TRon

Villa would be a decent shout especially with MCleish as the manager. Joey can talk about CL clubs but all that shows is how deluded he is.

Do Barnetta or Erdinc have any clauses or contract issues? Just wondering as we seem to be heavily linked with them. Barnetta's in the last year of his contract isn't he? Not sure on Erdinc. Bit suspicious that we were supposedly after Gameiro first though. Barnetta looks pretty good nonetheless. I think the Gameiro interest was real FWIW. It was him who wanted to stay on the continent.

Do Barnetta or Erdinc have any clauses or contract issues? Just wondering as we seem to be heavily linked with them.

if you think he'll do well why would you want him to go? Because there's no way he's going to stay here. Would rather he join a club like Arsenal, than someone like Everton. Aye because that would make Ashley and co look like daft cunts wouldn't it? Hate to burst the bubble but I think you'll find he'll do well to get a move to Everton.

if you think he'll do well why would you want him to go?

Not a chance in hell Arsenal will be in for him.

It could be a sign that we are fairly confident of signing the strikers we want.

Barnetta looks pretty quick and direct and he's got a decent strike on him by the looks of it. With either foot as well.

Whelan said they would look to get him moved in a couple of weeks when he comes back from holiday.

To be fair by premier standards our strikers are piss poor. If it's true that we are looking to bring in another striker as well as Ba and Erdinc that will be a lot stronger than the current line up.

While i agree in general tbh, we dont have a game coming up anytime soon so i am prepared to wait and see who we get in before worrying needlessly whether somebody may buy Best off us, at £4m the queue wont be too long. That's my take on it as well. I'm waiting to see who comes in before I start to panic. I still wonder whether it's got something to do with his lifestyle, I'm sure he had some history as a youngster when he was quite highly rated but then got released...can't remember the club.

I just wonder if there's more to it behind the scenes. Best hasn't got the greatest fitness record, and there was the photo of him with Ranger and Ireland in the club showing off their six packs. That said I think the story is probably bollocks unless we are bringing in more strikers.

I can see someone paying 2-3million and that would probably seal the deal.

Did Steve Wraith ever put in print his admiration for Leon Best? I can't remember it if it happened.

Kinnear would be the other one.

Why is it bizarre? Name me the managers who have gone out of their way to sign Nolan. Ah i don't know what you're on about man. It's not a difficult question.

Why is it bizarre? Name me the managers who have gone out of their way to sign Nolan.

Just reflecting on how Nolan ended up here, him and Ryan Taylor came in after we sold Given and Zog. His goals were supposed to save us from relegation alongside a few other tired celebrity footballers but we still went down. That's because Joe Kinnear was the manager and Nolan fit his vision. So I guess those who love Nolan to the hilt also appreciate Kinnear and Fat Sam's vision of how the game should be played.

3 goals and Asprilla become one. For me, in an era when for the last 5 years or so the vast majority of our players have been proper mercenaries, crocks or scumbags or all 3, Nolan represented the good things about this club of ours and our game and he carried himself well as captain. It hardly ever gets mentioned but he did a s*** load of community work, he visited 4 hospitals in one day for example and helped with the club's foundation a great deal too. He also scored a hat-trick against the mackems and scored a s*** load from midfield in consecutive seasons. Not bad for a very limited player. All well and good, and I think most people admire him for that. However would you have advocated a 5 year deal on said wages? I would have yes. Thank God you're not our chairman then. Funny you talk about an age of "mercenaries, crocks or scumbags", yet would happily have paid a player £50k a week aged 33 when he'd no doubt be on the bench if not out of the squad full stop. And before you say we could sell before that point, look how hard it's been to shift Smith & Butt on that sort of wage. Without his goals we wouldn't have been promoted. Without his goals we would have went down. Nolan is worth 50k a week even over 5 years. Nolan wasn't just a player or goalscorer, he was our captain who had a positive influence on every aspect of the club, most importantly in that dressing room. You can't buy that almost and such contributions as have been proved can be priceless to a club. Nolan could have become a coach here, maybe for the academy or reserves and perhaps even one day assistant manager and even manager. He is that kind of dependable bloke, a good guy, a passionate football man who can contribute much more than playing and scoring goals. I'm not surprised he's been sold though. The powers that be have zero foresight and zero loyalty to a man who made them millions and saved them even more. Me, I'd have used the saved wages of say someone sold like I don't know Ranger and given a percentage of that to Nolan, our club captain and star trooper if you like. I bet Pardew is seething personally at this and you just know Nolan will be gutted and so too will the squad in general too. This thread has been quite an eye opener for me, people really don't seem to think this is important. For me it is as you say, priceless. If you have a player who is extremely influential in the dressing-room, and he's in a major grump about not getting the contract he wanted, then that influence is actually, if you think about, all the more reason to move him on. Very true and overlooked somewhat. Just look at Barton making waves now and leading to headlines of "mass exodus". Jose and Jonas are getting dragged into this as well.

Well we'll see if this transpires. Like Sewelly said, the other sales while they might not have been popular still made sense from a footballing point of view. If we sell Coloccini then it would be conclusive proof that the balance sheet is all the current regime is interested in. He was player of the season for most people.

It's good for us though as Villa are one of the teams who we will be competing with next season.

Don't believe that like.

Scared of Shearer? I don't think so. http://cdn1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/167/197/019/candyman-trilogy-1-3-horror-dvd-lot-tony-todd-2e876.jpg

Hopefully we'll take that view. CBs like Colo are very hard to find. Coloccini at 30 will be in better shape than Nolan at 25. The man's fitness record is superb. He is absolutely one of our blue chip players and one of the few who deserve top contracts.

Look at the teams which are finishing top 6 every season and ask yourselves this: would they buy Nolan? If not why not? Isn't his leadership and captaincy just as vital for their dressing rooms? Why is it only us who are going to collapse without Kev's input?