Three days to go: How do you feel about about the club now?

im gutted i was so excited about this summer ive been excited since mr lerner took over the villa but i feel let down with the lack of players coming to villa the players we have got i think we will have a great start to the season but we just dont have the depth to sustain that form i love martin hes a superb coach i believe in him BUT there is only 1 man to blame if we dont get the players in and a bad season because of lack of payers up the villa

We have no choice.

We have to wait the annoucement from the offcial. >:(

Hope that some good players will come at last.

I feel gutted & completely let down by MON & the board.

Our squad is shocking & our transfer policy is a complete shambles.

We are now giving a trail to a 2nd Div French right back who got the boot after a trial with Ipswich.

I really do feel Martin has completly lost the plot & needs to wake up and get into the real world.

Well yesterday I stated on here how excited I was about the prospect of 2 new signings...Davies and Gordon but as you state above, he hasn't been seen in a Sunderland shirt but strong rumours suggest he has signed a 5 year contract. This morning I feel totally dejected about what is going on. It is frustrating that the club does not comment on bids etc which to be fair is probably correct but us fans are more annoyed just because of the severe lack of transfer activity down at VP. 2 signings so far with around 9 gone and Harewood which was a shock, was apparantley gash again last night against Walsall but give him time I suppose. I do have faith in the MON and who knows, come the end of August we could have some big signings down there but shouldn't all of this been done weeks ago!?
I am still looking forward to taking my seat in the North Stand on Saturday and will give the team a 110% support.
Up the Villa!

Quite right.

Massive over reaction for an over-valued player. We do have a budget and blowing £9m on a keeper would restrict our ability to recruit the quality (and numbers) we need else where. The reaction is entirely as a result of the innactivity of the club so far and the dissatisfaction of the Harewood signing, given our alleged ambition.

We have to be patient and wait until the end of the window to see if this is just under-estimating the market and a case of "just-in-time", or a serious set-back and looking forward to shortages later in the season or un-loved panic buys?

Totally agree. Completely let down.

Not completely fussed about not being told about bids / offers or deals ongoing as that kind of stuff alerts other clubs to the possibility. But, the fact we had an oppourtunity to solve the goal keeping position (for the next ten years) and let it pass us by over maybe a million quid, that's a joke!

Then when you consider the fact that days before the season starts we have a squad with more quality than last year but less players (including no trained right back) again a joke!

Teams went out did their business early, got the players in and they've now gelled into whoevers team. We sat around talking about not paying over the odds and getting quality at the right price. Well everyone said we paid over the odds for Young, no one has mentioned that since he found his form. Maybe not on Saturday, or the week after but certainly by the end of the season Randy will be wondering "what if" or "we should have..."

All this has not sat well with me and the Gordon mess unfortauntely has been the last straw!

I am sick of being fed shit by the club, Oneill had better pull his finger out of his arse and get some players in.

Totally agree, why do I look at the Villa site last for any information, am I missing something or isn't it US the fans that pay for them? LOL at the video highlights from last night, dougie howser md shouts "great explosive play from MH into the side of the netting" woo I love explosive shots into the side rather than into the goal yeah!

Just saw on the SUN website gordon has signed for sunderland, maybe this is the best evidence that he hasn't yet!

not looking good if a player has snubbed us for a team who is more likely 2 finish below us

I get a feeling that as soon as Harewood signed things began to rapidly slide down hill. I actually think for the first few weeks we can cope with the players we have, all 19 of them. I am hoping the players that arrive between now and the deadline wil bring gradual boost to the current villa players that the club are challenging.

However, let me point out one thing, we have alot of excited youngsters that are raring to go. Results have to go our way to keep up the confidence. Because if we are lacking players and lacking confidence we are in trouble. Midfield and Attack hopefully job done. GK and defense serious attention needed.

I am afraid to say we have missed out on targets and looking for replacements. Can we really believe that Harewood was the future? or was he brought in on the cheap.

