It's Good to Talk

By Bill Howell on March 3, 2008 8:08 PM | Permalink

Considering the pain they must have felt having conceded in the fourth minute of stoppage time (when there were only three minutes, supposedly) I was amazed by how many Villa players actually had to the grace to stop and do interviews.

Martin Laursen is always one of the most approachable Villa players (probably just behind Gareth Barry and Olof Mellberg who speak win, lose or draw). It was he who revealed the magnitude of Curtis Davies' injury.
Next up: Wilfred Bouma. A pleasant bloke is Wilf. It took a whlle to get the measure of him. Well, he couldn't speak much English when he signed. I remember that first interview in some hotel grounds in Sutton Coldfield.
He has quite a sense of humour for a Dutchman. (Not usually renowned for their gag telling, are they?)
Gabby Agbonlahor always stops to talk. And here he is again. "Does the goal drought worry you?"- I ask him a nice easy one to get things going.
Scott Carson got the lift straight to the players' bar, followed some minutes later by John Robertson trying to get him back on the coach.
Doug Ellis wades up to us as we are speaking to Wilf. "Hello Bobby", he says to me. "Bill", I remind him.
Then there was John Carew, sometimes ever so charming and others times bodering on the aloof. On this occasion we were treated to Carew, who'd got all the time in the world.
It was about this time that Davies was wheeled past us on his stretcher. He attempts a smile and a thumbs-up.
Anyone who has covered Albion for the past two years will tell you what a cracking fella Davies is. And haveing dealt with him over the past couple of months I can vouch that he is one of the easiest-going, laid back players in the game.
Zat Knight does a quick interview. He's obviously delighted at being back in the picture, although he is keen to stress that he would not have wished it to happen in quite such fashion.
He has to dash as a huge 4x4 car containing Marlon Harewood and Nigel Reo-Coker is waiting to speed off into the night.
Back out onto the pitch Martin O'Neill always hands me five minutes or more at the end of a game.
"Judge us not on how good we were today, and nor how poor we might have been at Liverpool", he says as I suggest the gap between Villa and the big four, in terms of quality, is not that much at all.
Then it was a simple case of putting all those interviews into print for Monday's paper which meant getting up at 5am Sunday morning and working through til 2pm- just to make Walsall Cricket Club for some Mothers Day festivities.
All in a days work.