Three Lions Head Home To Introspection

Actually, the introspection part is just wishful thinking on my part. Far more likely: hand wringing, gnashing of teeth, finger pointing, talk of reform, grass roots etc., but in 4 years time and again, to a lesser degree, in 4 years, we’ll almost certainly repeat the same cycle.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. All fueled by the feckless tabloid media playing to the lowest common denominator and its readership lapping it up.

We English have a disease. It’s a disease of

Continue Reading

Milner Shines As England Scrape Into The Next Round

Let’s be honest here, two goals over three games in a group The Sun christened “EASY” (England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks) won’t be causing any of the other nations to shake in their boots, but we’re though and that’s all that counts.

James Milner was given the nod to start on the right against Slovenia for the final group game with England requiring a win to ensure progression. Fortunately his confidence didn’t seem dented following his horror show against USA in

Continue Reading

A Tale Of Two International Villans

Unless England and the United States both exit the group and negotiate their way past all opponents, all the way to the final, this was the one game of the World Cup to bring all 4 Villans in South Africa into the same stadium at the same time. Based on what we saw tonight, I would say the chances of a rematch occurring are slim to none.

Warnock and Guzan watched from their respective benches and while no one

Continue Reading

Adidas World Cup Star Wars Ad

I featured the Nike ad here mainly because of the obvious Villa connection, but also because it was brilliant.   I’m doing the same with this Adidas ad simply because it’s bonkers and I love it! If the Star Wars theme seems a bit random, it’s probably because they actually have a Star Wars range. I know, still, the commercial is great, especially Snoop’s take on what Luke Skywalker should have said…

Oh, and if you missed it,

Continue Reading

Carlos Blogs And Pre-Season To Include A Trip To Dublin

Carlos Cuellar’s website has gone live and it looks like he’s going to be doing a spot of blogging. There’s some content there which I’m presuming has been ported over from a column he had at marca.com and I think he’s also syndicating some World Cup analysis to elcorreo.com, but don’t quote me on that. No idea if he’s writing this himself or employing a ghost writer, but it’s pretty cool all the same. The photo albums

Continue Reading

4 Villans At 2010 World Cup Joining 19 Villans From World Cups Past

James Milner, Emile Heskey, Stephen Warnock and Brad Guzan will all be in South Africa this summer and now join a list of 19 who were Aston Villa players when they represented their countries in the previous World Cups.

Unfortunately, it was bad news for Shane Lowry when Australia finally announced their 23 man squad, but he was one of the youngest in the provisional squad and will have plenty of opportunities in the future.

With 4 players at

Continue Reading

Villa Shorts – June 1st – [Updated With Confirmed England Squad]

Aston Villa flavoured news has been a little thin on the ground recently, but here’s a few things that have been going on in the last few days that caught my interest:-

World Cup Squad

This is happening right now and whispers started last night that it’s our Stephen Warnock who will be Ashley Cole’s understudy, not Everton’s Leighton Baines. Neither will play unless Cole is injured and, from what I’ve seen of Baines in an England shirt, I know which

Continue Reading

Brad Guzan Is Going To South Africa, But Second Or Third Choice?

Brad Guzan played in the United States’ penultimate friendly on home soil before the World Cup last night; a disappointing 4-2 loss to the Czech Republic in Hartford, Connecticut. Coach Bob Bradley was very much looking at his periphery players to help him decide who will make the final 23 man squad.

As one of the three goalkeepers in the 30 man preliminary squad, Brad Guzan is the only Aston Villa player that we know for certain will

Continue Reading

Milner Starts In Centre As England Stumble Past Mexico

I was pleased to see James Milner’s name in the starting XI an hour or so before kick off last night and, since he made up a midfield quartet with Theo Walcott, Michael Carrick and Steven Gerrard, I assumed he’d be playing on the left. Not so. At kick off we found that Capello was playing Gerrard on the left and Milner in the middle. I’m guessing he just wanted to see Milner in a central role

Continue Reading