Only time will tell. I can't imagine what it will be like August 31st. I know we have been patient enough as fans up till now and its been a disappointing transfer pre-season but lets hold out till the results tell us otherwise. Its a long season to go and with the current 19 players alot of them have something to prove. So let us be entertained and the new boys will be here in the next 1-3 weeks. We have had many years of pain, we can deal with a few weeks. UP the VILLA!

Until last night I had faith that things we would be 'alright on the night'....but the Gordon affair has left me disappointed and not a little confused. If we weren't in for himm then why doesn't the club tell us so and put us out of our misery...they have nothing to lose by keeping us informed. If they were in for him, and lost out to Sunderland, how depressing is that. We also deserve an explanation of why. Either way we need a statement from the club. With three days to go before kick off I am starting to feel very nervous.....and the likeliehood is that we will have to buy three or four players who are available but will not strengthen the squad significantally...perhaps being no better than those who have already left. The policy of allowing players to leave before having replacements in now looks very suspect....other clubs know that they have us over a barrel and fees will be inflated accordingly.....leaving thinhs until the last minute does not necessarily work in your favour, either price-wise or because the selling club can't replace their player before the deadline.

I'm beginning to panic Mr Mainwairing!

roaring lions???

meowing pussycats!

embaressing close season that IMHO could only be rectified by the signings of sneijder, kallstrom, wright-phillips, defoe, hangeland, gordon and bosingwa...so yeah - embaressing

remember...what we HAVE signed aint even that good - ill still slap anybody down who tries to tell me reo-coker is PROVEN premiership CLASS, and harewood - i have a mate who used to watch him at forest and said he was out of his depth there - £4m well spent...

were all doomed

2 goalkeepers, who you wouldnt make a decent one out of, one left back, no right backs, a slow centre half, an injury prone one, and a young one, no cover in case NRC breaks down, and Marlon Hare-brain !!

gentlemen, we are in the brown stuff, in a major way.

we can put out a starting 11 to compete with most, but the back up is shocking, take your boots boys, your team needs you.

A while back on here I said I thought that Harewood was just a "Stocking filler" like socks or a terrys chocolate orange, and that bigger and better things (i hoped) were around the corner! Unfortunately Summer Santa has got stuck in Villa Parks Chimney, and us girls and boys aint getting any toys!

Continuing with the Christmas theme, I personally buy all my crimbo presents on xmas eve... and what does everyone end up with.............. SOCKS!

See my point?????

if i was gordon i would want 1st team football all the time at sunderland he will be number 1 at villa he would be sorensons understudy for awhile, im not upset that he has gone to them imo he is overated and over valued

it seems we have been quiet on the tranfer front,but to build a team takes time not 6 weeks!

we will be fine,look at the long term 3 years time there WILL be champions league football at villa park

As my kids would say im "wounded" Im trying not to lose faith in MON's transfer dealings but I am a little bit, he is a great manager but I think he has bitten off more than he can chew. With doing all the transfer dealing himself, he has never had big budgets to work with even at celtic he didnt have loads to spend. So maybe he should step aside and let someone else do the money worrying. Saying that I bet he pulls off some great coo's today.Come on villa

I have to laugh because if I don't I'll cry. Something clearly isn't right, and it's either not enough money being put up (which I don't believe is the case) or it's MON trying to do a Del Boy and buy for nothing. We are playing a risky game - now look at Man City, Sven has bought a load of new players in and one could say he was panic buying, but he's not spent a lot for what he's bought. The fact we're geting beaten to players by Sunderland is frightening - I hope we keep our heads above water this season because so far that's all I can hope for.

Fair play if Gordon chose Sunderland over Villa but some press reports say that he signed for Sunderland while we were still haggling over a fee.

Sunderland didn't mess around; they wanted their man and they got in their and got him while we fannied around over a fee in a way that would've made Deadly proud.

