The Taxman Posted June 11, 2005 Author Share Posted June 11, 2005 Hello... This is my first story. I was kind of lost about the format to use and all of that so I just started writing. Here we go... Who would have thought that David O'Leary would just throw it all away like that? Promising squad, club, fans, a club seemingly on the up, why would he leave so suddenly? Papers speculated that it was a spat with chairman Doug Ellis over the wage budget and transfer budget for the new season that turned ugly....some speculated with some more wild accussations that shall not be delved into without the presence of lawyers. But the fact remains, Aston Villa needed a new boss. A new face to take the club to the top. But was Emerson Smith, a bloke as unfamiliar to the average man than the one next to him on the stool at the pub, the answer? Appointing an unknown to a PL club is always a risky move and the press just loved to jump onto this one and run with it. Looking at the papers the day after the press conference, it looked like they had taken it and ran a marathon. Villa's odds for relegation shortened and it was speculated a number of stars were annoyed at the decision. I had some work to do...let's go shopping... Although I dabbled around and had a look in the transfer market there was little in the way of player transactions made before the season's opening day. The squad was decent looking, for a top half finish at least, with some solid structure down back in the centre looking like the pillar to hold the club up on. An extremely promising playmaker from Germany named Thomas Hitzlsperger made my eyes light up, and there were a few decent strikers to choose from. That's my basic squad assessment. Olof Mellberg, the player who I have earmarked as the club's captain, has attracted a fair bit of interest in Spain, from major clubs Sevilla and Barcalona, however I have decided to hold onto him and build my defense around him in the club's quest for the Champions League. The sole signing of the pre-season in the player's squad was Patrik Berger from Portsmouth for 600K. I felt that we are lacking a little in the way of depth in attacking midfielders and wingers on the left and I'm confident that Patrik will provide some good backup and experience, having been a mainstay at Liverpool for well over 5 seasons. One player disagreed with me though, and this was unfortunately Lee Hendrie, who came through the Villa system and has been here well over 10 seasons. Recognizing his status as a clear-cut fan favourite I decided to be lenient on him after his outburst, worried at the signing of Patrik, because I didn't want to create an enemy of myself to the clubs fans this early on. At least wait until the losing streak hits! Subconsciously I was looking at Lee's stats and thinking that he wouldn't stay in my plans very long passed this season, although his relatively low wages helped his cause. To complement my backroom and give myself some more backup and assisstance the ad was put out for a 2nd right hand man to complement Roy Aitken. All rumours of sacking were firmly denied to the press when Sammy Lee was signed as my 2nd assistant manager, on some nice and lean wages. Scouts were sent out around Europe and beyond to scope some possible transfer targets for the future and I installed the training regime I designed on the club which involved training all of the three squads (senior, reserves, under 18) together in the hopes of giving the younger players some more experience and confidence, by training with the "stars" of the club. Finally, it was coming up to the beginning of the season, the big day, August 15, 2004 and I was getting excited and nervous, for the first game of the season was a big derby at St Andrews against of course Birmingham City. With three major strikers I had a hard time picking the two who would represent us up front, and in the end I made the hard decision of relegating usual fan-favourite Darius Vassell to the substitute bench in favour of Charlton Cole and Juan Angel. Looking into the future to the end of the season, I would absolutely love to nab young Charlton Cole on a permanent deal... EPL, Game 1 Birmingham vs. Aston Villa So, finally the first game of the year for my side...I was nervous as all hell but determined to put up a poker face for the cameras and my players. Deep down I knew that a flogging at the hands of Brum this afternoon and the press and fans would be on my back like vultures, playing up my perceived inexperience and surprise hiring for the job. All I could do was get on with it the best I could. As I stood on the sideline and looked up into the stands to see the 30,000 fans before the first whistle it was an awesome sight. I was almost in awe of the occasion......I sent out my players with hard pressing instructions to keep the opposition honest and deny them an early advantage and particularly an early goal. I knew that an early goal would set us on the back foot for the rest of the game and first time in, it would probably be hard to recover from with confidence not established. The early pace was frantic. The atmosphere was great, I almost forgot I have a side to manage! Luckily it was Brum who blinked first. 9 minutes in, Nobby Solano whipped in a brilliant cross from deep right, which caused their usual infallible captain Kenny Cunningham to knock over Charlton Cole in the box. PENALTY! The assigned kicker, the experienced Juan Angel, slid the kick past Taylor and we were 1-0 up after 9 mins. Great start! Couldn't linger though... Worried about a quick backlash but knowing we can't sit on the back foot for the other 80 minutes, Gareth Barry on the left was told to hold back a little on his forward runs and play a slightly more pressing and defensive role complementing McCann, my holding midfielder, next to him. Things worked well, our hard working midfield denied them space and they were unable to even get a shot on goal within the first half hour. We actually had them on the back foot and we took full advantage on the half hour mark, when an attempted clearence went wrong and Juan Angel put his 2nd passed the keeper. We managed to hold onto half time with our advantage despite being on the backfoot for the last 10 minutes of the half. Half time and 2-0 up, a great result so far. Into the 2nd half we managed to keep up our intensity for the first 20 minutes and continue to deny them space in their attacking third. To deny them even more space I decided to bring in Lee Hendrie for Juan Angel and play a 5 person midfield for the rest of the game. The strategy