Martin O’Neill has given Villa’s kids a chance on the pre-season tour of Switzerland.
Villa have rewarded one of their most talented intakes for years with places on the tour which leaves today and features games against FC Wil and FC Zurich.
Boss O’Neill has included six Academy prospects in his 21-man squad with strikers Nathan Delfouneso and Sam Williams, wingers Marc Albrighton and Zoltan Stieber, keeper Elliot Parish and David Baker travelling.
Captain Gareth Barry, who is currently suspended by the club, is a notable absentee. Wilfred Bouma may join them after being given extra time off following his stint at Euro 2008 with Holland.
With the first Intertoto Cup game just 11 days away, fans are getting anxious about the lack of transfer activity.
But O’Neill insists he would have taken the youngsters regardless of the size of his squad. “I would have brought them through anyway regardless – if we’d had 26 players I’d still have brought two or three of them with us.
“I did that last season and I’d do that every single time. But boys such as Nathan Delfouneso and Marc Albrighton will definitely come on the trip for experience.”
There may have been a couple of other additions but youth team captain Ciran Clark is away on international duty and Shane Lowry is injured.
Squad: Taylor, Laursen, Knight, Davies, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Gardner, Young, Agbonlahor, Carew, Harewood, Salifou, Routledge, Osbourne, Maloney, Delfouneso, Williams, Albrighton, Parish, Baker, Stieber.
3 Comments
well done oneil,hope the youngsters get the same chance at wwfc.
Well we have been hearing for a long time now about the up and coming acadamy players and all the future stars we are grooming, lets hope they make a good start, I for one look forward to their inclusion in the senior squad. Good luck lads.
Well Delfouneso scored his debut senior goal against FC Wil so he will gain a massive boost in confidence, and fortunatly so, as isn’t he being tipped as the next academy player to make the “big jump”?
Good stuff.