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.

The summer transfer window has finally come to a close, Alan Hutton and Jermaine Jenas both joined from Tottenham to complete our squad for the coming season.

Hutton joins on a four year contract and will be Luke Young’s natural replacement, especially with news of Eric Lichaj’s hip injury keeping him out for the next four months.

Jenas has come on a season long loan, presumably with an option to buy at the end of the season if he works out. He has two years remaining on his current Tottenham contract.

So, that leaves our first team squad looking as follows:

Goalkeepers (3)
Given, Guzan, Marshall.

Defenders (10)
Baker, Beye, Clark, Collins, Cuellar, Dunne, Hutton, Lichaj, Lowry, Warnock.

Midfielders (8)
Albrighton, Bannan, Delph, Herd, Ireland, Jenas, N’Zogbia, Petrov.

Forwards (4)
Agbonlahor, Bent, Delfouneso, Heskey.

Andreas Weimann is on loan at Watford until January and Enda Steven will be coming in during the same month. There are also some youngsters in the reserves such as Daniel Johnson and Gary Gardner available to cover for injuries and suspensions.

It’s a little over 10 hours to go before the rumour mongers and speculation, erm, spasmos take themselves a much needed break. At least for a fortnight or so, then they’ll be back with a vengeance, leading all the way up to the perennially underwhelming January window.

Until then, I thought I’d summarise this summer’s movements to date, borrowing from the transfers page, and throw in anything that happens during the course of this afternoon and evening. And by that I mean actually happen, or at least have credible sources claiming it was genuinely attempted. If you’re looking for sightings at BHX, you’ll be disappointed. Sorry.

(For the purposes of perspective, the players shown in red italics played absolutely zero part in last season and very little in the seasons that preceded it. Additionally, Carew, Hogg, Makoun and Pires all played limited parts in last season.)

The Done Deals

Enda Stevens is a 21 year old left back/central defender at Shamrock Rovers and is at Bodymoor Heath today to sign on the dotted line. He won’t be staying though, he’ll return to Ireland to help Rovers in their Europa League campaign and will return to Birmingham in January.

This is yet to be officially confirmed, but it’s about the worst kept secret in Birmingham at the moment. Confirmed.

The Possibles

I’ll add to this list during the day as credible names emerge, but only credible ones. If and when the deals get done, I’ll move them up to the section above.

Alan Hutton is the natural replacement for Luke Young based on persistent rumours, but word on this one does seem to have quietened recently. Calm before the storm, perhaps.

Hutton has left the Scotland training camp and is said to be travelling to Bodymoor, but a bid from Fulham is confusing the picture a little.

The club have confirmed that both Hutton and Jenas are at Bodymoor for medicals.

Joe Cole was in Lille to sign on loan, but then word emerged of a possible late “swoop” by Villa, only for him to sign for Lille as planned. One for the cameras this one I think, if you catch my drift.

Guy Demel is a right back/defensive midfielder currently out of favour at Hamburg. He’s been described as being in “advanced talks with Villa” by reliable sources in Germany. Possibly hedging on Hutton.

This one won’t happen; wages being the issue.

Jermaine Jenas was mentioned earlier today, many times, but there didn’t seem very much in it. Now it does sound as if the two clubs are talking about a possible loan deal.

Like Hutton, Jenas is now also said to be heading to Bodymoor for a medical.

The club have confirmed that both Hutton and Jenas are at Bodymoor for medicals.

To be continued…

You’ll all be aware by now that Luke Young and Jonathan Hogg left Villa, joining QPR and Watford respectively, over the weekend; both signing three year contracts. Although I missed it at the time, Young’s move did warrant an announcement, Hogg apparently slipped away in the night.

I noticed during pre-season that Hogg had been removed from the squad pages on the official site, perhaps that’s got something to do with it. Then again, they’ve currently got Gary Gardner listed as a first team striker so who knows?

Young, while still extremely capable of being our first choice right back (and indeed was our first choice right back), was in the last year of his contract, is 32 years old and has fancied a move back to London for some time.

I’m sorry to see him go, I don’t think he’s always been treated as fairly as he deserved, but I don’t think his exit leaves us dramatically weakened.

Hogg was some way down the pecking order in a long list of central midfielders. A better player than many fans give him credit for – a cruciate ligament injury possibly keeping him off radars when the likes of Albrighton, Bannan and Clark were making names for themselves – he was unlikely to see much action this season.

He made his Watford debut in yesterday’s 2-2 draw against Birmingham City; on loan Andreas Weimann providing an assist on one of the goals.

