Surprise Surprise! It's Sylla for the Villa!

It looks like Villa are on the brink of of a signing a player!

Yacouba Sylla, a 22 year old defensive midfielder looks almost certain to join the club before the window closes. He'll be joining from the French Ligue Deux club Clarmont Foot and no we'd never heard of him or them either.

Fulham and Queens Park Rangers had also been trailing the French Under 21 international, who has been a regular in the Clarmont Foot first team of late.

It would seem that this signing is another Paul Lambert gamble, but after Barry Bannan's woeful showing against Newcastle, Stephen Hawking would have been an improvement.

The deal should be completed tomorrow.

Has Bent to Stoke got legs?

Rumours are growing that Stoke City may come in to swoop Darren Bent up before the transfer window closes.

Awash with Bet365 cash, it's likely that The Potters would be able to stump up the funds to take the goal machine up the M6, though they are unlikely to pay the sort of money Gerard Houllier invested in the player just two years ago. Rumours of a swap deal featuring Kenwyne Jones would seem to be at odds with Lambert's build for the future policy.

Bent has struggled to get into the Villa starting eleven this season and has even been omitted from the bench on several occasions. Though he made a rare Premier League start in last night's match with Newcastle, his lacklustre performance led to his half time substitution and his Villa Park days look numbered.

The deal could hinge on the success of QPR's move for ex-Villa striker Peter Crouch, with Harry Redknapp last night candidly admitting that he'd love to be reunited with lanky forward.

Swoop for Diame unlikely but you never know...

Rumours linking Mohamed Diame with a move to Aston Villa may be wide of the mark.

The 25-year-old Senegal international, only signed for West Ham last summer but has a £3.5million release clause in his contract at Upton Park.

However, news that Paul Lambert was "priced out" of a deal for the similarly priced Moussa Sissoko would indicate that any deal would be a non-starter, with Arsenal a more likely destination for the midfield dynamo.

Big Sam seemed unsure of the player's future earlier today:

"There are certain situations where, yes, we might lose the player. I hope we don't. But if the situation develops accordingly, there's going to be the chance we lose him. We're trying to keep him."

Warnock snub Hammer blow to Allardyce

It appears that Sam Allardyce's efforts to get Stephen Warnock to solve his left back problem have been scuppered.

Says Sam "another club in the Championship have made him a more long-term offer and he has decided to take it.

"That is another lot of hard work wasted. Only a small percentage of the time does it pay off. Ninety-nine percent of the time you are wasting time."

Rumours indicate that Leeds United's Neil Warnock (no relation) has swooped in to capture the Villa Park misfit before the window closes.

In other news, Alan Hutton is packing the Ambre Solaire and heading off for a loan spell with Real Mallorca, with a view to a permanent deal if he can hack it in La Liga, while Shay Given won't be allowed to escape from the bench on a loan deal.

Stephen Warnock set to Hammer Out West Ham deal

With Wolves and Leeds seemingly only interested in a loan deal, it seems that Sam Allardyce could offer left back Stephen Warnock an escape from his Villa nightmare by taking him to West Ham United in a permanent move.

Despite Villa defending like the Keystone Cops and fans crying out for more experience in the back line, the 31 year old has been ostracised by Paul Lambert and forced to train with the Academy kids.

No fee is thought to be involved in the deal, but getting Warnock's hefty salary off the books could give Villa's beleaguered boss a bit of wriggle room in the transfer market.

However, it remains to be seen whether Warnock's salary expectations will be a sticking point as the transfer deadline clock counts down.

The transfer window slams shut on Thursday.

Don't Panic but Curtis Davies may be up for grabs...

Complete lack of any credible transfer rumours today, except the slightly scary news that our former multi-million pound misfit defender Curtis Davies could be on his way back to Villa Park in a cut price deal.

While rumours also circulate that Reading could be in for Davies, his recent moves haven't actually taken him beyond the boundaries of the City of Birmingham, unless we count that loan spell in Leicester,  so it would be no massive surprise if he chose to stay in the West Midlands and Villa certainly need to strengthen at the back.

Curtis Davies was, of course,  rather hamstrung by the weight of expectation placed on him by the ludicrous fee paid for him by Martin O'Neill, when he was clearly still learning his craft and there can be little doubt that he is a better defender now than the one that left under something of a cloud.

