Nixon saying deal getting closer, Villa upped their bid

£8m rising to £10m he reckons

If he doesn't go he's likely to start against Southampton but if he does then Hart will be in goal I'd imagine because Pope has missed the last few games with injury.

What's the injury?

To lose our captain and talisman so close to the start of the new season would be unthinkable and demoralising IMO.

Absolutely disaster if Hart plays for us again

There is a clear reason why Villa want Heaton for £10m when they could have Hart for free, because Heaton is a far far better keeper. Being club captain and such an influential player in the club, it would be absolute madness to sell him to Villa.

Perhaps he's told the club he wants to leave

northeastclaret wrote:There is a clear reason why Villa want Heaton for £10m when they could have Hart for free, because Heaton is a far far better keeper. Being club captain and such an influential player in the club, it would be absolute madness to sell him to Villa.

But if he wants out it’s the right decision to sell him

10 million and he wont sign a new contract.
Burnley have no option but to sell.

If Pope is injured (again) we shouldn’t be entertaining any sort of bid for Heaton.

northeastclaret wrote:Absolutely disaster if Hart plays for us again

Don't talk rubbish. He's a top class keeper.

ClaretTony wrote:If he doesn't go he's likely to start against Southampton but if he does then Hart will be in goal I'd imagine because Pope has missed the last few games with injury.

If Hart starts I will find that just so depressing.

crazy situation if any of this is accurate, we are where we are in no small part, due to his heroics for us. great, great keeper and we should be retaining his services. heaton should be our number one choice .

northeastclaret wrote:There is a clear reason why Villa want Heaton for £10m when they could have Hart for free, because Heaton is a far far better keeper. Being club captain and such an influential player in the club, it would be absolute madness to sell him to Villa.

Who says that they could have Hart for free?

dermotdermot wrote:If Hart starts I will find that just so depressing.

You'll survive!

Nice of us to keep playing him and get him ready for the start of the season for them

Leisure wrote:You'll survive!

Do you not remember the first half of last season?

dermotdermot wrote:Do you not remember the first half of last season?

Yes I do. Some fine performances by Hart. Without him we would have lost some of those games by 5 or 6 goals. You haven't by any chance considered that poor defending might have contributed to most of those poor performances /defeats?

If Heaton goes and pope is injured we should play legzdins

We can’t let Heaton go. We won’t have enough keepers. Pope is injured already as he was at the beginning of last season. He has had expensive dental work done and he might be worried about damaging his teeth. If Hart starts, we are doomed!

If Heaton goes we should use the money and buy a midfielder

Legzdins before Hart ??

Yep

Leisure wrote:Yes I do. Some fine performances by Hart. Without him we would have lost some of those games by 5 or 6 goals.

As far as I remember, we did.

bfc-sparta wrote:If Heaton goes and pope is injured we should play legzdins

Ha ha ha!

Leisure wrote:Yes I do. Some fine performances by Hart. Without him we would have lost some of those games by 5 or 6 goals. You haven't by any chance considered that poor defending might have contributed to most of those poor performances /defeats?

Such fine performances the manager dropped him. He made some decent saves through sheer amount of shots on goal - he clearly didn’t work in our system. Amazing how so many performances fundamentally improved when he was replaced.

I think the people that say Hart did well last season must of only been watching motd highlights. He did a lot of jumping around flying through the air when just a simple catch would of been better

dermotdermot wrote:As far as I remember, we did.

Only twice.

Swizzlestick wrote:Such fine performances the manager dropped him. He made some decent saves through sheer amount of shots on goal - he clearly didn’t work in our system. Amazing how so many performances fundamentally improved when he was replaced.

'through sheer amount of shots on goal' - exactly. There was some very poor defending as well but some people just want to blame Hart!

bfc-sparta wrote:I think the people that say Hart did well last season must of only been watching motd highlights. He did a lot of jumping around flying through the air when just a simple catch would of been better

Think I probably saw him more times live than you did!

Leisure wrote:'through sheer amount of shots on goal' - exactly. There was some very poor defending as well but some people just want to blame Hart!

Dyche evidently blamed Hart to some extent. We defend as a unit and this just wasn’t happening when he had the jersey.

Pope injured again. This is exactly why we shouldn't be selling Heaton. It might not be serious. And might not be long term. but after such a legthy lay off its common to have niggling injuries, not directly related to the original injury.

Not only that he has been out for a year which is a long time. He may come back and do well as Heaton did. He may prove to be a one season wonder!

