EXCLUSIVE: Huddlestone to be confirmed as a Villa player today
I have received a tip off earlier in the week that Tom Huddlestone was ‘a done deal’ to join Villa and that it would be announced ‘later this week’. Well it’s Friday now and if the tip is correct then it should be unveiled today.
Apparently the Spurs youngster is being brought in to add weight to the centre of our midfield, in the wake of Gareth Barry’s departure.
In the past I received a tip off that Heskey would be signing and that turned out to be true. I also got info that we were in talks with N’Zogbia, who didn’t sign, but we don’t know that he wasn’t in talks. So it seems that the tips that come into my inbox are at least better than pure guesses, but we will have to wait the day out to see if this one is on-the-money or not.
Like it?
Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. He is a good player, if a little hot and cold, but he is a long way from the quality that Barry achieved. He is also nowhere near the presence on the field that Barry became. But is it fair to compare him to what Barry became along a span of 12 years?
As I’ve said in the past, I think Huddlestone has potential and, given a run to get more experience, could develop into a big player.
But…
…and it’s a big but. Is he ready to fill Gareth Barry’s boots? It’s always a difficult one in a situation like this cuz Barry took years to get as good and important as he was, so do you replace him with like for like or with a player who can grow into what he is, but isn’t yet?
And how will it work? Will we offload Sidders and Reo-Coker or will they battle it out for places and rotate for Cups etc?
It’s a signing and it’s not a poor one, but it throws up a lot of questions. Should we wait to see if the tip is true first though, before we decide if we like it or not?
Two Villa transfer rumours that are BIG RISKS!
The two biggest rumours that are doing the rounds this morning are Michael Owen and Silvain Distin. Both these signings would be big risks for Villa. Ones that could turn out well or could backfire and leave us back at square one.
I’ll start with Distin and leave the excitement of Owen still to come. Silvain Distin is the Portsmouth captain but made his name at Man City. Since joining Pompey, Distin has not been as good as his glory days, giving away a lot of fouls and making mistakes that we aren’t accustomed to with him. I’m not saying that he has ‘lost it’ but he is not the top class centre back that he once was and he isn’t as good as Laursen, who we would prefer (and need) to replace like-for-like.
Distin is also approaching 32, so doesn’t have a great deal of time left at this level, so to spend £2m on him, albeit not expensive for a player these days, I see it as a waste. I also don’t see it as a solution to our Laursen Condundrum.
If MON could get him back to his best then maybe I would come round to this idea, but for now I’m not on board. Maybe I’m aiming too high.
Michael Owen
Onto the big news; the England star has been linked with us for a donkey’s yonk but now it seems like the rumours are beginning to take on some reality. It looks like a bid for Owen is close, but the discussions about his wages will not be conducted quickly, unless either a) he is ready and willing to earn a lot less or b) Lerner is prepared to smash our wage structure (£60,000 a week for an injury prone player is not our usual style). It’s not that we are tight with wages, but we aren’t Man City and we don’t just throw money at players to try and get their attention.
The BIG risk with Owen though, even if we get everything else sorted out, is his fitness. The small-man’s time at Newcastle was fraught with injuries and if we are to buy a goal scorer, we are going to need him available every week.
Owen has spent 4 seasons with Newcastle and only made 71 appearances, even though the Toon have played over 150 games in the league alone since his arrival. A player that will miss more than half the games, and on top of that cost us a lot in wages, isn’t top of my list and certainly won’t be top of Lerner’s.
It’s not that easy to write Owen off though. The temptation of him is always there. He has scored 29 goals for the Magpies in 71 games, an impressive tally when you remember two things; 1) he hasn’t exactly had great supply, as Newcastle have not been enjoying good times much during the last 4 years, and 2) he has constantly been coming back from time out, so adjusting back to the pace of the game and the Premier League.
All in all, I guess the jury is out for me on Owen. I’d love the Owen of old. The Owen Liverpool and England had all those years ago. But I wouldn’t want the Owen Newcastle had, draining the resources and sitting on the physio table.
