John

"I was so inspired that I used to go by myself to an empty ground in my home town of Godthaab - a town of 900 people - and just kick the ball around, practise the skills and shoot. That was my whole life growing up. "I learnt a lot over the past few seasons with Kent Nielsen as my manager. He was a player here at Villa and, while I have always been a good finisher, he taught me to be more aggressive and determined when I don't have the ball. He showed me how to work hard and this will help me in this league. "I thought that maybe when I was 28 or something I might eventually be able to move to the Premier League having made my mark in Danish football but now I have my chance and I think this is the right club for me with all the other young players in the side who want to do well and achieve something together. "I want to show the fans that I'm hungry for this and that I'm very proud to be a Villa player." He does say the right things and I'm sure Kent has put in a positive word or two about our club. Welcome to VP Nick!

It often seems the promoted teams wind up against one of the bigger teams for their first game so I would guess it will be the likes of West Ham, Southampton or Swansea for us. I would like to see us avoid the promoted sides until their bubble has burst in any case. Anyone else suspect it could be Everton vs Manchester United early doors (rather them than us)?

He also says they are "prepared to pay a nominal fee for Bent". I think I know what I would suggest that they do with that bid...

Alan Oliver in "The People" writes today that "Darren Bent could soon become a Newcastle United player - but only if he and Aston Villa lower their demands". He claims they "want Bent but won't pay the £6m fee" and Bent "will have to lower his demands of a 4 year deal on £75,000 a week". Is Alan Oliver Pardew? If they will not pay the fee then they do not get the player. Who do they think they are? It is a lot like us saying Messi could soon become a Villa player but only if Barca take £8m for him and he will play for £40,000 a week.....

Positive news that we got this deal done and that the player is so happy to join us. This could be the start of something big because he looks to be quite a prospect.

"He is a real box-to-box player with a decent pass and a good shot in his legs, especially when he's built up some confidence" - Sounds a little bit like Delph to me. Welcome to the club Leandro!

He might see working with Pardew again a bonus and I guess Newcastle fans would have no problem with him if he was wearing their shirt. But I think he might want to move down to London as well. What matters for us is that we get near to the right price for him from any source and that we do not seem so desperate to get him out that clubs will think they can get him for peanuts. I would like to think we would value our player in the same way as Liverpool & Spurs do players they are wanting to move on. £6m would be low for me but we might need to get that money in to move on and be able to make our own signings. I think £8m would be nearer his current value and it would still be a big drop in what we paid for him but it seems he no longer fits in with our formation and he was worth the fee we paid Sunderland because his goals did a lot to keep us up when we played him.

This is a new name to me and I guess that is why they want an association with us. I am a little concerned that nothing has been said about how much we will make from this deal but I hope it will prove worth it for us as well as for them.

I take your point but we might also have got someone who was less good and I back Andi to get better in the coming seasons. I also do not think the fee we would have got would have reflected his value to us and given us the cash to sign a like for like replacement.

Well done on your uni acceptance. You might find some decent fares down to Birmingham for the odd game if booked well in advance with say Fly-be.

"Not sure there was an avalanche of offers for him" Nor I, but if he had strung it out I am sure there would have been other offers on the table for him to look at Morpheus. "he would have been easily replaced by a better player". At considerable cost in both transfer fee and wages. I for one think this is as good if not better than a new signing because he is already one of us, gives everything he has for the shirt and has shown great progress over the last season. I think he also works well with Benteke which may sway Benteke to give us another season when he comes to make his own decision.

That is a big relief! Well done to both the club (for making him a decent offer) and to Andi (for taking it and showing some loyalty which has become a rare thing to see in football).

It appears to be all quiet on the Andreas front at the moment and I can understand the focus is on Benteke and on potential new signings but I hope the club have now got somewhere near to getting new contracts with increased wage offers on the table for both players which might possibly settle them and their agents this summer. Weimann is the most likely of the two to sign a new contract without undue delay if it is put before him and it offers a reasonable return for the progress he has made with us and it would be more than a pity if we lost him because we put sorting his situation out on the back burner.

