Steve Sidwell and Craig Gordon recovering; Vincent Kompany on Manchester City signing Yaya Toure
Steve Sidwell, the former Chelsea midfielder who had been sidelined at Aston Villa due to injury, has finally started his way back to recovery. Sidwell has started playing for the Reserve side of Aston Villa and is believed to be getting ready in time for Villa’s next league match. The former Reading man has not featured in any of the first 5 games for his club this season.
Sidwell encountered the problem during a pre-season friendly with Spanish club Valencia. The midfielder suffered an Achilles injury and has been out of action since. He played for the whole 90 minutes in the reserve team against Blackpool; Aston Villa Reserves won the match 4 goals to nil.
Former Villa manager Martin O’Neill had put Sidwell on sale during the transfer window but no deal was established. He was ruled out of matches against West Ham, Newcastle and Everton and 2 Europa League matches home and away against Rapid Vienna.
Steve Sidwell was believed to be on his way to Fulham during the transfer window, but Roy Hodgson, who was the manager of Fulham at the time, moved to Liverpool and the new man in charge, Mark Hughes, decided not to buy him. Later, West Brom was also believed to be interested in his services but no serious offer was reported.
Sidwell was signed by Aston Villa for 5 million pounds from Chelsea back in 2008, but he has not been able to establish himself in the first-team since moving to Villa Park.
The midfielder said that he is pleased to be recovering in time for the next match for his club; Sidwell said that the last few weeks had been immensely frustrating. However, after the match with the Reserves he feels fit enough to get back in the first-team. He added that when you are injured the most difficult part is to watch matches from the sidelines. He went on to say that all he wants to do now is to get back on the pitch and do what he does best.
Meanwhile, Manchester City player Vincent Kompany has voiced his surprise over Barcelona’s decision to allow Yaya Toure to leave. Toure had been an important player for the Spanish champions in the last few years and played an important role in them winning the league last season and the Champions League before that. Barca manager Pep Guardiola agreed to a fee of 28 million from Manchester City and let his midfielder go.
Kompany believes that Toure may turn out to be one of the most significant signings made by Roberto Mancini this season. He said that Yaya has the ability to dominate the midfield and can dictate terms from the centre of the park. Kompany went on to say that Barcelona may end up regretting their decision of letting him go.
The Manchester City defender said that Toure is a winner and brings the same mentality to the club, and may be able to inspire others around him and will turn out to be an absolute star this season.
Over at the Stadium of Light, Craig Gordon, the injured goalkeeper for Sunderland, says that he should be back in action at the end of this month. The Scotsman was injured in the off season, when he fractured his arm. The injury was worse because he had gone through a surgery just few days before to get rid of a similar problem.
Gordon has not been able to feature in Sunderland’s first few games this season, and also missed out on Scotland’s Euro 2012 qualifiers.
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