What's your favourite unlikely Aston Villa transfer rumour?

The summer transfer window is a time for rumours, often times ridiculous ones. That's part of the fun of it. Until the window closes, nothing can be totally ruled out. Many things can be written off as extremely unlikely, but with the way football is, you can't always be 100% sure of that. I thought I'd ask the 7500 to Holte staff what their favourite instance of a crazy Villa rumour was.

Q: What is your all-time favourite completely implausible rumour about a player coming to Aston Villa?

RJ

This is a tough one since Villa haven't been linked much with players of known quality in quite some time. The Falcao to Villa rumor back in 2008 stands out, but that actually was plausible until Martin O'Neill signed Emile Heskey instead. My favorite completely implausible Aston Villa rumor has to be the Diego Maradona stories that surfaced after O'Neill left right before the 2010-11 campaign. Maradona had just led Argentina to the World Cup quarterfinals and Villa needed a manager, so the media went with it although I doubt Randy Lerner ever really considered pulling the trigger on that move. Villa probably would've went down, but that season would've been so crazy with Maradona as manager.

Andrew

I think the Karim Benzema rumor from a couple years ago was the best. It made zero sense and I have no idea who started it but I think it got pretty big, at least among Villa fans, for a little while.

Elis

I hadn't actually heard the Karim Benzema one before now, that sounds pretty crazy! I'd probably say the Hiroshi Kiyotake rumour. Not so much for the rumour itself, but the fact that he was seemingly linked with us in every window for a couple of years. Who knows, maybe one day he finally actually will sign for us? Probably not though!

Alex

If I took over Villa, I'd launch a bid for Kiyotake just to send Julie Bailey's head spinning again.

That Chicharito to Villa thing last year was kinda neat, I guess. I can't remember where it came from, but that may be my favorite.

George

I guess it'll stop now but the regular hope filled lunacy linking James Milner with a return to Villa Park was always enjoyable. It was completely unfeasible we could get anywhere near his £165k a week wage at City or lure him back but....nostalgia? The same applies to Ashley Young. *Sigh*

Matt

I'm glad nobody has mentioned mine, because in hindsight, mine might be those most absurd considering what this player went and immediately did. In August 2009, Aston Villa were briefly linked with Wesley Sneijder, then of Real Madrid. Now at that time, Villa were still in the Martin O'Neill period of handing out pretty high wages, but if this deal went though, Sneijder's probably would've blown everyone else's out of the water.

To the shock of no one, this move didn't happen. Sneijder went off to an actually big club, Inter, and immediately helped lead them to the Treble. Meanwhile, MON quit before the season began. Six years later, Villa are a mess. Yet somehow, there was a time period where Aston Villa signing peak Wesley Sneijder seemed unlikely, but not totally impossible.

That's what we had to say and now we want to hear from you. If you can type through all your tears, tell us what your favorite unlikely Villa rumour is.