The season from hell is finally over and Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa career has, as expected, been terminated. His tenure has passed on. It’s no more. It has ceased to be. Expired and gone to meet its maker. A stiff, bereft of life. It rests in peace. Its metabolic processes are now history. Kicked the bucket. Shuffled off its mortal coil. Run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible.

This is an ex-Aston Villa manager.

Today is a very good day.

Official Statement

Aston Villa can confirm that Alex McLeish’s contract has been terminated with immediate effect.

The club has been disappointed with this season’s results, performances and the general message these have sent to our fans.

The board wishes to assure supporters that we are conscious in every sense that Villa expects and deserves more and we will strive to deliver this.

Villa chairman Randy Lerner said: “We need to be clear and candid with ourselves and with supporters about what we have lacked in recent years.

“Compelling play and results that instil a sense of confidence that Villa is on the right track have been plainly absent.

“The most immediate action that we can take is to look carefully at our options in terms of bringing in a new manager who sees the club’s potential and embraces our collective expectations.”

Chief Executive Paul Faulkner said: “We’d like to thank Alex for his hard work and efforts throughout this tough season.

“We are mindful of the club’s need to prepare thoroughly for the new campaign and for the new manager to be able to begin working with the board so that he is quickly immersed in these preparations and also in the long-term objectives of the club.

“Our focus now will be driven by these imperatives and we will update when appropriate.”

This means that we’ll have the advantage of playing the single-legged quarter final at Villa Park, more than likely against Marseille. There’s just one game left in Group 1, Marseille will face Celtic with second place secured and needing to beat the Scots by eight clear goals to overtake Barcelona in first place.

Sporting Lisbon and Liverpool qualified from Group 2, but it’s yet to be decided who will join Tottenham from Group 4. Inter Milan are in the driving seat at the moment with three games still in hand.

However it turns out, it’s fantastic achievement to make the quarter finals and huge boost to win the home advantage. Hopefully the fans will turn out in numbers to make it worthwhile.

We need all the good news we can get at the moment, so well done to everyone involved.

Gary Gardner scored all three goals in a comprehensive victory over Ajax U19s in the Young Lions’ final group stage match of the NextGen Series at Villa Park tonight, guaranteeing a place in the quarter finals next year.

Ajax, who are now bumped down to second place in the group, have one final game; Rosenborg at home on November 29th. If Ajax fail to win in Amsterdam, Villa will win the group, earning home advantage for the next round, and will presumably also avoid Barcelona.

Aston Villa: Siegrist, Nelson-Addy, Webb, Donacien, Kinsella, Carruthers, Johnson, Gardner, Cameron, Burke, Robinson. Subs: Barrett, Caira, Drennan, Ward, Grealish, Graham, Taylor.

Ajax: Van der Hart, Nieuwpoort, Sporkslede, Denswil, Dijks, Fennich, de Bondt, Bouy, Schoop, Keskin, Gravenberch. Subs: Leewenburg, Van den Boomen, El Abed, Anderson, Tete, Becker, Armah.

The NextGen Series has announced the brackets for the quarter finals on their Twitter feed and it sets up a possible trip to Barcelona for our Young Lions. Due to domestic fixtures, the quarters finals will be played over just one leg with each of the group winners earning the advantage of playing at home:

Group 2 has already been wrapped up with Sporting winning the group and Liverpool finishing in second place. They’ll play the runners-up and winners respectively from Group 4.

It’s still possible to win our group, thereby avoiding Barcelona and earning the right to play at Villa Park (probably against Marseille), but it’s also still mathematically possible to not qualify for the knock out phase at all. Possible, but unlikely.

The most likely, but not guaranteed, scenario is that our U19s will finish as runners up in Group 3 and will therefore have to play the winners of Group 1 at their place. Let’s face it, if that doesn’t mean a trip to play at the Mini Estadi, it will be a bit of a surprise.

With everything left to play for, the next step is to play our final group game – Ajax at Villa Park on November 22nd – and then wait to see what happens between Ajax and Rosenborg in Holland on the 29th.

Whatever happens – assuming we finish in either first or second place – whether we have to play Barcelona or Marseille, whether it’s home or away, it’s a pretty exciting prospect and a great experience for our next batch of youngsters coming through the ranks.

With just two Group 3 games remaining, the table now looks like this:

Ajax come to Villa Park on November 22nd before hosting Rosenborg themselves on November 29th.

Since the fixtures are not as structured as the Champions League, the competition NextGen aims to emulate, the group stage won’t be entirely wrapped up until late December. However, teams in the driving seat to also qualify for the next stage include Barcelona, Marseille, Sporting, Tottenham, Liverpool and Inter Milan.

The format, and even the location, for the knock out rounds hasn’t been announced yet.

The Euro 2012 play-offs are over and we now know all 16 teams who will be competing in Poland and Ukraine next summer. Barring any injury issues, there will definitely be some Villa interest as the Irish saw out their considerable advantage from the first leg against Estonia to book their place in the finals with a 1-1 draw in Dublin.

Just try to stop Shay Given and Richard Dunne getting on that plane.

The draw for the groups will take place next month, but we know the seeding already. Each group will be made up of one team from each of the following four pots:

Hopefully Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor, at least, will also be going to the tournament, but their places in the squad are far less certain than Dunne and Given. It’s not impossible for England and Ireland to be drawn in the same group, who knows, maybe we’ll get to see this foursome battling it out against each other.

