Aston Villa 2011/2012

The good news just keeps coming this season

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Aston Villa and Scotland's Barry Bannan held after M1 crash

Premier League footballer Barry Bannan has been arrested on suspicion of drink driving and failing to stop after a car crash on the M1 in Nottinghamshire.

The 21-year-old Aston Villa and Scotland midfielder was arrested along with Shrewsbury Town striker James Collins on Sunday morning.

A Range Rover travelling south hit the central reservation near junction 26 at 05:30 BST, Nottinghamshire Police said.

The motorway was closed for a short time following the crash.

No other vehicles were reported to be involved.

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: "Two men from the West Midlands area have been bailed after being arrested in connection with a road traffic collision on the southbound M1 on Sunday morning.

"The M1 had to be closed for a short time while the vehicle was recovered.

"Two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in Bulwell, near Nottingham, shortly after 7am on suspicion of drink driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

"Both have been bailed pending further inquiries and will return at a date in December."

Aston Villa declined to comment.

The 21-year-old, capped nine times by Scotland, had featured in Villa's 2-1 defeat by West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Saturday.

Coventry-born Mr Collins began his career at Aston Villa and joined League Two Shrewsbury earlier this year.

Is it just me or do these footballers caught drunk driving always seem to be driving a Range Rover?

I think it's the done thing once you're established in a side..get out and get the range rover.

Like if you're black and in London, get a blackberry and riot.

From F365. Thought Debbie might be interested in this:

An Obsession With Gary Gardner
I've only ever had one post published, but this is something that I am desperate for the world to see.

Aston Villa have a player many of you wont of ever heard of, he goes by the name of Gary Gardner, he's Craig Gardner's better and younger brother. This lad scored two goals for England's u21s back when they played Iceland a month ago, and scored a hat-trick for Villa youth vs Ajax the other day in the nextgen cup...Youths Champions League...

Now I fear, Alex McLeish is dismantling Aston Villa piece by piece, he started by offloading our best players, granted it was doctor's orders. He then brought in a new style of play to pin us as the last game on Match of the Day, to help people fall to sleep being as it's 12am anyway...But now he has gone far and beyond and has caused complete uproar amongst villa fans everywhere.

Any real Villa fan, knows that Gary Gardner, is a fantastic midfielder, a mould that is only made once every two generations...he has both feet (which I know here at 365 is openly implored) he can hit free-kicks and can pass a ball, this lad has it all. He should be in the Villa first team, over every one of our midfielders, and as somebody who watches the Villa youth over the first team, as they are more exciting, I can tell from my own judgement along with others that this lad deserves his chance to show the world that he is the next Beckham in the making.

So what do my beloved club do? They loan him out to Coventry. Any Aston Villa forum across the world wide web, has thousands of fans with there jaws touching the floor after this ludicrous decision.

This is astonishing.

But to everyone who doesn't recognise this player's name, I'll do the job that Aston Villa and Alex McLeish owed to Gary Gardner.

Remember the name GARY GARDNER. He will be an England regular in years to come, maybe even captain us to something great. Whether that be for Villa or for the teams that have already showed interest (Inter Milan, Real Madrid)

Thank you for reading.
Rob (Please publish this, the world needs to know about Gary Gardner) Suckling, 21

Gardner's promising, by all accounts, however I don't agree with the absurd outrage over letting him go out on loan.

Most young players at bigger clubs tend to have loan spells to help their development and I don't see why it can't be the same here. It's not like he's been released or sold. Need only look at Bannan (had a good spell at Blackpool & came back more ready for 1st team) for a case in point.

Or elsewhere: Cleverley, Welbeck, Wilshere, Sturridge. Indeed, even the old Beckham was loaned out to lower league club before he got into Man Utd team.

If Gardner is as good as this guy says, he will surely shine at Coventry & come back more confident and ready. Might be better for him than being fast-tracked into being the saviour of a struggling Villa team.

Yes, I was struggling to comprehend the logic of

"They loan him out to Coventry. Any Aston Villa forum across the world wide web, has thousands of fans with there jaws touching the floor after this ludicrous decision.

