Stuart James of the Guardian reports that Villa are looking to increase their bid for Charlie Adam £4M, while Mat Kendrick of the Birmingham Mail reports the exact opposite-that Villa have abandoned their pursuit of the Blackpool midfielder entirely. So then, who to believe?

It's a tough call. Despite our criticisms of James he is typically well-sourced and not prone to making things up. With that said, Kendrick has a better and closer relationship to the club and is generally the writer that breaks major Villa related stories. It's also worth noting that Kendrick's article blurb was written more recently than James', though it's hard to imagine that much changed between 11:30 PM and 12:30 AM. Personally I lean towards thinking Villa have abandoned any serious pursuit of Adam but are willing to put in a token, final £4M bid for the player. Adam is a very good player but likely only a moderate upgrade over the best of Villa's already crowded existing midfield options and with £18M (at least) having been spent to bring Darren Bent to Villa Park, it would make sense that Villa be more concerned with filling holes than making incremental improvements.

James also reports (and Kendrick seconds via Twitter) that John Carew is likely to be in the employ of West Bromwich Albion before the week is out. James also mentions that Stephen Warnock is "desperate" to leave Villa Park and though no progress has been made on a loan deal with Liverpool, it certainly would not be a shock to see him depart as well. I don't doubt that Warnock can still be a solid player, but I similarly don't doubt that it won't be happening at Aston Villa.