Villa’s swoop (are all transfers swoops?) for Newcastle’s Habib Beye means away grounds this year will rock to the Happy Days theme tune,

Sunday, Monday, Habib Beye
Tuesday, Wednesday, Habib Beye
Thursday, Friday, Habib Beye
Saturday, Habib Beye, rocking all week with you!

from bbc

Aston Villa have signed defender Habib Beye from Newcastle United on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

The Senegal international right-back, 31, follows Stewart Downing and Fabian Delph to Villa Park as boss Martin O’Neill’s third major summer signing.

He was Newcastle’s Player of the Year in 2008, and reached the Uefa Cup final with Marseille in 2004.

Beye had also been given permission by to speak to Hull City before opting to join Villa.

Discuss the transfer here

The €2m first prize certainly made this a meaningful and lucrative pre-season tournament.  Certainly much better than playing Nottingham Forest away.

from the Guardian

After neither side were able to make the breakthrough in either normal time or extra-time, Villa took the spoils in the 12-team pre-season tournament after winning 4-3 on penalties against the Italian side.

Both sides missed twice in the initial five efforts of the shoot out, with the Juve duo Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alessandro Del Piero – who would have won the trophy for his side with a successful penalty – having poor shots saved by Brad Guzan, and Steve Sidwell blazing over for Villa and Chris Herd being denied by Gianluigi Buffon.

But it was to be Villa’s night as, after Carlos Cuellar had confidently stroked home his side’s sixth kick, Nicola Legrottaglie smashed his effort over the crossbar to give Martin O’Neill’s side another impressive scalp having also beaten Atlante and Porto after losing their opening match of the tournament to Malaga.

There was little to separate the two sides in an evenly-fought opening period of the final, in which the Juve striker Iaquinta misssed one of the best chances when he headed wide from close range after Mauro Camoranesi had nodded Felipe Melo’s deep pass back into the danger area.

Melo also went close with an early 25-yard shot for Juve, while for Villa Ashley Young and John Carew both tested Buffon with efforts from outside the box as the first half finished goalless.

Juventus, who had beaten Real Madrid in their semi-final, turned up the heat after the break and David Trezeguet missed a gilt-edged chance in the 57th minute when he blazed well over from six yards out after Jonathan Zebina had pulled the ball back from the byeline.

Iaquinta, who was proving a real menace to the Villa defence, then headed over from a Zdenek Grygera cross before Guzan made a superb double save to keep Juventus at bay.

The impressive Guzan then did well to deflect away Zebina’s half-blocked shot after the Frenchman had latched onto Camoranesi’s clever pass and burst into the Villa area.

Juve kept pushing and Iaquinta, having also been denied by a crucial last-ditch tackle by Curtis Davies, put another chance over the bar as Guzan raced out to meet the tall striker near the top corner of the box.

It was pretty much one-way traffic in the closing stages in favour of Juve, but Ciro Ferrara’s side could find no way through as the match went to extra-time.

The additional periods could not find a winner either, so the final went to penalties where Villa’s youngsters came out on top against their more illustrious opponents to claim the fourth edition of the Peace Cup

(Martin O’Neill enters the living room, he flops down in his favourite armchair, takes off his glasses, rubs his forehead vigoursly, puts glasses back on and pushes them up the bridge of his nose. His wife enters the room with a concerned look on her face)

MRS O’NEILL ‘Love, we really need to talk about the shopping situation.’

O’NEILL ‘As i’ve said on numerous occasions, I am addressing the situation.’

MRS O’NEILL ‘But love, it’s now been six weeks since we ordered our last lot of shopping from Sainsbury’s’

O’NEILL ‘It’s an ongoing situation, I am looking closely at various food options, Naturally you wouldn’t just expect me to name the brand and type of biscuits and crisps i’m targeting, it’ll take just a wee while longer.’

MRS O’NEILL ‘We are running out of food rapidly, and I have to be honest love, a lot of the things you ordered last time were a waste of money.’

O’NEILL ‘I refute that, what was a waste of money?’

MRS O’NEILL ‘Well for example, you insisted on buying that African Togo Jerk sauce, you tried one spoonful of it and then shoved the jar to the back of the cupboard. Then there were the 6 bottles of English wine you bought, who buys English wine?’

