Carling Cup Is Just The Start

Stan Collymore believes that Villa's Carling cup Final appearance should be considered merely the start of our success.

Speaking to the Press Association (I assume as the quotes are everywhere) former Villan Stan believes that Villa's youngsters will gain the necessary experience in the Cup Final against Manchester United to start a period of our own domination, much in the way Man U themselves benefited from Scholes, Giggs etc tasting the glory and gaining such experiences earlier in their careers.

Commenting that not only is Martin O'Neill the right man to lead us to Trophy glory, and purely fantastic that Villa have reached the final he says:

'The game with United should be regarded as just the start for Villa. They will benefit enormously from walking into the Wembley dressing room and being involved in such a big occasion.'

Collymore really believes that this is the beginning and says he expects the club and the group of players we have to become 'accustomed' to reaching Cup Finals in future seasons, as once they have the taste of glory like this, not a single one of the players won't want to taste it again and give their all to achieve it again.

On Monny specifically, he's full of praise:

'O'Neill won the cup twice at Leicester and he will know exactly how to prepare for the final. I remember the way Martin motivated the players.'

I'm not convinced we are at the stage where a single appearance will be the catalyst for us to become 'accustomed' to Cup Finals, I think we should just enjoy it for what it is at the moment, but that said there's no doubt in the fact that whether we win or lose, the experience for the younger members of our team will be invaluable as we continue to move forward.

Whether it's enough of a taste of success to kick us to the next level, the next 18 months will tell, but we are moving in the right direction.

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