Wolves-Liverpool live next week? Come on, Liverpool are so dull, why do they keep showing them!?

Redknapp says Beckham unlikely to play for Spurs.

We've made a new bid for Adam and an enquirey for Seb Larsson.

Larsson is nowhere near good enough, Albrighton is a far better player, don't see why we want Adam so much?

Me either, neither player will improve your team, perhaps the depth in squad at the most but certainly in Adam's case you have better in back-up anyway

Heard a new one today, Gareth Barry to Inter

Darren Bent is sensationally heading for Aston Villa in a £18 million deal, MirrorFootball can report.

Wearside hero Bent was today in the Midlands talking to Villa in a major coup for Gerard Houllier. The fee could rise to £24 million.

Villa slapped in a bumper bid for the England star on Sunday night and it was accepted.... in a massive gamble by Sunderland boss Steve Bruce and chairman Niall Quinn.

Bent, the leading English Premier League goal scorer in 2010, has been in indifferent form lately, with Bruce insisting he will start to take the chances that have gone begging, but he has still plundered 11 goals.


The mega deal, a Villa club record transfer, which could be finalised in the next 24 hours, is a huge boost to Houllier who has been under pressure to revive Villa who are fourth bottom of the league.

But it could also mean Sunderland, in sixth and chasing a surprise European spot, facing a backlash for not holding on to their top marksman.

Bent had been a fine servant to Sunderland scoring 32 goals in just 58 games in the league - and netting more than half the club's total haul last season.

The 26-year-old total haul for the Wearsiders was 36 in 62 games, form which earned him an England recall this season.

Bruce had no money to spend in the transfer window, but has now freed up cash to significantly strengthen - but a priority will be a goal scorer.

Sunderland were linked with a swoop for Manchester United striker Michael Owen at the weekend, which Bruce dismissed as "b*****ks after his side drew the Tyne Wear derby. However a cheap deal for Owen plus a move for his other targets including a left winger, could now be funded.

However agreeing to sell Bent will take some explaining to the Wearside faithful.

Villa have won only 15 points from a possible 51 under Houllier, who is in need of a kick start that Bent's arrival could provide.

The general consensus is the partnership of Campbell/Gyan works better and Bent has lost his happiness/spark etc this season, obviously not 100% happy at the club. A few putting that to the competition that he now faces for his position, which was exactly the same at Spurs.

The thing is Sunderland are doing well but Villa are doing badly, out of the 2 Villa are definitely bigger. It's kind of like saying Blackpool are above Liverpool so they are bigger.

Not sure what Keane's issue is, though everywhere he goes he isn't first team for longer than a few months. Strange one as he usually is fairly decent.

This is a fantastic signing for them. I'm jealous, gutted and annoyed all in one go.

- He's a fantastic player who guarantee's goals.
- As it's been pointed out Drogba has scored 82 over the past 3 seasons, Bent has 81.
- I thought they had no money?
- I thought they were going to go down, this clearly won't happen now.
- It just sums up the massive gap between us that we're going in for 600k Kenny Miller who doesn't want to plat for us and washed up Robbie Keane who we couldn't afford.
- Lerner has seen they're in trouble and just decided to solve the problem

Gutted to be honest. Have to admit it, that's an example of how it's done. No press saga, no due diligence required. Just, heres 18m let's have your top man.

Some of those Birmingham responses

I think Bent thrives on being the main man, with competition he does seem to go into a bit of a shell, hopefully that won't be the case with Villa. Plus, yet another Englishman in your first team/squad.

Apparently MON isn't going to West Ham now!

Forget EastEnders, you could not devise a more crazy soap opera than the one Avram Grant has endured for the past few months.

With Grant left dangling, seemingly hanging on only because the West Ham board cannot find his replacement to let them cut him loose, any claims about the moral authority of the Upton Park owners have disappeared.

The events of the past few days have served to ­crystallise the feeling West Ham is a club riven by internal feuds and not fit for purpose.

Dressing-room sources cannot hide their disbelief at what the players, staff and of course their manager have been put through, at a time when the club publicly talks about pulling together to escape the relegation zone.

