If these rumours are true, we could be in for a much less successful season next term, so enjoy this one while it lasts
It’s not exactly new information, but it is now time that it’s ugly head needs to be reared and dealt with as an imminent reality. The word on the street is that Randy Lerner is suffering due to the credit crunch and won’t be in a position to fork out for the players we so desperately need to continue our growth and to complete the job we were doing so well at for a large part of this season.
It is being suggested that we will need to sell in order to raise cash for transfers, with Harewood, Shorey, Knight and Gardner mentioned by the Express & Star.
Progress-wise I wouldn’t be averse to seeing them go, but I do have my reservations;
- Gardner is a great bloke to have in the squad as he will always give 100% and is very versatile
- Shorey is finally starting to look the part and there is no guarantee that Bouma will be able to rekindle his old form and fitness, so we could be left exposed at left back (which we all know would see Luke Young switched to there and a makeshift RB drafted in)
- Knight is a lifelong Villa fan, so as one myself, I will always have a bond with him, I concede that we would probably be better off cashing in though
- Harewood wouldn’t be a great loss but is doubtful to raise the kind of cash that would buy us anyone great
As mentioned though, none of these would bring us rakes of cash, so we’d probably only get one big player from selling all four of them and we have already shown that to grow, we need both a bigger and better squad.
You have to sympathise with Lerner in some ways; the guy has done some great stuff for the club so far and has raised us from a club who were struggling to stay in the top flight, to pushing on the Big Four and knocking on the Champions League’s door. But until we achieve that goal, the club will probably cost him more in transfers than he will make back and at the end of the day the guy is a businessman.
If we made it into the Champions League for a few seasons and started to progress in the competition, then he would be laughing, but he must be seeing that as a very big IF right now, with the US and the UK in financial struggles and his fortunes looking far from stable.
The irony is, that to get the kind of money we need, we’d have to sell the players who are most likely to get us there. You have to fancy that Barry will be going either way, which will bring us some money (not as much as last summer’s figure, but still not a bad figure) but also the rumours of Chelsea offering big money for Ashley Young could prove very tempting for Lerner.
The Champions League has distorted football since it’s inception, making the top clubs so much harder to compete with. If you can get into it you have much more chance of staying in it, but now that we have the Big Four situation here, it is going to take years for any club to properly get amongst them, even Man City will need time. How they can fix it is a whole-nother subject and all ideas have their downfalls. Maybe they could limit how much of the earnings can be spent on signing new players and paying wages, but as I say that’s another topic for another day.
So will he be willing to splash the cash this summer? Is his heart and faith strong enough to take the risk during a time of uncertainty or will he play it safe and risk the wrath of some fans?
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?
Villa 1-1 CSKA Moscow – What could’ve been, what should’ve been but what was
It was very nearly Wigan all over again. We hammered the CSKA goal with near constant threats but it didn’t seem to want to go in. This time, thankfully, it did in the end.
The game was exciting the entire way through, with Villa attacking down the wings relentlessly and the Russians retaliating with their own strengths, which was quick fluid passing movements and a sublime ability to carve their way through. The opening goal was a perfect example of this.
If it hadn’t been against us, I’d have really enjoyed watching Moscow. They played some really attractive passing that went forward with what seemed like very little effort, exactly the kind of football you’d expect from a team managed by Brazilian legend Zico… but he’s only just started the job!
We still need a Van Nistelrooy
Villa showed again why we were linked with so many strikers in the transfer window, if we had had a real goalscorer on the pitch last night, we would’ve romped home. We created buckets of opportunities, but Carew and Agbon often weren’t in the box, or if they were they weren’t first to the ball. That may sound like criticism of them, but it’s more just that we lack someone who just puts the ball in the net. Both Gabby and Big John played well and got involved in the play plenty, but little of it was in the real danger zone.
Carew’s goal was a superb strike, catching the keeper out with it’s pure pace, but again he was near the back of the area. Had we got a ‘poacher’ in the team the goal would’ve come 5 seconds prior when Ashley Young played a ball across the six yard box. Many of similar opportunities also went begging.
Shorey not
One man who was in dire need of seizing his opportunity was Nicky Shorey… and he did. He was superb, with some solid defending, some great balls to Young and some penetrating surges forward. Hopefully this will restore the lad’s confidence and we can see the best of him at Villa finally.
Bring on the Fonz
One thing I would’ve liked MON to do last night was bring on Nathan Delfouneso. The youngster showed in the Zilina game that he can produce something special when a goal doesn’t seem to be coming easily and then again against Hamburg. This goal proved that he may well have what we are looking for. Salifou shot woefully off target, but the Fonz saw it heading his way and, with a split seconds notice, he turned his body and hit it goalwards. When I saw it go in I thought he’d fluked it, but the slo-mo showed that he has a real scoring instinct, the kind you’ve either got or you haven’t. Sadly I haven’t, so I’m stuck with writing about it, but the Fonz has.
