Aston Villa news and rumours: Sean Scannell, David Suazo from Inter Milan and heart of a lion Marlon Harewood
Wednesday, 10 December 08, 03:25 AM · Comments (61)
We're doing this backward today, mostly because I want to start with Harewood as he's one of ours and he deserves to come first. Also, if you picked players based on effort and heart alone, this man would be second on the team sheet every week, after Milner.
The news in the papers today is that he's off. Okay, it's maybe not news as it's all speculation, but you've got to be a blind man that hasn't heard a thing in three years not to know that he doesn't have a future at the club.
The talk today is is that he's off to West Brom. He's also got Stoke as an option and I seem to remember there was talk of Hull also. The thing is and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but Harewood has a career with a team like that and he'll do well, it was just unfortunate that he didn't get a run with us as it could have happened for him - he just never got that run.
Moving on, as it was getting emotional for a moment, to David Suazo from Inter Milan. Apparently it's between us, Newcastle and Everton that are chasing him. If you were David Suazo who would you pick?
Lastly, Sean Scannell from Crystal Palace. Now, this one has not got away and while I suspect it's just some hack looking back and resurrecting something it might not be. Like last time, I don't know much about the player so what I've done it copy and paste what I was told last time by a Palace fan.
Sean Scannell is an excellent player, he's an attacking winger, sort of in the vogue of Routledge and Lennon but is not all pure pace and tricks. He plays in a very measured way and his passing and vision are brilliantly subtle.
He's strong and powerful for a young lad too but I'm not sure how he'd get on in the Premier League, it's always hard to tell but fingers crossed he plays there with us - reckon it would take him a while to get into the Villa team if they do sign him.
Like I said last time I posted about Scannell, I don't know much, but that don't sound bad does it?
Right, that's it for now, but I suspect there will be something more today as it's never usually dull on a Wednesday and if anything winds me up in the slightest, I'm at my desk all day today, so I'll be right on it.
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61 Comments · Add yours
i'll be sad to see Harewood go
never given a FAIR crack of the whip
surely should have been given a start v lesser prem teams, eg Fulham, whilst Carew out
I wonder if we can get odds on keef coming on here and mentioning that you actually mention something positive about Milner eh Damian..?
Scannell is one for the future ie. put him in the reserves for a year with maybe a few subsitute apperances. We need a winger that is going to come straight into contention to being a first team player. Scannell alone is not good enough. But like you said it think this is just reprinting old rumours to be honest.
"based on effort and heart alone, this man would be second on the team sheet every week, after Milner"
You're taking the piss arn't you?
Reply to __AA__:
I wish one of these smiliey faces was flicking the Vs
With all due respect, if Harewood had been given a run and still hadn't performed, we'd have all been pi$$ed off. Well, I would anyway. He's a top team member but - and I don't know where it all went wrong for him - he just ain't got it anymore.
Has anyone noticed that Gillingham won last night , slightly off topic but still, should be a good day out .
ALERT ALERT!!
i hear Darius Vassell got muged on the streets of birmingham...
the muggers got away with nothing...
they tried to rob him of his first touch and skill!!
BOOM BOOM!!
Did anybody like that??
keefvilla
see - you're just looking for me to have a pop at milner
his effort seems to be one of the positives people are talking about as one of his positives - so i'm only trying to use that to give the lad a chance. behaviour breeds behaviour and if think positive enough, then maybe i'll actually become positive about him
Harewood has been given ample chances and failed in all of them (apart from when he comes off the bench and the game is already won).
His performance last week against Zilnia was the clincher for me. I know our midfield had a shocker that day, but Harewood did nothing of note all evening. He played like he knew he was out come January.
Nice bloke, but not good enough.
Also just found out were playing Gillingham on Sunday 4th Jan 13.30 KO , Live on ITV .
Reply to AVFCBlog:
I only said something because Andy made me
Reply to keefvilla:
keef
If he's not taking the piss, I'm off to another blog.
BTW, damian, when it comes to heart and soul, our captain comes top of the list. In the entire PL.
churchil
ok. three names on the list
Yawn. Another dig at Milner. It really is tiresome stuff.
I reckon we'll get a few quid back for the HARE. He's had a positive impact in the dressing room and scored some important goals to help steer us to where we are now. MON obviously doesn't rate him enough to get a proper run in the team which is a shame.
SCANNEL looks interesting, but don't know anything about SUAZO other than he's got a goal ratio in euro comps. I was quite impressed with a couple of the CLUJ players against CHELSEA last night, particularly KONE. They only lost cos they ran out of steam.
Martin Lindhurst
I could write tomorrow that I fully support James Milner and that I was wrong to ever doubt him and you'd see that as a dig.
