If you’ve been stopping by Aston Villa Central for a while now you would have noticed something amiss this past weekend and may have assumed that I had joined Darren Bent on a quick shopping jaunt.

I had no such luck I’m afraid. I did indeed watch the 2-0 loss at the hands of Liverpool, but for the first time in a few years I hadn’t done any preparation before the game. I didn’t relay the teamsheets before kick off. I wasn’t on Twitter at any point. I wasn’t monitoring stats during the game. I wasn’t analysing the tactics. I wasn’t thinking about what to write after the final whistle, let alone writing anything before the game finished.

I just sat on my sofa, the HD images of the game on my laptop coming via someone in Russia. The headphones kept the commentary I couldn’t understand in and the rest of the world out. Some might describe it as a bizarre, self-imposed Clockwork Orange style punishment, but I couldn’t possibly comment.

Just me and thee, Villa, just me and thee.

I stayed there, mostly motionless for the best part of two hours, as the game unfolded in tragically predictable fashion. And when it was over, I shut the computer down, closed the lid and went out with my wife.

When I returned home, Aston Villa Football Club still existed and the world was still spinning.

It was all quite liberating.

Obviously my enthusiasm for this blogging malarky is at an all time low, that’s the bottom line. I’ve been “phoning it in” for a while now, so I’ve taken the decision to put us all out of our misery here and make this the final post of 2011.

I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks looking for a way to convey the thoughts I have bouncing around this mush I call a brain at the moment. If successful, I honestly don’t know whether I’ll produce the manifesto for a new beginning or a eulogy, I guess we’ll all find out in the new year.

For now, I’d like to sincerely thank all readers, new and old, regular and occasional, for all of your support, opinions and conversation over the past few years, here and elsewhere on the interwebz. Whether you’ve agreed or disagreed, you’ve made this an interesting and rewarding experience. I hope you all find a way to enjoy the festive period despite the depressing situation we find our football club in.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Comments are closed as I’ve no desire to receive abuse for choosing to take a break right now, nor am I fishing for compliments. Go enjoy your Christmas. Go on now, there’s nothing to see here. UTV)

It’s been the week of loans in B6 with no less than four players heading out to get some competitive football elsewhere.

Firstly, Habib Beye went to Doncaster, initially until January, but hopefully a deal to take him through to the end of the season (and his Villa contract) won’t be out of the question. Assuming he’s not a disaster.

Then Nathan Baker, closely followed by Shane Lowry, made a temporary switch to Milwall; Baker for a month, Lowry just into the new year. Three loans, all good stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. But then there was a fourth; man of the moment, Gary Gardner, has joined Coventry on loan until January 3rd.

This news was about as welcome as a piranha in a bidet to a lot of fans who were hopeful of, even demanding in many cases, his immediate inclusion in the first team.

Another stick to beat the manager with, then. It’s reminiscent of Barry Bannan joining Leeds towards the end of last season, just as many fans were calling for him to be in the first team, seemingly to be the saviour of our season.

Let’s hope Gardner gets more out of his spell at Coventry than Bannan did at Leeds.

Development Strategy

The benefits of going out on loan are obvious, but there’s no rule that says a player has to do so to fulfill his potential. It really comes down to circumstance and, hopefully, a planned strategy.

A player who has spoken highly of Gardner, having played together through the various England youth ranks, is Jack Wilshere. They happen to be the same age (Wilshere is six months older) and play in central midfield, but Wilshere is playing Champions League and is a full international now.

Clearly age isn’t a barrier; if you’re good enough you’re most definitely old enough. However, Wilshere arguably had fewer established first teamers ahead of him as he competed for a place in the team and Arsenal are battling on more fronts so offer greater opportunity to blend in the youngsters. And developing youngsters is something of a forte of Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, after all.

Whether it was through design (i.e. planning and strategy) or happenstance (i.e. there was no room at the inn), I don’t know, but he didn’t get to establish himself in the first team properly without going out on loan to Bolton first.

