So here is the first story I actually believe, in this window.
And it suggests the John Terry signing is pretty much done and dusted.
Yes, I know similar has been reported in the papers, but I never believe them, as some of you will well know.
“Langford”‘s actual words are
My man tells me (don’t forget he got every transfer correct in the last transfer window)….John Terry deal done and dusted but no medical booked Yet!
I feel it’s only fair to say that “Langford” and myself had a slight contretemps a while back, so you never know, he might to be trying to slip me a crippler.
But I very much doubt it, as I know he loves the Villa as much as any of us.
So you can pretty much guarantee this one is correct, unless it suddenly goes boobs up (read more money offered).
If and when he does sign, I suspect it’ll be a great subject for another post, as while he’s been a great player, so he’s also been controversial.
In the meantime, there’s a quick poll, asking what you think.[polldaddy poll=9774388]
I don’t think he’d drop to any other Championship side if he was to drop down. Not even to Redknapp’s side. He’ll likely wait it out for a Premier League side to offer up the millions he’s after. WBA, West Ham type club who’d desperately pay out that kind of money to an old head like his.
Further to my original post re: John Terry, Alan Nixon (Daily Mail) saying deal is close!….he follows the same guy as me on twitter (protected account) !….Nixon as only just been allowed to follow him!
Betting on him joining is now 2/7….looks like my man has called it correct again!
UTV from Glastonbury!
Blimey sound like u may be right I hope your not though
Your the man Langford, keep it coming. Your mucker Bill.
Hi Bill – after enjoying a whisky or two last night I went on the wrong post 🙂 and saw I missed your birthday. Belatedly a very happy birthday; I trust you had a great day and enjoyed a tot or two of the amber nectar
A whisky or two? More than that Hitch, cheers mate another one over plod on I say ,might be why I’m anxious about the Villa an signing.
Just looked at odds for next season we are favourites to win league. Bookies havnt a clue
Nice thought though 😁
The deal seems to be £60k a week; this is the much quoted figure.
And there’s talk of a £5 mill bonus, if we get promoted.
FFP, it’s not just about transfer fees, but all of the costs. Ie, wages. pension and all sorts, in reality.
As for not being able to attract top players like Terry, it’s easy, imo.
You offer £60k a week on a 3 year deal, but the reality is they only agree to play one season and can basically do what they want for the remaining 2 seasons.
So effectively £180k a week.
Ok, he can’t play for anyone else, but we all know he’s soon to retire anyway.
Far fetched? Immoral?
Maybe, but think about it.
The player’s happy. The club is happy too, because they get the player and are not seen to be breaking the FFP limits in the short term.
And if I can think of a dodge like that, think what the proper bean counters can do.
Of course, none of this matters if we get promoted.
But if we don’t, it’s just kicking the can further down the road.
The point is, the books can be made to look exactly how you want them too, as long as they match up over time.
It’s a point I’ve often made, but it gets glossed over, as everyone’s at it, at this sort of level.
i think its worth the risk. even just having a this type of player in the dressing room. he might take up a coaching role / p/t player. used sparingly.he will bring that winning mentality which our club have not had in years. if he increases other players performances juust by having him around its a dear support but one we fans don’t pay for directly. this season has to be a gamble. we need promotion. because even if we didnt spend this on terry. we are in financial shit if we fail. the squad we assembled will be reduced greatly.so its eggs / basket saying
I never thought of that dodge Badger what a great idea.
Of course, that sort of deal means there’s an option for the manager to take a cut from it too.
Say £5k a week, deposited by the player in some foreign account owned by some business that owns a shell company, that has invested in some other business etc, etc.
Of course, I’m not accusing Bruce of that, as he’s squeaky clean (ahem, I haven’t half got a sore throat), but the possibilities are there, is the point.
I doubt Dr Xia would stand for it though, as he probably knows more accounting tricks than any accountant.
And the FA have tightened up on it (there goes my throat again).
Can you audit my books for me Badger -:)
🙂 argh
I probably could, as it happens Hitch, but I might smell a rat :-), albeit a legal one.
As per usual, there’s always ways and means, is the point, as I’m sure you probably know.
Moi?! 🙂
Oh, as for us apparently signing a whole team full of aged players?
