Premier league round up: Aston Villa January 11th, 2011
Aston Villa manager http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robert-c31222 Pires as soon as he was available for selection. Pires, who joined Villa as a free agent on a short term deal, hadn’t played first team football for 7 months
before joining midlands and needed some time to remove the rust from his body.
Playing the player too quickly led to the former Arsenal man underperforming and couldn’t make an impact on the midlands club. That led to Houllier leaving the player out from the first team, making Pires confused as to why he was handed the deal in the
first place. The Frenchman questioned the tactics of the team and was off the mind that should they keep playing this way, they may well be relegated.
"I think it (what he said) was taken out of context. He came to see me on Friday night. He said on the radio that he was happy not to play. I said 'it's a good job that you are happy not to play because if a player is happy not to play, he doesn't deserve
to be on the bench,” stated the Aston Villa coach.
The coach, therefore, accepted that he played Pires too early and should’ve given him more time to adapt to Villa’s style of play. Houllier added that now that Pires has spent 2-3 months at the club, the player is getting better and would return to the first
team in the near future.
Pires spent 6 seasons with Arsenal and was part of their famous “Invincibles” in the 2003/04 season. The midfielder managed 284 appearances with Arsenal in his 6 years, scoring 84 goals. Pires then left Arsenal to sign up for Spanish side Villarreal. The
Frenchman was considered one of the most gifted midfielders of his era but seems to have lost his X factor owing to his age. The now 37-year-old is currently waiting for first team opportunities with Aston Villa.
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