So footy’s worst kept secret has happened then and we welcome John Terry to the Villa squad.
Tony Xia has been up to his usual tricks and posted it on Twitter, which I’m not convinced is the best way to go about it, but it does seem to be popular with the fans, so I’m not complaining.
It’s an interesting signing, if not mostly because if the rumoured £4-5 million (including promotion bonuses) is true, we’ve shattered our wage structure, in going from a previous cap of around £56k a week to nearer £100k.
That’s massive money for any player, let alone a Championship player, although it could easily be said that Terry is still easily good enough for the Premier league.
I feel quite good about this signing, as it’s a massive coup, when you consider the likes of Swansea, Bournemouth and I believe WBA were interested in him too.
But his signing is also quite a big gamble, in my opinion.
His leadership and authority in the game are beyond question and I’m sure he’ll offer both to the team/squad, but my bigger concern is more about his actual ability to play.
Will he be able to cope with the rigours of Championship football?
Steve Bruce must think he’s up to it (or maybe he plans to use him selectively?) and it seems the player has been keeping himself fit, having undergone fitness sessions even while he was on holiday. You can’t say he isn’t committed to looking after himself, but will that committment carry over to Aston Villa?
You have to think or at least hope that it will and Terry certainly seems to be the type that puts everything into his job.
The player is questionable in other areas outside of football, but I’m going to concentrate more on what he can actually bring to us, which is a fair amount.
Hence I look forward to him leading us on a charge, which will ultimately see us get promoted.
If that happens he’ll have been worth every penny and I won’t begrudge him any of it.
But if it goes boobs up, it’ll just be the latest in a long list of desperately poor signings on big money.
One little thing that’s been bugging me in this saga.
What’s that rubbish about, where apparently the player didn’t want to have to face Chelsea?
Surely he could have just had a clause put in his contract, where he didn’t play against them?
Oh well, no matter.
In short, welcome, John Terry!
Off topic but Happy Birthday Stan Petrov.
Yes happy birthday 🎂 Stan the man UTV
Happy Birthday Stan….have a great day mate 🙂
UTV
Looks likely Jon Walters going to Burnley so scotch that rumour!
Oh yes and happy birthday to Stan – and may he have many, many more.
Stan, all the best mate on your big day, your name will never be forgotten at Villa park, few more like you we wouldn’t have been in the shite.Happy birthday.
With the goalkeeper situation I would like to see Johnson back but I just think he may be left wide open to the criticism the minute we lose or he makes a mistake. Cannot see Joe Hart coming but he would be head and shoulders above all the others…… Excuse the pun. His confidence must be completely shot, but you never know?
Dan Druff is the best keeper we could sign and he’s in a free transfer.
Steady ooha…thats twice you’ve mad me laugh this week. What’s the name of your new happy pills? 🙂
UTV
I don’t know but they seem to be working 😄
Rocky…agree mate. I would happily welcome Johnstone back. I think the man has great potential. I really prefer a permanent deal for him though, if he does come back. I would not be happy to further help his development just so Manure get the ‘finished article’.
Another couple keepers I wouldn’t mind trying for are: 1. Michel Worm (Spuds no 2) and 2. Lee Grant who stood in for Butland last year at Stoke and done really well IMO!
UTV
A bit of a round-up, from what I’ve seen today.
So it seems Hart would be a loan and we’re favourites to get him.
It makes sense that citeh want to save on his wages and it’d be another sign of intent from the club.
I can’t say he’s a great goalie, but he’d be easily adequate for the Championship.
Plus I’ve always liked him since he clapped the Holte end after we gave him a load of stick 🙂
But Johnstone is also very likely too.
And Wyness has said he doesn’t see much commercial income because of Terry’s signing, although he does see a rise in season tickets.
Which is because I believe we’ve always had a cap at around 22,000 ish and we’ve now removed it.
Oh, Huttton says he’s staying and that seems to put a dampener on Wednesday getting him. I’d guess they can’t compete, wages-wise.
There’s a few good debating points there and I’d have liked to have done an article about them, but time is at a premiium as per.
The best I ever saw Hart play was when he was with the scum. He looked really decent. Since then he’s gone downhill and far too error prone. We’ve had more than our fair share off error prone defenders we don’t need any more. I think if he comes it will he in a loan deal but we would have to purchase him if we get promotion so our money is safe 😄
Fwiw, Oohah, i’d take Hart over Johnstone, but it depends on your pov.
Experience or not?
It would seem Bruce is looking more for resilience, which comes with age perhaps?
I’m really not sure what to think, but i guess we’re totally focussed on getting promoted, which would probably lead to another clear-out and serious money invested.
i jjust worry about if we don’t achieve it.
