The Villa Times - 13/03/2009

Unoial Villa News...

Villa's Marc Albrighton and Ciaran Clark have been named in the England under-20s squad who face Italy on Tuesday 31st March at Loftus Road. (7pm kick off for any London based Villans!)

Marlon Harewood is being linked with a move to Wolves. Full details: Click Here The Hare And The Scot

Appy Arry is safe at Villa Park according to Martin O'Neill - and well he and every bloody one else should be, we don't need numpties making the place dangerous! Spurs 'Arry Is Safe

The BBC sport site are reporting that Cardiff will take Aston Villa keeper Stuart Taylor to Ninian Park on loan until the end of the season. Full article: Stuart Taylor On His Way To Cardiff?

According to quotes from Kevin Doyle, the prolific Reading striker will be available in the summer if Reading don't get promoted as he wants to return to the Premiership. 'I hope I won't have a decision to make, but I do want to be playing in the Premier League,' Apparently along with Villa, Newcastle United, Fulham, Everton and Sunderland are interested in the Irish hit man.

An interview with Oxfordspur from Vital Spurs ahead of the weekends game: Click Here
My interview for the Vital Spurs site: Click Here

Gareth Barry has spoken to AVTV about his great goal against Spurs two seasons ago in the 1-1 draw. He said 'It is still the best goal I've scored for the club. Any sort of goal will always do but the special ones are better. There are still good memories there with that goal so hopefully there'll be a couple more.'

Martin O'Neill says the 'relationship between crowd and players in this vital run-in is of utmost importance.' I think in a warning against the booing seen at the end of the Stoke game, he says on the Official Site: 'Crowds can get agitated very quickly - although I don't think our crowd has had too much to be agitated about this season. There will be twists and turns - ups and downs in games - and it's important the crowd stays with the team throughout everything. That's absolutely vital. It's so, so important.' Full article: O'Neill Ask Villa's 12th Man To Stay WITH Team

Arsenal's Eduardo has told Arsenal TV Online that the Gunners will beat Villa to a Champions League place and predicts they'll finish 3rd. I'd place bets they won't! 'What is important is that we are defending well and the performances are coming. There are a lot of great players coming back now - Walcott, Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky and Adebayor - and it will be okay. I think we can be in the top three in the Premier League.'

Meanwhile Theo Walcott says the team are buzzing after their Champions League win and says despite all the different nationalities the squad is like a family. He thinks they are now ready to push us out of the top four. He said on Sky Sports 'We have got a lot of players coming back towards the end of the season. We seem to have had our bad spell. Now hopefully we can have a good spell and push for those Champions League spots.'

Vital Villa asked if we were to now finish 5th, would you view it as.. 54% voted 'a bit disappointed at losing out on the Champs league'. Very British response that really, 'bit disappointed' chaps wot wot! 25% would still see it as a positive and voted 'Progress is progress, so reasonably happy!' 13% voted 'gutted' and said the season would be a failure. The rest, 8% if you can't do your own maths, 'Great success, challenged 'big 4' all the way! HAPPY'

Gareth Barry says Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has done a good job getting Spurs off the bottom and the Villa team know they will be in a fight on Sunday. 'We know it is going be a tough game but we'll be concentrating on Aston Villa and really trying to take the game to them as we are the home team and pushing for that fourth spot.'

James Milner has told the official site Villa will have to be at their best to get passed Jonathan Woodgate. Milner said: 'Jon is awesome. I played with him at Leeds and Newcastle. I even used to watch him when I was a young lad watching the Leeds youth team with my mum and dad. He was fantastic back then and he has improved as a player. He is as good as anyone I have ever played with.' He also says he's been unlucky with injuries adding, 'I don't think people realise how good he is because of that. But you can't be a bad player if Real Madrid come calling.'

Milner also told the official site that the Spurs 'promises to be a good game. They have solid players at the back, like Jon, and we have pace and quality going forward.'

Talking of Milner, Vital Villan has taken to calling him Milly and .... God knows why by the way.... has some quotes from Martin O'Neill about his delight at having James in the team. Full article: O'Neill's Milly Delight

Thought for the day: My girlfriend pull up a chair earlier and said 'we've got to talk about our future'. I said 'yes, it's going to be amazing, we'll having hover boards, flying cars, silver metal suits and holidays on Mars'. I'm now single.

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