It’s a pretty rare event that we’ll receive official confirmation of an agreement being reached to purchase a player before the actual transfer itself is announced, but that’s apparently the situation with Charles N’Zogbia. It’s all over bar the shouting.
I’m sure such steps wouldn’t have been taken if it wasn’t a formality, it’s just a shame that the player won’t have the chance to hook up with his new team mates in Hong Kong due to a lack of work
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Aston Villa are taking 24 players to Hong Kong to compete in the Barclays Asia Trophy and the travelling party are en route right now. As the strength and depth of the squad is a hot topic at the moment, I thought it might be interesting to compare this pre-season tournament squad with the squads from the last couple of seasons.
Asia Trophy 2011
Goalkeepers
Shay Given, Brad Guzan, Andy Marshall.
Defenders
Luke Young, Habib Beye, Eric Lichaj, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Ciaran Clark, Stephen
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The somewhat light pre-season fixture list gets underway for us tomorrow with a familiar trip to the Bescot. It’s a game that Shay Given expects to play in and should provide the first clues about Alex McLeish’s thinking in terms of tactics and style of play.
It’s highly unlikely that we’ll have recruited a new left winger by then, so perhaps we’ll see how innovative McLeish is too. Will he ask someone like Gabby or Bannan to fill in on the
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It’s official then, Ashley Young has made the switch to Old Trafford in a deal thought to be worth £17m after putting pen to paper on a five year contract.
It’s a transfer every Villa fan will have a view on, some will be more upset than others. Personally, I think Aston Villa and Ashley Young had simply gone as far as they could together and a change was best for both parties. With his heart elsewhere and a year left
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Whooooooo?
Genting is a Malaysian company whose core business is built around casinos and tourism, although they also own property and energy businesses amongst other things. They reportedly own the largest number of casinos in the UK, including the Circus Casinos in Hurst Street and Star City.
Their primary areas of business are Asia, United Kingdom and the United States. Their turnover last year was $41 billion which is similar to well known companies such as Cisco, Kraft Foods and MetLife.
Aston Villa
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After a generally well received first press conference, it looks like life at Villa Park is getting off to a predictably busy start for Alex McLeish. During his time in front of the cameras on Monday, he mentioned being inundated with calls from agents offering their players, but it’s the futures of Carlos Cuellar and Michael Bradley that are capturing the headlines first.
Carlos Cuellar
McLeish was quizzed about Cuellar’s future specifically because it’s become fairly open knowledge that Rangers are interested
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I don’t know if a player or manager has ever literally been ‘unveiled’, but I’d love to see it happen once and, given the odd nature of this whole appointment, this would have been an ideal occasion. Can you imagine if a claret & blue chequered sheet was whipped away matador style to reveal the new manager sheepishly sat there waiting for questions?
No? Just me then. Oh well.
However the introduction went down, the press conference officially introducing Alex McLeish as
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Well, that’s it then, it’s official. After one of the most protracted and very public management searches ever, the club have confirmed that they have appointed ex-Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish as Gerard Houllier’s successor at Villa Park.
Frankly, it’s an astonishing move that has already upset the overwhelming majority of fans. It’s also a move, right or wrongly, that takes some extreme guts from everyone involved. If nothing else, you must have some respect for McLeish’s willingness to take this
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You’ll already be aware that Aston Villa issued an official statement earlier this evening confirming the intention to interview Alex McLeish. Birmingham City have issued their own statement declaring their intention to take legal action in response.
Both statements in full:
Aston Villa Football Club
This is a message to the fans of Aston Villa.
The Club has been reluctant to elaborate publicly on our search for a new manager and, in particular, to confirm or deny our interest in specific candidates.
This is not
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