Nathan’s On Fire

No wonder Martin O’Neill’s expressed frustration at not having the Fonz at his disposal during the Peace Cup. While Emile Heskey has been trapping the ball out for throw-ins in Spain, young Nathan has been banging them in for sweets in Ukraine for England Under-19s.

On Monday Nathan scored in each half to contribute to England’s 7-1 drubbing of Slovenia, ensuring that the national side topped their group. He followed that up tonight by gabbing an injury time brace to

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Look At Our Balls

Actually, nothing overly interesting here, just the opportunity to use a cheap innuendo.

These are the balls Aston Villa will be playing with next year… fnarr fnarr!! On the left is the Europa League ball and the one on the right in the new EPL ball, which, if it’s worth having an opinion on, I’d say is a bit ugly.

Bend It Like Robertson

Scotland vs New Zealand during the 1982 World Cup.

The significance? Skip to 1:58 and marvel at our very own John Robertson’s strike into the top corner. I’d love to know if the odd free kick routine was planned.

So it’s John Robertson, it’s a nice free kick, so what? Glad you asked – the match was played in the Estadio La Rosaleda, Malaga, where Villa are now playing their Peace Cup games. John would be forgiven if

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Peace Cup – Update: Day 4

I’m currently one of a handful of people watching Malaga vs Atlante – by the way, Atlante just achieved what Villa failed to do by scoring. As you’ll probably be aware; if Malaga get any sort of result from this game then Aston Villa can not play any further part in the competition after the game against Atlante. If Malaga lose today then Villa have a chance of making it to the semi finals with a convincing win

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Keep It Simple Stupid

I was surprised at some of the criticisms I’ve read from Villa fans about the new 2009/10 home shirt. Two common themes seem to be, a) nothing special/innovative and, b) too similar to last year’s shirt.

In my opinion, Claret & Blue are best served simple, it’s very easy to create an absolute nightmare. Last season’s shirt was simple, classic even, so there was little to improve. Hence the similarity. A couple of common complaints last year

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Zat Knight Joins Bolton

I like Zat Knight. He’s a Villa fan, I’m a Villa fan. That shouldn’t affect how we rate players, but I can’t help letting it be a factor. I was therefore pretty disappointed and a little surprised to learn yesterday morning that he’s left us for pastures new at Bolton. Knight and Bolton have been mentioned in the same sentence a few times recently, but it’s the timing and nature of the move that causes an

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Factcheck – Transfer Spend/Revenue Ratio

My old mate Damo has been banging an interesting drum recently which is summed up pretty nicely in a comment he made on his blog today:-

I think the most interesting thing is if you look at actual spend as a percentage of turnover … it’s almost the same. Nothing has really changed.

He’s made similar statements several times recently, although he normally inserts some kind of  disclaimer that this is just what someone has told him, so don’t hold him to

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Peace Cup 2009 Attendances

I speculated earlier that the local ex-pat community around Malaga might pack out the Estadio La Rosaleda when Aston Villa comes to town tomorrow. Now I’m not so sure.

I’ve just watched LDU Quito beat Al-Ittihad 3-1 in an almost entirely empty Municipal de Chapín stadium in Jerez. The stadium can hold ~20k and is the home to Xerez CD who will be in La Liga next year for the first time in their history. Apparently that isn’t

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Hey, Where’s The Fonz?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that Nathan Delfouneso has been absent from the last couple of pre-season friendlies and is also missing from the Peace Cup 2009 squad. I hate to admit it, but it wasn’t straightforward tracking him down. The OS dropped a clue back in June when they ran a story about Delfouneso and Nathan Baker helping England qualify for the European Under-19’s Championships.

Turns out that he’s in Ukraine taking part in the

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