Villa to splash the cash...on Tom Cleverley!

Tom

Paul Lambert is about to splash £8 million of  Randy's cash on Manchester United's underachieving midfielder Tom Cleverley.


Lambert will have to beat off competition from Hull City and Everton to land the England international and it's another signing destined to divide the fan base. Cleverley's performances for club and country have not been overly inspiring.

Randy Lerner

Cleverley has been told he can leave Old Trafford as new United manager Louis van Gaal seeks to reinvent his squad.


Reports suggest that Randy Lerner has loosened his vice like grip on the purse strings to allow the under-pressure Lambert to offer Cleverley a fresh start at Villa Park, with some trustworthy sources suggesting the bid has already gone in.

Whether Cleverley can rebuild his reputation in front of an notoriously unforgiving Villa Park crowd remains to be seen.

Stoke cast off Wilson Palacios on verge of Villa move?

Wilson

In the words of the late great Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it".

Stoke City spare part Wilson Palacios is on the verge of a move to Premier League rivals Aston Villa, according to reports in Honduras. This despite Villa's recent capture of Carlos Sanchez.

The 30-year-old midfielder had been (unbelievably) linked with a switch to Villa Park before but seemed set to be heading to Qatar earlier this summer.

That deal collapsed amid reports the former Wigan and Spurs man had  failed a medical. 

Stoke chiefs are reported to have been  working with Palacios's agent to see what options are available before the end of the summer transfer window.

Update: Mark Hughes has (hooray) pour cold water on this story:

"I'm not aware of that interest," he said. "He had an opportunity to go to Qatar which would have been good for him but that fell through.

"We like him as a person and a player but sometimes it's right to move on.


"Interest from other Premier League clubs is not something I'm aware of."

Is Aly Cissokho the answer at left back?

Could Liverpool flop Aly Cissokho be the latest player to fill the troublesome left back spot at Aston Villa? Possibly if reports emerging from media outlets in Valencia are to be believed.

Rumour has it that Valencia would take a nominal fee to get the player off their books.

Liverpool had an option to buy the player for around £3 million but declined after the player struggled to adapt to the Premier League. Brendan Rodgers often opted to play right backs on the left side rather than trust the Frenchman's defensive abilities. Some Villa fans will be sceptical about a player who lost out to Glen Johnson and Jon Flanagan last term.

Antonio Luna has left on a season long loan and no one player has managed to make the left back slot their own as Paul Lambert has tried the likes of  Enda "Bomb Squad" Stevens, Kieran Richardson and Ciaran Clark in the role, while Joe Bennett found himself in the Under 21 squad for a friendly at Swindon.

Lambert has also experimented by three at the back and a left wing back role would seem more in tune with Cissokho's talents than as an out and out full back, based on what we saw from him while he was at Anfield.

Both Milan clubs have been linked with the player in the past.

Is Peter Whittingham coming back?

Philippe Senderos's arrival is proof that things are moving again on the transfer front and as Paul Lambert scours Europe for proven, experienced but cheap talent, rumours are emerging from Wales that Peter Whittingham may be in his crosshairs.

The player - who made is name playing wide for Villa before heading off to Cardiff in search of more regular first team football - had become the target of The Bluebird's boo-boys under Malky Mackay and subsequently fell out of favour under the tenure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has just a year to run on his current deal with Welsh club.

Able to operate as left sided central midfielder and provide width when required, if Villa are in for him it would appear that he'd be challenging Fabian Delph for a regular berth in the team, unless Lambert opts for a different formation next term.

Whittingham is approaching his 30th birthday, but his salary is likely to fit into the tight wage structure imposed by Lerner's era of austerity and although Villa would prefer to be picking up Bosmans, any fee would reflect his age and the fact he only has 12 months left on his current deal.

Ron Vlaar could leave after the World Cup?

Could Ron Vlaar be leaving Aston Villa? It's a grim prospect but Villa's captain could well disappear before the new season gets underway.


The Dutch international is thought to be frustrated at the current Randy Lerner induced paralysis at the club. He would have expected to have been offered fresh terms as he enters the last year of his current deal, but uncertainty over the future means that meaningful talks aren't taking place.

Vlaar is currently concentrating on Holland's preparations for The World Cup and if he manages to impress on that global stage, the offers will come flooding in. Villa may choose to cash on this rather than let the player walk away on a free transfer this time next year.

New Manchester United head honcho and current Dutch manager Louis van Gaal is well aware of the central defender's talents and is keen to add numbers and quality to the Red Devils' defensive staff following the departures of Ferdinand and Vidic and would be confident that Villa's skipper could challenge the likes of Smalling and Jones for a first team berth.  Other teams across Europe will be keeping an eye on a player who may feel his reputation has been tarnished by having to perform in Villa's shaky, technically deficient back line.

