Villa end it with a win but Everton ensure we finish 6th
After the Blackburn game at the start of Feb our season took an unexpected downturn seeing us win just 2 of our last 13 games, and those were against the teams that ended 17th and 18th. It was a disastrous end to what was set to be a sensational season. But luckily we did enough up until Feb to keep us top six, despite this crumble.
Yesterday we needed Everton to drop points if we were too sneak back into 5th for the final table, but the Toffeemen defied history’s trend and came away from Craven Cottage with a victory. Leon Osman potted 2 for them and Fulham failed to reply, making our 1-0 home win over relegated Newcastle irrelevent in the chase for 5th.
The significance of finishing 5th was that we would have improved on our league finish for a 3rd season running under O’Neill. As it turns out we have stabilised and stayed 6th. It is a wake up call to the powers that be at Villa that we need to invest to improve. The Premier League has become a VERY expensive league to compete in these days.
Maybe not even necessarily more expensive signings, just shrewder ones really. If we had enough quality players on the fringes of the team, we could’ve prevented this season’s crumble. We could’ve halted our league slide and avoided the UEFA Cup mess.
But outside our first team we are very below par, as was proved by our early Carling Cup exit and our poor EUFA Cup performances (ie Zilina & Hamburg). The Moscow mess may well have been the cause of the slide as it made the club unsteady and ambitions unclear. If it wasn’t the cause it certainly did nothing to stop the boat rocking.
This summer will be a very telling time for Aston Villa. Keep your fingers crossed.
What’s new rumour-cat? Tuesday’s latest Villa transfer gossip
Martin O'Neill has an itchy-biro-finger over Randy Lerner's cheque book
The transfer window is so close that you can feel it’s smelly breath on the back of your neck. So it’s no surprise that there are loads of rumours around linking us to all and sundry. Some will come true, some will nearly happen and some are just made up by someone wishing to shift papers or get pageviews 
Here at AVB we like to go through them all and try to give a little info on a player and open it up to debate on whether you want them at Villa or not. Yesterday we saw a nice response in agreement with me that Senderos would be a poor signing, or to correctly quote what is one of the funniest comments we’ve had on here for a while:
As for Senderos, I’d rather have sex with a lawnmower than sign him
And on that bombshell, let’s dive into today’s bunch:
- Giles Barnes is a young pacy winger for Derby County, who has been on an unsuccessful loan to Fulham for part of this season. I say unsuccessful because he hasn’t made a single appearance. Roy Hodgson either doesn’t think he is cut out for the Prem or doesn’t see a way to fit him into his team. Now, I’m a big fan of Roy Hodgson, I think he’s doing a great job at Fulham, but I must admit that when I first saw him interviewed I judged the book by it’s cover and said “What’s that old fanny gonna do with Fulham?”. He proved me wrong and I respect that. Anyway, we’re talking about Barnes, not licking Hodgson’s bum-ring, so back to the matter at hand; we are more suited to Barnes’s style and he may well go fairly cheap, so don’t rule him out but he’s not going to set the club on fire and may well prove to be another Wayne Routledge.
- Fulham’s keeper Mark Schwarzer is next up, having been mentioned as someone we have been sniffing around, but I can’t really see O’Neill buying another aging keeper when we still have Friedel. I think MON will keep his faith in Friedel for at very least one more season, so I can’t see where this rumour has come from. A younger keeper maybe, but I just can’t see it with Schwarzer.
- Stewart Downing looks destined to get relegated with Boro so will almost definitely be moving on this summer. He will be far from cheap though and isn’t an area of urgency (like centre back and centre forward are) so I don’t see this happening either. It may do, he is certainly a talented player, but I doubt it. If it does tho, I’m going to take a positive stance and say that if we spend big on a midfielder/winger, we also plan to spend big up front and at the back too. Cuz if he splashes £12m+ on a winger and gets some mediocre centre back then I’m right on that O’Neill-hating bandwagon. And I don’t want to get on that wagon. I like O’Neill.
- Man City’s Joe Hart is again being linked with us and if we do buy a keeper I fancy him as the favourite. He will very likely move on after having had his progress disturbed by the arrival of Given. The lad is definitely a big prospect and may well go on to be a regular England keeper if he finds a team where he’s number one choice. He probably needs to learn to make ridiculous mistakes if he wants to play for England tho
- Along similar lines to Downing is David Bentley. He is also a talented player but he has gone seriously off the boil. He never plays for Tottenham so will most likely move on in the summer but they will want to recoup as much of the £16m they wasted on him as possible. Again, it’s not an area we are screaming out for new players in but if we do make the step up to serious European contention, then we need some rotationability (<– nah, it’s probly not a real word!).
