Carson off to Villa.

[Gordy Boy]

I'd flog him for £12 million or above.

If the Scottish fella can fetch £9m then Carson is well worth the extra. I also think we'd be better off with the cash than have a moody squad player on our hands.

We seem to buy a new goalie every 3rd Wednesday anyway so we must have enough cover for him.

[Bob]

I'd flog him for £12 million or above.

If the Scottish fella can fetch £9m then Carson is well worth the extra. I also think we'd be better off with the cash than have a moody squad player on our hands.

We seem to buy a new goalie every 3rd Wednesday anyway so we must have enough cover for him.

Carson is no better than Gordon, hence the fact other clubs like villa tried other options first.

12m is too steep for Carson, but you can't argue with 2.5 for a year's loan.

[spud_gun]

I'd flog him for £12 million or above.

If the Scottish fella can fetch £9m then Carson is well worth the extra.

The Scottish fella is a proven international with some 100+ club games under his belt. Carson in all fairness still has it all to do

[ronan]

i take it he cannot play against us this weekend/

[dww]

i take it he cannot play against us this weekend/

Indeed. Which is good.

[red g]

the question is when will his stock be highest? as he has no future if pepe stays around which i am sure he will. Have a season at villa, they have silly money and they can buy him next year for 10million+ and then perhaps martins is ready to step us a number 2

[Iceman]

To me this seems like good business

2.5 mill for a years loan, he gets more experience in the prem with a slightly better team than last year, if he does well and gets some England call ups his price will only increase............. with an few England caps it will increase astronomically

next year we sell a proven international and perhaps set a UK record for a keeper

As I said it seems good business (provided Pepe doesnt get an injury and this new french keeper is a half decent understudy)

[Gordy Boy]

The Scottish fella is a proven international with some 100+ club games under his belt.

Scottish League = Conference North.

I just get disappointed when we keep sending these players out on loan. All we're doing is running down the time on their contracts, so when we actually do come to sell them on the value is reduced.

If Villa want to make the deal permanent next summer my bet is they won't have to pay anything more than £5m for him.

Just seems like we keep getting short changed in these deals.

[Dhav]

To me this seems like good business

2.5 mill for a years loan, he gets more experience in the prem with a slightly better team than last year, if he does well and gets some England call ups his price will only increase............. with an few England caps it will increase astronomically

next year we sell a proven international and perhaps set a UK record for a keeper

As I said it seems good business (provided Pepe doesnt get an injury and this new french keeper is a half decent understudy)

Indeed. Assuming we get a good back-up keeper to Pepe to replace Carson's position for this season, then loaning him for £2.5m for the year is a great deal. He gets another full season of Premiership experience under his belt as a 1st choice which will hopefully boost his profile sufficiently to be capped and cause his value to increase by the time he comes back to us.

Long term though it's obvious he has no future at the club if he's not willing to accept being an understudy to Pepe. SO we have to hope that he performs well at Villa as surely our long term goal has to be to sell him on for profit

[dom9]

What a terrible article

Was it written by a 9 year old?

VILLA NIP IN FOR CARSON
FOOTBALL SPY EXCLUSIVE O'Neill signs Kop keeper on £2.5m season-long loan
By Alan Nixon 09/08/2007

Aston VILLA manager Martin O'Neill last night beat Manchester City to sign Liverpool's England keeper Scott Carson and end a day of drama.

O'neill thrashed out a deal that will cost Villa £2.5m plus wages to take the Kop reserve on loan for a year.

Sven Goran Eriksson's City had spent the day trying to haggle Liverpool into selling Carson. Anfield's chief executive Rick Parry pointed Carson in Villa's direction because he did not want to lose him to City, fearing they wanted to buy him too much.

O'neill agreed to take Carson under strict orders to return him at the end of the season and make no effort to make the deal permanent. O'Neill chased Carson earlier this summer - and went back in after missing out on Craig Gordon to Sunderland.

The Liverpool decision is a devastating blow for City - who had been pushing for Carson over the past few days and were given a 'hands off' warning as they closed in on a buy.

Parry warned that Liverpool wanted a staggering British record £12million for him.

The Kop slapped the astonishing price tag on the keeper as Eriksson made a bid to sign him - either for a fee or on loan - in time to play at West Ham in the opening game on Saturday.

Liverpool's opinion of Carson, back from a year on loan at Charlton and now an England squad man, is huge.

That £12m figure is £3m more than Sunderland have just shelled out for Scotland No.1 Gordon.

[dww]

Scottish League = Conference North.

