I believe that as part of tougher financial rules imposed on Premiership football clubs in the interests of transparency that payments to agents now have to be disclosed. I first spotted this story earlier on Newcastle’s website where they explained that the figures may include “payments made by the Club on behalf of players”, whatever that might mean. As the news seems to be breaking across the board, I’m assuming that we’ve reached some deadline to report the
It’s been kicking around for a while now, but I’ve been unable to shoe in the news that Ciaran Clark has signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract at Aston Villa.
Ciaran’s a quality prospect, but having just turned 20 he’s very much the baby of our centre back line-up. However, he’s the captain of the reserve side and has also won his first England Under-21 call up recently. He’s looked extremely comfortable when called upon, but is benefiting from training
It’s time once again to review this season’s Premiership performance against last year, the next one will be at the half way stage if you can believe we’re already heading there!
In summary, we’re a point behind last season chronologically, but a point ahead comparing apples with apples.
Season
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
Pts
2009/10
14
6
5
3
22
14
23
2008/09 Chron
14
7
3
4
22
16
24
2008/09 Apples
14
6
4
4
18
18
22
December is going to be a tough month. We took 11 points from the next 5 fixtures last year chronologically and 10 points apples for apples. That’s Hull (H), Man
I don’t do it often, but sometimes I check the average position map at half time and compare it with the version at the end of the match. Villa are frequently a second half team, I’ve never seen our team pushed back so much during a second half that the full time map reveals deeper positioning than at half time. Until this game. Rather than simply saying we were too deep in the second half, I think
Through some weird twist of fate Aston Villa were not drawn against Man Utd in the Third Round of the FA Cup with Blackburn instead coming to Villa Park. Theoretically this presents a greater possibility to progress, but it’s Cup football, all bets are off as far as I’m concerned.
Draw in full:-
Tottenham v Peterborough United
Brentford v Doncaster Rovers
Middlesbrough v Manchester City
Stoke City v York City
Notts County v Forest Green Rovers
Huddersfield Town v West Bromwich Albion
Sheffield United v QPR
MK Dons
Just days after I suggested that Aston Villa were making more loans than Barclays, we lend a couple more players out. Seriously, are we propping up some collapse in the player market?
Barry Bannon has joined Blackpool until late January and Chris Herd is joining up with Nathan Baker at Lincoln, but is due back a week earlier on Boxing Day. Both are great prospects and it goes without saying how useful this experience is for them. Good
It looks like Google are accelerating the roll out of Wave, but if you still can’t get your hands on an invite this could be your lucky day. I’ve got no less than 9 invites that I’d love to give away, but you’re going to have to work for them.
I’ve just created a new Facebook profile and I’d like to be your friend, but in order to get a Google Wave invite you’ll need to do a little more.
Martin O’Neill recently took part in the BRMB Villa Forum here. Go listen, it’s well worth it. The second and third parts are available in the menu on the right under ‘Football Forums with Tom Ross’.
It must be a sign of the strength of squad depth that Aston Villa can now boast so many decent players out on loan. It shouldn’t be any great surprise that Nicky Shorey has become the latest to get a short term move away by joining Nottingham Forest until Christmas. I hope it works out for him, he deserves to get some competitive football under his belt.
I’m sure he’s equally frustrated, and it’s something that isn’t difficult to