Stephen Warnock has been at Villa since the end of August, making his debut in the 1-0 victory over City on September 13th, and in that time he’s made the left back position his own, winning himself a call up to Fabio Capello’s England squad to face Brazil.

An impressive performance for the player who holds the record for the least number of minutes played for Enlgand – 6 minutes against Trinidad & Tobago in May 2008. Warnock himself credits his call up with being able to play consistently in his preferred full back role.

But if Warnock can cement his place in the side and also win an international call up, it looks pretty bleak for Nicky Shorey going forward (no pun intended). Consider his almost loan move to Portsmouth before the season kicked off, the return to fitness of Bouma and the fact that Luke Young’s pretty handy on the left with able deputies on the right in Beye and Cuellar. It’s pretty easy to understand why Shorey will be a fairly hot commodity on the rumours page as we head towards the January window. Nottingham Forrest are being touted today, but don’t expect it to be the last club mentioned.

In many ways I feel sorry for Shorey. I don’t think he’s done a particularly bad job and, without knowing what goes on behind closed doors, probably didn’t deserve to be dropped in favour of Luke Young for such an extended period last season.

That said, Warnock is doing a fantastic job and barring any injury, there’s little to no opportunity for Shorey now. This is a great example of the difficulties in assembling strength in depth. Nicky Shorey is a decent player, I’d be delighted to have him as back up to Warnock, but he’s easily good enough to play regularly for a smaller Premiership side or even in the Championship.

If we can’t tempt Nicky Shorey type quality to play a rotation/back up role we’ll always struggle for much depth within the squad. It’s not difficult to respect a player who would rather play football elsewhere, even at a lower level, rather than sit on the bench week in and week out. We’re not all Aston Villa fans. MON was unable to persuade Cahill to stay under these same circumstances and has taken some unfair stick over it from a section of the mouth breathers out there.

European football may make the difference in player retention/acquisition and falling at the first Europa League hurdle this year has really hurt our cause. However, if it helps qualify for the Champions League then it may well be worth it in the end. The question is; who will be willing to sit on the bench for a CL team?