Just to remind people that he can't sign a pro contract until he's 17, so all Villa will have to give us is compensation. The clubs can sit down and try and thrash out a figure(we're asking for £2mill alledgedly) but Villa could keep offering a much lower sum. This will then lead to a tribunal who will set a final figure, and judging by what Spurs paid Palace for John Bostock over the summer we'd be lucky if got half of what we're asking.
They couldn't get a decent fee for Howard, so there's no way they'd get £2m from Villa for a 15 year old.
The only club that I can think of who appear to try and do decent business with the developing club are Arsenal, although I suspect that a large part of their willingness to spend 2mill on Pennant and 12mill on Walcott before they could sign pro contracts was to stop the likes of Man Ure and Chelski nipping in front of them and getting these players for a pittance.
This is clearly why BFC are getting Lazarus on the first team pitch at the moment, to strengthen our case for any future tribunal.