- A quick note on Thomas Vermaelen, who we have been linked with; apparently Arsenal are now interested too.
- Finally, Rabiu Afolabi of FC Sochaux is on our radar. He is a tall central defender with plenty experience but like many of the rumours that are now surfacing, he is unlikely to be of the mould we need to replace a player as influential and significant as Laursen.
Why Villa should pay Fulham Millions of £’s if they keep us goalless
Brede Hangeland - He's bigger than John Carew, he's gonna score 1 or 2 (a season!)
Brede Hangeland.
The Norwegian centre back was linked with us whilst at FC Copenhagen, before joining Fulham, but he is again being rumoured to be on our transfer targets list and he would be a great acquisition if we could lure him. Would he want to move to a team that is only a few places above his current? Well, yes he probably would. We have guaranteed Europa League next season and could put a good kick into Fulham’s hopes of the same later today. We have also shown great potential with our form and league position a few months back.
Hangeland is currently playing alongside one of Villa’s former players, Aaron Hughes, and is commanding a good partnership there, which is exactly the kind of influence Villa are crying out for. With Laursen possibly hanging up his boots or being a bit-part player at best, we will desperately miss his leadership at the back. Many fans are very disappointed with Davies, Cuellar and Knight but with a good partner, any one of them could forge a good partnership. Take for instance Davies; he was good enough to be the main man for West Brom in the Championship but when he came to us he needed to have an inspirational player alongside him.
Hangeland could be the man. He will be just the age that is perfect for a centre half; 28. Old enough to be experienced and level-headed and young enough to still have a good few years on the clock. He is also the captain of the Norwegian national side don’t forget, so he’s already used to telling John Carew what to do. And at 6′ 5″ he’s big enough to too!
So keep your spare eye on him during today’s game Villans, we could be chanting his name next year.
Fulham game preview – Why Villa will win a 2nd game on the trot
Near the start of our sensational run we played Fulham and somehow they held us to a 0-0 draw. In my post match report I described our failure to score with this frustrated quote: “pull-your-hair-out, want-to-rip-your-arm-off-and-throw-it-in-the-net-just-so-something-would-go-in-the-damn-thing”. Frustrating was exactly what the game was for a Villan because we bombarded Fulham but were fruitless. It wasn’t quite as jaw-dropping as the Wigan game but it was still hard to believe they held us to a draw.
This time around I expect goals. I think they’ll score, but I think we’ll score one more. Like in the Vindaloo song.
Fulham are much better than many think and Roy Hodgson has done miles better than I ever guessed he would. He looks like he couldn’t inspire a team to even beat West Brom, but he’s taken Fulham into Europa League contention and they have a good chance of getting it with a 7th place finish. You really can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
Still, that’s enough compliments for our opponents. Tomorrow I see a rejuvinated Villa coming out and going at Fulham full force. The win against Hull wasn’t exactly much to write home about as they are in awful form and we played better in some of the draws, but the psychological effects of a win are way more than a good performance can give. I see a repeat of our bombardment on Fulham’s goal, but this time I see us breaking the deadlock at least twice.
I sincerely hope that the gaffer keeps the faith with John Carew and has him walking out at Craven Cottage. I remain convinced that he is our main goal threat and scoring the winning goal against Hull only served to further concrete that opinion. I am gutted that Gabby has lost his way, but I think he’ll get it back for next season. I don’t see him ever being better than he was early this season though, I feel that was his peak and the only way he can be that good again and maintaining consistency will be to play to his strengths. He has spent too long trying to add more to his game, but it hasn’t worked. Go back to what you do best Gab. What Gabby has going for him is when he’s in form he scares the crap out of defenderswith his pace. They don’t want to embarrass theirselves so they play deep and let us in. Gabby’s contribution to our game was as much through that psychological effect as his own actual strengths.
O’Neill has no idea… any of us dare to venture a guess?
