In Tuesday’s Transfer Window, JOE takes a look at the possible contenders for the Villa job, and rounds-up all the latest transfer rumours.
By Conor Hogan
Here at JOE we are still trying to recover from the first proper news of the summer. ‘Martin O’Neill resigns from Aston Villa.’ The reason? We can only speculate. Could it be over James Milner’s imminent sale to Manchester City? If that’s the case, that would make O’Neill the second manager to quit over Milner, after Kevin Keegan.
Could it be over Ashley Young’s possible transfer to Tottenham? Maybe he has come to the realisation that he couldn’t take Villa any further, and has jumped ship before their anticipated bad season. Or maybe it’s a combination of all three. Whatever the reason, it’s unlikely to be because he has a new job lined up.
Randy Lerner isn’t short of possible replacements. A plethora of managers are lined up to star in the all-new ITV reality show, How do you solve a problem like The Villa? These include American Coach Bob Bradley, who has fuelled speculation by saying, ‘I would love to coach in Europe some day’. Martin Jol is another contender. After the collapse of his move from Ajax to Fulham, the former Tottenham manager is very unhappy. Villa would be willing to pay a lot more than the Cottagers to buy out his contract.
Lerner’s number one target is Everton’s David Moyes, a man who has been performing miracles with the Toffees since 2002. The Scot is fairly unlikely to leave, however, as it would hardly be much of a step up for him. Jurgen Klinsmann is linked too, as are usual suspects Sven Goran Eriksson, Alan Curbishley and Slaven Bilic. If Curbs takes over, he will probably take Villa to tenth, like he did in practically every season with Charlton and his one full season with West Ham.
Two shock names bandied about are Gareth Southgate, who proved to the world at Middlesbrough that he wasn’t a very good manager, and Mark Hughes. The Welshman would endear himself greatly to Cottagers fans if he was to jump ship at the earliest possible opportunity as soon as a better job came along.
Lukaku who’s talking
Real Madrid are linked with 17-year-old Belgian Wunderkind Romelu Lukaku, who was top scorer in the Belgian League last year and has been handed the moniker of the ‘new Didier Drogba.’ The other member of the Spanish Old Firm, Barcelona, look the likeliest team to sign Mesut Ozil, after the German said “It is my dream to play for them.”  He could cost the Catalans an amazingly reasonable £12million.
Spurs are set to ‘renew their interest’ in Luis Fabiano, as it had recently expired. They face stiff competition for the Brazilian from French champions Marseille, who are willing to part with €13million. Loic Remy is speaking to Tottenham.
Mark Hughes is apparently ‘targeting veterans.’ ‘Just because they fought in a war, doesn’t entitle them to any of my respect,’ he of course didn’t say. But he is considering bidding for Eidur Gudjonsen and Mikael Silvestre.
Steven Caldwell is currently living with his brother Gary Caldwell in Wigan after being released by Burnley. He’s hoping to get picked up by Wigan so he can play with his brother again. Like when they were two little boys. Each had a wooden horse. Gaily, they played each summer’s day. Warriors both, of course. One little chap then had a mishap and broke off his horse’s head.
Liverpool look likely to sign Christian Poulsen, and are eyeing Carlton Cole. Yakubu is linked with West Ham, who are also trying to sign Miralem Sulejmani on loan. Stoke are after Kenwyne Jones, while Arsenal are searching for centre-backs and are taking a look at Gary Cahill of Bolton, Brede Hangeland of Fulham, current West Ham and ex-Arsenal player Matthew Upson, or Everton’s Phil Jagielka.
SPL in a bucket
With Aiden McGeady signing for Spartak, Celtic’s deal for Liam Lawrence appears to be on again.
Majid Bougherra, who has been linked with a move away from Rangers all summer, has decided to stay put in Glasgow. Former Arsenal academy player Nacer Barazite is currently on trial with the Old Firm club.
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