Although I'd still love to be proved wrong.

I feel what I've always felt for my club, it never changes. The main priority was to get midfield and the forwards gelling as a unit, and he has. He has brought in Reo-Coker to general midfield and he looked good against Inter, picking up balls, closing down and running it away from our goal, Luke Moore is back and looking sharp, Gabby looks great for having a well deserved break. Even Petrov is looking better ! We have a good forward line and a decent midfield, and I for one am prepared to wait for quality rather than panicking. Defence needs cover and a right back desperately, right back first then centerback cover, a goalkeeper ? who knows, but defenders don't need so much time to settle, their job is to stop opposing players and clear the ball at any club, midfield and attack need to gel and understand each other, and this is what has been achieved during the summer. Defenders will arrive, don't know about a keeper, but keepers are hard to find. all this Gordon talk is just speculation to me, the team is bonding, although it is no bigger than last season, I'll judge on September the 1st, by which time I would hope there is at least three extra players in.

I have to say that overall I am pleased with this summer. The signing's he has made scince janurary have given us a glimps of the style MON wants to play. Attacking flair and youthful passion, we havent seen that in years!

This is a five year plan and after one season we have set out our intentions and cleared out the dead wood. Along with this the development of our youth team has not been jepodised by bringing in panic buys and I belive we have the best crop of young talent since man utd in the 90's!!!

More summer signings would be great but I hope not at the expence of the grand plan!

Keep the faith. Up the Villa!

after being at the game on saturday i was buzzing, then ive been hit by 3 things this week - first of all gordon, who would of been a great signing but went to a non established in every sense of the word prem team, then the fulham "villa value" game is still £28 a ticket, then this morning when i got round to buying the villa shirt the official shop want £45 for it!

wow i sound like a cheapskate

with kick off only on saturday im in the balance, i expected a few more signings by now which havent happened yet but we have got rid of all the dead wood and i think we are moving in the rite direction by the players he has brought in since january, we have a good squad its just lack of numbers so if we can get a few more players in by the end of the transfer window ill b happy.
as far as gordon im not to fussed he is a good young keeper and i wouldnt of minded him in the squad but for 9million im sure there is someone just as good or if not better out there

I have no idea what is going on at the club. My son has attended goalkeeper training sessions at the Villa Academy for the past four years. He has now been told that these will no longer run as there are not enough numbers (as they apparently need twenty kids to break even!) I have now had to take him to Walsall F.C.,where a similar number of kids train. Although Walsall have very little money they are quite willing to bring kids through the system
Aren't Villa interested in promoting kids anymore?
It seems to me that no money at all is being spent on anything unless it is self-financed.
Disgusted season ticket holder of 35 years.

Echoing what others have said. I turn on SSN to see Savage talking up Blackburn's chances on gaining Europe and the depth of their current squad. I watch other interest pieces about how proud clubs are of their new signings. What is said about the villa ? Berger, Barry and co saying how worried they are about our thin squad. If the players are vocally worried then how should the fans feel ?
If we do not sign quality in quantity we will be relegated. No question.

Im worried that we'll get a reputation for being a difficult club to do business with on account of our mucking about over fees, and this will put some players off that are keen to move from where they currently are and get settled promptly.

Should have gone to sports soccer mate! It'll be in there in a couple of weeks for about £25... Suppose it's just the club ripping of the fans again, like the season review dvd i bought, the club shop wanted about £16 for it, i got it of skysports.com for £11! Twas the same thing entirly!

Just because we are supporters dosen't mean we have to put up with their bullshit day in day out...

