At the onset of his tenure, it wouldn’t have taken much effort to find predictions about the brand of football Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa side were destined to serve up. None were particularly exciting or encouraging.
I prefer a ‘wait and see’ policy myself, but I think we’re far enough into the season now to look at some statistics and draw some conclusions.
In this post, we’ll focus on the number of attempted passes that have been hit long as a percentage
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As you’re probably all too aware, the 1-1 draw at QPR on Sunday was our 5th draw of the season. And we’ve only played six games. And we remain unbeaten. You knew that, right?
Of course you did.
You might not be aware that this means we’ve drawn 83.33% of the (admittedly limited number of) games so far, or that we’ll finish up drawing 31 or 32 games by the end of the season if this pattern continues. It won’t continue of
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We were promised an announcement confirming Alex McLeish’s appointment by now*, but that’s about as timely as everything else connected to the search for a manager, so I thought I’d share something I was just looking at instead.
For one reason or another, it doesn’t matter why, someone put it to me on Twitter that all MON’s Villa side did was hoof it up the pitch; the old long ball. It’s not a new charge, of course, or particularly accurate
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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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There’s a lot of emotion, anger and fear floating around the Villasphere at the moment so I’m going to tread carefully here. I’m not looking to make any particular point, but I do want to correct one or two claims I’m seeing which are factually inaccurate.
Facts are what I do, I’ll leave the opinion to you the reader.
The question in the headline might draw a multitude of answers, and possibly some less than savoury language, but I’m talking in terms
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I know I’m in the minority here, but I’ve never really drunk the Holloway Kool-Aid. It’s not that I necessarily disagree with much that he says, most of it is basic common sense, it’s more that I’ve met a thousand Ian Holloways and they’re all the same; entertaining enough, but only in small doses.
I can’t fault his approach on the pitch, Blackpool are truly a breath of a fresh air, but we have to be careful not to be patronising.
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I’ve been mulling over writing a post exploring how player registrations, contracts and amortization of transfer fees work for a little while and planned on using John Carew as an example since there seemed to be a growing opinion that he should simply be sold in January. As if it’s really that simple.
That was before the spat that emerged via the media this weekend between player and manager, something that’s impossible to ignore, so I’ll save what I had in
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I’m getting a little irked with a lot of the reporting around Villa in recent times. Let me be clear; I couldn’t be happier that Nigel Reo-Coker is going to be wearing the armband and will also be negotiating a new contract at the club, regular readers will know I’m a fan. However, you’d think from the way it’s being portrayed that NRC had been exiled to Siberia and was literally coming in from the cold.
Obviously Reo-Coker isn’t
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It might seem like a strange combination to throw together in a headline, but bear with me. I should let you know from the outset that I’m not suggesting Wayne Rooney will be an Aston Villa player any time soon – much as I would love to – but it’s clear he isn’t going to be a Man Utd player for very much longer.
You’ve no doubt seen the revelations in recent days and may also be aware that Alex
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