So, with all due respect to both players, all the best for the future, but your exits don’t break my heart. However, there’s apparently one more behind you who might.

Jean II Makoun

It was only in February that I described Jean II Makoun as the “new ticking heartbeat of Aston Villa“, so the imminent confirmation of his season long loan (with an option to make it permanent) to Olympiacos is something of a heart breaker. Metaphorically. For me anyway.

Now, Makoun has his doubters – understandably so – but his exit signals some concerns for me; he’s one of the most technically proficient players we have and the potential of teaming him up with the likes of Delph and Bannan, when they’ve acquired more experience, was a tasty prospect. The alternative, something a little more, how shall we say – traditional – doesn’t fill me with excitement. Sorry, it doesn’t.

I hope this move is motivated more by finances than football though. Unfortunately, Makoun is one of the few assets among the congested midfield that can be leveraged to make room on the wage bill. I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in preferring to see Stephen Ireland earning his sizable crust somewhere else, but if you can persuade another club to take his contract on you’d also be able to sell ice to the Eskimos.

Or sand to the Arabs.

You get the idea. Basically, good luck with that.

However, it has to be said that Makoun is hardly a McLeish-type, there is something of a no-brainer about the whole thing. A shame, but it is what it is.

Greek football isn’t something I watch, but I’ll keep my eye on Olympiacos in the Champions League; they’re grouped with Arsenal, Marseille and Dortmund, so there are some interesting games ahead to glimpse what might have been.

*sigh*

So that’s three more players gone, two of them earning senior wages, plus Weimann on loan until January. McLeish said that no one would be leaving without replacements coming in, these recent exits have to mean at least a couple of new faces are waiting in the wings.

Right? Anyone?

The transfer window closes on Wednesday. Tick tock, Mr McLeish. Tick tock…

As someone who loathes the flood of transfer speculation we’re forced to swim through for the best part of 10 months of every year, I was actually pleased that cold water was poured on our prospects of trading in the market some time ago. However, with the transfer window coming to a close next week, there are a few signs of movement. There may be some ins and outs at Villa Park yet.

Luke Young

Luke Young is now confirmed to be talking to QPR. With their lack of activity so far, their recent take-over and Young’s London connections, this one would seems destined to happen. Which, to me, is a bit of a shame as Young could do a good job for another year and Lichaj could be eased in over the course of the season.

I guess that isn’t the long term plan and Alan Hutton’s name won’t go away, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how it pans out. It offers a like-for-like swap in the wage bill I suppose. Oh, Habib Beye? Yeah, like there’s someone out there willing to take his contract on.

Andreas Weimann

Speaking of contracts, Andreas Weimann has signed a new deal, keeping him at the club until 2014, and then promptly re-joined Watford on another loan until January.

They’re evidently very happy to have him back, hopefully he does well there – starting with Birmingham City on Sunday – and we get him back an even better player next year.

A good example of smart squad management and the right way to develop our own young players.

Good luck to Andreas, we’ll keep an eye on how he does.

Gary Cahill

Gary Cahill provides a timely example of poor squad management with news today that Bolton have rejected a bid from Arsenal with Owen Coyle saying “the word derisory doesn’t even cover it”. Of course, this prompted the return of the wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Villa support in Martin O’Neill’s general direction for selling him in the first place.

I’m not absolving MON of blame, far from it, he ultimately sanctioned the deal, but he was quite clear that he didn’t want to sell Cahill.

The player was desperate for first team football and, at 23 years old, he had Martin Laursen, Ollie Mellberg and Zat Knight ahead of him. Rightly or wrongly.

Personally, I think there’s plenty of blame to go around in not seeing the opportunity within a year or so of that point for Cahill to be in pole position to become the first choice centre half at Villa.

Still, it’s easier to just point the finger at the manager and blame him, the buck does stop with him after all. I just happen to think that Cahill himself could have been a little more patient.

Regardless of who should shoulder the blame, the outcome is that we let a strong prospect go (and he was still a prospect at the time really) for £5m and then ended up spending a combined £18.8m bringing in Carlos Cuellar, James Collins and Richard Dunne on big wages and little resale value, with only Zat Knight providing any kind of offset by (ironically) joining Cahill at Bolton in a £4m deal.

Hindsight is 20/20, but the long term vision at the time is clearly questionable to say the least and we all know where we are now in terms of finances. Surely Cahill could have been given assurances about his future at Villa and placated with a half or full-season loan somewhere.

