February 2008 Archives

VILLA's progression once again into the last four of the FA Youth Cup reminds me of one of the almightiest dressings down I have had from any manager in my eight years covering Villa.
The manager? David O'Leary. The reason? I wrote a full-page feature in the Mail waxing lyrical about Villa's magnificent youth policy down the years.
You know the names: from the likes of Shaw, Deehan and Little, through to Walters, Gidman, Daley... through to Barry, Vassell, Samuel and on to Hitzlsperger, Ridgewell, Whittingham, Luke Moore, Davis, Cahill, Gardner and Agbonlahor.

My poor brother flew 10,273 miles from Brisbane to London, drove 305 miles up to the Lakes.
He put in a round trip of 311 miles to see Albion lose at Barnsley and then a round trip of 375 miles to see then play out a dull goalless draw with Sheffield United.
The free-scoring kings of the English game have netted just once in 180 minutes.
After 38 minutes we left our seats to get a beer and watched the remainder of the half on the screens. "You've come all this way to watch it on TV", I say.
On the way to this latest match a burly, cold-faced and very scary looking Eastern European woman had tried to sell him a gold ring at a petrol station forecourt 90 miles north of Brum on the M6.
He refuses and is cursed.
We wonder, having watched Kevin Phillips miss a couple of sitters, if he had been to the same services earlier that day and been similarly scalded?

Doug Ellis wrote in his autobiography: "I had done my homework and I was never convinced about Beattie. My research told me that he lacked a touch of skill and I think I've been proved right."
He wasn't talking about West Brom's struggling Scot Craig, but Sheffield United's namesake James, a player who former Villa boss David O'Leary was desperate to sign from Southampton and was found guilty of making an illegal approach in the process.
O'Leary was keen to heap all the blame on Ellis for his bungled attempt to get Beattie to sign after a £6million fee had been agreed. Ellis had been too keen to talk about himself, it was claimed. A relegation clause in his Villa contract, it was also deemed, hardly sent out the best message of a club on the up and up.
Well seeing Beattie against Albion on Tuesday night it is clear that Ellis, and not O'Leary, got it right all along. He was awful.
Where Martin O'Neill, O'Leary's successor went wrong, in my opinion, was to sell Kevin Phillips to Albion a season too early.
Injuries bit Villa hard last year and KP would have been a useful squad player.
But KP had a real off night at The Hawthorns this week. Beattie was anonymous for the Blades,whilst Phillips had two or three good chances, missed the lot and didn't play at all well.
And yet these two former England and Southampton team-mates are first and third in the Championship scorers list?
Just shows you the gap between the top two divisions.

It might be a week off, but you can never really escape.
Spent the train journey north exchanging text messages with a number of folk regarding Villa's week in Marbella (the club's media twosome of Jack Woodward and Paul Bomber Brown have flown out- that means they will be playing golf all week) and Luke Moore's possible move to the Albion from Villa on loan.
Martin O'Neill had given an indication to me last Tuesday that there might be something in the offing on that front.
I think it would be great for both player and the Baggies- but what would I know?
My brother can remember our first couple of pints and I can remember the last.
The area in between is grey and hazy.
Cockermouth is home. Perched on the edge of the Lakes, its pubs are many and varied.
I do remember texting Albion super-fan Adrian Chiles. Wish I hadn't.
Said something along the lines of: "You and (Frank) Skinner should received knight hoods"- a little over the top but his book is excellent. Can't put it down at home. And there is a character in it, Nathan, whose exploits in real-life replicate a seventies sex comedy.
Meanwhile, Albion's performance at Barnsley was so bad that my father and younger brother are still not on proper speaking terms.

I'm on holiday this week but in the interests of trying to win a bottle of champagne, although I fear Rodger Clarke has got this one wooped - I have challenged myself to write this blog....

Saturday was sweet for any Villa fan.

And probably for Richard Fitzgerald the former Chief Executive. Spotted in the away end at Fulham, there he was again, almost an hour before kick-off, walking across the car park with his partner.

Anyone care to elighten me why a bloke who quote obviously resigned because of the emergence of Michael Cunnah, has taken such an interest in Villa matches since his departure?

Perhaps it is simply down to the close season in the hockey?!

Or maybe, he is trying to make a point?

I'm all for Villa playing the odd Premier League game in, let's say, Sydney, Barbados or Dubai.

At 10 pence per mile for the diesel it would certainly come in handy at Christmas.

But seriously, it's not right, is it?

It was the first time ever that five Villa players had been called into an England squad.

But in the end only Gareth Barry was a winner.

Curtis Davies didn't get past first base, Gabby Agbonlahor's timing in picking up his first injury, probably ever, was impeccable, and Scott Carson was no more than a spectator.

Villa Park used to be the bastion of the great keeper: Jimmy Rimmer, Nigel Spink, Mark Bosnich.

And they have never truly replaced David James in my book.

Sure he was guilty of a Cup Final howler but how many times did he come for balls that even his centre halves were shirking away from?

Peter Schmeichel was a disaster, well past his prime. Peter Enckelman, young and full of potential until St Andrew's.
Stefan Postma? I won't even start with that one for fear of an unintended pun.

So should Scott Carson have been called up by England? Not if Fabio Capello had seen him in action since November.

For the first three months of the season I was hugely impressed by the on-loan Cumbrian. He never dropped a cross and totally unlike Thomas Sorensen before him he could dominate his area.

But Wembley 11-07 as it shall be known for the purposes of this blog changed everything.

At the start of the season most, if not all, Villa fans would have grabbed your last cheesy wotsit if you'd have offered them seventh place in the Premier League at the middle of May.

A few weeks ago, following the draw, albeit a slightly fortuitous one at that, at Anfield, you'd have struggled to meet a Villa supporter whose eyes weren't fixed solely on fourth.