worked and we held them off for the rest of the match, through the expected late match surge we came unscatched and I was proud and delighted for my first outing, turning the 2nd half into a fizzer was exactly what we wanted. I was particularly delighted with the hard working midfield, Gareth Barry on the left leading the team in the tackle count (despite being subbed with Berger after an hour), which was a great sign. Birmingham 0 Aston Villa 2 Juan Pablo Angel 9 pen, 26 Could you imagine my delight when I arrived for training the next day and was approached by the chairman, personally to express his delight with the result the previous afternoon? The smile couldn't be wiped off my face. Things were looking good so far....but things can turn upside down so quickly..... *coffee break* Arriving in my office I was informed of a fax that came through, another Spanish club this time Athletic Madrid, enquiring about Olof Mellberg. Well it would take a decent-sized bid to prise him awya from my books and my response was 8 Million pounds. To be honest I am not even sure if I will even sell at that price, maybe not, although I am curious to see if they would match that. No they wouldn't I found out soon after....not to worry, I want to keep him anyway. After thinking about expanding the squad before the transfer deadline in 10 days, one player I have been looking at has been defensive midfielder Gerardo Torrado, Mexican international from Sevilla. He can speak English and has orange stats for markign, fitness, bravery, team work, work rate and stamina and I think he may be an ideal player to further boost my midfield's work rate and depth. Sounds good and all plus points, but with his wages I would be around 30,000 over the wage budget which I was hoping to keep to, and my budget for the rest of the season barring and sales would be down to around 2.5M which would leave little room for strengthening the squad should I want to in the new year.....within the next week and a half I'll have to reach a decision..... Updates coming soon. Any words would not go un read. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 11, 2005 Share Posted June 11, 2005 Hello... This is my first story. I was kind of lost about the format to use and all of that so I just started writing. Here we go... Who would have thought that David O'Leary would just throw it all away like that? Promising squad, club, fans, a club seemingly on the up, why would he leave so suddenly? Papers speculated that it was a spat with chairman Doug Ellis over the wage budget and transfer budget for the new season that turned ugly....some speculated with some more wild accussations that shall not be delved into without the presence of lawyers. But the fact remains, Aston Villa needed a new boss. A new face to take the club to the top. But was Emerson Smith, a bloke as unfamiliar to the average man than the one next to him on the stool at the pub, the answer? Appointing an unknown to a PL club is always a risky move and the press just loved to jump onto this one and run with it. Looking at the papers the day after the press conference, it looked like they had taken it and ran a marathon. Villa's odds for relegation shortened and it was speculated a number of stars were annoyed at the decision. I had some work to do...let's go shopping... Although I dabbled around and had a look in the transfer market there was little in the way of player transactions made before the season's opening day. The squad was decent looking, for a top half finish at least, with some solid structure down back in the centre looking like the pillar to hold the club up on. An extremely promising playmaker from Germany named Thomas Hitzlsperger made my eyes light up, and there were a few decent strikers to choose from. That's my basic squad assessment. Olof Mellberg, the player who I have earmarked as the club's captain, has attracted a fair bit of interest in Spain, from major clubs Sevilla and Barcalona, however I have decided to hold onto him and build my defense around him in the club's quest for the Champions League. The sole signing of the pre-season in the player's squad was Patrik Berger from Portsmouth for 600K. I felt that we are lacking a little in the way of depth in attacking midfielders and wingers on the left and I'm confident that Patrik will provide some good backup and experience, having been a mainstay at Liverpool for well over 5 seasons. One player disagreed with me though, and this was unfortunately Lee Hendrie, who came through the Villa system and has been here well over 10 seasons. Recognizing his status as a clear-cut fan favourite I decided to be lenient on him after his outburst, worried at the signing of Patrik, because I didn't want to create an enemy of myself to the clubs fans this early on. At least wait until the losing streak hits! Subconsciously I was looking at Lee's stats and thinking that he wouldn't stay in my plans very long passed this season, although his relatively low wages helped his cause. To complement my backroom and give myself some more backup and assisstance the ad was put out for a 2nd right hand man to complement Roy Aitken. All rumours of sacking were firmly denied to the press when Sammy Lee was signed as my 2nd assistant manager, on some nice and lean wages. Scouts were sent out around Europe and beyond to scope some possible transfer targets for the future and I installed the training regime I designed on the club which involved training all of the three squads (senior, reserves, under 18) together in the hopes of giving the younger players some more experience and confidence, by training with the "stars" of the club. Finally, it was coming up to the beginning of the season, the big day, August 15, 2004 and I was getting excited and nervous, for the first game of the season was a big derby at St Andrews against of course Birmingham City. With three major strikers I had a hard time picking the two who would represent us up front, and in the end I made the hard decision of relegating usual fan-favourite Darius Vassell to the substitute bench in favour of Charlton Cole and Juan Angel. Looking into the future to the end of the season, I would absolutely love to nab young Charlton Cole on a permanent deal... EPL, Game 1 Birmingham vs. Aston Villa So, finally the first game of the year for my side...I was nervous as all hell but determined to put up a poker face for the cameras and my players. Deep down I knew that a flogging at the hands of Brum this afternoon and the press and fans would be on my back like vultures, playing up my perceived inexperience and surprise hiring for the job. All I could do was get on with it the best I could. As I stood on the sideline and looked up into the stands to see the 30,000 fans before the first whistle it was an awesome sight. I was almost in awe of the occasion......I sent out my players with hard pressing instructions to keep the opposition honest and deny them an early advantage and particularly an early goal. I knew that an early goal would set us on the back foot for the rest of the game and first time in, it would probably be hard to recover from with confidence not established. The early pace was frantic. The atmosphere was great, I almost forgot I have a side to manage! Luckily it was Brum who blinked first. 