Sunday's Aston Villa Transfer Talk

Well, nothing directly to do with Villa but there was the mad rumour the other week that Villa have tried to bid £9million for Chelsea striker Didier Drogba! Today in the Sunday Express the red top claims that Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari may be willing to allow Drogba to leave Stamford Bridge as long as he gets the transfer fee for the striker to spend on re-enforcements. Hmmm, makes you wonder? Would they sell to Villa who are only 1 point away from them and would Drogba be interested in joining an ambitious, success hungry club who are on the way up? As Frank Lampard said the other day when he pleaded with the Chelsea boss not to let the striker leave, on his day he is the best in the world!

Yup, you've guessed it, not much going on in transfer gossip column for Villa today!

The only real snippet I can find is in the News of the World. A report by Geoff Sweet claims that Appy Arry of Tottenham wants to buy Nigel Hokey-Cokey. The report says Redknapp is keen to strengthen his defence, but then NRC is meant to be a midfielder isn't he?!?

Apparently Arry tried to sign him five years ago for Portsmouth and is keen to get the 24-year-old as he has proven his versatility playing right-back, right of midfielder, central midfield and in the holding role.

The report claims Villa would want 'at least £10million' for him and also says the Hokey-Cokey would be reluctant to swap a chance of the Champions League for a relegation battle.

Also in the News of the World, it claims Manchester City midfielder Michael Johnson might be available. The link is to Fulham but we were 'strongly' linked to him in the summer, so who knows?

Meanwhile Gareth Barry told the Birmingham Mail that 'The manager is right in what he is doing. He has to wait for the right one. Not just dive in for the sake of it.' Cool, as long as he then doesn't say in the summer we lack ambition with signings!

The Villa and England midfielder also said, this time in the Express & Star, 'In terms of squads, that is where the main difference is with Villa and the top four. So far, touch wood, we have been lucky with injuries and suspensions. The manager will now be definitely looking to add. It is a tricky one, though, because he does not want to add just for the sake of it. He wants players who want to improve us – not just numbers. It is a tough one for the manager. Clubs don’t want to sell their best players in January. You also get players who are thinking: ‘Do I want to go and play for Aston Villa?’ It is a tough decision for them when they will have also have the established big clubs after them.'

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