I’ll swap you my Barry for your Bentley
It’s not altogether different from swapping Panini stickers in the playground, except that you don’t have to pay your stickers £50,000 a week once you have them!
I have heard a rumour that we are in talks with Spurs about a swap deal of Gareth Barry for David Bentley. I’m hoping it is just garbage, because it doesn’t seem to make too much sense. Well certainly not as a stand alone thing anyway.
Barry is a class central midfielder (albeit not originally, but he has definitely made the position his own now) who is near the top of his game and Bentley is a winger who is near the bottom of his game.
Barry is by far our best in his position, and we’d need to sign someone to replace him, whereas we are not in a desperate need for a winger. A back up would be good but there’s no point having a back up winger if you have no-one in the centre.
Barry is the captain and a central figure for our team, Bentley doesn’t get in his team and would struggle to get in ours, unless he recaptures his old form.
Barry is worth at least £10, Bentley would struggle to fetch 5, so I’m guessing if it does go ahead we would get some cash too.
The positive side
It seems that I’m not too keen on the idea doesn’t it? There are some positive ways to look at this though. It seems likely that Barry will be leaving us during the summer and it is also being rumoured that we will be buying Bentley, so I spose it makes sense to wrap them both up at once. I have also read in the past that Barry was a Tottenham fan when he grew up so it could appeal to him on those grounds. He will also like the fact that he will most likely get in the team every week, which is far from guaranteed at Liverpool.
I would also take it as a sign that we intend to do some big signings this summer; if we are going to spend around £5m on Bentley, someone who will largely be a back up winger, then surely it means we will also be splashing out for a centre back, a centre midfielder AND a centre forward. We need to replace Laursen and Barry and we still need a centre forward who can actually score goals, so if this goes through I see ambition (yeah, I know it could also mean that we will unambitiously make do with what we already have, but if you look up there, the title of this section is ‘The positive side’).
Also being said
There is also a rumour that Man City have offered us £10m for Barry. I think we may want around £12m and we have seen that MON will not be haggled down once before, but City could easily meet our valuation and pay Barry handsomely so that could throw this swapping lark out the window.
Wherever he goes though Barry needs to be replaced surely. Unless MON has big hopes for Salifou, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Gardner or even Milner moved into the middle.
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
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.
O’Neill has no idea… any of us dare to venture a guess?
Morning, morning, morning Villa fans! How are we all today? I’m sound, thanks for asking My 9 month old daughter has already done 2 cacks today though, which kinda takes the shine outta things, and she’s straining like there’s more on the way! I write these at 6am y’see, and then sechedule them to upload around midday. Oh well, we’re not here to discuss my little girl’s bowel movements or my morning routine, so let’s get onto business:
“I’ve no idea,” he replied to Setanta’s Darrell Currie when asked where he thought Villa would be in a year’s time. “Honestly.”
The above quote is lifted from a Setanta Sports interview with Martin O’Neill, in which he also talked up the progress that Spurs and Man City will make next season, claiming that our push for the Top 4 will be more difficult with those 2 also doing the same. It surprises me massively that he makes no mention of Everton, as I believe they are more likely than either of those 2 to be in the thick of the fight. Just look how well they are doing this season, under huge injury woes. But this isn’t EvertonBlog.com, so let’s leave their potential threats aside for now.
Where will we be in a year’s time?
It’s a question that many of us Villa fans have avoided answering, particularly in this period of pessimism, where everything we touch seems to be turning into another loss (or draw on a good day!).
In the last 5-6 years many teams have had a good season, putting pressure on the top four (Everton, Spurs and now us) or even just a season where they do better than usual (Bolton, Fulham, Middlesbrough, us) but the following season they often have a mare (us, Everton, Spurs). So will next season see us push on with the progress we’ve shown this season or will we see a decline in our fortunes?
In the same interview, O’Neill hinted that the funding for transfers this summer will not be vast, and having seen his limited activities in January, you can’t help but think that we will only be signing unproven, unready youngsters and/or players past their best.
So what do you reckon? Will Villa kick on and carry on growing next year? Or will we suffer a dismal / mediocre season next term?