In my eyes Heaton has earnt the right to start next season as number 1. and he has also earnt the right to see his contract out.

To have thee England keepers on our books but potentially starting the season in disarray in that position is foolish. Particularly when arguably the most important could be going to a rival for a relative pittance.

Personally would keep all three.

After a year out injured, youngest or not Pope shouldn't walk back in as number one.

Leisure wrote: Some fine performances by Hart. Without him we would have lost some of those games by 5 or 6 goals. You haven't by any chance considered that poor defending might have contributed to most of those poor performances /defeats?

"We could have lost by or six goals" you say.....we still lost equating to no points.

"Poor defending might have contributed to most of those poor performances"...have you not give it a thought that poor communication from Hart was a contribution to the poor defending?

Heaton must stay. Pope’s the better keeper.
Hart’s good back up - but could be replaced as no3 easily enough.
Heaton starts. Pope’s top class back up and a better younger long term keeper.
Billy Mercer is pretty crucial too.
Not a bad dilemma.

What many people dont understand outside of this transfer (by that I mean the Birmingham media who post constantly about it) is the espionage associated with it. Not only do Villa get a top keeper, they get our club captain, who knows every detail of our planning and preparation for every game. He knows all of our strengths and weaknesses which is why even £10 mill seems low for such an excellent keeper.

For the money they have spent I hope they do a Fulham with or without Tom.

bfc-sparta wrote:If Heaton goes and pope is injured we should play legzdins

Leggings? Not Gabor again! No please no!

This is a really tough call.

In the past I'd have understood if the club felt the need to cash in on a player who either refused to sign a new contract or wanted to leave.

But with Heaton, it's different.

He is integral to our success under Dyche. He's been through everything with us. He's our captain and, apparently, genuinely fond of our club.

However he eventually leaves it will be a sad day but £10 million is a pittance for an England goalkeeper, especially as he appears to be the keystone of our defence.

The timing would be appalling too.

If he really wants out, I'd rather he left for nothing at the end of the season.

If Pope is injured then its a ridiculous deal from our end. If Pope is fit and plays on Saturday then that 8-10m MUST be spent on a new centre mid.

Nobody thinking Tom wants one last big contract on big money at villa, why not he deserves it. Hart was lambasted last season whilst pulling of worldies in some games. People saying he didn’t communicate with our defence, at West Ham tarks got robbed on edge of our box but people around us blaming hart!!!

Previous season when Pope came in for injured Tom he controlled his area superbly, no where near as vocal as Tom just very commanding in his area, in my opinion our best keeper but we have three top keepers and grow up and stop saying Joe Hart has let us down because it’s utter rubbish!!!

Like it or not, Villa are a very big ambitious club, if they get anywhere close to what we have asked then I suspect Tom will go

Starting with Hart will get us relegated IMHO it's as simple as that. If the board want their hands on a grubby ten million instead of holding on for a year whilst we know how Pope fairs this season when he is 100% fit is very poor management at best.

northeastclaret wrote:Absolutely disaster if Hart plays for us again

Agree!........even the Nice consolation goal, you can see Ben Mee shaking his head at Hart. He's crap.

Leisure wrote:Think I probably saw him more times live than you did!

Only games I didn't see was the Fulham away and the cup games. So I have seen plenty of evidence of how bad head and shoulders is.

Keep him for the year, let him go for free to Villa if he so wishes next summer.

They may well get relegated and he decides to renew with us due to that in any case. We don’t need the money, at all.

John Percy, who knows his stuff, saying £8m fee agreed

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... ssion=true

Walton wrote:John Percy, who knows his stuff, saying £8m fee agreed

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... ssion=true

I really do hope this is a pee take. I’d rather we kept him for another season and let him go for free than have head and shoulders start in goal.

Obviously it’s the internet so everyone is either the greatest ever or absolutely useless.

But I think Joe Hart did alright last season and was MoTM a couple of times. As an understudy / challenge for a fit Pope I doubt we’ll do any better.

Fair do’s to Heaton too, owes us nothing at all and deserves his last big move and contract, genuine legend here.

Had a feeling he’d be off. Obviously wants a bigger deal at a club where there’s not as much competition. Hart is a good keeper and we did superbly with Pope in goal. Heaton is my number 1 but we’ll be fine without him.

box_of_frogs wrote:I really do hope this is a pee take. I’d rather we kept him for another season and let him go for free than have head and shoulders start in goal.

Unfortunately he is very reliable and has very rarely been wrong. I would be surprised if this did not happen now.

Thanks Tom, you were great. Best of luck.