Well, this is a turn up for the books isn’t it?
Fabian Delph has come out with a totally unequivocal statement that says he’s staying. Here are the actual words that have come from the horse’s mouth, as reported on the OS;
“I’m aware there has been intense media speculation surrounding my future in the last 24 hours and I want to set the record straight.
“I’m not leaving. I’m staying at the football club and I can’t wait for the start of the season and captaining this great football club.”
This is fantastic news, in my opinion, as I’ve always liked the player and think he would be a major loss to the team.
That said though, it’s all quite embarrassing, as without re-reading my previous replies on here, I’m not 100% convinced about if I slated the man or not.
After all, all the papers were reporting things as though it was absolutely a done deal, with some suggesting that the only barrier to the player actually signing, was the medical.
And well, when so many papers get on the bandwagon, it’s difficult to argue and it’s easier to accept it as fact isn’t it?
In my defence, I did think the idea of Delph going to Man City was a bit preposterous, especially at the £8 or 10 million that was mentioned.
Ah, I remember what I previously said.
It was that Gueye was obviously a replacement for Delph. That’s obviously been proven incorrect and I’m happy to say that I was wrong. It was a criticism more aimed at the club than the player though and yet again AVFC haven’t come out in a good light in my opinion.
While behind the scenes, the club might have been laughing their proverbials off, knowing the story wasn’t true and with me understanding that they won’t resort to answering every little bit of rumour, I think they should have nipped this rumour in the bud much, much faster than they did.
I mean, it wasn’t as though we were talking about a player we didn’t rate, hence him being insignificant, was it?
This was the club captain, who had pledged his loyalty only a few months back.
Of course, the same bastard papers that started this rumour are now saying that it’s a U-turn on Delph’s part, which hints that the club have massively upped Delph’s wages.
I don’t believe this for one minute. I think the player had no intention of leaving and it was frankly pure lies by certain papers. Lies that even sucked other papers in, so strong was their case.
I totally welcome this statement and if the team does start to perform better and indeed move upward, I reckon Delph could well go down as a legend in years to come because he didn’t abandon a sinking ship. I’ve added a poll, to see if you agree or not.
Whichever way you look at it Delphi hasn’t chased the dollar …6 years with us and many more to come makes him a legend in the present climate ..embrace him !
I still would like to know what changed his mind, the reports say there was a medical due today but obviously he didn’t attend it.will city come back in for him in January I wonder??? I expect if you asked a city fan he’d probably say I fucking hope not the fucking let down.city’s loss or VILLA’s gain?? Id say the latter. Legend ??nah
Hmmm my thoughts are similar to urs giddy IV a strong feeling he failed or knew he’d fail medical imo. Let’s face it he has been injury prone in the past. I’m honestly not bothered whether he stays or goes for me he is average at best and no major loss especially as we’ve bought a like for like player.
i think if he had failed the medical man city would have come out with it. im thinking he asked would he be a first team starter most weeks and was told no he would be on the bench and thought fuck that. he wants to keep his england place with the euros coming up and thought better of joining a squad where he might get little or no playing time b4 then.
But it was obvious he wouldn’t be a first team starter he didn’t need to ask them that surely he would of know that at point of contact
Fair play to the lad – perhaps we all need to learn a lesson about over reacting or reacting too quickly to unconfirmed press reports.
Disagree something has happened either it’s a medical reason or he suddenly realised how little game time he’d actually get. He is nowhere near good enough for city and would never be more than a bit part player
Behave
I believe there was some truth in the rumour. You’re saying the club should of come out and nipped it in the bud sooner but someone from Man City could of done exactly the same, they also chose not to which to me says their was some truth in the rumour.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he spoke to Man City but failed to get the reassurances he wanted about playing time then chatting to Richards and Sinclair and maybe others convinced him to stay.
I too am chuffed he is staying. I also think it’s paramount that if he does have an 8 million pound release clause in his contract then Fox and Sherwood need to sit down with him and offer him another contract with a more realistic get out clause if he insists he needs one putting in. Somewhere along the lines of 20-30 million.
He does now have the potential to become a Legend. By issuing the statement he did today has gone a long way to assuring that.
£20-30m for Delph lol. Not a chance Jordan Henderson was only £20m from memory. He’s not worth that much imo bear in mind we’ve signed a very similar player for £9m. I would put Delph around £15m tops and that’s only because there’s a £5m premium with him being English.
Are you another who , like a few Man Citeh fans, is upset that he is staying…..Making you look wrong as you did say Gueye is a replacement for Delph? 😉
have to agree £20-30m is way over the top £15m would be about right.
they need to get him in and signed up to a new deal or otherwise this bullshit will just keep happening . i’m shocked spurs have not been sticking there big noses in looking for a bargain.
Yes fair point re spuds but levy allegedly has told manager they need to sell 6 players at least to go for sneiderland. Spurs would only take Delph on a part ex imo
If you’re selling a car for say 3 grand, you wouldn’t advertise it at that price, you’d advertise it for £3500 to get the price you want. While I wouldn’t expect us to get 30 mil I certainly think 20-25 is a reasonable ask for an England international who is only 25 and obviously has not yet hit is prime. If Sterling is worth 50 mil (Liverpool seem to think he is) then there’s nothing stopping us saying Delph is worth 20-25 imo.