With season ticket renewals already being adversely affected by last season's home form and the prospect of more of the same, the club will be anxious to play down any rumour that one of the better players in the squad is leaving, at least until after the World Cup when renewal deadlines will have passed.

He's just a teenage Dongou baby

Aston Villa could be on the verge of capturing highly promising Barcelona teen Jean Marie Dongou on-loan for the rest of the season.

Dongou, 18, has emerged for Barca’s renowned youth set up where he has developed a free-scring reputation.

A spell playing in the Premier League can only be beneficial to the Cameroon Under-20 international's development so a deal could be in the offing, though the Spanish club are only likely to agree to the deal if the lad is guaranteed some game time.

The player caught the eye in the first season of the NextGen Series , in which he finished as equal top scorer with seven goals, a feat emulated the following season by our very own Graham Burke.

Despite' his tender years he's already made an impact on the Barca first-team getting a goal and an assist in the Copa Del Rey tie with FC Cartagena in December.

Thomas Ince up for grabs after his daddy gets the shove?

Following days of speculation, the Tangerines have swung the axe and Paul Ince is no longer manager of Blackpool.

The news has instantly sparked speculation about the future of Paul's son, promising midfielder Thomas Ince.

Young Ince was on the verge of joining Cardiff City in the summer, with a deal agreed between the two clubs, but decided not to go through with it, choosing to remain at his father's club for added family support having become a new dad.

Paul's sacking completely changes the situation and it's difficult to see why Tom would have any loyalty to a club that was happy to offload him for the right price just a few short months ago and has just given his father the Spanish Archer.

Though he has undoubted talent, the midfielder is still very much a work in progress and some have blamed a slump in his form over the last few months for some of Blackpool's problems as they've suffered a terrible run of results.

It remains to be seen whether Villa would go in for a player that Cardiff were rumoured to have been prepared to shell out £9 million for.

However Vincent Tan has tightened the purse strings at Cardiff and anyway his new manager might have other targets, so a bold Villa bid might just entice the player to the West Midlands, an area his dad knows well from his time at Wolves.

Will Randy un-Ravel his transfer policy to snare Morrison?

Ravel without a cause

It would take a bit of a shift in recent transfer policy, but could an Aston Villa move for Ravel Morrison be on the cards?

The mercurial player with a tarnished reputation revitalised his career under the watchful eye of Lee Clark over at St. Andrews and has been a revelation at West Ham this term, providing a few bright spots in what has been a difficult season for Big Sam's boys.

The player has been unsettled by comments from René Meulensteen but the Hammers have rejected Fulham's offer dismissing it as derisory.

The player is thought to be on a weekly salary of around £15K a week, so Villa could easily more than double that without breaking the wage structure so the sticking points would be a)Will Randy stump up a Kozak-sized transfer fee and b) does Paul Lambert fancy risking disturbing his dressing room by adding in an unpredictable player.

Any move for Morrison would be seen as a risk, but he would offer us something we don't have.

The worry must be that he could turn out to be another Stephen Ireland.

As Allardyce warns: "He's not an experienced man in life, never mind in football. And inexperienced young players can react in many different ways."

Will Lambert Get Wells Soon?

SINCE THIS PIECE WAS WRITTEN, NAHKI HAS BUGGERED OFF TO HUDDERSFIELD TOWN COMING OFF THE BENCH TO SCORE THE WINNER ON HIS DEBUT.

The race to sign Bermuda’s Nahki Wells seems to be well and truly on, with hordes of Premier League and Championship clubs said to be interested in signing the 23-year-old Bradford City striker.

After Paul Lambert's slew of European summer signings failed to make a major impact in the first half of the season, he may be tempted to look once more at the lower leagues and knows from the bitter experience of last season's League Cup exit just what young Wells has to offer.

If Lambert does want to add Wells to his strike force, he may have to see off Mark Hughes and Stoke City who fancy pairing the diminutive forward with beanpole veteran forward Peter Crouch in a bizarre "Little and Large" combination.

Celtic are said to be monitoring the situation as they may be losing Georgios Samaras.

Middlesbrough are also thought to be sniffing around as are Burnley and Nottingham Forest while Huddersfield Town are thought to be dark horses. It would take a bid of around £2million to prise the player -  who scored 26 goals in 54 matches last season - away from Valley Parade.

The Bermuda international has already found the net 15 times this term despite missing a month through injury.

Out-of-sorts Kiyotake back on the radar?

Hiroshi Kiyotake, the Japanese playmaker who dazzled in his first season in the Bundesliga but has struggled to find the same form this term, is back on the Villa radar, according to rumblings coming out of Japan.