This is astonishing."

Far more proven players have had to go lower to gain the experience, or playing time, they needed. Don't get the outrage at all.

Signing Yannick Djaló apparently. Anyone know if he's any good?

Isn't he the one from Sporting Lisbon? There was quite a bit of hype round him a few years ago, seems to have died down now though. I remember him being very skillful but don't have a clue how McLeish would use him since his record with flair players isn't the greatest.

Yup. Apparently he's been stuck in contract limbo since summer when he tried to move to Nice but it didn't go through in time.

I imagine a flair player will thrive on the incisive supply of passes provided by our attacking midfield maestro Emile.

It's alright, people. While the game against Man Utd might, to the untrained eye, have looked like aimless hoofball, with no plan, intelligence, ability to keep the ball or attacking intent, it was actually based on the classic Dutch 433

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Alex McLeish wants his forwards to show more Dutch courage - as they aim to wing it up front.

McLeish has revealed his 4-3-3 formation, evident in the match against Manchester United, is based on the Dutch system.

Under this set-up, the mindset of the team's wideman is of the utmost importance.

When one has the ball in crossing position, the other must bust a gut to support the lone striker.

McLeish says Villa didn't do nearly enough of that in the Red Devils clash.

If he continues with this system against Bolton, he's eager for more support given to Darren Bent.

McLeish said: "The disappointment of the Manchester United first half was we didn't get much support into the centre of the pitch and in the last third we held our positions more than we should of in terms of the flanks.

"When we do play the three up front, we are looking for the two wide men to get in and support the striker. You have to get into the back post. That's something we're trying to emphasise.

"It's a kind of Dutch system. If you watch their system every week you see the winger remit when the ball is the other side, is getting in the box.

"You see the winger coming in to help the centre-forward. We didn't see enough of that in the first half!

"We got more aggressive in the second half, we got higher on them which is what we asked for in the first half, believe it or not.

"We got that in the second half and we had some little opportunities which could perhaps have seen us getting a point. It wasn't to be.

"There's another opportunity this weekend. We've got to go there and be positive and that's what training has been in the last few days.

"I always think we've got a chance and I believe the same thing for the Bolton game."

The delusions just keep on coming...

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ALEX McLeish has launched a strong defence of his tactics, with the Aston Villa boss saying it’s a ‘‘myth” that he is a negative manager.

McLeish’s style of play has come under fierce scrutiny during the claret and blues’ recent run of disappointing results and performances.

But he feels he has been unjustly branded a cautious manager, insisting he has tried to produce “dynamic teams all the way” during his career.

McLeish accepts Villa’s attacking statistics this season are a cause for concern and improvements are needed in the final third.

However, he reckons critics should “examine the facts” of the entertaining sides he has put together, particularly in his time in Scotland.

Villa have struggled to carry the same attacking threat this season since the summer sales of creative forces Ashley Young and Stewart Downing.

“I just think it’s a myth,” said McLeish. “I think in all my days as a coach and manager I’ve had pretty dynamic teams all the way.

“Even the Birmingham team that went down when I took over from Steve Bruce. James McFadden and Mikael Forssell were magnificent until McFadden got injured for the last few months.

“I don’t think they’re examining the facts, so there’s nothing much I can do about that. But it’s a myth. That’s for sure and that’s a fact.

“I shouldn’t have to explode it. If they examined the facts and they looked at my teams over the years they’d see they were entertaining teams.

“I think the guy that took over at Hibs recently said it would be great to get a Hibs team playing how McLeish’s team played.”

Debbie! he's simply SHITE as a manager. The only reason he got a job after relegating Birmingham was because of Sluralex's putting in a word for him. Sluralex was losing 6 points left and right with his cocksuckers getting fired. That's why he got McLeish a job at Aston Villa. He keeps one of his in the league AND SIX points for "United".

More importantly, the McLeishs, Bruces, Fat Sams are out to injure the players of the teams that posed the biggest threat to Sluralex. TFS Debbie!

Yep (though I'm not sure I go as far as believing the bit about injuries). I lost a lot of faith in Lerner with this appointment. Listen to this:

Lerner also revealed he was further convinced about the appointment when a letter arrived from Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, praising the decision.

