English Premier League Rumours: Aston Villa in focus
The future for Aston Villa is shining brightly. The club side has been making serious challenges in the Carling Cup, the Champions League and the FA Cup semi-finals. Along with that, their reserves have won the Southern Premier League for the past three seasons. Adding to the achievements for the club, Aston Villa’s youth side lost in the finals of the FA Youth Cup.
After going through all of this, the club seems to be on a rise. But various rumours have cause d a stir of negativity amongst Aston Villa fans as only ten days are left in the new premiership season.
For the third season running, transfer rumours have filled up the space regarding the clubs star players leaving their midst. Last season showed how rumours can work against an English club. Rumours regarding Gareth Barry were rambling on with Liverpool showing keen interest in him in 2009. The player eventually left for Manchester City last season.
This time it’s James Milner who is constantly surrounded by rumours. Manchester City has already spent over seventy million and they have had a twenty million offer rejected by Villa for the midfielder. Rumours are rife that the offer will be increased to twenty four million but it is believed that the Midlands club is going to hold out till they get an offer of at least thirty million.
There is a bit of doubt in the player’s future as fans are disheartened by all the rumours associated with the club.
Right now, Aston Villa is the only Premiership club that is yet to bring any new player during the transfer window till date. Fans are worried about the total strength of their side as there has been a major decrease in their total strength which is sending discouraging signals to Aston Villa fans.
Still some might argue that is there is a need to worry as the clubs last two years have been really beneficial for their reputation. They have the starting eleven and that includes some very talented players and to add to that some young players are actually about to come into the first team.
Even though there have been no transfers as of now. Still, it is known about Martin O’ Neill that he tends to do go about his business in the last week of the transfer window. This may be a good tactic as in the end the club may be able to strike deals that could not have been possible before.
Aston Villa is a team that has had one of the best defensive records in the league. And this includes Manchester United and Chelsea. Brad Friedel is still considered one of the most reliable and best keepers in his division even despite his age which is thirty nine. James Collins and Richard Dunne have a great defensive partnership that has impressed a lot of people. Stephen Warnock and Carlos Cuellar are pretty decent on flanks and even though Cuellar to most people looks more effective in the position of centre, he still does this pretty well.
If the club actually manages to keep James Milner, then they would have a player that is constantly proving time and time again to be one of the best midfielders out there. Plus even if he leaves, the club would have enough money to get a replacement and for that Stephen Ireland is a good candidate for that as he is very popular among the fans, also given that Gabriel Agbolanhor and John Carew are really good supports.
Plus, a good outcome from all of this would be that it would be great to see the young talent given an opportunity to prove themselves in the big leagues. Among that is Marc Albrighton and he seems like a really good player, who is able to achieve his target and deliver the ball into the net.
Amongst the youngsters, there is another name that comes to mind and that is Nathan Delfouneso who won the U19 European Champions Golden Ball and this is something that Villa should give a chance to.
In conclusion, Aston Villa seems to be in a very decent position for next season and there is still some time left in the transfer window and teams around them have not strengthened that much with the exception of Manchester City.
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