Stevie G

Gardner has been likened to Steven Gerrard in style of play and, although it’s going back a bit now, he was a player who didn’t go out on loan and was brought into the first team by Gerard Houllier as an 18 year old instead.

However, during his first season, 1998/99, he only started four Premiership games, and played the full 90 minutes just once; against Derby County in March ’99. By the end of his first senior season, Gerrard had played a total of 365 minutes of league football with 89% of those earned during the second half of the season in 1999.

To put that in some perspective, Bannan played 638 minutes last season, although a lot of his time on the pitch came courtesy of injuries to Stiliyan Petrov and Nigel Reo-Coker. That’s happenstance.

World Cup

Gardner was withdrawn from England’s U20 World Cup squad and travelled to Hong Kong for pre-season with the first team instead. Although it wasn’t likely that he would be involved in the first team straight away, it was clear he was in the plans and needed to be integrated “just in case”.

His star has risen dramatically recently with goal scoring performances in the NextGen Series and with England U21s, but with limited reserve fixtures remaining in 2011 and the NextGen series on hiatus until the quarter finals next year, there isn’t much scope outside of the first team for playing time.

I suppose the question, then, was whether to bring him straight into the first team now, disposing someone like Stephen Ireland, Fabian Delph or Chris Herd of their place, or leave things as they are and get him some playing time elsewhere.

It might have been very popular with the fans to bring him in now, and McLeish could certainly do with banking some goodwill, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the smartest thing to do from a squad management perspective with the bulk of the season still ahead of us.

To me, it’s a no-brainer. The risk of ruining the young player and/or squad harmony by bringing him in now is greater than the benefit he’s likely to bring in the next month or so. There really is no rush.

Far better to get him some more experience and bring him in as an improved player later on as the season takes its toll on the legs of the current team.

In the mean time, trust me, I don’t get any more pleasure from watching Emile Heksey lumbering around midfield than anyone else, but if McLeish is playing the big man in place of N’Zogbia, Albrighton or Ireland now, I don’t see him suddenly playing Gardner in his place.

So, with that in mind, what’s the point of him sitting on the bench watching Premiership games, perhaps grabbing the odd minute here and there, when he could be actually playing in Championship?

This is not an attempt to absolve anyone of any blame for the unacceptable performance at White Hart Lane last night, but it’s become painfully obvious to me in the last 18 months or so that in the fans’ eyes it’s players that win games… and managers that lose them.

Let me give you an example:

Towards the end of last season, in what would be Gerard Houllier’s final game on the sidelines, we took on the hapless West Ham at Upton Park. Robbie Keane put the home side into the lead after just two minutes after being played onside at a corner by Ashley Young’s failure to leave his post.

It was a mistake by Young, plain and simple. It happens. Everyone else pushed up. Stewart Downing left his post on the other side, Ash didn’t, and Robbie Keane scored. Then my Twitter absolutely lit up with calls for Houllier’s head. Of course, it was entirely his fault that Ashley Young had a brain meltdown.

Just about 90 minutes later, Ash made up for his error by supplying the injury time cross that Gabby Agbonlahor would nod in to win the game. I didn’t notice Houllier receiving too much credit for that cross or the goal, that was down to the players. Perhaps I just missed it.

That’s just one of countless examples where there weren’t any real problems with the tactics and strategy on the day, not really, it was just individual errors or failures to convert that led to poor results.

But the way the manager was deemed culpable for individual errors a 12 year old would be embarrassed about conjured up images of the players being controlled by some sort of radio controlled device, Xbox style. Or it did for me anyway.

I’ve just stumbled on this video featuring Tom Meighan from Kasabian and Darren Bent doing exactly that:

[Email readers can find the video here if it doesn't show up]

That’s it in a nutshell.

Blame

What we saw last night was dire, there’s no getting away from it. I described it as “anti-football“, and that’s not a term I use lightly, but I stand by it. I’m too pragmatic to believe it prudent to play attacking football at any and every venue in the country, but I do think we should endeavour to play football against all opponents.

