July 2008 Archives

Brad Friedel was finally unveiled to the media yesterday at Bodymoor, although his planned 11.30am press conference took place at around 1.40pm (if only the club had bothered to ask him when he thought he might have finished training, then there would have been rather less sour faces and probably more tea and biscuits left on the tray).

A good talker he appears too, and a thoroughly decent chap.

He'd already done an interview on Saturday for the club web-site, which they put out on Sunday, then a second interview on Monday, which they put out on Tuesday morning, and a third interview on Tuesday lunch-time which they put out in the form of two stories on Tuesday afternoon.

It's all about balance. Dare I suggest that things are not a bed of roses between the press and the club at the moment? You could say that.

Half of the senior players appear to have been given a few days off to recuperate after the hectic training schedule leading up to the Odense tie.

They will return to work tomorrow ahead of Saturday's friendly at Reading. I'm taking the day off having been offered the chance of a day at Edgbaston.

But a few players were there yesterday, including Gareth Barry who must be wondering where on earth all this latest speculation will lead. One national radio station was even suggesting he was having a medical at Arsenal today.

Shaun Maloney and Stiliyan Petrov were there- as was Curtis Davies, who we are all hoping can get back playing again soon. Villa have missed him, and you wouldn't have expected to say that after his debut against Leicester.

Thanks for your emails and comments, good and bad, over the last week since my "internet geeks" blog.

Apart from the really grotesque bile that will always come forth there were some genuinely interesting responses. Thanks Gary Rowe. I have noted your comments inparticular.

I've not managed to look at the message boards since last week but a couple of emails stood out and were worthy of comment.

Firstly this from Jonathan Fear, someone who came from nowhere to launch a personal tirade against Doug Ellis whenever the chance arose and for that basis, and that basis alone, was ignored on many occasions by the Evening Mail by not entirely ignored.

Fear- who may, or may not, now attend the odd away match- has a chip on his shoulder large enough to feed a small African country.

He says: "Would much rather be a geek than a disrespectful hack Bill. How you remain the Villa correspondent when you clearly have no interest in the club baffles me, there again the view from the bar is by far the best eh? Strange how you are able to notice when season ticket sales are slightly down but missed it a few years ago when thousands of Villa fans were marching against your chum Ellis. Is balance something that escapes you or are you just a clueless hack?"

Well, I don't remember thousands of marchers. Dozens maybe. I don't recall the Evening Mail's editor of the time, Ian Dowell, falling off his chair having missed that story.

Fear's problem is that Ellis was allowed to leave gracefully under his own steam on his own terms, and since his exit there is precious little to have a gripe at (the board and manager are loved by fans)- that is apart from the local reporter.

His "view from the bar" remark, by the way, was a comment I made to the Post's Lisa Smith last Tuesday night at Walsall (so it's good to know where he gets his information) after I had watched the second half from behind the glass at the Banks' Stadium.

Three reasons for that: one, our Walsall man Nick Pullen was writing the match report, two, my brother-in-law is a Villa fan and was keen to finish his half-time pint, and thirdly, Ian Taylor was having a pint of orange squash away from the crowd and it was a chance to have a word.

Alternatively, I could have waited for Taylor to be interviewed by Sky or by the papers and then cut and pasted his comments on a message board, ala Fear.

Far more constructive would be for Fear to ask himself this question, or to start a thread on his message board: "What did Doug Ellis do right for Aston Villa?"

I pose the question because 99 per cent of fans on his boards would suggest "very little, if anything" and I dare say any comments would be written in Anglo Saxon.

But I received this text from a very close Villa source the other day and am keen to know what people think.

He says: "Doug got a lot of stick, some fair but a lot unfair. He gave the like of John Gregory fortunes and never got the success he craved. His big mistake was not going for a manager in that period after the (share) flotation. We were neck and neck with Arsenal at the time. They appointed Wenger, we appointed Gregory, the rest is history. Doug was an easy target back then- nothing for detractors now."

Still, at least Fear has the grace to add his name to his email.

One poster, AV33, believes local papers should only employ writers who support the club.

He says: "I personally think that the Evening Mail's Villa representative should be somebody who loves the club through and through, maybe an ex-player who has stayed loyal and turned media or maybe one of the guys who tirelessly run one of the fan blogs that you so effortlessly condemn as "internet geeks"."

