Petrov commits to Villa, Spurs want Barry and is Mellberg coming home?

You will not find one reference on this site to Bill Howell that is derogatory and I'm not going to start today. In fact, if he is right and Olof Mellberg is coming home, I'll buy him a beer. This is going to make today a nice day.

I know it's only speculation but it's nice speculation. You know what you're going to get with Mellberg and it will be 110% commitment and a fairly decent defender. My only concern with Mellberg is who he plays with in the middle. He is one of those defenders that needs a solid partner; put someone in there that is weaker than him it will hamper his game, he needs someone of similar strength and quality.

I actually fancy that he'd do okay with Cueller but one thing I think Mellberg needs over anything is stability and strength. Behaviour breeds behaviour after all and the Swedes love to know what is in the cupboard and that it will be there for when they need it.

It is only a rumour however so as such, until we hear something from Olof, his agent or our club, it will remain as pure speculation.

Another bit of speculation today is that Spurs are bout to enter the race for Gareth Barry. Talk is, they are going to try and steal him away from Liverpool with a cheeky £12mn. bid. Who would you pick? Actually you can sort of dismiss the Spurs link straight away; it would be a step backwards for him as a player at the moment and while you've got to fancy Spurs are going to be strong next season, we don't know what we're going to do next season and if Liverpool are seriously going to make an offer for Barry, he'd pick them every day of the week over Spurs.

But, we're going to offer him £75k a week apparently to stay. £75k a week is a lot of money and while my views on his worth are well documented, I think Barry would take less to sign for Liverpool. I think his heart is set on a move this summer and has been most of the season.

Lastly today, talk is Stan has committed to the club and agreed a new deal. It's not on the club site this morning, but apparently it has happened. We will probably know for sure sometime today if it is true.

It's all speculation, but we love it. Probably more probably and we're going to follow up the Mellberg story like a crazed addict in need of his next hit.