Madmax

Hope this doesn't happen. We're already short on numbers in the middle. The midfield can't be any more threadbare.

Nowhere does Moratti specifically name Chelsea as a club interested in Balotelli, nor does he give any indication of us being in the running. Pure media tosh, put Chelsea in the headline so more papers will sell.

When does the game start , according to GMT?

No Hutch?

All this stuff about forcing a transfer is non-relevant. The guy's got a release clause of around 28 million which we can activate if we really are that into him, although City will get a chance to offer similar terms to the ones we offer because they have the right to first refusal on him.

Just because some Greek guys got a bit excited to see Riera arrive at their club doesn't mean we can sell Deco for double digit millions and the other club will accept it with a smile and a curtsy. Deco is 32, injury prone and really really wants to leave, which means that everyone knows that we are not in the best bargaining position. Also, 8 million? You really think anyone would pay us what we payed for him 2 years back considering how poor he's been here? The player is unhappy here and there's no point keeping an unhappy player on the books. Better we release him and start looking for younger guys to fill the hole in our midfield.

Yep Turnbull over Hilario, any day.

What a load of bollocks. People in lesser known leagues aren't dumb. Everyone and their mother knows Deco wants to go to Brazil and clubs there realise they are in the driver's seat when it comes to bargaining, not us. Go figure who's taking the piss.

Realistically how much can we get for Deco? 1 - 2 mil max. Not worth it imo.

Your guess is as good as mine, but depends on whether Carvalho stays, whether Bos is fit enough to return for the league opener, so on and so forth.

Apparently, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle are interested in taking PvA on loan. It's from goal.com tho, so who knows. Story

Oh boy. Here we got with the injuries again...

Part of Robinho's loan deal there. Screw them bastards.

Ramires is not a DM, but I can see your point about us needing a creative player. If you ask me, I'm surprised no-one talks about Mikel Arteta. He's an excellent player who not only ticks all the boxes in terms of what we need, but also has the quality and temperament that can see him making him at a really big club.

Ireland is good for a mid table club like Villa, not for the defending champions.

Well we shouldn't be expecting him to say "Oh we're after X, Y and Z." He's just being diplomatic. The last thing we want is those pretenders Citeh getting into a bidding war with us over someone we really are after, because that's all they seem to do - they wake up in the morning, read Chelsea or Real Madrid or whoever are interested in X, become aware of X's existence and then throw bundles of quids at him.

I'll be really really pissed if they spend 20 mil on this guy. Khedira is worth 7 mil, what has Ramires done to prove this price tag?

Hell 30 million? Wtf? They can have him. He can join the 'We're useless' group along with Barry and Vieira.

I thought Deco wanted to go to Fluminese...

Mirrorfootball is utter shite. If u look at their columnists, all of them are anti-Chelsea.

Didn't he have a release clause of 28 mil? Anyway I think it's too much money for a 17 year old. The risk if he flops is massive. We'd be better served if we wait another year, and then get Lukaku onece his schooling is done.

I'm not quite sure what the problem with the Deco situation is tbh. He's said time and again he wants to leave and go back to his kids in Brazil, which means we'll have to release him for free. Saves us his wages plus all the costs incurred trying to maintain and improve his fitness. He gets to return to his family and see out his career in his native country, where there'll be no shortage of suitors for him. Looks like a good deal for both of us, so why isn't he gone already?

Can't believe Alan Dzagoev isn't up there

Boy I'm glad you don't manage a football team.

20 mil for someone who's good, not great, and still relatively unproven in Europe? I'm not too sure.