Barry Bannan’s back, baby

The reserves sent a very strong side over to league leaders West Brom last night and came back with all the points thanks to second half goals from Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan and Graham Burke.

Joining Albrighton and Bannan in the starting line-up were Brad Guzan, Ciaran Clark, Shane Lowry, Nathan Baker and Gary Gardner, fresh from action in Belgium the night before with England U21s.

But it was Bannan, in something of a come back game, that grabbed all the attention with a remarkable piece of invention; volleying in a defensive clearance from 30 yards, lobbing the Baggies keeper in the process.

With his recent indiscretions in the past*, lessons hopefully learned, he’ll be challenging for his place in the match day squad again. With Gabby in a fitness battle and Jermaine Jenas ineligible to play against his parent club, there’s got to be a good chance that he’ll at least make the 18 at Tottenham.

*Figuratively speaking. Bannan will appear in court on November 25th and is charged with drink driving and also accused of driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving without due care and attention.

I mentioned last week that future Villan Enda Stevens had been nominated for the 2011 PFAI Player of the Year Award and I’m pleased to let you know that he was named the winner in Dublin last night. Not only that, but Richard Dunne also scooped the Irish Overseas Player of the Year.

Dunne and Shay Given are currently with the Irish national side midway through their two-legged play-off tie against Estonia for a place in Euro 2012. Estonia head to Dublin for the return leg next week trailing 4-0 after finishing with nine men in Tallinn last Friday.

Stevens has been involved with the Irish Under-21s recently, although he wasn’t named in the 18 man squad for the U21 Euro 2013 qualifier against Liechtenstein on Monday.

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Gabby

In related news, I’m sure you’re already aware, but Gabby was forced to withdraw from the England squad once again with a hamstring strain. A frustrating blow for a player who can’t seem to catch a break with the national side.

This is added to the two call ups last season he was unable to fulfill and the back problem that ruled him out of consideration for the last England squad when he looked likely to receive the call.

Gabby’s set for a scan, and though Alex McLeish says it’s too soon to say for sure, he’s hopeful that the Tottenham match being on Monday night will provide the time necessary to get him fit:

Gabby just felt his hamstring and he’s come back to the club as a precaution, so our medical staff can check him over. It’s disappointing for the lad because he’s been in fine form for us and we were all excited about what he could do for England.

It’s too soon to say whether he’ll be fit for the game at Spurs, but with the game being on Monday night it will give us those extra couple of days to get him right.

Fingers crossed he’ll be okay for us because he’s shown maturity and has also had the confidence and bottle to deliver the goods, as expectation levels of him grow.

If you’re so inclined, I suggest crossing fingers, toes, legs, whatever, that Bent comes through the games against Spain and Sweden unscathed; missing one of these two would be bad, losing both would be disastrous!

Gary Gardner stepped onto the Colchester pitch in place of Blackburn’s Jason Lowe in the 62nd minute with England leading 2-0 against Iceland in their Euro 2013 qualifier tonight. Barely more than half an hour later, the referee blew the final whistle and scoreboard read 5-0; Gardner adding two sublime late goals and a lot more to his growing reputation.

His first was an inch perfect free kick from 25 yards out: top corner, keeper stranded. His second, deep into injury time, was calmly stroked in from just outside the box in a more central position.

He’s certainly living up to the hype in his own calm, understated way.

We already knew he would be making some kind of breakthrough this season; he was withdrawn from the Under 20 World Cup squad and taken to Hong Kong for pre-season with the first team squad instead. His performances for the reserves and U19s in the NextGen Series since then have only served to keep his name fresh on fans’ lips.

We’ll surely all be looking for his inclusion on match day as the season progresses, the dark winter months will no doubt take their toll on the squad.

However, it would be prudent not to get too carried away. There are already many rallying cries for his immediate inclusion in the starting eleven. “What’s to lose?” some have asked. Well, quite a lot actually.

Last I looked, Chris Herd was doing a good job, as was the rejuvenated Stiliyan Petrov. Jermaine Jenas looked pretty handy from what we saw against Norwich and I know we haven’t fallen out of love with Barry Bannan so quickly. Even with recent transgressions in mind, it’s not like we’re fickle or anything, right?

There’s plenty of time for Gary this season, he’s still only 19 and has much to learn. As far as I’m concerned, I hope he’ll pick up a few minutes here and there, possibly being handed an opportunity or two through injury and/or suspension and will be in a position to force his way into the starting eleven next season in the same way Bannan has this.

I may well be in a patient minority though, I suspect the hounds are ready to be released at every team sheet that fails to include his name from here on out. Which would be a pity. Instead of genuinely enjoying yet another talent being promoted from the Villa academy – and there are more to come – he’ll end up being used as a convenient stick to bash an unpopular manager over the head with.

I say softly softly catchee monkey, what say you though?

Shamrock Rovers left back Enda Stevens, who will be joining Aston Villa in January 2012, has been named in the Irish Premier Division Team of the Year and nominated for the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI) Young Player of the Year award.

21 year old Stevens has remained with Rovers whilst they compete in the Europa League. They currently sit bottom of Group A with ties against Rubin Kazan on November 30th and Tottenham on December 15th left to play. Having failed to win a point so far, they cannot qualify for the knock out phases.

Stevens signed a three year contract with Villa on transfer deadline day back in August. We could certainly do with some cover and competition at left back.