9 minutes in, Nobby Solano whipped in a brilliant cross from deep right, which caused their usual infallible captain Kenny Cunningham to knock over Charlton Cole in the box. PENALTY! The assigned kicker, the experienced Juan Angel, slid the kick past Taylor and we were 1-0 up after 9 mins. Great start! Couldn't linger though... Worried about a quick backlash but knowing we can't sit on the back foot for the other 80 minutes, Gareth Barry on the left was told to hold back a little on his forward runs and play a slightly more pressing and defensive role complementing McCann, my holding midfielder, next to him. Things worked well, our hard working midfield denied them space and they were unable to even get a shot on goal within the first half hour. We actually had them on the back foot and we took full advantage on the half hour mark, when an attempted clearence went wrong and Juan Angel put his 2nd passed the keeper. We managed to hold onto half time with our advantage despite being on the backfoot for the last 10 minutes of the half. Half time and 2-0 up, a great result so far. Into the 2nd half we managed to keep up our intensity for the first 20 minutes and continue to deny them space in their attacking third. To deny them even more space I decided to bring in Lee Hendrie for Juan Angel and play a 5 person midfield for the rest of the game. The strategy worked and we held them off for the rest of the match, through the expected late match surge we came unscatched and I was proud and delighted for my first outing, turning the 2nd half into a fizzer was exactly what we wanted. I was particularly delighted with the hard working midfield, Gareth Barry on the left leading the team in the tackle count (despite being subbed with Berger after an hour), which was a great sign. Birmingham 0 Aston Villa 2 Juan Pablo Angel 9 pen, 26 Could you imagine my delight when I arrived for training the next day and was approached by the chairman, personally to express his delight with the result the previous afternoon? The smile couldn't be wiped off my face. Things were looking good so far....but things can turn upside down so quickly..... *coffee break* Arriving in my office I was informed of a fax that came through, another Spanish club this time Athletic Madrid, enquiring about Olof Mellberg. Well it would take a decent-sized bid to prise him awya from my books and my response was 8 Million pounds. To be honest I am not even sure if I will even sell at that price, maybe not, although I am curious to see if they would match that. No they wouldn't I found out soon after....not to worry, I want to keep him anyway. After thinking about expanding the squad before the transfer deadline in 10 days, one player I have been looking at has been defensive midfielder Gerardo Torrado, Mexican international from Sevilla. He can speak English and has orange stats for markign, fitness, bravery, team work, work rate and stamina and I think he may be an ideal player to further boost my midfield's work rate and depth. Sounds good and all plus points, but with his wages I would be around 30,000 over the wage budget which I was hoping to keep to, and my budget for the rest of the season barring and sales would be down to around 2.5M which would leave little room for strengthening the squad should I want to in the new year.....within the next week and a half I'll have to reach a decision..... Updates coming soon. Any words would not go un read. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 11, 2005 Author Share Posted June 11, 2005 EPL, Game 2 Middlesbrough vs. Aston Villa Consecutive away games to kick off the season....considering Boro's impressive start to the year I'm not as confident as maybe I should be before this one. Although I've seen what the side were capable of 6 days ago against Brum. An unchanged lineup was named with Barry acting as a defensive-tyle of winger on the left and Solano attacking from the right. Things didn't start off the way I had planned, when Nobby Solano went down after only 7 mins. I couldn't really tell if the injury was serious or not, I will have to wait for the physio report after the match....on the sideline I quickly had to make a decision to throw Lee Hendrie on instead of Vassell on the right. Vassell would have given me more pace and a better attacking option but I feel required to uphold some defensive ability....my attacking should become a little more narrower with Hitzlsperger hopefully playing a bigger role as playmaker. Our midfield once again was hard at work and we managed to deny them some space through the park, especially in our own third to give ourselves a handy possession advantage...at the half hour mark only 61% of their passes were hitting their targets to our 75%. However, their 3 centre backs (all quality) were providing a formidable wall for us which we were having a tough time breaking through. It was becoming a little bit of a stalemate as we denied them access to their goals, although when they shifted Downing to an attacking position behind the strikers (AMC) he began to cause a few niggling problems for us with some attacking runs, almost scoring when he, unmarked, blazed a shot over the bar from a Mendieta cross from a wide free kick. That was their first shot and they really should have nailed it, I thought. What I decided to do was to widen my strategy a little to the flanks, trying to go around their three centre backs a little more and past their wingers who were starting in defensive positions but making long sweeping runs forward....maybe this will leave them more vulnerable on the flanks? I was starting to think I should have put Vassell on instead of Hendrie, but oh well... ...the plan didn't work out so far as I expected, almost immediattely after they caught us on the break with some quick passing, getting through our defense