Brad Friedel had a surprising number of options open to him as his Villa contract came to an end. Interest was reportedly shown by Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, along with an offer of further 12 months at Villa Park.
However, it’s Spurs who have won the American’s signature and are due to announce this morning (Friday) that he will be moving to White Hart Lane from July 1st, presumably on a two year deal.
It’s sad to see Big Brad go, but
With the headlines currently being dominated by Mark Hughes’ resignation from Fulham and the inevitable linkage to the Villa Park vacancy (I’m not convinced by the way), it’s easy to miss other news going on today.
Actually, this one is barely more than a footnote on German website RP Online, but it’s being reported that we will exercise our option to purchase Michael Bradley permanently from Borussia Mönchengladbach for a fee of €5m which includes the loan period.
The Google translation
It’s widely known that Man Utd have adopted a couple of firm policies when it comes to player dealings.
Firstly, they want to stick to players under 26 years old when it comes to bringing in new faces to retain a potential resale value.
Secondly, they won’t allow existing players to enter into the last two years of their contracts if at all possible. Again, this is intended to protect a resale value that decreases rapidly if the player is to leave
Brad Guzan wouldn’t have been a name known to many outside of the United States when Martin O’Neill first tried to acquire the keeper’s services from Chivas USA in January 2008. That attempt failed because of work permit rules, but the fact that MON went back for him (successfully) the following summer suggested Guzan was someone worth getting to know.
Since then, we’ve only seen him in first team action during European and domestic cup competitions, save for 26 minutes at
Brad Friedel turned 40 years old today, so, aside from wishing the big man many happy returns, it seemed like a good excuse to take a glance at our goalkeeping situation now and going forward.
Friedel’s contract expires this summer. We know that Gerard Houllier was actively looking at potential replacements last year, but the gaffer never ruled out the possibility of extending Friedel’s stay. In fact, he said that they’d talk about it in February and come to a decision
It’s been the busiest January transfer window I can remember – testament to our lack of activity in the summer and position in the table at the turn of the year – so I thought it worth putting a summary together on a day that will inevitably be dominated by Fernando Torres rumours and counter-rumours.
There are still a few deals in the works, we’re expecting:
Michael Bradley loan to be completed (that is with a view to turn permanent I’m glad
There are four American midfielders at the moment that I’d be be happy to see join Villa if we had room to use them; Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan are more than capable of fitting in on the flanks, Stuart Holden would be a useful creative addition in the centre and Michael Bradley would be my choice of a holding, box-to-box water carrier in the middle.
The key being if we had room to use them which I think rules all
Curtis Davies joined Birmingham City in a deal likely to be worth £3.5m after being on the cusp of rejoining what he called “Sven’s revolution” at Leicester on loan. Sebastian Larsson will not be coming as a make-weight, which is just as well as I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of a player making the same switch directly and have drawn a blank. Chris Sutton is the best I could come up with, but he had already been
Five days ago, I wasn’t much looking forward to Saturday, but how quickly things can change; all it took was £24m! Seriously though, it’s amazing what a boost the acquisition of Darren Bent has provided. To everyone, fans and players alike it would seem; Gabby, Ash & James Collins all waxing lyrical about Bent joining the team.
It’s also given Gerard Houllier a massive boost in the eyes of many fans who were doubting him, but ultimately it will still come