Absolutely gutted. Even though we knew it was coming.
Martin Laursen has officially announced his retirement from football this morning.
We all knew it was coming but for some reason it still hit like a hammer blow. I’m gutted and feeling very down about next season right now.
Later I’ll do more of a tribute post for him, but for now I’m gonna crack open a can of Carling Premier and drown my sorrows. Either join me in the same or get over to the Official Site and send in your tributes to the great man.
Injury and formation news for Villa ahead of the Hull clash
Earlier in the season we battled a win out of Hull, that big overturned decision by the referee stealing the headlines the following day, and Hull were still looking comfortable in the table. But now they are floating precariously close to the drop zone and we have yesterday fallen off our perch and now sit 6th. The game is massive for both teams, so expect a hard fought battle.
For a game such as this, we will need as strong a side as we can muster to give us every chance to win and go back 5th. So the injury news ahead of the game is thus;
- Luke Young could well see a return from injury, despite it not being fully healed. He hopes to play on for the final 4 matches before correctly dealing with his foot at the end of the season. Young was missed in the Bolton game, where Cuellar filled in for him meaning Zat Knight returned to the side.
- Nigel Reo-Coker is also back in contention, but is unlikely to get a start, unless it is out of position. NRC could be played at right back instead of risking Young, as MON has shown no problem this season with moving players around the park as he sees fit.
- Gabby Agbonlahor is fit to return to action, so who MON will pick up front is unsure. Last week it was the 2 big men but it is not expected to be the same again. We all know how much MON likes to keep the faith with Heskey, so I expect to see him and Gabby start this game. It would be an injustice though, as Carew is clearly our most in-form striker and should probably be given a run alone in a 4-5-1. Reco-Coko would jump at the chance to line up with Petrov and Barry would enjoy a more attacking role. Surely it’s worth a shot, nothing else seems to be winning us games at the moment. It won’t happen though, and we all know it.
- Martin Laursen and Wilfred Bouma remain on the sidelines.
Can Bouma get back to the player he was when he got injured?
As Freddie Bouma gets within spitting distance of match fitness, he must be elated to see that his position never got properly filled and is as good as his once he feels ready for it.
The right back slot has for a number of years been Villa’s problem position, so when we bought Luke Young it looked to finally be resolved. But with Nicky Shorey failing to put confidence in O’Neill, Young has played more at left back than right, meaning that when Bouma returns he will most likely walk straight back into the side, with Young reverting back to his preferred role.
The kick in the face to Shorey will almost definitely see him depart in the summer, but the question I am now wondering is;
Will Freddie Bouma be able to be the great player he was for us before he got injured, now that our expectations has risen?
Bouma was approaching cult status with the Villa fans prior to his horrific injury and he will no doubt receive a rapturous ovation on his return to first team action, but will he be back to his best right away? (or ever?) Injuries have often disrupted a player and after being out for so long, many have failed to re-achieve their previous success.
There’s no two ways about it; Villa fans have raised the stakes this year. Booing a team that is 4th in the Premier League has become the fans’s new standard and throwing caution to the wind with the UEFA Cup we fought so hard to get into is the manager’s new standard. But when Bouma went out, we were simply in the Intertoto Cup and loving every sniff of success we got.
Will Bouma be dropped from the side after a couple of average / poor performances, like Shorey? Or will he relish the challenge and shine under the new brighter lights at Villa Park?
Laursen return on-again again, Mellberg may play against us in the summer and transfer rumours
Filed under: Aston Villa, Injury News, Transfer News
It’s becoming a real on-again off-again affair, but now Laursen’s return date is being re-suggested as the Man Utd trip. I’m not sure whether Setanta Sports are simply out of date or if Laursen now re-plans to be back by that game. It had originally been pencilled in for him to return then, but after a training setback it looked to be delayed till the Everton game of the following Sunday.
Hopefully Laursen isn’t rushing back because of the panic that is growing at the club. I’d really hate to see him rush back and then end up going straight back out injured again as a result. If we are to mount any kind of challenge on 4th place, I see Laursen as a figurehead of it. He gives us a lot more stability and confidence when he’s on the pitch.
Peace Cup
Never heard of it? You can be forgiven for that because it has only taken place 3 times before, every two years since 2003. Tottenham have won it in the past, along with PSV and Lyon.
The competition will be druing this summer’s close season break and the confirmed teams so far are: Real Madrid, Sevilla, Juventus, Ajax, Porto, Lyon and us. So there are decent chances of Mellberg playing against his former club, which will mean a lot to him as he still holds us in very high regard, as do we him.
