Villa Blog – The End is Nigh
Friday 25th September 2009, 7:10AM BST.
Villa blogger Dave Bytheway feels there is no way back for midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker now even with the ‘grapple-gate’ saga been and gone.
I have been fortunate enough in my 30 years of life to both play at a good standard and watch top-flight football week in and week out, so I have witnessed some pretty good scraps along the way.
In training for West Ham was the John Hartson kick into the face of Eyal Berkovic. Against us in the league at St James’ Park against Newcastle there was the famous Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer spat, that saw them both see red for their in-house boxing.
But I can honestly say that this is the first time as a player or fan that I have ever heard of a fight between a senior player and a manager. I don’t doubt it has happened before, but in modern day football it just seems surreal.
Last week during a training game at Bodymoor Heath it was alleged that young striker Nathan Delfouneso wasn’t doing everything he could be in the eyes of self-christened ‘skipper’ Nigel Reo-Coker.
Reo-Coker apparently confronted the young England striker, which rubbed manager Martin O’Neill up the wrong way to say the least. OK, neither of them are the biggest blokes I have ever seen, and it would probably have been a points decider, but it just seems totally bizarre that this could happen.
With the two featherweights wrestling on the floor like something from the early rounds of Dancing on Ice, it was left to other players to separate them.
It does make me wonder if the likes of Fabian Delph and Craig Gardner -who both who started against Cardiff in midweek as it happens – left it to carry on just a few seconds longer than they should, knowing that Nigel would be the only loser in heading out of the team – leaving a shirt up for grabs.
With the number 20 shirt being omitted from the squad in the Carling Cup to face Cardiff on Wednesday night, it looks as though that short delay in stepping in has paid dividends for the young midfielders. We must now surely see Reo-Coker depart in January.
I have to say the way O’Neill has dealt with this issue has been superb. He has compared it to beatings he had as a player at Forest, and how he never learned from his mistakes.
I think, as a football fan anyone reading this would know, what would have happened if anyone would have confronted the late great Brian Clough the way MON was. If not, then just use your imagination, with the player coming out a lot lot worse!
Moving on, we are in a great run of form at the moment that has seen us win every game since we lost 1-0 over in Austria. Our win against Blues has given us the confidence and solidarity as a club to go into any situation now, and I was so pleased for Gabby Agbonlahor to get the winner as the only local lad on the pitch.
Our new look defence is also looking tight, not conceding a goal in three games, and James Collins in particular looks a shrewd bit of business by O’Neill. Alongside Richard Dunne and Carlos Cuellar, who for me is player of the season so far, with Stephen Warnock on the left we look strong.
The win against Pompey last week put us level on points with Manchester United in second place, not bad for a team who lost at home to Wigan on the opening day!
We go to Blackburn on Saturday looking to carry on this good run. Another win making it five on the bounce would be superb! Lets take it one game at a time and not get carried away like we did last season, because we all know how quickly it can be taken away.
Looking ahead, I bought my ticket this week for the Wolves versus Villa game on October 24. I have to say, and I am sure after last night’s tie at Old Trafford that the home fans will agree with me, that the pricing of football matches needs to be seriously looked at.
We were charged £48 at St Andrews and now being charged £38 to sit in the lower tier of the Steve Bull Stand! £41 for a carling cup game is nothing short of a disgrace to and the longer this goes on the sooner football fans will be priced out of going to live games.
Anyway, hope this weekend ends up as good as the last few for us!
Up the Villa!
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Bang On Article.
For all of the doom and gloom of the first weekend and the potential “Blessing In Disguise” that was the exit from Europa,
It seems the only person who was upset about things was attenion whore Reo-Coker.
Speak to ANY West Ham fan and they will tell you it was only a matter of time,
and while there will be no shortness of takers for him in January (I think we all jnow he will end up on the bench at White Heart Lane, but at least it will be good ol’ London eh Cokey?)
Again it will only be another short matter of time.
Sometimes players need to get on playing with their career rather than trying to be the manager and wishing their playing days away.
AND, lets face it, player versus manager is of course an argument here, but when your manager is Martin O’Neill?
I thought Hokey ws supposed to have a few brain cells??
Oh well, we move on and i for one have not been surprised by any of this frankly.
