Carew out with calf injury, but is Houllier likely to show faith in Delfouneso?

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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With Heskey out, surely now is Delfouneso’s chance to shine

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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Age is just a number and what is long term in Aston Villa management?

I know many people were more than a little concerned about Gérard Houllier’s age when he was appointed and that may well have caused feelings that his appointment wasn’t a long term solution. Initial reports of a two year contract seemed to compound that feeling, despite his predecessor operating on a 12 month rolling contract that proved to be entirely worthless in the final analysis anyway.

Maybe the fact that his contract, once it was eventually signed, was actually three

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Roque Santa Cruz and the myth of the 20-a-season striker

We’re struggling for goals at Villa right now. In fact, we have been for a while. What we need, then, is a striker who can bang in 20 goals a season, right?

Well, it would be a good start to have a player capable of that feat, but a lack of goals is just a symptom of our problems, it’s not necessarily the cause. With the right opportunities, we may even already have that striker.

I half joked that

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This Season Vs Last Season #09

We’re 10 games into the 2010/11 Premiership season, so it’s time to compare this season with last season both chronologically and using an apples-to-apples comparison, or as close as is practically possible. This is the 2nd in the series this year, you can see the first post, which was a snapshot after five games, here and you can also check the 2009/10 vs 2008/09 comparison after 10 games here.

Since the form over the last five games is WLDLD, you

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Houllier bluntly tells Ireland to stop being a but man

When I saw the teamsheet for today’s derby game I leapt to the assumption that Gérard Houllier was going to use a 5-4-1 system with Collins, Dune and Clark as a three man central defensive team. As it turned out, Ciaran Clark would play just in front of the back line in a holding midfield role that raised just as many eyebrows.

Perhaps not at Clark playing such a role, he’s surely an assured and skillful player with the ball

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Ashley Young insists he has no intention of leaving Aston Villa

I’ve been waiting for this interview to be published all day! Ashley Young sat down with The Sun today as part of promotional activity for VMF and has assured fans that he is committed to Aston Villa, despite putting contract negotiations on ice.

Ashley Young
All I’m doing is concentrating on my football. I don’t want to be distracted by anything else. I’ve not said I’m leaving and I’m not taking my focus off football.

The fans have been brilliant

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Ciaran Clark signs new contract and 3 months out for Petrov, but no surgery

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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Revisionism or ignorance? Time for a minor rant

I’m getting a little irked with a lot of the reporting around Villa in recent times. Let me be clear; I couldn’t be happier that Nigel Reo-Coker is going to be wearing the armband and will also be negotiating a new contract at the club, regular readers will know I’m a fan. However, you’d think from the way it’s being portrayed that NRC had been exiled to Siberia and was literally coming in from the cold.

Obviously Reo-Coker isn’t

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