Aston Villa News 24/7Clearly this is extremely fluid between now and the end of the summer transfer window with players moving in both directions, but following the confirmation of Yaya Toure’s move, here’s the current list of first team midfielders at Man City for next season:-
- Michael Johnson
- Stephen Ireland
- Shaun Wright-Phillips
- Adam Johnson
- Gareth Barry
- Patrick Veira
- Nigel De Jong
- Yaya Toure
- David Silva
I suppose from our perspective, and, I suspect, a lot of teams, that’s a pretty intimidating array of talent. I can’t help wondering whether that’s something James Milner feels he should join to improve his game, or whether he would be reluctant to risk not playing as much as he does now. He likes to play, we know that.
I suppose there’s the longer term view that Champions League could well be on offer in 2011/12 with City, but then again, it might not. We all know that these super egos could fail to gel, they could rack up a run of bad results, the manager could be shown the door and the wheels would fall off the wagon.
Wishful thinking on my part perhaps, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. On the other hand, if everything slots into place and these guys actually play well together… well, it doesn’t look too promising for the rest of us, does it?
England Sticks With Fabio
In other, unrelated news, the FA have just confirmed that Fabio Capello will remain on as England boss, which I think is good news. He’s made a few mistakes for sure, not least leaving Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor behind, but there’s no question that he’s a top notch manager. When you consider the alternatives, it’s clearly the best option and common sense has prevailed in my opinion.
Pre-Season News
And finally, back to Villa, Peterborough have been added to the pre-season fixtures and tickets for the Guadiana Cup games in Portugal have gone on general sale. I’ve added details for both to the pre-season page.
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5 Comments to “Toure Joins City, Capello Stays With England, Posh Added To Pre-Season”
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I have been wondering about that all along. What is most important to Milner? Champions league? Playing time? A leadership role? It seems far from clear how he would fit into that very crowded midfield. I can’t help thinking it is still is in his best long-term interest to stay (assuming Villa would refuse 30 million for him), but it is hard for me to look at the relative quality of life he would have making 80,000 a week at City, as opposed to gettin by on 70,000 a week where he is.
Looking at that midfield, you have to suspect it’s more about weakening us, than improving them.
What a sorry state the game is in if that’s what it boils down to these days
I’m pretty much resigned to losing him, but still want him to stay.
So Capello stays, that’s good imo.
Next step, dump the “golden generation” and come straight out saying we are looking to build (much as the Germans did, I think) for the next WC, which may be at the cost of the European qualifying.
Do that and I reckon the fans could live with it.
It won’t happen though.
We’ll perpetuate the same media driven myth that we’re the best in the world.
i thought the same when liverpool were after barry, it was as much, if not more, about us *not* having him.
i know tottenham fans have bemoaned having their players poached whenever they’ve got close to challenging the top in the past.
a liverpool fan friend of mine used to chuckle whenever i’d complain about it. it’s just the way these things work you see and i’m just a naive little villa fan. not so cocky at the moment though!
agree 100% about the national set up and that was some of the flavour of my post on it. to re-use the quote “we must be the change we want to see”. it’s about us all accepting that we have to go through a period of rebuilding and we’re actually not the greatest team in the world.
haven’t been for quite some time and won’t be again until we make changes. not sure that attitude will sell many papers though.
I’ve just found this blog and I’m genuinely shocked by how normal it is…..normal because i’ve been listening to Damian drone on about the same pointless arguements for years, thanks for giving me (and many others) something to look forward to reading without needing anti-depressants after!
Capello is definitely an established manager, he isn’t used to not fine-tuning his squad week in week out so I can imagine how difficult it could be for him. I trust he will take all the negatives from this World Cup and learn from his and the players mistakes, everyone deserves a second chance and sacking Capello will put us back to square one again.
On the Milner subject, I feel as if i’m being too over-confident with him not leaving. He seems like a player that has his head screwed on so surely he must see the potential and progression within our squad; I won’t be too worried if it happens as I remember how I felt when Barry left and look at us now!
I wonder if we could have a cheeky bid for Adam Johnson, he fits into O’Neills usual English wonderkid criteria (which I’m heavily in favour of)…thats if Man City haven’t got him in their future plans.
thanks PeenVageen, very kind. i’m aware of damian’s broken record. let’s just say we don’t get along…
http://astonvillacentral.com/2010/04/imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/
you’re right, we continued to progress without barry, but there’s an argument that we could possibly have achieved more with a committed and motivated barry *and* milner, but, after all, that is just conjecture.
my personal view is that while it’s a lot of money on the table for milner, we still have to go out and find the replacement(s). if it were that simple, that’s what city would be doing, they’re not though, they want james.