Another angle on the NRC transfer
Friday, 20 July 07, 04:51 AM · Comments (25)
As it goes, I'm pretty chuffed with the fact that we've bought Nigel Reo-Coker. Sure, we've seen some East End sour grapes on these pages, but at the end of the day the boy is captain of the England Under 21's and very highly regarded by a lot of pundits who know more about the game than you or me.
Those include Terry Venables, Peter Taylor and - crucially - Stuart Pearce.
And it's Villa's relationship with Stuart Pearce which I want to talk about. There seems to have been a major falling-out between Pearce and Martin O'Neill over the Gabby no-show, not to mention the fact that the two locked horns over the England job (before it was so ridiculously awarded to the porcelain-toothed, carrot-topped gimp now in the hotseat).
Martin O'Neill is widely known to bear grudges. I've even seen it reported that he has a notebook in which he lists all the characters who have got on the wrong side of him.
In that context, the Reo-Coker deal is pretty interesting. Why? If Pearce wants to keep his captain, he has to come through O'Neill. Not only that, Reo-Coker is sure to present a pretty strong lobby for Gary Cahill, Gabby himself and Ashley Young.
With the acquisition of Reo-Coker, the openly ambitious O'Neill has massively strengthened his position against Pearce. You could even say it's brilliant, and I'm sure it will bring Gabby back into the U21 fold.
However it plays itself out, a decent percentage of Pearce's ideal U21 squad is now in claret-and-blue, and it would be both clumsy and obvious if Pearce decided to try and cut O'Neill's men out of the equation.
In pure football terms, NRC is a great replacement for Smiler. But in terms of football politics, I think it's a very clever move indeed.
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25 Comments · Add yours
Can i just point out the NRC is no longer eligable for the U21's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the spanner in the works Jambi! ;)
NRC is no longer eligable for U21 team...
He wasn't eligile by age for the last U21 match but still played.
Yeah, He WAS the u21 captian. But still, hes a great player, hope he does well!
Pearce needs Gabby more than Gabby needs Pearce, in fact I would suggest that MON would rather his players didnt take part in the U21's. I would guess that MON bought NRC purely for football reasons and the politics never even entered into it?
There are some odd rules about eligabilty for u21's. You don't have to be under 21, i think your allowed a certain number of older players, for a certain period and upto a cetain age. I'm not that intereseted to find out more, either way it was confirmed when we signed him, thats he's no longer eligable.
antone heard about angel scoring against celtic he,s doing good for ny now
It was because when the tournament qualifying started he was 21, and therefore he was able to continue until the end of the tournement.
ruddy!
He's made his mark in New York, now Juan Pablo Angel is impressing fans everywhere. Angel's beauty of a goal in the 36th minute ( 350K) helped put the MLS All-Stars past Scottish power Celtic FC 2-0, and for his work Angel was named MVP of the MLS All-Star Game
ahh ok, so that includes the qualifying campaign as well. Cheers maloney, never been sure about that.
haha i have just posted it said angel's goal was a beauty!! it was 4 yards out!he jus rounded d keeper and tapped in into a empty net!! americans!!!!
Isn't it nice to know though that we have arguably the finest crop of young Englishmen in the Prem !
Regarding JPA, I have been loosely following his progress in the US and i am very pleased that he hasn't let his head drop and has found himself again. His goal against Celtic wasn't the best one he's scored in the US, but he took it well. Couldn't help but think a certain Mr Boruc could have maybe done a little better in putting him off though !
Some people have said that the US league is an easy league to play in but from what I have seen, it looks very entertaining indeed. Even Pele said the other day that we should not underestimate the US and it's a lot tougher than it's given credit for.
I digress...I just wanted to pick up on something from a few weeks ago. JPA's strike partner also looks good, one Jozy Altidore. His comparisons and stats are better than Freddy Adu's ! I just read he was put in the NY side in September last and scored 3 in 7 whilst Adu managed 8 in 29 all season for DC United.
The fact that JPA seemed to leave us for nothing (after £9.5m and years of big wages) seems a lot to for AV to lose out on if he went to the US for nothing. Does anyone else think that JPA would be just given away on a free or could it be that we are trying to get our grubby little Villa mits on Jozy ?!!!
He is very hot property though, so it's only an idea...don't slate me !
Look forward to hearing a few thoughts.
UP THE VILLA ;)
juan pablo is a legend!!!
i have not seen much ov this jozy so i cant reli say! but angel is banging them in over there and the people seem to love him!
I watched MLS's All-Star Game. Before the game, a commentator called Angel a "bright young star." Ha. Only in the MLS. People do love Angel: he got more votes for the All-Star game than any other player. Unfortunately, his arrival in New York has cut the playing time USA's promising young striker, Jozy Altidore. But I expect that a European squad will sign Altidore when he turns 18 (c'mon O'Neill!).
Not the first load of c**p i've seen on this website this summer. Don't get me wrong, i've read some interesting stuff too, but the genuine lack of basic knowledge of the game and it's rules, as well as a lack of ability to grasp anything close to reality pretty much make this blog useless. If only i had a clue how to make my own and i had the time...
at Pi
show me all the other crap... please
to Pi
Simple...don't read it then. Go over to [removed for peace] with the rest of the pessimists !
It's not that i'm a pessimist, if anything i'm a little too optomistic. It's just that you don't seem to know what you're talking about, which is a shame, because you're misinforming a lot of people. You have a responsibility, just do some research, for everyone's sake.
at Pi
tell me where all the other errors are ...
i can show you errors on the official site, the bbc, cbs, the times ... everyone makes mistakes. even you do i'm sure
Sorry Damian...i didn't mean to inflame anything.
I just get annoyed when we're innocently discussing something and someone comes on and slags it off.
I'm no expert and I don't suppose Pi is either. The difference is I wouldn't try to jump in and insult his intelligence if he'd said something that i didn't agree with, i'd just read on until I found something positive to comment on. >:(
I'm off to speak to my friend's cat for some quality conjecture, knowledgable information and lack of blind loyalty. It's been boring.
Don't think Reo Coker is elligable for U21s
LINK
BYE, BYE
NRC is no longer England U21 captain or an U21 player, Doc.
But it's been said Pearce wants to talk with MON about Gabby anyway