Gabby impresses, Routledge for Cardiff and the battle for Defour
Thursday, 20 November 08, 10:14 AM · Comments (40)
I was rather impressed with Gabby last night, not for the first time this season, and thought he was easily the best striker for England. I think he has a big future ahead of him and John Terry agrees with me.
According to the BBC, Cardiff are looking to loan our new Didier Agathe, nippy winger Wayne Routledge. Routledge is required to cover for the injury of former Villain Peter Whittingham.
In more paper talk, the highly reliable Daily Mirror, Martin O'Neill will not only be battling it out with Arsenal for 4th place but also for Standard Liège midfielder Steven Defour.
I don't know a lot about Steven Defour, but I know a wiki encyclopedia website that does.
He is 20-years-old and has cored 7 goals in 75 appearances for Liège. He has 16 caps for Belgium and a solitary goal to his name. 16 caps for a 20-year-old, even for a 'small' nation like Belgium, is pretty good.
Wikipedia also quotes that "Defour is now established as the new Belgian golden boy after Vincent Kompany, and with his burst of pace, vision, passing and little shimmies, he could be that nation's main playmaker for a decade to come." which sounds pretty good to me. But let's see.
Right, nothing else much to report ahead of the visit of Manchester United. All you pessimists remember that Barnsley - who nobody thought would beat Liverpool - beat them and then achieved the miraculous by beating Chelsea in their next Cup game. So we have every chance!
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40 Comments · Add yours
Did anyone see the news that Ruben de la Red has recently suffered a heart attack! Poor bloke, although I can't help feeling slightly relieved that Damien's 'de la red' source proved to be wrong.
Good look wayne- he deserves to be playing at his age!!
Come on you lions on saturday-this is the year!
Gabby was excellent again last night. A player who wasn't was SWP who a lot a you seem to think would have been a better signing than Milner. The quality of his crosses and corners was dire and at 27 he should be at his peak. Give me Milner any time.
I mentioned DEFOUR on previous postings, and believe he is the right kind of acquisition for us. We do lack creativity in midfield and need a likely replacement for BARRY. I hope ROUTELEDGE plays out of his skin for Cardiff and plays himself back in to our squad at a later date. Hopefully having some regular football will boost his confidence.
Defour sound promising and its nice to be linked with the sort of players that Arsenal find attractive.
As for Routledge, i think he was signed merely as cover and never as a first team regular and i wish hin=m the best for his future. He has been a model professional in my eyes. Has not shouted his mouth off and has got on with it. I expect that the move may be made perminent in January if we sign this Defour.
We should still sign Defour even if Barry stays. Petrov & Barry aint getting any younger and now would be the right time to introduce him to the premier league, like Man Utd did with Anderson, instead of chucking him in one someone leaves.
Ive heard great things about Gabby's performance last night. Im really happy for him. (Never got to watch it because my gf was havin panic attacks over her masters degree so I had to put my accademic head on! Recorded it though!)
I would like to see Ashley get a proper run out one of these days to see how he adapts to playing for England, and shows what he can do.
Really hope Routledge makes a big impact and forces his way into Villa too, hes a good winger. Fast, skilful and has the best touch I think Ive ever seen. He just needs playing time and with that comes confidence.
Villa-Chris,
Your 'accademic' head? You should stick to watching footy!
If Routledge couldn't make it onto the Villa team when he was the only right winger in the club i doubt that a stint away with Cardiff will make any difference. I think this is probably a laon move with a view to a permanent move in Jan.
Appartently Benayoun is not too happy sitting on the bench anymore for Liverpool. I always thought that he is a talented player. Might be worth a shout in the Jan window?
Reply to Villa_Chris:
Chris she must have been realy struggling if she's asking you to help with a masters degree!!
I think we have seen the last of a few players in January and Routledge will be one of them.
Steven Defour is a very very good player and even better prospect. He's also a natural leader and the kind of personality martin O'neill loves, he's not a flashy flairy player but he has great technique and can spray the ball about anywhere, good pace also and strong in the challenge, he is also very versatile. Only just in his 20's he is the kind of player that can propel us up to the next level. I hope the stories are true because I watched this guy against Liverpool and Everton twice and his performance stood out everytime, above Fellaini and he cost the latter a packet! So for those unaware of this guys talent, be excited if he comes.
Get another quality wide player and one or two strikers and we will be well on the way!UTV!!!
I like it, 'accademic' or should I say 'academic', means you should be able to spell..! Nice one Chris...
What's she studying anyway Chris?
Reply to __AA__:
Ha ha I knew you would pick up on that Andy...and yes, I did notice it was the wrong spelling!
She's a regeneration officer for Walsall council and she's doing a masters degree in Geography and Planning I think....
Keef: All this is made up yes...shes just someone I met in a bar and had a photo with really! Just thought I would get there before you!
Chris, I'm really sorry but I can't resist writing this bit...
You should visit this page of the forum. You could contribute to it....LOL
LINK
Ha Ha! Right....Im telling Keef! He can concentrate on ripping someone else apart for being a homo!!
Anyway I'll get back to the subject. I thought Gabby had a decent 1st half. He really need better supply of the ball. It just turned into a hoof-it and hope for the best scenario at times. Shame, because it would have been great for Gabby to get a goal, especially against Germany. Just hope, now he has had a taste of international football in the 1st team it will spurr him on to get his head down and keep working hard for it.
With rgards this Defour dude...Do we need any more midfielders. I will assume that if MON is looking to players for this area then someone's getting off-loaded in January.