He added: "Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment, a proper letter, talking about his feelings about Alex. It was something you don't easily forget and it's now in a safe deposit box. Given what Sir Alex Ferguson means to the game of football, I don't think you could get many things that you would be more proud of, or reflect better on Alex McLeish."

It's just shameful

debaser wrote:Yep (though I'm not sure I go as far as believing the bit about injuries). I lost a lot of faith in Lerner with this appointment. Listen to this:

Lerner also revealed he was further convinced about the appointment when a letter arrived from Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, praising the decision.

He added: "Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment, a proper letter, talking about his feelings about Alex. It was something you don't easily forget and it's now in a safe deposit box. Given what Sir Alex Ferguson means to the game of football, I don't think you could get many things that you would be more proud of, or reflect better on Alex McLeish."

It's just shameful

If anything shows how much this league is/was Fergie's then that does. Thank fuck his power is now dwindling.

Jonathan Hogg

Villa are now the team Robbie Keane supported as a boy



Bent & Keane

It was tradition to be linked to Keane every transfer window for about a decade, ever since we passed up signing him when he went to Coventry. Now when he retires to USA, we actually go and fucking sign him.

Why not give some gametime to Fonz/Weimann rather than someone who was proved useless on loan at a relegation battler last season. Clueless McGinge

Keane's demise is pretty spectacular. For a player who doesn't rely on physical attributes, he should still be playing very near his best. It's just scary what a transfer to Liverpool can do for you.

What's actually going on with the Fonz? Seems like a while since ive heard his name..is he up for a loan?

Hlebagone wrote:Keane's demise is pretty spectacular. For a player who doesn't rely on physical attributes, he should still be playing very near his best. It's just scary what a transfer to Liverpool can do for you.

It's not so surprising he's declined early when you think he was playing 40+ games a season aged 17.

christmasborocooper wrote:What's actually going on with the Fonz? Seems like a while since ive heard his name..is he up for a loan?

Been unused sub or out of squad altogether most of season. Did start a match the other week when Bent + Heskey injured.

He is only 20, so there's still time, but probably needs to start proving himself a first team player before too long, or he could be another Luke Moore..

Maybe Keane coming in means he'll get a loan move for rest of season.

Think he should if he's never getting on the pitch..look at what a season, or even half a season in the Championship or a bottom end of the prem side does for the likes of Wilshere, Adam Johnson, Cleverley, Wellbeck etc..

I bet he'd do more here for us than Nimely from City has done.

Maybe. Though he did get a few months at Burnley last season and didn't make much impact.

Hmm, well..he might just actually be shit then. I'd still give him a chance here though.

debaser wrote:

christmasborocooper wrote:What's actually going on with the Fonz? Seems like a while since ive heard his name..is he up for a loan?

Been unused sub or out of squad altogether most of season. Did start a match the other week when Bent + Heskey injured.

He is only 20, so there's still time, but probably needs to start proving himself a first team player before too long, or he could be another Luke Moore..

Maybe Keane coming in means he'll get a loan move for rest of season.

Such a waste of talent

“You are now talking about a guy who is at his peak,” said McLeish, whose team set up an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Arsenal or Leeds after a 3-1 win at Bristol Rovers.

“At 19 there is a lot you don’t know, but at 31 you certainly know a lot more. He can make up for it if he is not as quick as he was at 19 because he has got the quickness in the head.

“We got a report from Tottenham that he looks in much better condition than he did this time last year when he went to West Ham.

“That’s what we are hearing, he’s in tip-top shape.”

McLeish hopes the arrival of Keane on a two-month £500,000 loan will have an uplifting effect on the club, particularly the Villa Park faithful.

That sounds ridiculously gullible. Learnt nothing from Hutton has he?

Or Jenas

Lesson (so not learned); Don't trust Cockneys/Jews claiming that you can have their "quality" players at a discount price.

I'm hoping we can add Pavlyuchenko, Bentley and Zokora to truly rebuild the glorious Spurs side of 3 years ago.