On-off-on-off-on-off. It’s like a teenager with OCD who has a habit of flicking the lamp light on and then off before eventually settling down to sleep. What is exactly going on in the Ron Vlaar deal? £3.2 million for a Dutch international defender who’s rated more towards the £8 million mark is surely a steal and well worth taking a punt on, but it looks like it’s a case of being rid of the deadwood, ie James Collins and Stephen Warnock specifically, before any deal goes through. Either that or Paul Lambert isn’t very impressed with Vlaar constantly spouting his mouth off to the press. Only time will tell if this deal goes ahead or not.
There have been spits and spats of other transfer speculation over the course of the last week but nothing with any foundation. Besides I can’t see any deals being done before Lambert and his team settle back into training at Bodymoor Heath, but before that we have one last friendly in our U.S. tour against the Portland Timbers to look forward to. By the time you come to read this article that match would have already taken place and will no doubt be the main topic of discussion on the AVL forum.
Like hundreds – if not thousands – of other Villa fans, I stayed up late and tuned into CSN Chicago to watch the 1-0 victory over Chicago Fire. Yes – I was impressed by some of the sharpness on show from many of the lads and the way we kept the ball against a side 20 games into their domestic season. But on the flip side I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of goal scoring opportunities that we created, particularly in the second half which ended up being somewhat of a non-event in many respects. However the main thing is that we continue to build up the match fitness of the players before the big kick-off away at West Ham United on August 18th.
And although the last seven days have been relatively quiet from a Villa perspective particularly in comparison to the weeks prior to the tour of the United States, perhaps the most telling words of the summer came from the lips of Stephen Ireland who says that confidence in the camp is “sky high”. But the sentence that really struck a chord with me was when Ireland said, “It’s a nice feeling at the moment. It’s really encouraging to play football. The manager has pretty much been saying we have to score, keep the ball and get the ball through good running.” So it’s of no surprise to me that fans are rushing to renew/purchase their season tickets because I genuinely believe that we could see some of the best football we’ve seen in a long time this coming campaign.
As I’ve written in an article previously, Lambert is the type of manager that can get the very best out of players that have potential – and I think we all agree that many of the Villa players have potential in abundance. And although I’m certain things will be much better for those of a claret and blue persuasion this season than last, I have this niggling thought in the back of my head that we might, just maybe compete for a top six spot if we can get the ball down on the deck and play real football.
Until next time – Up The Villa.
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