O’NEILL ‘Those English wines are terrific, they just need to mature under the stairs for a couple of years.’

MRS O’NEILL ‘ The Ginger wine you got seemed nice, but even that turned out to be corked.’

O’NEILL ‘I thought you enjoyed the Spanish Rioja I got?’

MRS O’NEILL ‘I’ll never know how nice that would have tasted, £15 a bottle and you poured most if it into a spaghetti bolagnese, it wasn’t bought for that.’

O’NEILL ‘Not everything was bad’

MRS O’NEILL ‘No, I suppose the Lee Evans DVD was quite good, although we had already seen it when we borrowed it some time ago, we shouldn’t have paid £20 for it.’

O’NEILL ‘There is nothing to be concerned about, i’m growing some promising young veg in the garden, we can always make use of that.’

MRS O’NEILL ‘We can’t live on saplings love, we need food in the cupboard by Monday at the latest.’

O’NEILL ‘When is the deadline for getting them to deliver for Monday?’

MRS O’NEILL ‘Saturday at 6pm.’

O’NEILL ‘Well i’m certainly not worrying at this moment in time, there are plenty of other options that might come to fruition through Tesco or Asda’s websites, i’m giving it great consideration.’

(Mrs O’Neill exhales a heavy sigh, exits the living room feeling dejected, O’Neill stretches back in his armchair, he’s feeling sleepy and totally relaxed, just down the hallway the antique Grandfather clicks it’s ever turning rhythm, all is well in his world as the arms of Morpheus envelope him) ]]> http://www.heroesandvillains.net/archives/83/feed 0 http://www.heroesandvillains.net/archives/79 http://www.heroesandvillains.net/archives/79#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:25:39 +0000 Mac http://www.heroesandvillains.net/?p=79 Villa’s progression in the Peace Cup came at a price as midfielder Stiliyan Petrov dislocated a shoulder in the 3-1 win over  Atlante of Mexico in Malaga.

Curtis Davis scored a 20th-minute own goal, with Petrov hurt a minute later.

But Villa hit back through Marc Albrighton, John Carew and Ashley Young to clinch a semi-final against either Porto or Besiktas.

We went into the match needing to beat Atlante, the Concacaf Champions League winners, by two clear goals if they were to reach the last four after suffering a 1-0 defeat by Malaga in their opening match of the tournament.

In Friday’s other semi-final, big-spending Real Madrid face Italian giants Juventus.

Discuss it here

from the bbc

It’s the end of July and so far the player(s) “in” are a solitary crocked Stuart Downing.  I can’t say I’m overwhelmed.  Still, there’s almost 3 weeks to go until the start of the season so we shouldn’t be worried should we?

15:01 – David Farrelly (Moderator)
Martin O’Neill will be in the chat room soon. Please keep those questions rolling in…

15:22 – Martin O’Neill
Hi there, sorry to keep you waiting. I am delighted to be here in the chat room in between my time with the BBC, and to take some time to answer your questions.

15:22 – chopperward
Hi Martin. Like your managament style. Who has impressed you the most and who realistically could you see coming to Villa to fit your team? I know jop was mentioned on beeb and also gomez. I reckon you would take gomez for sure! good luck

15:26 – Martin O’Neill
As we stand the Dutch have been very impressive, I don’t think it is any surprise that Portugal have come through from Group A. They have the best player in the world in Ronaldo. It is interesting to see Italy and France trying to qualify as only runners-up considering they contested the World Cup final. As for players coming, we were having some fun in the studio and we mentioned them in a joking way, as they weren’t playing so well. So I don’t think we were being serious.

15:26 – danjodanjo
Hi Martin,
I like your management style. Who will be the player of the tournament?

15:29 – Martin O’Neill
I think that there is little question that even if his tournament ends against Germany that Ronaldo is the best player in the world and he doesnt necessarily need this tournament to prove it. David Villa of Spain is a player I have admired for quite some time and it is no surprise that he is coveted by the very best clubs in Europe at the moment. Like Zagorakis last time, there might be a surprise, but that will probably depend on how far his country goes in the tournament.

15:29 – seb_gva
Do you watch all the games and have you spotted any new tactical trends?