The £12m MUST be used to replace Laursen moreso than Barry
Villa’s cash from the sale of Gareth Barry to Man City has sparked rucks of rumours about players we will be bringing in to fill the void Barry has left in the centre of our midfield. But surely the more important thing is to use it to replace Martin Laursen as the primary objective.
In one fell swoop, the last few months have taken our captain and our ‘back up’ captain from us, never to return. But of the 2 positions I feel it is far more important that we concentrate on securing an inspirational, influential defender first. Martin Laursen was fundamental to the side and without him we failed to defendc strongly and there was no commanding presence in our box.
The loss of Laursen was catastrophic for us at the back. We have Curtis Davies, Zat Knight and Carlos Cuellar all available to play there, as well as Eric Lichaj and Ciaran Clarke if he wants to promote some of the youngsters, but of those we don’t have a leader. Martin Laursen was our captain and also a figure that lifted the other defenders along side him and in his absence we have suffered severely from this lacking.
In midfield we can fill Barry’s boots without having to shop around if the situation forced it and MON has dropped hints that this may be the case. Sidwell and NRC are both eager to take on the role and it is possible we will do just that.
Joleon Lescott appears to be the most mentioned name and personally I would be happy with that. The other name appearing to have some possibility is Thomas Vermaelen.
The important thing though is that a centre defender is brought in this summer and sooner rather than later. If push came to shove and we could only buy ONE player then it would have to be a centre back.
Aston Villa lose their backbone, how will they stand tall now?
Last summer it was THE transfer saga of the summer, the whole Gareth Barry to Liverpool story. It began early, prior to the window even opening, with Rafa Benitez stating an intent to sign the Villa midfielder. It royally pee’ed off Martin O’Neill and a public war of words began.
Liverpool made an offer, Villa rejected it. Liverpool made another offer, Villa rejected it again. Liverpool made yet another offer and, guess what, Villa rejected it yet again. It’s possible that more offers were made and rejected but by this time everyone was so bored and pigsick of it all that they just wanted it to be sorted out one way or another.
Villa (or should that be Martin O’Neill’s stubbornness) won the battle; Barry stayed at Villa. But it wasn’t as straightforward as that. Barry had spoken to the papers, saying that he wished to join Liverpool and he criticised Martin O’Neill while he was at it. This seemed like a risk-free thing to do, as he would be heading to Anfield any day now, so why not? But when that didn’t happen, Bazza found himself stripped of the captaincy, banned from the training ground and fined 2 weeks wages.
So what at first was an exciting face-off, then crescendoed into a frenzy of will-he-won’t-he, only to peter out and start to lose steam as it got tiresome and repetitive and then eventually it became downright boring. By the end, neither Villa fans nor Liverpool fans could give a damn whether he went or not, so long as the news spoke about something else. Y’know, kinda like how we currently feel about Susan Boyle and MP expense claims in the UK!
Finally, the window closed and Barry remained at Aston Villa. He realised he was stuck there, but it didn’t seem like he was exactly delighted by the situation, after falling out with the boss, losing the armband and then getting boo’d by the fans. He saw out the year, but it seemed very unlikely that he would stay at Villa to see out his contract.
Barry didn’t waste much time getting things into place, being announced today as the first signing of the transfer window. The rumours were abound for a while, but then it meant little as there was a rumour out there on the blogs and in the papers linking every half decent player the world over with Man City. Their endless bags of cash will ensure that rumours will swarm around them like flies around… errr… doo-doo!
It came out yesterday that Barry was in talks with City, but I doubt many expected it to all be wrapped up so quickly. It kind of makes you wonder if this was already half-arranged during the season.
Barry has gone back on his original reason for leaving Villa, which was an ambition to play Champions League football, to join a team that arguably has the same chance of reaching that goal as Villa. He has said that he wanted to join the Manchester club as they have ambitions that match his own, despite joining a team that aren’t in Europe at all but Villa being in the new Europa League.