McLeish promised he would do that and I hope he thinks long and hard about whether his approach to the game last night matched that promise. I don’t believe it did. However, he might not be willing to accept his share of the blame, he’s not wrong when he points to basic failures on the part of the players either, although the fictional missed chances are a bit much.

Once again, a simple example: I saw a player – there’s no need to identify him – lift his foot to receive a pass in Tottenham’s half, under no real pressure, only for the ball to cannon off the underside of his boot straight back to the home side to launch yet another attack. Spurs didn’t even need to do anything. Nothing. They just stood off and we gave the ball straight back to them. How nice.

That probably seems a silly example, and it is, but it’s also our performance last night in microcosm. It was just an individual error, it happens, every professional footballer is capable of trapping a ball in their sleep. But when McLeish talks about a lack of retention, that’s exactly what he’s talking about and he’s not wrong.

Again, I can’t stress this enough, I’m not looking to absolve McLeish of any blame – we’ll come to that in good time – but I’m so, so tired of seeing these highly paid professionals putting in less than 100% whilst their boss takes all the flak. Could you get away with that where you work?

The consensus view seems to be that Chris Herd is about the only player to come out of last night with much credit. The youngest, least experienced, and, I dare say, the lowest paid.

There’s something very wrong about that. I guess the manager will need to check the connection to Herd’s headset, I think the batteries must be flat.

Chris Herd’s performances have rightly earned him quite a few headlines in the last couple of weeks. Initially for the wrong reason, but lately for the right ones.

Alex McLeish has said that he’s “a manager’s dream; the best trainer at the club”.

He will train the way he plays on Saturday by giving it absolutely everything. Herdy can improve technically if he keeps practising. There is no doubt in my mind that he has the desire.

Peter Grant has also talked about his positional discipline, which is precisely what is giving Stiliyan Petrov the license to get forward a bit more.

And the captain is enjoying something of a renaissance this season as he’s given the freedom to play something closer to his natural role.

There’s also an argument, not entirely without merit, which says a more robust central midfield allows Gabby Agbonlahor to play closer to Darren Bent.

A win:win:win situation then.

Although it’s not exactly a rise from nowhere – Gerard Houllier unexpectedly turned to Herd on a handful of occasions last season – the young Aussie did just win his first senior call up for the Socceroos.

Injuries

Unfortunately, he’s been unable to fulfill the selection for the World Cup qualifiers against Oman and Thailand due to a minor ankle injury he sustained against Norwich. And it turns out he’s not alone.

James Collins and Alan Hutton both withdrew from their national squads. Shay Given didn’t train with Ireland due to a slight hand injury, but it’s not expected to stop him playing against Estonia on Friday.

Petrov headed straight down the tunnel with a hamstring injury last Saturday and, get this, it turns out Emile Heskey has been playing through injury too.

A lot of eyebrows have been raised at Heskey playing in any case, the fact he’s also playing with an injury, whilst apparently fit players languish on the bench, is a head-scratcher to say the least.

Still, everyone loves playing with Heskey we’re told. Except defenders.

So, the two week break, whilst annoying from a momentum perspective, is timely from a fitness point of view. Assuming those players who are away with their countries don’t pick up any injuries of course.

And for Jermaine Jenas, it’s kind of ironic. After all these weeks of waiting for him to be fit, he’s finally fit but now faces an annoying three week break, not two: the first match back from the interlull is against Tottenham and he can’t play against his parent club.

But to finish by returning to Herd; he absolutely has brought the dogged defensive element to our midfield that we’ve been missing, long may it continue. My only reservation, and I hope someone is having a quite word in his ear, is his penchant being a little impetuous.

It’s youthful exuberance, a touch of nerves and lack of experience at this level mostly, but if he can get that under control, he has the potential to be a key player in this season. It’s not a glamorous job, it’s easily overlooked and underappreciated, but if he can do the simple things well, the park will open up for the more creative players.