Incidentally, the Editor of our paper is a Villa fan, the sports editor too, and his assistant...and yet we are often blamed for a negative outlook on the club because the local reporter supports the Albion?

I do however, in my opinion, agree with some of you that the Blues board get off lightly. Part of the reason for that is that they are so pro-active in the media.

Villa's American board do not feel it is necessary to communicate more than once a year. And no, my job does not have to bend one iota because of the General's message board.

I've rarely dipped in there... well, I did twice...around the time of his Pigs in Mud remark which the news hounds picked up and then again when I was told by a national reporter that I had been called a "liar"- unnecessary and without class.

Interestingly, at Villa Park, the press officer is a Brighton fan, his assistant Arsenal, the programme editor Albion, his writer Albion too, the web-site editor Bolton and the Villa TV commentator Sheffield Wednesday.

The stadium manager is Everton, the former Chief Executive Hibs... the security guard at Bodymoor was a Blues fan.

If I were following your logic therefore, I would ask for the lot to be sacked.

The press core who report on Villa in this region are a mix of clubs. One of the chief writers in this area, and a good friend, is a Blues supporter who regularly writes on Villa. Another good friend is a Villa fan.

I don't recall ever being questioned about who I supported until April 2006 when David O'Leary announced it so.

When Villa fans read my match report of the infamous Villa 2 Albion 1 game in December 2002, when Thomas Hitzlsperger scored with an injury time shot, did they write in to the Mail saying: "This is biased..."

Of course not.

And by the way, Thomas is still a good friend. And I named my youngest, now nearly one, after him.

The Mail, by the way, have been looking for regular contributors to blog on Villa for a new web-site.

Perhaps such a venture might give even the Mail's harshest critics the opportunity to see how difficult life can be on the other side of the fence.

IT's half-time at Villa Park and we've all witnessed a terrible, terrible injury.

Poor Freddie Bouma. It was horrific.

I was there at Ipswich when Luc Nilis broken his leg in a clash with Richard Wright. This is as close as we've seen since.

Thoughts obviously go to Bouma. One of the nicest, most placid characters you could ever wish to meet.

His popularity in the derssing room could be measured by the expression on the faces of his team-mates as they trudged, ashen-faced to the touchline as the stretcher bearers ran onto the centre circle.

I'm told you could hear the screams on the TV, although I've obviously no way of knowing.

Craig Gardner looked especially pale. Laursen, Knight- big, grown men looked shattered.

I needn't remind you that Villa no longer have a fit full-back at the club. Not left, nor right.

It was magnificent for the entire ground to give Gareth Barry such vociferous support.

And it was nice to see Brad Friedel introduced to the crowd at half-time.

But even if Villa progress now, it will have been at a cost.

I can't promise to write any more today- I'm up to my neck in pre-season pull-outs.

But I have just seen a response to a blog from Ian who asks: ".....it is partly because the reports you write are seen to be anti villa as in the season ticket story.

"I guess you do have a tightrope to walk between proper reporting and tittle tattle.Can I ask though, do you think your reports are more critical of the club that say that of the Liverpool Echo which hen we look at the reporting of the Barry saga seem to be 100% behind the club whether they believe it or not ?"

I'll answer that one straightaway:

I didn't write a season ticket story. I asked the club many, many weeks ago if I could because those type of stories are always positive.

They weren't keen though because sales were lower than they wanted everyone to know about.

Eventually I decided a line, nothing more, on the bottom of a blog would suffice- so your question should really be aimed at the club's media department.

In my opinion the club really could use the local media a lot more than they do. We rarely, if ever, get ticket information.

Although the club have used their official site today to try to boost sales of tomorrow's game, no one has contacted the paper. If they had we'd have written a piece that tickets are still available.

It's not rocket science.

Did the club ring to let me know a fee had been agreed with Blackburn over Brad Friedel? No they haven't.

Should they? Well, I think so.

But as always that sort of information comes from elsewhere.

Yet this week we have been approached about the new mural of fans at Villa Park and if we can give it coverage.

There has to be a bit of give and take. It's a balance, I'm aware of that.