I just get disappointed when we keep sending these players out on loan. All we're doing is running down the time on their contracts, so when we actually do come to sell them on the value is reduced.

If Villa want to make the deal permanent next summer my bet is they won't have to pay anything more than £5m for him.

Just seems like we keep getting short changed in these deals.

It's not really true though is it especially young players where the buyout danger is low. So long as there is 2+ years of contract after the loan there is obviously no problem as plenty of people with that length of contract go for big money.

In this case we are even getting paid for it up front and Carson just signed a 5 year contract - hardly seems a big problem.

Also what is from my view more important Carson gets more experience, Pepe or not look at teams like Chelsea who have Cech and Cudicini - that is the level we need our squad to be at in the future. To get to that level Carson needs games preferably at a decent team.

[RedReet]

I'd flog him for £12 million or above.

If the Scottish fella can fetch £9m then Carson is well worth the extra. I also think we'd be better off with the cash than have a moody squad player on our hands.

We seem to buy a new goalie every 3rd Wednesday anyway so we must have enough cover for him.

Pepe and Cech were £6m only a few years ago, and you expect a minimum of £12m for Carson.

I always thought I didn't rate Carson because I would compare him to Pepe. I thought that because he didn't play sweeper as good as Reina I was overlooking his other strengths and judging him unfairly. I realised that I wasn’t, he really isn’t that good. If he wasn’t English there is no way he’d be rated so highly. Even in the European Championships when he was supposed to be outstanding I thought he still looked a bit suspect at times.

He is big, strong and relatively composed, that’s all I can see in him. I think there is obviously something there, or else Rafa would get rid, but even without Pepe I still wouldn’t want him in our team.

[kewellnthegang]

Lets face it unless Pepe's hands fall off Carson's got no chance of replacing him in the next 5 or so years. He'd be better of at another club IMO.

and if he is worth 10/12 mill im gettin me ****in al goalie gloves out !!

[Dhav]

It's not really true though is it especially young players where the buyout danger is low. So long as there is 2+ years of contract after the loan there is obviously no problem as plenty of people with that length of contract go for big money.

In this case we are even getting paid for it up front and Carson just signed a 5 year contract - hardly seems a big problem.

Also what is from my view more important Carson gets more experience, Pepe or not look at teams like Chelsea who have Cech and Cudicini - that is the level we need our squad to be at in the future. To get to that level Carson needs games preferably at a decent team.

Carson definitely needs regular games for his development, but we have to be realistic. Unless he massively improves or Pepe suffers a major slump, he's only ever going to play second fiddle to Pepe, and given that he has a realistic prospect of being called up for England for the Euros 2008 and future international tournaments, I don't think he'll be willing to stay at the club long term to sit on the bench.

I see this as an opportunity for him to boost his profile and his value and allow us to cash in. If he's not willing to play 2nd fiddle to Pepe now, he's hardly going to be willing to do it at 24 when he's played 2-3 full Premiership seasons while on loan at other clubs. It's unfortunate, but I think he's already shown he doesn't want to stay and be second choice or fight for his place.

If someone like Arsenal come in for him when Lehmann's moving on, and he'll have a realistic chance of being first choice, he'll be gone. I have no doubts about that.

[dww]

Carson definitely needs regular games for his development, but we have to be realistic. Unless he massively improves or Pepe suffers a major slump, he's only ever going to play second fiddle to Pepe, and given that he has a realistic prospect of being called up for England for the Euros 2008 and future international tournaments, I don't think he'll be willing to stay at the club long term to sit on the bench.

I see this as an opportunity for him to boost his profile and his value and allow us to cash in. If he's not willing to play 2nd fiddle to Pepe now, he's hardly going to be willing to do it at 24 when he's played 2-3 full Premiership seasons while on loan at other clubs. It's unfortunate, but I think he's already shown he doesn't want to stay and be second choice or fight for his place.

If someone like Arsenal come in for him when Lehmann's moving on, and he'll have a realistic chance of being first choice, he'll be gone. I have no doubts about that.

I kind of agree but I just think this move makes sense for both parties. The worst thing for all this season was to have Carson spend most of the season on the bench and not develop.

The contention I was disagreeing with was that this loan in some way would devalue him in the future. I think it will increase his value either as a squad player if both parties are happy with that or as a saleable asset. Which ever way it goes this seems like a good move for us.

It will be interesting to see if we bring in another keeper and if so what age they are. We seem to have a plethora of young keepers but none of them look like they would be ready to be a reserve at PL level yet.