If You’re In Denial You’d Do Well To Read “Banks Of The Cuyahoga”

I spotted this wonderful post by OutByEaster? on Villa Talk late last night and re-tweeted a link to it, but as most of you would have missed that and it’s so good, I thought it worth dropping a quick post here to draw your attention to it.

It’s a long article, but it’s most definitely worth your time, but I’d suggest one or two minor caveats. The following paragraph is a little misleading, but it’s extremely timely since it follows

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The Case Of The Swollen Wage Bill – Aston Villa vs Tottenham

Ian posted an interesting comparison between the 2008/09 Aston Villa and Tottenham employee costs at Aston Villa News & Views recently and noticed an intriguing difference in the number of people employed by the clubs given their apparent similarities.

Tottenham’s wage bill has been a popular curiosity for Villa fans since they were evidently able to get through 2008/09 spending £10m less than we did on employees.

I share Ian’s confusion about how Tottenham can apparently run their operation with considerably less

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We’re Suddenly Short On Centre Halves

Ironic really, given our embarrassment of riches at centre half, but it appears that we may be on the edge of a minor injury crisis. If that’s not an oxymoron. I play it down and describe it as ‘minor’ since there’s a couple of weeks until the curtain opener and these things always seem to be blown out of proportion initially, but we are running a bit thin on the ground at this moment.

Firstly, as you’ll know, James

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Delfouneso Heading Out To Bolster The Strikeforce In The Algarve

Martin O’Neill revealed today that Nathan Delfouneso will be travelling out to Portugal tomorrow to link up with the rest of squad and he’s hoping the striker can play some part in Sunday night’s match against Benfica at least. Even if he doesn’t play this weekend, just being with the squad and not stuck at home is good for him ahead of the new season.

The same thinking applies to James Collins who is nursing his calf, but a little

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Portuguese Shorts – July 29th

The 22 man squad arrived in Portugal ahead of the weekend’s Guandiana Cup friendlies against Feyenoord and Benfica on their own private jet yesterday. That includes Luke Young, James Milner and James Collins, who was cleared after a scan on his calf Wednesday morning.

Luke Young’s agent has confirmed that he is discussing personal terms with Liverpool. Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson insisted on showing his Macedonian hosts the courtesy of discussing tonight’s Europa League match against Rabotnicki, refusing

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Liverpool’s Bid For Luke Young Apparently Accepted

Liverpool have reportedly made a £2.5m bid for Luke Young and Martin O’Neill has confirmed the club have received a bid from an unnamed club with Young currently “mulling it over”:-

Martin O’Neill
There has been an offer from a football club, which Luke is mulling over and if it doesn’t materialize then he would also join us [in Portugal] because he needs to play some football soon. We will see how that develops.

My personal opinion is one of slight disappointment,

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England Dumped Out Of European U-19s By Dominant Spain

Spain coasted into the final of the European Under 19 Championship in France with a commanding performance against an England side who are clearly not in the same league technically.

Nathan Baker limped off midway through the first half with what looked like a pulled hamstring, Nathan Delfouneso may have wished he could have joined him after seeing very little of the ball during the first 45 minutes.

Spain held the majority of possession during the first a half and converted that

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Revisiting The Home Grown Rule

Last September, I wrote an overly lengthy post which stumbled its way through the then recently ratified rules introducing quotas on numbers of “home grown” players and squad size limits on Premiership teams from 2010/11. The conclusion I eventually came to was that it would not adversely affect Aston Villa in any way. It just took a while to get there.

As we head ever closer toward the start of the 2010/11 season, with much speculation about the likes

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James Milner Will Be Included In Guadiana Cup Squad Travelling To Portugal

I bet you would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at Bodymoor today, right? Well, the plot thickens. After the James Milner, his agent, Martin O’Neill and Paul Faulkner sat down for talks described as “amicable”, the following statement was issued by the club:-

AVFC Official Site
James Milner trained with the rest of the Villa squad today at Bodymoor Heath. He and the manager, along with chief executive Paul Faulkner and the player’s representative, Matthew

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