Two hopes and some of us really shouldn’t believe all we read, imo 🙂
Update on JT…John Percy (Telegraph) and Neil Moxley (Mirror) both catching up now.
Moxley…’the messages I am getting on JT are promising’ …….Keith Wyness ‘liked’ Moxley!s tweet! …….make of that what you want!
UTV from Glastonbury…..too much weeeeeeed lol
new week starts. from this day until the season begins, things will heat heat. teams will start reporting back to training. start of next month clubs will start buying up the out of contracts like terry. wyness suspension ends i believe. so things will start to liven up. i doubt the buying clubs villa need to offload a few duds will bite so early thou
Ah Nath – the smell of the grease paint, the roar of the crowds – let the show begin!
And Hitch, what you forgot to say, its not over till the fat lady sings.
off topic but this morning was reading newsnow and must say im fed up reading about carles gil and his agent trying to engineer a cheap move away. his agent is saying the clubs interested cant afford £3m so they want a transfer closer to £1.75m . for that money i would just tell his agent he will be coming back to play for the villa.
We’ve apparently turned down a Sevilla bid of 6 mill Euros for Amavi, on the grounds that we’re looking for our money (£9 mill) back.
No doubt there will probably be a compromise somewhere in the middle.
And it’ll probably be the same with Gil.
You’re right though. At £1.75 mill he’s a better bet then some of our other squad players and I’d rather keep him too.
BBC are reporting Liverpool have rejected an 11m bid for Moreno from Napoli, and that Sevilla are also interested.
The two teams that are (were) supposedly interested in Amavi.
I know we wouldn’t be getting anywhere near that wildly reported $25m, but we need to be getting $10m or more for him if we want to invest this summer.
We have to consider that Amavi wasn’t a regular player in a middling Championship side last season.
That’s a simple fact, with no bias, that will have dragged his value down.
£25 mill, my arse.
God knows why Xia came out with that; it was bloody embarassing, imo.
Whatever, my opinion says if we get £8 mill, we’ll have done well.
That’s about $10 mill isn’t it?
– It is hoped that Aston Villa will make their first signing of the summer transfer window this week.
The claret and blues are working hard behind the scenes to acquire Steve Bruce’s top targets.
A lucrative offer has been put forward to former Chelsea captain John Terry, who is expected to inform the club of his decision this week.
Movement is also expected on the Glenn Whelan front with Derby County now poised to move following the sale of Will Hughes to Watford. Villa had an initial bid of £500,000 rejected for the Republic of Ireland midfielder and Stoke want double that for the 33-year-old.
It is hoped that the club will make progress on Sam Johnstone in the near future, too.
Stay with us for live updates throughout the day
Aston Villa will now host this summer’s Graham Taylor tribute match against Watford.
The highly anticipated clash between Villa and the Hornets was originally scheduled to take place at Vicarage Road on Saturday July 29, 3pm, but will now be staged at Villa Park instead.
Taylor tragically passed away in January, aged 72, and enjoyed two separate spells as manager of Villa.
i hope we do sign somebody this week, get them early in the window which will give the squad more time to gel. we have been getting same stories about the loan players last season leaving this window or only if we drop prices lol. or villa been linked to all the oap that still fit into the football boots, lazy journalism but hopefully this week and onwards we will see some real action,
Don’t forget Nath, Bruce said he didn’t expect anything in June.
I’m certainly not worried if we don’t do anything this week.
i know and i understand the club stance. they expressed the need to sell first. them last views were mine and i hope they get the signings early so to gel. i also think the squad as it stands is good enough in ability. but it lacks something which is hard to say what. its not experience because we have that. it might be time to gel more or might be the winning mentality. iam just getting excited lol i guess hate the close season. having to watch other sports
“but it lacks something which is hard to say”
I’m very minded to agree.
i also think on paper the top X1 should be good enough.
But i’d also be minded to say that Bruce has to fire them up and get the team to play the right way.
Which takes us back to those who think Bruce is inherently too negative, as opposed to those who think he isn’t and the players are scared and not doing what they’re told.
It’s also why I believe we need a player on the pitch who will grab the team by the scruff of the neck and MAKE them play to their best.
Which is why JT will be either brilliant or a disaster.
