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Goodbye JP Angel – And Good Luck

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Looks like Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel is on his way to the US of A!

Reports today are suggesting the Columbian will be moving to the New York Red Bulls

Angel moved to Villa for a record fee of £9.5million from River Plate in January 2001 during John Gregory’s reign in what became one of the most drawn out transfers in our history due to problems with an agent ‘owning’ part of the player….!

Apparently he is now close to signing a two year contract to play in the Major League Soccer although Villa have yet to comment.

The Red Bulls won’t have to pay a fee but will have to take over the last year of the 31-year-olds contract which is said to be worth around £40 000 a week.

Angel has fallen totally behind in the pecking order of Villa, he managed 7 goals before Christmas but has hardly even made the bench in recent months.

There is no doubt Angel has struggled to repeat his 23 goals in 2003/4 when he partnered up with Darius Vassell but to be fair to the striker, who of the rest of our strikers also hasn’t struggled to score in the last 5 years? It isn’t all down to the front men, the service has been diabolical, something I’m sure Martin O’Neill will now be able to address as the club now have realistic funding to take us back up the league.

I loved watching an on-form Angel play and still say with the right service he would have continued banging them in for Villa.

If he does go, and lets face it as he isn’t even on the bench these days he will, I wish him nothing but good luck. I hope he is a star in America, he so nearly was for us and will always ‘feel’ like ours because he was brought in around the time of major pressure on Ellis with the £ sign protests.

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Walking Where Angels Fear To Tread