Still, that’s done now, nothing we can do about it. He may well end up in a similar fight for a regular starting place at Arsenal in the near future. We shall see.

On a more positive note; it’s encouraging that we’ve seen player after player from the academy signing new contracts during the past 18 months or so and despatched on significant loans, in some cases, to continue their development until they can be brought into the first team properly.

That’s the right way to do things, now and for the future. It’s a massive pity we weren’t doing that a few years ago, but we’re back on track now.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to look forwards rather than backwards. The future’s bright, the future’s claret and blue.

It’s official then, Charles N’Zogbia is a Villan. I’d assumed that it wouldn’t be completed, or at least officially announced, until after the weekend since just about everyone is in Hong Kong at the moment, but I guess it really was just a formality in the end.

It looks like N’Zogbia is going to have the number 10 shirt, the same number he had at Wigan, left behind by John Carew. He’s joined on a five year contract in a deal said to be worth £9.5m. We’ve apparently beaten off pretty keen interest from Everton and Sunderland.

We’ve already covered what he’s likely to bring to the team in the in-depth statistical comparison with Downing, Young and Albrighton. There’s only a couple of pre-season matches left now – Derby and Braga – and he’s been enjoying something of an extended holiday, so he might not hit the ground running, but I’m confident that he’s going to fit in brilliantly given a little time.

Charles N’Zogbia
I am really happy and extremely excited to sign for Aston Villa. It is a great club and it is a really big step for me in my career, so I am sure I will enjoy my football here.

I think it is going to be a really good season and hopefully I’ll do well here. I can’t wait to meet my new team-mates, play with them and work together to do something special this season.

Indeed. Welcome to the Villa, Charles!

ZOMG!?!? Where’s the ambition?!?

Without seeing the actual words, or arguing the semantics attached to “start of the season” versus “end of the transfer window”, or even considering whether McLeish is employing a little kidology as he tries to build his side, I thought it worth exploring the depth of the current squad.

Remember, we’ve already covered how many first team players we have who are aged over 21 and must be included in the 25-man Premier League squad if they’re to be available for league games this side of the winter transfer window. Since that post, we’ve lost Downing and gained Given, so we’re still at 23 players. A replacement for Downing will take us to 24.

Here’s our current first team squad – including younger players who do not have to be named in the 25-man squad – shown in their recognised areas of the pitch, and again in some cases (shown in light grey italics) where they’re also able to do a passable job if called upon.

EDIT: A number of people responded via Twitter to point out that Gabby and even Stephen Warnock were capable of covering the wings. I agree, but had initially left them out to keep things as simple as possible. On reflection, I think it’s better to include them so I’ve added them in, as well as Delfouneso who has played wide himself for Villa and England.

There’s clearly a massive weakness on the flanks, I think we can assume that if there is only one new player to come he will be a winger! Aside from that, and possibly a strong defensive midfielder type, we’re not in bad shape. Not from a numbers perspective anyway; the qualities of each individual player will naturally be a matter of opinion and that’s not something we’ll ever have universal agreement on. I won’t waste my time trying to seek it.

I think a lot of people have been focused on the players who left over the summer so far and failed to take into account that a half dozen of the youngsters now must be included in the 25-man squad if they’re to play. Either we want to bring the academy players through or we don’t.

Regardless of what happens in terms of player movements in the next few weeks, one thing that never fails to get my goat is the notion that ambition is defined by nothing more than how much money is thrown at the transfer market.

So, Liverpool upped their offer to £20m, Stewart Downing handed in a formal transfer request and there’s not much more that needs saying. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Stewie. Textbook no-brainer.

That’s £8m more than we paid Middlesbrough two years ago, but represents a £14m profit in terms of “disposal of player’s registration”. Aside from the fact that we went from three wingers to two recently, and now to just the one, it still represents some good trading. We clearly didn’t want to sell him, but there was little alternative, we got a great deal out of it.

What remains to be seen is whether we’ve sold a key player to a direct rival. Going into the last two seasons, I would have said that was definitely the case. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that we’ll really be competing with the red side of Liverpool for position this time around.

For what it’s worth, I think Downing will do well at Anfield and will make the famous number 19 shirt his own. *snigger* I am genuinely a little sad to see him go, I think he really was an extremely valuable member of the squad – as the transfer fee just backs up – but he’s certainly not irreplaceable.

One In

In far more positive news, Shay Given finally made the switch from Eastlands – or Etihad Dome or whatever it’s to be called – to Villa Park in a deal said to be about £4m after signing a five year contract.

