Mice and Men

MY BROTHER has just sent a text from Brisbane.

"I've hurt my foot trying to kick a mouse. I think it might be broken."

Did he mean his foot?

Was he talking about a computer mouse. Is that what is broken?

You can tell that it's not a particularly pleasant time to be involved with Aston Villa.

I'd prefer to be writing about mice rather than men. Although granted at times the two can become confused.

Take Anfield for instance.

Men against boys.

And mice.

One player exiting the ground and then pretending to check his mobile phone whilst he could then await back-up.

He was a senior player. Known for his robust, energetic style.

He stopped in his tracks when he noticed he had to walk outside, albeit a 20 yard chicken run blocked from the public by a run of four foot heavy steel barriers to get onto the team bus.

"Are there are fans out there?" - he asked a steward.

"A few", came back the reply.

So he hid behind a wall, punching buttons on his mobile phone until a 6'5" team-mate and two other colleagues walked past when he scurried after them, safe under their wings.

To be fair to the Villa supporters, they were terrific on Sunday. Chanting for Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner, and the players for that matter, right to the bitter end of a crunching, demoralising defeat.

Few, if any, will have wanted to wait around the team coach to dish out stick.

What did we learn about the team?

Well, that Nigel Reo Coker should never be asked to play right-back again.

That neither Curtis Davies nor Carlos Cuellar have much confidence at present.

That Brad Friedel had a troublesome afternoon.

That Ashley Young disappears like something out of a Paul Daniels magic box when Villa play the top four.

That James Milner divides opinion almost as much as Gabby Agbonlahor judjing by the texts that come my way after games.

That Gareth Barry divides opinion almost as much as James Milner after defeats.

"Should Gareth Barry leave in the summer?" was the too predicatable web vote and chat taking place towards the end of the game.

Villa supporters can whistle if they think Barry leaving will be good for team rebuilding. Unfortunately they will have to get accustomed to that way of thinking because it is 90 per cent going to happen. And for £10 million what can you get these days?

Wilfred Bouma's return at Manchester United is a near cert. Thank the Lord!

A five man midfield with Gabby, Carew or Heskey up front is a near cert. Thank Goodness!

In the days of John Gregory when Villa were always pushing the big boys at the start of the season only to fall away runs of eight, ten or 12 games like this current sequence would always occur.

But such were the joyous expectations of mid-February that this season is far worse than anything that has gone befoe, since probably Graham Taylor's side fell away after challenging Liverpool through the early months of 1990.

Can they recover? The good news is that Manchester United have 20 players away on international duty, including a few kids. Although Ronaldo and Nani are only involved in one friendly against South Africa this Saturday, the likes of Tevez and Anderson - both whom you would imagine would become central figures in the light of such selection problems - will be playing back-to-back games in South America.

No wonder Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly refused to switch the match to the Saturday.

Villa have ten away, including Moustapha Salifou and a few who will not feature at Old Trafford.

Having the likes of Zat Knight and the quartet of Curtis Davies, Luke Young, Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young dropped from the main England set-up helps.

Then Agbonlahor gets an under-21 call. It will not have gone down well with the manager but the irony is that after a season of 40-odd games for Villa Gabby actually needs games right now to get his confidence back.

United have three players suspended: Scholes, Rooney and Vidic, and Berbatov struggling through injury.

But would you bet on Villa? Not on current form. But then again, you wouldn't find many given them a prayer at The Emirates all those months ago.

Back to Anfield and some of the talk in the tunnel turned to Brian Clough, or more accurately, a steward asked John Robertson - ex of Nottingham Forest and then signed rather controversially by Peter Taylor at Derby County - what he thought of the new film about Clough's 44-day reign at Leeds United: "The Damned United."

The book has not gone down well with the Clough family. The biggest reason appears to be that the picture painted of Clough is that he was a heavy drinker, forever with a whiskey at hand.

I heard Robertson, politely, answer that he was not interested in the film, again because he thought it portrayed Clough in an unfair light.

"I never saw him take a drop", he quite firmly said to the man in the yellow jacket. before disappearing back into the bowels of the stadium.

Which reminds me....I once saw a journalist not drink whilst on the job.