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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And the hits just keep on coming. The breaking news is that John Carew is the latest name on the casualty list with a torn calf that will keep him out for three weeks.
Curiously, the Birmingham Mail, in an exclusive, say that the injury occurred “during a challenge with Brad Friedel during a training ground practice match yesterday afternoon”. What’s odd about that is the official site published an article this morning entitled “Houllier looking for Carew to
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You’ve probably already seen that Emile Heskey tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in training and will require an operation, keeping him out for three to four weeks.
With Gabby still on the come back trail after his own operation, John Carew always susceptible to a sudden injury, if this is not Nathan Delfouneso’s chance to get some time on the pitch, I don’t know when is.
With so many of the youngsters getting a look in so
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We really haven’t had chance to see that much of him, but Ciaran Clark has already won himself an army of fans among the Villa faithful and beyond. I’m sure all fans will be as delighted as I am to hear that Ciaran has just signed a new contract at Villa, extending his stay until 2014.
He was inside the last 12 months of his contact and was starting to gain the attention of other clubs besides also being snapped
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It looks like plenty of air miles will be racked up by Aston Villa players and staff next year as it’s just been confirmed that we’ll be competing in the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong around the end of July 2011, presumably on top of some of the youngsters taking part in the Hong Kong Sevens during mid-May as usual.
The mini-tournament takes place every two years and is the only “official” Premier League summer tournament and clearly an opportunity
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Perhaps the fact that Chelsea will be without Alex, Benayoun, Drogba and Lampard helped, but Carlo Ancelotti has played his hand and told us who will be starting at Villa Park tomorrow:-
“The line-up will be Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry and Cole, Ramires, Essien and Mikel, strikers Kakuta, Malouda and Anelka.”
Still a decent side of course and I’m not going to get carried away by the lack of Drogba, he watched from the bench at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea did OK
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The Premier League have announced a raft of fixture changes over Christmas and New Year, several involving Villa:-
Liverpool, Anfield – moved from Sat 4th December to Mon 6th December, 8pm kick off.
Tottenham, Villa Park – December 26th, kick off now at 5.30pm.
Chelsea, Stamford Bridge – moved from Sat 1st January to Sun 2nd January, 1.30pm kick off.
Gérard Houllier probably won’t mind the two week break in the domestic fixture schedule as he continues to settle in, but he will be without several key players:-
Ashley Young and Stephen Warnock were called up to the England squad for Tuesday’s European Qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley.
Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso are with England Under 21s ahead of the play-off against Romania for next year’s European Under 21 Championship in Denmark. The first leg is at Carrow Rd on
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Gérard Houllier has signed the contract he said he would. It’s a three year deal. Really pretty simple, not sure why it’s such huge news, but it seems to be lighting up the wires at the moment, so to speak.
Previously, Emile Heskey was dominating the headlines, for the right reasons for once, following the impact he made against Blackburn midweek. A welcome change, but not a sustainable one I suspect. Hopefully I’m way off the mark because
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