15:33 – Martin O’Neill
I have watched all the games, except one, which I have to watch over again. In terms of tactical trends, I haven’t seen anything that I would call new, however I wasn’t expecting to either. France play two holding midfielders, but this is nothing new. When I was manager of Celtic, we came across this on many occasions in Europe. The same basic principles probably apply most often and I am just pleased that the art of dribbling and going past players, hasn’t died.

15:33 – kkrAllstar
Hi Martin, big Villa fan here, keep up the fantastic work!

Have you set any targets for the team next year and what would you consider our realistic ambitions to be?

15:37 – Martin O’Neill
First thing to do is build up the squad, as we were operating with the smallest squad in the league and we were relatively lucky with injuries. We may have had problems if the injury list had been bigger. Sixth last season was very satisfactory and in normal season would have got us into UEFA Cup. Our immediate plan is to get into that through the Intertoto Cup. But next season we will attempt not to stand still. The eventual aim hopefully sooner rather than later is to compete with the top four (easier said than done).

15:37 – adiman
Can you see Northern Ireland reaching a final tournament in the near future?

15:41 – Martin O’Neill
It is getting very difficult but not impossible for small nations to get into major tournament finals. Northern Ireland in the last few seasons have done exceptionally well, winning some major battles, but in football terms, losing the war. For a country like Northern Ireland it is a bit cyclical in the sense that that team had a great side in 1958 and had to wait until 1982 and 1986 to have another top quality group of players. Perhaps that might happen in the not too distant future, but at least there is great optimism because of what they have done recently. I hope it happens!!!

15:41 – kevashby
Martin, if you would have been appointed England coach do you think the team would be here now? For the record, I do.

15:44 – Martin O’Neill
That is extremely kind thing to say…you must be related!!!!

15:44 – KoolBavarianKing
@Martin
Same old question everybody asks:
Who do you think will reach the final and who amongst them will raise the trophy?

15:47 – Martin O’Neill
At the start of the tournament, Gary Lineker posed the question to myself, Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer. I possibly through sentimentality went for France. It looks as if on the eve of the game with Italy I need my head examined. However, I’ve seen it too often in the past that countries have the ability to come good in the course of the competition..stranger things have happened that the winners of ITA v FRA, should Romania not beat Holland could end up in the final. So, I’ll stick with my original choice and see the doctor tomorrow morning

16:02 – Martin O’Neill
Sorry guys, but I have to go…..I appreciate taking the time to chat with me when I am sure you have many other interesting things to be doing. I hope you are enjoying the tournament, it’s getting to the big deciding time now!!!!!

16:04 – David Farrelly (Moderator)
We’d like to thank Martin O’Neill for taking the time to answer your questions. Thanks to all who contributed. Back to the action. Have you taken the Fan Challenge?

As Gerry said, on the discussion forum, A couple of moments of interest interspersed with long empty pauses culminating in a disappointing and fruitless ending. A typical Martin O’Neill summer activity according to some.

We’re managed by someone who is widely acknowledged to be the best person-driven leader in football.

When O’Neill joined us we needed a goalie and a right back. Now, 5 transfer windows on we’re still searching for those apparently mythical creatures. We we’re expecting signings like Kaka and Eto’o and got Harewood and Routledge.

So the question is, what is holding us back?

a) Is Martin unable to persuade big names to come to us?

b) Is Martin unable to make up his mind on who to sign, or

c) Is the money that we thought would be there in spades simply not available?

Villa are clearly not strapped for cash. It’s not every club that can afford to give up a multi-million pound income from shirt sponsorship. Work on the training ground, “to attract top talent” was the reason and other measures around the ground suggest that we’re a club with money going places.

So, why can’t we hang on to Barry? Why does he want to move to Liverpool? It can’t simply be that he wants to go to work with Steven Gerrard each day does it?

Is it down to the fact that, from his perspective, he doesn’t see the Villa making the signings to propel us towards the Champions League? Perhaps he’s as frustrated as supporters at the lack of a right back? After 10 years at a club it must be a terrible wrench to move on when Villa appear to be on the cusp of great things. Perhaps we’re not, perhaps he’s fallen for a line that says, “Champions’ League as the be all and end all of football achievement.” Well that and their Bentleys. Barry might be the wrong example here. Whilst we can all question his reason for a move, it could be simply down to greed. If rumours that his agent has been hawking him around clubs since December, barely 2 months after establishing himself in the England set up, are correct it may well be.

