Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Villa warn rivals over Gardner
Wednesday 24th June 2009, 11:00AM BST.
Villa have warned their Premier League neighbours Wolves and Birmingham to forget about prising Craig Gardner away from Villa Park.
Wolves, Blues and Championship side Middlesbrough are thought to be keeping tabs on the midfielder, who captained England’s Under-21s in Monday’s draw with Germany, although Villa are yet to receive any bids for the young star.
But Villa sources have confirmed to the Express & Star that Martin O’Neill is keen to keep hold of the versatile 22-year-old.
Home-grown Villa fan Gardner, who is under contract until 2012, has been widely tipped to leave Villa Park this summer after making just two Premier League starts last term.
He also regularly found himself played out of position at right-back, or on the right side of midfield.
But the Solihull-born star publicly declared he was “happy” at the club a fortnight ago and it is understood the player has made no attempts to seek a move.
And Gareth Barry’s £12million departure to Manchester City has left a void in the centre of Villa’s midfield, so Gardner currently finds himself competing with Steve Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker for the slot alongside Stiliyan Petrov.
O’Neill is expected to bring in a replacement for Barry with Tottenham trio David Bentley, Tom Huddlestone and Jermaine Jenas all linked with moves to the Midlands.
But it is understood the Villa manager’s top priority is finding a replacement for retired skipper Martin Laursen.
Portsmouth’s Sylvain Distin, Fulham’s Brede Hangeland, Boro’s David Wheater and Everton’s Joleon Lescott are among the centre-backs recently touted as possible signings.
Yet further departures are still a possibility – the futures of Nigel Reo-Coker, Zat Knight, Nicky Shorey, Marlon Harewood and Isaiah Osbourne are up in the air.
But, with the squad looking stretched, arrivals are expected before exits.
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If the boy wants to sign for Wolves,let him!
Remember Andy Gray?
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It looks like the owners of Birmingham City are going to spend a decent amount this time around. Quality not quantity; as under Bruce. They will sell up if they get a decent offer, but the Blues will need to be in the Premiership. Hopefully The Blues and Wolves will survive and prosper. I feel Wolves have a decent team; with a couple of decent additions will survive. With Johson and Dann on board The Blues have got a chance also. Looking forward to the season.
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1. He has not said he wants to sign for Wolves and whats to remember about Andy Gray as a Wolves player. Villa had his best years by far, Everton didnt do so bad with him either. The only reason he shone at Wolves, is because they were a very mediocre bunch anyway and you didnt have to be in your prime to stand out amongst that lot.
However, I wish you well in the prem (apart from 2 games anyway) We only want the Braggies back with us now and Midlands footie will be back on the map again.
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Blues are making us look like a laughing stock.
They’ve spent £10mill on a striker, signed Joe Hart the future England Number 1, and have now signed Roger Johnson from Cardiff for £5 million. Who is probably in the top 3 best defenders in the Championship.
Going down the Moxey way.
Again.
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SUPER JEZ SUPER JEZ SUPER JEZ!!
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5 – craig shut up super jez how much of a joke are u and birms are making us look stupid how come there signing people are were not because we have jez moxley they dont thats why there signing people why cant jez just go he knows he aint wanted by none of us since the season has ended we have signed a rubbish keeper and thats it milijas might not be able to even sign for us how pathetic are we dont get me wrong mick is top class knows what he is doing but when it comes to transfer u maze well give us the money and spend it on players would do a better job than you and thanks for all this specualtion express and star at least your entertaining us with players but i can understand why ya doing it getting bored like us
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What people need to remember is that Wolves had the nucleus of a team when promoted. Blues had a team of loan players. They needed seven players to replace the loanees. They are going to be linked with everyone. Wolves do not need to be so hasty and can be more selective as we possibly only need 3 or 4 more signings in the areas already highlighted
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What people need to remember is that Wolves got promoted with the nucleus of a good young team. Blues got promoted with a load of loan players. They need to buy 7 or 8 players to get a team, plus more ontop of this. They are going to be linked with everyone and need to spend big. Wolves on the other hand need only to buy possibly 3 or 4 players to bolster our team in the areas that have already been identified
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Tom, ever heard of punctuation? Full stops and grammar ring any bells?
Thought not.
Jez Moxey has done a very astute job at Wolves, and we are not in financial mire, like a lot of clubs at present. Get off his back.
Out of birminghams signings, I would honestly only want Johnson, which isn’t a done deal yet.
The columbian is unproven, and could be a massive flop like a lot of South Americans in the Premiership. Dann is no better than Stearman.
Chill out all, from what Morgan has said, theres a few on the horizon.
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Joe Hart is no better than Hennessey has the same strengths and the same weaknesses. Scott Dann and Roger Johnson are both good in the air but very slow on the floor. 9 mil for two championship defenders. 9 mil for a striker who has never played in europe and only been watched on a dvd. Am I worried? no. If we get Ledley, Kevin Doyle, Zubar and utilise the loan market with Aaron Ramsay and Macheda we will be fine.
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Tom
I think it is you who looks stupid with your comments, before wolves go to Australia they will have signed who they need for the season ahead, its time for Jez to be left alone to do what he is paid for.
As for say Hanenmann he is a top keeper, so calling him rubbish is a daft comment.
Time to have patients people, our time will come.
