brummie

Very good keeper. I'd have thought he'll be wanting a proper move soon. I suspect it is Liverpool not wanting to sell, tbh. They're signing Itandje, who is the keeper Villa had on trial last week but sent back, which is a bit odd.

Villa to sign Scott Carson, apparently. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/article2224974.ece Good keeper. Although it is on loan, which is fucking annoying and what happens when you spend the summer with your head buried in the sand, pretending the transfer window hasn't opened.

This is probably the clearest example of someone hitting a nail square on the head I've ever seen here. Well said.

Nope, Richardson is Championship class as well. I think it is a bit harsh to call Richardson championship class, he is an unspectacular, mediocre Premiership player. Anyway, can we stop talking about transfers? I'm too fucking distraught at the moment. And it isn't about Gordon, either, before anyone asks.

If anyone has any doubts about Rennie, he refereed the match I was at on Saturday, and I can confirm he is STILL a wanker of the highest order. Gave 4 free kicks against Villa in the opening 90 seconds (I kid you not) and did his utmost to ensure he was centre of attention for the rest of the match.

He'd be in mine. That was a bloody awful team he inherited at Villa. To turn it around for a top half finish is quality work. It's a shame they finished in the bottom half then. O'neill's massively overrated, compare his record with someone like Sven and it shows him up abit. He performed a miracle to keep us up - dropped into the job a few weeks before the season, with a shit squad, with the takeover not gone through (and which didn't go through until after the window closed) so not much chance to get players in, forced to use out of contract players to boost numbers, forced to borrow Crystal Palace's third choice keeper because we didn't have a fit one at the club, and to finish 11th in a season where the club went through total change off the pitch. Incidentally, he did the above starting the season with an 11 match unbeaten run (the last team in any division to lose a game) and finishing it with a nine match unbeaten run, going through a bad patch in the middle of the season when lack of squad depth started to bite. If we'd have had a decent striker at the start of the season and a bit more squad depth, and won just a few of the many matches we drew which we should have won (West Ham away, Newcastle away, for example), he might well have got us into Europe. But no, apparently a bottom half of the table finish was a bad result, and shows he is a shit manager doesnt it? Some people, I don't know .... Oh and incidentally, bottom half finishes ... hmmm, glass houses and whatnot!

he didnt go to a shit league to manage the best team in it, he went to a team that had seen its moneyed neighbour win everything year on year, and with practically no money to spend, turned it around. And who said anything about world football or top 20 in the world? And as for trophy-in-the-cabinet achievements, a lot more than most other managers managing in the PL

In a list of how many? MON isn't one of the best managers in the game at the moment? Hmmm.

Villa have signed some talented footballers?! When did this happen?! I think it is fair to say that Ashley Young, John Carew, Gareth Barry, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Luke Moore, Nigel Reo-Coker, Shaun Maloney, Wilfred Bouma and Stiliyan Petrov are talented footballers. Or wouldn't they get a look in at the Reebok?

Yes but you're desperate! The only way that Jaaskaleinen is going to sign for a bunch of under-achievers like Villa, is if you offer stupid money for him and judging by the £4M you've spent on Harewooden, Martin O'Neill is obviously not averse to spending stupid money on players! Yes, what could possibly attract Jaaskelainen to a club like Villa ..... the chance to work with one of the best managers in the game, talented footballers alongside him. Perhaps we'll take him to the trophy room and show him the history of the club, where maybe he'll notice the European Cup, seven league titles and seven FA Cups. Alternatively, he might prefer playing in the footballing equivalent of a multiplex cinema, with the cringeing sight of people running up and down with flags and the sound of music when you score, safe in the knowledge that he'll be in the Championship next season. Still, you've always got Jloyd and McCann, muhahahahaaaaaa!

Talk is that although that kind of money is a bit mad, we desperately need a goalkeeper, so we'll take him. According to Five Live, Hearts have only agreed a fee with ONE Premier League team and Gordon has left today to join them. If Villa are that desparate for a goalkeeper, why not offer Bolton £8M for Jaaskaleinen? Save yourself £1M and get a far better goalkeeper! How many goalkeepers with one year left on their contract go for 8m? I'd be equally happy with Jaaskelainen, tbh, but that'd be at 1-2m.