By the way, have you seen all the players we have been linked with on the OS? Only one of which has been "dissmissed"... does that mean all the others turned us down?

why havent the clubs website put up the wednesdays papers yet, usually they get it on first thing? maybe its cuz all the papers say how we missed out on gordon

How many of you season ticket holders feel ripped off at this present time!

when does the registration window for this weekends games close? cahill didnt look too bad at right back but babel and riise will tear him apart
i dont think things are as bad as people seem to make out, we dont need 5/6 new players, a quality keeper and right back is all, plus an extra CB would be a luxury. i agree with the post that gordon is a great player but 9mil is alot of money (i reckon foster or carson would be available for around 6mil)and maloney and petrov hardly fill me with confidence after their moves down from the SPL.

It would have been great to have signed Gordon (assuming we've definitely missed out on him - it could still happen), but I can only assume that MON knows the player better than we do and is in a better position to decide if he's right for us or not.

I'm basing my admiration for him purely on some YouTube footage which, whilst showing some amazing shot-stopping, doesn't give an indication of his ability to command his area, come for crosses and marshall the defence. That's what Sorenson is lacking. It may be that MON isn't convinced he's much better than Sorenson in that department. Who knows...

I still have complete confidence in MON. If we'd have signed Carew, Young, Bardsley and Maloney at the start of last season instead of having to wait until January, we'd have qualified for Europe, so I don't think we're far off. We do need a larger squad, but MON has assured us we'll have one and I trust him to deliver.

The registration deadline was probably yesterday but we probably missed that too!

i know how frustrated villa fans are becomming with the lack of transfer activity this summer and how dissapointed they are with the signing of harewood. Cast your minds back a couple of seasons. We were gubbed by west ham and a certain striker called marlon harewood. that season he scored near 20 goals and is capable of doing the same for villa. he may not be our first choice but given the chance to run at tired defenders in the last 20 minutes of a game will get him his goals.

Craig Gordon is a quality keeper and with the inflated market, 9 mil for a keeper over 10 years is good value. Gutted we have lost out on him IF we have or were even in for him.

My dad is a season ticket holder at celtic and he was the exact same as us villa fans about 4 years ago. that season they had signed nobody big and he was panicking. yet, MON came up with the goods in the last week of transfer window and took celtic to the uefa cup final with a team with less quality than we have now.

Maloney to Villa at 11.58pm on 31 january 2007. 1 million

how quickly people forget MON transfer tactics. Players will sign before the transfer window closes and they will be good players.

Believe

I will feel as let down as anyone on here if I turn out to be wrong in this, but I think we should be patient.

In Martin O'Neill we have a measured, articulate and intelligent manager with his own ideas. Perhaps it's my own perspective on life but I tend to appreciate when a man is not prepared to compromise his own approach to a job by playing everyone else's game. The board and the fans have given MON his greatest opportunity in management to date, and this is really time for his ideas on the game to shine. Nothing he has said or done thus far has convinced me he sees it in any other way.

There is talk of this being Martin Jol's last chance to get it right at Spurs, and I think the same will apply with West Ham and possibly even Newcastle if they don't see immediate comeback on their massive (and possibly desperate?) summer spending - however with the much debated 5 year plan this is not the case for Martin. In bringing in Reo Coker, Ashley Young and Sean Maloney he has stayed true to his intentions of making us a dynamic and talented young team. In bringing in John Carew and even Marlon Harewood he is making clear strides to building the kind of system that he wants us to play.

We will see some defensive additions in the next few weeks, and I think if this were to be addressed then we stand a good chance of being in the mix for Europe. In the Christmas window I would not be surprised to see MON spend big to fill in any gaps that present themselves between now and then. For now, we obviously have a young unit that is ready to really attack teams, a team with shape, pace and width. I haven't seen that kind of team at the Villa since Big Ron.

The post traumatic stress of the Ellis era will soon disappear once we see that we can trust in a management team whose honesty and transparency has, to my mind, only been questioned to date by shit stirring journalists, dreamed up player links and the people who are victims of their hype.

I am proud to be supporting a club who wants to mix it with the big boys but not subscribe to their trigger happy spending and mass media canvassing.

