The Villa Times 25/05/2006

Wolverhampton Wanderers chief executive Jez Moxey has dismissed reports suggesting that Aston Villa had bid £3million for Joleon Lescott. Moxey said 'The story suggesting Aston Villa have made a bid is absolute rubbish.'

21-year-old Liam Ridgewell has been offered a new and improved 3 year deal which would tie him to the club until 2009 after he made 30 starts and two sub bench appearances for the first team last season.

Villa also hope that Gary Cahill will agree a new deal to keep him at Villa.

Former on loan Villa player Carlton Cole is close to a £2million, £18 000 a week, move to Spurs according to The Sun.

Plenty of comments that Doug Ellis made last week backing David O'Leary and saying he hopes that last season was a 'one off'. Must be a quiet news week for those quotes to re-surface.

Aston Villa have arranged a pre-season friendly against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The mighty (ahem!) claret and blue will visit Molineux on July 29. Ha, and the Spurs fans are boasting about playing Inter Milan. Bet they will be green with envy when they see we have stolen their thunder and out done them in the glamour tie stakes. :(

Villa have reportedly offered Jlloyd Samuel for sale at a ridiculously knockdown price of £1.5million in order to give David O'Leary some funds for team strengthening. Read that again, if you don't see the irony, check your pulse. The 25-year-old left back is being linked to Charlton and as usual - if the reports are to be believed, we will be selling cheap.

So we have a report that Jlloyd Samuel might move to Charlton Athletic on the cheap, now we get one saying that Aston Villa's Lee Hendrie could be sold even cheaper. All this to strengthen the squad? HOW does that work? The 28-year-old midfielder is being linked to Portsmouth, West Bromwich Albion, Premiership new boys Watford and Sheffield United and was earlier in the season linked to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton. Some reports are suggesting he will be available for as little as £500 000.

A report by Tim Nash today reveals another damning incitement of the current set up at Aston Villa with a reported 40% drop in season ticket sales compared with this time last year. Full article: http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=19560

Results of a poll by football fans census on Midlands managers had David O'Leary as the most unpopular. Results of the survey for Villa: O'LEARY: Very Good 0 per cent, Good 3 per cent, OK 11 per cent, Bad 45 per cent, Very Bad 41 per cent

Vital Villa asked, following press talk linking Gareth Barry to Tottenham Hotspur, whether Villa should sell the left-sided midfielder. 61% in total said no, 51% of that total said Barry should be kept at all costs, 10% said sell at your peril Doug! 27% said he should be sold if the sum is over 27% and the remaining 12% said he should be sold if we can get £6million or more for him.

We also asked which ex-Villa will shine at the World Cup. 30% said Thomas Hitzlebeefburger, 27% said Peter Crouch, 24% said Savo Milosovic, 12% voted Bosko Balaban, 5% went for Dwight Yorke and just 2% said Ulises de la Cruz.

Thought for the day: I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?

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