But Villa this season do appear to have opened up the communication channels with players, so I have to salute them for that.

Secondly, I do not and have never tried to walk a tightrope between reporting and 'writing tittle tattle'.

The tightrope I walk is from getting as close to the truth as possible whilst keeping contacts happy, and also keeping the readers content with the service we provide.

Do you call me writing that Villa were set to sign Henrik Larsson on loan "tittle tattle" because it didn't happen?

Trust me, a superb source called me to say he was actually at the training ground having talks on the Friday. By the Saturday morning Celtic announced they had failed to persuade him to go there and then on the Monday he was signing a new contract with his club.

"Tittle tattle" is people who write that Villa have bid £5million for a Valencia striker because they saw it in the Sunday papers or the internet and didn't bother to check it out.

I don't see those reporters getting a hammering.

So much goes on at a club that they would prefer us not to know.

I took a call earlier from a Villa fan I know very well who just happened to be in the hospital yesterday when a Villa first teamer walked into the reception with one of the staff- both in their tracksuits.

I've not written about it as, at this moment in time, I don't see the point. But I'll ask the question when the time comes.

No one wants to see Villa painted in a good light on the occasions when they deserve to answer questions.

You can buy the matchday programme, read the web-site or buy Claret and Blue if you want to see Villa in a positive light all the time.

Again, it is about balance. There is no way I would have survived for eight years on the Mail and two years before that on the Mercury covering Villa if I wrote negatives all the while.

No way at all.

Martin O'Neill would never speak to me, when I think we get on pretty well- just as I did with John Gregory, to an extent, with Graham Taylor- certainly, and with David O'Leary- for a time. (His line, two years back, about me being banned by a previous manager was absolute rubbish.)

Nigel Reo-Coker wouldn't have taken yesterday's call, even though I have been critical of some of his performances in the past.

Same too with Ashley Young. But I spent 15 minutes with him on Wednesday afternoon in Digbeth (of all places).

It is about balance. Surely supporters want me to ask some questions that are a little difficult to answer from time to time?

From team issues: "Why no right-back for a season?" and "Why no centre-back cover?", "When are the signings going to be made?"- to issues surrounding the club: "Why does the Chief Executive only ever last a few months?".

If the manager comes out and says to the media that he did all he could to keep a certain player at a club but that it was no use- should I not go to get the other point of view?

Believe me, the very fact that I am prepared to ask those type of questions can sometimes make my job difficult. Clubs never want to be fronted by a reporter not satisfied

But I do the job to the best of my ability and write things as I see them.

Thirdly, am I as positive to Villa as the Echo are to Liverpool?

Well, I can't speak for the Echo. What I will say is that the Gareth Barry issue caught Villa on the back foot and Liverpool certainly used their local paper to the best advantage.

You weren't complaining when Martin O'Neill phoned me to have a direct pop at Rafa Benitez and we splashed the story on the back page.

For months and months I have known of Liverpool's interest and the fact that if they went for Barry he would want to go.

(Just like for months and months I knew of the Acorns Hospice deal which was flatly denied by a club spokesman when I approached them).

The Barry deal will happen, eventually. And why should I be criticised for that?

Did you buy a paper yesterday when we splashed on O'Neill again phoning us to say that Liverpool will be set a deadline and that Barry is back in his plans?

Finally, as to whether the Echo always print positives- when all hell broke loose over George Gillette and Tom Hicks' fall-out, do you think the Echo wrote anti-club stories then? Of course they did.

Ian thinks we are too critical when other fans think we are not critical enough.

Lose a game and believe me, everyone becomes a critic!

Have I ever criticised Randy Lerner?

Nope. I think the closest is when I wrote a line in a blog that despite all the gestures of goodwill to fans: the scarves, the 1982 celebrations, the free coaches; and the investment in the club: the training ground and the Holte Hotel, the board were still unproven in the transfer market.

And with one player in (and yes, hopefully many more soon) I stand by that.

I'll just finish by saying it is impossible to please all the people all the time. Sorry for the cliche.

The arrival of Brad Friedel from Blackburn is imminent.

The American was spotted at the Belfry earlier today and will be holding talks over personal terms as soon as he has finished his sandwich!

Anyway, it is a cracking signing. He may be 37 but how old is David James?- the best keeper in the Prem last year.