No uproar from us, but masses of it from them. Albion are our traditional rivals, and especially for fans from the north side of the city, where a lot of Albion's support is, there is still rivalry. I wouldn't be surprised if Albion told Spurs they wanted 6m and us they wanted 8.

I've no idea, Dave, I haven't seen him play either. But what I do know is that Sorenson is out for a month, Taylor is fucking rubbish and we sold our third choice keeper 2 months ago, which leaves us in desperate need of a good goalkeeper, very quickly. I guess players are worth what people are prepared to pay for them.

Talk is that although that kind of money is a bit mad, we desperately need a goalkeeper, so we'll take him. I'd be confident he'd choose us, but there is one factor which concerns me. Sorenson (despite being shit) is an international goalkeeper. Although Gordon, at that price, would go straight in the team, he'd nonetheless have an int'l keeper competing with him. At Sunderland he'd be up against a couple of no-name mooks. MON is playing his transfer cards so close to his chest, though, that nobody really knows what is going on. I can't believe we're so close to the start of the season with next to nobody in. The money is there - you don't spaff 4m on a fourth choice striker if it isn't - but he's always been very guarded in the transfer market. He said at the end of last week that he hadn't had a knockback from any of his main targets, which amazes me, as I thought Defoe and SWP would definitely have been two of them. It is frustrating, though. I think that by the weekend we'll have signed at least one of Gordon, Bosingwa and Curtis Davies, and possibly all of them. But the chance that we'll sign none of them is a bit worrying.

Not given a squad number at Villa, and MON said on Friday that there was news re Delaney, but it was best to come from the player himself. Which suggests he is going to retire.

I thought Samaras was very good against us at VP last year. Mind you, we were so shit that night, we made you look like Brazil 1970

Personally, I wouldn't take Gavin McCann over a gaping hole in the middle of the pitch and 10 men on the teamsheet, and that is based on having watched him almost every game for the last few years. I do think that jloyd could be a useful signing for free, though. If only he can do something about his colossal attitude problem and lose the God complex.

What the fuck are you on about? They're what the Premiership is all about and we're bloody grateful to be able to watch them play out a drab draw for the 19th time, some people don't appreciate what they've fucking got. I'll be writing to Richard Keys about your attitude. Screw Keys, he's just a jumped up newsreader, go straight to Scudamore. God bless the lifeblood of the game, the Man U shirt wearing fanatics of south east Asia, gawd bless them!

Is there anything less inspiring in life than watching Manchester United play Chelsea on the telly yet a-fucking-gain? Here's the answer: no.

I think he could well turn out to be one of the shrewdest signings of this transfer window.

I'd actually be happy about that deal. I was dissapointed when Birmingham got him last season. For me Cole has exactly what Sunderland need. Experience and a knack for scoring goals. 188 goals in the Premership is a fantastic record. Indeed it is, but that was quite a long time ago, wasn't it? I guess it depends how he is going to be used. If as back up for when you need to stick a body up front, then yes it makes sense. If as any more than that then, hmmmmm....

Really wanted petrov at spurs :-[ City obviously offered triple the wages, no way anyone would turn down Spurs for any other reason The lad is said to be gutted, apparently.

Are you asking me that, OpNut? Nah, I mean Newcastle fans in general. Don't understand the "false Geordie" b*llocks. As a player he was a very good example of the way Newcastle consistently failed to pick up talent on their own doorstep. I don't like him. He scored that 9th minute extra time goal for Man U that effectively stole the title off us, he's got a mangled bent nose, and he manages the shit. Oh, and the thought of orange Lee Hendrie banging the eyeballs out of his daughter makes me positively rock with mirth.

Well, seriously, what did he expect to find? Holland 1974? Brazil 1970?

Are you asking me that, OpNut?