Why wasn’t Carlos Cuellar in the starting line up recently? Probably this

I heard a whisper a day or two ago that Carlos Cuellar was in London for a knee operation and the Express & Star and OS have confirmed the news with some interesting details today. Apparently, Carlos was having a torn meniscus in his right knee fixed and will now be out for up to three months, probably causing him to miss the start of next season.

The most interesting part though, according to Craig Birch at E&S, is the revelation

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Albrighton, Delfouneso, Walker (Twice), Young, Downing and Bent all picked for England

Fabio Capello has named a 26-man squad to take on Switzerland in the next Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley on June 4th and Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Darren Bent are all included. As is Kyle Walker, although he’s no longer technically a Villan, he more than deserves a mention here.

In fact, Walker’s also included in Stuart Pearce’s confirmed 23-man squad for the European Under-21 Championships in Denmark next month along with Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso, who definitely are

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The Forrester situation: From Hong Kong to Ajax?

There are no shortage of complex Aston Villa related situations worth exploring right now, you barely have to look. From the unknown future of the incumbent manager to the past of his litigation happy predecessor coming back like a bad penny. We touched on the Friedel situation this week, which may be taking a turn toward north London, and also his younger compatriot.

We’ve got Nigel Reo-Coker‘s agent bigging him up in every willing media outlet attracting attention from all over

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The Brad(s) situation: Part II; what about Little Brad?

Brad Guzan wouldn’t have been a name known to many outside of the United States when Martin O’Neill first tried to acquire the keeper’s services from Chivas USA in January 2008. That attempt failed because of work permit rules, but the fact that MON went back for him (successfully) the following summer suggested Guzan was someone worth getting to know.

Since then, we’ve only seen him in first team action during European and domestic cup competitions, save for 26 minutes at

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The Brad(s) situation: Part I; Big Brad turns 40

Brad Friedel turned 40 years old today, so, aside from wishing the big man many happy returns, it seemed like a good excuse to take a glance at our goalkeeping situation now and going forward.

Friedel’s contract expires this summer. We know that Gerard Houllier was actively looking at potential replacements last year, but the gaffer never ruled out the possibility of extending Friedel’s stay. In fact, he said that they’d talk about it in February and come to a decision

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Sevens squad heads to Hong Kong minus poster boy Delfouneso

The annual Hong Kong Soccer 7s tournament is taking place this weekend and Aston Villa are once again competing. It’s pleasing to see the official site giving the tournament some coverage this year, so you may already be aware that the squad are currently en route to Hong Kong with Ian Taylor among the travelling party.

It’s a competition we have a pretty rich pedigree in, winning the trophy five times (’02, ’04, ’07, ’08 & ’10) and finishing runner-up in

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The Not-So-Magnificent Seven: Which three will go down?

I’ve talked for some time now about needing to hit a theoretical safety threshold of 43 points by the 36th game, essentially writing off our last two games against Arsenal and Liverpool. As it happens, West Brom occupy the final position offering mathematical safety today; 13th place with 43 points.

We’ve fallen a point shy and head a group of seven teams capable of suffering relegation. Mathematically speaking. Leading the group, as we do, we’re the least likely to go down

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Checkmate: New 2011/12 Home Shirt Leaked

Oops! We’ve got an early peek at the new Aston Villa home shirt for the 2011/12 season thanks to a slight SNAFU on the JJB Sports website and… it’s… checked!

There had been strong whispers that the check motif would be a feature again this year, but it’s actually a two-toned effect in the body rather than the claret and blue check trim found on both the home and away 2010/11 shirts.

Other than that, it’s a claret shirt with blue sleeves

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30th Anniversary Infographic: 1980/81: The Fourteen

It was 30 years ago today that Aston Villa last won a league title when we were crowned English Champions despite losing our final game in a season that went to the wire.

If you had glanced at the old First Division table on the morning of May 2nd 1981 you’d have seen the top half looking like this:

1980/81
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts

Aston Villa
41
26
8
7
72
38
34
60

Ipswich
40
23
10
7
74
38
36
56

Arsenal
41
18
15
8
59
45
14
51

Notts Forest
41
19
11
11
61
43
18
49

West Brom
40
19
11
10
56
40
16
49

Southampton
41
19
10
12
73
54
19
48

Man Utd
42
15
18
9
51
36
15
48

Liverpool
39
15
17
7
59
40
19
47

Tottenham
41
14
15
12
68
64
4
43

Leeds
40
17
9
14
39
45
-6
43

Stoke
41
11
18
12
48
58
-10
40

We were heading to Highbury to take on Arsenal in our final game needing a point to guarantee the

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