That’s something we desperately need and have missed since Nigel Reo-Coker headed for the exit door.

Charles N’Zogbia has revealed that he prefers to play on the right, aims to qualify for Europe with Aston Villa and harbours ambitions of being on the French team plane to Brazil in 2014.

N’Zogbia spoke with The New York Times during a recent international break and showed his appreciation for the size of the boots he had to fill following the exits of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing.

Yes, big shoes. Now they bring new players. When you start the league you’re not sure if people want to stay or leave because of the transfer window. Everyone wants to train, but players don’t know where they’re going to be in two, three weeks.

Now it’s settled. Our heads are clear. Villa for me is a big club, bigger players, massive support. We can fight and challenge for places in Europe, and it could be good for this club.

Given his penchant for drifting inside, is he really a winger? Where does he prefer to play?

When I start[ed] football, I was a No. 10, my first position was to be behind the striker. My position was to play in the middle. That’s where I’m comfortable because I know exactly where are my players.

But I can play left, right and in the middle. Now I have been playing on the left and on the right. If I had my choice, depending on the formation, I would play on the right. I can go past people, can get in and have a shot.

Like a lot of clubs now they know you are left-footed they put you on the right because they know you can cut in for a shot.

And when asked whether he sees himself at a “bigger club” in three or four years:

I would like to play in Europe and will give the club three or four years to do something. For me, my move was to sign with Villa, because it’s a really big change. They are really professionals, the club has all the amenities.

Three years minimum. To go into Europe and be on the next World Cup team for France. That’s what I want.

N’Zogbia might not have made an immediate impact at Villa, not in the way we might have hoped, but he’s looked much closer to the player we thought we had signed in the last couple of games.

There’s more to come, for sure, perhaps getting his name on the scoresheet will help, but he certainly appears to be growing into his role at the Villa and gaining confidence all the time.

You can read the full Q&A, which is quite comprehensive, at The New York Times.

Not everyone enjoys watching Barcelona play football these days, some find them incredibly boring, but I happen to be among the group who gets a lot of pleasure from watching them play.

I’m reluctant to hold them up as an example of what other teams should be doing – least of all Aston Villa – as they have players from another planet in terms of ability. Often, if you try to replicate Barcelona without the same quality players, you’ll fail miserably and look pretty stupid in the process.

That said, I still believe that Ciaran Clark could play the Sergio Busquets role.

Barcelona aren’t the best team on the planet right now just because they have many of the best players in the world (although it definitely doesn’t hurt), they’re actually – and frighteningly – greater than the sum of their parts. Basically, they truly operate as a team and are not just a collection of insanely talented individuals with over-inflated egos.

Watch them, watch them closely, they do the basic things as a matter of routine. Watch the way every single player sets up during something as simple as a back-pass to the goalkeeper. Watch them, it’s drilled into them, it’s like a muscle memory; they all go to set positions which gives the keeper several short options and maximises the opportunity to retain possession, building once more from the back.

What they don’t do is all stand there with their mouths open whilst Valdés lumps it up in the rough direction of a team mate in the opposition’s half. Messi isn’t going to win many aerial battles after all.

Now, again, they have the players to pull that particular manoeuvre off. We found out last year that we only make life difficult for ourselves when we try to play out from the back. Sadly, it’s apparently better to take the 50/50 chance of maintaining possession by hoofing up field than it is to put our centre halves in the uncomfortable position of having to play with the ball at their feet.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t build routines that work for us and carry them out during the course of a match. It’s not rocket science, it’s basic stuff.

Taking a penalty for instance…

Penalty

I apologise for the poor quality picture below, I just screen-grabbed it from YouTube, let me describe what you’re seeing:

Believe it or not, this is Lionel Messi missing a penalty. Or, more to the point, having a poor penalty saved – the keeper has gone down to his right and is smothering the ball at the moment this picture was grabbed.

