The dealmakers

[KaKa]

Maybe it was the plan to do more of this sort of thing through the summer and totally revamp the team but due to the disagreement with the manager it couldn't happen as they wanted it to.

 

I think they've been itching to get rid of the likes of Barton, Smith, Duff and Owen. Players who just weren't justifying their wages which were crippling the club financially.

 

[Baggio]

Not sure how the people negotiating fees have anything to do with how much is to spend or not?

 

Unless Ashley is doing the negotiating of course.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

To be fair N'Zogbia wanting to leave is absolutely nothing to do with that.  He's been the same for years.

[Wullie]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

To be fair N'Zogbia wanting to leave is absolutely nothing to do with that.  He's been the same for years.

 

Fair enough but I'm not so sure.

[Mistle17]

People can question the motives & say there's a fire sale / asset stripping or other such bollocks, but we seem to be negotiating some cracking deals when getting shot of our players.

Can only hope that extends to when Given realises his lifelong dream of playing for Manchester's second club.

 

Cut the guy some lack, man. He's served us for 11 years and has been our most consistent performer in that time. He deserves somewhere where he'll win things.

 

Anyway, hats off to the negotiators. Much better than the Shepherd/Hall regime.

 

I thought he was going to City?

 

Well with their money/ambitions their going places much quicker than us. I know theres not a massive difference atm between ourselves and City, but next season we'll probably notice it quite a bit more...

[midds]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

That's fair enough. 

 

What were the club supposed to do under the circumstances though? The 2 players clearly don't want to be here so what else has the club to do other than to get the best deal possible for the pair of them?

[Wullie]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

That's fair enough. 

 

What were the club supposed to do under the circumstances though? The 2 players clearly don't want to be here so what else has the club to do other than to get the best deal possible for the pair of them?

 

I agree but I'd rather they felt this football club was going forward and wanted to be part of it. At the moment we're a poorer side for the loss of these two imo, even with the new additions. Lot of work on incoming players to do before Monday for me.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

People can question the motives & say there's a fire sale / asset stripping or other such bollocks, but we seem to be negotiating some cracking deals when getting shot of our players.

Can only hope that extends to when Given realises his lifelong dream of playing for Manchester's second club.

 

Cut the guy some lack, man. He's served us for 11 years and has been our most consistent performer in that time. He deserves somewhere where he'll win things.

 

Anyway, hats off to the negotiators. Much better than the Shepherd/Hall regime.

 

I thought he was going to City?

 

Well with their money/ambitions their going places much quicker than us. I know theres not a massive difference atm between ourselves and City, but next season we'll probably notice it quite a bit more...

 

They'll probably crack the top half of the table.

[Yorkie]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

That's fair enough. 

 

What were the club supposed to do under the circumstances though? The 2 players clearly don't want to be here so what else has the club to do other than to get the best deal possible for the pair of them?

 

I agree but I'd rather they felt this football club was going forward and wanted to be part of it. At the moment we're a poorer side for the loss of these two imo, even with the new additions. Lot of work on incoming players to do before Monday for me.

 

Really? I think it's an improvement tbh. Zoggy's a bit-part player and hasn't been up for it and, well - Shay doesn't really contribute to team play. Harper's a perfectly decent keeper.

 

If we hadn't got Nolan and Taylor we'd be looking at Edgar and Geremi as long term fixtures in the side.

[midds]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

That's fair enough. 

 

What were the club supposed to do under the circumstances though? The 2 players clearly don't want to be here so what else has the club to do other than to get the best deal possible for the pair of them?

 

I agree but I'd rather they felt this football club was going forward and wanted to be part of it. At the moment we're a poorer side for the loss of these two imo, even with the new additions. Lot of work on incoming players to do before Monday for me.

 

Given the state of the finances though? I'd love us to go out and spend £30m on 4 players but that's unrealistic.

 

We've obviously got to sell before we can buy and selling Zog and replacing him with Nolan, Taylor and about £1m is good business no matter how you look at it. N'Zogbia refused to play so he was of no use to us at all.

 

Add the £9m (or thereabouts) from Given and we can get 2 more decent players in for a player who doesn't want to be here. Throw Lovenkrands in and we've strengthened the squad without spending money.

 

Those accounts changed everything. 

[johnnypd]

Given's been back to top form this season after struggling to get back to his best for a while. I think without him we'd be sitting the relegation spots atm.

[Guest Edd]

Given's been back to top form this season after struggling to get back to his best for a while. I think without him we'd be sitting the relegation spots atm.

But if we reinvest the money you could easily say we could be mid table now.