We’re then lumbered with an over-paid, ageing, load of players.
It’s a big gamble from Xia, but I guess he’s confident and on the face of it, he has cause.
We’ll have at least a top 3 squad, on paper.
Not sure why I’m in moderation, but whatever.
I agree completely Badger, what if we don’t go up, we’re stuck with overpaid, average, homegrown players who will only get sold back to Championship sides for less than we paid. Problem is, if we go up, we’re in the same boat if we continue the way Bruce is going. Let’s say we get Whelan, what do we do next season if we go up? He’s 33 already. 34 next season. Jedinak is also getting up there. Going for aging players isn’t just going to hinder us this season, if we go up, we’re going to have to rehash the squad next season, like Huddersfield are doing.
If we go up with the squad we’ve got then our first season back is all about stability trying to finish around midtable for example. Teams like Bournemouth have done it with a worse squad on paper than we have so no excuses.
Fair point Badger if we are investing this sort of money and we don’t get promoted it will kill us financially. It’s a bit like Leeds when they went all out for a CL spot and failed they’ve never recovered from it.
we have had great luck with players coming from city recent times IRELAND DUNNE GIVEN RICHARDS LESCOTT
What the frig as that got to do with Joe Hart? Lol :)…..does rhat mean we cant buy Messi because Traore didnt work out? Unbelievable!!
UTV
Ha ha though we did give them Delph so fairs fairs I guess
and barry and milner,
at least with delph they will make money, when they sell him, the doc likes to still sell our players for below price they where bought for[ amavi]
the wages plus transfer fees for them 5 players are mental
JV – do you ever have anything positive to say about the club, the owner, the management, the staff, the players, even the fans given that so many of us are happy clappers in your eyes.
can’t believe some queries….
i believe that Whelen a temporary solution. to last seasons problem. ppl are complaining about the style of play and lack of success. but they are blind to see the cause of this. blame it solely on manager.
but its my BELIEF that lack of fitness, leadership, togetherness all these qualities and others,where responsible. this was more evident away from home when teams attack you more. also when we was without jed in the team.
bruce is simply making sure the squad has players able to carry the instructions onto the field of play, this means having a solution to jed having injuries. having a PRE SEASON also means the team of players will be fit unlike last season. WHY does that matter. well they looked out of shape last season. i could see this and so could you. individually and collectively. under guarde and rdm the fitness was rubbish. players unable to press and last 90 minutes playing a high tempo game. this limits your tactics
players like terry whelen jed are not longterm solutions they are immediate solutions. we need qualities they possess to get promotion. once they get promotion they get the tv money and we move on
Nath, you keep talking about this togetherness and fitness. How is signing a center back for 1 season going to bring togetherness or fitness when he’s 36 and clearly not going to play every game? How is bringing a 33 year old who will need to be replaced in a season or two togetherness and fitness when he can’t play every game? Obviously you can’t expect most players to play every game, that would require the fitness levels of Milner, which very few have. But they’ll likely play 20-25ish League games, and not even in the cup games as Bruce won’t want anything to do with those. They’ll bring their experience and Terry has a massive amount of leadership qualities, I’ll give you that. But what does that mean for Chester, does he lose his captain’s arm band for Terry for one season?
They’re not long term solutions, Bruce doesn’t look long term, he looks for in the now, which is fine, for now. But these are players that will play maybe 25 games all season, 30 if we’re lucky. Not a single cup game because Bruce will want out of those asap, unless the kids get a run. As to my Terry question, do we have a Captain that only plays a little more than half the games? Or do we allow Chester to continue as Captain, even though more will look up to Terry? I do think Terry can handle the egos if there are any in the dressing room, but it should be interesting to see what the likes of Agbonlahor do now, knowing he’s been a trouble maker for the last 5ish years with any new manager as he thinks he runs the place.
I think Terry would be good behind the scenes though. He will be well respected in the dressing room and even if he dosnt play he will still be going round the players giving them advice. He will also want to play in prem next season and earn a new one year deal. Forget the playing v Chelsea thing that is rubbish it’s not like we would beat them anyway.
Terry or Chester tough call who will be captain. only one can wear the armband. but both will be leaders on field and around the dressing room. as will Jed and Whelen. my point is last season when the chips where down and Jed was injured. the team struggled. mostly away from home, midfield got rolled over. Whelen is just another experienced playerthat will bring on players like Lansbury and Houriane grealish the new guy from iceland.
oh and another point was we are a big club pressures playing for us is far greater than barnsley and notts forest. but within time they might be able to lead us. like they did their former clubs
Andrew, “togetherness” off the field is a mindset. I don’t think anyone can deny that Terry is a strong leader, and I believe that he will help facilitate this. Actually being a team.
