Young not for sale and he's staying at home for the Hamburg match
Tuesday, 16 December 08, 07:34 AM · Comments (45)
He might not actually be at home but Martin O'Neill has today insisted that Ashley Young is not for sale and that he's heard nothing from Real Madrid speculation.
It's certainly good news to hear he's not for sale because after this summer and the Gareth Barry to Liverpool saga, you can sort of take Martin O'Neill on his word and if the player isn't for sale, he isn't going anywhere.
Talking to the official club site he said "I don't know anything about it but he's certainly not for sale."
In other news, Young, along with Barry, Milner, Gabby and Laursen are staying in the UK for the match against Hamburg tomorrow night.
Talking of Hamburg, if you're going, I've heard that Max & Consorten at Spadenteich 7 is a pretty good place to start before the match if you like a spit and sawdust affair with good beers.
That's about it for today and if your username on the site is Ugly_Betty, please get in contact, you won with your caption in our caption competition.
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45 Comments · Add yours
Damian, have you now softened your opinion on Randy Lerner's motives and commitment?
massive changes expected then lets hope the second string give a better account for themselves this time cus as ive said before after this game i dont think mon will tinker with the side too much for the rest of the season unless we win 4-0 in a first leg game then he will have the comfort to rest players.
What an absolute relief. Well done MON! A rest for the big boys is exactly what they need. Hopefully this gesture will have them fired up to crush the HAMMERS at the week-end.
Theoretically, Arsenal is our only tough match over the festive period, so we should be looking to push on and go past Man.Ure in the table. I honestly believe if we continue in the same vain as the performance against EVERTON (battling) and BOLTON (pure class) we really should be looking to win the league.
If ARSENE BANDIT still believe his team are still in it, then we should be even more optimistic. We have proven that we are a match for any team, especially the top 4. The LIVERPOOL game still sickens me, as I think if we'd won that and had the luck of the scousers, we would be top now.
Talk of Webcam and Gabby going to other teams has only just begun, I fear. It illustrates the importance of qualifying for the Champions League this season.
transfer speculation is good as it shows our players are performing.
it should be a question if the manager wants to cash in not whether the players want to leave.
I realise why MON has left the 5 lads back at home but for fans such as myself who have spent hard earned cash to get to Hamburg it's a slap in the face. At least take a couple of our attacking players, it would be bad enough travelling an hour to villa park to watch a team devoid of barry,milner,young and gabby let alone 12 hours to hamburg! You can rest assured Jol won't be resting his stars!
JOVANOVIC is an apparent target for MON after snubbing REAL MADRID's offer. Additionally, Aiden McGEADY is rumoured to be unsettled at CELTIC, and the club reckon they will sell if right offer comes in. I think the second rumour is quite feasible as CELTIC out of champs league and obvious MON connection. Both, IMO would be good acquisitons.
Damian, what were the winning captions? Can you post them on here or on the caption thread at least?
Lukeyboy it aint a slap in the face it's just the reallity of cup competitions now. Go out and support the club, have a great laugh win or lose and good on ya.
Arrlui
Will do, I'm just out at the moment and it's a pain in the arse not been able to have multiple windows open.
AVMark
I'll answer later ... but it's yes and no.
Afternoon Damian. Here I am.
Nice one o'neill i started to get worried a bit when i read it in the telegraph hes our best player this season and virtually all of our goals have involved young.It would be nice if he said that he wanted to stay though if anybody said anything to him.
thats good news, and i expected as much, we cant progress if we are going to sell our top stars, especially the next messi
Ugly_Betty
Send me a PM with your address and size ..
Reply to Ipbopmalik:
Hi mate
JOVANOVIC who is this guy,who does he play for & what position does he play as i have never heard of him.
Well I think MON is taking on what some of the posters have said about the priority of finishing in the top 4. That said I do think we will have a better side out against Hamburg than we did against Zilina and I am hoping we'll grab a point. We're through and that's the key thing, especially because some teams might do what Villa are doing and decide that finishing first doesn't matter that much so some weaker teams might win their UEFA Cup groups. When is the draw for round 3 of the UEFA Cup?
Reply to Lukeyboy:
surely fron the prague game you would have seen that it was going to be a competition for the 2nd string to get an outing.We can beat anyone in this cup so it dont matter who we draw,4th is our holy grail.
bow 77,
He's a striker from Standard Liege. REAL only wanted him on a 1yr contract, so he snubbed them.
Reply to Ipbopmalik:
"we really should be looking to win the league" is absolutely spot on. If we win the fixtures we have and the rest of the big 5 continue with average results we could just sneak through the infighting between them all and nick the title.
An outside possibility but stranger things have happened. Blackburn anybody?
Reply to Luke_M:
Not sure we'll win the league but a good xmas run could see us comfortably 3rd/4th.
Any eleven blokes in Villa claret and blue would have me watching. I wish I could be there with the other fans, especially as it's my birthday on the 17th. I believe that we've got a really good chance to finish in the top three this season. Manure are going to be playing catchup when they get back from Japan. Liverpoop haven't had their usual bad run yet, Chels are good but could still come unstuck here and there.
