USA Today are reporting via the AP that Brad Guzan has joined Hull City on a one month loan deal. It’s a great move for Brad, a brilliant opportunity to get some first team action under his belt and he may well be playing as early as tomorrow against Leicester after Vito Mannone returned to Arsenal.

It does, of course, raise intriguing questions about the goalkeeping situation at Villa Park as the transfer window is about to open, Brad Friedel’s contract expires at the end of the season and Houllier’s declaration that decisions will be made about the future in February.

Looks like the answers will be forthcoming shortly, but I sincerely hope that the loan move is a success for Guzan and that he will continue to be a part of the longer term future of Aston Villa. I think we all like him a lot.

Good luck Brad.

Omar Cummings

It’s been no secret that Omar Cummings of the Colorado Rapids has come over to train with Aston Villa with a view to securing a short term loan deal prior to the 2011 MLS season kicking off in March.

Houllier says that he likes what he’s seen so far and the OS has included him in the picture gallery of today’s training session taken a little over five hours ago.

I did some digging during the week and didn’t publish the post I subsequently wrote, but I’ll be very interested to see if the loan deal materializes. Beside the quota on international caps, the work permit regulations state that the country the player represents much have averaged at least 70th place in the FIFA rankings over the last two years and, as far as I can determine, Jamaica hasn’t.

We shall see, but since Toronto’s Dwayne De Rosario is also currently trialling at Celtic, and Canada have generally ranked slightly below Jamaica, I’m sure there must be loophole or other to be exploited.

I don’t watch as much MLS as I should, but I’ve certainly caught Colorado play a few times this season. I can’t honestly say Cummings stood out for me that I recall, but then attention at the top of the pitch is generally dominated by Uncle Fester look-a-like Conor Casey.

What I can say is that if Cummings has no problem playing alongside Casey, playing alongside Emile Heskey will be an absolute dream.  He’s certainly pacey and has a few goals in him.

In either case, good luck to both players, it’s nice to have something genuinely interesting to report on to break the current malaise.