[Guest michaelfoster]

Charles N'Somnia: Oh erm Tottenham, Arsenal & Lyon want me

Agent: Erm actually Charles no they dont, nobody has actually bid for you except Wigan and NUFC are getting a player plus £6m

Charles: Wigan, who the f*ck are they, doesnt that Geordie manage them

Agent: erm yeah

Charles: oh f*ck it, ill go there instead

[Mistle17]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

[TRon]

I'd like to see the money spent on good players before praising them. I laughed my arse off at Villa paying £12m for Milner but that stung me right back when we didn't get a replacement.

 

Getting big money for average players is all well and good, but unfortunately money doesn't score goals, keep clean sheets or win matches.

 

and Milner is helping to establish Villa in the top four. Whereas our 'brilliant' summer of transfers has us on the brink of relegation. if i had a choice of paying a little too much for transfers, and receiving slightly less than we're due on our sales, but getting in exactly who we need to improve us, then i would take that over some clever negotiating for average players like Nolan and Taylor or good players like Given and N'Zogbia.

 

Neither of which wanted to even play for us again though.

 

I'm all for keeping good players but if they refuse to play for us then what choice has the club got? 

 

But the reason they didn't want to be here was because the squad building in the summer has left us where we are and because we've showed very little ambition. At the moment, that's still true.

 

No point selling your council house for a million quid if you then go and live in a cardboard box on the high street.

 

That's fair enough. 

 

What were the club supposed to do under the circumstances though? The 2 players clearly don't want to be here so what else has the club to do other than to get the best deal possible for the pair of them?

 

I agree but I'd rather they felt this football club was going forward and wanted to be part of it. At the moment we're a poorer side for the loss of these two imo, even with the new additions. Lot of work on incoming players to do before Monday for me.

 

Really? I think it's an improvement tbh. Zoggy's a bit-part player and hasn't been up for it and, well - Shay doesn't really contribute to team play. Harper's a perfectly decent keeper.

 

If we hadn't got Nolan and Taylor we'd be looking at Edgar and Geremi as long term fixtures in the side.

 

The problem is we didn't get rid of Edgar and Geremi, we got rid of N'Zogbia and Given. I don't mind losing either if we have better players coming in.

[Guest johnson293]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

[oldtype]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

Oh sure he might have been GREAT if we let him be the only left-sided midfielder in the squad for the entirety of the career.

 

He had competition, he couldn't take it. Cry me a river.

[Wullie]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

[Guest johnson293]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

 

Which periods? The runs at left wing or the dummy spitting?

 

He has had/done both.

[Wullie]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

 

Which periods? The runs at left wing or the dummy spitting?

 

He has had/done both.

 

When has he "spat his dummy" while being played consistently on the left wing?

[Unbelievable]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

 

Which periods? The runs at left wing or the dummy spitting?

 

He has had/done both.

 

When was his last run at left wing, where he played there consistently for a number of matches in a row?

[M4]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

 

He's never spat the dummy out on the pitch. And indeed his stints as proper left midfielder were always short lived almost always for reasons out of his control.

 

Only true run was under Roeder I guess, before all this left back talk.

[Dave]

N'Zogbia's just another player who started off looking really promising and was never brought through properly.

 

You can blame whoever you like for this in his case but he isn't the first at this club and he won't be the last.

[Guest johnson293]

N'Zogbia might've turned out to be much better than he currently is if Duff wasnt here and we'd bought LB's.

 

As someone posted elsewhere (might have been on the N'Zogbia thread), he has had runs in the team in his preferred position, which have started well enough, but eventually the dummy has been spat again for some reason.

 

I don't remember these periods.

 

Which periods? The runs at left wing or the dummy spitting?

 

He has had/done both.

 

When was his last run at left wing, where he played there consistently for a number of matches in a row?

 

When Duff has been injured, which was quite a lot in his (Duff's) first season.

 

Can't give you exact numbers till I go through the DVD's of the last few seasons. 

 

[oldtype]

N'Zogbia's time here. Reconstructed by memory.

 

Brought into the side in 2005-2006 has a wonderful season. Goes to his head.

 

Media links him to Arsenal in the summer (young, French, talented, 2+2=5,) he believes it. Goes to his head.

 

Club buys Duff. Sensible move. We weren't about to let a 19 year old be our only recognized left winger, and at the time Duff seemed like a crazy bargain.

 

2006-2007: Duff gets injured, Zog gets run. Is mostly s*** with some moments of brilliance.

 

Winter comes, starts making noises about wanting to leave.

 

Falls out with Roeder, barely plays for rest of season.

 

More want-away whinging in the summer.

 

2007/2008: Forced to alternate LW/LB because of Fat Sam's awkward 4-3-3. Scores a great goal at Boro and then disappears for the rest of the season. Keegan doesn't seem to rate him either.

 

Out-and-out whinging reaches a fever pitch in the off season. Leading to where we are today.

 

I will not remember him fondly.