At 27 years old, this could be his last chance to establish himself as a Premier League defender.

It's been just under two years since Davies was off-loaded to St. Andrews but with our neighbours seemingly chaotic financial situation, they wouldn't be averse to offloading their bigger earners.

Is Modibo Diakité the answer at the back?

Linked with a move to Liverpool for a few weeks now, could Modibo Diakité be the answer to Villa's problems at the back?

Word is that Lazio are looking to offload Diakité before the centre back's contract expires in the summer. Any transfer fee would presumably be relatively nominal and the rumours are that his salary is proving to be the sticking point with a move to Anfield, though the £800k per annum that he would likely cost is around a third of the cost of a Richard Dunne.

Again, this potential newcomer has no Premier League experience but has plenty in Serie A and could be the sort of deal the finances would stretch to. At 25 years old he would also fit into Lambert's build for the future policy, so this particular rumour may have legs.

When the Boateng Comes In

Still got an old shirt with "Boateng" on the back of it. Well hang on to it because it just may be topical again (if a bit retro*).

Yes the latest name to be linked with the Villa is journeyman defensive midfield Derek Boateng! What do you mean "Derek who?" ?

Mister Boateng may not have the required Premier League experience but did manage a couple of seasons and 61 appearances for Getafe, so at least he's played at a decent level.

A Ghana International with 40 caps, Del-Boy is currently plying his trade at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the Ukranian league, where 23 appearances in a season and a half would indicate that he's hardly set the world on fire.

So dig out that old "Boateng" shirt from the back of the wardrobe and see if it still fits...

Reports also indicate that Martin Jol is sniffing round this one.



*For any of our younger readers that don't understand the term "retro", we believe the current popular term is "vintage".

Swap Shop? A Ginga for a Minga?

In the absence of ANY credible transfer news and with our belaguered squad desperately ill-equipped for the forthcoming fixture pile-up, we're desperate to believe any old tosh at this stage.

Word is that Martin Jol has fallen out with the ginger once free-scoring full back John Arne Riise. Now despite the fact that the goal stream from the flame haired Norwegian has long since dried up, and we here at Villamad Towers always rated him more highly going forward than actually defending, he does at least have a lot of Premier League experience.

At a creaky 32 years of age, any Villa move for the Scandanavian carrot top could only be seen as panicky short-termism but we reckon we could do with a bit of panicky short-termism right now.

The deal might make more sense if we believe the part of the rumour that suggests that Riise's fellow Anfield reject, one Stephen Warnock could go in the opposite direction as part of the deal.

Unlikely as the deal sounds, anything that gets Warnock off the books can't be totally discounted.

Tumbleweed

Eleven days into the the window and if the Christmas programme hadn't cruelly exposed the limitations of Lambert's squad (and let's face it, it had), the Valley Parade debacle certainly did.

Yet we haven't made one signing yet. No-one. Diddly squat. No new players.

What are they playing at down at Villa Park? This isn't a rehearsal. This isn't pre-season. The very future of Aston Villa Football Club is at stake here. We need help. More to the point, we need help NOW!

If Lambert has his targets, as we've been told in the past, then the club should be moving heaven and earth to bring these people in and not before the end of window but right now when we desperately need them.

The situation is critical. This is the biggest crisis facing Aston Villa for over a quarter of century.

Mister Lerner, Mister Faulkner, Mister Lambert, it's for action not prevarication.

All aboard the showboat...

While we would be excited to see Philippe Coutinho in a Villa shirt, there has to be some concern that Lambert would spunk his entire war chest on a 20 year old attacking midfielder when we are leaking like a sieve at the back.

Undoubtedly, Phil - as we'll insist on calling him if he signs - would see a move to Villa as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, so the 12 million quid or so it would take to capture him could be seen as a sound investment, but this would be another player with no Premier League experience and only a handful of Serie A games to his name.

We also have to wonder why Inter are ready to offload such a precocious talent.

Told that Villa are not in for Coutinho!

— Pete Colley (@petecolley) January 10, 2013

Would Danny be a Goalden Graham?