It appears the Younes Kaboul signing also has legs. A firm bid to Tottenham was set to be faxed off today, I understand. Not last night as had been reported.

And I would not discount Villa, even at this late stage, hijacking a move for Steed Malbranque either. It all depends, as ever, on finances.

But I think Shaun Wright Phillips may well end up at Portsmouth after all. We shall see.

It's been an interesting 24 hours on the Villa patch.

I spoke to Nigel Reo-Coker yesterday afternoon, just for a brief time as we look ahead to tomorrow's game with Odense. You may since have seen his quotes either in our paper, on our web-site or on the club's official site where they also appear.

Today I've done an interview for tomorrow's paper with a former Villa favourite. I'll keep his name under my hat but he had some interesting things to say about Friedel and Gareth Barry.

Changing the subject, I've seen some interesting responses to my blog yesterday.

I'm only too happy to have more dialogue with the internet fans.

My tone was indeed tongue in cheek when referrring to "geeks". But do you blame me, such is the personal abuse on the message boards at times. So I tend to steer clear.

I don't want to sound like David O'Leary but I have an interaction with quite a few Villa fans, some built up over the last eight to ten years covering the club, and some from the foreign trips into Europe- the so-called hard-core.

There is always much to tell. Including the 'real' story behind Gary Rowe's assertion that he set me up with the Sunderland- O'Leary story.

He did call. That I cannot deny. But the ball was already in motion because of a private tip-off days earlier from a Board member at Villa Park who believed that O'Leary was trying to engineer a move away.

Within a month or two we had that ridiculously fanciful piece of reporting that the Villa players had put together a "statement" at a lack of investment by the former Chairman Doug Ellis.

One player gave an interview on a Friday afternoon. He has recently left the club after enjoying a £40,000 a week deal agreed by the former boss. That player was forced to apologise to the rest of the dressing room face-to-face on the Monday.

By that Tuesday some senior players were giving evidence against O'Leary at Villa Park.

O'Leary was, after all, trying to engineer a move away from Villa Park. And he did so with a seven figure sum in his back pocket.

The truth, as they say, is a far, far greater thing.

I've noticed one or two internet geeks getting a little hot under the collar over my assertion that season ticket sales were "below expectation" at Villa.

I'd not made a big thing of it but nevertheless I had indeed made that point.

And despite the fact that the club would like you to believe that almost 25,000 have been sold for this season, I'm sticking to it.

Before you lot go hopping around your bedrooms, pulling out your wireless connections and losing your Dungeons and Dragons memory sticks, I'll explain.

Ask any reporter and they will tell you that the summer months between May and mid-July can be a bit of a bind.

Those weekly chats with the manager have dried up, the players are on the beach and your saved quotes from the last game of the season have been dripped into the newspaper and long dried up.

So where do you get your stories?

I'll tell you. Players, although you have to know them well enough for them to trust you with information that cannot have come from them- if you get my drift; from agents- who will almost certainly always tell you that Villa 'ARE' interested in his player but that a bid hasn't yet been fired off; from club staff- many and varied, from other journalists who have their own links to clubs and I'm sure there should also be another category marked: "Others".

My point is this: that stories can be found from a variety of sources- sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Now to the season ticket story.

Some weeks ago, possibly as long ago as six, I asked the club's media department if I could have the latest sale figures.

Season ticket stories come out every summer on a quiet day and are a Godsend to clubs (just ask Albion, Wolves and Blues) and writers because they are always written with a positive spin but can also fill back pages.

My request seemed to hit something of a brick wall at Villa though.

Weeks passed. I then received an email detailing a series of emails between the press and ticket offices at Villa which indicated that they were not yet ready to release any information. There was also a reference to wanting to "hang" a particular slant on the eventual story.

Anyway, it wasn't a problem. I was never that bothered about the story in the first place.

I then got a second email from Villa, about three weeks ago, saying that the season ticket request of mine was being dealt with but that the news was poor at the moment so 'could I wait a few weeks for when the news would be good?'

I have kept both emails.

Again, I was not bothered either way and when a good source at Villa confirmed to me that sales were low I decided a few words at the bottom of a blog would suffice.

