The Week In Villa #21 (09/01/09 - 15/01/09)

{put through admin again due to a fault last time JF}

Friday, 9th January

The suggestion that Barry, Laursen and Cuellar will be fit for the Albion game gains momentum, which is excellent news. On the subject of Gareth Barry, MON is hopeful that his groin troubles will not require surgery. If it does, we can only hope it can wait until the summer.

Steve Sidwell says in an interview he is confident about us finishing in the top 4, and that we are where we are on merit. But what is he supposed to say? 'No, we`re where we are on luck and we will not finish in the top 4. In fact, I doubt we will even qualify for the UEFA Cup'. Now, our former manager may have that kind of approach with the media, but generally speaking I think the positive approach is the better one!

Saturday, 10th January

Villa 2 - 1 Albion. This went just like the game at the Hawthorns. We go 2-0 up, should be coasting, let them back in with some soppy defending, meaning the remainder of the game is more uncomfortable than it should be. The truth is that Brad Friedel had pretty much nothing to do, but it was still more difficult than it needed to be. We had the better chances and probably should have had a third, but we won and that is what is important.

Th icing on the cake was that my Aunty Mandy had Curtis Davies for first goal scorer!

Sunday, 11th January

Tony Mowbray comes out with some quite frankly bizarre comments about us not being interested in playing football. I mean, seriously? We have a style of play that is effective, and accentuates our strengths in an attacking area. Yes, it would be nice to have a Paul Merson-esque player in the side that could hugely improve our ability to unlock deep-lying defences. But overall, we are fairly entertaining to watch, we often look like scoring when we are on the counter and in midfield we have people like Gareth Barry and Stilyian Petrov who are hardly kick-and-run merchants! Sure, Albion retain the ball a bit better than we do but we are far more effective not only going forward but also as a defensive unit. Put it this way, looking at the league table, it is an absolute no-brainer on what style is working better is it!

Monday, 12th January

Various reports suggest that we are going to make a £12m bid for Kenwyne Jones. I have no idea what to believe in the press anymore, I just know that most of it is rubbish!

Stan Collymore comments on the OS that he believes James Milner`s future lies in central-midfield. Some of us have been singing from that hymn sheet for a while!

Gareth Barry gives a similar interview to Steve Sidwell on Friday, suggesting there has never been a better time to finish in the top 4. I`m inclined to agree, as only Manchester United seem to have any real positive momentum about them in terms of the 'established` top 4 sides; that said, we also have to take some of the credit, as we are doing a decent job of trying to take advantage of the situation - so far anyway! I can`t help but think back to some games like Pompey, Fulham & Boro at home, Newcastle & Stoke away… anyone that suggests we haven`t had a blip this season just needs to think about those games and realise where we actually could be.

Tuesday, 13th January

Luke Young says lots of positive things about Kenwyne Jones, maybe in the hope that he will read them and want to sign for us!

In other news, we are linked - yet again - with Charles N`Zogbia, and the reserves draw 0-0 against West Ham.

Oh, and in former Villain news, Brian Little turns down the assistant manager job at Leeds. Personally, I see that as good news!

Finally, the best news of the day is that John Billington has been charged for chucking that 50p coin at the linesman in the Portsmouth game. He will go in front of the magistrates on Thursday.

Wednesday, 14th January

Superb news comes in the shape of John Carew and Wilfred Bouma both returning to training. It is only light training, but I can not believe there is a Villa that is not pleased to hear the news. I believe the conspiracy theories about Carew not playing for MON again are complete and utter tosh, and I for one am looking forward to both players returning. It`s a cliché, but it will be almost like two new signings.

Carlos Cuellar says he is living the dream at Villa. Glad to hear it Carlos!

Finally, a rather strange story suggests that we have made a £9m faxed offer to Chelsea for Didier Drogba. Unsurprisingly, no-one really takes any notice of it!

Thursday, 15th January

John Billington pleads guilty to the charge of battery, and his sentence will be decided next month.

Our search for a striker seems destined to go on as both Emile Heskey and Kenwyne Jones are apparently staying at their clubs until the end of the season.

Which is about it; we have another good week in terms of us winning again and the injury news. Plus the unsavoury coin-throwing incident is virtually at an end. Now, if we could just sign a player or two…

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