Archive for 'General Stuff'

Could A Sporting Director Be The Solution To Our Situation?

Sporting director, technical director, director of football, general manager. Take your pick, all the same thing. I elected to avoid the director of football tag in the headline as it’s frequently been used in England and without success enough that just the mention of the term leads to assumptions of unavoidable failure.
It’s a system [...]

Premier League Squad Analysis – All Clubs

All 20 Premiership clubs were required to submit their squads for use in the Premier League today and they were all pretty much as expected, although Luke Moore was left out of the West Brom squad, so we won’t be seeing him playing Premiership football this side of January.
Clubs were required to list up to [...]

Ash And Gabby Talk Positive, As Does Koeman And Blackburn In The Cup

Among much speculation regarding Champions League bound Tottenham trying to get their hands on no-longer-cup-tied Ashley Young, he’s talked up the team’s desire to bounce back against Everton and also his own determination to re-establish himself in the England set up.

Ashley Young
I’m a positive person. You can’t carry defeats around on your shoulders, because you [...]

Your Season Expectations – Survey Results

I suppose this might seem like odd timing, but I was planning on compiling and publishing this right before the West Ham game and then Martin O’Neill went and put the kybosh on things. I thought I’d leave the survey open for a little while longer to see whether any of the data trickling in [...]

A Little On Bob Bradley And Why He Should Not Be The Next Aston Villa Manager

If you don’t read Richard Whittall’s ‘A More Splendid Life’ regularly you’re doing yourself a disservice. Richard is a Canadian Villa fan – albeit one I suspect is becoming increasingly jaded with what life in the Premier League has become – based in Toronto and today he’s weighed in on an element of [...]

An Apology From Rapid Vienna

Rapid Vienna have issued an official apology to Andreas Weimann and Aston Villa after their fans’ deplorable behaviour during Thursday’s Europa League match, showering him with abuse and drinks as he was stretchered off, clearly in a state of distress.
One of the things I love about being back in Europe, even if it’s just the [...]

Stephen Ireland Likes The Villa Culture – City, Not So Much

He’s definitely making all the right noises and feels like he’s fitting in at Villa already
There’s a video of some of the interview here, I can’t get it to embed at the moment I’m afraid.
I liked what he had to say about Villa and the “bling-bling” culture at City, although with those cars I’m not [...]

20 Man Europa League Squad In Austria Ahead Of Rapid Vienna Tie

While Stephen Ireland was busy signing his Aston Villa contract, most of his new teammates were travelling to Austria for tomorrow’s Europa League play-off first leg encounter with Rapid Vienna. I think the 20 man squad (16 1st teamers + 4 reserves) caused a few sharp intakes of breath among some Villa fans:-

Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Forwards

Brad Friedel
Stephen [...]