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MON – No imminent transfers – and addressing all rumours

After 4 years of MON at Villa we should be used to his comments and the way of thinking but these comments today whilst in Portugal I have to say I am not encouraged by the words but do they reflect the reality ?

ON TRANSFERS

On incoming activity, he added: “There’s nothing imminent – let me put it that way.

“We’re on the lookout and we’ll see what does develop.”

This will of course anger many as it is clear we need a few gaps filled with quality players. However with caution that MON could say this today and sign someone next week and to add that the number of current moves are very low.

DISMISSING YOUNG and PETROV RUMOURS

On Young “I had a bit of a wry smile about it. It’s part of the game, it’s just that some things go close to the knuckle, if there are certain things that are well off the mark and are detrimental to the football club and the way we’re running it of course I’ll get irked.

“But not those type of things.”

On Petrov “But that doesn’t mean that teams like Liverpool wouldn’t be interested in him because he’s a top quality player. But as we speak, no-one from Liverpool has contacted us.

ON PETROV CAPTAINCY

“Players will say things through him and he will voice that opinion to me, whatever that might be and from that viewpoint it works pretty well. He’s not frightened to put his own opinion across and he’s not frightened to act on behalf of the players. He’s been excellent.”

ON MILNER

“I’ve left that with the chief executive and the owner and I’m sure that they’ll fill me in with what might have developed.

“I think that there is some sort of dialogue going on and I think that you can see that Manchester City have made an offer which has not been accepted and it hasn’t reached the valuation that Aston Villa are putting on James. Who know what might happen in the foreseeable future? The answer is I’m not sure myself.”

This interview on the OS is one of the most comprehensive I have seen from MON for a long while addressing all the recent news and rumours and either dismissing or confirming them.

From this interview I can only conclude the future of Milner and the selling of the likes of Sidwell and Shorey is vital to our whole transfer policy. Also very noticeable is that every interview when asked about Milner he is making it clear he has nothing to do with whether he gets sold or not, which as I posted a couple of days is a major gear shift for MON.

Support Sir Graham Taylor, fantastic effort

Hat tip Vital Lincoln

Sir Graham Taylor is doing a London to Paris bike ride in aid of the British Legion and this is something I admire from a pensioner. 4 years ago I did the same ride and it is bloody tough and I was 34 at the time.

Fantastic effort by Sir Graham and watch out for the killer hills on the North Downs, this is appeal

The Club Patron of Lincoln City FC and Patron of the Lincoln City Supporters’ Trust is looking for Imps supporters and others to back him in a charity event.

“Hi,

At long last I am doing something worthwhile!!

I am one of approximately 300 people who are going to cycle from London to Paris in an attempt to raise in excess of £500,000 for The Royal British Legion. Starting at Greenwich Park on Thursday September 2nd we all hope to be celebrating when finishing at the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday September 5th.

Obviously I am now looking for as many sponsors as possible, and hopefully this is where you come in!

You can support me by making a donation by visiting JUST GIVING GRAHAM TAYLOR and/or texting ‘graham` to 70222. The text message costs £3 plus standard network charges.

The Royal British Legion is the nation`s leading Armed Forces charity providing care and support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present and their families. It is also the national Custodian of Remembrance and safeguards the Military Covenant between the nation and its Armed Forces. It is of course best known for the annual Poppy Appeal and its emblem the red poppy.

Finally as I come to the end of my first year as an O.A.P I cannot think of a better way of celebrating it than cycling from London to Paris. Can you? Thanks for your support.

Best Wishes

Graham Taylor’

Is Ireland to stay in Manchester and further Milner updates

Hat tip : H&V

If this is really Stephen Ireland’s twitter feed looks like he is going nowhere south of Manchester

staying in manchester!
about 2 hours ago via web


LINK

If he is really staying at City and not moving to Bolton, Blackburn, Man U etc, we can only presume the stories of Milner deal being definitely off is correct

On the OS they have pictures of the training session and Milner features heavily, smiling. Also on the front page they have a link to the pictures and once again Milner features.

Are these signs he is going to stay ?

If I was Milner I would think very carefully about his next steps, If they want him that much they would pay the cash so how much do they really want him, is he just a stop gap on their way to universal domination.

