Darren Bent discusses the inspiration behind his many tattoos with Umbro as they launch their new Diamond Icons range inspired by the iconic ‘taping’ that featured on some classic kits in the 1970s.
Nike’s Inside The Pro series covers the stories of six US national footballers rising through their careers. This is Michael Bradleys story. He got started early. From youth clubs to a 16-year-old pro to the youngest American player ever transferred overseas, it’s been an amazing journey for the central midfielder who was until recently running the engine of his German club team as well as the US national team.
Just in case you missed it last weekend, as I did, BBC’s Football Focus Forum from Villa Park featuring Martin Keown, Dion Dublin, Cyrille Regis and Lawro, of course. Nice montage to music (Ocean Colour Scene) at the end which, if you can’t face the banality of the Q&A in the video embedded below, you can click here and jump right to it on YouTube, but then you’ll miss Dion Dublin sidestepping a question about Robbie Savage.
YouTube Video
I don’t know how long it will be up, but there’s 14 minutes of highlights from the Carling Cup 4th round victory over Burnley in the video at the foot of this post.
Downing’s extra time goal was a worthy winner (it certainly made up for his atrocious earlier effort), a stinging effort from the edge of the box, and Heskey’s opener was an example to Reo-Coker on how to put those square balls away, but question marks remain.
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Sky Sports were at Villa Park as part of another successful open training day, the third time the club have done this I think off the top of my head, and there’s a nice, relaxed interview with Gérard Houllier here. The gaffer confirms that Warnock will be suspended for Burnley, that Petrov will be out for at least a couple of months, Luke Young should be back in training in a week and Gabby is a week or two
Ash was handed press conference duties in the England camp today and spoke about his desire to cement a place in the national side and his enjoyment playing in his new, more central role at Villa.
In other England news, the Under 21 squad have just touched down in Romania minus Marc Albrighton who has returned to Villa for treatment to an unspecified injury.
[If the video doesn’t appear above, it can be seen here]
I wouldn’t normally want to drag up old batterings from the past, but this game at Highbury contained a slightly unusual incident. With the game at 4-0, Nigel Spink was injured in a challenge with Kevin Campbell – interesting to note Brian Moore’s keenness to exonerate Campbell of any blame, not sure that would be the case with a similar tackle today – and without a substitute goalkeeper available, David Platt takes over between the sticks.
Campbell and Alan Smith
The FA have just released this fascinating “Tunnel Cam” video giving a glimpse behind the scenes in the build up, during and after England’s 2-1 victory over Romania Under-21s at Carrow Road last night. Nice to see Albrighton and Delfouneso looking relaxed and chatty as they exited the dressing room before kick off.
Both Villans started on the bench, but Albrighton came on in place of Utd’s Tom Cleverley for the last 15 minutes with the game tied at 1-1
Ardhe Nuhiu 32′ | Barry Bannan 11′
YouTube Video