and allowing Viduka to put one passed us. 34 mins and we are 1-0 down. Their centrebacks were really providing not only a great wall but some great counter attacking ability and they were troubling me. The first half petered out a little, although Downing was injured and forced to head off forcing them to play a left winger on the right wing (Zenden). I decided to make a tough decision and slot Berger in for Barry on hte left, Berger being fresh and a more attacking player. We started trying to open the game up a little as they tried to shut it down....I decided to bring on Vassell for Angel to speed up the attacking line, to give us some more bite against a defense which is ageing a little. The game was certainly opened up and we had some chances, but none of them were really taken advantage of. They had started hitting us on the counter-attack as well we were definitely vulnerable to conceding a 2nd. Well.....we had hit injury time, all the players on both sides were tiring and I had all but conceded the game...but then, BAM! Vassell broke open down a gap on the right and put a ball in front of Hendrie who had drifted centrally. Hendrie found Charlton Cole who was open in the box, who put it past the big Aussie, Mark Schwarzer! An equaliser 3 minutes into stoppage time! The whistle sounded right after....I was delighted to have snatched a draw in the end! How one's mood can change so quickly.... Middlesbrough 1 Viduka 34 Aston Villa 1 Cole 90 The news was good again once I got back to the rooms after match...Nobby and Thomas Hitzlsperger had only picked up minor knocks and were out for 5 days apiece, although both would miss my next match, my first home game of the season hosting Newcastle United. Back facing the media circus and they had calmed down a little following my promising start to the season. What your goals for the season? Will you be buying or selling anyone else before the end of the window? What do you think of the fans who have protested against your signing to the club? and so on....were all questions I was facing every moment of the day, everywhere I trod. I had to give the same answers each time and feign interest and surprise when I was asked those questions...although I was able to answer the 2nd one...I had decided to make my interest in Gerardo Torrado, the mexican defensive midfielder from Spain, concrete and we had a 1.7M bid for his services accepted. He quickly passed a medical and found himself at Villa Park training with the squad in time to be included for the next match, the next day. Now, within the first team squad I had three adequate DMCs at my disposal, which I was happy with, but Mathieu Berson, my third DMC who is a new signing from France made before I arrived, didn't share the feeling and started to get cold feet about his decision to join the club. EPL, Game 3 Aston Villa vs. Newcastle I was pumped up for our first home game...I was hoping the players were too. We were facing a Newcastle team that hadn't yet won this season in 3 tries and a win would set us up for a promising year. Today our opponents would be showcasing their new signing, Fabian Ernst from Germany, and another, centre back Sam Kouffer from FC Bayern. For me, with Solano and Hitzlsperger sitting out I had decided to put Hendrie on the right and Berger through the middle, otherwise all of it was the same except new signing Torrado was on the bench. Kick off...the game looked like it would be fairly open with Berger already slicing their defense open and showing some promise through the centre, and Dyer and Robert sprinting down the wings for them. I was slightly worried about the height of my defense against the might of Shearer and this was realised under 10 minutes in, with Robert placing a brilliant cross to Shearer, who beat out Mellberg and put an early one passed my keeper. QUICK REPLY! My decision to up the tempo and play a little more direct payed off almost instantly, when only 4 mins later Berger and Barry exchanged passes before Barry slid a quick pass to Cole who beat their new signing Kouffor and put it passed Given to level the score. I had decided to try and keep up this pace and put them onto the back foot.....it was working, we started to gain ascendency but my players were beginning to wear out faster than theirs. We kept at it though and by half time though the score was still equal, we had the upper hand and had equalled the possession stats. Hearing the roar as the players came down the race for the 2nd half, infront of 42,000 screaming fans, was just amazing. I couldn't believe it. I had decided to up the pressing and put the players on hard tackling for the first 15 mins of the 2nd half to try and chase another goal....they countered well though, slowing the game down to quite a slower pace. I decided after an hour to once again take of Angel and bring on my super sub, Vassell. Their new defensive signings though were doing a good job at holding us back, and the game was stuck at 1-1 for a while as their sat the majority of their players back and let us come at them, but they were dealing with it quite well. Another late last gasp goal was possibly too much to ask for, and for the 2nd time in a row the match ended up as a 1-1 draw. Had we not cendeded first in both games I think we would have won. Newcastle were quite impressive, and we were a little flat without two of our attacking midfielders in the side and a draw was probably a fair result in the end. Aston Villa 1 Cole 14 Newcastle 1 Shearer 10 I'm quite enjoying writing this...and things are looking promising for my side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Excellent As a die hard Villa fan, I'll definitely be reading 2-0 over the sc*m on your debut - nice start A couple of solid draws, though I just hope Carlton Cole hasn't already hit his limit for the season. ( Real life total for season just gone: 3 ) Anyway - keep up the good work and let's get into Europe Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
