A story surfaced today that initially seemed completely ludicrous. In fact, so ludicrous that you probably couldn’t make it up, so there was probably a grain of truth in there somewhere. The Sun, ever the bastions of journalistic integrity, reported that Martin O’Neill and Nigel Reo-Coker had a training ground bust up that resulted with the pair wrestling on the ground. Yeah, picture that scene!
It was really heated and at one point they fell to the ground
All 20 Premier League clubs recently ratified a rule to restrict the size of their squads and install a quota on the number of “home grown” players. Personally, I’m a little surprised that they agreed to restrict the squads to 25 players since the majority of clubs have used more than 25 players a season for the last 2 years.
Granted, the clubs will get to submit the lists twice a year – at the end of the summer &
Very much recommended viewing, some interesting stuff from behind-the-scenes of the first ever Premiership season back in 1992/93 – the one that got away for Villa. It’s amazing how much the game and haircuts has changed since then.
Regardless of where you stand on the levels of cash flowing through the game today, you’ll surely have to concede that a lot of what you see in these videos makes the average pub team look sophisticated today!
Part 1 of 5
Part 2
Today is Match Day 1 in the Europa League and it’s a massive shame that Aston Villa won’t be taking part. It’s ironic that a strong, balanced squad has finally been assembled just in time to miss out on a major competition that would have stretched the squads of the past.
I was reading Martin O’Neill’s reflections today and he is equally sad to be missing out and also recognises the opportunity to utilize the squad that’s slipped through his
Firstly, don’t let the somewhat homoerotic headline put you off, this isn’t one of those salacious videos you might associate with Paris Hilton, but featuring our very own Jack Woodward. However, if Jack yanks your chain and that is what you came here for, I apologise, but stick around you might like it all the same.
I should tell the back story to this first, bear with me. I was working away on something this evening when all of
0
Birmingham
Sept 13th 2009
Aston Villa
1
50
Possession %
50
13
Shots
13
3
On Target
2
7
Corners
1
0
Offsides
3
Scorers
85′ Gabby
Parnaby
Booked
Sidwell, Agbonlahor
Sent Off
240
Good Passes
266
76
Bad Passes
59
19
Interceptions
4
31
Tackles Won
37
25
Tackles Lost
16
3
Blocks
4
23
Free Kicks
10
Starting XI:
1. Friedel
24. Cuellar
25. Warnock
29. Collins
5. Dunne
19. Petrov
20. Reo-Coker
4. Sidwell
7. Young
8. Milner
11. Agbonlahor
Subs:
22. Guzan
18. Heskey
10. Carew
21. Shorey
26. Gardner
16. Delph
23. Beye
Average Position Map
The team got together for the annual team picture today available in a handful of dimensions at the OS here.
It was only recently that I was comparing the current squad with the squad MON inherited and I was again struck with the same thought as I looked at this year’s squad picture. Now we truly have the squad that MON built. I thought it would interesting to view the transition over the last 4 team pictures…
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
If
Well, that was a nice little break, wasn’t it? I decided not to waste your time or mine trying to fill the Villa void with too much guff. The preview for that little derby game coming up on Sunday will be following in the next day or two, but I thought I should briefly touch on one or two things that I didn’t deem worthy of a blog post in the last few days.
As expected, Curtis Davies has
I’ve had this post at the back of my mind for a few days, but now I sit down to write it I find that there’s little to be written, the squad speaks for itself. Check it out:-
Carew
Agbonlahor
Heskey
Delfouneso
Harewood
A Young
Petrov
Reo-Coker
Milner
Downing
Delph
Gardner
Albrighton
Bannan
Sidwell
Salifou
Herd
Warnock
Dunne
Cuellar
L Young
Shorey
Davies
Collins
Beye
Bouma
Clark
Lichaj
Lowry
Friedel
Guzan
Marshall
If you find yourself with some time on your hands, I’d encourage you to check out some of our competitors’ squads from Wikipedia or somewhere and write them down in the same fashion. If you’re honest with yourself, I