Albrighton And Delfouneso In England Under-21 Squad

Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso have been named in Stuart Pearce’s England Under-21 squad to play Portugal on September 3rd and Lithuania on September 7th.

You can see the full squad here. Interestingly, Newcastle’s Andy Carroll has also been called up.

In other news, Sky Sports have interviewed Bob Bradley who pretty much confirmed what we already knew on Sunday. However, by bringing us what is essentially the same news two days later, it’s now “breaking news”. Thanks Sky

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Statshack – Newcastle 6 Aston Villa 0

Apologies for the delay. This one hurts, it took some serious motivation to pull it together. I still haven’t seen the whole game, not sure I want to right now, so I can’t really comment on what went wrong. You’ve no doubt all got your own ideas.

I would like to pause briefly to look at the team passing maps side by side though. It’s frequently the case that this level of data won’t reveal much, it’s

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An Apology From Rapid Vienna

Rapid Vienna have issued an official apology to Andreas Weimann and Aston Villa after their fans’ deplorable behaviour during Thursday’s Europa League match, showering him with abuse and drinks as he was stretchered off, clearly in a state of distress.

One of the things I love about being back in Europe, even if it’s just the Europa League, is the exposure to a different set of footballing cultures. I think we were all blown away by the experience in Vienna

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Stephen Ireland Likes The Villa Culture – City, Not So Much

He’s definitely making all the right noises and feels like he’s fitting in at Villa already

There’s a video of some of the interview here, I can’t get it to embed at the moment I’m afraid.

I liked what he had to say about Villa and the “bling-bling” culture at City, although with those cars I’m not sure he’s in the best position to criticise. In fairness, I think it’s the attitude he’s taking a swipe at.

Stephen Ireland
I’ve really landed on

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20 Man Europa League Squad In Austria Ahead Of Rapid Vienna Tie

While Stephen Ireland was busy signing his Aston Villa contract, most of his new teammates were travelling to Austria for tomorrow’s Europa League play-off first leg encounter with Rapid Vienna. I think the 20 man squad (16 1st teamers + 4 reserves) caused a few sharp intakes of breath among some Villa fans:-

Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Forwards

Brad Friedel
Stephen Warnock
Stewart Downing
Nathan Delfouneso

Brad Guzan
Curtis Davies
Marc Albrighton
Emile Heskey

Elliot Parish
Habib Beye
Nigel Reo-Coker
Andreas Weimann

Eric Lichaj
Isaiah Osbourne
James Collins

Shane Lowry
Barry Bannan

Ciaran Clark
Jonathan Hogg

Nathan Baker

Of the 12 members of the first

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Stephen Ireland Signs For Aston Villa

OK, it’s finally a done deal, full details to follow, but it’s official, Stephen Ireland is an Aston Villa player, James Milner is a Man City player.

Going the other way, Stephen Ireland has also completed his transfer from City to Villa. Ireland spent eight years at City, having come through the ranks as a teenager. He made 142 starts in that time, scoring 23 goals. His best season in a City shirt came in 2008/09, when he was named as

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Tale of the Tape: James Milner vs Stephen Ireland Part II – The Bigger Picture

In Part I I used a little slight of hand when comparing detailed playing stats for Milner and Ireland by putting two different seasons against each other. I was open about that and it was done with the expressed purpose of illustrating that at their best, they are extremely comparable players. But will we be getting Stephen Ireland at his best?

That remains to be seen, there’s obviously no guarantees, but for what it’s worth, here are their key

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Tale Of The Tape: James Milner vs Stephen Ireland

I’ve been doing a little research. I worked these same stats a while ago in the Luke Young vs Carlos Cuellar at right back comparison, so you should be familiar. However, this time I didn’t isolate games played in the same position – they’re both versatile midfielders – and I’m not comparing data from the same season.

It seems to me that we’re all optimistic about getting the Stephen Ireland from two years ago. For whatever reason, and

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Milner Ireland Deal Imminent

It would appear James Milner’s 24 hour ultimatum has forced some action and it’s currently being reported that he is heading to Manchester for a medical. Presumably he’ll pass Stephen Ireland on the way. Not sure they’ll wave to each other.

As it stands, it sounds like our side of the bargain will be Stephen Ireland plus £16m. What will happen to that money is another question, but I wouldn’t assume it will all go to fund new

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