On this occasion, the goalkeeper held on to the ball; it was a particularly poor penalty in all fairness. It happens, even to the best, maybe he is human. But let’s suppose the keeper hadn’t clung on to it, where might the ball have bounced to?

Actually, it could have gone anywhere, but it may well have fallen around the left side of the goal, in the six yard box, up and to the left of the referee’s position. That’s the most likely place.

And look who’s heading there. No less than three Barca players; two of them had lurked four or five yards outside the box and timed their run into the box a fraction of a second after Messi struck the ball.

It’s a slim chance that Messi will miss. It’s an even slimmer chance that the keeper will save it. It’s even slimmer still that he will parry the ball into a convenient position to gratefully tap in on the follow up.

But it does happen. And it’s just basic stuff to follow up on it. Barcelona do it, even when the world greatest player is at the spot.

Now look at Darren Bent putting away the penalty against West Brom on Saturday:

I put this picture out on Twitter last night, 100% of the replies told me that Barry Bannan was the only one following up because of the confidence we have in our star striker.

Bollocks.

It’s good enough for Barcelona. It’s good enough for Hackney Marshes on a Sunday. It’s not rocket science, it’s jogging half a dozen yards into the box on the off chance. It’s basic, basic stuff and apparently only young Bannan has the nous to do it.

Okay, so Bent scored this time, but it still pisses me off seeing this. Not because of what it is, but what it’s indicative of. It’s the little things like this that show why we’re where we are.

Confidence? Gimme a break, we’re in the bottom half of the table after a very kind first quarter of the fixture list; the remaining three-quarters will provide a stiffer test.

Let’s call it what it really is; it’s complacency, and we cannot afford it.

The observation was made in the comments section of the recent Man City tunnel cam post, let me repeat it here:

The Villa boys didn’t look like a team at all. They didn’t look determined before the game, nor sad after! Bad signs
The city boys stayed together and went out together. Our guys were ambling on and off whenever they liked. No wonder they don’t play like a unit.

Indeed.

The question has been asked many times; could Man City’s millions buy a team, or merely bring together a collection of overpaid individuals. We may well have seen evidence of the less cynical answer in devastating fashion at Old Trafford on Sunday.

We’re not a team, not really. This penalty example is just a little glimpse; we’re not operating as a unit. Is it any surprise that we didn’t put up much of a fight when unfairly reduced to 10 men on Saturday?

Barcelona have a tagline emblazoned into the Camp Nou: “més que un club”. ‘More than a club’. Am I wrong in feeling like ours should be “menor que un club” right now?

(That’s ‘less than a club’ if you hadn’t guessed).

Unless you’ve been in a cave, you’ll be well aware of the suggestion from Liverpool’s managing director, Ian Ayre, that his club is getting short changed from the overseas TV money pouring into the Premier League these days. Or, more to the point, the smaller clubs in the league are getting what’s really due to Liverpool.

The good people of Kuala Lumpur, Ayre informs us, are not subscribing to the Premier League TV packages available in their neck of the woods to watch Bolton, they hand over their hard earned cash to watch Liverpool. Playing someone other than Bolton, obviously.

Man Utd? Certainly. Chelsea? Probably. Arsenal? Maybe. Man City? They’d like to think so. Tottenham? Possibly. Aston Villa? Well, if it’s good enough for Mr. Tom Hanks in Hollywood, California, it’s certainly good enough for the folk in Kuala Lumpur. *

The rest of the league? Meh.

Small problem: it takes 14 out of 20 votes to make a change to Premier League commercial arrangements. Ayre’s ideas are thankfully dead in the water then.

For now.

Oh, and by the way, no one will buy his bogeyman threat of the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid scampering off into the distance if the other clubs in the Premier League don’t vote to royally screw themselves for Liverpool’s gain now rather than later.

But hey, Ayre is just saying, man. He’s just putting it out there. It’s “a debate that has to happen”, that’s what he said.

No. It. Isn’t.