T!mbo Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Interesting to read and a good standard of English. Great start Taxman Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 12, 2005 Author Share Posted June 12, 2005 Thanks for the encouraging words. I am struggling a little whether to use past tense or present tense. Although rather than just describing what happens I'm trying to give an insight to the psychie of Emerson Smith and what is going through his mind. League Cup 2nd Round draw - away to League One side, Bournemouth. Good draw, we should go through. Picking up the paper on the way to the game against West Brom, I read the following article. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Chelsea sign Ballack Monday August 30, 2004 Chelsea have decided to splash the cash on FC Bayern's Michael Ballack. The deal bringing the 27 year old German midfielder to the club is thought to be worth 16,750,000M. Ballack was unveiled at a press conference at Stamford Bridge this morning. Chelsea are already 3 wins from 3 starts this season and this signing will shorten them even more for their first League title in 50 years. Ballack will make his debut when Chelsea host Man Utd next Wednesday night. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> I couldn't help but laugh a little. 16+Million spent and I considered my 1.7M signing of Gerardo Torrado from Sevilla at least more than small fries? EPL, Game 4 West Brown vs. Aston Villa Brom hadn't won yet this season but they had only conceded 5 goals in their 3 matches to date, and this included matches against Man Utd and Liverpool. I knew this would be far from an easy game and with any complacency at all we could well be travelling home with nothing in our pockets to show. We were being broadcast live on skysports and the prediction was that we would win in a close one...I'll take that! To keep them on edge I decided to start Vassell up front with Cole for his first game of the year - I wanted a pacy attacking line. Unfortunately Solano and Hitzlsperger were taking longer than I thought to recuperate from their injury and I was still without them, so in the middle my lineup remained unchanged. So off the whistle goes and my players definitely looked up to it. We surged forward through the wings early on, particularly down the left through Barry, although their defense was holding on strongly with Cole and Vassell unable to break through. They started regaining some possession, hitting us on the rebound and they troubled us numerous times from corners. On 36 minutes Scott Dobie headed through a corner only for Sorenson to produce a reaction save to rival the best of them. We were very very lucky to keep them out and keep the score at 0-0. The game started to peter out, and I had even had the first bite of my traditional half time orange when Jlloyd Samuel came screaming down the left, fed through Cole who beat two defenders and slid a goal passed Hoult to make it his third straight scoring game and put us up 1 to the good in the 4th minute of stoppage time. With Cole's great form I thought I could forsee a situation coming where he performs that well that Chelsea will be unwilling to sell him to me on a permanent deal, so my eyes are starting to wander around to potential transfer targets come next season....so far two names I have been impressed with are Dirk Kuijt from Feyenoord and another Chelsea striker out on loan (to the Brum scum), Mikael Forssell. Although I am a long way off this situation yet, I like to keep my eyes open. Into the 2nd half I wanted to slow down the pace a little and keep a little more possession with shorter passing, but I knew we couldn't shut up shop yet. I was worried about Jason Koumas who had already fired off 6 shots at the goal in the first half, though only 1 was on target, we posed probably their most significant threat. BAM! Quickly and suddenly, 10 minutes in the 2nd half as things were drifting along at a desirable pace, we nabbed them on the counter attack. Gavin McCann proved he is more than just a defensive midfield rock but lobbing a pass over their midfield towards Cole, who ran into open space and knocked home a 2nd in a move that looked quite simple....I was really starting to like this Cole fellow. After our second, maybe they gave up a little or maybe or side is finding some form, or maybe both, but the game turned into a fizzer which was exactly what we were looking for. After moving to a 4-5-1 strategy again after about 70 minutes they looked even more denied of space and resorted to long balls at the goal from outside the box. The game looked set for a 2-0 finish when in the last minute Thomas Sorensen, obviously thinking of the post-game celebrations, muffed a clearance straight to their striker Robert Earnshaw who slotted it straight into the net. This really was ridiculous and it shouldn't really happen, but I can forgive Thomas this time because of the certain goal he saved from the corner in the 1st half....after some tight defending and minor scares with them desperately seeking an equaliser, the final whistle was blown and the win in the pocket. Another away win, huzzah! As we headed back into the rooms I congratulated the boys on a stellar effort, but reminded them that lapses like the late one will cost us much bigger against the top teams, and that's who we wanted to compete against. I didn't need to pat Cole on the back - he knew it, and I didn't need to repremand Sorensen, he saved us earlier on. But I went over and patted Gerardo Torrado on the back for a solid debut from the subs bench after replacing Berger in the 2nd half. West Brom 1 Earnshaw 90 Aston Villa 2 Cole 45, 55 We have come to the first international break and in brief, we are sitting 5th with 2 wins and 2 draws. Both wins have been away which I am delighted with.... ...I was quite ready for a holiday for a few days to enjoy the good start we had made, when the following fax came through in my office... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Barcalona offer 1.1M plus Henrik Larsson for Olof Mellberg. Insert contractual talk and technical talk that is like babble to me... </div></BLOCKQUOTE> This just floored me....although Henrik is 32 years of age, a player of that worldclass reputation being offered to Villa? With news coming through to my office that Juan Angel was suffering some personal problems and may be forced to go home for a leave of absense soon, I had to consider this offer. I couldn't just reject a player like Henrik Larsson easily.....wow....I really had some thinking to do during the next before the deadline closes tomorrow night...whatever decision needs to be made, needs to be made quickly... Henrik Larsson! As I close my eyes and imagine him in a Villa jersey the decision is getting tougher... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Nice start to your career as a storyteller Having indulged in reading practically every story on here, I always seem to return to the ones with a nice back story rather than the ones that concentrate purely on the games. KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 12, 2005 Author Share Posted June 12, 2005 Thanks brownie. I sat at my desk for a number of minutes, looking over the fax....I had to weigh up the long term future of the club and considering Henrik could probably only give my 2 seasons of decent service at most, and considering the fact that I was intending to build the side from the back forward instead of the forward back, then I had to reject the offer. It was a very tough decision, I would have loved to see Larsson lining up in Villa colours.... So, the first transfer deadline has now passed and the first monthy awards have been released. Not that they mean a whole lot to me, but I was proud for Charlton Cole getting 2nd runner up for young player of the month. 4 goals from 4 starts, 2 man of the match efforts, quite a good month for him. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Summary of ins and outs so far: Ins: Patrik Berger from Portsmouth for 600K Gerardo Torrado from Sevilla for 1.7M Outs: Nil </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Well we now had 10 days off before we hosted Tottenham at home on the 11th. I sat back at home and watched the match between Chelsea and Man Utd, a great game finishing 2-2 with Michael Ballack scoring a goal on debut. On the international front things looked quite good, my young midfielder Peter Whittingham showed some promise with a great performance for the England under-21 side against Austria, but the greedy young lad wants a new contract straight away! I've got him until 2007 so he can wait for that and earn it first....the main side, England, also defeated Austria with Gareth Barry getting a start on the left and setting up a goal for Heskey. Darius Vassell was selected as a sub but not used... EPL, Game 5 Aston Villa vs. Tottenham After resting Juan Angel last time around I brought him back into the side to partner Charlton Cole. I thought they complemented eachother quite well and I was quite happy when Cole came to me and told me that he thought he worked well with Juan. Nobby Solano and Hitzlsperger were brought straight back into the starting lineup....we were facing a Tottenham team who have already faced Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd so a standing of 9th with 5 goals conceded wasn't something to laugh at. It was a wet and miserable day which slowed things down considerably. Although the fans had still turned out in force to watch us, and I was proud of them. We didn't exactly get the start we wanted when, after 5 minutes Robbie Keane headed in a wide free kick to put us one goal down....we are starting to develop a horrible habit of conceding the first goal as it has happened in 3 games so far this season now. Things evened up on the quick though, to my delight of course, with Cole netting yet another goal after Juan Angel whipped in a cross...now I thought that Angel would be the one heading in cross from Cole but not to worry, I won't complain about this one. It looked to me like our direct passing style was putting them off somewhat...they wanted to sit back and play the game at a slower pace, but it was our turf. We wouldn't let them. They were definitely rattled and it only took another 2 minutes before Cole had returned the favour to his strike partner and slotted him through to put home a 2nd goal. 10 minutes gone and we were already 2-1 up.... ...and now the game took another turn only 2 minutes later. Our defense was centralised quite a bit for some reason and they had some room on the wings....and when a cross came in there was nothing my DCs could do to stop Kanoute putting home the equaliser....now I was standing on the sideline just stunned after seeing 4 goals scored in less than 15 minutes. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just sat back and let things play themselves out.... ...and well 2 minutes later, they did. Gareth Barry broke open and put a long ball through to Charlton Cole who put home his 2nd....15 minutes gone and we were 3-2 up, this was incredible! I couldn't believe it! It was time to slow things down a little, but it was difficult as they pressed hard for an equaliser. Instead of trying to slow the pace down when it was becoming clear we couldn't really, I decided to match them once more. This had a bad effect on Nobby Solano once again, who injured himself again and was forced off at half an hour....I had considered playing Berger out of position on the right instead though, I chose to put Vassell in there. We started gaining the ascendency, we started to break them down...my instructions telling Gareth Barry to hold back a little on the left meant that he was firing nice long balls through to my strikers and maybe it was the wet weather hindering their defenders abilities to keep up, but five minutes before half time Juan Angel was set free and put home his 2nd goal, and we had a 2 goal buffer. Gareth Barry is developing nicely so far and I might say that I am glad I didn't bow to interest coming for him from Spain. Into the 2nd half, I hope it wont be as eventful as the first...! Well, it wasn't. We shut them down magnificently, promising signs coming from new signing Torrado who formed a two man holding midfield as well as Liam Ridgewell, a young central defender who held the fort proudly over the last minutes of the match. Aston Villa 4 Cole 8, 16 Juan Angel 10, 40 Tottenham 2 Keane 5 Kanoute 12 What an eventful first 15 minutes! The match took its toll on the players though, Gareth Barry and Nobby Solano will miss another week and Jlloyd Samuel will be out for 5 days...all three would miss the next match, at home to Blackburn... Back at training the next day I was handed a newspaper... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villa fans advocate giving Emerson Smith time to prove himself at Villa Aston Villa supporters club boss John Bull has advocated giving new and controversial Villa boss Emerson Smith time to prove himself after the "impressive" form that the club has shown through the beginning of the year. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Quite good news on that front...now I don't like being surprised, so when I got a tap on the shoulder from the clubs chairman himself after training, maybe I assumed the worst (it is my nature). The board were beginning to get concerned about the wage budget, the budget being 230,000 p/w while the wages came in at 261,000 p/w. There needed to be some culling of the squad done, or some significant wage cuts taken... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerf Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 Doug Ellis getting concerned about the wage budget? Surely not! Nice start, KUTGW . I think you made the right choice about Ollie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartley_m Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 Excellent work, I always found Villa difficult to take charge of - guess you're a better manager than I KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
