brummie

Change the names of the players and the name of the club and you've got every single signing ever, right there.

I know this is probably preaching to the converted, but this is what i find incredible. As if there weren't more base things to fix first, and as if the trophy signing thing hadn't been tried before. I'm aware I'm possibly touching a sensitive subject as an outside here, however, so I'll back off, but you know what I mean. FWIW, I imagine SA is the kind of manager who WOULD put the basics right first as a matter of urgency.

Everybody has got money these days, though, that's the thing. Except for Everton

On a football basis, I'd say clubs like Newcastle, Everton, Villa would be far more attractive to players than, say, West Ham. However, nowadays, especially for foreign players, as NE5 said, West Ham have a massive advantage in being a London club. Interesting though, now that all clubs can afford to pay stupid wages, factors such as the "I want to play for that man" come into it more. That's where managers like SA, MON and to a lesser extent, possibly even Moyes come into it. Alan Curbishley, great achiever with limited resources though he is, well, can you really imagine a player really, really wanting to play for him? Oh, and Gemill is right, Spurs are far more attractive than any of the clubs mentioned above, at the moment.

Is it daft to suggest that the reason Ashley hasn't spent big money on the transfer market yet is because either Allardyce hasn't decided where he wants to spend it, or he has, but the players in question (or the clubs they play for) have knocked you back? There doesn't seem to be a lot of movement in the transfer market as a whole this summer, to be honest. Maybe with the big tv money, clubs who previously would have capitulated at the first sight of a decent wedge no longer have to do so, so are either keeping their assets, or playing hardball when talking figures? I'm just as worried about my club's lack of activity, but I'd be more worried if it were only us. Except it isn't.

After the Harewood affair, I doubt MON would risk a signing like this. Well, I hope he wouldn't. Celtic could no way afford 6m for a player, though, so that makes the whole thing look a bit shaky.

You say that as if I have previous in that department. The only occasion I can think of was when I thought Martins was a bit of a gamble. Perhaps I've got the wrong opinion of you Brummie, if so I apologise. No need, no need

You say that as if I have previous in that department. The only occasion I can think of was when I thought Martins was a bit of a gamble.

Yes, he sounds like he'd be a really committed player were you to buy him. Now, who was it who said this? Ironically, I wonder whether he had a specific northern team in mind when he referred to the long ball being booted upfield? Steer well clear.

Sid Cowans is an all time Villa legend, of the "bleeds claret and blue" variety. He's possibly the most cultured midfielder I've ever seen play for us. Oddly enough, in our 81 Championship year, he had a pretty bad season, never really got moving, but otherwise he was a fantastic passer of the ball, one of those cultured, classy players you love to watch. He runs our academy now, and is largely responsible for our recent output. Incidentally, he's from County Durham, and thus can be added to that massive list of players on your doorstep Newcastle missed over decades. Incidentally, our championship and EC winning team were criminally overlooked at international level. How the f*** Tony Morley only got 6 caps and Dennis Mortimer got none is beyond me. in those 6 games morley done very little and mortimer was up against bryan robson (i think) Doing very little for England wasn't usually a problem. I seem to remember John Barnes getting 80 odd caps and having about 4 good games And being up against Bryan Robson is one thing, not getting a single game is another. See, most of us stopped giving a shite about England in the last few years, I stopped 25 years ago.

Sid Cowans is an all time Villa legend, of the "bleeds claret and blue" variety. He's possibly the most cultured midfielder I've ever seen play for us. Oddly enough, in our 81 Championship year, he had a pretty bad season, never really got moving, but otherwise he was a fantastic passer of the ball, one of those cultured, classy players you love to watch. He runs our academy now, and is largely responsible for our recent output. Incidentally, he's from County Durham, and thus can be added to that massive list of players on your doorstep Newcastle missed over decades. Incidentally, our championship and EC winning team were criminally overlooked at international level. How the fuck Tony Morley only got 6 caps and Dennis Mortimer got none is beyond me.

Fancy a bet we'll finish above you? Jesus, Parky, you're obviously a bit flush, mate.

This sounds melodramatic, but I genuinely get goosebumps when I think about how lucky I was to watch that man play on a regular basis. He really was *that good*. His partnership with Shaun Teale was magnificent. Week after week he just made it look absolutely effortless, and to think he did it without being able to train and whilst being shitfaced half the time, what a fantastic piece of transfer business that was. I can't believe they've put Platt's transfer in, but not Dwight Yorke - 10k to a club in Tobago, several years excellent service, then 13m to Man United.

Changing the subject, excellent username there. He's a massive, massive Villa fan, is Spizz. Have you ever heard "The Sun Never Sets on Aston Villa"? Marvellous. Anyway, as you were...

