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USA Today are reporting via the AP that Brad Guzan has joined Hull City on a one month loan deal. It’s a great move for Brad, a brilliant opportunity to get some first team action under his belt and he may well be playing as early as tomorrow against Leicester after Vito Mannone returned to Arsenal.
It does, of course, raise intriguing questions about the goalkeeping situation at Villa Park as the transfer window is about to open, Brad Friedel’s contract expires at the end of the season and Houllier’s declaration that decisions will be made about the future in February.
Looks like the answers will be forthcoming shortly, but I sincerely hope that the loan move is a success for Guzan and that he will continue to be a part of the longer term future of Aston Villa. I think we all like him a lot.
Good luck Brad.
Omar Cummings
It’s been no secret that Omar Cummings of the Colorado Rapids has come over to train with Aston Villa with a view to securing a short term loan deal prior to the 2011 MLS season kicking off in March.
Houllier says that he likes what he’s seen so far and the OS has included him in the picture gallery of today’s training session taken a little over five hours ago.
I did some digging during the week and didn’t publish the post I subsequently wrote, but I’ll be very interested to see if the loan deal materializes. Beside the quota on international caps, the work permit regulations state that the country the player represents much have averaged at least 70th place in the FIFA rankings over the last two years and, as far as I can determine, Jamaica hasn’t.
We shall see, but since Toronto’s Dwayne De Rosario is also currently trialling at Celtic, and Canada have generally ranked slightly below Jamaica, I’m sure there must be loophole or other to be exploited.
I don’t watch as much MLS as I should, but I’ve certainly caught Colorado play a few times this season. I can’t honestly say Cummings stood out for me that I recall, but then attention at the top of the pitch is generally dominated by Uncle Fester look-a-like Conor Casey.
What I can say is that if Cummings has no problem playing alongside Casey, playing alongside Emile Heskey will be an absolute dream. He’s certainly pacey and has a few goals in him.
In either case, good luck to both players, it’s nice to have something genuinely interesting to report on to break the current malaise.
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13 Comments to “Brad Guzan joining Hull City on loan and Omar Cummings trains at Bodymoor”
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Yes, strange one, the Brad thing.
Either we’ve got a 24 hour recall option or we have a goalie coming in.
Speculation says McGregor.
As for Omar Cummings, I really can’t see what this is about at all.
And for what seems like 2 months?????
A 28 yo player from (sorry yanks) a crap league where JPA excelled?
Surely, if he was any good, he’d have been spotted before now?
The mind boggles, nearly as much as GH’s eyes.
We need experienced prem players who can dig us out of some serious proverbial, not bloody speculative types.
Arrrggghhhh!
GH had better have something up his sleeve
Glad to see Brad getting first-team experience. He deserves it. I think this is his “shot” to either show GH that he can replace Big Brad or to showcase his talents for other teams. I hope Guzan takes this opportunity either way.
I don’t really know Cummings very well either but he has been good in MLS. We yanks might not quite be at the EPL level
but I watched both leagues enough to say performance in the MLS is worth seeing if a player can make it at the higher level (Stuart Holden comes to mind) — kind of like picking up a player on-form from a Championship side, you never know if they can quite make the step-up.
In reality, I think GH is getting creative in trying to find resources. I read In GH’s comments somewhere (can’t remember where) that it wouldn’t cost us anything — I think that is the key. Get another recognized striker without laying out cash. If he works, great, if not, no big loss.
My concern is that, as Dan pointed out, Cummings’ style of play would pair with Heskey — don’t we have 2 strikers who can play off Heskey, not to mention Ashley Young? I think we better be looking for a Heskey/Carew replacement OR finding an MLS player who is in their early 20′s. Might I suggest Freddy Montero – 23 year old from Columbia? He paired with Freddie Ljundberg at the Seattle Sounders and the coaching staff thought enough of him to trade Ljundberg to Chicago. Seattle were horrible until FL moved on — Montero stepped up big-time and looks to be an Ashley Young type of talent but in a true striker mould. Never know with young talent but he’d be worth more of a flyer than Omar Cummings.
On second thought, forget about Montero — Seattle is my local team and we need him.
I think I should retract what I said about the MLS.
I don’t mean it in the way it comes across and am not looking to fall out with anyone on here.
But hopefully you understand what I meant.
Apologies.
It’s just that I’m really worried
No retraction necessary – MLS is certainly a step down. For now…
montero would be great, he really would, but no way he gets a work permit. sadly.
I’m still struggling to understand this work permit thing!
i doubt any mls fans will get precious over the league’s quality, they’re generally well informed football fans first and foremost, but it is a lot better than people tend to give it credit for.
i think the point about discovery is legit though; he’s 28, hardly likely to be a gem that’s slipped under the radar, but the league *has* developed a lot of talent. holden and dempsey two players not a bit out of place in the premier league and would be very welcome at villa as far as i’m concerned.
highly unlikely that he’ll have the impact landon donovan did at everton, if he was anywhere near as good we’d know about him, but if he makes up the numbers for 10 weeks or so as cover and doesn’t cost anything, what harm can it do?
it wasn’t that long ago that nathan delfouneso was the only available striker!
on the subject of plucking a decent talent from overseas that might be very gettable, i’d like to nominate robbie kruse at melbourne victory. he’s had a great season so far and is in the aussie squad for the asian cup.
reminds me of ash in some ways actually, would be great to bring in as a long term replacement if he is going to be off in the summer.
asian cup kicks off in qatar next month i think, worth keeping an eye out for him.
would love to see Robbie Kruse play for Villa, he is a classy player and I was pretty frustrated that he wasn’t picked to play for Aus at the world cup (our team management and coaching staff were pathetic, anyone putting Tim Cahill in a strikers role with back to goal is an idiot)
Cummings could be a stroke of genius or an epic fail though, if he gels well he might find the Prem more to his style, if not, another waste up front. Id rather see some proven quality up front however
BTW, he is a great finisher of the ball, if liken him to Gareth Bale/Young, but a better finisher than both http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6k6I9mfUEM vid for those who care
that’s a good vid, thanks for that.
he’s generally run the left channel in a sort of wing forward role when i’ve seen him play, but that shows his versatility well, he looks genuinely two footed and great making those poacher’s runs through the centre.
scores some absolute crackers too. you’re right about the bale comparison too, hadn’t thought of that.
would love to see us go after someone like him. we have a bit of previous in oz picking up lowry and herd who both came out of perth i think. don’t know how that came tbh, but would be good to exploit any contacts we might have.
i also like sergio van dijk at adelaide, scores some good goals, but misses some absolute sitters too. probably not quite villa standard, but i enjoy watching him play.
actually, on the subject of the asian cup, it might not help us directly in terms of fixtures, but it does help us in terms of immediate rivals being without key players, i see schwarzer, cahill and emerton are all in the aussie squad too.
that could make them unavailable for their teams through to the end of january. we do play fulham on feb 5th though.