Morning, morning, morning Villa fans! How are we all today? I’m sound, thanks for asking My 9 month old daughter has already done 2 cacks today though, which kinda takes the shine outta things, and she’s straining like there’s more on the way! I write these at 6am y’see, and then sechedule them to upload around midday. Oh well, we’re not here to discuss my little girl’s bowel movements or my morning routine, so let’s get onto business:
“I’ve no idea,” he replied to Setanta’s Darrell Currie when asked where he thought Villa would be in a year’s time. “Honestly.”
The above quote is lifted from a Setanta Sports interview with Martin O’Neill, in which he also talked up the progress that Spurs and Man City will make next season, claiming that our push for the Top 4 will be more difficult with those 2 also doing the same. It surprises me massively that he makes no mention of Everton, as I believe they are more likely than either of those 2 to be in the thick of the fight. Just look how well they are doing this season, under huge injury woes. But this isn’t EvertonBlog.com, so let’s leave their potential threats aside for now.
Where will we be in a year’s time?
It’s a question that many of us Villa fans have avoided answering, particularly in this period of pessimism, where everything we touch seems to be turning into another loss (or draw on a good day!).
In the last 5-6 years many teams have had a good season, putting pressure on the top four (Everton, Spurs and now us) or even just a season where they do better than usual (Bolton, Fulham, Middlesbrough, us) but the following season they often have a mare (us, Everton, Spurs). So will next season see us push on with the progress we’ve shown this season or will we see a decline in our fortunes?
In the same interview, O’Neill hinted that the funding for transfers this summer will not be vast, and having seen his limited activities in January, you can’t help but think that we will only be signing unproven, unready youngsters and/or players past their best.
So what do you reckon? Will Villa kick on and carry on growing next year? Or will we suffer a dismal / mediocre season next term?
Villa vs Fulham – Match preview
Both teams go into the game sitting in a league position that is above what would be expected from them, Villa being top four, when no-one expects the usual four to be interfered with, and Fulham being 9th, when many had them pegged as relegation battlers. The season is still early though and a lot can change yet, so this is a game that they’ll both be looking for three points in.
Fulham (even more so than Villa) have really struggled to get any form of consistency going all season, but both teams gained a valuable point against a top four side last week and both have come away victorious against Arsenal, helping to add to Arsene Wenger’s migraine.
With a different challenge compared to the last two games, what team will O’Neill go for against Fulham?
The last two games have been against top four sides and O’Neill has chosen the same formation and almost the same team (Cuéllar’s thigh niggle being the cause) for both. It’s a formation that is attacking but at the same time loads the midfield, so at the same time errs on the side of caution. When we are on the back foot, we have Milner and Young to drop back and help to defend the danger and when we attack they are both bombing down the wings to try and break through defences. This is only possible with players such as Milner and Young as a huge amount of pace and stamina is required to play it effectively.
Prior to that Read more
Consistency has to be our key aim
If someone were to have gone into a coma in August and now woke up and looked at Aston Villa’s results of the season to date, they would be very confused by them.
Or if you were to have gone to the bookies in August and said “Right mate, I’m gonna predict all the Villa scores from the start of the season up to the Man Utd game, and what I reckon they’re gonna do is lose to Newcastle and Middlesbrough and swiftly follow it by a victory at the Emirates and a draw to Man Utd. And these ‘ere fixtures at the start of the season, I can see a win against Megabucks Man City, a draw against the Pool and a loss to them new-boys Stoke”. By this point the bookie would be smiling with glee at all the money he was going to coerce out of this damn fool new customer!
To be fair though, Read more
Villa 0-0 Man Utd: In a day where none of the Big Four win, Villa do enough to steal one of their places
It’s been a long time since we beat Man Utd, in fact the last time we did it in the league was thirteen looooong years ago, opening day of the 1995 season to be exact. We beat them 3-0 in the league cup in 1999 too, but we have yet to record one single win this millennium against our bogey team. After giving Arsenal a damn good seeing to (yeah, I know 2-0 is no thrashing but we played awesome) at their place, the omens were decent for us to finally break the dismal run of form against the champions.
The starting line-up was largely unchanged from the team that started at the Emirates, just Carlos Cuellar being replaced by Nigel Reo-Coker. The Spanish defender was ruled out by a thigh injury, but with Luke Young still being preferred to Nicky Shorey at left-back, NRC stepped in at right-back, a position he isn’t really at his strongest in, but does with decent competence. Read more
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