Arsenal fans have never been so happy to see Spurs win
A brand new love affair... it'll never last
The 2 great London rivals will be coming together today and sharing hugs. The capital will be awash with red shirts and white shirts dancing around together in joyful triumph over Aston Villa.
By beating us yesterday, Tottenham did their arch-rivals a huge favour and now we have to go into 2 very tough games with the knowledge that we have to get better results than Arsenal. To say it’s going to be tough would be the understatement of the century. We can just try to take comfort in the fact that we raise our game against the better sides or that we have an easier final 6 games.
I can’t deny that I’m worried about the next month if the pressure of needing a win against Stoke proved a little too much for us, so this looks like a mountain to climb.
Against Spurs, we had more possession than them but we never looked like we were going to beat them. Even in my most optimistic mood I couldn’t see us winning with the toothless way we played yesterday.
It was far from Villa at their most dangerous and we yet again suffered from our impotence up front. MON even brought on 2 striker substitutes, which any Villa fan will know is almost unheard of for him!
Where will we go from here? Are we now going to spend the season fighting with Everton for 5th or will we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back in the ring with Arsenal?
How do you feel about Villa relinquishing such a strong position and lead over Arsenal?
Well there we have it. We’ve relinquished our spot in the top four. We’ve fell below Arsenal after having an 8 point lead and now we have to get points out of trips to Anfield and Old Trafford and a home game against on-fire Everton, or face the possibility of going into the last 6 games with a 9 point gap to make up (which really would be a 10 point gap as they have better goal difference). Talk about making life hard for ourselves.
So how do we feel today? (feel free to answer this question from your viewpoint in the comments box)
Today is a VERY difficult day to be a Villa fan/blogger. One part of me wants to swear and lament the team for the breakdown of everything they worked so hard to acheive and one part of me wants to be positive and refuse that the fight is over. For today I’m going to give way to my critical side and have a rant. Maybe once it’s off my chest or as the Liverpool game draws closer I’ll pick my chin up and believe again. But now for now, I’m hacked off with them!
Who is to blame? (feel free to answer this question from your viewpoint in the comments box too)
Martin O’Neill:
First on the list HAS to be the gaffer. Now I’m not one of these hot-headed types who wants managers sacked every ten minutes, but confidence is the main issue with Villa’s slide and surely confidence and player morale is part of MON’s job description. Going to the UEFA Cup game and surrendering in the manner in which he did was foolish. I see his point and I don’t necessarily disagree with prioritising the league, but he needed to at least take some of the ‘big names’ to be able to bring on as subs if things went south (which they did). In doing that he not only submitted us to a lot of criticism, which knocked confidence, but he also put HUGE pressure on the players to do well in the league games, which it seems they are not comfortable with.
He also needs knocking for his stubbornness of team selection. Now, none of us really know whats going on between him and Carew but it seems they have a bit of a barney on. Heskey is not fitting in with the team yet and should be dropped for Carew. The big man is the only one hitting the net for us recently and maybe with more match minutes he could do even better.
Gabby Agbonlahor:
Next up must be Gabby. Now it breaks my heart to say this as I idolise him sometimes; but he needs dropping or a HUGE kick up the backside. Gabby is living the dream of half the Villa fans; he grew up a Villan and now he is in the first team, starting every game up front and, until recently, was knocking the goals in. I know for a fact it was my ambition and it’s most likely many of yours too. BUT… he has really let his head drop this last few months. Even before we started losing and drawing games, Gabby was ineffective. MON needs criticising again here for not buying better in the window, even if he’d bought in a Championship striker who was eager to step up, just someone who knows where the net is because our boys don’t anymore. Our goal per attack ratio is appalling.
Emile Heskey:
When we were first linked with him I didn’t think it was a good idea. I am one of Heskey’s few fans, but he has nothing to offer the Villa. He doesn’t fit with our style and I feared that he would hinder us. He proved me wrong on his debut with a superb goal and a lot of promise, but since then he has proved me right. And… for such a big bloke, he’s a wimp! He goes down easy and he rarely heads a cross. Yesterday, little Aaron Lennon was twice as strong as Heskey.
Ashley Young:
I won’t say anything against Young as he did do what I’ve been wanting a lot more yesterday; learnt that no-one is getting on the end of his crosses and cut inside more and played more balls along the ground. Against teams like Spurs Young is at is best, but he had very little danger after him, no-one did much with what he created.