So that's the history. Villa are now claiming that sales are seven per cent up on this time last year and I have no reason whatsoever to doubt them. A figure approaching 25,000 is blummin' good business by anyone's stretch of the imagination.

My point is this: Villa sold over 26,000 last year. They have sold less than 25,000 now. And a couple of months ago they told us that 1,400 people were on a waiting list.

So there are a missing 2,500 by my calculations.

The whole issue is not worth haggling over.

Villa will once again be the best supported club in the Midlands by a country mile.

I read the headlines on Wednesday morning, as most of you probably did.

"Barry runs gauntlet of hate!" they barked, referring to Gareth Barry's appearance at Walsall in the friendly at The Banks' Stadium.

That's not how I saw it.

I'm not having a pop at the reporters there that night. They'd got a job to do and after a quarter of an hour their lap-tops had spirited off a few hundred well chosen words well before their deadlines.

And a headline of: "Barry booed, ignored and cheered" isn't quite as punchy.

I actually feared for his safety when Villa took the slightly unusual step of hinting at his inclusion mid Tuesday afternoon on their official web-site.

But as it turned out there was no such hostility, other than 20 minutes of booing from a few hundred angry souls.

After that Barry's committed performance and a rather less than exciting first half saw Barry largely ignored by the majority of the 2,000 Villa fans.

When he left the field after an hour some booed, some clapped and others sat with their hands firmly on their laps not wanting to side either way.

One of the latter, Steve Gough (he runs the away coaches for Premier Ents and incidentally he is running another down to Reading next weekend- so give him a call 01543 426 426) admitted to me today that Barry's performance had won a few fans over but that it would take a lot more of the same for him to be back on side.

It was also pleasing to see Ian Taylor, a modern-day cult figure if ever there was one but now working for Barry's agent Alex Black, mixing with supporters, signing autographs and having his picture taken.

Barry's big test will be if he is included against Odense at Villa Park on Saturday.

Martin O'Neill is certainly looking at that possibility, although he is an unlikely starter. What sort of message would that send out to the likes of Reo-Coker, Young, Petrov and Sidwell?

An even bigger test yet for Barry is the opening day of the Premier League season when a full house at Villa Park will want to voice their anger at his public fight to get away.

But from what we have seen over these last few days Barry can do just that.

What he needs to do now is what he should have done all along. And that is to get his head down, graft on the pitch and say zip-all to the media.

A text message received from Gareth only a few days ago indicates that that is exactly what he intends to do, and in the meantime we can only hope that Villa and Liverpool bang their heads together and get a fee agreed.

Because the worry as I write this on Thursday afternoon is that Portsmouth will sell Sulley Muntari to Inter Milan for £12.7million, with supposed interest from Rangers in Pedro Mendes, and will immediately blast Villa out of the water in terms of both bids and personal terms for Shaun Wright-Phillips and Younes Kaboul.

I spoke to Martin O'Neill yesterday on the telephone and although he won't comment on individual transfer cases it was pleasing to actually hear him admit that Villa have to spend big: "just to stand still."

Incidentally, I'm told Wright-Phillips would jump at the chance of a move to Villa over Pompey.

That will change if an offer of £60,000 a week comes his way from 'appy 'arry.

It has developed into the best card game since Stu "The Kid" Ungar played in the 1980 World Series of Poker and won the main event, defeating poker legend Doyle Brunson.

You've guessed it. The Gareth Barry saga is set to run and run.

The latest twist is that Liverpool have let it be known, with a whisper to a source, that they are now focussing on other targets, namely Robbie Keane, and will let Villa sit and wait.

Don't believe a word of it.

Sure they will have to wait, but they've no choice!

Martin O'Neill has seen this possible occurence all along and is 100 per cent convinced, I understand, that Barry's agent and Liverpool must have drawn up a fall-back plan should their plan to get him out of Villa back-fire and leave him in limbo, which is precisely where he remains despite the fact he is back at Bodymoor.

Barry is back training as Villa could not exclude him for any longer than a fortnight.

Expect him to be training alone this weekend, with possibly Stephen O'Halloran and youngsters like Barry Bannan- who shares his agency- to keep him company.

That is a great, great shame.

But did O'Neill avoid a face-to-face meeting by not showing up at Bodymoor between the hours of 9am and 1pm- again, absolutely not.

