Pre-Season 2008/09

It’s no secret that the Intertoto Cup forced Aston Villa into competitive action early last season, but did you realise that there’s potentially just as many games scheduled for pre-season 2009/10??  Last year looked like this:-

• 10 July FC Wil 0-6 Aston Villa
• 12 July FC Zurich 2-1 Aston Villa
• 15 July Lincoln City 3-1 Aston Villa
• 19 July Odense BK 2-2 Aston Villa
• 26 July Aston Villa 1-0 Odense BK
• 02 Aug Reading 1-1 Aston Villa
• 14 Aug FH Hafnarfjordur 1-4 Aston Villa

Those who like to spend the summer obsessing over the players leaving and joining the club will no doubt remember that Steve Sidwell signed on July 10th and then flew out to Switzerland to join up with his new team mates. He played 45 minutes against FC Zurich and looked lively. He remained the lone signing by the time of the Lincoln game and looked lively again, playing 78 minutes. He made his competitive debut in Denmark against Odense and scored!! Sadly it was an own goal. Fortunately Carew and Laursen saved our blushes and the game finished 2-2.

Brad Friedel was unveiled as the second summer signing at Villa Park for the return leg against Odense at Villa Park on the 26th. The home side made hard work of beating the visitors, understandably so as this was the game that will be better remembered for Freddie Bouma’s season being brought to an end before it really began.

Our new understudy goal keeper was confirmed on August 1st, but wouldn’t be joining the club for a while as he was part of the USA Olympic squad competing in China. Brad Snr played between the sticks in Reading, but it was perhaps more interesting to note who wasn’t there. Nicky Shorey was not included in the Reading squad, fueling rumours of an imminent switch to B6. Indeed, he was the next new face on the Bodymoor training ground on August 7th.

Amazingly, Luke Young signed the following day and Carlos Cuellar became a surprise new signing from Rangers on August 12th. Off the top of my head, MON was only able to add one of his new signings to the squad for the trip to Iceland and he chose Shorey who played the full 90 minutes in the 4-1 romp over Hafnarfjordur. That would later prove not to be a policy that MON would continue!!

The team played two Premiership games and the 2nd leg against the Icelandic team before James Milner became the final, and record, new signing at Aston Villa on August 30th.

Pre-Season 2009/10

When the team reported back to Bodymoor for training last week there would have been three old faces missing – Gareth Barry and Stuart Taylor have both gone to Man City of course and sadly Martin Laursen’s knees have had as much as they can take. This isn’t vastly different from the situation last summer when Mellberg had gone to Italy and Tommy Sorenson was wandering around asking anyone who would talk to him for a job too.

Hopefully this illustrates that at this point in time we’re in a very similar position to last year – although I would certainly accept that Barry & Laursen are major boots to be filled – but there’s no reason not to expect a number of new players to be confirmed soon. However, our first pre-season game this year isn’t until the 18th, so don’t be surprised if we run a week or so behind last year’s schedule. Speaking of which, here’s how this summer shapes up:-

• 18 July Peterborough v Aston Villa
• 21 July Colchester v Aston Villa
• 25 July Aston Villa v Malaga (Malaga – Peace Cup)
• 29 July Aston Villa v Atlante (Malaga – Peace Cup)
• 31 July Aston Villa v Lyon, Besiktas or Porto (Malaga – Peace Cup) [Semi Final]
• 02 Aug Aston Villa v Sevilla, Juventus, Seongnam, Real, Quito or Al-Ittihad (Seville – Peace Cup) [Final]
• 04 Aug Oxford Utd v Aston Villa XI
• 08 Aug Aston Villa v Fiorentina

Obviously the Peace Cup games on July 31st and August 2nd depend entirely on results and how much interest MON really has in the tournament. He’s apparently promised to take a “strong squad” to my old home town for the friendly on the 4th, but I would expect the team to be made up mostly of reserves. That may well depend on how early we come back from Spain though.

And then we have another intriguing friendly at VP on the 8th when we host Fiorentina before the Premiership season kicks off again when Wigan come to town on the 15th.

So there you have it. There’s a definite 5 games between now and the Premiership opener, but there could possibly be up to 8 matches for MON to play with. There’s still a full seven weeks until the transfer window closes at the end of August. Sure, it would be ideal to bring new players in ASAP and bed them in during pre-season…. but you’re not really expecting that to happen are you??

The latest Pre-Season Fixtures and Results are available here.