Look at these quotes from City fans on BBC 606

Richardtheref

As a City fan i hope this is true. Just because you were ripped off by Newcastle you now feel that you can rip us off. No one on this earth can persuade me that he is worth more than 8 million. Another average English player whose club value him far higher than his talent deserves just coz its City.

aleras

We wont pay more than £24 million – £10 million more than he is actually worth.

Stay where the fans love you, the manager loves you.

Stay where you play in your true position and not as a utility player.

Stay where you made your name, forget the big bucks, some things are worth more than money.

Stay where you can be a Villa legend and England star

SPECULATION : Milner compromise on £28m, Spurs swaps for Young

The Mirror once again comes up with some corkers.

First up is that they reckon Villa and Man city will compromise at £28m cash after a precise £24,6m was rejected. We have dismissed swaps for Ireland and Bellamy as we want all cash.

LINK

Secondly and rather boring a story that Spurs will offer Keane, Bentley and Jenas and no cash for young who we want £30m for. Apparently the lure of Young is a pay rise from £60 to £65m, JOKERS.

LINK

Oh and both articles repeat the mantra of ‘sell to buy’ the Mirror has peddled the past month.

the sun just has one story on Luke Young rejecting move because

did not want to take 10k pay drop

did not want to move family there

did not want to be on the bench

We all could have made that up

LINK

ITK – Milner deal collapsed and MON turning into Cloughie

On H&V a regular poster called Juan Pablo has said the Milner deal has collapsed

Milner deal looks off –

Milner thinks it will collapse

( until next year ))

Its what he feels… not saying a lot.. The clubs aint saying a lot neither

Well thats what James feels..I can only tell you what James is saying….

I understand this guy may have proper information but as usual it is all a ITK story and should NOT be taken as the gospel truth :-)

For my pennies worth whatever our valuation is Man City will not pay it (£30m reckoned to be it) ad we knw over the Barry deal just how stubborn we are once we have our minds set.

I have no doubt that Milner will give us all for Villa but this will certainly restrict the budget though !

IF true I want Villa to come out with a firm statement that no bids whatever the money will be entertained until the end of the season, put it to bed

As usual following Villa is NOT boring

Thanks to GH on the comments he made me aware of this MON comment

The manager said: “We met on Monday, and the word amicable was quite right. I suppose I could use the old Cloughie line that we chatted for 20 minutes and decided I was right all along!”

LINK

Love that quote as it shows MON is in total control of the situation and does indicate that whoever spoke for Milner on the weekend is no longer involved.

Milner looks relaxed in all the photo’s so positive all roung

SSN – Young turns down transfer and linked with Fulham

Hat tip – ‘MonsXI’ Villatalk

Sky Sports News are reporting that Luke Young has turned down a move to Liverpool for ‘family reasons’

I hope he gets a decent move but he may need to reduce his wage demands if he wants a move to say Fulham or West Ham who have been linked before.

Now now Sky ‘understand’ that Fulham are interested which has been linked before and understandable on all sides if the wages can be sorted and Young accepts a reduction.

In defence of Stan Petrov

Since the Mirror story broke last night it was going to always be obvious that it would split fans between those who say ‘good riddance’ and those who say he should stay.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Stan Petrov divides support amongst the Villans and for various reasons. However to address the naysayers I will post this defence of Stan, I expect many not to believe what I write or think I am talking cobblers, your choice really.

OK lets look at the PL Stats first and remembering Stan is a defensive midfielder

TACKLES

He made 143 tackles last season with a success rate of 76%. This put in 5th in the the list of tacklers with the 2nd best % rate behind in both cases Mascherano.

FOULS

He is 46th in the the list conceding 46 fouls all season. For comparison Mascherano was 7th after conceding 67 fouls.

He won a total of 84 fouls last season putting him third just behind Kevin Davies and Steven Pienaar

PASSING

Made 1412 passes putting him 28 in the list. Milner made more passes at 1514. Of these passes 1140 were successful putting him 22nd, Milner was even lower at 1084

YELLOW CARDS

Stan was top with 11 along with Muamba

So what do these stats say. To me it shows in the tackling area he is very effective and does the job of a defensive midfielder. Somehow he does get given a lot of yellows but more for petulance I think as I can barely remember a bad tackle. Passing wise is possibly the area with an average success rate but Milner’s was worse, this suggest to me more of a problem with the team’s ability to create space. What it does not show is the constant cry we hear of easy passes backwards or sidewards or otherwise it would be an higher success rate.

