Fridays Villa Transfer Talk – Young Out?

The Mirror have an ‘exclusive’. Basically the reporter, Darren Lewis, has put 2+2 and come up with an obvious link and one that has been talked about before.

The report says Martin O’Neill is facing a ‘crisis’ as he will have to fight to keep Ashley Young with Chelsea believed to be interested. They quote £20million. Errr, try again value wise please?!

The report says the 23-year-old is concerned that Villa were unable to keep hold of Gareth Barry and thinks they might struggle to replace him.

Hasn’t Young not long since signed a new contract? Yup, he has 3 years left. We cannot sell him, simple as that, we just can’t, if we did (we won’t) it would be a massive white flag. Can’t happen. Have I mentioned that we simply can’t sell him yet? Real Madrid are also said to be interested as are other clubs.

The Mirror football spy also claim that O’Neill who is currently in the States on holiday, is after 22-year-old Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone. Boring, seen that link many times now! Might have some substance as Harry Redknapp is looking to make changes at White Hart Lane and according to Sky Sports he also tried to buy Barry but was ‘blown out of the water by Manchester City’.

The Daily Star has a story saying we would like to resurrect David Bentley’s career but only if Spurs take a hit on the £15m fee they paid Blackburn Rovers last summer. The report says MON won’t go over £10million for him. Hmmm, not sure about that, a £5m loss over one season? The report says Redknapp would be happy to offload the 24-year old.

Interestingly the Daily Star know the summer transfer kitty for Villa, they must be on very good terms with Randy Lerner who rarely talks to the press and said recently when he did a few interviews that he wasn’t going to say what the budget was! They say MON has £30million + the £12million from the sale of Barry.

The Star link Villa also with Middlesbrough’s defender David Wheater a link that first surfaced a few weeks ago. They also claim we are after Stewart Downing. Good player for sure but difficult to see any team bidding for him so soon after he has surgery. He is due to be out for 6 months.

The Daily Mirror say that Everton have warned Manchester City that defender Joleon Lescott is not for sale. That might put an end to Villa being linked with the Toffees defender also!