Marlon Harewood has kicked off the countdown to Villa’s visit of his former club West Ham by insisting he can emulate the biggest season of his career.
Harewood - still to start a League game for Villa - is striving for the form that made him West Ham’s 17-goal top scorer the season before last when he helped them to the FA Cup final and finish 10th.
That form persuaded boss Martin O’Neill to pay £4m for him this summer, and Harewood is sure he made the right move as Villa prepare to host the Hammers on Saturday.
“I wouldn’t say this has been a tough experience for me because the lads have just been awesome,” said Harewood.
“I feel like I’ve been here ages. I feel I’m at my ‘home place’. Just from the atmosphere here, I know I can get my goals.
“Martin has embedded that feeling into people, everyone is together and things have just been fantastic, like they were at West Ham that year.
“That’s why I got my goals because everyone was pulling their weight.
“I think the players here have ability - that’s why I moved to Villa. Last year was hard for me and West Ham, but now I’ve got a big task ahead of me.
“I have to ensure I get back what I had before and help the boys get to where they want to go.”
Harewood wants to repay O’Neill with a top-six finish after the boss talked of him in glowing terms when he signed.
“It’s going to be very hard,” he said.
“But Martin has his ideas. He knew the players he wanted and I’m glad to be part of it.
“It was great to hear him talk about me in such glowing terms when I signed. I’ve got to pay him back on the pitch.”
10 Comments
Harewood should never play for villa again - he is one of the worse players to ever where claret and blue - his performances have been a disgrace
Money well spent, just like Davies. I cant deny it O,Neil has an eye for a bargain
I totally agree with the first post
that Harewood is definately not a premiership striker, in fact I cant believe a great manager like Martin O’Neil has bought him.
Good luck Martin, and Good ridance Marlon.
Lets not be too early to judge a player that has not not been given a chance to show what he can do. I dont see Luke Moore banging them in left right and centre, so we may well need some goals from Marlon soon, so now is the time to time to encourage and give him confidence, although he doesnt seem to lack that from the way he talks!
What a hopeless tos***er, best bit of business that curbs did all year….£4m…..must have been doing cartwheels with that one….sorry Villa fans, Nigel Reo-Coker is an idiot but a good player, harewood is just plain awful, you might get a short purple patch where he scores a couple of goals but most of the time you will see martin o’neil on the touchlines trying to get the lazy git to pick his feet up and get into the game.
Harewood sure of villa goals - just not where they are exactly….
have you forgot why they sold ya :-)boing boing
The season before last Harewood terrorised a Villa defence of Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, and Bouma to bang a hat-trick past us for West Ham. He has been signed as cover for our strikers and is yet to start a league game for us. He is being used as a scapegoat by some Villa fans for what happened at Spurs.
He was not 100% fit and came on against Spurs because both Maloney and Berger were ruled out of the squad at the last minute. Nobody is denying that he gave away a stupid penalty but a only a couple of minutes earlier he charged down that clearance from Robinson and with the slightest bit of luck would have made it 5-2.
The truth is that after Gardner was subbed at 4-2, as a team we could not get out of our own half for the remaining twenty minutes. This was not because of Harewood but because certain established players REFUSED to take up the responsibility of marking young Gareth Bale.
Harewood is not the best footballer everyone knows that but he is big, fast and powerful. And he is a confidence player who, if the Villa fans get behind him is very capable of scoring goals at this level.
2 words either barn and door or arse and banjo either way he couldnt hit any of them
i still cant get over what he did in Tuesday nights game that was the stupidist , dumbest , idiotic act I have ever seen. He would have to score 20 goals this season for me to forgive him. I got up at 5am in Australia b4 going to work and watched that game. Was quite content and thinking I was going to have a great day then he did that. It still hurts I cannot believe it. Hate him Hate Tottenham.Hate football