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6. tom, we are spending wisely. Birmingham can dish out millions of pounds for unknown players. ALSO hennessey is much better than Joe hart so pipe down… effectively
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ALSO Hull have got marc antoine fontaine, deal will go through in 24 hours
WOLVES are in a similar position with centre back Ronald Zubar who passed his medical
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wolvesmod:
The best thing you can do,is take up fishing on a Saturday afternoon.
We don’t need negative support like yours.
You should have been around in the bad old days of the 80′s, going to places like Torquay, Exeter,Carlisle, Scarborough, Maidstone & CHORLEY!
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What’s going to places such as Torquay and Exeter got anything to do with Wolves signing players n paying Premiership wages to keep us in the Premier League???
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Blues again I’m getting fed up of them living in our trousers. If we were interested in Vicky Pollard so would they be!!!
Regards Johnson I would prefer Mills of Doncaster from what I’ve seen of him but it seems he is going to the ambitious Nottingham Forest despite him probably fulfilling our wage criteria. This structure needs to change or we will sign no one of quality and return to the hardest League in football to get out of.
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Mr Mod
What he means by that is, some of us were around when paying £50k was a massive amount for the club to spend on a player & the players used to be on £300- £400 per week, when we only had 2 sides of the ground open & they were falling down, basically there are alot of us who remember when we hadn’t got a pot to pee in, this allows us to have a BALANCED view on the club the team & the management.
Instead of getting hysterical when we don’t spend billions in the transfer market or if we lose a game or 2.
Thats what following your club is all about…….through thick & thin.
KTF
Wolves forever
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How are Blues making us look rubbish??????????
They have spent Millions pounds on quite frankly a waste of space.
We have plenty of irons in the fire. And we will get them at the right price.
Just take a chill pill. The transfer market is a marathon not a sprint./
More quality please Jezza. I am sure it is all in hand
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Mogan: ” Wolves will be a force next season ”
More like a FARCE the way He & Jez the Baggie are handling things.
It has been 2 months almost since Wolves were promoted, all we have to show so far is an old goalkeeper just having a last payday, and a dodgey midfielder who could yet be playing for a Wormwood Scrubs XI next season.
Incidentally, does anyone know how much we got for winning the Coca-Cola Championship?
£2.5m would be my guess.
C’mon Morgan do us a big favour and sell the club to someone who will spend big money not just talk it.
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SUPER SUPER JEZ SUPER SUPER JEZ SPER SUPER JEZ aye boing boing super jez moxly
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Point 1.
Lee Craddock – Birmingham is a place and should start with a capital letter. That’s called punctuation.
Point 2.
Grace – Well said. Not often that I agree with you but a well thought out argument.
Point 3.
All I will say is that I am waiting for the start of the season before I judge Jez and the rest of his staff.
There is a long way to go before the start of the season, we already have a good squad, but we do need to sign some premiership quality.
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totally agree 18/17, as for wolves mod , chill out man , and what’s the rush about signing before the aussie tour we’ve got untill at least sept to sign new players
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wolfinblack, whats the matter? feeling depressed? a little sad? is your life draining away? if you need some cheering up you could always go and live with wolvesmod and jiwal and bob wolf , you’ll be in excellent company i’m sure
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Wow!
Everyone is getting very carried away!
We’re not even at pre season training, Wolves have always conducted transfers quietly since the “golden tit” era…..
It’s true we all get frustrated because we want to be signing the next Ronaldo, but we just can’t do that.
Let us be patient, we could spend £100m on players and still finish bottom! let’s see what we have when the season starts, get behind the boys and enjoy whats ahead, one thing for sure it’ll be gripping, tense and above all …… WOLVES!
C’mon!!!
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13 SEB
Just had a look at Zubar on youtube..one entry in french translates as… ‘the unluckiest defender in the world’. He’s certainly had a moment or 2!
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19. The prize money for winning the championship was £50,000 with £25,000 for runners-up. Sounds ridiculous but Google it if you dont believe me
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The prize money for winning the championship was the Premiership. But yes 50 grand is a insult for such a hard division to get out of.
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21
Thank you
I feel so much better now
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17 – Grace, well said! But pointless trying to explain such concepts to Mod.
According to him you are only a true fan if you were there to see the championship trophy presented at the last game of last season!
If you stood on the terraces back in the bad old days of the 4th division such as I did, that don’t count!
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29
True, but weren’t they great days, we used to visit the worst grounds in the country, but it was the best fun I’ve had following Wolves
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Guys
we all know Wolvesmod and his fellow numpties JIWAL & Bobwolf don’t have a clue….they never have.
They have been strangely silent since just before Wolves were promoted and there was nothing negative to comment on. Now, just because Wolves haven’t spent billions on 20 odd new players, they feel they now have the right to come on these pages…again….talk crap and slag off our great club.
It was much welcomed when they had disappeared, but now they’re back like a bad rash and have nothing positive or constructive to say. Always negative and clearly never happy. You have to feel for them. They must have very dull & boring lives.
SteveB, like you I stood on the terraces in the bad old days and have seen our club grow and get stronger. We’re the true fans, not dicks like the above named.
Wolves forever..through good & bad.
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To the minority hopefully?!
Yee of little patience
Its the 25th June and our opening game of the season isn’t till August 15th. Plenty of time for transfer actiivity, if applicable.
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True, the bad old days were the descent to div 4, which I (thankfully) missed.
My first match was at home to Leyton Orient, att 12,051 Bully scored 2, we went top and I was hooked. Not really bad old days, I concede.
To zoff2304 :- solidarity, brother! :-)
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