As I keep saying; why bother to be in a league if you don't want to win it?
as long as I Osbourne doesnt play along with Knight and Salifou we may have a chance..
Reply to vogra:
Osbourne must be sold or put out on loan ,he's useless
I think Jovanovic has just signed a pre-contract agreement with seville so don't think he will be coming in jan! Keep seeing little links to us getting his team mate Steven Defour but also think he may be on his way to another club with the gunners meant to be very keen on him.
I know we probs would never get him but i have always loved diego of werder bremen, i think he would be pure class in the prem and him and ashley together would just destroy teams. If Randy and MON could get him for my xmas present i would be a happy man!
Bow77
Milan “Lane”Jovanović (April 18, 1981)who currently plays as a striker for Standard Liège.In the end of November 2008 he damned a loan deal with Real Madrid, in December 2008 signs a guideline accord with Sevilla FC
Years Club App (Gls)*
1999–2002 FK Vojvodinak 43 (10)
2003–2004 FC Shakhtar Donetsk 9 (0)
2004–2006 FC Lokomotiv Moscow 3 (0)
2006– Standard Liège 100 (49)
National team
2007– Serbia 11 (4)
Awards
2007 - 08 Belgian Footballer of the Year
LINKć_(born_1981)
I read Michael Johnson the sprinter has offered to work with Young and Gabby to make them even more faster, they may be going to Dallas in the summer. Plus we are linked with N'zogbia
I would have loved our best team to play Hamburg,but its pointless really as we have already qualified...id love us to get AC Milan next round...just to see how good we really are.
Reply to Fordster:
Is there really any need?!?
There is a very good article in the Times Online today about James Milner including observations from O'Leary and Kevin Philips. I'm not bothered about who thinks Milner is good or bad (I was against us signing him) but the point is it sets out very clearly WHY he is attractive as a player and what he brings to the table.
Reply to vogra:
Well we beat Inter in the friendly last season so I cant see why we couldn't beat AC
Check this out!!!
LINK
Reply to AVMark:
That is a good article mate, cheers
AVMark and Villa_Chris
Are you two trying to upset Damian?
Ha ha no, we're gettin in the links and good comments about him quick while he's away!!
When he gets back you'll be in trouble!
Oh well.....I'll just have to deal with it
Hopefully he'll be in such a good mood (because we won) that he'll probably begin to see what Milner brings to the team
.....Right, back to reality!
Villa_Chris I can't see a win tonight. I was thinking about this resting of players business. I would have much prefered to see them on the bench than sitting at home. Imagine you are NRC or the like, it just makes you feel second rate and I'm surprised at MON in this respect.
Reply to AVMark:
Totally agree.....they should have flown there if for nothing esle, just to support the team. Its not a wonder Harewood has lost all confidence. We wont win tonight i am actually wondering if i should bother watching at all. We really have to start adding to this sqaud if we want to challenge for anything. It will come back to haunt us again i feel....
Reply to Leroy:
You both have a good point. Maybe the others may feel O'Neil has his favourites?? But then again, we don't know how he treats them from day to day. I bet he mutters sweet nothings in their ear holes all day long!!
Reply to Leroy:
Questioning if will win or not is one thing but not bothering to watch because the manager is doing whats best for Villa in his opinion is another. Show some faith and support the team come rain or shine, ands lets face it we have had enough rain, we are always claret and blue. We are making really good progress and we can be in the champons league next season and you are moaning because even though we have qualified you still wanted MON to risk injuring are players for Saturday. Lets just say gabby young and laursen played tonight and got hurt come saturday you would be moaning that MON never rested them when we had already qualified.
Dont be so fikle support the boys and keep the faith
Cheify watching a game on the TV hardly constitutes support does it? I am all for resting the players and I don't give a toss who he puts out but that wasn't the point being made.
Reply to AVMark:
My mistake, as for the players feeling second rate. Well i for one would not see it like that more of it being a chance for them to shine and show the manager what they are made of as all the attention will be on them and not the 5 it usually is. It will really do our young lads good for the experience and give them the chance they trian so hard for.
So i will be cheering on them and willing them to take there chance and make a name for their self, and with MON man management skills i doubt they would feel like that these players will be wanting to show the fans and MON that they are good enough.
I think we will be superised tonight I think MON would have told them after Zilna that they have got to step up if they want to play and i think we will see a much better performance
I think that resting the players shows two things. Firstly, MON believes that we can finish top four this season and that is his priority. Secondly, he isn't worried who we face in the knockout stages as he believes our first team can beat anyone left in the competition.
You could also say that by leaving those players behind he's showing his faith in the lads that hes brought to Hamburg. I reckon we can still get a result.
Reply to Villa_Chris:
That is an amazing list, 4 Villans in the top 8. I haven't looked at the whole thing, but Robert Green as No. 6, the top GK ahead of David James or Chris Kirkland, is the most curious thing on there.