But you did request here:
LINK
That you get an article where I didn't mention Milner's price tag. You got what you want and you still moan.
Some people, just cant be pleased.
Damian,
Don't take it personally, some are just trying to wind you up. Even MON is wrong sometimes.
I'd like to see us sign a few decent youngsters to play in the reserves and hopefully come through in the next couple of years. Everyone else seems to to it but us. it would definitely save us a bit of money.
That Scannell story was reported on the radio over here (Ireland) after the 10am news this morning. Not sure if that adds any more credence to the story.
Reply to liamo1981:
We've signed quite a few youngsters over the last few years AND we traditionally have a good youth system so hopefully we will see them pushing for the first team over the next couple of seasons.
Harewood was a poor buy, my heart sank when we bought him as it just smacked of lack of ambition and denied any good young players a place on the bench, I have seen nothing to make me change my mind. No doubt he'll go to Stoke and come back to haunt us.
The Milner debate is interesting but I think that anyone who rated him highly from his loan season is looking back through rose tinted specs, from what I remember it was two goals, loads of possesion, and very little in the way of end product. Solano was much better but we couldn't persuade him to stay.I hope Milner comes off, I thought he played well against the Mancs, but has gone back to his ploddy self. looks as though he should be pushing the bike up the hill in the hovis advert or going for a bit part in a remake of Kes.Good honest lad etc, etc,etc.
Reply to liamo1981:
Barmy!
The Aston Villa Academy was set up in 1997. Since then the following players have come through the Academy to play for the first team:
Gareth Barry, Darius Vassell, Jlloyd Samuel, Jon Bewers, Stephen Cooke, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Stefan Moore, Rob Edwards, Liam Ridgewell, Peter Whittingham, Luke Moore, Steven Davis, Gary Cahill, Craig Gardner, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Isaiah Osbourne, Nathan Delfouneso.
The next batch includes:
Stephen O'Halloran, Zoltan Stieber, Claran Clarke, Nathan Baker, Chris Herd, Barry Bannan.
Oh I miss Hitzlsperger
Maybe he'll return one day 
Can't say the same about any of the others on Keef's list though... (Possibly Davis, but he was too lightweight)
Reply to Christian:
Gary Cahill was the one I think should never have been allowed to leave. Much much much better than Knight.
Harewood was bought because he was relatively cheap and was prepared to sit on the bench. We will never know how good a buy he was because thank God we have had relatively few injuries these past few seasons and we didn't need him.
Every player you buy goes into the melting pot of a squad from which he has every opportunity day after day to impress the boss. The cream will generally rise to the top. Every fan has twenty twenty hindsight and every manager operates with the vaguaries and fallibility of human beings.
Reply to keefvilla:
Yeah that's a good shout, I actually work with a Bolton fan and he thinks he's the best player at the club and he's worried they wont hold onto him.
Hmmm, maybe MON sees something in Knight that he didn't in Cahill??? God knows what that is...
Reply to AVMark:
'Vaguaries and fallibilty'!- Have you been pressing 'Shift F7' on MS Word??
The cream does usually rise to the top, but occasionally you get 'manager's favourites' and they can be hard to dislodge from a team no matter how sweet the cream! (Re: Eirik Bakke)
How long did it take to bite keef... 11 minutes... What odds could I have got on that.. I'll note flick the V at you but give you some love :hug1:
Christian,
Has MON got a favourite you're worried about?
Bugger does not accept animated smilies....You will just have to use your imagination keef..!
Reply to keefvilla:
Keefvilla
You mention the list of players above. And whilst all have indeed played first team football who on that list has gone on to be good enough to play for a top 4 team. Barry possibly but i think he would have struggled to hold down a place at liverpool.
Our youth system has been praised for years, but if we are going to become a top 4 side we need to start produccing/finding better players or they will never get a chance in the first team.
I am in no way trying to criticise the work of the youth set up, in fact my best friends old man Brian jones is youth team academy director and i have discussed the exact same problems with him before.
I think you highlighting all these players brings up a very worrying issue for the furture of english football. a)is it possible for villa to bring through players good enough for top 4 because the even bigger clubs now snap all the talent up at 15, b) are young english players ever going to get a chance in prem first teams with the influx of foreign players and demand for quick success.
i dont know the stats but i am sure over the last decade we have given more starts to players coming through the system than most prem teams. I hope the players you listed get a chance to show themselves - i fear they wont though.
Know its off topic but just wondered your thought?
Would love David Suazo at Villa, plus any more news on Adriano, this is very much the right direction, the fact we can attrack big names! wooo!