However if the former is case, how can you attract quality internationals without offering them Champions’ League football?

Money won’t do it alone, because, you need the money from the Champions’ League to pay for international stars. Teams in the Champions’ League have the money to buy, not one, but two internationals for every position because of the Champions’ League money.

So it’s a catch 22. The rich clubs buy all the players to stop the also-rans stealing their place in the Champions’ League.

But I don’t want to concentrate on the Barry situation. Why haven’t we signed players that will qualify us for the Champions’ League? It simply that Martin O’Neill believes that the sum of the team should and can be stronger than a team of 11 individuals?

I get the impression that he is a dither in the transfer market. Ensuring that everything about the deal and player is right before putting pen to paper. That would obviously mean we weren’t even in the market for players that should have been snapped up when they were available to us.

I get a feeling that the new owner isn’t entirely impressed by Martin’s ability to not spend his money. It may be one of the reasons why he’s made himself CEO, to be closer to the dealing, ensuring things go through.

However, and as by way of balance, I also get the impression that the purse string are tighter than we have come to be expected. A transfer budget of £25M was rumoured several months ago. Something that I laughed at at the time, but hearing Martin O’Neill on the BBC last night, talking about getting a lot of money from the sale of Barry “to spend” made me sit up and take notice.

Which brings us back to Barry. Selling Barry to Liverpool makes them stronger and us weaker. We can’t buy an equivalent replacement because if there was one, they’d be on their way to a Champions’ League team.

So where do we go from here? Are we destined to always finish up outside of the top 4, or do we wait and see if Liverpool run into financial difficulties. Are can’t believe that they would for Gillette and Hicks could sell to the Dubai lot tomorrow and walk away with a profit. Who knows what untold riches lie there for Liverpool to spend?

International football is what football used to be like.

The winners will be from a country who have an astute Manager, work well together as a team, and play to there collective strenghts.

Whereas the Prem will be decided on who has spent the most money, regardless of the various strenghs and weaknesses of the Managers, we all know who’s finishing in the top 4 next year.

Its down to Money.

If Chelsea or Man Utd fail one year they go out and spend £50M.

You can’t do that in the international game, you have to work with what you’ve got. Take Greece, winners of the Euro’s last time out, that’s the equivalent of Middlesboro winning the Premiership, no matter how good the manager it isn’t going to happen, because it’s a game of big bucks now.

But it can still happen on the International stage. Who’s going to win this year? It’s not clear cut, and its down to the managers and players to compete on a much more even playing field.

I’m enjoying Euro 2008, even though England aren’t there, its makes a pleasant change from the totally predictable glory hunting moneybags premiership.

Discuss this here:

http://www.heroesandvillains.info/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=25916&start=0

Well I was going to do a picture of Barry for this story, but I don’t think he’ll be around much for us to use it again. Although he’s not actually put in a transfer request I understand that he’s told the club he wishes to link up with his mate Stevie at Redscouse.

Now it’s simply down to them to come up with the cash. Now that might be easier said than done. When Martin O’Neill said that Rescouse’s initial offer was a mish-mash of players, we all assumed the likes of Carson, Finnan, Riise and Pennant. Apparently not, if their offer to Newcastle for Milner is anything to go by. The players in that swap deal were players known only to their clubs and mums and dads.

Villa, clearly not strapped for cash, having given up multi-million pound income from shirt sponsorship, have set the price. So can Redscouse come up with the £20M? I somehow doubt it, and wonder if that’s going to leave us with a peeved captain all season. Either way, well done Redscouse, you tossers, for conducting all this through the press. I hope you’re stuck with your Yanks for ever.

Actually, and I’ve been meaning to post this thought somewhere else, this is one of the main things that’s wrong with football these days.

Like Barry, footballers see the Champions’ League as the be all and end all of football achievement (that and their Bentleys).  How can you attract quality internationals without offering them CL?

Money won’t do it alone, because, you need the money from the CL to pay for international stars.  Teams in the CL have the money to buy, not one, but two internationals for every position because of the CL money.  It’s a catch 22.  The rich clubs buy all the players to stop the also rans stealing their place in the CL.

Which brings us back to Barry.  Selling Barry to RedScouse makes them stronger and us weaker.  We can’t buy an equivalent replacement because if there was one, they’d be on their way to a CL team.