The club's not in too bad a shape financially speaking, the big problem is the wage bill compared to the turnover, which is absolutely ridiculous thanks to MON's somewhat generous approach to player contracts! We've managed to shift a fair bit of deadwood out now, bound to be a fair few more sales over the summer though. I've heard the compensation would be around £7 million, a lot to pay obviously but apparently Lerner is a big admirer of DM and tried to get him last year before we signed Houllier, but Kenwright said no point blank, wouldn't be surprised to see Lerner pay it though, he's been happy to invest cash when needed so far (e.g. Bent signing).
It's difficult to tell where DM is on Lerner's list of choices, I get the impression that he's got a fair few irons in the fire. From what I can tell, the Martinez thing only came out in the press because Dave Whelan started shouting his mouth off about it. Lerner normally conducts his business quietly, so I wouldn't be too surprised if he's had negotiations with several clubs (including your own, perhaps) that have just been kept quiet.
It's always difficult to know which ITK's are actually accurate. The main one over on VillaTalk broke the Houllier appointment and Bent signing a good few days before either happened, and well before the mainstream media cottoned on, which would suggest they know what they're talking about, but I'd imagine your ITK's would know something of it if a deal was happening.
Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to other targets mate! Lerner plays his hand so close to his chest that most of the time stuff doesn't get leaked until he wants it to. The problem with him being so quiet though is that it leaves the journos free to make up whatever ****e they like, which is why in the last week we've been 'on the verge of appointing' McClaren, Ranieri, Martinez, Benitez, Moyes, Coyle, McLeish, Grayson, Hughes, even Wenger at one point!
Obvious nonsense mate. Only thing that makes me think Moyes is that he's the only one the ITK's are on about, even when the media was linking us to the others there was nothing coming from the ITK's to support it, even a couple of former villa players have mentioned Moyes on twitter, assuming the accounts are real of course.
Tough being a football fan sometimes!