O'Neill was never going to be there and Barry probably knew it.

Will they have face-to-face showdown talks? Nope. Probably not.

I'm expecting more of an icey edge to their future meet. There is little left to discuss as the card game between O'Neill and Rafa Benitez takes shape.

The plan is that Villa will get on with this weekend's game at Odense- they fly out tomorrow with as few as eight supporters having paid top whack of £675 for one night's accommodation to go out with the team- and then they will crack on with bringing in those half-a-dozen players they are so, so desperate for.

Talking of Odense, that four-day coach trip was replaced by a much more luxurious two night stay in Denmark for the price of £399, including match ticket.

One Villa couple I know, whose surname sounds like a Simon and Garfunkel classic without the 'troubled', took a gamble by paying for two £20 flight returns to Copenhagen, knowing that the official trip would be somewhat extortionate.

Sort of puts Villa's package in a different light.

And I know you are keen to know if Stiliyan Petrov's phone is working. The answer: yes- and he was top quality.

He rang whilst sitting in an ice bath at Bodymoor. I have not got a TV phone but that is what he informed me.

I guess that could have been his excuse for making him making the conversation last: "no more than ten minutes", as he stipulated.

I tried my damndest to get to the half-hour mark but I could hear his teeth chattering.

I'll be speaking to Stiliyan Petrov later today and no, I won't be asking him about Gareth Barry's return to training.

Why?

It's not that I wouldn't like to. More so that I have been politely asked not to and one wouldn't want to rock the boat.

Villa went out of their way to make sure there were no tricky questions at the friendliest ground in the world last night.

No player had a chance to splurt a word out of line because they shuffled onto the coach faster than anything we saw in that rather depressing second half.

"Can we speak to a player?", asked one reporter. "No, I don't think so", came the reply.

"Go on- just one of the younger lads about how great it is to play for Villa?".

"No- they're all on the bus", he answered, safe in the knowldge that the bus was the other side of a huge stand and there was no immediate way of knowing either way.

Still, at least the manager faced the music. Although his utterances about messers Barry and David Bentley were as brief as Zat Knight's concentration levels.

There's me thinking you would have to be at least 6'7" to outjump a giant from a corner.

So what has O'Neill learnt?

Well, that he needs a goalkeeper, a right-back, left-back cover, a centre half, a ball-winner, a right-winger and a striker who can finish.

So who were Villa linked with today? Yes, a left-winger. Although to be fair, I think 17 top flight clubs would fancy Stewart Downing in their squad.

He has also learnt that he needs a fit Martin Laursen more than ever, that Nigel Reo-Coker is no full-back, that Steve Sidwell is more than a little rusty after six or seven weeks out, that Wilfred Bouma's attitude in wanting to play is spot on but that he might need to ease back in and that he needs to act as a matter of urgency to bring in a stack of new players.

Lincoln saw the very best of Villa and the worst.

Ashley Young was at his mesmerising best one minute and the other was too busy giving some lip to the referee or to Lincoln's Scott Kerr.

John Carew scored a cracker and looked a real menace. Then limped off with "tightness" which probably suggests that with his new ginger hair he has indeed got Scottish blood somewhere.

Wayne Routlede was .... well, at times he almost dazzled as he operated in so much space that he must have thought he was at the helm of the Starship Enterprise.

But he mostly failed to park it through the asteroids.

Marlon Harewood? Proved just why he is used so often as a 20 minute battering ram. His one miss when clean through on the keeper will have been talked about by the locals long into the night.

Villa were terrific for almost an hour and then woeful.

But such are pre-season friendlies that I am not in the slightest bit worried.

These games used to be just a simple footnote at the very bottom of a daily or Sunday paper: Lincoln 3 Aston Villa 1 it would state in minute print. And you would spend the rest of the morning wondering who got the Villa goal.

Craig Gardner's injury is a big worry though.

Time for O'Neill and the board to get moving and quick.

Which brings me back to Petrov. A couple of text messages have arrived over the last hour or so.

The first: "He is having his lunch", and the second: "he is having treatment".

I am expecting a third: "His mobile battery has ran out".

So Villa's InterToto fairytale will begin in the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen.

