The Villa Gossip Round-Up!

A quick round up of what the press are saying about Villa and links in and out. Well, actually most out at the moment!

Villa left-back Jlloyd Samuel is said to be in the advanced stages of talks to move to Bolton Wanderers under new boss Sammy Lee.

Talking about Lee’s (seamless link) Lee Hendrie is being courted by a fair few clubs, although no Premiership club has as yet been named.

Seems the Villa midfielder whose contract is about to expire for the Claret and Blues has options to go back to Stoke permanently, or to be sent to Coventry City or Leicester City. Mmmmm, mouth-watering prospects!

Potters boss Tony Pulis says they have had talks with Henders, ‘All of the on-loan players have gone back to their clubs. We have spoken to all them about next year, whether we can sit down and come to some agreement remains to be seen. We have held tentative discussions with some of their representatives and we will be working hard to tie up the deals. All of the loan players we had here last season did very well, and I would like to bring everyone of them back.’

As said, Hendrie is also being linked to Coventry City and Leicester City and Hendrie said of the speculation:

‘I heard something last week – different clubs have been mentioned – but I’ve said I don’t want to speak to anyone until this Friday, when I hope my agent has sorted something out for me. My future is in their hands and I want something concrete sorted by Friday, so hopefully I’ll know where I stand after then. Milan Mandaric is ambitious to take Leicester back to the Premiership and they are a big club, as are Coventry, so it’s nice to be linked with them. But I don’t know whether it’s true. If my agent rings me on Friday with something worthwhile, then great.’

‘My agent has spoken to Stoke and Tony Pulis has to get back in touch with their chief executive. All their loan players have gone back and they had a really good go at getting promoted, so I don’t know what their financial situation is.’

Meanwhile according to reports in the Sunderland Journal, Roy Keane won’t be pursuing the signature of former Mackam midfielder Gavin McCann but apparently Wigan Athletic and Everton are both interested in his services.

QPR midfielder Lee Cook, who has been linked to Villa for many a long month, along with the usual others like Manchester City, Tottenham and Middlesbrough, has said he is happy to stay at the Hoops despite the interest from Premiership Clubs. John Gregory has made it clear he won’t sell the 24-year-old for less than £2million and his chairman had slapped a higher price on his head a few months back. Sounds like they are trying to raise interest to get some money for the player in order to help the team re-building. Anyway, Cook has said: ‘I’m happy here. I want to stay at QPR. Anything can happen between now and August 31, but I didn’t sign an improved contract last summer just to go and leave one year on. Like the rest of the lads in the squad, I’m looking forward to returning to pre-season training in early July.’ Adding ‘Money talks, and if the club accept a bid for me, then it is out of my hands.’

Bugger, now I’ve got the Neil Diamond song stuck in my head all day. Altogether now…….. Money talks, but it don’t sing and dance and it don’t walk………. !