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The latest news for all things claret and blue;
An interesting link to released Man City defender Micah Richards. There are speculative stories that Richard’s will snub a 90k per week deal in favour of 65k a week at Villa, following a Sherwood intervention. I wish I only had to settle for 65k per week…
We shall see. Richards cut a strong and powerful figure in his early days at City. Was he a victim of their spending spree and massive recruitment to secure the Premier League title? The Birmingham born, former England international, could easily take a shirt in our woeful defence. Perhaps that of the seemingly outgoing Ron Vlaar.
The funny thing about the Vlaar situation is that he carries reasonable stock in the footballing world to those watching from afar. Many still reference his good World Cup. There lies the warning; so good in so few games. He was the best defender in an atrocity of an Aston Villa defence. Ron was also guilty of some criminal defending himself & is severely injury prone. Indeed, he has just withdrawn from the Dutch training camp following a recurrence of an ongoing calf injury.
I thank Ron for his services should he depart, he could have been a Villa legend, but he never got close.
Villa have added another pre-season friendly in the form of double European Cup winners Nottingham Forest. A much missed away day and fixture from my perspective, this adds something with a bit of heritage to the close season calendar. The game will also seen Gary Gardner, impressive on loan at Forest last season, make a return to the City Ground.
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A baffling rumour to surface is that the club are already looking to move on Carles Gil. Given what we saw when he played in some of our darkest hours last season, there appeared enough creativity and flair to warrant at least a place amongst the squad. Indeed, it felt as though we might have pulled off a coup in landing the talented Spaniard. However, it appears things have soured & a move back to Spain could be on the cards.
In other news, Darren Bent, it transpires, cost us over £500,000 an appearance. Sweet jesus.
Villa have been linked to rising star Sam Byram at Leeds. The 21 year old plays at fullback & is currently valued at an eye watering £8 million pounds.
Tom Fox, our active and increasingly impressive CEO, has confirmed that we intend to offer Christian Benteke an improved contract. This is not a surprise in itself. What is, is Fox’s strong suggestion that he believes Benteke will stay at Villa Park.
However, Benteke comes across as a humble and honest human being. Certainly a quiet and thoughtful individual. He appears to enjoy playing at Villa, being at Villa & being an idol at the club. With that said, it is understandable that he might also want to test himself at the very highest levels of the domestic & European game. Time will tell. If Fox manages to keep Christian for another season, this side of the European Championships, he will have done something quite unbelievable.
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