Transfers
Significant player transfers since Martin O’Neill joined Aston Villa on 4th August 2006.
| Date | Player | Xfr Fee Out |
Xfr Fee In | To/From Club | |
| 22/08/06 | Kevin Phillips | 700,000 | West Brom | ||
| 25/08/06 | Ulises De la Cruz | Free | Reading | ||
| 30/08/06 | Stilian Petrov | 6,500,000 | Celtic | ||
| 12/09/06 | Didier Agathe | ? | Celtic | ||
| 03/10/06 | Chris Sutton | Free | Birmingham | ||
| 11/01/07 | Didier Agathe | Released | N/A | ||
| 11/01/07 | Peter Wittingham | 350,000 | Cardiff | ||
| 22/01/07 | Milan Baros | Swap | Lyon | ||
| 22/01/07 | John Carew | Swap | Lyon | ||
| 23/01/07 | Ashley Young | 9,650,000 | Watford | ||
| 25/01/07 | Paul Green | Free | Lincoln | ||
| 31/01/07 | Shaun Maloney | 1,000,000 | Celtic | ||
| 17/04/07 | Juan Pablo Angel | Free | New York Red Bulls | ||
| 25/05/07 | Jlloyd Samuel | Free | Bolton | ||
| 30/05/07 | Stephen Henderson | Free | Bristol City | ||
| 31/05/07 | Mark Delaney | Released | N/A | ||
| 31/05/07 | Chris Sutton | Released | N/A | ||
| 08/06/07 | Gavin McCann | 1,000,000 | Bolton | ||
| 27/06/07 | Aaron Hughes | 1,000,000 | Fulham | ||
| 01/07/07 | Robert Olejnik | Free | Falkirk | ||
| 05/07/07 | Nigel Reo-Coker | 8,500,000 | West Ham | ||
| 05/07/07 | Steven Davis | 4,000,000 | Fulham | ||
| 17/07/07 | Marlon Harewood | 4,000,000 | West Ham | ||
| 19/07/07 | Lee Hendrie | Free | Sheffield Utd | ||
| 01/08/07 | Eric Djemba-Djemba | Released | N/A | ||
| 01/08/07 | Sam Williams | Released | N/A | ||
| 29/08/07 | Zat Knight | 3,500,000 | Fulham | ||
| 30/08/07 | Liam Ridgewell | 2,000,000 | Birmingham | ||
| 31/08/07 | Moustapha Salifou | 50,000 | FC Wil | ||
| 30/01/08 | Gary Cahill | 5,000,000 | Bolton | ||
| 30/01/08 | Wayne Routledge | 1,250,000 | Tottenham | ||
| 28/05/08 | Luke Moore | 3,000,000 | West Brom | ||
| 01/06/08 | Patrik Berger | Released | N/A | ||
| 01/06/08 | Thomas Sorensen | Released | N/A | ||
| 03/07/08 | Curtis Davies | 8,000,000 | West Brom | ||
| 04/07/08 | Damian Bellon | Free | FC Vaduz | ||
| 04/07/08 | Eric Lund | Free | IFK Gothenborg | ||
| 10/07/08 | Steve Sidwell | 5,000,000 | Chelsea | ||
| 26/07/08 | Brad Friedel | 2,000,000 | Blackburn | ||
| 01/08/08 | Brad Guzan | 600,000 | Chivas USA | ||
| 01/07/08 | Olof Mellberg | Free | Juventus | ||
| 07/08/08 | Nicky Shorey | 4,000,000 | Reading | ||
| 08/08/08 | Luke Young | 5,000,000 | Middlesbrough | ||
| 12/08/08 | Carlos Cuellar | 7,800,000 | Rangers | ||
| 22/08/08 | Shaun Maloney | 2,500,000 | Celtic | ||
| 30/08/08 | James Milner | 12,000,000 | Newcastle | ||
| 03/01/09 | Wayne Routledge | 600,000 | QPR | ||
| 23/01/09 | Emile Heskey | 3,500,000 | Wigan | ||
| 01/06/09 | Martin Laursen | Retired | N/A | ||
| 02/06/09 | Gareth Barry | 12,000,000 | Man City | ||
| 23/06/09 | Stuart Taylor | Free | Man City | ||
| 16/07/09 | Stuart Downing | 12,000,000 | Middlesbrough | ||
| 21/07/09 | Sam Williams | Free | Yeovil Town | ||
| 25/07/09 | Zat Knight | 4,000,000 | Bolton | ||
| 04/08/09 | Fabian Delph | 8,000,000 | Leeds Utd | ||
| 07/08/09 | Habib Beye | 2,500,000 | Newcastle | ||
| 12/08/09 | Andy Marshall | Free | N/A | ||
| 27/08/09 | Stephen Warnock | 8,000,000 | Blackburn | ||
| 01/09/09 | Richard Dunne | 6,000,000 | Man City | ||
| 01/09/09 | James Collins | 5,000,000 | West Ham | ||
| 26/01/10 | Craig Gardner | 3,500,000 | Birmingham | ||
| 06/06/10 | Andy Marshall | Released | N/A | ||
| 24/06/10 | Stephen O’Halloran | Free | Coventry City | ||
| 17/07/10 | Marlon Harewood | Released | N/A | ||
| 09/08/10 | Nicky Shorey | 1,500,000 | West Brom | ||
| Totals | 123,850,000 | 41,150,000 | 82,700,000 |
Note: Martin O’Neill resigned on 9th August 2010, Nicky Shorey’s move to West Brom is therefore his last transfer. I’ll continue keeping track of transfers, but as this page was originally dedicated to the “MON years”, it will be in a new format I’ve yet to decide on.
