In some kind of marketing wet dream Aston Villa just announced that the new home shirt for 2009/10 will be unveiled on Friday in Spain.

Just when I thought they couldn’t drag it out any further… they did!! And I have to say, well played sirs!!

Apparently MON has issued the two club journos – Jack Woodward and Paul Brown – a challenge to transport the new shirts down to Spain by car to meet up with the team when the arrive for the Peace Cup. Those who are fretting about new players will now understand that MON has actually been busy developing cunning marketing ploys, but will now get on with the task of signing some new players.

But back in reality… there’s quite a few parties involved in this little stunt. Impressively so. Firstly, the two lads will be taking two cars; a Seat Ibiza & a Seat Leon – you see what they did there?? Although Jack confessed that he won’t be driving, so getting these two vehicles to Spain will be some accomplishment for the intrepid duo I feel.

The cars have been painted in team colours and will carry logos of sponsors such as VisitBirmingham.com and Thomas Cook. There’s a nice pic on the OS, go check it out if you haven’t already.

The marketing gurus have named the trip “Bullring to Bullring”. Villa’s own Spaniard, Carlos Cuellar, apparently waved Jack and Paul off from the Bullring Shopping Centre and will greet them at the other end at… er… well, the team hotel. But there are actual bullrings in Spain.

I’m sure there will be lots of critics crying about PR, but I think this is a lot of fun. Let’s just hope the new shirt lives up to the hype or we could have a damp squid on our hand. (You see what I did there?? OK, it’s a pun on “squib” because squid is quite a popular dish in Spain. Oh, forget it!!)

Good luck to the two lads from Villa (and whoever is helping with the driving) and I look forward to seeing the new shirt on Friday.

EDIT: The new shirt for 2009/10 can be seen here.