Peace to One and All

WHEN will Martin O'Neill admit that Marlon Harewood has no future at the club.

Not even on the bench for last night's welcome win against Porto, Harewood is the ideal replacement for the suspended Emile Heskey in Seville against Juventus.

But even with a side ravaged by injury, non-availability and suspension Harewood is unlikely to be anywhere near the action.

Elsewhere Curtis Davies is convinced that he will be available to play on Sunday.

That's all very well but anyone who saw him wince at Everton last season when that shoulder initially popped out of its socket will now see that Davies potentially has a problem that may need corrective surgery, similar to that undertaken by Luke Moore.

Eric Lichaj and the highly impressive Marc Albrighton (who needs David Bentley) picked up their second bookings in the rather niggly affair against Porto and as we left the stadium there was a good deal of confusion as to whether they might be available or would miss out.

Just imagine if one, two or all three of those players don't make it - what sort of side would O'Neill be able to field against Juve?

It's no doubt a great experience for the likes of Lichaj, Albrighton, Ciaran Clark, Shane Lowry, Barry Bannan (who has now certainly slipped down the pecking order behind Albrighton), Chris Herd and Andreas Weimann.

But tomorrow could be one step too far against the Italians who ended the hopes of Ronaldo and co with their 2-1 win against Real Madrid.

It also won't help that Seville is renowned as the hottest place in Spain. The "frying pan" as it has been tagged.

As for last night's game. Brad Guzan appears to have given himself a real shout at one day soon replacing Brad Friedel. His handling was assured and he pulled off some fine saves. There were two clear errors when he lost the ball along the touchline and could easily have given away a penalty only for the referee to side with him in one incident. But his display was overall extremely sound.

Porto were a distasteful outfit. There was much gamesmanship. It was little surprise when Heskey paid the price.

Ashley Young has started pre-season with the proverbial 'bit between his teeth'. Steve Sidwell won the official man-of-the-match vote and certainly looked more like the player who shone for a brief time around the turn of the year.

Nigel Reo-Coker has taken to the captaincy. A pity for him then that Stiliyan Petrov will be back in two to three weeks.

But probably for me the game's most outstanding player was John Carew who, considering his laid back persona and the fact that these really are just friendlies, looked well and truly a man possessed.

True Porto defended shockingly at times and did not look on the night anything like Premier League let alone European standard.

But there is at last something for Villa supporters to be pleased about before the next week or two sees some strenuous efforts made in rebuilding a seriously reduced squad.

Work to bring in Sylvain Distin and get Portsmouth to reduce their £4.5m asking price should gather pace.

I am expecting Blackburn's Stephen Warnock to make the switch.

I understand Miguel Veloso and Sporting Lisbon are hanging on the telephone waiting for Villa to complete a £12m switch.

Sol Campbell could now also expect to be offered a short term contract.

And don't rule out an expensive foreign signing, a flagship signing, the likes of which O'Neill has never made before.

I've said before that Villa are at a crossroads. Perhaps they have taken just the first step on the right road.