 million

Midfiled :Diego 12 million Sidewell 5 million van de vaart 10 million jean makoun 8 million
Striker : Huntelaar 18 million or possibly Henry
I know the signing of Huntelaar would be optimistic but if we achieve European football through winning the Intertoto then why not bid for him.

He's a legend. I hope he comes.
We don't really have any old strikers and you can't get any more quality old strikers than the Frenchman. Well, maybe Raul or Alessandro Del Piero, but Henry will do ;)

Trouble is..MON will want to get his players in before we enter Intertoto, meaning that we won't yet have the pull of European football. So unless we sign everyone and then qualify and then sign a World-class player, we're a bit stuck.

Oh well. I can definitely see Villa achieving 6th or 5th again next season. And i reckon next season 6th will actually mean European football, not this Into-your-titties cup.

It's a good job that playing Fantasy Football and Premiership Manager don't qualify anyone for management. This club doesn't need a "big name" signing just for the sake of it. This was an Ellis thing, to placate restless supporters. We need to fix the problems we had last season: understrength defence, inconsistency, and lack of real options when things weren't going well. For me that means several good quality defenders, a striker who can make his own goals if we're not getting behind opposition defences, and a real attacking/scoring central midfielder. These aren't replacements but additions; they need to be very good quality but don't have to be mega signings. Numbers are really important since we could be playing 50% more games next season, so let's get what we need not what would look good on Sky Sports Breaking News.

It's a good job that playing Fantasy Football and Premiership Manager don't qualify anyone for management. This club doesn't need a "big name" signing just for the sake of it. This was an Ellis thing, to placate restless supporters. We need to fix the problems we had last season: understrength defence, inconsistency, and lack of real options when things weren't going well. For me that means several good quality defenders, a striker who can make his own goals if we're not getting behind opposition defences, and a real attacking/scoring central midfielder. These aren't replacements but additions; they need to be very good quality but don't have to be mega signings. Numbers are really important since we could be playing 50% more games next season, so let's get what we need not what would look good on Sky Sports Breaking News.

Don't think we necessarily need a household name, as nice as it is to be linked with them. If I recall the last household name we bought was David Ginola. 'nuff said.

Sorry for the repeat post, never saw my comment appear.

We have ALWAYS signed average players between 5 and 10 million. Steve Watson? Bosko Balaban? Steve Stone? Zat Knight? Salifou? Marlon Harewood? Etc Etc: We need to sign the in form top world class players between 10 and 25 million. Remember the Juninho rumour years ago? He was going to come for 18 million i think it was but who wanted to meet Doug Ellis, let alone work for him? We now need to have the bollocks to sign 2 big named players, for example, a world class defender and either a world class midfielder or striker, hence Henry. Barry would stay too if he sees big names are coming to the club, because lets face it, Barry is now a BIG name, everyone is talking about him. Van der vaart would be a GREAT signing, Wright-phillips would add the amazing pace we already have with Agbonlahor and Young. Henry would leave me speechless, and if we had a good mid twenties centre back from a top club that would be perfect. Nesta would be a dream. We need to build positions and stick to them, thats what Man Utd do, like everyone knows Giggs plays on the left wing for United, its his trademark, we need to get players in at villa and give them that trademark and keep them there in the same position. If we can do this, 5 years time we will have won the league ;)

O'neill: Go on son jump in the deep end, spend Lerners childrens inheritence.....anything! :D Only joking, love you really Lerner, legend!