Just as when fellow Irishmen Richard Dunne and Stephen Ireland made the same switch, the hold up seemed to centre around securing a pay off from the Manchester club; those inflated salaries are hard to give up.

Given is 35 years old, five years younger than Brad Friedel, and around the same age Edwin van der Sar was when he moved to Man Utd. There’s no doubt that he’s an absolute top notch goalkeeper and will more than likely have a point to prove. Hopefully he’ll stay injury free and we’ll have several great seasons from him.

Fitness is the crucial issue though. There’s no question that he’s an excellent signing and will fit into the squad perfectly, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brad Guzan seeing more than just cup action this season.

In any case, Shay Given is an excellent first signing for Alex McLeish, welcome to Aston Villa, Shay.

One on the fence

In less positive news, Rangers hadn’t given up on their chase of Carlos Cuellar and upped their bid to £2m; an amount which has been accepted by Villa, giving Cuellar the opportunity to talk to his previous club. It seems like the decision on his future lies with the player then, and he’d previously described the prospect of a return as “exciting”.

I’m sure I speak for the majority of fans when I say that I hope King Carlos stays, but it is another example of the painfully familiar case of a player with a year remaining on his contract. He turns 30 next month and probably earns a decent whack, I can perfectly understand the club being willing to let him go. Sadly.

The £2m fee might seem ludicrous given what we paid for him, but with the way these things are accounted for, it would actually be recorded as a small “profit”, believe it or not.

One in the wings

With Marc Albrighton the only remaining wing specialist, we clearly have a vacancy for a quality wide man (or two). It looks like Charles N’Zogbia is top of the list and it’s just a matter of agreeing a price with honest Dave Whelan.

With our weakness on the flanks glaringly obvious, a “solid” signing like N’Zogbia makes sense. We could look abroad for a cheaper, more exciting signing perhaps, but N’Zogbia’s well weathered in the Premier League, we know what we’ll get. The fee might be larger, the wages too, but the risk would definitely be lower.

I think he’d be a fine replacement for Downing. In fact, I think he’d bring a whole new dynamic to our team that the likes of Bent and Gabby can really thrive on.

It would be nice to get any deal wrapped up before the first pre-season game at Walsall on Thursday, but at least we do now have a first choice goalkeeper. More importantly, because of the bonding opportunity it offers, would be to get someone like N’Zogbia in ahead of next week’s trip to Hong Kong.

We’d then have a fully functional team, any further additions would be about improving it, and we’ve already covered how that will need to mostly be balanced with players heading for the exit door.

It’s official then, Ashley Young has made the switch to Old Trafford in a deal thought to be worth £17m after putting pen to paper on a five year contract.

It’s a transfer every Villa fan will have a view on, some will be more upset than others. Personally, I think Aston Villa and Ashley Young had simply gone as far as they could together and a change was best for both parties. With his heart elsewhere and a year left on his contract, £17m is a good deal, hopefully McLeish can reinvest it wisely.

I’ve every confidence that a fresh environment will allow Ash to flourish once again, but staying at Villa wouldn’t have done him or us much good at all. It’s a pity that we can’t offer what the top players want right now (*cough* £130k/week *cough*) and there are obvious concerns about seeing our key player(s) departing every summer, but it is what it is at the moment.

If you’re interested, his first interview with MUTV is below:

On a personal level, I’d like to say that Ash has been one of my favourite players over the last few seasons. At his best, he’s been an absolute joy to watch. At his worst, well he’s still been quite good really, albeit incredibly frustrating at times.

Is he as good as he thinks he is? Well, we’ll get a better idea over the next season or two.

Martin O’Neill certainly raised a few eyebrows when he banked a club record transfer fee on the skinny kid from Watford, but he turned out to be worth every penny. There’s no question that we will miss him, but new players will come through and we’ll be fine.

My favourite memory? Well, this is hard to beat this:

All the best to Ash, thanks for the memories.

However, it’s Spurs who have won the American’s signature and are due to announce this morning (Friday) that he will be moving to White Hart Lane from July 1st, presumably on a two year deal.

It’s sad to see Big Brad go, but makes it pretty clear that we should expect a new number one to arrive this summer. It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that Brad Guzan will be promoted to first choice. If that is indeed the case, his future also comes into question.

So, thanks for the three years, Brad, you’ve been a rock at the back and best of luck for the future. If you could do the odd Gomes impression, specifically when we’re playing Spurs, that would be much appreciated.