We are finding persistent rumours regarding a £12 million swoop for Swansea City's Danny Graham hard to get our heads round. Not sure we'd need Graham, 27 in our squad unless Darren Bent were to leave and in most people's eyes, that would be seen as a downgrade. Besides which, Danny broke our hearts with that recent last gasp equaliser.

Meanwhile, we'd definitely see the signing of Lazio defender Luis Cavanda 21 as a build-for-the-future signing and it would seem odd to splurging on another inexperienced defender who has never played in the Prem when it seems obvious we need something a bit less of a risk to supplement the current back line.

We fully expect scurrilous rumours to kick off linking us with Millwall players in the next couple of weeks and an unfounded story to emerge in the tabloids (fed by scurrilous websites/twitter feeds) in the days before the cup tie. Standard practice to unsettle the opposition...

The Lescott Thing

Paul Lambert's refusal to confirm or deny his interest in Joleon Lescott was all that was required for a feeding frenzy to begin, with some people convinced that we'd be signing the new Messiah and not a player many of us had written off as as money-grabbing Judas figure when he walked out on Moyes and Everton.

Indeed, I remember collective glee across the nation as Lescott struggled and made gaffe after gaffe in his early City appearances.

Of course Lescott is better than what we've currently got, but then we've currently got Chris Herd careering round the pitch like an excited Jack Russell (the dog, not the wicketkeeper), so if comes, then fair play.

But he's thirty, his form has always seemed somewhat erratic to us at Villamad Towers and he won't come cheap.

What Lambert actually said: 

"Joleon has been a top player and still is, he's a top, top player. He's not getting a game at Manchester City at the minute.

"As I've said before, I will sit with the rest of the staff and see what I can do. But I don't think you can ever dismiss it any level whenever you are talking about a top player."

Scotts Mist

Paul Lambert is a proud Scot so we should be surprised if he starts to bring a load of Scotts in?

While the pedants moan about FIFA regs, Scott Sinclair is said to be on the slate for a loan deal, though this would only really work for Man City if Mister Sinclair is guaranteed game time, a promise our fearless leader may not be able to make

That pesky regulation reads ‘Players may be registered for a maximum of three clubs during the period from 1 July until 30 June of the following year. During this period, the player is only eligible to play in Official Matches for two clubs.’ and may also scupper any deal, while Everton are also sniffing around if anything can happen...

As for John Guidetti, not much point him coming on loan either, if it's just to keep the bench warm and get in the way of developing our own strikers like Bowery.

The other Scott in the rumour machine is one Scott Parker. Parker turned out recently for Spurs U21s at Villa Park and was a major factor in the young cockrells playing us off the park that night. I'd find it odd if he couldn't just stroll into our side at the moment and this is the sort of level head we need at the minute. He's still a very talented player to boot, so we're hoping this one is more than ITK bollocks.

Dale Stephens has been on the radar since the last window, so no surprise that the rumours persist and this one could well come off.

Anyone hearing Jordan Henderson's post-match interview after Liverpool's game yesterday will have instantly chucked any rumours about him in the bin. He seems very content where he is.

Meanwhile, thoughts that Darren Bent could be Demba Ba's replacement at Newcastle could be scuppered by a) Bent's fitness, b) the Mackem thing and c) Villa's valuation.

Sturridge

Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool CONFIRMED. Makes a move by them for Darren Bent far less likely... #avfc

— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) January 2, 2013

Midfield targets

Given that Paul Lambert has never really made up his mind as to what his best midfield is and that we are not expecting great news about the extent of Westwood's injury, it's no surprise that were are being linked with midfielders.

27 year old Zimbabwean Bradley Pritchard is apparently on the radar, despite the fact that most of his experience is in the lower leagues with the likes of Nuneaton and Tamworth. The fact that he is currently plying his trade in League One would make him seem like a legitimate Lambert target, but not the sort of signing most of us are crying out for.

No transfer window would be complete without the obligatory link to Anfield misfit Joe Cole, but we never believe those rumours. Of more interest, the one that has got us intrigued is Jordan Henderson, though this one may be dependent on one Darren Bent going in the other direction.

As for those going out, we've now heard the name of Albrighton being bandied about linked to McLeish's Forest. We can't see Marc being that keen on leaving the Villa or the Premier League, but stranger things have happened.