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So if Nigel plays tomorrow at Blackburn will you retract your silly article that is merely full of sh/t stirring speculation? nah i doubt it, yes he didn’t play against Cardiff whats the big deal? he may not have played even if the “incident” didn’t happen, you’ve praised Mon to the high hills but it’s a shame you can’t even respect the mans OWN ACCOUNT of the incident, he clearly said there was “no physical confrontation” but i guess in an effort to “spice up” your blog you chose to distort the truth, what a surprise,
In my opinion Nige has been brilliant for us this season and is one of the main reasons we’ve started to win games again as he protects the back line superbly unlike Petrov and Sidwell, if Mon does indeed hold a grudge and keeps Nige out in the cold then i’m 100 percent sure our results will suffer in the next few games, a good manager doesn’t put his own silly pride over what’s best for the team and i’d hope Mon would agree with that logic, if not then it will be him who takes the stick again when results start to go wrong,
Isn’t it funny that Gareth Barry slagged Mon off publically but was welcomed back with open arms and given back the captains arm band but now Nige has one issue and he’s “dropped and out the door”? double standards? nah never, some of the bitter Villa fans who slag off Nige need to grow up and open their eyes because Nigel is a very good player for this club and we need him if we are to make the top four this year.
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Dangerous bit of ‘fact manipulation’ here. You firstly suggest from nowhere that Delph/Gardener delayed helping out (when they may have been elsewhere at the time). Then, in the next paragraph you write as though it actually happened! Lazy journalism, mate, twisting theories into alleged facts!!!!! you should write for the nationals!
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2 – NRC would be welcomed back to VP with open arms mate no question. I doubt he will play again though as MON has made his stance. I hope he does like most fans.
3 – It’s tongue in cheek “journalism”, not as you call it “fact manipulation”.
To be fair it’s nice to have some comments on my blog, I was wondering if it got read!
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Villa Sinner
Barry’s misdemeanor was wanting to leave and a potentially tipsy converations with a journo that should never have taken place.
Fact = NRC has been showing displeasure even when playing well for a good few weeks now.
Fact = If i told my boss to **** off i wouldn’t have a job for too long.
West Ham fans got fed up woth him, im about fed up with him now.
Gardner can break up tackles just as well as Hokey and will run all day long too.
Gardner can also pass to another team mate and won’t sit in the corner and cry about it if someone can’t pick up on of his wayward ones.
No need for trouble makers.
Just Ask Alex Ferguson.
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2 VillaSinner,
I’m not about to argue with an opinion, it cant be done, but I have to take you to task on Reo coco the clown being brilliant for us this season, he’s got you and a few more fooled, thats for sure.
I have said it from the day he arrived and I’ll say it again!! He runs around the pitch like a headless chicken, holds the ball too long and loses it so often, you think he was playing for the other side. His passing is very weak, 85% going to the opposition, when he does pass the ball, its usually very negative, either sideways or backwards and to top it all up, he thinks he has the God given right to start and finish every game, without being subbed.
While I will agree with you, this Blog is a load of twaddle, I do actually believe Reo Coco the clown will be gone in January.
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Class blog as always, agree 100% Reo Coker is a bad apple, and will be gone in January.
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MON is like fergie, if a player pissed fergie off would they be in the team? NO. I actually like Reo-Coker but you cant have a player in your team thinking he’s the boss! Reo-Coker seems to think he is therefore, as Dave rightly says, off he goes in Jan!
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Lol it’s so funny seeing the Reo-coker’s haters still in denial when the facts are staring them in the face, if Nige is such a “crap player” can you guys explain to me why we were absolutely played off the park against Wigan in the first game of the season and then Nige comes into the side at Anfield and we beat them with ease? the man had the best tackle success rate in the whole league in Mon’s second season here cause he’s simply brilliant at breaking up the play hence the reason why we’ve been much more tighter defensively since he came back into the side, lets remember we’d only won two games in the previous 13 but now we’ve won 6 in a row with Nige playing in three of them, someone mention Craig Gardner? LOL don’t make me laugh he’s nowhere near Nigel’s level and young Delph is already ahead of him, and as i type the news has come out that NIGEL IS IN THE SQUAD FOR TOMORROW’S GAME!!lol, but no doubt all you haters will still think he’s a “bad influence” lol, as i said OPEN YOUR EYES.
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