OK, so I’ll draw it to a close there or I’ll be here all day and no-one will be bothered to read it all. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take a look at the midfield and defence or maybe I’ll try to pick my head up and get come positive vibes out there. We’ll see.
Now it’s your turn, what did you think of yesterday and our situation in general (I can see there being some comments as long as the post here!).
[NB: Arsenal and Spurs fans who wish to come on here and slag us off or whatever, go to the other post for today 'Arsenal fans have never been so happy to see Spurs win' and say what you please, I probably won't delete or edit the comments on there. But any mindless comments on this post will be unapproved. This is for constructive criticism of how you feel about Villa's recent form and yesterday's game]
The heat is on! Can Villa respond positively to the pressure?
To say that the pressure is on us to win today would be understatement. Arsenal won yesterday against Blackburn with a very convincing scoreline and knocked us out of the top four, so now we must get at least a point to maintain the placing we held going into the weekend.
How will we react under the pressure? Well, we’ll find that out at 4pm, but what we must show is the character to not buckle under the weight of expectation, because it will get heavier than this as we get closer to May 24th.
So is this game is a MUST WIN? I’d say YES. Definitely.
There’s still 9 games to go after today and some of those are very tough (ie trips to Anfield and Old Trafford), so if we are going to drop points then they will be the likely ones, meaning we have to get maximum points as often as possible, particularly at home against a bottom half side.
We must win today and then hope we can keep above, or at least close to, Arsenal as we play Liverpool, Man U and Everton. But then after that, we have an easier final 6 games than Arsenal, who will still have to face all of the other ‘Big Four’ clubs.
The pick up in form and confidence of Arsenal worries me greatly as we have seen the opposite happen to us, so today must see that bad patch come to an end for Villa as we reach the period of the season where all of our doubters predicted we’d falter.
The pressure is on us today and we must respond to that pressure with a good performance and, more importantly, a good result.
Spurs preview, The Villa-Villa connection and are there any bankers out there gunning for ‘Arry?
Filed under: Aston Villa, Injury News, Match Previews, Transfer News
First and foremost today is the weekend’s match. I’m now tending to do them on Friday’s even when the games on a Sunday, so no-one worry they got mixed up; the game is on Sunday at 4. Arsenal play tomorrow at 3 against Blackburn and, with a bit of luck, Big Sam’s boys can continue their winning streak (of 1 whole game!) and we can go into the Spurs match with a little of the pressure off.
Villa, as we all know only too well, are not exactly on fire at the minute, but we have had a little break over in Dubai and hope to come out firing on all cylinders. Our campaign began as a simple push to continue improving but, thanks to a poor season from Arsenal and a great run of games from us, we found ourselves 4th and we will not be giving it up without a fight. We’ve tried 4th on, it fits nicely and we like the way we look in it. So get lost Arsenal, it’s ours now. You can have it back when we go top 3
Injuries
Villa had a few small niggles but they don’t look to be problems, leaving just the captain out, and Spurs have Defoe and Hutton out. No Defoe is a welcome thing as I feared he could outdo Davies and Knight with his pace, Knight particularly is far from fast.
Villa-Villa
You may think “What on earth has David Villa got to do with us? We can’t afford him” and you’d be right, but the story is that Valencia want John Carew to replace the Spaniard before they will do a deal with Man City. Carew has been reported a number of times to have had spats with the manager and has been dropped from the starting line up more times than I would wish for, so there may well be truth in him leaving in the summer. Personally I don’t want to see him go as I’m a big fan of the big man, but why else would MON have bought a similar player (Heskey, maybe not the same but similar) if he didn’t plan to flog Carew.
Villa (as in Viyya) will go for BIG bucks, maybe not quite Kaka-mess big but big all the same. And what will he give Man City? Well, unless someone up there learns that there’s more to winning football games than buying the best strikers in the world, then nothing. But if they also coerce some superb midfield players with £’s in their eyes during the summer then they could well become a competing side. Man City may well break up the Big Four party, but I still don’t like it. I prefer the way we’ve done it.
No coin throwing antics please
Finally, let’s try not to get a bad reputation by repeating the coin-throwing palava from last year. Villa in the past have been reknowned for having some of the best fans, but with things such as that incident and the recent booing of the side, people are beginning to change their opinion of us lot.
