Ashley Young not going to Spurs, Rafael van der Vaart and some Italian job

Spurs are going to offer £21mn for Ashley Young according to the News of the World. Well, first it's not enough and second why would a player on the up take a step to Spurs from Aston Villa? He wouldn't is the answer and this isn't going to happen.

Not only this, Ashley Young has said he wants to stay at Aston Villa. Do the papers not read these statements from players?

Don't get me wrong, Spurs a re a decent side, someone you'd fancy would be challenging for a top six place this season, but if Ashley Young leaves us it has to be a to side in the top four; it's just the natural step, otherwise he'll float around clubs challenging for the top six for the rest of his career.

Moving on from Young to Rafael van der Vaart and according to the Mail on Sunday, we are leading the chase for the attacking midfielder. The paper doesn't mention price but they do mention that Manchester City, Spurs and Everton are also interested.

Now, to put things simply for you; I'd like him. This lad, along with Wesley Sneijder are one of the two we sort of need to bring into the team for our midfield to kick on and I'd love it to happen, but a part of me just can't see it at the moment.

It's not that we might not be interested,we know we are, Martin O'Neill told us, it's that I'm not convinced we are going to spend the money to get this type of player and this type of player will get the money he wants from a team like Manchester City and maybe Spurs but most definitely he is already getting it and there are likely other clubs too that would pay it.

I might be wrong or the player might even come to us for a lower wage with achievement based financial rewards because he buys in to what Martin O'Neill tells him and he is confident in his own ability, but players these days are usually guided by agents and those agents are getting a decent percentage of everything they can get for their player and they don't want to lose money for the sake of their client feeling good at the team he is playing at.

It's just football. We have to pay and the players know this and the players don't really give a toss. They will give a toss about whichever club is paying them the most because that surely means the club wants them. But, I shouldn't be cynical about the agents or the money in the game on a day like to day.

Today is about charity and the first game of the season. I'm actually looking forward to this match and I'm thinking United are going to give Carlo Ancelotti a wake up call. I'm not entirely convinced, at the moment, that Ancelotti will be here at the end of the season either, but that is something else, today is about football.

Yesterday was also about football and if you didn't know we beat Fiorentina 1-0 with an Emile Heskey goal and a performance likely to get the lad a starting place against Wigan next week from Fabian Delph.

It was only a pre-season friendly and the result really doesn't matter but there is a very positive buzz about Fabian Delph about the place and well, with only a week to go, it's aroused my interest.

So, that is a positive about Young, as in he has told us he wants to stay, a positive about van der Vaart if true and a positive result from yesterday with a positive performance from Delph (not to mention Guzan and Albrighton), what next, we start to think anything is possible next season? Too much positivity isn't good for me, I'm off to prepare for the Charity Shield.