Umbro have follow up their Diamond Icons video featuring our own Darren Bent with a Q&A where he goes beyond talking about tattoos to reveal how he’s settling in at Aston Villa.
How have you settled into the [Aston Villa] changing room?
It’s been great to be honest, I’ve known a lot of them already so that’s helped. I’m quite surprised that they haven’t tried any pranks out on me so far! There’s plenty of jokers in there, and they’ve made me
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Jean Makoun picked up the Man of the Match award against Fulham and has rightly won the plaudits from most quarters. But not everyone is impressed.
It’s true that his tackling isn’t the greatest just yet, but his passing is exemplary; he was the leading passer on the pitch against bother Man Utd and Fulham.
But the devil is always in the detail, passing numbers alone can distort the true picture. For instance, lots and lots of backwards and sideways passes can’t
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The 9th of February is a FIFA scheduled interlull and we have quite a number of players called up to their senior national teams:
Firstly, Darrent Bent, Gabby Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Kyle Walker were called up to the England squad travelling to Copenhagen to play Denmark.
Kyle Walker had previously been named in the Under-21 squad heading to Italy which includes Fabian Delph, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso.
Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales play the first fixtures
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It was honours even at Villa Park after a frustrating performance led to points being dropped for the second time against Fulham this season. An own goal from John Pantsil and a superb goal from Kyle Walker were both cancelled out by goals from Andrew Johnson and Clint Dempsey. Brad Friedel won’t want to watch the replays.
It started extremely promisingly, some exceptionally fluid play from Villa at times, Jean Makoun at the heart of much that was positive. An early
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Darren Bent discusses the inspiration behind his many tattoos with Umbro as they launch their new Diamond Icons range inspired by the iconic ‘taping’ that featured on some classic kits in the 1970s.
You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t been following Premier League games up with Statshacks for a little while. There are numerous reasons for that which I won’t bore you with, but I have still been glancing at the numbers and I have to bring Jean Makoun’s passing statistics from Old Trafford last night to your attention.
I don’t always single individual players out and I don’t keep records, but I do look them over and it’s rare
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Brad Friedel became Aston Villa’s oldest ever player tonight, but you would never have known it as he pulled out a number of superb saves to prevent a much harsher scoreline than the 3-1 this one finished.
Wayne Rooney signalled a timely return to form with two very well taken goals in open play in the first and last minutes of the first half. Darren Bent got one back for Villa only for any hopes of a comeback to be
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Nike’s Inside The Pro series covers the stories of six US national footballers rising through their careers. This is Michael Bradleys story. He got started early. From youth clubs to a 16-year-old pro to the youngest American player ever transferred overseas, it’s been an amazing journey for the central midfielder who was until recently running the engine of his German club team as well as the US national team.
It’s been the busiest January transfer window I can remember – testament to our lack of activity in the summer and position in the table at the turn of the year – so I thought it worth putting a summary together on a day that will inevitably be dominated by Fernando Torres rumours and counter-rumours.
There are still a few deals in the works, we’re expecting:
Michael Bradley loan to be completed (that is with a view to turn permanent I’m glad
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