But with Martin O’Neill turning down the chance to inherit what increasingly resembles a madhouse, and Grant looking likely to stay in charge for the foreseeable future, the scale of the underhand dealing that has turned the Hammers into what former local hero Julian Dicks called a “laughing stock” can be revealed.

The worst and most ­extraordinary act of all saw Karren Brady texting a number of internationals in Grant’s squad to effectively ask them to rise up against the Israeli.

One dressing-room source revealed: “When the texts came in, asking some of us what we thought of Avram and whether we felt he should go, none of us could believe what was happening.

“As far as I know, no one replied to the texts, which seemed to be asking us to go to the owners and ask for a change of manager.

“But the players who received them showed the texts to the coaching staff and pretty soon everybody knew what had gone on. It simply wasn’t right.”

That attempt to undermine Grant, at a point when his fortunes were at their lowest ebb, was just the beginning of what resembled a ­destabilisation campaign.

Yet the problems were running even deeper, as cost-cutting measures began to eat away at morale at the club.

One well-liked member of staff at the Chadwell Heath training ground, paid just £200 a week as a general helper, was told he would be fired because his wages could no longer be afforded. It was only after the board were told the players were furious at such callous ­treatment was the decision ­overturned.

Secretarial staff have had hours cut to save money. In one case that saved £300 a month at a club which has an annual wage bill of tens of millions of pounds.

It is understood joint owners David Sullivan and David Gold and the board were shaken when all their preferred candidates – among them Sam Allardyce and Martin Jol – warned that up to six ­signings before the end of January would be the minimum requirement to keep the club in the Premier League. That would need money that is not there.

Grant – whose record of four wins and one defeat in the seven games before the home match with Arsenal on Saturday was better than 17 of the other top-flight bosses and beaten only by Sir Alex Ferguson – was still trying to line up transfers despite Brady pulling the plug on a deal for Steve Sidwell.

Ten days ago, Wayne Bridge was told West Ham could not afford to pay even £60,000 of his £90,000-a-week salary.

Remarkably, after Tottenham’s ramped-up efforts to land the Olympic Stadium sparked claims the Hammers were unable to come up with the cash needed to make the project viable, Bridge was signed until the end of the season – on £90,000 a week.

As speculation over Grant’s future grew last week, as “crisis” board ­meetings came and went and whispers emanated from within that he was to be sacked and replaced by O’Neill ­irrespective of the result against Arsenal, the players’ anger boiled over.

They awoke to the “news” of Grant’s imminent ­departure and spent much of the day brooding about what was happening. Messages were left on the answer-phones of Brady, Sullivan and Gold without reply, while the players rang each other for information.

“Nobody had a clue what was going on and the fact we were all left out of the loop made it worse,” said another dressing-room insider.

“It was still going on when we were arriving before the game and it was no way for any of us to prepare for playing Arsenal.

“After the game a few of us told Avram he shouldn’t go and face the press and that he should let the board take the flak but he said it was his job and went and spoke.”

No wonder former Hammers left-back Dicks claimed: “We’re becoming a laughing stock. They need to come out and end all this speculation and say, ‘We support you’ or they should sack Grant.

“They must get this sorted out so everyone can start concentrating on football again. They need to bring in four players quickly, a central midfielder to play alongside Scott Parker, a striker who is going to score goals, a right-back and a centre-half too.

“It would be ­financially catastrophic if West Ham were relegated.”

A catastrophe that Grant, despite everything, is left to try to avert.

A West Ham spokesman declined to comment on the record although the club insisted no such texts were sent from board members to players, that the number of analysts and coaching staff at Chadwell Heath had increased and that the training-ground worker was due to retire on age grounds, but a ­“compromise” was reached which enabled him to stay on.

If we were to go and sign Keane now it'd put them over the edge I think.

His starts:goals ratio has always been pretty good though, even in his time at Spurs and this season when he's had alot of competition. I think there's something in the competition issue, but it's more to do with managers changing the way they play. I know Spurs fans complained that they'd play 4-3-3 to try and keep all their 4 strikers happy and that's what Sunderland have done a bit this season with Bent, Wellbeck and Gyan.