Life without Barry
It will be odd to see us line up without Barry in the team, after being such a huge part of the team for a large part of his 12 years here and how we go about replacing him will be fundamental to whether we can continue to build on the success we have been enjoying since Randy Lerner purchased the club.
It was reported in the papers yesterday that Martin O’Neill has told Steve Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker that they will play much bigger roles for the club this coming season. This reeks of ‘I’m not going to replace Barry’ or maybe ‘I’ll replace Barry with a young up and coming player for the future’.
Sidwell has not proved too useful for us to date, so a big improvement from him would be required to keep us where we are, never mind grow.
Nigel Reo-Coker has shown promise for us, putting in good performances when he gets the chance, but he has generally worked best when alongside Barry. He may have it in him though, I have more faith that he could fill Barry’s boots than Sidders and he will like the chance to play as the more attacking one in the middle. So maybe NRC is the answer. Can you tell I’m more trying to talk myself into it than anything else?
Rumours about replacements will now be rife though, no matter what MON hints at, so we’ll take it as it comes, keep our fingers crossed and hope that Barry wasn’t as fundamental to our success as we fear. Cuz he’s gone now, he’s no longer an Aston Villa player (how weird is that?!).
What’s new rumour-cat? Villa transfer targets from our UEFA Cup journey and more
Hands up those who think that being in the UEFA Cup this (is it still ‘this’ or is it ‘last’ now?) season was a waste of time? Come on, even you at the back, put your hand up if thats the way you feel. Don’t be shy, lets see your opinion.
OK, so I’m imagining that a percentage of you out there now have your hands up. Well at least metaphorically, you’d look a bit of a dillweed if you just sat there on your computer with your hand up! But I may have some news that will change your mind on the whole affair. Y’see it seems we did have a purpose in the competition after all. We were scouting. Come on, you cynics, we didn’t ‘throw’ the Moscow game, we used it to watch Vagner Love. And for many of us he was begrudgingly the best thing about the game. Who can tell me honestly that they didn’t once consider going down to the barbers and asking for some blue hair extensions.
He wasn’t the only one either, so I think we should have a look at him and Trochowski of Hamburg, as well as any other linakges that have been made with our boys in claret and blue.
- First then, Vagner Love (or Vágner Silva de Souza as he’s known to his mom) is a striker for CSKA Moscow, who you no doubt remember by his long blue hair if you don’t recall his football skills. He made a good impression on me in the UEFA Cup and his stats show that it wasn’t a one-off. His club career has seen him score more than 1 goal every 2 games, getting 60 in 111 for Moscow. He hasn’t done so well for Brazil, but he is still fairly young at 24. If you watch the video below you will some of his goals and see that he seems to be very much what we need; he can play off the last man, he can poach, he can get onto to crosses, get onto through balls, basically all the things we really need. I want him. Randy, get your cheque book out. Or send Luke Skywalker round to use Jedi mind tricks to convince Zico to swap him for Emile Heskey!
- Next up is Piotr Trochowski, who we’ll call Pete. Pete can play on the wing or at the front of a diamond, which could work well with Petrov deeper behind him. He is clearly being touted on the assumption that Barry is going. The word on the street is that he wishes to leave Hamburg for their lack of ambition and wants to play for a club that will win titles. This kind of puts us in the shade a little, especially as Arsenal are rumoured to also be interested. But so too are Spurs and we are as good a punt as them for success. Anyway, I’m in a video mood so here’s some of Pete’s action:
- Also on the rumourmill are some more that I’ll just brush over; Lucas Neill is an Australian defender who I’m sure you all know. He was at Blackburn for an age and joined West Ham 2 years ago. The rumour has sprung up because he has turned down his new contract, but I don’t think there’s anything in this.
- Argentinian Renato Civelli is keen for a move to the Premier League or La Liga, so our name has obviously come up as he is a centre back. The great thing about Civelli is that he would be as free as a bird when his contract expires this summer.
- Joleon Lescott is reported to now be on Arsene Wenger’s radar, which could make it harder for us to lure him. He doesn’t really strike you as someone Wenger would go for though, does he? Y’know, with him being English!
