Time waits for no man

After a couple of weeks of blog inactivity, I have finally found the time to update! The Bishan Park experience has been great and loads of new stuff happening, but first! Back to football transfers!

Barely into July, Real Madrid has stunned the world by signing a slew of 'Galacticos' within a short period of time. Kaka, then Cristiano Ronaldo, Albiol (not a galatico though) and Karim Benzema have all made their way to the Bernabeu, with Franck Ribery yet to come.

How Real has come up with at least 200million Euros for them, continues to confound all of us. If they do not win anything in the forthcoming season, it will be a slap in the face of Florentino Perez for sure.

In other news, Man U is close to a pay-as-you-play deal with Sick Note #2 Owen (Sick Note #1 being Darren Anderton of course!). Now how do you make of this deal? Shrewd? Gamble? Publicity? Sympathy? No one knows. Hull and Stoke City have been apprehensive about signing him, knowing his injury woes and all, yet, Sir Alex has decided to sign him after learning Benzema chose Real as his new club. Desperation? We can only know this coming season. I mean, hasn't Louis Saha and Hargreaves thought him a lesson? Injuries has always played such a big factor in them not reaching their heights. Even the legendary Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could've achieved so much more had he not been injury-prone.

To sign Owen given his age, declining ability, and injury problems is indeed a massive gamble. Look at how a pay-as-you-play deal with Robbie Fowler ended up. Him not playing regularly and moving on to Sydney in a whimper. Sure at age 29, Owen is far from done with football. But ready for a top BPL club, playing a bit part role? I question that gamble.

Taking a lower wage at a mid-table team would suit Owen better. A great season as the club's top-scorer plus a decent showing at WC2010 could yet propel him back to the top. But until then, we will all watch and speculate if this move to Man U will make or break his career.

As for Villa's inactivity in the transfer market, it is rather worrying. Certainly we still need a handful of GREAT players and a couple of back-ups. Sol Campbell is out of contract and he could provide a short-term relief for the backline. What I would like to see is to try our darndest to sign Patrick Vieira, who is leaving Inter, and has recently rejected a move to PSG.

Clearly Vieira will not be able to sign for a top 4 side anymore, given his ties with Arsenal which would mean not signing for Chelsea and Man U. Will be hard to convince Wenger to take him back when Wenger's clearly looking much ahead already. Pool won't be looking for Vieira because a) Vieira's not Spanish (haha) and b) they have Lucas Leiva (bigger joke!) already. So that leaves Man City, Everton, Villa and probably Fulham as his next best English destinations.

I strongly believe we should try our hardest to get Vieira over for even a couple of seasons. Clearly, he is still fit and able to marshall a mean midfield even in his age. He has the leadership qualities to battle on which we clearly lack now. And not to mention we need to fill the enormous gap that Barry has left behind in his departure. So please Martin, I beg you! Patrick Vieira for Villa! We need a skipper!