Aston Villa Football Blog

Gerrard Houllier and Arsene Wenger may be countrymen and great friends off the field, but both had to put aside their respect for each other as their teams faced one another in the weekend’s early Premier League kick off.
Arsenal, nursing their wounded pride after back-to-back defeats at the hands of Tottenham and Braga, seemed ready to dish out a hiding, and having not lost to Aston Villa away from home in twelve years, and with Villa’s own squad ravaged by injury and illness, it seemed that the Midlands outfit might …

Federico Macheda and Nemanja Vidic’s late goals were enough for Manchester United to escape Villa Park with a draw they scarcely deserved after Ashley Young from the penalty spot, and Marc Albrighton on the break, had given the home side a well deserved lead.
Villa, who have not beaten United at home in fifteen years, will feel they should have had the game won by the time Macheda’s rocket shot found the top corner, after hitting the woodwork twice within the space of two second half minutes.
It’s partly a sign of …

Summers at Villa Park have been tainted by a series of bitter, protracted transfer sagas in recent years. While they should have been bathing in the warm July sun, and counting the daisies in tranquil beer gardens with the rest of the country, most Villa fans were instead chained to their computers and televisions, waiting for the latest scraps of information in the unsavoury transfers of their star players.
This year it was the turn of James Milner. Welcomed as a returning hero when he completed his club record £12.5 million …

Gerard Houllier may not have cast his line into the murky waters of the transfer market for Villa just yet, but he has wasted little time in addressing the club’s deficiencies behind the scenes. It was announced yesterday that 44-year-old Jeff Vetere has been appointed Chief Scout, a position which had been vacant since Ian Storey-Moore joined Martin O’Neiil’s August exodus.
Vetere, A UEFA A-license qualified coach, brings with him a wealth of experience, having been involved with youth football at Charlton Athletic under Alan Curbishley, before turning his attention towards …

It was a sentiment expressed by many, albeit in hushed tones. When Houllier finally settled into Villa Park just what would he make of John Carew? After all, this was a player he had offloaded to Villa when in charge at Lyon. Add to the mix Carew’s nomadic career path (Norway, Spain, Italy, Turkey, France and England have all been home in the space of a decade), his reported penchant for a certain exotic entertainment, and his quite astonishing injury record and the writing appeared to be on the wall. …

So went the chant, as it cascaded down the Putney End stand housing the away fans at Craven Cottage at the weekend. In part this outcry from the away end can be ascribed to an inability to move on from the whole bitter Gareth Barry transfer saga of 18 months past. But to attribute it purely to this grim obsession would be to grossly underestimate the rise of Barry Bannan.
The young Scot was one of the clubs most outspoken critics of Martin O’Neill, going as far as to claim he …