- Finally for today it’s back to the UEFA Cup links with the news that Thomas Vermaelen has expressed his happiness at being linked with us. I covered the defender last week or the week before but it seems now that he would very much like a move to the Premier League and is pleased with the rumours that are floating around.
Whats new rumour-cat? This week’s Villa transfer gossip
"Let go Randy, I need this cheque book. Come on, I promise not to write too many zeros." MON
I’m back, with the latest Villa shenanigans and I’m going to go through some of the most exciting rumours that are floating around. I haven’t just been a lazy scoundrel mind you, I’ve been blogging over at Footbo on footy in general and yesterday I did an interview/blogpost for a *spit* Birmingham City blog, and he’s doing a return one for us next week.
But anyway, there has been so many rumours that I have had to ignore some of the obviously made up ones, otherwise you’d never get any work done for reading about all the players who are coming to Villa this summer. And I know how much time you all already spend reading Villa blogs and other websites when you should be working. I still need to get one of those ‘Quick the boss is coming’ buttons installed on this website 
The biggest transfer rumbling around is Randy Lerner’s comments that there won’t be as much available to spend as last year. Now this could be mind games or it could be the truth, but either way it’s not all bad news. What we need to do is buy better, not buy dearer. For what we have spent in the last few years, we could’ve vastly improved our team, but many of the signings have not been great. I won’t go into who right now (maybe another day) but it is obvious to most that we haven’t been particularly shrewd with all our signings of late.
Enough of all that though, let’s get down to business, there’s gossip out there that won’t spread itself;
- An interesting rumour doing the rounds at the minute is that we are interested in Liverpool’s young striker; Ryan Babel. I love the sound of this for a number of reasons; first off I like that we are being linked with players from the team that finished 2nd in the Prem. Much better than Scottish or Championship clubs if you ask me. Babel will also not come cheap, so if we are to sign him then we know that the club is not going to scrimp and save to a detrimental extent. It’s not all sunshine and roses though, Babel suffers from a problem we are not already short of; he doesn’t score enough. He is more of a winger-cum-striker so maybe he could help us to create more chances, but in reality, is he something we need? I feel we already have what he can offer, so whilst I wouldn’t mind the extra strength, we need a goal scorer and a commanding centre back more.
- A big rumour around is that we have already began inquiries leading to us signing David Bentley from Spurs. I’ve already said my bit on him and my opinion is still the same so rather than repeat myself, I’ll just link back for you: http://astonvillablog.com/whats-new-rumour-cat-latest-villa-transfer-gossip/ It does seem odd as our first priority to be a winger (see above) but there is no shortage of wingerumours (<– d’ya like what I did there? I made up a word…. hmmm nah it’s crap, it will never catch on)
- Michael Owen. Another I’ve covered before and another that will be both good and bad. Owen is a great talent and he is EXACTLY what we need up front. Now I don’t know if everyone agrees with me on this but I feel that if we had a player who did nothing else all game but poach, we would score twice the amount of goals. We create chance after chance after chance (even during our off spell we still created a fair bit) but don’t convert enough. The big problem with Owen though is his injuries. He makes Darren Anderton look good! If he could stay fit, and come to an agreement on wages, he’d be perfect. Thats a big IF though.
I’ll cut it there and pick up where I left off tomorrow. I know I only covered 3 people so far but i don’t want you all getting sacked for reading super-long Villa rumour blogs! So check back tomorrow for another bunch. There’s no shortage I assure you
Is Carew leaving us for Man City?
Sky Sports are running a story on their website and on Sky Sports News that John Carew is a target for Manchester City. If it is true, you have to fear that he will be very tempted by it.
Why would he go?
It has not been made any secret that he and O’Neill have had their differences and he also may feel that we are going to struggle to keep up with them next season (MON publicly saying as much didn’t help there). This and the fact that they will undoubtedly increase his wages, lead you to think that if Man City go for him, they have a good chance of getting him.
Where would it leave us?
