Villa favourite Ian Taylor believes that Birmingham City new-boy Craig Gardner’s crossing of the divide is unlikely to be a move that will haunt his former club.

If Villa miss out on the Champions League by a couple of points at the end of the season, Stewart Downing will be kicking himself.

How on earth Downing missed that chance in the second-half of last night’s goalless draw between Villa and Arsenal is a mystery. It made me wish I was playing again, because I know for sure I would have buried that one!

I was at Villa Park and it was plain for all to see how the confidence drained from Stewart after the miss – he must have wanted the ground to swallow him up. Still, it could have been worse.

Arsenal weren’t at their best by a long way – for which Villa must take at least some of the credit – but they still managed to hit the woodwork twice. In the end, it was a fair result and while it didn’t do the home team’s top-four hopes any favours, it shouldn’t harm them too much either.

You’d always take a point against one of the big four and if they can pick up three points at Fulham on Saturday it would be an excellent week.

Also this week, Craig Gardner has crossed the city divide in search of first-team football – but he’s going to find it just as hard breaking into Birmingham’s first team as he did Villa’s.

I can’t see Blues boss Alex McLeish changing his team very much. Why would he? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and right now every single one of his players are playing out of their skins.

I’ve heard a few people questioning whether he’s going to be the next Gary Cahill – one we regret leaving – or the next Steven Davis – one we don’t.

Right now, I am veering towards the latter. For me he is still unproven at Premier League level – year on year he has featured less in the top flight and that tells its own story. I’m not convinced Craig was good enough for Villa, certainly the claret and blue squad Martin O’Neill is building at Villa Park.

This season Gardner played four minutes of Premier League football. Last year he made one start in the top flight – covering as a right-winger away at Portsmouth. He’s one of those players I’m sure Martin would rather have kept than lose, because he won’t rock the boat and can slot into a few different positions.

But for a player who has captained his country at England under-21 level, Craig really has to be looking for more than that. At 23-years-old he needs to be playing football every week.

I wrote in last season’s Sporting Star column that he was making a big mistake signing a four-year deal at Villa when he was playing so little. I think he was playing safe and this four-and-a-half year deal at St Andrew’s has the same ring to it.

He’s in a make-or-break phase of his career now and it’s up to him to prove Villa made a mistake.

So Benni McCarthy’s the answer to West Ham’s relegation battle, is he? Don’t make me laugh. For one, at 32 the South African striker has already had his best days. Nor is he the sort of player you want in a dressing room when you’re in a survival scrap.

Just look at the way he failed to turn up for training with Rovers this week in an attempt to force through the move. It’s no wonder he was so keen. This looks like one big last payday to me.

When you’re fighting for your lives at the bottom you want good professionals around you. Of course you need talented players and there’s no doubt Benni’s got something a bit special – I’m just not convinced he is the sort of player they need to stay up.

As much as anything, it’s a statement of intent from the new owners at Upton Park. They want to be seen to be actively doing something to try to keep the Hammers up, although they may come to regret doing their business in public so much.

You always risk alerting other clubs to the availability of other players once you start airing deals in public, and the announcement on Wednesday night that Eidur Gudjohnsen had passed a the first part of a medical has come back to haunt them now he has ended up at Tottenham.

There was then the talk of the £100,000 a week offer to a player, reported to be Ruud Van Nistelrooy, that David Sullivan was spouting off about at the weekend. But, considering the Hammers owner was bemoaning debts of £110million in essentially the same breath, you have to question the wisdom of such a deal.

The fact is common business sense goes out of the window in football – and the more desperate you get for results the more desperate your business can become.

Some clubs get away with it – but there are plenty who don’t. Just look at Leeds and Newcastle. By May we’ll know if the gamble was worth it.

For Benni McCarthy at Blackburn, read Robinho at Manchester City. If the sulking South American does end up heading back to his native Brazil, as seems likely, then I think that will be the end of him.

The circus surrounding his move to Manchester City in September 2008 was just a taste of what was to come. For a brief while, he looked like a genius but once the winter arrived he quickly lost interest.

Now Britain’s most expensive player can’t find a single club in Europe prepared to take him – that is how far his stock has fallen. Publicly, he might claim he’s heading back home to cement his place in Brazil’s World Cup squad.

But the fact is Europe’s where the money and major prizes are for the top players – that’s why Kaka, Ronaldinho, Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi are playing on this continent and not back in South America.

These players usually return home to wind up their careers at 35, not 26, an age when Robinho is just entering his prime.