Yet again pleased with how we go about business. Bid was made on Thursday and didn't come out until today. Redknapp's managed to talk to the media every day, twice a day, about Beckham and he hasn't even signed him yet!

Think we'll see more foreigners come in now, but I really hope we keep mainly English players.

Apparently we rejected a £12m bid for Downing, rumours going around Liverpool may come back with £16m which would likely be accepted. Use that money on Figeuroa and N'Zogbia from Wigan and that'd be decent business I suppose.

Can't see why he was being linked there in the first place. MON isn't going to put himself into a situation like that I don't think, plus he doesn't like interfering owners and them 3 are about the worst in the league for it.

Man Utd have been off the boil the entire campaign yet remain top of the league with 2 games in hand. You have to give it to them, they really know how to handle Premiership campaigns even when not at their best.

Man City are definitely in with an outside shout of winning the league. For all the egos on display, Mancini is doing a good job of harnessing them in and getting more of out them than he might have. Admittedly they're not outstanding, and thanks to how open the race is is the reason they're in with a shout. Had the big 4 been on their game, City would probably be languishing in the Europa League spot.

Chelsea are a shambles - they peaked too early in the league and now can barely buy a win. They've fallen away after seeming to be invincible, and look like they're suffering similar problems to those which blighted Ancelotti's Milan.

Spurs are enterprising, effective, open and while they probably won't win the league, they are to be applauded for having a very good squad with some truly great players and trying to play the game the proper way. I thought 'Arry was out of his depth but he's now doing a marvellous job there.

Arsenal will probably continue to suffer the fact they're not winners. They can play the pretty game, but like Mendieta's Valencia, they can't quite master the art of winning the significant stuff. They'll be top 4 but they are some way off winning the league.

And Liverpool, while not contenders, are always worth a mention. Total shambles of a season, made the wrong appointment in Hodgson, and are going the Newcastle route of appointing a club icon to try to bring success. It won't work. It will be a long time before Liverpool are in the top 4 again going by current form.

Overall it's an extremely open title race, with no one truly dominating the league. Makes a big change.

Agreed, though he definitely prefers being the focus of the attack, does this pave the way for any of your current forwards to move now though, can't imagine you keeping them all?

I love how you hate Redknapp, I think he's a really good manager. Brilliant at working the transfer market. Don't think he will have the same effect for England, I mean you can't buy players in that role! Unless you're Germany

No doubt it will be 2nd season syndrome next year and they will go down but they've done well up to this point.

Pienaar going to Spurs for £3m. Good signing as he only had 6 months left on his contract. Bale out then? Can't see how they're going to keep Bale, Modric, van der Vaart, Pienaar and Lennon all happy.

Yeah he hasn't been all that this season.

Babel to Hoffenheim apparently, I was right about this one when he signed - terrible footballer.

Robbie Keane has accused Birmingham of lying about the deal for publicity as he says it was never on and he never met with them. The owner is also being looked into with something to do with the shares and finances, relegation could mean complete meltdown for them.

Darren Bent done according to SSN. Welcome Darren!

AVFC

I think it's the money thing because of his previous moves as oppose to just this one.

Samba is massive, he should be in the NFL! On his day he is quality.

Seb Larsson to cross the City to Villa? -Sky Sports - No thanks, he's ****.

Edit: We've actually made a bid now. Not good enough, he's terrible, Houllier out.

Edit 2: A lad on the Villa forum who knows somebody in the club says we haven't made a bid. small heath just using our name as a publicity stunt like they did with Keane it seems.

As long as he's not another Savo Miss-a-lot-evich. You will be fine!

There are a few people going on about how a lot of his goals are pens, but aren't Rooney's and Drogba's too?!

The only thing, and I believe this is true is he doesn't set anything up. I mean I know a forwards prime thing is to bang them into the net, but the lack of assists is pretty worrying, mainly because if he gets the ball he's just going to fire it as oppose to perhaps playing in a player in a better position.

Larrson isn't that bad! It's probably just a replacement/back-up for Downing.