Next up Benteke, leads the bin dippers on and then says he is stopping at Villa? Wishful thinking but you never know. He is not spitting his dummy out and insisting on a move, again just press talking bollocks in my opinion. If the club came out and explained everything that was going on behind the scenes then the press would have nothing to write about. I think that Delph’s head was turned and we acepted a fee, but he must have thought about it long and hard before making this decision. Fair play to him for showing some loyalty to the club and fans.
Surely he needs to do a bit more on the pitch and be part of a Villa team pushing for Europe rather than relegation fodder to be classified as a legend.
Words are cheap, lets back it up with consistently good performances. But saying that it’s nice to have him back in the fold.
I’ve only just heard this news – been competing in a race this afternoon so offcuts the radar. Wow. I don’t care the reasons – I’m happy. Now I’m 50% of the way there – Benteke to follow suit.
He is a legend all right. He has played in more home defeats than any other Villa player in recent memory, or perhaps ever. No – I do not think that is a coincidence. The only thing that pleases me in this news is that for the paltry fee of £8M Citeh will not get a player worth more.
You’ve contradicted yourself there ool. One sentence u say how crisp he is the second sentence u say say he is worth more than £8m which one is it!!
That is a good point, but the contradiction is in Delph himself. His performances for England are much better than his performances for Villa. My explanation for that is that the midfield opponents he faces in an England shirt are not nearly as good as the midfield players in the top half of the EPL. Delph is – in cricketing terms – a flat-track bully. To Villa he is not worth the 8M unless we happen to buy 2 better players to play with him in midfield, so we can generally boss the opposing midfield. That seems unlikely. But a better team could get a better performance from him so to them he is worth more, say 12M.
Fair point but that’s the same for any player. You could put Heskey in the Barcelona team and he’d look ten times better
No..a true legend would have discounted the rumour when it first raised its ugly head 2 weeks ago! This is not the end of this saga IMO!
Why are we polling that he is a legend. He’s not even close to a McGrath, Taylor etc. He’s an average player at best and had done nothing remarkable with us even though he is the best of a shit bunch of midfielders
He’s well on his way to been the great player (not legend yet) we all thought he would be I’m sooooo happy he’s staying maybe he did talk to city and wasn’t offered the first team place he wants and can have at villa for me its a great for villa under Timmy I think better things are coming but just need the sale of the club to be sorted if its done let us know if not let us know Tim still has money to rebuild this massive club…..and “fantastic fab” is for me the first best building block UTV!!!!
We have an England midfielder, who has had his head turned by a top 4 team, but decided to stay with the Villa…… Come on lads this is fantastic news…..maybe, just maybe he’s been enlightened by our new owners
Problem is we’ve wasted £9m on a like for like replacement what’s the point in gueye now Delph is staying both very similar players. Does this mean we’ve wasted £9m and won’t sign anyone else now
Seriously, I know your role on here as I’ve said before but just wind your neck in – you wouldn’t be happy if we were top of the league. Gueye could be a replacement for Cleverley who surprise surprise you didn’t rate………actually do you rate any of our players?
Not saying I don’t rate gueye just saying he is a very similar to Delph
I am in agreement with Oohah on this. I don’t think Delphi is a legend, he’s a mediocre to average player who got his head turned and was off when something went balls up at the 11th hour. Apart from a few good shifts he spends most of the time running around like a headless chicken. The times I’ve sat in VP watching him twist and turn only to repeatedly give the ball away doesn’t bare thinking about. At the end of the day he was one of the better players in a very poor team and I really wasn’t that bothered about him going.
Agree Deferenz according to mirror this why he left
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/fabian-delph-called-manchester-city-6048418?
No OohAah, you got sucked in by the media like everyone else (including me) and thought it was going to happen, then massively overreacted – when it doesn’t happen you then look for conspiracy theories. Stop it.
I do love a conspiracy story though. Did you know that Badger our co owner is really Lerner in disguise lol 🙂
I knew it. Tell him to do one. Ha ha.
I said that when he was good he was good but he drifted out of many games.
Can I be honest and now say that, as i thought he was going, it was totally SOUR GRAPES.
Over-f***ing-joyed he’s elected to stay. Come on you lions. Bring on next season
UTV
Wow the positivity is overwhelming.
Time will tell if he will be a Villa legend only 25 years old. As for the papers, not believe a word again . But there will be loads of conspiracy theories among Villa fans lol.
Oohah, you’ve totally missed the point.
There have been quite a few legends down the Villa.
But a few of them are not even known for kicking a ball.
My point is more that if Delph remains our captain and leads us onwards and upwards, there’s plenty of scope for him to become a Villa legend, imo.
Because, for whatever reason, he didn’t take the (no doubt massive) increase in wages and STAYED, in what might be seen as part of a new trend where the top clubs can’t take lesser clubs’ players at will.
