Results for tag: Aston Villa
Posted by:
Andy Gray
on Apr 4, 2011 at 09:54:30 AM
Aston Villa's current league position will come as a surprise to many. After all, they have consistently finished in the top six for the last few seasons and boast a number of established internationals. Darren Bent and Ashley Young both started for England against Wales in a big qualifier and Stewart Downing then started against Ghana.
Look at the rest of the squad and you'll find plenty of other quality players who are automatic starters for their countries: Richard Dunne, Stiliyan Petrov, Michael Bradley and James Collins to name but a few. And that's without mentioning exciting young talent like Marc Albrighton and Fabian Delph.
So how are they in this mess and who's to blame? Well, for starters, it's not Gerard Houllier, who arrived at the club with the season well under way....
Posted by:
Andy Gray
on Jan 24, 2011 at 10:46:01 AM
Aston Villa's signing of Darren Bent was the big news last week after Gerard Houllier managed to prise away Sunderland's star asset for a fee in the region of £18 million. It has sparked the old debate of whether players become far more expensive in the transfer market just because they happen to be English.
It does seem to be the case that homegrown players are worth a few bob more than foreign imports, especially if they're also established internationals, but there are two good reasons for that.
The first is that with the recently introduced regulations concerning a minimum number of home-grown players, English lads become a more valuable commodity. The second is that I think most fans like to see high-profile nationals playing in their side.
If you go and ask a Real Madrid...