I understand from buying them previously it is just a term they use for the student ST as most of these are under 21 & as long as you are still a student and can prove it and do not sit in a section that does not give a discount to + 21 students then just enjoy the lower price whilst you still can samjp26.

I very much doubt that Defoe would want to join us in any case and Spurs would need to pay the difference between the wage they are paying him and what we would be prepared to give a 30 year old striker (who would have been a great signing for us 5 years ago but would be less so now) to make him even consider being a make weight in any such deal. But I guess they would deduct that from any balance they offered us. I myself would not look at anything less than £30m cash and would only consider that if the player was determined to go and I guess the club might also not want to agree any deal whilst season tickets are still in the process of being bought...

"If it's true I can't see him picking us over any of those teams". We might not be quite bottom of his list Phumfeinz but I guess everyone else would pay more wages wise and I thought PL had warned us that the days of the club making signings of £10m+ players were over.

"I think that the summer is going to be hard for me and hope there will be a happy ending...I hope Tonev and me will be united in England. What could be better than that?" Sounds very much up for a move to us and to joining Tonev at Villa Park.

Have Liverpool even paid the full fee for Downing yet? They seem to like signing their players on the "never-never" basis (at least from us) and if they really want him I guess there would be photographs of him waving a Liverpool scarf in a bar by now and they would have offered £14m and then increased it to £17m and told us that was all he was worth and we should not deny him his dream move before in time going as high as £20m over say 3 years interest free. He can do better than Liverpool although they will pay more than we are likely to offer and money talks very loud for players and their agents. He will see a move to them as a step up although it is not a big one and I hope he will give us another year if he does not get a better offer.

Kevin Phillips (one goal machine to replace another)????

By the way when we look at international caps we might also question why Evans, Bremner and McNaught were so often absent from Scotland teams and squads.

I am sure it bothered our players Mike and I think we still hold the record for the number for England players provided if not now the number of caps. I just cannot understand why Morty did not get at least one game in the England midfield although I think Robson, McDermott and Wilkins rather than Brooking (whose place was never in doubt with the West Ham link) kept him out and Shaw for me was not in competition with Mariner for a shirt that was more of a Withe vs Mariner thing with Woodcock, Francis & Keegan standing in Shaw's way. For me but for injury he would have become a regular in the England squad and then the team itself. Mills was a different type of full back to Swain and suited the conservative Greenwood although I think Clough may have gone for our man and Shaw earlier than the then England manager would have and played both Cowans and Morley more often. Off topic I see shades of Greenwood/Clough in the Roy/Harry England situation now.

He has made his decision and we move on whether his decision was the right one for him is one he will have to live with one way or the other. My guess is that money and being able to say he is an "Arsenal player" played a larger part in his decision than did the increased prospect of playing first team football with us sooner rather than later (if at all) with his new club. He has burnt his bridges with us and my focus is on the players that remain with us and want to wear our shirt.

"Atletico Madrid are ready to test Aston Villa's resolve to keep Christian Benteke with a stunning £20million bid." I have to agree I am stunned that they would think we would sell our player for 40% of what they wanted for their own. What the agent might feel confident we would accept and what Benteke might consider would make both him and us happy is some way off a £20m fee but I guess they might both see that as more than double what we paid & almost a 200% profit in a year. I think this is the sort of bid we can anticipate getting this summer as clubs see us as a selling club and will not think they have to bid too high to get the player they want. I would not look at a bid of under £30m cash and would look for a sell on clause on top of that as I can see him being worth a hell of a lot more in a couple of seasons. I have a feeling he is destined to leave this summer but if he does go it needs to be for the right money and we need to put all of that money into new signings. I also agree with daggy-333 that there is more than a bit of the Liverpool situation here with Atletico although Benteke is a far better striker than the one they paid over the odds for to Newcastle.

"A hypothetical choice for you: Benteke for another year OR Weimann for another 4 years? Both please brommy. There is no reason why we cannot try for both and I think they are better together than on their own.

"I still can't quite believe Nottingham Forest have won it twice. One wonders how their fans feel." Proud of the glory years that Brian Clough & Peter Taylor brought to their football club I would suggest CarewsEyebrowDesigner and longing for their club to get back to where it was in the early 80s in much the same way as we are.