The official confirmation has just been published, Gerard Houllier’s tenure as manager of Aston Villa is over. Here’s the official statement:
AVFC Official Statement
The Club can confirm that, by mutual consent, Gerard Houllier has stepped down as manager of Aston Villa with immediate effect.
The 63-year-old took charge in September 2010 but suffered a dissection of the descending aorta in April 2011.
He was unable to take charge of team affairs for the final five games of the season and doctors have advised
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David Moyes has been a favourite among fans for the Aston Villa job from the moment Martin O’Neill quit. Long before that in many cases truth be told.
He’s also been a hot favourite with the bookies; they even had to close the book on him at one point last year. That was after Bob Bradley had been the favourite for a spell as I recall. You know, just sayin’.
That episode at least forced Moyes to address rumours and he was
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As you’ll be aware, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing – along with Darren Bent – are on international duty ahead of England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland on Saturday and both took part in the press conference.
Ashley Young
Stewart Downing
Training Footage
The headline I went with when Martin O’Neill walked out on Aston Villa was something along the lines of “They think he’s taken us as far as he can… he has now“. It was a reference to the persistent theme among the growing dissent that our club was stagnating under his stewardship and also the fact that the record would forever confirm that that would indeed be as far as he could take the club.
The truth is, we’ll never know
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I wrote a post last year which put forward the notion that James Milner could be our Wesley Sneijder. As it turned out, I missed the mark somewhat, but only because he’s not ours any longer. I still think he would have done very well there for us last season and maybe, just maybe, things might have panned out differently.
C’est la vie.
Now that we’ve received confirmation that a Reo-Coker shaped hole needs filling in the centre of midfield, I found
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We have a number of players with contracts expiring this summer and uncertain futures, but the one with the biggest question mark over his head was Nigel Reo-Coker. That question mark remains no longer, the club have just announced that he has been released along with nine other players.
I know Reo-Coker wasn’t in everyone’s list of favourite players, but he’s always given 100% and frequently was the only one providing anything close to the grit we needed in the centre
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It’s widely known that Man Utd have adopted a couple of firm policies when it comes to player dealings.
Firstly, they want to stick to players under 26 years old when it comes to bringing in new faces to retain a potential resale value.
Secondly, they won’t allow existing players to enter into the last two years of their contracts if at all possible. Again, this is intended to protect a resale value that decreases rapidly if the player is to leave
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The LMA has just issued a statement confirming that the dispute between Martin O’Neill and Aston Villa has been amicably resolved during the course of the tribunal.
Martin O’Neill said:
Martin O’Neill
It has taken a long time to deal with this matter but I am pleased that all issues have now been amicably finalised.
I am very proud to have managed Aston Villa and I wish the club all the best for the future. I would also like to thank the LMA
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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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