Little wonder the official site changed the McAllister quotes on Pires’ imminent arrival, someone clearly jumped the gun by some margin. The Guardian have some words from the man himself:-
Robert Pires
Nothing’s done yet, nothing’s been signed, but the talks with Gérard Houllier are going well. Now let’s say I just have to convince the team doctor and hopefully I will sign before the end of the week.
The medical is set for Thursday or Friday, so we’ll see first what
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Asked by French newspaper L’Equipe whether he’d be interested in signing out of favour Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema (Benzema was a teeenager trying to break into the first team at Lyon when Houllier was the manager) Houllier responded playfully; “If Karim wants to come and play at Aston Villa, we would sign him tomorrow.”
As he would with any player of that calibre, but it’s not going to happen.
You think that’s impressive, just wait until the British media get a
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I’ve taken my sweet time with this one on purpose. I generally have a pretty good idea what the headline numbers look like by the final whistle and I know the more technical statistics almost immediately after the game has finished these days. If taken in isolation, these stats wouldn’t make encouraging reading, but that only serves to prove why we should take time look at these things as a whole and recognise that nothing can be “proven”
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It’s long been rumoured that free agent Robert Pires could be coming to Aston Villa and Gary McAllister has just confirmed that the Frenchman will be “joining in the next two or three days“.
We’ll have to see in what capacity he’ll join, although he’s apparently been training with Arsenal, even if he arrives in tip-top shape, he’s still 37. That said, he is, or was, an exceptionally good player and having a World Cup and European Championship winner available
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Wow! What can you say about that? I’m still trying to catch my breath.
Honestly, when I saw the teamsheets confirm the early whisper that Ciaran Clark was out, replaced by Jonathon Hogg, and Ireland too would be missing, Chris Herd and Shane Lowry taking their places on the bench, I feared a mauling. Especially when I saw that Utd weren’t as weakened as I hoped.
In fairness, it was a slightly timid start, not unexpectedly, and Utd opened up
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Full starting line-ups and benches for Aston Villa vs Man Utd. Clark injured, possibly ill, Hogg starts. Stephen Ireland has flu I believe. The weakest bench we’ve ever assembled for a game like this?
Aston Villa
1
Brad Friedel
29
James Collins
5
Richard Dunne
2
Luke Young
3
Stephen Warnock
28
Jonathan Hogg
25
Barry Bannan
12
Marc Albrighton
6
Stewart Downing
7
Ashley Young
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
Subs
22
Brad Guzan
14
Nathan Delfouneso
27
Isaiah Osbourne
30
Eric Lichaj
31
Chris Herd
35
Daniel Johnson
34
Shane Lowry
Man Utd
1
Edwin van der Sar
5
Rio Ferdinand
15
Nemanja Vidic
3
Patrice Evra
6
Wes Brown
16
Michael Carrick
24
Darren Fletcher
17
Nani
13
Park Ji-Sung
14
Javier Hernández
9
Dimitar Berbatov
Subs
40
Ben Amos
12
Chris Smalling
20
Fabio
22
John O’Shea
26
Gabriel Obertan
27
Federico Macheda
28
Darron Gibson
Man Utd come to Villa Park on Saturday for the early kick off game. For all the talk of being a point off of 5th place, we’re a full eight points behind Utd and they’re a point worse off than they were after 12 games last season. At that same point, we were just four points behind with 21 to their 25 points.
The league record against Utd at Villa Park makes sobering reading, the 1-1 and 0-0 draws
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I’m a little short on time right now, so I’m just going to dump the numbers and run. One thing I just want to draw your attention to is the possession. I had a conversation with someone on Twitter recently who felt that our share of possession under Houllier has been less than in the past. I’m not convinced that is the case, in fact, while it’s too early to say really, it look extremely similar to
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It might not have quite been the Thrilla at the Villa I expected during the opening 45 minutes, but it sparked into life during a great 2nd half with no shortage of drama, James Collins heading in a last minute, emphatic winner when it looked like three points had once again been thrown away with minutes to go against a Blackpool that featured 10 changes.
In truth, there could have been considerably more goals if Marlon Harewood had finished several 1st
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