Yeah, lame headline I know. I wouldn’t normally do a post for this sort of thing, but there was a detail in the OS WEBFLASH caught my attention.

The point of the story is that Marc has just been rewarded with a new three year contract and considering his new squad number for this season it’s fair to conclude that he’s rightly held in high regard. He and Nathan Delfouneso have both impressed Martin O’Neill and can be considered as junior members of the first team, but very much first team players.

What caught my attention was that Marc had joined Villa as a 9 year old. In fact, I’ve seen 8 years old elsewhere, both sources verifying that he was rejected by West Brom though. Their loss is very much our gain.

So Marc Albrighton is just breaking into the first team with about the same length of service behind him as Gareth Barry had before jumping ship to Citeh. I know you can’t really compare the contribution of a kid who wasn’t even a teenager with Barry’s early years after arriving from Brighton, but it’s an interesting little factoid nonetheless.