The road trip to Lincoln tonight promises to be rather more of a nightmare.

It's hard to know who was more relieved at the weekend: the kindly figure sat next to me in Zurich as we watched Villa struggle through 90 minutes against a much fitter side, or the Villa tour operator who had had the foresight to oragnise a coach trip to Odense a month ago?

The 'kindly' figure next to me as Villa were beaten 2-1 by FC Zurich?

I thought with his grey-hair and immaculate manners that he must be the local journalist as he introduced himself. But the conversation soon included things like: "When I managed Estonia at Wembley last season", and "I used to manage Martin Laursen's old club Silkeborg in Denmark", and: "when I moved to Bayern Munich".....

It's the sort of stuff you hear occasionally from a drunk in any bar.

So I "googled" his name there and then... and he turned out to be Odense's assistant coach, a chap called Viggo Jensen.

There it all was: two spells at managing Silkeborg, two at Odense BK, Bayern Munich as a player, eight caps for Denmark etc....

As the game wore on he soon started to draw immaculate diagrams of Villa's set-pieces.

"You can't possibly learn anything from this game", I said, thinking that Villa were not only at half-strength but half-hearted.

"You can always learn", he smiled back.

He asked if Ashley Young is always allowed to roam freely across the pitch. "Blimey", I thought. This bloke is paying attention.

So I told him Villa's likely line-up this weekend: Harewood in goal, Young at left-back, Sidwell up front in a 4-5-1.... I hope he took it all down.

Odense- (I love their old nickname "The Mackerel Tabby Tomcats" better than their modern day "Tigers") will be a tougher nut to crack than Lincoln, and probably a tougher nut than Zurich.

But get it right and it could be an expensive season ahead for Villa fans- hence Steve Gough's move to get the coach trip booked a month early.

I've travelled with his motly crew for a few years now and it's always good fun. There's a right mix of characters, young and old. I met the fan they call "Vicar" on Friday night in Zurich. He didn't wear a white collar, and seemed to blaspheme more than most, if not all, men of the church I have met.

You can join them in Denmark by calling Steve on 01543- 426426 but take a change of clothes or two as you won't be back til Monday!

Now back on to Lincoln- I'm travelling this afternoon with Geoff from the Villa web-site. The trip should take us at some point to a country pub but will invariably take us on the M6 beforehand.

My solution for solving congestiion on that slab of concrete (in the highly unlikely event that I were ever to be asked). Simply banning lorries, motorbikes, 4x4s and any coloured car that isn't grey.

The sunshine is excruciating.

I'm sat here up in the stands of the brand-spanking new AFG Arena in St Gallen watching 20-odd blokes in red T-shirts and navy blue shorts running about on lush green grass.

I'm sweating cobs in the press box. God only knows how they arer coping in the sweltering heat.

The AFG I suppose best resembles Coventry City's Ricoh Arena, although it probably holds around 20,000 rather than closer to 30,000.

The line of executive boxes along the main stand are impressive.

A shopping mall is underneath, and a casino. I wonder how many of these players have spotted the staircase behind the goal to my left with "Grand Casino" in big letters?

Marlon Harewood and John Carew have taken off their shirts to reveal boxers' physiques.

They are in a foursome with Craig Gardner and Moustapha Salifou in a passing drill watched closely by Seamus McDonagh.

In fact all the senior pros are split into groups of four with the younger lads on the far side of the pitch doing some stretching exercises under the scrutiny of Martin O'Neill, who looks to be the only man in the stadium wearing tracksuit bottoms, and John Roberston.

We're 45 minutes in and the players are now taking a well-earned drinks break.

The cones are being collected. Wayne Routledge and Ashley Young are joined by Harewood in a game of keepy-uppy. Salifou is doing some stomach exercises. As if his washboard isn't flat enough?

Routledge yelps like anm excited puppy. I think one of the other two has dropped the ball.

Stiliyan Petrov has the best idea. He's sat down a yard or two away topping up his tan.

With a game tomorrow afternoon in Zurich and a swimming pool session booked this afternoon, the session is brought to an end.

I've got a relatively free afternoon then. Just have to file a couple of tales for the Saturday Mail garnered from last ngiht's 6-0 win in Wil.

It's a tough job but someone has to do it.