I think it fair to say Aston Villa are in talks with Ron Vlaar

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Created on Monday, 16 July 2012 10:06

Written by Damian

Reports coming out of Holland are saying that we're interested in Feyenoord defender Ron Vlaar and that isn't all, we sort of know he was at Villa Park recently too. But again, I know little about this player having watched maybe, at a guess, five games in the Eredivisie last season and I'd not put money one of those games involving him.

But I'm not sure he would even want to come so I'm not going to get too excited until he is in the shirt and with the players leaving for America today, I'm not sure anything is going to happen any time soon, but it's nice that we are going for that type of player.

But you never know when something could or couldn't happen and I'd also be surprised if a player like Ron Vlaar would want to come to us for anything other than the cash. Leaving Feyenoord to come to us could, quite easily, be seen as a step down. Feyenoord are a big club in Holland and play in front of a big crowd (bigger average attendance last season than our capacity) and they qualified for the Champions League next season.

Cash is King

I'm not trying to be negative, it's just the way I see it. Vlaar is 27 years old so might see a move to the Premier League as a big pay day for him and it's probably his last opportunity. And you know what, if we have to buy players, I don't mind. If that's what we have to do to get where we need to be, so be it.

And there is a photo - he was seen at Villa Park, so all things point to things actually happening and nobody can say that we don't need a central defender, although it would be nice to think that one day our central pairing will be Baker and Clark, but that can also be quite a few years in the future.

So, would I like him to come; absolutely. But that is a blind 'absolutely' but sometimes you just have to be blind with new players, but he is coming from a big club in Holland and while it could be seen as a step down, if he comes, I'm going to look at is as a coup.

US Tour

And now back to what is actually happening and the squad are leaving for America this morning and there are three pre-season games coming up. You can see the fixtures here.

So, with that it for now, I'm going to wait for new news on Vlaar, as I suspect we will get some one way or the other some time soon, but also hope for some more, because the way I see it, if we could get Vlaar we probably need one or two more to make next season a very interesting one.

Squad for tour

This is in alphabetical order I think, or looks like it, I've just copied from somewhere else:

Gabby Agbonlahor, Nathan Baker, Barry Bannan, Darren Bent, Samir Carruthers, Ciaran Clark, James Collins, Nathan Delfouneso, Fabian Delph, Richard Dunne, Karim El Ahmadi, Shay Given, Gary Gardner, Brad Guzan, Chris Herd, Brett Holman, Stephen Ireland, Daniel Johnson, Eric Lichaj, Matt Lowton, Andy Marshall, Charles N'Zogbia, Enda Stevens, Stephen Warnock and Andi Weimann.