Matt Parker on the uncertainty surrounding Villa’s start to the season…
How happy are you with your club’s summer transfer business?
Villa fans got used to the heading at the top of the Sky Sport News page “ASTON VILLA – PLAYERS IN – NONE” under O’Neill’s stewardship, but our lack of investment in the side will surely cast us adrift from the most feared teams of the Premier League. We were just waiting for O’Neill to swoop in with some decent value players and then, well, we haven’t seen him since. Still, we’ve swindled £1.5 million out of Baggies for the abysmal Nicky Shorey, and we’ve let Harewood and Bouma go. Good luck to them. And the acquisition of Stephen Ireland, a player I’ve wanted at Villa for years, is wonderful business. “So we’ve swapped James Milner for a cool £18 million and a player who was deemed every bit as good as him a year ago? Nice.”
As we’ve learned from the signing of the outrageously square-shouldered Richard Dunne, picking off players that Manchester City see as surplus to requirements can be very worthwhile. Just ask Cardiff. Ireland will be vital to top up the midfield goal tally in Milner’s absence. Goals from midfield are so important to Villa because and our strikers are ……Emile Heskey (need I say more?), Jon Carew (either unplayable or invisible), Gabriel Agbonlahor (his pace is useful if he remembers to bring the ball with him) and the largely untried Nathan Delfoneso (?) If we buy one more player before September, please let it be a proper-twenty-goal-a-season-man.
Matt expects Downing to play a major part for Villa this season
I expect Richard Dunne to be every bit as dominant in defence as last year, Ireland will add a new dimension to the midfield, and I hope Agbonlahor will push on (grow a brain), but having spent most of last season out with an injury (that we actually gave him in his final game for Boro) and then adapting into to the side in the second half of the season, Stewart Downing is my big hope. He has an eye for goal and is an unquestionably technically neat player who can switch wings with Ashley Young when needed. He only chipped in two league goals last season but is half-way to that total already after the West Ham game. I can see a season full of goals and assists for the part-time winger, part-time Muse frontman.
What young player do you expect to emerge and make an impact?
Surely not...
What do you expect from your team next season?
My expectations will be based on who we appoint as manager. Bradley? McClaren? Jol? Sven, even? Maybe Kevin McDonald will put together a good case for a permanent appointment. But definitely not Diego Maradonna. He wants to manage Villa because he “likes the English countryside”. He’s obviously never been to Birmingham. The new manager will dictate a style of play but it was clear that Villa played without shackles in the season’s opener. O’Neill constructed a capable cup side, but it all depends on where our priorities lie. I write this two hours before our Europa League first leg qualifier against Rapid Vienna, who knocked us out at the same stage last year. Worst tenner I ever spent. But that stumble allowed us more progress in the domestic cups than ever previously under O’Neill. With a thin squad it’s almost impossible to compete on four fronts. Chelsea we are not.