The tournament will be a decent chance for us to get used to playing high quality European teams, preparing us for our goal of reaching the Champions League.
Transfer rumours
Villa are rumoured to be interested in Bosnia and Herzegovina international striker; Edin Dzeko. The striker is also believed to be on the radar of Arsenal and Valencia, after a successful couple of seasons for Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and a near 1-in-2 goals ratio for his country.
Also on the rumour mill is Portugal defender Miguel, who could fill our problem position of right back. The player is currently out of form, so unless O’Neill feels he can get him back to his best, I don’t see this one as that likely. We have Luke Young, who has fit into the team as well as can be expected for someone playing out of position, so hoepfully we will look more eagerly for a left back than right.
Finally on my transfer rumour radar is Tom Huddlestone. The Tottenham youngster is proving himself to be full of potential and ability and may well have a promising career ahead of him. He has been mentioned as a £6m target, but whether he is ready yet to fill Barry’s boots is unclear.
Spurs preview, The Villa-Villa connection and are there any bankers out there gunning for ‘Arry?
Filed under: Aston Villa, Injury News, Match Previews, Transfer News
First and foremost today is the weekend’s match. I’m now tending to do them on Friday’s even when the games on a Sunday, so no-one worry they got mixed up; the game is on Sunday at 4. Arsenal play tomorrow at 3 against Blackburn and, with a bit of luck, Big Sam’s boys can continue their winning streak (of 1 whole game!) and we can go into the Spurs match with a little of the pressure off.
Villa, as we all know only too well, are not exactly on fire at the minute, but we have had a little break over in Dubai and hope to come out firing on all cylinders. Our campaign began as a simple push to continue improving but, thanks to a poor season from Arsenal and a great run of games from us, we found ourselves 4th and we will not be giving it up without a fight. We’ve tried 4th on, it fits nicely and we like the way we look in it. So get lost Arsenal, it’s ours now. You can have it back when we go top 3 
Injuries
Villa had a few small niggles but they don’t look to be problems, leaving just the captain out, and Spurs have Defoe and Hutton out. No Defoe is a welcome thing as I feared he could outdo Davies and Knight with his pace, Knight particularly is far from fast.
Villa-Villa
You may think “What on earth has David Villa got to do with us? We can’t afford him” and you’d be right, but the story is that Valencia want John Carew to replace the Spaniard before they will do a deal with Man City. Carew has been reported a number of times to have had spats with the manager and has been dropped from the starting line up more times than I would wish for, so there may well be truth in him leaving in the summer. Personally I don’t want to see him go as I’m a big fan of the big man, but why else would MON have bought a similar player (Heskey, maybe not the same but similar) if he didn’t plan to flog Carew.
Villa (as in Viyya) will go for BIG bucks, maybe not quite Kaka-mess big but big all the same. And what will he give Man City? Well, unless someone up there learns that there’s more to winning football games than buying the best strikers in the world, then nothing. But if they also coerce some superb midfield players with £’s in their eyes during the summer then they could well become a competing side. Man City may well break up the Big Four party, but I still don’t like it. I prefer the way we’ve done it.
No coin throwing antics please
Finally, let’s try not to get a bad reputation by repeating the coin-throwing palava from last year. Villa in the past have been reknowned for having some of the best fans, but with things such as that incident and the recent booing of the side, people are beginning to change their opinion of us lot.
So let’s throw nothing but cheers towards our boys on Sunday.
Up the Villa.
Martin Laursen: Yo, tell my girl yo I’ll be Gone ‘Til United
Wyclef Jean was Gone Til November, but much closer to our hearts; Martin Laursen is pencilled in to be back by the Man Utd game. As is always the case with injury return prediction dates, it’s not guaranteed, but what a great bonus it would be to have him back in the side for that tough game. We will be gunning to get a long awaited victory against our bogey side in April, so all the quality we can muster will be accepted.
Transfer rumblings
Just a quick note on the minor rumours around, Kevin Doyle’s name has popped back up again but if we make the top four this season I doubt O’Neill will look to the Championship for his new recruits.
The other one is Michael Owen, but I really can’t see O’Neill paying his wages when he has such a torrid time with injuries. Cut price and he’d be a maybe.
Transfer rumour snippets and why the players are not panicking
Right now, we gotta keep the faith
A quick glance over the transfer rumours that are flying around, most of which have already been mentioned on here so it’s only brief;
- Joe Hart – Man City – Goalie – Great keeper who is being tipped by Fabio Capello but has lost his place to new signing Given up in Mancland.
