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?
The central defence conundrum
Super Skipper
Without Martin Laursen there is no doubt that Villa are leaky at the back. Brad Friedel, whilst still very capable and with some very valuable experience, needs a little more protection than Knight and Davies offer. Carlos Cuellar is injured almost as often as Laursen and when he is fit he is often played out of position.
So what is the answer to Villa’s defensive riddle?
There’s no two ways about it; Villa miss Laursen MASSIVELY. We are dangerously reliant on the injury prone skipper and while he has been out we have seen our first bad run this season, with goals leaking in far more than any challenge on the top four can sustain.
The partnership of Curtis Davies and Zat Knight initially looked like it was capable of being solid, with a couple of good games where they played with confidence but it soon deteriorated and now they just look shaky and like they don’t trust each other or even sometimes; like they don’t want to be there. The job of a central defender is an often thankless task, but it is also a VERY important cog in a winning machine. Our cog is looking very rusty and it is showing in the results.
Carlos Cuellar has spent far too much of his Villa spell so far on the sidelines or at full back. He initially looked like he has potential but has struggled to adjust fully and is still a long way from the quality we need at the back. I think if he and Laursen were fully fit they could forge a great partnership, but that doesn’t look likely at all. In fact, we Villans may have to accept that Martin Laursen will never return to full fitness. There have even been suggestions that his career is over.
Come the summer we will definitely need to purchase at least one centre back. We need a proven, reliable, solid player. Not a youngster hoping to come good or a player who used to be good (I’ll let you assign names there).
If we want to mount a better challenge next season, then we need new defensive signings to make sure the wheels don’t come off mid-flow again.
Striker goes out on loan, Zat Knight gets facials and Martin O’Neill in Dubai
Young Villa striker, Sam Williams, has gone out on another loan, this time for a month to Brentford. He recently spent a month on loan at local side Walsall and is now hoping for more experience with the Bees.
Williams is probably a name few are familiar with, as he has yet to appear for the first team, but he is making good progress and getting on the scoresheet for the reserves, so he’s one to watch. Remember his name and if and when he gets into the team, you can act like a smartarse and pretend you know him well.
Zat Knight’s feminine side
Villa fan Knight has spoke in the Birmingham Mail of his love of being pampered and groomed. The Villa defender has admitted to getting facials to help keep his skin in good condition through the wintery season. Myself, I reckon he just thinks that one of the birds at Harvey Nichols has a nice arse and likes to go down there for a perv. He has obviously not yet plucked up the balls to ask her out. Come on Zat, make a WAG of her.
…And finally
I am jealous of my mate. A pal of mine (who, like all good little boys, is a Villa fan) qualified as a chartered surveyor and got a job in Dubai, where the architecture is amazing. “Big wow, who’d want to live there?”, well not me really, I’m happy in the Midlands near the Villa, but the reason I’m jealous of him is the picture he sent me last night:
Martin O'Neill was delighted to meet his hero Mark Harris
Villa vs Sunderland – Is Kenwyne Jones playing against his team-mates-to-be?
With Kenwyne Jones being one of the main links to Villa during the transfer window (although it seems Spurs are determined to outbid us), how will he feel about facing us on Saturday? The tall striker had been linked with a £5m move and now a vastly improved £12m bid from Villa, a rumour which O’Neill hasn’t denied, but at the same time he hasn’t confirmed it either.
That’s the thing with MON, he’s very cagey about transfers. He doesn’t admit to anything in press conferences, so us Villa fans are left murmuring about the rumours we’ve heard in papers or on websites or down Honest Joe’s Cafe. Maybe he’s pondering a move for teenage whiz-kid Masal Bugduv! Bugduv is believed to be the next big thing, taking the world of Fantasy Football to new realms.
The game
Villa vs Hull – Match preview – Finish the year in the top four
Tomorrow night Villa take on the team that going into this month were our rivals as far as positions in the Prem table, but a poor run of form for them and a good run of form for us has seen them fall 8 points behind us and our new rivals are Arsenal.
Villa have been temporarilyknocked out of the top four by the Arsenal’s victory over Pompey yesterday, but it’s only on goal difference so provided we don’t lose up in Hull, we will finish the year in the top four. In fact if we get a better result than Man U do tonight against Middlesbrough, we will finish the year THIRD. We’re all Middlesbrough fans for a day.
To Hull and back
Villa 1-2 MSK Zilina – What went wrong?
Did MON get it wrong last night? Not necessarily
Last night’s loss was an embarrassing scoreline that will not help us to rebuild our confidence after failing to score against Fulham despite such dominance. The game was won and lost (won by them and lost by us) in a 3 minute spell, just after the quarter of an hour mark. MSK started stronger than anyone had expected but it was still a huge shock when Vladimir Leitner’s cross was left by Zat Knight and it ended up in the net.
Villa were shocked and stunned, and while we were still pondering how on earth we were losing, Zilina caught us on the backfoot with a well worked passing movement and doubled that lead. Villa had to snap out of it and fast. We continued to push forward but Ashley Young’s crossing and Marlon Harewood’s positioning weren’t marrying up too well. Just before the half hour mark up stepped the new Villa youth wonderkid, Nathan Delfouneso, with a wonderful strike that was supposed to be the beginning of our comeback.
It didn’t happen.
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