Sky LINK for Stats
Telegraph LINK for Stats

So to address some of the other complaints about Stan

- he tires out after 70 minutes – this is purely a personal standpoint and yes would agree not as early as the 70th minute but later he can. However could this because Milner is very offensive and Stan has to cover a lot of the ground, makes the case for a 4-3-3 more compelling

- not a leader – well watch him on the pitch, he commands the respect of all around him, surely he would not be captain after all. He is the captain of Club and Country, you do not get those positions unless by accident

- does not create or score enough - does he need to, that is not his position

Finally this post from ‘chads’ on VT if true sums up why Petrov within the Villa ranks IS appreciated and why if true Roy Hodgson (whose stock has never been higher) may actually rate him higher than ourselves.

let me give you the point of view of a villa player…yes player, who sees, trains and plays with him day in and day out:

when some friends of mine met fabian delph in a birmingham nightclub (last season before he got injured) one of them them told him he should be playing instead of petrov because petrov is shit etc, and started talking all the bollox some people on here who also dont know what they’re talking about usually come out with…slow, doesn’t score enough etc..

Delph ordered him to get down and give him 20 press ups because it was such a ridiculous comment. delph said that petrov was ‘the best player at the club’, and we would be nowhere without him and his midfield calm and control. he went on and on apparently and i wasnt there so cant convey his whole argument but this is a young and exciting footballer trying to takemake a name for himslef in petrov’s position so surely his opinion is worth its weight in gold in this argument? case closed?

SPECULATION : Petrov for Liverpool, Young wants payoff and Carew to Besiktas

Well I never expected this from the Mirror but they are saying that Liverpool want Stillyan Petrov as replacement for Mascherano.

LINK

The cost is rumoured to be £7m and story is by Alan Nixon (Nicko) who some say has decent contacts. Of all the links I have seen this has got to the wildest of them all.

Mirror also reports that Luke Young’s move is being held up as he wants a pay off from Villa for accepting reduced wages at Liverpool

LINK

The Mail have linked Carew back to one of his former clubs Besiktas where he spent a decent season, anyone left to be linked to go ?

LINK

Has there been a power shift at Villa

The following comments are from the BBC report on Milner talks having been stalled

“I think the owner [Randy Lerner] puts a price on players. Of course, he will have an idea on the price,” explained O’Neill.

“Negotiations are being conducted by the Villa chief executive [Paul Faulkner] and the owner and I will be guided by them.”

It has generally been thought that MON is in charge of everything regarding the playing side at Villa ,these comments suggest the financial side has moved to Paul Faulkner the CEO. Actually for many people this is good news as it allows MON to concentrate with team and set the parameters for which Faulkner can do any possible deal.

We are aware Randy and MON had a meeting at the end of last season and it does seem some items were agreed then which has had an effect on current transfer dealings

- High wage earners in the squad but who do not play have to be released to free up the wage bill

- The CEO takes over the money side of any financial discussions

- That we have fixed prices for any players others may want and no matter how much we need the money for other players we will stick to it

With the comments some have suggested that MON sounds resigned, I disagree, it sounds like they have come to a mutually agreeable relationship.

If not then knowing the record of MON would he not walk ?

McGeady not starting for Celtic – is he Villa bound – SSN says so, BBC says back injury

Whilst it is not clear that playing in tonight’s CL qualifier against Braga would make McGeady ineligible for Villa in the Europa Cup he has been left out of the starting line up tonight. He has travelled but not even named as sub so he will be off, Spartak got to be favourites you would think.

Johnjohn2 on VT has posted

Lots of rumours rom the Celtic fans that McGeady is going to Villa for 8mp + Heskey.

but not seen anything on their forums

Would add of course he has travelled, not injured but not playing and just which other team is in Portugal tonight ?

Jackso55 says on VT

Just heard on Sky sports news via the commentator on the Celtic vs Braga update that Mcgeady has been left out of the squad for the tonights game, with very strong rumours coming out that he is about to sign for villa in the next few days. I AM NOT ITK, Just passing on the info that I heard, it was at about 9.05pm.

BBC now reporting a back injury