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
I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually spot Nathan Baker dancing, but he was certainly there as member of the England squad landing in Medellin, Colombia ahead of the U-20 World Cup. So what? Well, just watch the video… let’s just say that airport security in Colombia is a little different.
¡Arriba!
England play their first group game against North Korea on Friday and will want make sure of a strong three points before facing Argentina and Mexico.
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Yes, it’s just pre-season. Yes, it’s still early days, there’s much to be done. Nevertheless, the positive signs continue. The green shoots of recovery are quite possibly poking their heads through the soil.
Darren Bent (who else?) got the only goal of the game in typically oppressive conditions in Hong Kong, but there were encouraging performances all around the pitch. Most impressive, perhaps, was the obvious communication between the players who were well organised and clearly playing for each other.
McLeish made
It’s not just the team who can test things during pre-season, it’s also a good opportunity to try a few new tricks here on the blog. Today’s live blog is just that; a test. The live blogs I’ve done in the past were hosted by an external company – the same one the official site uses – but I wanted to bring it in-house as it were.
I’m not sure of how many readers will visit, or the load it will
It’s a pretty rare event that we’ll receive official confirmation of an agreement being reached to purchase a player before the actual transfer itself is announced, but that’s apparently the situation with Charles N’Zogbia. It’s all over bar the shouting.
I’m sure such steps wouldn’t have been taken if it wasn’t a formality, it’s just a shame that the player won’t have the chance to hook up with his new team mates in Hong Kong due to a lack of work
Aston Villa are taking 24 players to Hong Kong to compete in the Barclays Asia Trophy and the travelling party are en route right now. As the strength and depth of the squad is a hot topic at the moment, I thought it might be interesting to compare this pre-season tournament squad with the squads from the last couple of seasons.
Asia Trophy 2011
Goalkeepers
Shay Given, Brad Guzan, Andy Marshall.
Defenders
Luke Young, Habib Beye, Eric Lichaj, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Ciaran Clark, Stephen
McLeish’s first game in charge ended in a comfortable 3-1 at the Bescot thanks to a brace from Darren Bent and rare goal from Emile Heskey, but it could have been much more with several players going close throughout the game, notably Nathan Delfouneso during a strong second half performance.
Interesting to note the two Stephens coming in from the cold to make their first Villa team sheets in, oh I don’t know, ages to prove that McLeish meant it when
The somewhat light pre-season fixture list gets underway for us tomorrow with a familiar trip to the Bescot. It’s a game that Shay Given expects to play in and should provide the first clues about Alex McLeish’s thinking in terms of tactics and style of play.
It’s highly unlikely that we’ll have recruited a new left winger by then, so perhaps we’ll see how innovative McLeish is too. Will he ask someone like Gabby or Bannan to fill in on the
There is apparently a quote from Alex McLeish doing the rounds this evening which has caused a few knickers to get well and truly twisted. It doesn’t take much admittedly, if it’s not the colour of socks, it’s something else equally earth-shattering. The new gaffer has said something to the effect that he only expects to make one more signing before the season starts.
ZOMG!?!? Where’s the ambition?!?
Without seeing the actual words, or arguing the semantics attached to “start of the