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 2006, with a host of young talent from the academy and reserves.

The club have confirmed the ten man squad for the 2011 tournament, but there are two changes from the squad announced by the organisers four days ago; Harry Forrester has been brought in to replace Nathan Delfouneso and Ellis Deeney will take Gary Gardner’s place.

As you can see from the thumbnail of the promotional poster I used to create the header image, Delfouneso was supposed to be something of a star turn for the competition.

As I understand it, Forrester’s contract is due to expire any day and is not being renewed, but according to a comment in last year’s post we were forced to recruit a (very lucky) local youngster to make up the numbers, so it can’t hurt to include him. Something of a parting gift perhaps.

The change in plans may be down to injury, it may point to greater involvement in what remains of this season, or it may even be to reduce the load ahead of next season. For instance, Delfouneso will more than likely be travelling to Denmark in June with the England to take part in the European Under-21 Championships after being name in Stuart Pearce’s provisional squad.

Whatever the underlying reasons for the changes, here’s the confirmed ten man squad:

Benjamin Siegrist, Nathan Baker, Ellis Deeney, Eric Lichaj, Shane Lowry, Chris Herd, Daniel Johnson, Jonathan Hogg, Harry Forrester, Andreas Weimann.

Bon voyage to everyone travelling to Hong Kong & good luck defending the title.

Look out for another post this week on the Hong Kong 7s detailing the tournament format, participating teams and schedule. It looks like there will be plenty of photos and videos this year, so if you’re not already following @AVFCOfficial on Twitter, you should do so. You can also follow @hksoccer7s and you must surely be following @avfccentral, right?