Significant player transfers since Martin O’Neill left Aston Villa on 9th August 2010.
| Date | Player | Xfr Fee Out |
Xfr Fee In | To/From Club | |
| 18/08/10 | James Milner | 26,000,000 | Man City | ||
| 18/08/10 | Stephen Ireland | 8,000,000 | Man City | ||
| 03/09/10 | Andy Marshall | Free | N/A | ||
| Totals | 8,000,000 | 26,000,000 | (18,000,000) |
Comments
















Outstanding.
Interesting to note the dire state we were in when he took over. He has had to get rid of 33 players in 4 years – and only 4 of these were his signings (one was the retirement of Sutton).
And of the 4 players he brought in and had to sell on, he made a profit of £850K.
Bought 28 players and 24 of them still at the club – that’s effective.
that’s an interesting way of looking at it. the question is, will that observation still hold water on september 1st? we shall see.
there’s a straight comparison of the squad MON inherited and the one he has built alongside the liverpool and utd teams over the same period here:-
http://astonvillacentral.com/2010/04/net-transfer-spend-were-still-playing-catch-up/2/
Yeah, i doubt it will hold water, considering we still have Habid Beye and Marlon Harewood running around the squad!
You also have Shorey and Heskey rumoured to leave (but they have been useful squad players to date so they can still be viewed as effective).
Superb bit of analysis by the way.
I was linked to this site by a Liverpool fan who wasn’t happy at my critique of Benitez’ signings in a recent article. He told me to look at this site as if it made O’Neill look bad…
We mustn’t be looking at the same page
i’ve seen the inbound links from liverpool sites. i’m not really interested in what they think of our manager. they miss the key point of what the two managers inherited, but it’s moot, he’s not going there.
For me its worrying to look at that list and think of Oneill being given £30 million of milner money to spend. In terms of quality for money paid, i would say its really really dire except for in a few instances (luckily when weve spent the most). As much as i appreciate how far Oneill has brought this club forwards and the improvement in the squad. For the money he has spent i would expect more.
The £4 million on Harewood would keep me up at night, selling Cahill for £5 million (lets hope theres sell on clauses) and buying Zat night £3.5, Davies £8.5 and cuellar £8.5 (cant even play him in position, good center back awful right back).
Heskey, Beye and Sidwell = total waste of money. Heskey being the most unpopular and disasterous to a teams form signing i have ever seen. Coker cost £8.5 million!!!!!!!!! Never lets the team down when he plays, however ONeill shuns him?
Best solution, someone else is put in charge of transfers and scouting while Oneill gets rolled out to chat to and impress players with his vision. Because overall you look at his record in the market and its not good enough. Team wise he is brilliant his players love him and want to play for him. His lack of ability in the market will hold us back from taking the next step. And that is why the milners and the barrys will move on.
Please dont sign Zamora!
i fckin agree o’neil should leave and we should get mark hughes cuz as much as the players like him he jst wont bey top class players instead he buys crap players like heskey and sidwell and thts y we dont get into any good competitions let alone win
For some reason, Curtis Davies is the most underrated player on these forums. He’s a top quality centre back. He was the first defender on the team sheet last year and at the start of this year but has been unlucky with a bad injury. I have every faith that £8.5m will prove to be a bargain for him.
You said that the good transfers came “luckily when we’ve spent the most”… surely this is a consistent testament that our manager does not blow money and that our finances are in safe hands with O’Neill. I don’t need to mention some of the players he’s brought in for ridiculously low prices when compared to the effect they have had on our team and the rest of the league.
Obviously, I’m not a fan of Harewood either; but he was brought in at the preliminary stages to act as a back up “big man” that all O’Neill teams have. £4m was of course overpriced, but such is the demands for an English striker and a player who had been the main man at his previous club.
