Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Six players put up for sale at Villa
Wednesday 12th May 2010, 10:30AM BST.
Villa manager Martin O’Neill has taken the first step towards a summer-clear out at the club by putting six players up for sale.
Curtis Davies, Luke Young, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell, Nicky Shorey and Habib Beye – all of whom have struggled to hold down a place last season – have all been told they can leave if the price is right.
The six were all signed by O’Neill but endured frustrating campaigns spent mainly on the sidelines – only Sidwell and Young started more than 10 Premier League games – as the manager opted to stick largely with the same team.
News the out-of-favour group are surplus to requirements comes as no great surprise with rumours rife O’Neill will have a smaller transfer budget at his disposal this summer, which would force him to wheel and deal.
Only Young’s availability for transfer would be likely to rankle with fans, after the right-back received a standing ovation from the Villa Park crowd coming on as a substitute in Sunday’s game with Blackburn.
The former England international, signed from Middlesbrough for £6million two years ago, has controversially been forced to play second fiddle to centre-back Carlos Cuellar for the right-back position for the vast majority of the campaign.
Sidwell has failed to meet expectations since arriving from Chelsea two summers ago and has become a bit-part player, since the return to fitness of Stewart Downing paved the way for James Milner to switch to central midfield.
While Reo-Coker has only recently returned from a lengthy lay-off with an ankle injury, the former West Ham skipper’s Villa career has looked on borrowed time ever since his training-ground bust-up with O’Neill in the autumn.
Villa would be fortunate to receive half of the £8.5million they paid for the 25-year-old midfielder but they look set to make an even bigger loss on Curtis Davies, who signed a permanent deal worth up to £10million in 2008 after a season-long loan from Albion.
The centre-back was named in an England squad only last season but a shoulder injury, combined with the outstanding form of new arrivals Richard Dunne and James Collins, has left him struggling to even secure a place on the bench since returning to fitness in January.
The writing has long looked on the wall for Shorey for some time, after spending most of the campaign on loan at Nottingham Forest and Fulham.
Marlon Harewood and Freddie Bouma have already been told their contracts will not be renewed and are available on free transfers.
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maybe some rich pickings for Big Mick?!
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I’d have any of Luke Young, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell, Nicky Shorey at Wolves.
Can Young play Left Back???
Wages may be an issue but these are established Prem players.
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Villa manager Martin O’Neill has took the first step …I think you mean ‘has taken’.
NAUGHTY ! Davies cost £6.5 million actually as Albion paid £3.5 million for Luke Moore.
Who diddled who (or whom), on that one? As I have suggested on the Albion site, we could swap them back over happily and include a big, juicy apple as make weight. How about it Mar’in ?
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I would have Reo-Coker,Steve Sidwell, but why not try Kevin Foley at LB. Ive said many times on here that Derek Parkin our record holder (600) games played LB, yet was a ‘Right Footed’player and was ‘Top Class’ if Foley is as versatile as MM says he is, then give him a go could save us a few £m ?.UTW
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Here we go again, next season is pretty clear now.
No right backs, again, meaning Carlos will play out of position all season, again. He’s done ok for what its worth, but you can see he hasn’t got the natural ability to run up and down the channels like a specialist fullback such as Young can do.
One left back, no back up for Warnock, so when he gets injured, where do we go, O’Hallaron perhaps, but can you honestly see O’Neill playing him. Warnock better be prepared to play through the pain again.
With that being the case, its up to Dunny and Collins to keep the back tight. However, with a lack of cover for both, since Ciaran Clark can’t be cloned, those two have to play through likely pain all season aswell.
Freddie’s going, fair enough, but good clubs should have at least one back up player for each position. The usual example is thinking in the 442 setup, so in that regard, you have 8 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 4 strikers.
Getting rid of so many defenders puts us right back to a couple of seasons ago, the point being that we hardly had any, so we had to play midfielders in defence.
It really is the case with O’Neill, since he doesn’t believe in rotation despite what he says, if you aren’t in the team, and it seems injury counts against you now, you aren’t in favour, simple as.
The one’s who you could say let go would have been the likes of Harewood (going anyway) Osbourne, Salifou, Andy Marshall (a pointless signing), Beye, and of course, Freddie.
O’Neill’s on a budget this year, so he should be smarter with squad handling, should have been only these six players going, with youngsters supplementing. The small squad phrase is no doubt on the way back.
With that, this will be O’Neill’s last year, I’m sure of it. He needed to be really smart this summer, to be objective, to learn from everything that has happened since he arrived, alas, all for nothing it seems.
Will be looked on as ultra negative comments for sure, but I could have ranted about Reo-coker and Sidwell going aswell, and why Heskey isn’t among those going aswell. Another rant for another time.