So let’s throw nothing but cheers towards our boys on Sunday.
Up the Villa.
Laursen return off-again, Milner in the Middle, transfer target and Spurs star jibe
First and foremost it’s bad news today, with yesterday’s training setback for Martin Laursen. The captain had been planned to make his comeback for the Man Utd away game and a very welcome addition he would’ve been too, but he has suffered a small reaction in training and will now be looking to the Everton game at Villa Park the following weekend. This is another game that Laursen’s presence will be helpful in but it now means that we have to go to Old Trafford as well as Anfield without him.
In the thick of it
James Milner has spoken of his desire to play a less wide role for Villa, and get involved in the game more by being in the middle of the park. The position switch doesn’t seem too likely when we have so many central midfielders and so few right midfielders, but it would be interesting to see what he’s like there. I love seeing players play in a different position, to see how versatile their game is, trouble is, the majority of the time it turns out to be a mistake, with the player drifting into their usual role subconsciously.
Here’s what he had to say to the Birmingham Mail on the issue:
“I’ve played there before. I played there a few times for England Under-21s, Newcastle and Leeds,”
“When we might have had injuries I’ve filled in there. I don’t see that as too much of a problem. I grew up playing there quite a lot, so I enjoy the centre midfield role. You seem to be able to get involved in games more sometimes, whereas playing wide you might not be able to get yourself into the game.”
“It’s very tough [playing wide], you have to keep your discipline and stay wide, keep your shape and give the team an outlet when you might not be getting the ball, and you’ve got to wait for people to bring you in, in the middle you can get it yourself and really take the game by the scruff of the neck.”
Good to see your desire to get involved James.
Southampton’s saviour
Down on the south coast, there is a very familiar name, that to us means little, but in the summer it may well become more well known. Andrew Surman is almost single handedly attempting to keep the Saints out of the drop zone of the Championship. The las is a midfielder who was born in South Africa but has played for the England U21s and has scored for them too.
Everton are reported to be in the battle for his signature too, so come the summer it is looking very likely he will become a Premiership player.
“Villa are not a top four side”
Jamie O’Hara’s words, not mine!
The Spurs star has spoken to the Tottenham Journal, saying:
“They’ve had a great season so they’ve done well, but I wouldn’t class them as a top four side just yet because obviously they’ve got to do that on a consistent basis.
“You’ve got to do that for two or three seasons on the spin to be classed as a top four side. Being consistent in the Premiership is the main thing”
It’s not unknown for players to stir things up a little prior to games, and hopefully the players will read O’Hara’s words and be deternined to prove him
THE MIDWEEK DEBATE: Will a rejuvinated Villa tear apart Spurs?
Now look 'ere you, believe what I say or I'll box your ears in!
Villa have spent a large part of the season being a somewhat unknown quantity, rising the short distance but large gulf from 6th to 4th. We have dominated games with some slick passing and some terrifying counter attacks. Our attacking style is fast and penetrating and has put many defences onto red alert this season.
But recently we have been pretty blunt.
Has this been caused by us just having a bad few games? Or have teams got us figured out now?
Well personally I don’t believe we lost much other than confidence. We also didn’t have as many bad games as the press (and Arsenal fans) would like to have us believe. We played poorly against Man City and we fell asleep for the last 5 minutes against Stoke. The Russia game was a makeshift team and the Everton loss was no big thing to me; they wanted FA Cup success more than us. We played well against Chelsea and for most the Stoke game.
Morale
So myself, I think that how we play against Spurs is all down to the confidence of the lads. We are capable of getting a win in the game, but do the players remember that?
It’s one of the biggest tests of Martin O’Neill’s Villa stint so far, because it’s all on him to have done some great man-management over in Dubai and got the team back believing that 4th is ours and we will NOT give it up.
How has he done over there? Has he put the belief back in the side? Will we sprint out of the blocks and throw everything at Spurs?
Or has recent results and the knowledge of no silverware took it’s toll on the boys and we’ll go out limp and let Spurs bring the game to us?
(NB: Spurs comments welcome, but try not to be as big dumbasses as some of the Arsenal fans who’ve commented in the past )
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