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.
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
Villa end it with a win but Everton ensure we finish 6th
After the Blackburn game at the start of Feb our season took an unexpected downturn seeing us win just 2 of our last 13 games, and those were against the teams that ended 17th and 18th. It was a disastrous end to what was set to be a sensational season. But luckily we did enough up until Feb to keep us top six, despite this crumble.
Yesterday we needed Everton to drop points if we were too sneak back into 5th for the final table, but the Toffeemen defied history’s trend and came away from Craven Cottage with a victory. Leon Osman potted 2 for them and Fulham failed to reply, making our 1-0 home win over relegated Newcastle irrelevent in the chase for 5th.
The significance of finishing 5th was that we would have improved on our league finish for a 3rd season running under O’Neill. As it turns out we have stabilised and stayed 6th. It is a wake up call to the powers that be at Villa that we need to invest to improve. The Premier League has become a VERY expensive league to compete in these days.
Maybe not even necessarily more expensive signings, just shrewder ones really. If we had enough quality players on the fringes of the team, we could’ve prevented this season’s crumble. We could’ve halted our league slide and avoided the UEFA Cup mess.
But outside our first team we are very below par, as was proved by our early Carling Cup exit and our poor EUFA Cup performances (ie Zilina & Hamburg). The Moscow mess may well have been the cause of the slide as it made the club unsteady and ambitions unclear. If it wasn’t the cause it certainly did nothing to stop the boat rocking.
This summer will be a very telling time for Aston Villa. Keep your fingers crossed.
It’s the final weekend! Villa face Newcastle, with a beady eye on the Fulham v Everton game
Everton have lost every game they’ve played at Fulham since the Premier League’s inception. That’s 7 league losses and 1 cup loss. There we go. I started with something positive. So will it be a case of ’start as you mean to go on’ and this’ll be a positive post? I’ll come back to that question innabit.
Sunday we find ourselves intwined in the battle to stay in the top flight, as we play a team that are sitting 18th. The drop squad find the weekend as follows:
- Newcastle face the drop unless they get a better result than Hull, and could even still face the drop if they win.
- Hull face a Man Utd side that have already won the title and that have the Champions League final on Wednesday, so may well be a little easier to beat than normal.
- Middlesbrough can still survive mathematically but it’s very unlikely that all the pieces of that jigsaw will fall into place.
- Sunderland are the highest placed team that can still go down but they are playing Chelsea, so it’s by no means going to be easy. If they lose and both Hull and Newcastle win, they will be down.
As you can see it’s going to be an exciting finale, so can Villa resist the Toon’s desperate surge for survival or will we crumble to a loss that will cap off a terrible second half to what was looking to be a terrific season? It would certainly fit the bill of the last few months. We steam-rollered all the way through to Feb, winning games for fun but then it all came falling down.
It’s been quite a heartbreaking few months to be a Villa fan; the torrid run of losses being so much harder to bear after all those wins and then Martin Laursen announcing his retirement. I can honestly say that I was even more upset than when Take That split up!!
Prediction
A draw. I’m not just being boring when I say this, I honestly think it will be a draw. Newcastle will play scrappily in pure desperation and we will reply with much of the same as we struggle to take hold of the game when we aren’t on fire and running at teams. There will probly be goals but I think this has draw written all over it. Which means bye bye Newcastle, which will be just crazy. They are one of the most supported teams in the country and they won’t even be in the top flight. If it happens they may well implode because they have high profile and highly paid players that will be outta there (including Owen, Martins, Duff, Smith, Nolan, Viduka)
Micah Richards link, transfer talk and injury news
Sky Sports News are today claiming that Villa are looking into a bid for Micah Richards. It’s not on their website yet, but it’s on the Latest News round-up.
Richards stormed onto the scene at a very young age for a defender, getting into the Man City team and then the England team. He then got injured and was out for a while and, since his return, has failed to recapture the form that made him so successful. Whether his lack of good form is caused by the unrest at City or whether he has ‘lost it’ remains to be seen.
MON is reknowned for getting the best out of players and Richards is also a versatile defender who can play full back or centre back, so the deal makes logical sense. The sudden out-of-the-blue-ness of the rumour, however, makes me a little sceptical of there being any actual truth in it.
N’Somnia… Zogbia… Charlie… errr…. you know the guy I mean… Thingymajig
N’Zogbia spends the evening on O’Neill’s sofa
Newcastle’s French winger Charles N’Zogbia didn’t travel to Manchester to face the moneybags side tonight… and why?
Because he was busy talking contracts with Martin O’Neill.
While his team were losing to City, the Zog was sitting where many wish it had been Michael Owen instead, sipping Lerner’s scotch and agreeing a deal to move to the Mighty Villans. It’s believed he has ambitions to get the seat next to Shorey on the bench.
How do I know this? Because I’m looking through their window right now… no, I’m not really. This is all just speculation and elaboration really. But I have heard a rumour that N’Zogbia is in the Midlands, discussing a move with Villa. Whether it’s true, I’m not totally sure but I’ll keep you informed as soon as I know more.
£12m of Randy’s money is spent for him as Villa prepare to face Portsmouth
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Previews, Transfer News
The focus returns tonight to Villa’s main aim, when we take on Portsmouth in the Premier League. Our boys go into the game down at Fratton Park unbeaten in 10 league games and on the back of 5 away wins on the bounce.
We are currently 20 points ahead of Pompey, who are just 3 points off the bottom, despite being 12th, as the bottom half of the table remains closer than ever. Even Hull, who are 9th, are far from clear of the dogfight in this crazy season.
A win is important for us, to maintain the lead we have over Arsenal and Everton, who face each other tomorrrow night at Goodison Park. Every result in that game has it’s benefits to us, in our attempts to stay above them both.
Emile debut
Emile Heskey will almost definitely Read more
Juicy transfer gossip
Considering we spent over 3 weeks to make our first big signing, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Emile Heskey was the extent of Villa’s spending in this transfer window, but would you be right?
The last few days are always a hub of activity and, with over £100m already spent, this is shaping up to be more of the same. With the rumours that are flying around, it seems that Martin O’Neill treats signings like I used to treat my English Literature homework; leave it to the very last minute.
FA Cup fourth round draw
Villa have been drawn out of the hat to face Read more
Is Michael Owen on his way to Villa?
With Villa linked with Owen pretty heavily over the last 6 months, will the signing of his old Liverpool and England strike partner open the door for him to come down to the Midlands too?
Michael Owen’s career has been extremely successful, having won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup with Liverpool and he has won PFA Young Player of the Year, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Premier League top scorer and the Ballon D’Or, as well as netting 40 goals for his country. But his current venture leaves him sitting just 2 points off the bottom of the table with Newcastle.
Owen’s Read more
Craig Bellamy – Star striker or prize bellend?
The transfer window opens at midnight tomorrow and the rumours are coming thick and fast in the media, the most dividing of which for Villa fans is ‘the one about the Welsh troublemaker’.
Craig Bellamy is like a ‘diet’ version of Joey Barton, you won’t lose as many teeth and is arguably a better drink anyway He definitely manages to split the opinions on him from love to hate, thats for sure. There’s no way to deny his talent and that he is a superb player but there’s also no way to deny the potential problems he can cause the club.
Red cards for petulance and throwing chairs at coaching staff has never been the best things to have on your CV, but it never seems to stop teams wanting Bellamy. He has played for a large number of clubs, usually only spending one season there, which says a lot about a player’s attitude.
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