But look, we all know it’s inevitable anyway, don’t we? The Champions League is the obvious forerunner to a European Super League. We all know it will happen eventually. It’s just a matter of time.

Maybe Liverpool are mooting it now to keep themselves relevant when the breakaway occurs. I mean, they’ve never actually won the Premier League and they’re not even a Europa League team this year.

“Hey everyone, it was our idea, remember?”

“Hello?”

“Anyone?” *

Broken

People will tell you that this is all the evidence you need of how broken the game is, how wrong football has gone. They’re only right up to a point, they seemingly fail to appreciate that football doesn’t live in a hermetically sealed bubble, separated from the rest of the world. What we see here isn’t really the broken game per se, it’s just a symptom of the world we live in.

The economy is in the toilet, just about anywhere you choose to look around the world you can see the signs. You don’t have to trace the causes back too far to find the root; time and again it comes down to nothing more complicated than greed.

That’s all this is from Mr. Ayre; greed. Football is a sport, sport is competitive, why anyone would expect greed to be magically excluded from football is beyond me. Greed is practically an inherent component that needs to be kept in check as far as I’m concerned.

What they have isn’t enough, they want more. It’s not fair that the smaller clubs get the same share they do – in fact, the very principle of sharing equally isn’t fair – they want more. They don’t care about the consequences for anyone else, it’s all about them, right here, right now, and they want more.

More!

MOAR!!1!

Until the whole thing collapses in on itself like the proverbial house of cards. Not unlike the current global economy. Not that Ayre would give a rat’s arse, it’s not the Chairmen and CEOs who are losing their houses at the moment, is it?

Global Growth

Greed is always ugly, but in this case it’s particularly vomit inducing since the Premier League’s global reach continues to grow, and the revenue it generates along with it. All 20 teams in the league will see their income from overseas TV money grow.

In 2009/10, 24% of the total Premier League pot of gold came from foreign TV money, in 2010/11 it was 38%. It’s only a matter of time before the balance tips in favour of the overseas money.

During 2010/11, a mind-boggling 4.7 billion viewers around the globe tuned in to watch the Premier League. 300m people in China are now watching thanks largely to a switch to free-to-air television. That’s practically five times the entire population of the UK!

In the United States, FOX has also recently shown a handful of games (featuring the big boys, natch) on their main free-to-air channel for the first time on “tape delay”, but will be showing Chelsea vs Man Utd live on February 5th as part of their Super Bowl coverage.

The explosion of interest in the Premier League, fuelled by internet and television, is clear to see all around the world. There’s plenty of room around this particular trough, we can all get our snouts in and gorge ourselves silly. Don’t worry about that, little piggies.

The collective TV bargaining, it seems to me, is one of the main reasons why the Premier League enjoys the global position it does in comparison with the other top leagues in Europe. Though Liverpool have undoubtedly been one of the headline acts over the years, and their “brand” has a phenomenal following around the world, they’d be nowhere without the rest of us.

As if to prove this point, Ayre is actually advocating adopting the model employed in La Liga at the same time that the Spanish are exploring ways to move to collective TV deals themselves. Barcelona and Read Madrid might not be leading the charge, but the other clubs are desperate to find a deal that benefits everyone. Serie A switched back to selling TV rights collectively just last season. Would we expect the Bundesliga to do anything else?

No wonder Ayre has received such widespread condemnation. The majority of Liverpool fans have been embarrassed by his suggestion, I think, but there are many who feel that the smaller teams are indeed mooching off their good name. To their shame.

The hypocrisy of that club, of all clubs, wishing to sell their fellow football clubs down the river to suckle greedily on the great capitalist teat has already been covered with far more eloquence than I could possibly muster. Please give that post at IBWM a quick read, if you haven’t already done so, and when you return we’ll ponder our own position ever so briefly.

