AlanSkÃrare

Mark Noble £17m Fabrice Muamba £14,5m

I reckon he'll struggle in a midfield where he's not constantly on the ball. With Gerrard, Downing and Meireles all wanting to pull the strings he'll not fit in as well as he did at Blackpool.

People have been saying this for weeks, but I still don't see why it's such a given. Villa seem like a club in decline to me, I'm not so sure Zoggy would be keen to go there. They had enough money to buy him after selling Young anyway, I suppose. In decline in what way? We've sold a player we knew was going all year, and to the champions, and we've sold one who threw tantrums about getting his move. So long as we reinvest wisely, we'll be absolutely fine. We've also started shedding a lot of the utter, utter dross that MON left us with, so whilst I'd say decline is somewhat over the top, consoldiation makes more sense. Happy to accept your opinion is more accurate than mine probably, I just mean that you've sold the two players who were absolutely key to your success. At least they seemed to be from an outsider's point of view. And also, there's the appointment of McLeish.

Nailed on to be Villa now. Pity.

What the fuck are they doing? That's 35+20+7,5+20 for Carroll, Henderson, Adam and Downing. £82,5m. Dear me.

SkyGraemeBailey Graeme Bailey Newcastle deny receiving big from Chelsea for Chiek Tiote #cfc #nufc

Du din lilla rackare! I don't think you'll find many level-headed Newcastle fans that would be distraught if we were to sell and replace him with a superior defender this summer. Where did the Swedish come from Colocho?

Can't see Chelsea spending the required amount on a player that they want to replace Essien for limited period of time.

Based on the comments in the Chronicle. Lazy and misinterpreted.

What does he have to do to get banned? We should all ignore him but it won't happen so I'd rather just get rid of him.

I wouldn't underestimate Levy and his power in this. Seems to be a very special chairman, and a good one at that. I think he'd have no problem doing what he feels is right. Also, after what he's said, his reputation is on the line here if Modric actually goes.

So Adam is heading to Liverpool for approximately £9m. And they're determined to sign Downing for about £15m. That will be: Jordan Henderson Andy Carroll Charlie Adam Stewart Downing = £79m

I love it how - after Llambias' dubious quotes in The Telegraph - Skysports put "Toon will spend Carroll money" as their headline when paraphrasing him. Not sure that's what he was after.

Just saw this on skysports.com regarding this supposed Liverpool bid for Savic. "The 20-year-old is regarded as one of the best young defenders in Europe, so it is little surprise Liverpool have shown an interest." ...cause Liverpool identify and show interest in all of Europe's best young players?

No one seemed to be excited by this anyway. Let's move on.

Just watched England - Germany in the U17 WC. What's the name of Germany's nr 8 and captain? Switched on for the last 10 minutes and he looked a class above.

Interesting that he referred back to the game against Blackburn. We played them off the park but couldn't finish them off. That would have been the case had we not adressed the problem in this window I would have been concerned. Good answer on Nolan, shit answer on the money. It's a no-brainer, we should be spending more than we will, certain of it now.

"Villa close on N'Zogbia" according to Skysports. Sort of a "nothing article" but anyway, we have to be in there.

I have a feeling he will stay until January at least. Would be amazing if we could get him to sign a new contract. I'd be happy for him to play next season as well as it will mean he'll have some decent players to aim for in comparison to next season. Still watch the highlights of his first half against Blackburn and feel sorry for him.

It's going to be so frustrating more than anything. Watching this really good core not get the few quality additions that it needs to get somewhere. These early signings have been really good, we've got the likes of Krul, Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tioté and Jonas to build on. Two or three real investments could make for a very good season. I fear we'll be left upon what could have been yet again.

Neil Taylor and Mevlut Erdinc - possible, probable and incredibly disappointing.

People should tweet him that link once every hour.

Isn't Ba more similar to Carroll? Maybe playing wise, but if we're ambitious someone like Sturridge, with his potential and hunger to prove himself for real, would fill Carroll's boots.

Sturridge is such an obvious replacement for Carroll. No excuse not to be in for him.

Getting what you actually want costs money. We mustn't settle for what's available on the cheap just because we're holding back. The club needs a striker that can fill Carroll's boots. Demba Ba is a terrific complement and a good striker, but someone like Sturridge is needed if we are to kick on and maintain the same kind of quality up front.