Agbonlahor is a GREAT player and last night he caused Germany all kinds of problems. As for Saturday, you got a bit lucky with this injury to Berbatov, we'll have to make do with Tevez now
Good luck though, should be a good game 
I watched Defour play against Liverpool and Everton for Standard Liege, he'd be a very good player to get, technical and with personality..as for Gabby, I would like to think that last night finally put to bed the legend that he can only run and run..the bloke was aware, rarely wasted anything afforded to him and looked the part.
UTV
Another bit of news for you Damian.
It seems Football 365 have paid MON compo and expenses over an article that suggested he was telling porkies about the Barry saga. I hope this shuts the bin dippers up now.
Linky;
LINK
Young Played shit for england in my opinion although he didnt get long at all to prove hime self, every time he got the ball he did nothing with it
there goes his chance, for now at least.
I watched the game last night and thought Gabby looked far livelier and more useful than Defoe on the international stage - it seems like all of todays papers agree too. Given a straight choice between Defoe and Gabby for Villa or England I would choose Gabby every time which wouldn't have been the case 12 months ago. Gabby has really upped his game this season and the back end of last season - I think he works a lot harder for the team now.
Townsend said before the game that he wanted to see Gabby playing instinctively and he wasn't as good when he had time to think about what to do next. Although this made Gabby sound as thick as s**t it was a fair point in my opinion and was illustrated in the first half when Gabby chased and won the ball off a German on our left wing and then messed the pass up afterwards. It showed the difference between Defoe and him - Defoe wouldn't have even created the opportunity because he wont chase and hassle players like Gabby does. I can see Capello picking Gabby a lot more from now on which is great - lets hope he carries his good form into saturday.
Did anyone hear that p***k Sheringham at half time? I nearly choked on my tea I was so angry. Can't remember his exact words but someone asked him what he thought of Carrick and he said something like "Carrick is absolutely brilliant, given a choice between Carrick and Barry I would pick Carrick all day long".
Now everyones entitled to their opinion but Carrick had done absolutely nothing of note in the first half, he was neat and tidy but gave the ball away unnecessarily a few times too with passes that weren't particularly long or tough. Gareth's been accused of looking casual on the ball in the past but in my opinion he is a far better player than Carrick and I felt the comparison was unnecessary. No wonder Sheringham can't get a job in football - he should stick to playing cards - we have enough thick cockneys on our TV's as it is!
Rant over, Gabby and Gaz were class :-)
Reply to ak_27:
Benayoun would be just the sort of playmaker we need as Petrov is the holding force in the middle of the park,if we continue to play 4-5-1 witch i think we will? we need someone other than sidwell to link the attacking play and make more chance's for the forwards, now for routledge, the loan spell could do him the world of good and get him some much needed game time. and maybe get some game's at villa park
Is it just me or did it look like downing just refused to pass to Gabby last night?.I can understand he wanted to impress but he needs to be told its a team game.
I followed that link of Andy's into the forum and I won't be going in their again. I came out feeling abused and dirty. At least on here Damian has some kind of control.
lmfao.............
We will be at the Fulham game, AA and myself, come say hi!!
lol
We will be the ones carrying our laptops and wearing the AVFCBlog T Shirts..!!
Reply to runner:
I dont think Benayoun is an answer. He is solid but little more in my opinion....Defour looks the real deal. But if we want guaranteed quality we should seriously take a look at Elano, who is currently out of favour and upset at Man City. He is a real talent and would instantly add some style and skill to the team. I said it before the season even started (along with Damian) Barry will be gone in January. He is just seeing his time out here at Villa.
Villa Mitch
I couldnt agree more with you.
My gaffer is a season ticket holder up the local SCUM and even he couldnt believe what Sheringham said.
Im not expecting too much from the ManUre game but i will be in the Holte cheering on our much loved claret and blue boys and maybe............ just maybe, it could be our day.
I personally thought that England played well. I was very impressed with Gabby as he was able to break the defenders apart well.
Never thought a couple of years back that back Gabby would amount to much apart from frightening people with his pace. But he is obviously more than just a one trick pony these days and that has come from the game time he has been given.For such a young guy he has had alot of experience already and he can only get better!!!!
Gabby was grand, Barry and Carrick were both good I thought, would make a good permanent partnership too. Sod FF and Redscouse.
This is quite interesting:
LINK
Reply to odysseynumberfive:
Yea I read that earlier. Its a good article but the Last section...'where do villa go from here?' is spot on!
This is also interesting!
LINK
I see Mark Lawrenson's predicted us to get stuffed again tomorrow!
I can't actually remember the last he suggested we'd get anything out of any game!
If his predictions were correct for a whole season we'd be relegated with about 6 points!
I'm glad he thinks we'll lose becuase he's the biggest donut on the bbc and get's everything wrong.
Yes, interesting links lads.
Lawrensons a plonker, remove him from Hanson and he's incapable of independent thought.
Reply to Leroy:
Cant really say too much on this Defour kid as i've only seen him a couple of times in champions L, yes i agree that Elano is pure class and would add the flair we much need, but now every one knows about his skill from the year he's had at MAN CITY there would be more than just us in the running to singe him, plus all the other teams that would bid for Elano would no dout give beter wages than MON is willing to
right, im not a fan of Gabby, but i thought he was superb for England, i can see a Rooney and Gabby strike force being a handle for anyone, I so wish we bought Shaun Wright-Phillips instead of Milner,i said from the start Wright-Phillips should have been bought, What the hell happened to Downing?? he was fucking awesome against Germany..I honestly think we should be making a bid for Giovanni from Hull, he'd be just the flair we'd need, although i cant see Hull letting he go, but if we bust out a 8-10mill bid they'de sell..
Reply to runner:
Yeah i totally agree. Also, vogra says something similar about Geovanni of Hull, except his wages could be met perhaps. I really think we need this type of player for us to fully utilize our speed. But i think many of us agree that we need some attacking strength added....i say this even though Barry is still with us....