Cult John Carew Not For Sale

Although relations looked stretched at points last season, Villa boss Martin O’Neill says that John Carew is in his plans and he has no intention of selling the Norwegian striker.

The 29-year-old, who if you didn't know is bigger than me and you, has been linked with Manchester City and Spurs (who hasn't in fairness?!) but MON has now clearly said he isn't looking to let him go.

'We want John to stay at the club – he’s signed for a couple of years and we want him to stick around. He’s very popular with the crowd and that helps his confidence. And his goal-scoring ratio is now up to where it should be. We want him to stay here, it’s as simple as that.

MON says the 'incident' before the Ajax game appears to have made him a 'cult' figure (I did re-check that he said cult by the way!) with the fans and adds that JC had a 'great season' scoring wise judging by the fact he missed 3 months (20 odd games) through injury.

Last season he made 18 Premiership starts and came off the bench 9 times. He scored 11 goals and picked up just two yellow cards. In the FA Cup he started two games and scored one. The league cup he featured once with no goal and in the UEFA Cup he started four, scored 3 and got 1 yellow card. Compare that with Gabby who started 35 PL games and scored just 1 more? (Total 13 goals)

MON finished: 'For him to come back from his bad back the way he did was fantastic. I couldn’t be more pleased with him, he’s done terrifically well for us.'

I think that is the key, Carew came back strong at the end of the season, if he had come back and not been focused, I honestly think he'd have been out of the door, but he did all you could expect him to after his return from injury, he shot and indeed, he scored. Come to think of it, he was the only striker who did that... top marks!

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