Villa talks held

VALENCIA vice-president Fernando Gomez has confirmed they have held talks with Manchester City regarding the possible transfer of star striker David Villa.

The Spanish club are in deep financial trouble and admitted for the first time last week that they may need to cash in on some of their prized assets in a bid to ease their problems.

Spain international Villa, who is arguably the club's most valuable player, penned a six-year contract with Valencia only last August, tying the 27-year-old to Los Che until 2014, but it now seems the Primera Liga outfit are resigning themselves to him leaving.

>>MEN.

This could be very interesting.

It is no surprise that Valencia are in dire financial straits, and the likelihood is their biggest creditors are likely to insist on a fire-sale to recoup money that is owed.

Previously though, Villa has not indicated any desire to head to the Premier League and it is likely his preference would be for a move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

However, our financial muscle would allow to (considerably) outbid either of those clubs and it was suggested by Sid Lowe on the Football Weekly podcast that it wasn't inconceivable that Valencia could even go out of business.

Which, if a move comes solely down to money, we are very much in the box seat.

The price for Villa

£120 million according to this report in The Telegraph.

I know since the takeover we are armed with an unlimited pot of gold which effectively renders transfer fees irrelevant, but if we were to spend this amount to land Villa we would be more than doubling the previous record transfer fee.

As good a player as Villa is, is paying this type of fee to land him (or any player for that matter) really something that we want to see?

Villa time

Valencia are cash strapped and have admitted that their star player will have to go in January, despite Villa signing a contract extension that runs until 2014 just six months ago.

It is understood that the deal, worth an estimated £160,000-a-week, could be completed as early as Friday.

>>telegraph.co.uk

I think there has been enough substance around this story to suggest there may be more to it than the the di Natale link, but reports of a deal being completed as early as Friday strike as premature.

With reports of £160,000 a week and £100 million release fee clause, whilst the transfer amount may not cause a ripple in the owners pockets, Villa's wages may cause one or two knocks on Mark Hughes's door from the current squad.

Transfer rumour round-up 12/09/2008

There's been a fair few rumours around the past day or so - inevitable I guess as our very own advent calendar counts it way down to the arrival of shiny new gifts in the form of new players come the opening of the January transfer window.

David Villa was the big rumour of course, with cash strapped Valencia reportedly looking to cash in on him either in January or the summer and Valencia know that any number of clubs are ready to beat a path to their door to secure his signature. What I'm sure Valencia do know of course is that any bid by ourselves is easily able to blow the competition out of the water. Clearly he is a player with undoubted pedigree and has all of the tools to be a fantastic success with us. Previously though, he has shown no sign of favouring a move to the Premier League (even when rumours of Arsenal and Chelsea's interest were high), instead preferring to orchestrate a move to either Barcelona or Real.

Both of those sides though do look well served in attack though, so it really could open up the door for ourselves if indeed he is available. He would unquestionably be a fantastic signing, and if we were to land just one player in January, for me, this would the one.

Antonio di Natale was linked yesterday, with reports that his agent was in London conducting talks with the City hierarchy. A bit out of the blue this one as nowhere has he been linked to us previously He is very much an underrated player, who has forced himself into the Italy side ahead of some more established and glamorous names with consistent performances both domestically and in Europe for Udinese over the past few seasons.

A surprise that he has been linked though given his profile at Udinese and earlier this season he was recognised by the region for his services to the community and does appear to be a long term fixture at the club.

My concern with him would be his size, and whether he could operate in the Premier League without a bigger, more established partner to take some of the load off him. Not forgetting also, is the worrying fact that the Premier League has overwhelmingly been a graveyard for Italian strikers and the ghosts of Corradi and Bianchi still loom large around Eastlands.

Meanwhile, in a Daily Mail article regarding the clubs 'concern' over the Michael Johnson's off-field lifestyle, it did also find time to state that it was certain that January would herald the arrival of both Roque Santa Cruz and Lassana Diarra, from Blackburn and Portsmouth respectively.

The interest around Diarra would have grown even moreso following the news that Portsmouth are officially up for sale and for me, would be a good addition alongside Kompany in midfield (or afford the possibility of moving Kompany back to defence). He is undoubtedly a good player, but given he has bolted on both Chelsea and Arsenal in his relatively short career, he wouldn't arrive without one or two warning signs.

Santa Cruz is a player that I initially thought would be a sound purchase, but in a struggling side this season has done little to prove the assertion he has been a one-season wonder, and that the player who struggled so at Bayern Munich is the real Santa Cruz as opposed to the player who lit up Ewood Park least season.

Deadline day - rumours round-up

And if the Berbatov offer wasn't stunning enough, with just over 3 hours remaining until the deadline, we are still being linked with some high profile moves.

Sky Sports are confirming that we have tabled bids for David Villa and Mario Gomes (first reported by Marca I believe).

Setanta are also confirming we are trailing Benfica striker Ariza Makukula.

Perhaps most stunning of all though is the news that we have bid for long standing Chelsea target Robinho, slapping in a late bid for the Brazilian.

Of the Villa, Robinho and Gomes bids, I would put the Gomes one as most likely given that Villa has only recently signed a new deal at Valencia and by all accounts does not fancy a move to England, whilst we are surely too late with Robinho - who would I guess prefer a move to Chelsea.

Gomes is highly touted in the Bundesliga, but had a shocking Euro 2008 tournament, but we could certainly provide a bigger financial incentive for him to move than he would get anywhere in Germany.

Makukula I know nothing of, but haven't seen this verified anywhere else so I'd take this as a long shot.

The difficulty we have is that with the new ownership money not being available until today, it is likely we are starting very late in trying to get deals made.

I'm hopeful we may get one or two players in,