Villa boss Martin O’Neill believes he may have made the bargain signing of the summer in Marlon Harewood.
Striker Harewood has cost Villa £4m from West Ham, but with fellow forwards Darren Bent sold for £16.5m and the relatively untried Michael Chopra and David Nugent costing £5m and £6m recently, O’Neill reckons Harewood – who scored 14 Premiership goals in 2005-06 – could prove a snip.
Premier League clubs are guaranteed a minimum £30m under the new TV deal from Setanta and Sky, and the transfer market involving top flight clubs has seen prices spiral.
But O’Neill said: “I’m delighted Marlon’s come and I believe he’ll be an asset to us.
“I think he could prove exceptional value in this day and age – he’s got the capability , there’s no doubt at all about it. He’s got time on his side, he’s still very young and he wants to prove it again.”
“There’s probably a view with the new television money coming in that prices will escalate again after we’d all thought they’d reached their height a couple of years ago.
“You’d have thought that type of money for players had dropped. But the new money has suggested otherwise and it’s not easy. That’s why I think Marlon could prove fantastic value.”
Harewood failed to repeat his goalscoring form last season, managing just three from 32 league games as the Hammers struggled to avoid the drop.
But O’Neill is confident the 6ft 1ins striker can rediscover his scoring touch.
“If he recaptures the form he showed the season before last, he’ll be terrific for us, and he can play,” added the Villa boss.
O’Neill has reopened talks to extend defender Olof Mellberg’s contract, which expires next summer.
“I’m speaking to Olof. He’s got one year left to run and I started having conversation with his agent before the season ended,” he said.
See Also:
7 Comments
i hope MON really proves me wrong with this 1 as a huge villa fan i know i speak for the rest of us when i say we thought with randy lerner and MON coming in we expected some big names coming into VP whos next in paul mc gragh out of retirement (i wish) lol
Report abuse
I’m not sure how many Villa fans you speak for daz m. I think maybe a lot of us are a bit less negative than you seem to be.
Report abuse
John Carew is a Peter Withe type player who can score goals or make chances for players around him, if Marlon can feed off Carew like Gary Shaw used to off Withe they will be terrific.
Report abuse
I think Harewood is a good signing for you boys…I remember watching him in the championship a few times…I hated him because he was good!! When they got promoted, i though he would be sold, as i didn’t think he was good enough…Put he proved me wrong, as he will you villa doubters……
Report abuse
Harewood could go to another level (or at least his form 2 yrs ago)when he’s surrounded by a better team-
Report abuse
Only time will tell whether Harewood proves to be the new Peter Withe or the new Bosko Balaban. Seems to me however that a lot of Villa supporters are now going through a process of “rationalising” the move; trying to convince themselves now that it’s not really such a bad deal after all. But if Big Marlon had actually ended up at Wigan as initially seemed likely, how many Villa fans can honestly say that they wouldn’t have given a big sigh of relief?
Report abuse
We should try and sign Romario.
Report abuse