For the last few months, Carew has been about our only threat in front of goal, so to lose him would be devastating under current conditions. But there is every chance that after the summer Gabby will pick his head up and get back on top of his game. Gabby will never set the world on fire, but when he is full of beans he can be a real terror for defenders to deal with and can even find the net fairly regularly when he’s on song.
Emile Heskey is our other main striker, a player who I never wanted to sign, despite being one of those rare people who think that he is a good player. The reason I didn’t want him is because he doesn’t fit into our team, and that has been proven very concisely I feel (O’Neill seems less convinced than I am).
Nathan Delfouneso is kicking at the heels of the first team, but I seriously doubt he will get into the team regularly unless injuries force it. It worked out for Gabby, so the Fonz just needs to bide his time and be ready when his chance comes.
Carew replacements?
You have to fancy that if MON let’s Carew leave it will be with someone else in mind to come in and replace him. I guess I won’t be too averse to it happening as long as someone good is brought in (someone who will fit the team), because we won’t ever get the very best from Carew if he doesn’t get on too well with the Gaffer.
It’ll all hang on MON signing a real good replacement though, and that is an area his expertise don’t seem to stretch to.
These rumours just can’t be avoided – No, no please god no to this one!
Robert Huth - not on my wish list
I don’t wanna be doing transfer rumours every day. I love doing them and reading them and hearing your opinions on what a player could do for us. But there are so many at the minute that it is going to turn into an obssession and get boring if I do it every day.
One I couldn’t ignore though was Footy Latest’s linking of us with Robert Huth. I hope to god it’s not true. Huth was linked with us (and I believe nearly came to us) back in the O’Leary days. When our ambitions were so much lower and a player like Huth was about the right standard. But as a Laursen replacement, I would be bitterly disappointed. It would be a huge step down for us as a club and would show low ambitions.
It’s no doubt made up and probably based on about as much evidence as; O’Neill looked at him during the Boro game. But he is not what we are looking for. We are after a player who is well above the class of the current crop of centre backs and who will raise them to his level. In fact I might campaign to make genetic modifications legal and then we can clone Laursen but with new legs! Who will sign my petition? Come on, get your biros out.
What’s new rumour-cat? Tuesday’s latest Villa transfer gossip
Martin O'Neill has an itchy-biro-finger over Randy Lerner's cheque book
The transfer window is so close that you can feel it’s smelly breath on the back of your neck. So it’s no surprise that there are loads of rumours around linking us to all and sundry. Some will come true, some will nearly happen and some are just made up by someone wishing to shift papers or get pageviews
Here at AVB we like to go through them all and try to give a little info on a player and open it up to debate on whether you want them at Villa or not. Yesterday we saw a nice response in agreement with me that Senderos would be a poor signing, or to correctly quote what is one of the funniest comments we’ve had on here for a while:
As for Senderos, I’d rather have sex with a lawnmower than sign him
And on that bombshell, let’s dive into today’s bunch:
- Giles Barnes is a young pacy winger for Derby County, who has been on an unsuccessful loan to Fulham for part of this season. I say unsuccessful because he hasn’t made a single appearance. Roy Hodgson either doesn’t think he is cut out for the Prem or doesn’t see a way to fit him into his team. Now, I’m a big fan of Roy Hodgson, I think he’s doing a great job at Fulham, but I must admit that when I first saw him interviewed I judged the book by it’s cover and said “What’s that old fanny gonna do with Fulham?”. He proved me wrong and I respect that. Anyway, we’re talking about Barnes, not licking Hodgson’s bum-ring, so back to the matter at hand; we are more suited to Barnes’s style and he may well go fairly cheap, so don’t rule him out but he’s not going to set the club on fire and may well prove to be another Wayne Routledge.
- Fulham’s keeper Mark Schwarzer is next up, having been mentioned as someone we have been sniffing around, but I can’t really see O’Neill buying another aging keeper when we still have Friedel. I think MON will keep his faith in Friedel for at very least one more season, so I can’t see where this rumour has come from. A younger keeper maybe, but I just can’t see it with Schwarzer.