Second-leg
Over to Russia in a week then to battle it out. Here’s to our away form triumphing once again. Up the Villa.
Villa vs Portsmouth starting line-up
Quick post with the team for tonight’s game against Pompey. As expected, new boy Emile Heskey is in the starting line-up and we have reverted to the 4-4-2 formation that we were using often before Carew’s injury.
Three changes have been made for this game:
- Luke Young comes back from suspension in a straight swap with Nicky Shorey for the left back spot.
- Emile Heskey replaces Steve Sidwell in the formation change from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2.
- Nigel Reo Coker doesn’t make the team and Craig Gardner fills James Milner’s role and Milner fills Ashley Young’s role on the left side of midfield.
So Barry Read more
Juicy transfer gossip
Considering we spent over 3 weeks to make our first big signing, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Emile Heskey was the extent of Villa’s spending in this transfer window, but would you be right?
The last few days are always a hub of activity and, with over £100m already spent, this is shaping up to be more of the same. With the rumours that are flying around, it seems that Martin O’Neill treats signings like I used to treat my English Literature homework; leave it to the very last minute.
FA Cup fourth round draw
Villa have been drawn out of the hat to face Read more
Cup revenge date sealed and transfer window clock is ticking
Cheer up Dave, they're a great bunch of lads
After embarrassing ourselves in 2005 by losing 3-0 in the League Cup to Doncaster Rovers, we will now be facing them for a rematch on Saturday in the FA Cup 4th round. Donny last night defeated Cheltenham, by that fated scoreline after the 3rd round tie initially ended in a no-score bore-draw.
Back in the David O’Leary days, Villa travelled to Doncaster with hope of getting a decent cup run, but were totally outdone by the lower league lads, who thrashed us 3-0. It was a very different age for Villa. O’Leary was in O’Neill’s seat and the confidence he injected into the team was less than zero. He had a talent for making even the good players believe they were crap. They were a lovely group of lads though!
O’Leary made our team Read more
Drogba on his way to Villa?!? MON gets faxy with Roman
Yesterday I complained that there were no interesting rumours floating around football land about Villa or, even better, transfers taking place. You’d think that with Villa in the top four when the window re-opened would be enough for me and I’d just be happy with what we’ve got, not moaning that we need new signings.
Call it The Man City Effect, but I feel we so need to splash out on a striker (and a full back wouldn’t do any harm either). When Gabby got into the box on Saturday he looked up and saw the drawback of the 4-5-1 system. He was alone.
Since we adopted the formation back in November, other than the initial slip up against Boro, we have been in superb form results-wise. We haven’t lost another in the league, winning 6 and drawing 3, two of which draws were against Man Utd and Arsenal. In the 9 games since Boro, we have kept 5 clean sheets and scored 15.
Transfer Gossip – lap it up, what there is of it anyway
13 days into the transfer window and so far it’s been a low key affair for Villa, despite being linked with about 2,000 players during December. With the way the papers were talking before Christmas, I was expecting it to be standing room only at Villa Park by now and for Randy Lerner to be filing for bankruptcy. But it turns out you can’t always trust the rumours you read… who knew?!
Emile Heskey was a major rumour for us, but now looks more likely to make Liverpool his destination if he moves away from the JJB. The England striker has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity of late, despite his game not really changing all that much. He’s playing a little better, but he’s always been a good player, people just never seemed to want to believe it before.
One signed, a new target and injuries begin to stack up
What are the goings on at Villa Park on the day the footballing world was informed that Randy Lerner is the 15th richest football club owner in England (2 of the top ten own QPR) and that Jermain Defoe returned to Tottenham, making it his second stint at Spurs, his second stint under Redknapp and costing them increased wages and £6m difference in transfer fees, just one year after selling him for £9m.
First the bad news; Gareth Barry has a groin strain which may keep him out of the Baggies game and beyond. It kept him out at the weekend and Villa are currently awaiting the results of scans to reveal the extent of the damage. Groin strains can be a real bitch, I pulled mine four years ago and its never healed, but then I doubt Bazza will be using the NHS’s Russells Hall Hospital up Dudley to sort his!
As Lady Luck helps us squeeze a 3rd win, is it time to start worrying? PLUS new transfer rumblings
We’ve won 4 of the last 5 games in the league, drawn to Arsenal, got through to the 4th round of the FA Cup for a change, we’re in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup and we’re 4th in the Premier League… why on earth would we need to start worrying?
OK so the results have been fantastic, there’s no doubt about that, but the way in which we’ve achieved some of them does make concerns begin to fester about the longevity of our success.
West Ham dominated possession but we managed to overturn them with an own goal, Hull gave a good account and again we won with an own goal, not forgetting two refereeing decisions that could easily have gone against us. Against Arsenal and Everton we ’stole’ results in the dying seconds of the game.
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