John

Current fear - Nobody is willing to buy us this season or next and we will try to stay in this division with no investment on players. Minimum expectation - Someone to buy us soon that will allow us to look somewhere other than the free transfer bucket for players. Expectation - Someone to buy us who attends the odd game and will give us 33% + of the SKY money each season to move us forward. Maximum expectation - Someone to buy us that will invest mega bucks for fun and take the hit without blinking if that leads to a FFP fine.

If they do not want to sign I agree KSV but we need to make a reasonable offer first to know if they are up for staying and we all know that all of the money from any sales will not be given to the manager to spend.

If we really are not prepared to break our current financial restraints to keep our captain and our best player of last season it seems our current owner is prepared to run us into the ground as a football club. These are 3 of the few names we have left at the club and to risk losing all of them would be straight out of the Carson Yeung play book!

"I wouldn't read to much into that. My monthly wage was over 2 million out there." Do you want to buy a football club Wainy316?

I doubt we will be looking to bring in Young for much the same reasons the club did not make any serious move to bring back Barry.

"Never buy based on a tournament". I think our motto is currently "Never buy" mikeyp102.

Or could it be that Thr Trees might be on holiday himself so we are without his usual eyes on the tarmac at BHX? I look forward to any news when/if he is free to provide it without risking a potential deal or his post.

"When the london financier(can't remember his name) came in". It was Pat Matthews krisagg75.

As Naz has said there have been darker hours. Relegation to Division 3 in 69-70 and appointing Graham Turner to replace Tony Barton in 1984 who then had us relegated with a little help from Billy McNeill and our then chairman 3 seasons later stand out for me. But this is without doubt one of the darker days for our football club and the sooner the sun rises on a brighter future the better.

I think we could pay the same wages as WBA but we have an absentee owner who is not prepared to pay them. As custodian of our football club he seems more prepared than he should be to risk our status if a change of ownership is not as imminent as it really needs to be. Watching the World Cup has not helped either because players who could make a difference at B6 are there for all to see in the shop window but we stand like a child outside a candy shop without any pocket money to spend on what we see before us as others with cash go into the shop and take their pick.

Great stuff! Thanks for these samjp26. There are lots of good stuff football and otherwise on that site.

I think he would be happy to stay here as our captain if there was a bit of stability that a new owner would bring along with a bit of cash to use to bring in new players and to offer him a decent new contract before other clubs seriously look at making him an offer. Not looking likely any time soon sadly.

"but can you really blame Lerner for not splashing out on new players until the above are given a go or sold." Yes VillanousOne. Our current transfer policy mirrors that of Small Heath albeit in the league below. That is just not acceptable for Aston Villa and could lead to us going down next season whether he is at the helm or not. As custodian of our football club some sort of budget for new signings (other than simply wages for free or loan signings) does not seem unreasonable to hope for given our income for this coming season.

Was the original asking price not said to be £200m+? The potential asking price then seemed to be speculation and it would be strange if the seller or any serious potential buyer would now make it known that the price is right @ £150m.

Happy that The Telegraph are still digging for some news for us. No news from Arison's chief spokesperson and Keith Harris may yet prove good news. It may come to nothing but at least we have something to consider again alongside the reported Middle Eastern interest.

"but a reluctance to fork out for a transfer fee given we may be sold soon" or a reluctance to fork out for a transfer fee given he might not get that money back when we are at long last sold mikeyjavfc?

FFP has little impact on the likes of Citeh and is unlikely to have much impact on whether or not someone decides to buy us or not. But the asking price, current state of the playing squad, our owner's desperation to sell and his lack of interest in the club does have an impact for me.

I guess there will have been signing on fees to factor in for Senderos and Cole in addition to their wages if not use of Randy's jet. "How are Hull, Stoke and co managing then?" Possibly by spending money they have not really got or money their owner is prepared to use to speculate to try to accumulate as once was our own mykeyb. They may also think it is worth spending to try to ensure they stay up rather than lose the SKY cash but if our owner is expecting to sell before that might happen what would be in that for him (rather than our football club)?

I doubt if he considers Real Madrid are good enough for him or that Rooney's salary would be sufficient reward for his services so I doubt he will consider us and say £30k weekly a tempting deal. There is a football player there somewhere but he has been awol for a very long time.

"Norwich won't sell us Hoolahan then? Same age. Hoolahan was probably first choice because Lambert knows him and is a current international - maybe a bit fitter and less injury prone". Or our present owner will not give Lambert any money to sign Hoolahan Con.

"one of them seemed to reckon that they would be allowed to pay installments." If that was the case it would suggest there would be a similar transfer spending policy in place whilst they saved the money to pay Randy back useless. I think we can do better. There are clubs available for less so they might want to look at buying one of them.

Colback always looked Newcastle bound and it would have taken a lot of money we currently do not have to offer him to make him consider coming to us whether or not we had ever seriously wanted him.

To quote Deila "lets be having you" Roy!!

"Back to the takeover". If only there was some news or rumour on that for us to talk about jamesbuchan!

"Anyway, he has to spend at least 6 months every year in Ohio due to the terms of his divorce settlement. 3 of his 4 kids are living with his ex-wife in NYC while he has custody of the fourth. He spends most of the week in Cleveland with the fourth kid, and then goes to NYC to see his other kids at the weekend". Thanks for that jamesbuchanan. It offers a reason he may have been a less frequent visitor than he once was but given he has made trips over and been at Bodymoor Heath more than a few times I would have thought he could have made the odd game. I guess the reception he might have anticipated getting having cut the purse strings might have been what kept him away.