Uno
ial Villa News…
He who walks on water, Brian Little, is returning to Villa Park as part of a Triple Celebration dinner organised by the Former Players’ Association for the 50th and 25th anniversaries of the 1957 FA Cup and 1982 European Cup successes. Little admits, ‘I haven’t been back much at all since resigning. That United game last season was the first time in years and years that I had been back.’ Bring back ‘our Brian’ to a game Villa!
According to the Guardian, West Bromwich Albion won’t shift from their £8million asking price for Curtis Davies and might want to take Villa’s 19-year-old midfielder Isaiah Osbourne on loan for the season as part of the deal. Villa are thought to have offered (only paper talk remember) £6m + add ons.
My Villa confusion! Full article: Click Here
Villa drew 1-1 with Walsall at the Bescott Stadium last night in the last of our pre-season friendlies. Walsall scored both goals as we opened with an own goal! VILLA: Bevan, Gardner, Osbourne, Cahill, Harewood, Maloney, Berger, Menessou, O’Halloran, Stieber, Lowry. Subs: Bouma, Barry, Young, Moore (on for Menessou 61), Agbonlahor, Lund (on for Gardner at half time), Taylor, Petrov, Reo-Coker.
John Carew looks set to be fit for the game v Liverpool on Saturday. Martin O’Neill said: ‘It’s just a bit of a groin problem he picked up in training the day before the Stoke game, but we’re optimistic ahead of the weekend.’
FFC survey on superstitions and luck at Villa: Click Here
Very bad headline from the official site ‘signings imminent’. You click it thinking signings are, errm, imminent, only to find Martin Laursen talking about possible signings. Not good that! The Villa defender says: ‘There’s plenty of quality here, but we’re still short of players.’ Adding ‘We are ready for this squad to play on Saturday but obviously in the long term, during a long season, we are short of players. The manager is the first one who knows it so he’ll probably bring in some new players.’
Martin Laursen says that he will have to be careful of his problem knee but is confident he can play a major part this season: ‘My knee is not the best, we all know that. I don’t have the perfect knee but I would like to be optimistic about playing midweek games. When I came back last season, I played Saturday, Monday, Saturday, so I can do that. We need to be careful right now that I don’t do too much work with the hard training we are doing and overload my knee. We all just have to be careful. At the end of the day it’s the games that matter. What I do during the week is always something that I have to work on. If I’m 100 per cent for the Saturday then what I do during the week is not important. It’s a long season but I would like to play midweek games and I think I can as well.’ Only have to think back to Paul ‘God’ McGrath really when we talk dodgy knees!
Talk 107 fm claim that ‘supposed’ Villa target Craig Gordon has signed for Sunderland. The forum is full of arguments about us missing out on the Hearts goalkeeper but to be fair, none of us know whether he was actually a target or not, the press have told us he was but no quotes have come from the manager. Must admit I thought we’d do well to get him, he seems a quality keeper BUT I do prove on a regular basis that I know nothing about football! 😉 Interesting debate in the article comments (and forum). Full article: Click Here
Our latest poll asks where you think Villa will finish this season, please take a second and vote!
Our last poll asked: Why has transfer activity so far this window yielded less players than expected? 54% ‘We’ll get a couple of major signings before transfer window closes’ 22% MON ‘has misjudged the transfer market’ 11% voted ‘MON has tried but been snubbed by big names’ 8% ‘MON hasn’t got the funds’. 2% MON has funds but doesn’t want to handle big name, 2% The club, despite denials is operating a sell to buy, 1% MON has got the players he wanted.
Martin Laursen has asked why, if other teams can do it, why Villa haven’t been beating the ‘big clubs’. The Danish international defender told the Birmingham Mail: ‘This is my fourth season and I can’t remember us ever beating one of the big teams in my time here. That’s a thing I think we should aim for this season. We need to believe more that we can win against those big teams – I’m talking about Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. You see other teams beating them, so why can’t we? It’s not impossible to beat them.’ Full article: Click Here
Vital Villa fantasy football: Click Here
Gareth Barry is realistic about the win on Saturday against Inter Milan but hopes to meet them in the Champions League at some point!… Click Here
The Holte restoration is glorious! Click Here
Squad numbers for the new season (19 players): Click Here
Villa defender (and right-back yesterday against Inter Milan) Gary Cahill has said he thought there would be more new players in by now. ‘I do understand how the Villa fans are feeling because I personally thought there were going to be a lot more arrivals. Nobody knows what is going to happen. The transfer window is going to be open for a few more weeks. Football being football, you never know. There could be four players coming in one week. I don’t know what the manager’s plans are but obviously he is going to be cracking on with whatever he’s doing behind the scenes. I think it’s just a matter of being patient.’
Thought for the day: ‘Is endless love, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles playing tennis’
Happy Birthday Izzy. 5 today!