- Stewart Downing looks destined to get relegated with Boro so will almost definitely be moving on this summer. He will be far from cheap though and isn’t an area of urgency (like centre back and centre forward are) so I don’t see this happening either. It may do, he is certainly a talented player, but I doubt it. If it does tho, I’m going to take a positive stance and say that if we spend big on a midfielder/winger, we also plan to spend big up front and at the back too. Cuz if he splashes £12m+ on a winger and gets some mediocre centre back then I’m right on that O’Neill-hating bandwagon. And I don’t want to get on that wagon. I like O’Neill.
- Man City’s Joe Hart is again being linked with us and if we do buy a keeper I fancy him as the favourite. He will very likely move on after having had his progress disturbed by the arrival of Given. The lad is definitely a big prospect and may well go on to be a regular England keeper if he finds a team where he’s number one choice. He probably needs to learn to make ridiculous mistakes if he wants to play for England tho
- Along similar lines to Downing is David Bentley. He is also a talented player but he has gone seriously off the boil. He never plays for Tottenham so will most likely move on in the summer but they will want to recoup as much of the £16m they wasted on him as possible. Again, it’s not an area we are screaming out for new players in but if we do make the step up to serious European contention, then we need some rotationability (<– nah, it’s probly not a real word!).
- A quick note on Thomas Vermaelen, who we have been linked with; apparently Arsenal are now interested too.
- Finally, Rabiu Afolabi of FC Sochaux is on our radar. He is a tall central defender with plenty experience but like many of the rumours that are now surfacing, he is unlikely to be of the mould we need to replace a player as influential and significant as Laursen.
What’s new rumour-cat? Plenty Villa transfer gossip
I don’t know about you lot but I am still feeling down about our boys. Maybe come Sunday I’ll have picked my head up and be thinking we can take a game to Newcastle, get a result and get some luck with Everton dropping points at Fulham, but right now I’m feeling resigned to 6th. A season of exaggerated ups and exaggerated downs that served to change our expectations and then have them come crashing down in our faces.
So what’s left to do other than daydream about who we’ll add to our squad to try and change our fortunes next season. Time for more transfer talk, and yet again there is a fresh crop of names being mentioned in connection with us. Let’s dive in:
- We are said to have had scouts at Toulouse’s last match, watching André-Pierre Gignac, who is a young French striker with a good scoring record (21 in the last 33 games). Toulouse almost came to blows with Lille over his signature, after seeing his impressive loan spell at Pau (low division French side). He became the main striker when Elmander joined Bolton, so maybe he is hoping to follow in his footsteps into the Premier League. Not exactly the number one choice for Villa fans, but depending on how much truth there is in O’Neill’s cautious talk, he may prove an affordable option. There is also a conflicting rumour around that he has already refuted these links.
- Next up is one that I would love to see come true; Joleon Lescott. There’s always a chance with him being a boyhood fan of us, but there have been incidents with him and his brother that have apparently left a bitter taste in his mouth. Lescott would be a great replacement for Laursen; solid, dependable and also gets some goals. Would he want to come though? By the time the window opens, Everton could be 5th and FA Cup winners, so it may be a step down to him. But on the positive side; he has past love for us, knows he would be the number one centre back, a good chance of captainship and ‘ambitious’ owners and management. It’s not one you can call easily, but I hope it happens.
- Arsenal centre back Philippe Senderos has also been mentioned, but he’s far from the top of my list. In fact, if we do buy him as a replacement for Laursen I will jump into bed with all the doubters out there who think that MON is going to have us mid-table next season. Senderos is not crap by any means, but we need a real inspirational player who will pick the team up, lead by example and rule the park from the figurehead position of centre back. Senderos is just another Davies, Knight and Cuellar, who needs a stronger figure alongside him to be effective and who makes silly mistakes. Mind you, I wouldn’t say it to his face. He’d probly nut me!
There are still about another 5 rumours out there worth mentioning, but you don’t want an essay, so I’ll do the others tomorrow. Anyone fond on today’s crop?
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