Delph expected to complete transfer to Manchester City by tomorrow

Well this was certainly a fast turnaround. Mere minutes after I hit publish on a story telling you to read what you will into news that betting on Fabian Delph to Manchester City had been suspended, I'm now telling you to plan for a future without Delph. Or rather, Gregg Evans is telling you to do that:

Breaking news: Fabian Delph is expected to join Man City in the next 24 hours. More at @birminghammail #avfc

— Gregg Evans (@greggevans40) July 10, 2015

Evans is, of course, the Birmingham Mail's beat reporter for Aston Villa. With other rumours I tend to be pretty dubious, but Gregg isn't going to tweet something like this without being awfully sure.

So yeah, life without Fabian Delph. That'll be interesting. Before you get mad about a man who espoused loyalty leaving so quickly, remember that he signed a new deal a few months ago and that means we get money for him. Had he not done that, City could have already had him for free. It's not obvious loyalty the way we tend to think of it, but Fabian Delph's loyalty probably just made Aston Villa £10 million that they would not have otherwise gotten.

We'll keep you up to date as the story develops.