Short term he can help with that himself. Long term, others (including some impressionable younger players) can carry on that mantle to see it become habit.
I’m aware this will either be a great success or a complete and utter failure, though no one can guess the odds on each. However, it makes sense from this side of things. The only qualm anyone can have, IMO, is the financial side of things.
I don’t believe we should turn a blind eye to it because its, as Langford says, “not our money”. If our limited money, due to FFP, could be better spent elsewhere, people have a right to voice that opinion. In short, even though it may not physically be the clubs money…. it IS the clubs budget.
That being said, we spent a relative fortune on some of the “best” players in the league last season, and equal amounts some seasons beforehand, and it got us 13th place in the championship.
Clearly it didn’t work. There have been rumours / evidence of a lot of dissonance behind the scenes for a long time now. I feel its worthwhile investing a little to remedy this immediately. Even if its a bit of a gamble…
On the captain debate – one solution would be for Chester to retain the team captaincy which, taking Andrew’s point, would make sense and Terry given the club captaincy which would let him use his wider leadership and media skills to the full. Just a thought.
Dr Tone’s latest tweet!
‘ follow your HEART’……tease or clue?
UTv
‘
Perhaps Citeh would let him go on loan to a Championship side but not a Prem side with us having to make it permanent if promoted as I can’t see us affording £18m plus £120k per week! Still would be another coup in fact sensational coup! If we sign Hart I reckon all our matches will be on Sky next season 🙂
That’s a clue Langford most definitely, It’s Hart on loan.Your the man mate.🎩off.
Hart odds….down to 5/2, was 12/1 on Monday!
We are 4/7 on Johnstone though so very unlikely
Oohah, I think you and Langford should have a side beg on who our No 1 keeper will be this season. Whoever loses has to switch persona with the other – could be hilarious 🙂
I’ve already been working on it!
The fans are shit
The manager is shit
The ground is shit
Journeyman
Dont like loans
The new Heskey
If we bought Messi we would play him in goal
Johnstone is rubbish
Hart is crap
Kodgia is overrated
Kodgia will be sold soon
Hutton is Scottish
Gabby is fat
Vlaar is rubbish
Amavi dont like Brum
We’ll win nothing with kids
We’ll win nothing buying over 30s
Terry is past it
Hogan is injury prone
Baker cant defend
Taylor…as Baker above
Bree….signing crap from Barnsley
Hourihane…as Bree above
Grealish…not good enough
Bruce is a geordie
Calderwood is terrible
The pies are cold
The tea is too weak
Season tickets too expensive
The pitch is green
Our colours are common
The shirts are a rip off
The Holte is no longer any good
Bodymoor Heath is a waste of space
The academy is crap
Car parking is too expensive
The programme is overpriced
We will finish mid table
Bruce will be gone by Oct
Our scouting system is not good
McCormack cant get out
We never win at home
We never win away
Bruce eats kebabs
Gabby eats everything
Grealish pads are too small
Gabby’s pads are too big
Another relegation battle looms
The bookies are never right
I am never right
Giddy is never right
Bill Pearson is never right
Hitchens is never right
JV is always right
Dr Tone……….out
Bruce………….out
Wyness……….out
Scouts…………out
Academy……..close
Trinity Rd…….close
Holte End…….close
Witton Lane… close
Villa Park……. close
MON………..crap (and N Irish)
Houllier…….crap (and French)
Garde………see Houllier above
McLeish……(crap + Scottish + ex bluenose)
Lambert……(crap + Scottish + Norwich)
Sherwood…(crap + Cockney + ex Spurs)
Bruce……….(crap + Geordie + ex bluenose)
Any day with a Y in it is crap!
🙂 🙂
UTV
That should just about do it – Oohah doesn’t have a prayer 🙂
Bloody Hell Langford you’ve got too much time on your hands 😉
Hard to disagree with any of the above 😄
You missed out oohagh always right
Ha ha
Thats just this week….loads more come….. UTV
I would like to see Hart at VP. Pity about Hutton, once he is out I will be able to buy a ticket for games without breaking my vow about the squad that got us relegated.
Returning to the GK and criticism of Hart. You are perhaps forgetting that all attackers are not the same quality. Where do you find the best attackers? in the Champions League and International games. That is the arena Hart has been working in, the toughest test for a GK. Put him in the Championship and I think his performance will appear to improve – because what he is up against, won’t be as good as his recent opponents. If you stuck him back in the PL and then ranked keepers he would be in the top 10.