Aston Villa

We’ve got nothing to complain about, we’ve felt the benefit from this global growth ourselves at Villa. We actually received more money from the Premier League last season (£49m) than in 2009/10 (£46m) – despite earning less from our equal share, live TV appearances, and performance based prize money – thanks to the 77% increase in overseas TV money which is shared evenly among the 20 teams (£18m each in 2010/11).

Aston Villa’s 2010/11 turnover won’t be publicly available until next year, but the £49m we received from the Premier League will more than likely be around half of the total, give or take. Probably a little more than half actually. The £18m portion that came from overseas TV deals will therefore represent something approaching 20% of our income last season, probably a bit less.

The chances that last season provided anything other than another significant loss, to add to the £94m that the club lost from the bottom line between August 2006 and May 2010, are practically zero.

Do you think anyone will be thinking about that the next time the transfer window opens?

Or will they be shouting for more?

And that question provides a reasonable segue, albeit clumsily, to Chris Nee’s post at Twofootedtackle: Why “lack of investment” is a blight on football. The lad makes a good point, but at the end of the day the post lacks ambition. *

* This was a feeble attempt at humour. I understand that now, and I will try to learn from it.

One of the more interesting pieces of Aston Villa news to emerge during the international break was the club’s intention to include a clause in future contracts that would oblige players to live within 30 miles of Bodymoor Heath. Or at least have a base to use during what constitutes a “working week” for a Premier League footballer.

The rule is unlikely to be enforced to the letter, I’m sure living 31 miles away won’t be an issue, but the spirit is actually something that deserves attention and should be applauded. As it happens, Barney Ronay did a very good job of doing just that in this Guardian piece.

We probably shouldn’t forget that this problem was first identified by Gerard Houllier last season, but he apparently went about addressing it in the wrong way and, let’s face it, he didn’t do himself any favours by allowing Robert Pires to swan up and down the M40 in the back of a chauffeur driven car.

If it was a case of right idea, wrong execution from Houllier, we might have to agree that it’s more a case of right idea, right execution from Alex McLeish then. Not only do we know that this rule will be implemented in future contracts (both new and extended), but Stephens Warnock and Ireland have both agreed to seek residence in the area in the very near future. Like right now.

Credit where it’s due. Now, if he can just get the bold one playing to something close to his potential.

Whether this really does much to address the ever increasing reality gap between fans and players, I don’t know, but it’s certainly an example of a top tier club “doing the right thing”. Frankly, regardless of the peripheral benefits that may or may not occur, it just makes sense.

The qualification for Euro 2012 is almost done. England will be in Poland and/or Ukraine next summer after comfortably finishing top of Group G, albeit by handing Motenegro an unlikely point and a place in the play-offs in the final game. Ireland also made it to the play-offs, and could be drawn against Montenegro, but Wales and Scotland miss out once again.

England: Ashley Young provided a rare headed finish to an even rarer superb delivery from Theo Walcott. Young then turned provider, unselfishly so, by laying on an unmissable chance for Darren Bent. He duly slotted home from inside six yards and England looked home and clear. They weren’t.

I wouldn’t point the finger of blame solely in Wayne Rooney’s direction, but his petulance and stupidity is worthy of mention; England ultimately conceded a late equaliser when down to 10 men. Not that it effected qualification, but it did end the campaign on something of a sour note and means that Rooney will be suspended going into the tournament.

Nevertheless, assuming he’s fit, he’ll be part of the squad, and we’ll be favourites in our own living rooms up down the land. We’ll underperform, but scrape out of the group before finally playing well, but being eliminated anyway, probably on the back of some dodgy refereeing decision. Probably to Germany. The squad will return amidst much navel glazing and talk of “root and branch reform”, Henry Winter will bang his well worn Burton drum, and then nothing will change.

Scotland: Brave, brave Scotland set themselves up with a chance – albeit it a slim one – of making the play-offs after winning 1-0 in Liechtenstien; Barry Bannan left the pitch in the 73rd minute with the travelling fans informing us of how many Barry Bannans there are via the medium of song. Apparently, there’s just the one Barry Bannan, in case you missed it and were wondering.