You have absolutely no romance in your outlook and your hidden injury theory is just utter rubbish and frankly laughable, imo.
Only you could come up with a reason like that.
Hallelujah. Well said Sir.
I’m not the only one thinking that though a lot of fans in Twitter thinking it too. It just seems strange and IV a feeling the club signed a like for like player as they themselves thought Delph was off. Now he’s staying this is no longer a priority position to fill so have we wasted £9m for nothing? We will soon find out if no other decent players come in. I’m not saying Delph isn’t a future legend but at the moment the answer is no. In 2-3 seasons time I may change mind.
I really find it hard to believe some of the comments on here.
Whether or not you rate Delph – and I have a lot of respect respect for OLL’s point about Delph’s ‘contribution’ to Villa’s statistics over recent years – this whole story only proves that the gossip columns in the papers can’t be trusted whatsoever.
The ‘story’ has run from zero back to zero in three or four days- and the club had already explained that Delph’s absence from the travelling party was simply down to his personal circumstances at the moment. So what else were they supposed to say to ‘kill’ the story? And why should anyone expect Mancs to issue a formal ‘denial’ of any interest in a player who they weren’t actually buying?
But no. We get days of speculation from people on here who then can’t admit that they were taken for a ride by no-nothing reporters who just have column-inches to fill with whatever cheap fantasy they can come up with – instead various people look to come up with bizarre conspiracy theories about ‘failed medicals’ or even ‘never had a medical ‘coz he knew he’d fail it’…
FFS get a grip guys – and remember that Benteke hasn’t actually gone anywhere either at this moment…!
You are right about unreliable newspaper columnists. They start with, “what player does a moneybags club need?” and hype that into a firm interest when there isn’t a germ of truth.
But bookmakers are more sanguine, and it was a surprise that they should have suspended betting on the transfer. Think how much that cost them in people betting odds-on. Therefore I think oohah’s newspaper clip is a possible explanation, though why a leaving player should worry about the abuse-as-standard old fans reaction I don’t know.
Think this is good news but I don’t understand why people think the club or delph should hav come out and said something sooner. They would hav looked like complete idiots if he does end up leaving after they come out and say he won’t. Fair enough they could come out and say he is in talks with man c but maybe in fact he never was! Maybe man c offered villa 8 mil they had to accept and delph has been deciding since, how can anybody make a comment there? I think he was probably offered assurances about playing time but delph would surly hav asked Richards (who looked terrible at CB today) and sinclair and they probably told him they were assured of play time too. He realised he was just to make up the numbers, but let’s say if spurs came in for him I’m not sure he would make the same decision.
Fair point Kerry he would def get more game time at spuds. That wouldn’t be a bad move for him either especially for england chances.
KV…explain why Delph couldnt say he is going nowhere unless the club say that they want to sell him? He is an adult FFS. If someone offers me a job then I either say I want it or I dont want it……dont see anything complicated about that. And before you say it, football is NOT different. The same principles apply. Its a simple I want to go or I dont want to go.
MATE I gather the reason for the delay in making that statement was due to him changing his mind at the final minute.they were waiting for him to attend the medical that’s cutting it fine imo.
I get that Giddy. But he stated in Jan that this is my club so when Man City started eyeing him up 2 weeks ago all he at to say is…..’I’m going nowhere’…..not too difficult is it?
MATE that’s Delphs problem why I’m not overwhelmed he’s still here he shouldn’t of even contemplated moving in the first place after saying what he did in January.so like you say he should of said no from the start rumors ended full stop.
I think he thought I’m a captain at VILLA & I might become a nonentity on a bench at CITY.
i certainly owe the fella an apology. A little rash with downing mark 2 comment yesterday. Great to see there is loyalty in football, for that at lease he probably will go down as a legend now.
Same here , I don’t know if you’re all interested but here are the friendlies.2015: Portugal Training Camp, UK
July 11th – Training match* vs Fulham – Albufeira, Portugal. 6.30pm
July 17th – Training match* vs Bristol City Sporting Braga – Albufeira, Portugal. 6.30pm
July 21st – Swindon – County Ground, Swindon. 7.45pm
July 25th – Walsall – Bescot Stadium, Walsall. 3pm
July 28th – Wolves – Molineux, Wolverhampton. 7.45pm
August 1st – Forest – City Ground, Nottingham. 3pm. I don’t know yet about yesterday’s game last heard 1-1
Lost 3-1 MATE
Great start mate,
Gets me CNZ is still wearing a VILLA top he played first half yesterday,I was on the assumption we were getting rid of the deadwood.if Sherwood rates him well I rate Sherwood a lot less now this players fucking SHITE.
How do you get rid of deadwood if they are under contract and don’t want to go.
Nearly all the ‘bomb squad’ run there contracts down either at the club or out loan with the club paying the bulk of the wages.
For a start don’t start picking them to play,train with the kids even loan them out if there’s any suitors.it’s called making their position untenable.hopefully their begging to be fucked most unfortunately are quite content with picking up alot of money doing FUCKall
Fucked OFF *