Sometimes I question why I dedicate so much time and thought to a sport where transfer fees and wage structures borderline patronise the interest of dedicated fans who make it all possible, but if my feelings on MON and Randy Lerner thus far are true, I will see us as a sober and dignified institution in the company of sharks.

If my faith turns out to be misguided, then I am even debating turning my back on the sport altogether, which seems odd to type but is the truth. Pride, sobriety and dignity. Up the Villa.

at Madarab

round of applause .. very nice

just on a brighter note i thought steibler and o halloran looked very good last night. also very impressed with that mennasou first half display, his overlapping play was excellent.and i tell you now gordon for 9 million pounds is a lot more of a joke than the 4 million for harewood.

Thanks Damian, it felt good to get out :)

Ok.......

I have been on this site for a while but always in the past refused to comment due to the fact that you dont know what is going to happen. Now, my view has changed.........

I understand why peeps are upset about the club leaving us in the dark but you have to understand, Villa is a privetly owned club, if it was still a shareholders club they would HAVE to let the world know what they are doing and who they are bidding for because the general public can buy shares in the club; as Villa is privatley owned it is up to Randy if he wants to share the knowledge or not.

Now as for this terrible transfer window we have experienced I agree with you all. I am very upset, last night I was sure we could finish in the top4 but now I am depressed. I am depressed because I can see that things are not going to get better, I think we will sign some quality but not until January as O'Neil is now sitting in his chair realising that all this money haggling has really drop a bollock on this window.

Lets face it people we will not see an influx of players that are good enough to challenge coming in, if we do sign it will be mediocre players to fill the numbers.

We have a billionaire as an owner but to me if feels like we have the guy who owns pound land. I bet old Deadly is pissing himself now as we have ranted more under the Learner rein than we have under Dougies rein.

Dont get me wrong, I love my club and I would buy them a player if i was rich (some bugger has to!!!!) but I cannot sit here and pretend that everything is ok. Come on Martin listen to the fans and look around, people dont want value for money we want some bloody players that CAN play!!!!!

BTW Martin was you pissed when you signed Marlong Harebrain!!! that is the only explination I can think of!

at Mathew Lawson

while i agree, as a private limited company, they dont have to say anything ...

we do have these core values; openness and togetherness are two of them.

are they very open at the moment or making us feel all together?

You can't help but feel let down at the moment!

I really hate to say it but unless MON pulls off some Sven like action in the transfer market (by that i mean a lot of transfers very quickly)and hope that they are of significant quality enough to back up the (in my opinion)significant quality we already have i think we really could be in trouble early doors!
I honestly think we have the quality in our first XI to cause problems to any team we face this season. Unfortunately injuries and suspensions happen and i think this could well be our downfall this season. I can totally understand all those fans who say we should be behind MON 100% and believe in what he's trying to accomplish and i really do but he's got to start repaying that trust with action in the transfer market. He's got the money, he's had the time now we need to see some results. We don't need a replaying of the DO'L era when every time we lost a game it was because the lads had a lot of heart but the squad's too small! I dont want anymore excuses! Come on MON pull your finger out !

Well my season ticket is going back. Sad to say but we are no better treated by this manager than before. Not even agreeing a fee for the best keeper in britain is a joke, no right back and no real cover mean another season of scraping by. Hope i'm wrong, but no news is not good news.

On the topic of openness, I think that is quite a difficult promise to balance as in a competitive and blood thirsty market it is smarter to keep you cards close to your chest. MON has been open about the 5 year plan, and open about wanting five more players of a quality that he has already brought in, which should be enough to get us where we need to be this year.

On togetherness, we should all be clear to ourselves about our priorities this year. I feel together with the reality that we cannot yet compete with the top 4 or 5 in terms of player pulling power. I also feel together with the realisation that despite the huge expenditure of West Ham, Newcastle and Man City, I fancy our chances against them come kick off.