1. FC Nürnberg have really struggled this season, languishing one off the bottom of the league and have managed to amass just eleven points while Kiyotake's alarming drop off in form is thought by many to be part of the problem rather than the solution.

Last season the midfield wizard was second only to Franck Ribery in Germany in providing assists while this season he's only managed four so far and only weighed in with two goals.

The Nuremberg club's hierarchy are looking to shake things up in the window and have already offloaded Alexander Esswein to FC Ausberg and brought in talented Czech midfielder Ondřej Petrák as they desperately strive to preserve their Bundesliga status.

Paul Lambert is a keen follower of the German game and will be fully aware of both Kiyotake's skills and form slump and may need to prise Randy's wallet open to finance a deal having spunked a big chunk of his limited budget on the now incapacitated Libor Kozák in the summer.

While Kiyotake's first loyalties will be to find his form and help his German club out of the hole they are in, he'll also have one eye on retaining his place with Japan in the upcoming FIFA World Club and will have noticed that playmaker rival Keisuke Honda has secured a new lease of footballing life with a move to AC Milan.

1. The villamad.co.uk news minions will do some more digging on this as soon as we've finished mocking up photos of Defour at Birmingham Airport and writing jokes about Karren Brady's tits.

Georgios Samaras misses post Christmas Turkey trip to decide future

Georgios Samaras has been excused from Celtic's tour of Turkey as he decides his future, amidst rumours that Villa have an interest in the player.

Out of contract this summer, the Greek international striker has fled to Greece to ponder his future following weekend talks with Parkhead head honcho Peter Lawwell.

A new contract is on the table at Celtic, but it is thought that the player believes he is at a crossroads in his career and could be tempted by a crack at another run in one of Europe's more competitive leagues, such as the Premier League, something life in Scotland can't offer.

Paul Lambert's strong Celtic connections mean that he'll be fully aware of the Samaras situation, but he may struggle to persuade the versatile forward that a move to a struggling Villa is his best option. However, the fact that the player is almost out of contract means that any fee would be negligible, making it easier to come to an agreement over salary.

Neil Lennon would rather not lose Georgios's mercurial talents, "I think he’d be hard to replace and I can see why there are clubs interested in him. I know he can be inconsistent but, when he was in the mood for us, he was simply awesome."

Samaras began his career at Crete, before making his name at Heerenveen. He moved to Manchester City for a fee of £6 million in 2006 but wasn't Sven-Göran Eriksson cup of tea and  in January 2008 he was loaned out to Scottish Premier League team Celtic, where he's been ever since.

He's been a key player as Celtic have dominated the Scottish scene, average around one goal every three games, while he's also managed to rack up 70 caps for Greece.

McNally pours cold water on Wes Hoolahan escape bid

Hot Lips Houlihan

Norwich chief executive David McNally has virtually ruled out a move to Aston Villa for Wes Hoolahan in a statement today.

Hoolahan rumours have been circulating for days and the national papers ran stories overnight claiming that Wes had made a transfer request and Villa had made a bid, thought they couldn't agree on the amount of that bid with figures ranging from £750k to £2million being bandied about.

McNally

McNally put a big spoke in the rumour mill by proclaiming, "As we’ve always said, no players will be sold against our will. We’ve received no transfer requests this season and have no intention of releasing any of our senior players."

He went on to huff, "Our focus this January, as with every transfer window, is very much on improving the squad."

Tellingly, there was no denial that a bid had been received. It's been strongly rumoured that Hoolahan would have welcomed the chance to link back up with Paul Lambert as he hasn't been the apple of Chris Hughton's eye, though he has seen more game time in recent weeks.

While some will claim that the breakdown of Lambert's relationship with the Canaries' hierarchy has been a sticking point, it's more likely that the East Anglians aren't overly keen on improving the squad of fellow relegation candidates.

Double Dutch? Could Heitinga partner Ron Vlaar?

With Paul Lambert finally looking to add some experience to the mix in the January window, could Dutch international defender John Heitinga be an answer to his prayers?

Heitinga is keen to get first team football to have a chance of going to Brazil for the World Cup. He's failed to impress Roberto Martinez who has only seen fit to start him in Capital One Cup ties this season.

Said the defender: "I am fully fit and a player on top of my strengths. I want to go to the World Cup in Brazil.

"I know that national coach Louis Van Gaal requires his selected players playing weekly.

"At the moment, that's not the situation at Everton and therefore I am now looking for other options to get a successful continuation of my career."

He has turned down the chance of a move to West Ham, though he claimed that money wasn't the issue. Money would be an issue at Villa though, with Paul Lambert hinting at footballing poverty in recent interviews. However, a high salary would be less of a problem for a short-term loan deal or a limited length full contract and worth it if we can stay up.

If we are interested, we may have to fight off Roma and Newcastle.