Holland's move hangs in balance

Matt Holland's proposed move to Aston Villa looks to be on ice at least until the start of next week, although his Republic of…

Matt Holland's proposed move to Aston Villa looks to be on ice at least until the start of next week, although his Republic of Ireland midfield colleague Mark Kinsella looks set for the Birmingham club.

Following the failure of his agent, Jonathan Barnett to reach agreement with Villa on personal terms, Holland's move is in doubt. Barnett reportedly described the two parties as "miles apart" on the issue of money after Wednesday night's discussion, but Villa's deputy chief executive Mark Ansell maintained yesterday that the club had made a reasonable offer and that there would be further talks, probably next week.

Ansell said that Holland's reluctance to move was based on "issues outside of football rather than financial matters". He pointed out that the 28-year-old has four years remaining on his contract at Ipswich, a deal signed while the club was still in the Premiership, and one which "is therefore based on Premiership rates" as being a factor. But he added that Villa had offered Holland a "significant" increase in his earnings and that the deciding issue had been to do with "quality of life", particularly a preference on behalf of the player and his family for remaining in East Anglia.

Holland has been happy with Ipswich and has never requested a transfer. He is said to have been assured by the club's chairman, David Sheepshanks, that he would not be forced out over money, but in an address to fans explaining the decision to sell the player, Sheepshanks said the £4.5-million fee was needed due to the dramatic drop in television revenue after relegation and that he expected Holland to move on.

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Barnett, meanwhile, said after Wednesday's meeting that as Villa rather than Holland had initiated the transfer "they have to be prepared to pay for him".

"Matt is very flattered by the interest but we are miles apart. Perhaps they will have a chat amongst themselves and come back with something else."

Holland echoed the remarks on his website last night. "The situation is that even though I am flattered by Aston Villa's pursuit and bid for me as a player, they as yet have been unable to meet my personal terms. So that means that I'm still an Ipswich Town player and am looking forward to training tomorrow (Friday) and winning an important three points against Millwall on Saturday."

Barnett flew to France in order to rejoin the family holiday he broke from in order to conduct the talks, so it appears that the earliest Villa could hope to reopen negotiations would be at the start of next week.

Mark Kinsella was yesterday having talks with Villa about his own move to the club after Charlton agreed a fee to let him go. The 30-year-old said yesterday morning that while it was nice to be linked to such a big club, "I really don't know too much about the whole thing yet. It would be a big wrench to leave Charlton after so long there but I'll sit down and listen to what's being proposed before I make my decision."

The fee is believed to be in the region of £750,000, a figure influenced both by the fact that he is in the last year of his contract with the Londoners and that he has had a series of problems with a knee injury over the past 18 months. Villa are short of midfielders after allowing a number of prominent players to leave during the summer.

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times