Reply to keefvilla:
Should probably take into account that only a small percentage of those players actually reach a good enough potential to play for our first team. And even some of those were when we weren't a particularly competitive team. Only Barry, Hitzlsperger, Cahill and Gabby have so far been real diamonds in my opinion. Guys like J'Lloyd and Vassell served a purpose for a limited amount of time but I think we can all agree they aren't anywhere near our required standards. The rest have been sold on for relatively small amounts of money to lesser teams. Gardner and Osbourne will be next to go.
Reply to Ipbopmalik:
Not really, we don't have a big enough squad at the moment to worry about players unjustifiablyretaining their place- he's kind of limited to crop of 13-14 established players.
I was a little worried about NRC being played at fullback- felt it was a case of 'he's got to be involved' but that seems to have changed thanks to King Carlos.
It'll be interesting come February/March when he has a bigger, better squad to keep happy etc...
I was only trying to point out that we have a very good academy which produces players good enough to get into the first team. The fact that they get sold for a few million at least adds money to our transfer budget.
_AA_ I'm feeling the love
where does everyone think barry came through the youth system we bought him with another player called micheal standing which at the time was the better of the two.
so i dont think we can add barry to our youth claims
Reply to _AP68_:
He was bought as a 16 year old from Brighton and played in the Acadamy so we can and we are!!!!
Didn't VASSELL, J-LLOYD play for England? And I think the 'HAMMER'still plays for Germany. BARRY is first pick for CAPELLO. I think BARRY's progressed even further cos he's got quite a good manager?
Reply to keefvilla:
ah thats ok then and wenger also has a great youth system because he brings good 16-17 year olds from other clubs aswell
Christian I thought I would raise the tone (did wonder about the spelling though)!
Reply to keefvilla:
Get a room you two!!!
Anyone else keeping an eye on how well Routledge is doin at Cardiff? He's really impressing!
He scored again, against Burnley and his initial shot set up the other goal. Seems a run in the first team shouldn't be out the question at Villa if/when he returns??
44. Villa_Chris Wrote: | 13.46GMT | Dec 10, 2008
Anyone else keeping an eye on how well Routledge is doin at Cardiff? He's really impressing!
No. Keep the updates coming though.
David Suazo would be a very good signing for us. I saw him play several times for Inter last season, and he looked good. He is physically strong enough to do well in the Premiership.
David Suazo is amazing! a must buy for Villa. Trust Me!
Reply to Ipbopmalik:
You takin the piss?
48. You takin the piss?
As if!
all i want for christmas is michael owen a proven goalscorer and glen johnson a quality right back... i dont care about all this silly speculation just get in owen and johnson and ill be more than happy
utv
Reply to Fitzy_7:
We've got a quality RB in Young, its LB we need strengthening......although Bouma will be back soon!! Woo Hoo!
yes but young is being played at lb and were playing cuellar out of position at rb.... johnson could fill the void,also interesting to see that west ham may sell their top players to raise finance. would ashton be worth a punt
harewood is a fighter and is very passionate!
but the guy jus isnt good enough!
id much prefer henrick larrson on the bench to do a 20 min job like harewood is ment to do! natural goalscorer!
Freidel
Young Cuellar Laursen Bouma
Sidwell Petrov Barry
Young
Santa-Cruz Gabby/Carew
bench:
Guzan
Davies
NRC
Milner
H. Larrson
Delfonueso
Shorey
Quality squad!
Suazo would be a good signing, I think. Great pace and strength - I think he would be a good fit in the Prem and could score lots of goals.
I'll be sad to see Harewood go, but just because he plays hard. He hasn't shown much of actual end product, but he seems like a good guy to have in the dressing room.
Reply to walshy:
Davies in stead of cuellar and owen in for santa cruz
I think west ham could do with Marlon back again now giving their awful run LOL. but if we get an offer from the baggies or stoke then its money towards a top striker in january. And i for one would not mind in the least if Henrick the swede was on our bench even at 37 and fianaly what a captain Martin Laursen is totaly 100% commited from begining to end nothing but praise for that guy..
Harewood needs to go, he's crap and was only ever going to be a squad player...we need a 20+ goals a season striker if we are going to compete in the top 4 and in Europe...Up the Villa!
come into the forum
suazo sounds good
Harewoods not good enough for a top 4 team and villa are fighting for top 4. Bring in owen, he is the sort of player we need. I heard that harewood was going to everton on loan with a veiw to a permanant deal in january.
sean scannell sounds a good player mabey swap routledge for him?
Suazo is a great top quality player, Owen would be worth a shot, although the signing on fee would have to be pretty large me thinks....Anyone thought of a straight Barry/Robbie Keane swap.
Would you like to see Robbie Keane in a Villa Shirt??
Reply to clevelandvillian:
i like seeing fit women in villa shirts but maybe thats just me