- Michael Johnson – Man City – Midfielder – Young English midfielder has shown a lot of potential up at City but will no doubt see his chances become very limited after the summer when they will go transfer crazy.
- David Bentley – Spurs – Winger – Not having a great time in Tottenham, so will be easy enough to pry away but how much will they want for him, the £15m they paid? Unlikely, but then he won’t be let go of on the cheap either.
- Per Ciljan Skjelbred – Rosenborg – Midfielder – Rated as a hot prospect, this 21 year old is also reported to be under the radar of Newcastle and Arsenal, so he’s a wait and see for now.
Moving on from transfer rumours that are months away from any action, and onto the confidence levels of our boys.
Aston Villa have received a damn good bashing in the press and blogworld, both from writers and commenters, suggesting that they are now on a slide. Some have even gone as far as to say that 4th is over for Villa and remaining in the top 6 should be our goal.
Myself I don’t think it’s time to get carried away with it all, and I don’t beleive the team are so easily led either. A loss to Chelsea wasn’t anything to be unduly concerned by, especially when we gave them a decent fight and against Stoke we were good for 85 minutes. The Man City game has been our only real league low. One bad game and 5 bad minutes aren’t a cause for concern in my book.
If we lose to Spurs then maybe I will begin to worry, particularly as the next 3 games after that will be tough, but we are still 4th for now and still 3 points clear of Arsenal, who have only managed one victory in the last 6 league games and that was against bottom of the table.
Many Arsenal fans are blaming the fact that they have had a number of injuries, but aren’t the Big Four supposed to have strength-in-depth to cope with these eventualities? Isn’t that what they are supposed to have over us?
This weekend will see Villa return to games after a long break and with just the league left to focus on, the boys will (hopefully) be back to their best.
Bring on the run-in. Keep the faith.
Laursen and Bouma on road to recovery, Carew heading for the door? and Birmingham City get Useless
"Yessss! I'm nearly fit"
Laursen and Bouma are both recovering well and could be back in action for the first team in a few matches time. Skipper Laursen is pencilled in for the Man Utd game, and what a welcome addition he would be for that game at Old Trafford and the next, at Anfield. The solidity that Laursen brings has been sorely missed in his absence.
Onto Freddie
Bouma has completed a game for the reserves and looks to be doing well after such a horrific injury. Getting back to match fitness and sharpness will be difficult for him but the Villa fans are all behind him and hoping he can rediscover the form he was in when he got injured.
Carew heading for the door?
Many papers and blogs are reporting tales of Carew leaving at the end of the season after another supposed falling out with the manager. I am hoping that it is utter BS as right now he looks to me to be the only avenue in which we can find goals. Fingers crossed he is happy at Villa and going to pop a bunch of goals in in the next few weeks.
Birmingham City get Useless
Remember Useless (as he was affectionately known by his own fans!) De La Cruz? Well, he is now teaming up with our local rivals to help them out for numbers as injuries hit them hard. He’ no spring chicken, at 35, and wasn’t exactly great in his younger years, so it shows you how desperate for cover Alex McLeish is.
Injuries mount up ahead of the visit of the Ruskies
With the UEFA Cup knockout round against CSKA Moscow now upon us, Villa are feeling the pinch of our small squad as the number of injuries stack up in our physio room. In the Premier League, Villa have so far only fielded 19 different players, 10 less than the league leaders, a sign of the slimness of our numbers.
The injury concerns on MON’s plate for tonight are as follows Read more
Wigan plot retaliation in the transfer market for Heskey swoop – Villa vs Wigan preview
Filed under: Aston Villa, Injury News, Match Previews, Transfer News
Just a few days ago the grapevine claimed that Charles N’Zogbia was in talks with Martin O’Neill, but if he ever was, it seems they didn’t come to any agreement as Wigan now look set to sign him, despite the initial rumours being all Villa or Arsenal not Wigan.
The left winger is known to be a bit of a handful off the pitch and this week it blew out of all proportion when him and his manager had a big-fat-petulant-tiff in public. N’Zogbia didn’t take being called N’Somnia on the chin, instead he threw a great big strop and vowed never to play for Newcastle again whilst Kinnear runs the show.
Wigan now look to be agreeing a deal for the Zog before the transfer window closes, from right under our noses. Most Villa fans will say “They’re welcome to him” and whilst I agree, with Routledge out the door, a spare winger would’ve come in handy (today for instance).
Defence the key
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