Up the Villa.
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As an albion fan, i’d certainly be in for Shorey and Davies.
Any albion fan has to put aside any issues with Davies and accept he is better than what we have, and would benefit the side immensely !
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Am gutted but not suprised by the potential departure of Luke Young. So we will have another season with Cuellar playing out of position. Does his best but not good enough.
As for the others they can all go, shame O’neil felt the need to buy them, just to warm the bench. Dread to think what he will get for that lot, seeing as they havent touched a blade of grass for months.
No point buying anybody else. O’neil cant rotate so may as well keep the money in the bank eh?
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This just proves that Martin O’Neil is not the man to take us forward. If he is seriously going to consider selling a perfectly good quality right back in favour of an ‘average at best’ central defender and two decent midfielders who he won’t give the opportunity to, then he needs to go.
Martin O’Neil wants to accomodate Milner, Young and Downing and won’t sacrifice Agbonlahor or Petrov, who have also had average seasons. Therefore, he is sacrificing these players he now wishes to sell after failing to give them a proper chance. It’s baffling.
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AJM,
Absolutely nothing negative about that post mucker! Just the facts as they are!
Playing players out of position for 4 years running!
No natural right back or a back up!
No back up at left back!
No back up in central defence!
Tissue thin centre of midfield!
No natural leader in the middle of the park!
And before anyone points to the kids we have available, I think we all know that, as well as O’Neill doesn’t trust the kids, he also has an allergy with substitutions!
I can understand O’Neill getting the hump with any player who challenges his authority (Young in Malaga, Reo-Coker at Bodymoor Heath), but in getting rid of Young, arguably the best English right back in the Premiership, O’Neill is simply cutting his nose off to spite his face!
This is O’Neill at his pig-headed worst! Remember how he hounded Tommy Sorensen out of the club for daring to challenge his authority? We’ve not had a keeper anywhere near as good since. Just because of pride! If O’Neill has to let players go from, I quote, “the smallest squad in the Premier League”, he must do it for the right reasons, football reasons!
The decision to let Young go, while keeping the likes of Orbourne, Salifou, Marshall and Heskey is the worst footballing decision made by Villa since Deadly uttered those immortal words 24 years ago “Meet the new manager of Aston Villa Football Club, Mr Billy McNeill!”
UTV SOTC
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Villa selling the following eh?
Curtis Davies, Luke Young, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell, Nicky Shorey!
Surely the Wolves would benefit from these boys signing? Comon Mick, Jez and especially Morgan….. get talking to Randy Lerner and do some sensible dealings for these players!
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“So we will have another season with Cuellar playing out of position. Does his best but not good enough.”
Sarah, you might want to wait until a little bit closer to the start of the season before deciding that we’re not buying any new players – the previous one only ended 3 days ago.
For what it’s worth I reckon the only reason we’d sell Luke Young is if he wanted to leave. He’d be a perfectly decent reserve RB/temporary LB.
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MON is doing the correct thing here.
The 6 players are simply not good enough to be in our 1st team and are on high wages to simply be sitting on the bench.
People need to realise that MON will be selling these players and hopefully replacing them with improvements.
MON obviously does not have confidence in these players hence not wanting to start them (and I agree with him).
MON has done great over the past 4 years and we have done really well to finish 6th, 3 years running.
If we want to achieve the next level, we need to sell these middle-tier players and replace them with players that can actually challenge the 1st team…….opposed to only getting a game when the 1st xi are injured/suspended.
Tottenham are now in a position where the players on the bench are as good as the players on the pitch – which is simply not the case in these 6 players situation.
I was a Luke Young fan, but he did himself no favours when he was given his chance against Chelsea during the 7-1 defeat.
I have not got any probloem with these 6 players but I think the time has come to move them on and replace them with players who are going to challenge the likes of Petrov, Agbonlahor and Downing.
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Hmmm.. will be interesting to see what hapens, who goes, who stays… The most important thing u have to remember is ‘ if the price is right’…. I still think Young and Davies have careers at Villa. Davies especially, unless his injuries are a fatcor.
Hopefully O’neill has odentified his targets and will endevor to get them in.. he is a long term admirer of Micah Richards who will no doubt be moving on (great option at RB)
Jimmy Bullard may be picked up on the cheap as i believe he is still a quality player. Very much of Petrov’s mould.
This will be Albrighton and Bannan’s breakthrough year im sure and we know what the Fonz can do.
I dont care about big names at VP… If they work hard and have talent, you never know… No body had heard of Scholes, Butt, Beckham, the Neville’s, Giggs, etc when they were thrust into the Man utd line up
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AndrewL
I hope your right. Lets hope we get a quality replacement for Luke Young, who actually gets to play and in the right postion.
We shall see eh?
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