All they had to do was go Alicante and beat Spain. It was the home ground of Hercules as it happens; dare I say that it required a Herculean effort? No? Okay, please yourself. It took the home side all of six minutes to kill off any hopes, David Silva coolly slotting past Allan Gordon from Alan Hutton’s part of the pitch.

Our new right back will obviously be under the microscope, but this wonderful graphic from AS beautifully illustrates the 38 passes Spain had before Xavi found David Villa in space on the left.

That’s 42 passes in total (including Silva’s shot), one minute and 34 seconds of possession and all 11 Spanish players involved. That’s what Spain do, laying blame at Hutton’s door would seem a little trite. Nevertheless, despite looking more adventurous in Liechtenstien than I think we’ve yet seen whilst wearing claret and blue, Hutton hasn’t impressed much so far this season.

Wales: James Collins didn’t fall out with Gary Speed and Wales didn’t qualify for Euro 2012, but James Collins would like to talk about a new contract at Aston Villa.

Ireland: The Irish are in the play-offs thanks partly to a goal at the right end from our Richard Dunne against Armenia which, added to a first half own goal, gave them a two goal lead. However, Armenia got one back just two minutes later, with some reportedly less than brilliant goal keeping from Shay Given, but Ireland held on, despite being reduced to 10 men when Kevin Doyle received a second caution as the game tipped into the final 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the delicious prospect of a play-off rematch against France was cruelly snatched from us thanks to Samir Nasri grabbing a late equaliser from the spot at home to Bosnia. It was another Man City player, Edin Dzeko, who had given the visitors the lead they deserved shortly before half time.

Man City, of course, are our next opponents when the bread and butter stuff recommences on Saturday. For once, I feel reasonably comfortable saying that we’d all happily accept a draw and won’t mind being extremely defensive in our pursuit of a point at Eastland.

The good news is that another international break is over and we’ve got all our players back unscathed. Whether we’ll be Scotland to Man City’s Spain or not, remains to be seen.

Carlos Cuellar got on the pitch last night for the first time since his knee operation in May, playing 45 minutes in the reserves’ 1-0 win over Chelsea – Callum Robinson with the goal – and says that he’s feeling good.

That’s great news for a very popular player, but what happens from here remains to be seen. It seemed likely that Rangers would have pursued their interest to conclusion during the summer had it not been for his knee injury.

Whether or not Rangers reignite their interest is immaterial; there clearly wasn’t a great deal of resistance to letting a player in the final year of his contract, and on fairly substantial wages, go. Sadly.

Not only are Richard Dunne and James Collins back to their best, they both have an extra year on their contracts over Cuellar, and the pair of them have exhibited some serious seniority within the pecking order from the outset. They’re also very much a partnership, frequently greater than the sum of their parts together, but less so when separated.

With Ciaran Clark and, to a lesser degree, Nathan Baker waiting in the wings, it’s difficult to see a long term path ahead for Cuellar. Difficult, but not impossible. Long term injuries during the winter months are always a prospect, perhaps opportunity might present itself and that might be enough to make negotiating a new contract more feasible.

Dunne is the oldest centre back at 32, but both Collins and Cuellar are more comfortable on the right, so Clark seems to have become the de facto cover for the Irishman. Clark can also fill in at left back, which is something Cuellar can do on the other side.

And, let’s face it, on showings so far, Cuellar can almost match Alan Hutton in the final third, but offers significantly more defensively. It will probably come down to the wage budget, but we know that Habib Beye will finally be off the payroll next summer, surely Cuellar is worthy of the money he’ll free up.

Personally, I really hope we can keep him, he’s a solid player, but also extremely likeable. There’s a few years in his legs yet, he’ll never give us less than 100%, and he’ll do it with a smile on his face.

But one step at a time. For now, it’s good to see him back playing in claret and blue. Hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back in first team action.

Welcome back, King Carlos.