I think Cahill is vastly overrated by O’Neill bashers and I know I’d spend the extra three and a half million on Davies everyday of the week.
O’Neill joined a club who were sitting 16th in the league (with 33 pieces of deadwood) and these other (albeit average) players he has had to bring in were simply for the purposes of progression. And that is also part of his reason to not utilise the rest of his squad now that we are finally competing for honours. He knows that these players aren’t good enough – they had their use to get us from where we were 4 years ago to where we are today – but they are no where near top 4 standard and thus have eventually found themselves surplus to requirements.
Maybe now that we are sitting pretty with a base of competent players, we can finally begin to add to it. But you couldn’t expect O’Neill to come in to a group of relegation battlers and use the likes of Samuel, De la Cruz, McCann, Djemba Djemba, Hendrie, Hughes, Baros or Moore and add hope that we could attract superstar signings.
If Dan doesn’t mind, I could refer you to my site by clicking my name and reading my posts in my “Martin O’Neill” category where I have discussed his transfer performance.
I Like Davies, however he looked decent alongside the outstanding Laursen. His injurys although unfortunate smack of ones that will niggle him for the rest of his career, and we will never recover the transfer fee we spent on him. If you think hes a great Oneill signing why would he sign 3 center halves since signing him and have him clearly lower down the pecking order than them?
Im not under any illusions about where we were before Oneill came in, and understand the heep of rubbish he had to clear when joining the club. However you are confusing this with his job which is to spend the money he is given as effectively and to the benefit of the club as best as possible. I look at the shambles before Oneill came in and think a performing monkey given a little money could improve that team. However Villa are a big club, we have always done well in the premier league. You are referring to a period whereby we did suffer a bit, as if villa have always been down there and were lucky Oneill came in and saved us. I however beleive any half decent manager given a bit of money could have improved us. He took over a big club, performing well below its level and has now after spending quite a bit realised he still a has a lot more work to do.
The glass ceiling we find above us is that despite wins against some top teams this season, in my mind that we dont play great football and we struggle against teams we should be up against. I went to wembley twice and despite the decisions we should have got, that doesnt explain why i saw us played off the park for most of the games. Should we be a team that needs a red card to win these games? Spurs who got the top four, played football light years ahead of us the game where Dawson got the equaliser, they literally played us off the park.
Oneill has his strenghts, but the transfer market is not one of them. Most of his best deals have fallen into his lap. Like when Lyon wanted to swap Carew for Baros. Like when we lost Barry to Man City and it was clear Dunne was up for grabs so we took him. Milner had been on loan here and was already popular with the fans, im sure the existing staff where in his ear to buy him. The only transfer i could truly applaud him for was Ashley Young. However if im looking at the rest of the crap he has bought in, im not ok with his record like you are. Everton are a great example of how you can get good players without spending crazy money. Fulham are a great exmaple of how you can build a great footballing team out of talented players who arent exspensive or fashionable just from a managers tactics. I would say Oneill had his day at Leicester when he managed to unearth some players to take Leicest places. Celtic, i think none of it counts as its a mickey mouse league and all his best players he inherited. He needs to realise hes managing a little unfancied team like Leicester or a team in a mickey mouse league where you inherit a few players and play them over and over and win trophies. He is playing in the most intense competition in the world and he cant even bring himself to look outside britain for talent? Oh sorry Salifou hmmmm wonder how much money he is on, more Oneill Genius eh. All that information regarding transfer and net spend does not include what really matters in modern day football, as anyone with a brain would know. That is wages! You pay a lot of rubbish players big wages and never play them that millions flowing out your club every week.
Personally i think to go up further we need a manager that can really manipulate the transfer market and who is tactically much better than Oneill. Someone who can use subs and rotate his squad keeping more than just 11 players happy. There is no way villa will ever hold onto a decent squad with him as manager and despite all the praise about him playing the oungsters i have seen him put no faith in the youth of this club since he has joined other than gabby. How defonse wasnt being brought on ahead of Heskey towards the end of last season i dont know.
I waited after the blackburn game to applaud the players and he couldnt even be bothered to come round to thank fans for their support, too busy being coy about his future.
My prediction for next season, Milner has gone and the money has been re-invested in players that we have all heard of before and for inflated prices as they are all from premier league teams. The team manages to finish 7th next year to which everyone is delighted about as hey what can we expect. Then the player who performed the best for us that season, gets bought off us by one of the teams above or around us and so the cycle continues.
i apologise, i left the comments open on this page in error and i should have closed them when i first realised they were open.
this page was intended for information purposes only, not as some kind of forum, so i’m closing them now.
there are several very good Villa forums on the links page if that’s what folk are after.