I don’t think I’d classify this as a good day to bury bad news – although your tastes may cause you to disagree, but while we’re all wailing and gnashing teeth over the Alex McLeish debacle, it appears that the new 2011/12 away shirt may have found its way on to the internet.
I stress may because unlike the 2011/12 home shirt, which I have very high resolution pictures I obtained myself, I’m not sure of the authenticity of this one.
I’ve managed to post very little on the subject of our manager search; the absence is probably bordering on conspicuous by now despite my distaste for diving into pure speculation. There’s nothing sinister about it though, the situation seems to be ever-changing, I’d be writing a half dozen posts a day if I attempted to cover every twist and turn.
For instance, I had barely finished writing one post that held Roberto Martinez at its heart before the Lactics manager withdrew
Over the past week or so we’ve had bookies’ favourite after bookies’ favourite billed as the next Aston Villa manager, only to later be dismissed almost as quickly as they emerged. I could count all the posts on the subject from the various Aston Villa blogs and news outlets I subscribe to, but I’m pretty certain it’s easily in triple digits.
Attempting to sort the wheat from the chaff would drive me insane. I’ve taken the nuclear “mark all as
There were four, possibly five, Villans involved as England drew 2-2 with Switzerland and the United States were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Spain yesterday. Darren Bent and Eric Lichaj started for their sides, Ashley Young and Michael Bradley entered their games at half time and Stewart Downing made a late appearance for England and almost won it with the final kick of the game.
England 2 Switzerland 2
England gifted Switzerland a two goal head start with some comedic set piece defending
Gerard Houllier has reflected on his departure from Aston Villa and admitted that it was entirely necessary; it was just too risky for both the club and his own health. He also says that the club were “still traumatised” by the nature of Martin O’Neill’s exit five days before the season started.
He apparently spoke to France Football originally, but here are the translated quotes according to Sky Sports:
Gerard Houllier
I almost died. The doctors advised me to not resume before late
David Moyes has been a favourite among fans for the Aston Villa job from the moment Martin O’Neill quit. Long before that in many cases truth be told.
He’s also been a hot favourite with the bookies; they even had to close the book on him at one point last year. That was after Bob Bradley had been the favourite for a spell as I recall. You know, just sayin’.
That episode at least forced Moyes to address rumours and he was
The headline I went with when Martin O’Neill walked out on Aston Villa was something along the lines of “They think he’s taken us as far as he can… he has now“. It was a reference to the persistent theme among the growing dissent that our club was stagnating under his stewardship and also the fact that the record would forever confirm that that would indeed be as far as he could take the club.
The truth is, we’ll never know
It’s widely known that Man Utd have adopted a couple of firm policies when it comes to player dealings.
Firstly, they want to stick to players under 26 years old when it comes to bringing in new faces to retain a potential resale value.
Secondly, they won’t allow existing players to enter into the last two years of their contracts if at all possible. Again, this is intended to protect a resale value that decreases rapidly if the player is to leave
I heard a whisper a day or two ago that Carlos Cuellar was in London for a knee operation and the Express & Star and OS have confirmed the news with some interesting details today. Apparently, Carlos was having a torn meniscus in his right knee fixed and will now be out for up to three months, probably causing him to miss the start of next season.
The most interesting part though, according to Craig Birch at E&S, is the revelation