I'm amazed Villa haven't made a move for Young, seeing as we currently do not have a right back at the club (Delaney doesn't count, he's perma-injured).

Bonk - are you going to watch my lot play Toronto next week? Actually, I think I may have asked you this before.

Not got quite enough midfielders, then?

Preseason friendlies don't really tell us anything, to be honest

Absolutely fantastic move if you ask me.

The reason we got shot was because he wasn't good enough, simple as that really. One good season he had, although he was loved by the fans, inexplicably. I've seen quite a few of his goals in the MLS by the way of the unmentionable video sharing web site, and - although I know this is a bit of a cliche - the quality of defending is so bad, they're making him look like Pele. Actually, that is a little harsh, let's just say that the fact that JPA is such a star over there tells its own story. He was thought to be on 40k a week here, so that is indeed a pay cut, but there was no way anyone was going to pay him much more than 20k a week here on any new contract. Smashing bloke, though, and genuinely was sad to leave (when he did the lap of 'honour' at the end of DOL's last season, when he thought he was off, he was crying his eyes out, bless). As for it just being a case of New York >>>> Birmingham, someone had better tell that Torres bloke that Madrid >>>>> Liverpool.

What goes around comes around, and I personally hope plenty more of it comes around for West Ham.

Spookily similar to our boards this last week on the subject of players like Harewood. All you can do is trust in the manager's ability, and the will of the board to back him, and hope that he is getting such players in because he wants them (which is almost certainly the case) rather than that's because he can't afford better.

Over the last year, our new lot have built a new 14m pound training centre, spent 4m restoring the derelict Holte Hotel (pub at the back of the Holte End) to its original Victorian state (and I have to say, it looks fucking amazing), pulled off the shirt deal with Nike (Bob Kain of IMG is on our board, I suspect he was heavily involved), and ponied up a decent amount of cash in January for players - the year has generally been good news followed by good news, mustn't grumble on that front. We know the money is there for big signings, but we're going to have the same problem you are, in that having big money is great, but the best players want Europe, and they want it now. So one thing we've seen is this "why aren't we signing Huntelaar or Sneijder?" thing all the time, when the big question is why they'd possibly want to sign for us *as things are at the moment*. What is really, really annoying is my original point about the creeping culture of unquestioned loyalty. What makes it more visible for us is that General Krulak, Lerner's right hand man, and a board member posts regularly on our four main forums - he has his own thread basically, where you can post questions to the board, and he tries to reply. At first it was great - he genuinely does help, and there have been several things suggested by fans which the club has done (this would never have happened under Ellis), but the downside of it is that with him as the board's 'cheerleader', people moaning about, say, our horrible new badge, get accused (by other fans, not by him) of "moaning for the sake of it" or being ungrateful. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we could have been luckier than we have been so far with Lerner, they have been great. That doesn't mean they're infallible, though (Doug Ellis was our saviour in 1968, and he really did save the club, and look how that turned out), and it doesn't mean we should never criticise when we think we need to - and that's pretty much the point I'm trying to get over re Ashley (or indeed any new owner).

The fact that Ashley is carrying out a thorough review of the club as a first step might lend some credence to the idea of Mort being brought in on a temporary basis, surely? He's a lawyer, isn't he? And a close confidant of Ashley, so therefore the perfect kind of person to conduct that review, I'd have thought. Doesn't mean he will be temporary, but suggests that it is a possibility.

Couldn't agree more with this, however, the buck always stops at someone. Now it is the owner. I don't know if Ashley will be your chairman or will appoint someone else, but Lerner is ours, so strictly speaking our chairman can't be sacked. He doesn't report to anyone but himself, has no shareholders to consider, and does what he wants. For us, Ellis did the same in practise, but even with his sycophant and relative-stuffed board, and other shareholders, there was at least *some* element of control. With people like Ashley or Lerner, I don't think we have any real reason to be overly suspicious of their motives. The worst they can realistically want to do is make money ... and to be honest, in our case, any Villa fan who doesn't think that the first thing Lerner thought when he started buying the club was "fucking hell, that's way undervalued" is naive. What is now apparent in our support, and I am intrigued by your situation, is that further down the line, we now have a situation where we're so fucking relieved to be rid of the old guard, and the new guard are looking excellent in (almost) all they have done, that there is a culture of "how dare you complain, how fucking ungrateful" which surpresses anyone criticising or questioning the new regime, however valid or constructive that criticism. Faith is excellent, blind faith is naive and dangerous, and that, for me, is why we need to maintain this healthy scepticism.