I was talking to my Stokie mate today and he questioned if JT would work as hard for any club that isn’t Chelsea.
I thought he made a good point.
iam not touching the negative play aspects, i get called bad names. i get upset and lose sleep. i never said we played exciting last term. i also don’t claim to know, how we will play this season. but i wasn’t alone in hearing bruce barking to get the ball in the box. when against brighton. this was last game. so not too far back in my example. you heard him, also badger. question should be why the players didn’t play attacking stuff. the manager was clearly upset with the negative play also. so why some fans think its his solely fault.
this debate on style should be revisited when season starts. long ball short balls obese balls who cares aslong as we get promoted lol
It wouldn’t surprise me if we started with same squad next season. I can’t see more than maybe one or two token signings tbh. But in paper that team should be able to challenge. But we all know it’s not that simple
So Nath, does it beg the question that player’s don’t listen, I have to say I also have seen him barking out at player’s by indicating get the ball forward.I’m in your camp by giving him time to put it right, i hope he can because I don’t want to go over the same ground in changing manager.we have to hit the ground running from the off, if not we will be going backwards again.cannot wait for the off.
🙂 i agree totally bill. i think your 100%correct why did the players not listen ?? that should be the question. i also think it was hitchens that when we last visited this conundrum. he claimed players could be lacking confidence. i think he was on to something with this claim. i heard a interview with bruce after a disappointing result. he claimed the players disappointed him with the way they made things much harder for themselves.
i hope wining games more next season will improve the style of play. very important we hit the ground running. cant forget how poor we was last season start. which set the standards for the remaining games
I did Nath – being more brutal they are scared of losing so become more defensively minded more so away from home with such a poor record. Just hands advantage to the opposition who can attack with impunity. Didn’t someone say that attack is the best form of defence?
Hitch there’s truth in what your saying, they where scarred, they lookedmasmif they didn’t want the ball at times, still hope he’s instilled the need to concentrate and move forward.
as if they was scared. Soding fingers.
“this debate on style should be revisited when season starts. long ball short balls obese balls who cares aslong as we get promoted lol”
Seriously, I suspect it will, fairly early on if we don’t get off to a flyer.
I’m with you, in that I don’t care if we’re at the top of the table.
As I keep saying, it’s all about the first dozen games.
Fwiw, i was also grunting at/with a realistic nose today.
It said it thought we would walk the league, no problem.
And it was being serious.
Work that one out!
i believe we will be strong this season. i think we and bro will be top two, i have mentioned this before. i havent changed my mind. i will put my money where my mouth is. when they sign the goalie. i just want to see what middlesbrough do before deciding whether to slap on win or promotion
Reverse psychology though we are favourites for automatic promotion but no idea why. I can’t see it
i can see a charity bet coming on here 🙂
villa have by far the strongest squad in championship. granted we have to wait until teams like middlesbrough, hull,norwich and derby do their business before we reevaluate. but as it stands we have a great chance this season. this doesn’t mean we will walk it or should. but if we get off to a good start confidence and ability will take villa back to premiership.
I certainly would not take a short price about Villa getting promoted. There are still gaps in the squad. Firstly the goalkeeper: we may not get the loanee again and I laughed at someone who posted we ought to buy Stockdale, then I thought – maybe we are that bad. Secondly the right winger. Adomah, a new signing or are we expecting Hutton to push forward and leave a gaping hole? Thirldy midfielders who wnt the ball and can hold it – do we have them already?
This is my worry too, OLL.
The first eleven is ok, but it’s as soon as we have injuries or suspensions then the weaknesses show and we look decidedly lightweight.
The problem for me is that any back-up players never look any use.
Gardner is typical.
I so want him to do well for us, but even when given the chance, he’s been poor.
And we have too many like him.
Even then, our back ups surely have to be better than most of the league’s?
But I still remain somewhat unconvinced.
If interested England under 21 are 1-1 half time, should have been given a pen but you know what its like ? We are the English.
2-1 Endland.
2-2 extra time and we are terrible, if that’s our future England team God help us.
i watched extra time, 🙁 and pens
i do recall somebody saying attack is best form of defense. i reckon it was bill that said that. i think it was like hitch said the players where scared no matter the instructions they were too easily scared into their shells.