I disagree there are some good finishers in that league. You can be the best keeper in the planet but a good shot is a good shot. Even a conference player could beat De Gea if he gets shot right. Also you forget that a lot of goals conceded by Hart are unforced errors that will happen in any division
Aston Villa fans shocked by rumours linking club to Joe Hart
The majority of Aston Villa fans are not quite convinced that the club will sign Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart this summer.
The Championship outfit’s odds have shortened to 7/4 on Sky Bet, with only West Ham United in a better position (6/4) to sign the England international.
It is widely expected that Hart will move on from the two-time Premier League champions after it was made clear by manager Pep Guardiola that he was not wanted.
After losing his first-team spot at the start of last season, the 30-year-old joined Serie A club Torino on loan, but he has since returned.
Numerous Premier League clubs have been linked to the goalkeeper, but the betting giants suggest that Championship side Villa are in with a shout.
The Midlands club have already pulled off a coup by signing John Terry on a one-year deal after he left Chelsea following a 22-year spell.
Despite that shock move coming to pass, Villa fans are not very confident that Hart will follow, but instead believe that Sam Johnstone could join from Manchester United.
Johnstone is 4/7 to come so that seems more likeky
The Mirror reports that Aston Villa are closing in on the signing of Stoke City midfielder Glenn Whelan. This comes after Sky Bet Championship rivals Derby County ended their interest in the Republic of Ireland international, parting way for Steve Bruce to get his man.
The 33-year-old has been a big hit at Stoke since making the move from Sheffield Wednesday for £500,000 back in 2008. Since then, he has made well over 250 appearances for the club, helping them win promotion into the Premier League and reach the final of the FA Cup. Aston Villa look set to complete their second summer signing, the first being ex-Chelsea and England captain John Terry.
Bruce is said to have been keen to add more bite to his midfielder department. Whilst he has the likes of Henri Lansbury, Aaron Tshibola, Conor Hourihane, Birkir Bjarnason, Gary Gardner and Mile Jedinak, he still wants a certain type of player. However, the deal to bring Whelan to Villa Park won’t be completed officially until later this month as the Championship club firstly want to remove a lot of dead wood from their squad. Possibly some of the players mentioned previously could be heading on. Certainly players like Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez and Aly Cissokho, along with Jordan Amavi and Jordan Veretout, seem primed to depart at some stage.
In the case of Derby, it means Rowett focuses elsewhere as he looks to add to his central midfielder options at Pride Park. Will Hughes departed for Watford earlier this summer, meaning there is still a void to be filled
Your assuming we will sell all these players. Remember they are in more money at villa so will be unlikely to want to leave unless we pay them off or they go to a bigger club
Also being linked to Elmohamady from Hull – thoughts anyone?
As an aside, if Cissoko and Amavi are leaving don’t we need another left back?
Elmonhandy is a player i have seen for hull. he is a better crosser of the ball than hutton. but bree is fairly decent at crossing. the other right full back de laet i havent seen enough of.
he is a player bruce knows well and trusts. which tells me bruce doesn’t trust a few of them. to actually do their jobs. if he wants to play 352 this is a formation which Elmonhandy played under bruce. also played the system well. hutton can not cross the ball so can’t play wing back bree could not sure about laet
Might mean he knows now the weaknesses Hitch, Whelan almost with us and don’t forget young guns ready to move up makes me think he’s had his fill of the old squad. I’m beginning to get excited.
Good call Bill. Mail saying Lyden likely to figure this season – supposed to be good young player (Aussie mid fielder) but was injured most of last season.
i think we need a goal keeper poll 🙂
i like both mentioned, hart is obviously better keeper. but both are very capable of being number 1 for this current season.
sevilla are haggling over a few million with villa but they just recieved 12million from liecester for one of their players 29 year old. amavi is worth miles more than the price villa are demanding from them and yet they are haggling over a few million. looking at the pictures of training amavi is looking committed still which is good. just been reading veretout is also training well
Good suggestions Nath, a poll on goalkeepers that might confuse Oohah though, still he’s already a dot com member.😀
Nath, Bill – the Brum Mail heard you – 64% in favour of Hart at present.
I suppose it makes sense to have a more experienced goalie if we get promoted to the Prom – at least it was a straight pole and they didn’t include Ruddy 🙂
Until I see Hart on the golf course with Bruce I will never believe this is happening
with bruces son as well lol he must be a secret agent
On the captain issue I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that Terry said he doesn’t mind whether he is captain or not. If that’s the case maybe best left with Chester, who I think was one of the big pluses last season.
DS….not really, got the granddaughter to type it 🙂
UTV
Ha nice one!
She types more sense than you ever did 😄