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 know I’m in danger of turning this into the Michael Bradley blog, but US Soccer are doing a great job of putting out videos like this with their national team players. In this one, which is far more in-depth than the last one, Bradley reflects on life in England and the key differences to playing in Germany.
Bradley discusses the different emphasis on tactics, speed of the game, his frustration at not getting to play, but his pragmatism and
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There were four, possibly five, Villans involved as England drew 2-2 with Switzerland and the United States were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Spain yesterday. Darren Bent and Eric Lichaj started for their sides, Ashley Young and Michael Bradley entered their games at half time and Stewart Downing made a late appearance for England and almost won it with the final kick of the game.
England 2 Switzerland 2
England gifted Switzerland a two goal head start with some comedic set piece defending
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We believe that Michael Bradley will be joining Aston Villa on permanent basis, but in this video from US Soccer he reflects, along with Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard, on the special challenges facing a player on loan.
There’s an interesting nugget towards the end as Bradley and Jones, who both came from the Bundesliga, confess to being off the pace of the game in England to begin with. In Bradley’s case, he’d have been extra rusty having not seen much
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With the headlines currently being dominated by Mark Hughes’ resignation from Fulham and the inevitable linkage to the Villa Park vacancy (I’m not convinced by the way), it’s easy to miss other news going on today.
Actually, this one is barely more than a footnote on German website RP Online, but it’s being reported that we will exercise our option to purchase Michael Bradley permanently from Borussia Mönchengladbach for a fee of €5m which includes the loan period.
The Google translation
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Blackpool have lost their last five games, Ian Holloway will be desperate to avoid a sixth straight defeat. He’ll have half an eye over the horizon to his next game against Tottenham, perhaps hoping that Wolves might offer an opportunity for points after that. And then Chelsea will come to town.
By the time Holloway takes his men to Ewood Park, inside the final seven games of the season, he knows full well that his team could be in the midst
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Nike’s Inside The Pro series covers the stories of six US national footballers rising through their careers. This is Michael Bradleys story. He got started early. From youth clubs to a 16-year-old pro to the youngest American player ever transferred overseas, it’s been an amazing journey for the central midfielder who was until recently running the engine of his German club team as well as the US national team.
It’s been the busiest January transfer window I can remember – testament to our lack of activity in the summer and position in the table at the turn of the year – so I thought it worth putting a summary together on a day that will inevitably be dominated by Fernando Torres rumours and counter-rumours.
There are still a few deals in the works, we’re expecting:
Michael Bradley loan to be completed (that is with a view to turn permanent I’m glad
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There are four American midfielders at the moment that I’d be be happy to see join Villa if we had room to use them; Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan are more than capable of fitting in on the flanks, Stuart Holden would be a useful creative addition in the centre and Michael Bradley would be my choice of a holding, box-to-box water carrier in the middle.
The key being if we had room to use them which I think rules all
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