El Tel ‘Villa Should Aim To Win The League’

Terry Venables has spoken about Villa in his column in The Sun. The title of the column is ‘You must think you can win it’ and the premise of the article is that Villa shouldn’t be thinking about coming 4th and qualifying for the Champions League, with just seven points between us and the current league leaders, the players should be thinking about winning the league.

HEAR HEAR! And with the right buys in January, who is to say that we can’t push as an outside chance to do just that? Ok, it is a long shot, the ‘bigger’ clubs do have larger squads and players used to closing in on titles BUT ….. Isn’t this what football is all about?! Sir Alex Chewalot said we were contenders, you can’t argue with the Manchester United bosses experience now can you?

Venables said: ‘Seven points off the lead and still very much in the mix, Villa must be thinking big — this season. If Arsene Wenger says Arsenal still have a chance of winning the title then so have Villa. I don’t see why now is not the time. From what I’ve seen, particularly when you consider Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United have dropped quite a few points, I think there is an opportunity to be had. This could as good a year as any to slip under the radar and steal the Premier League trophy.’

Adding, ‘What is pleasing for me, and for so many other neutral fans, is the incredible number of Englishmen at the club. In last Saturday’s 4-2 win over Bolton, seven players from this country started the game. Three came on as subs while another trio remained unused on the bench. That’s 13 Englishmen in a Premier League squad, something we’ve not seen for a very long time. The most important thing is that these young players have real quality. They excite me.’

He also says that Gabby, Ashley Young and James Milner could all be England regulars. And El Tel doesn’t forget Curtis Davies or Gareth Barry either. He says Barry is a ‘class act’ and Davies is a ‘good prospect’

‘Right now, Martin’s mission is to prepare a football team which has a chance of pulling off a major shock in English football.’ No pressure there then Martin!

The full column is available at: The Sun.