As I stated earlier, I feel more unified with the idea of a dignified, sober and intelligent strategy than I would do throwing money around like a lottery winner with a terminal illness. In doing so I think we are preserving more of an image of identity, heritage and individualism than our rivals. This is something to be proud of and rally behind. All this talk is also making me think I should apply for a job at the Villa PR team, I am usually a right cynical bastard.

I think Madarab has swallowed a dictionary LOL!!! ;D

The silence coming from Villa park is golden... they haven't even got the bottle to give us the papers round up on the OS... as they all know - as we do - that we fannied around about a fee and missed out on a goalkeeper of sheer quality! Who has gone to bloody Sunderland? - but, from the players point of view Sunderland signalled there intentions which are to pull all the stops to make sure we get our man in, and I bet if a club is willing to match the price tag that and show that they believe in you and rate you highly enough to pay it, that goes a long way when it's time for the player to make a choice of where he goes! Gotta admire their stratergy.

Well done Sunderland.

Yeah, the money is tight and it went well with the brown sauce I had in the fridge :)

I don't honesty believe in the famous five, who ever these cowboys are clearly the targets have not been met. we have had the odd name here and there which has then been quashed as they have gone to another club.

Let's hope we pick up no injuries and at least the 19 we do have are quality premiership players.

I have faith we will do well, I have no faith in seeing five new players currently. However I can't see us carrying on the rest of the season with just 19 players.

Like Celtic fans have said never expect anything till the last minute!

I think our manager will not be prepared to waste money on players for the sake of it just to keep the fans happy!!

Our first team which I watched against Inter will give most teams in the prem a good game, and the transfer window hasn't even closed yet !!!

When the window closes...then have a moan, because I probably will to as we are desperate for defenders..until then why dont we just have a bit of faith?? The club isnt saying anything and it's not helping matters but we ARE going in the right direction...sorry to dissapoint but we are not going to be challenging the top four straight away....unless we want to splash the cash and become the new Leeds..

Have some faith!!

People, don't forget MON bought in Harewood as a back up striker, it's not like his going to play 90 mins against liverpool. 2 more signins before 31st of august and couple of results and this whole topic here will be forgotten.

Up the Villa!!

The Gordon signing is still not on the Sunderland official site yet. Could the news reports be premature?

Personally, I can't believe that some people commenting on this site don't know how good we've got it. All this talk of people feeling angry and wanting to return their season tickets... - we haven't even played 1 game yet!

We've had several years of depression with very little to look forward to. Now, we probably have better long-term prospects than anyone outside the top four (Spurs included). Remember, MON has not needed big money to be a success in the past. Now, he has that option too, should he feel he wants to use it, but it won't be essential to him.

Let's be patient, give the manager a chance to prove himself right and start judging him after a ball has been kicked.

no the difference with leeds is that when they brought players the were borrowing money from the bank with the promise to repay when they win leage etc.. villa do not need to borrow money to buy players that's wahts pissing us off just mon being a tight arse which i dont blame if we go and spend the same money as leeds did there would be no chance of us going into administration that is what leeds went through it wasnt the relegation that caused it it was all down to money repayment they coulnd cope if we were to get relegated which i hope we dont we have the clout to back us to come straight back up thats the difference between villa and leeds id like more signings but if we dont we dont who ever we got lets get behind them its not as if we are playing or have a chance is it otherwise we would be already in villa shirts and not moaning about things that havent happened yet so always look on the bright side of life people aproud history bright future etc... (get that FUTURE! FUTURE! FUTURE!) thats the point mon knows we wont be relegated and is planning an assult on prem in next few years or do you all want o'dreary back with randys millions we'd have 40 shite players in then not 20 good ones lol :D

and remember no deal is ever done even after the ink has dried on contract if the wives have anything to do with it lol remember davin unsworth?
(not much but still) he signed for us from west ham then less that a week and b4 he ever kicked a ball in anger signed for everton so no deal is ever dead in the water! lol

(typo)david :D