T!mbo Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 Good stuff again Nice to see someone taking their time over a story and adhering to the forum rules. Always knew they weren't that difficult to grasp despite some of the efforts this forum has seen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 16, 2005 Author Share Posted June 16, 2005 EPL, Game 6 Aston Villa vs. Blackburn With Samuel, Barry and Solano out I had to reshuffle the pack a bit for the next match against Blackburn. I thought that a win here would be pretty important, considering we have Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool in our next three league matches, with the League Cup tie thrown in the middle (to tire our players out even more during our busy period). This would certainly be a testing period for us....we will definitely find out where we stand.... ...but we are hosting Blackburn now, who sit below us one spot on the table in 5th. Taking a bit of a defensive move I put players on the wings who aren't normally wingers...Whittington was rewarded for his good effort in the England U21s with a start on the left and Hendrie was drafted back in ont he right. We started out on the front foot, with the wingers whipping in crosses from deep after being told not to run at the defenders as much, their long balls were causing a few problems for them and they were finding my strikers fairly well. They weren't troubling us much with their attack, most of it was long shots bombing over our goals, however their defense was holding up quite well and we were unable to break through. This was why I was especially frustrated when, right before half time, Charlton Cole broke open chasing a long ball from our own half, beat 2 defenders and failed to get the back of the net. I was starting to get a bit worried that Cole had hit the wall just like Brian of Nazareth predicted! Maybe the disappointing crowd, 34,000 out of a possible 42,000, bummed the players a bit, but they looked a bit flat and I wasn't so sure we would be able to break the deadlock. - we were breaking through their defense with, mainly, long balls, but their keeper, Brad Friedel, had built a brick wall on the goal line which we couldn't get past. As the hour mark passed nothing much was changing....so I decided to make a move. I took off Juan Angel and brang on Vassell, some more pace up front...and with Hendrie injuring himself on the right perhaps being a blessing in disguise as I was able to bring on Patrik Berger, the more attacking player, in his place. To counter our strategy though, they set themselves on the backfoot even more, and let us come at them, and we still couldn't break through. We really seemed to miss some bite in our attacking line when Nobby Solano is missing and maybe this is something I will need to look at in the future, another winger who can give me some attacking spark and preferably someone who can play on both sides...hmmm....a name like Darren Ambrose comes to mind...a quickly jot the name down on the pad as the side walks off the pitch with a draw, which is enough to put us ahead of Man Utd and into third on goal difference behind Chelsea and Arsenal (the latter of which who has not only not lost a point yet, but not even conceded a goal yet this season. I noticed that their goalkeeper picked up the man of the match award, and while it was deserved, it is really our own fault we didn't hit the onion bag... Aston Villa 0 Blackburn 0 Now, coming up on the saturday was the big trip to Manchester United....we had surpassed them on the table on goal difference which to me was a significant psychological hurdle...this was what I was drilling into the players at training....we are above them, they are nothing to fear.... I wanted us to head out there and play confident football. If we surrender into our shells then we will, for lack of a better word, get flogged. EPL, Game 7 Man Utd vs. Aston Villa What a big game for us....a good start to the year and now we find out where we really stand. Nobby Solano is still out for us and Lee Hendrie has joined the casualty list alongside Solano and Barry. Darius Vassell was brought in on the right wing, and despite doing nothing overly wrong, the experienced Patrik Berger was brought in on the left wing for the big game. This saturday afternoon was also a big match for them with their 20M pound signing Wayne Rooney scheduled to make his debut...and with their midfield reading Giggs, Keane, Scholes and Ronaldo backing up Van Nistelrooy and Rooney I started to get a bit worried. To show the opposition that we weren't intimidated I told the players to go out there and tackle hard...the weather was wet and cold, just perfect, a dogfight would suit us to the ground. We were being forced to work hard, very hard, but this was expected and after 20 mins we had kept them at bay and only to two shots at goal. Our tackling down the back was commendable...and we had a couple of opportunities to get them on the break with Charlton Cole particularly using his pace...although just as things were looking good, once again we concede the first goal with Van Nistelrooy knocking it over to Rooney for an easy finish to give the kid his first goal for the club. We managed to regain our compusure and restablish a rythym in the match, but on the half hour mark our minds went blank and Mellberg, who was struggling to keep with Ruud's pace, let him through and couldn't catch up, giving them a second. Only 2 minutes later Rooney got put through again by Ruud and the match was over after only half an hour. What a disappointment. I have certainly found out that we have a long way to go. By the hour mark the players were totally stuffed. They have worked hard but the stand of play just isn't there to match it with a Man Utd....already I was looking forward to our next EPL fixture against Chelsea in exactly a weeks time on Saturday....as the match went on we conceded another one to Van Nistelrooy who had now scored 2 of theirs and set up the other two...the guy was playing out of his skin! After that the players kind of fell asleep and we were just on the backfoot taking all of their punishment. Quite surprisingly we managed to snatch one back, although I suspect they just took their feet off the gas allowing Cole to break free and put one through the net at a completely useless time. I really wanted to scream out from the sidelines, "You missed the exact same chance against Blackburn when it could have won us the game!" Finally the game whistle ended. I waited for the players and told them all, before they walked off, to remember this feeling. "Not a good feeling, huh?" I told them as we walked off the pitch... Man Utd 4 Rooney 22, 34 Van Nistelrooy 31, 79 Aston Villa 1 Cole 87 After the game, I was told Charlton Cole had twisted his knee and would miss two weeks including our matches against Chelsea and Liverpool...How things can go from good to bad so quickly! Our good start ended pretty abruptly! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mambaman Posted June 16, 2005 Share Posted June 16, 2005 good story fella KUTGW though I wouldnt get too despondent at the thrashing at the hands of Man U-you've started well I reckon (with both your team and the story ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone the Magazine Posted June 16, 2005 Share Posted June 16, 2005 Good stuff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 16, 2005 Author Share Posted June 16, 2005 Thanks for the encouragement. I'm going to post the ingame date each update starts at now so when I refer to dates you all know what I am talking about. Tuesday, 21st September, 2004 League Cup, Round 2 Bournemouth vs. Aston Villa I wanted to boost the squads confidence after the flogging at Man Utd, so I named a full strength side here. Although I told them to not go out at 100%, tackle softly and basically keep their energy. They were playing well though, they were quite determined to give us a fight and that was exactly what they were doing. We were definitely not looking at conceding a goal but extra time was the last thing I wanted with regards to the players condition. We continued to pepper them, but both our shooting was shocking and their goalkeeper, ex Soton player Neil Moss, was doing a stand up job of keeping us out. Coming to the 2nd half I decided to put the foot down, and end the charade. We were a Premier League side. Sending the players on long runs down the wings and sending them out with a direct passing strategy and an attacking mindset. It only took 5 minutes for quality to shine through - we started to dominate possession and Vassell quickly broke free and delivered a cross through to Juan Angel to give us the lead. We started to break their resolve and muscle the match into the final third however our shooting was just shocking and we couldn't hit the net again....what it took was Vassell once again showing Angel a great cross and giving him open view of the net from about the penalty spot to basically seal us the win shortly after the hour mark. With the game looking won I decided to rest the players with yellow cards, and settle us down. Maybe I got too confident though? With our players snoozing on the pitch they managed to break free soon after and peg one back on us. Though they tried, against a Premier League side they couldn't break through the gap and we held on to progress. As I might add, as expected. Bournemouth 1 Connell 73 Aston Villa 2 Juan Angel 51, 67 Patrik Berger put in a stellar performance on the left wing, but there was a slightly bad sign and that was the goalkeeper, Thomas Sorensen, who over the course of 8 games this year (not including friendlies) has only averaged 6.25. I think we could be up higher on the table if we had a well-performing keeper...and with my scouts out and about around Europe and beyond, they were looking for one. One of the ones that caught my eye has been Ajax's goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg...but I'm not sure if I will be able to prise him away from their hands for an agreeable price. Back at training I was handed the paper...how the heck do the paper find out these things before me? I really should start going to the draws of these things... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Midlands rivals face off in League Cup 3rd Round Midlands rivals Aston Villa and Birmingham will face off at Villa Park in the 3rd Round of the League Cup to be held in just over a months time on the 27th of October. This is sure to be a fiery clash as always, with Birmingham desperate to get revenge after Villa defeated them 2-0 on their own turf, on the opening day of the season. Also in the 3rd Round, Liverpool will host rivals Manchester United. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Ahh, nothing like a derby to fire the players up. I have to be quite confident of going through there. EPL, Game 8 Aston Villa vs. Chelsea We had Barry and Solano back and though it was a tough decision for Barry's case they were both slotted right back into the lineup on the left and right wing respectively. Hard tackling and quick tempo once again, if these prima donnas were going to get anything off us they were going to have to work for it. The stands were packed, I was looking for a better performance than our last league match, that's for sure... The game started out with a frantic pace, and it didn't take long for things to hot up. The returning Gareth Barry brought down Joe Cole on the edge of the box to give Lampard a penalty after only a minute, which they of course converted to set us immediattely on the back foot. The game as being played at a frantic pace, just as we wanted it. Each player was working overtime for every ball, every pass and they weren't getting anything easy. We weren't letting them sit back and rest for 88 minutes.... ....and after 20 minutes our persistence paid off as Thomas Hitzlsperger started to show some of his promise, just when I needed it. He lobbed a lovely ball over Mekelele's head into the path of Vassell, whose pace was causing Terry some problems...Vassell controlled the ball and put it passed Cech to put us back on equal footing to the delight of the packed house which had come to see us. The match started to even out a little more, our persistent tackling was starting to relegate them to far away shots and we were starting to look like a good attacking threat, although our players were tiring faster than theirs and this was something that might trouble us later. Once again though, luck and bad timing combined against us...Gareth Barry wasn't having a good day as a corner whipped in from Duff deflected off him after Cole hit it and it hit the back of their net...just as we were looking good once again we are reset back to square one. We are conceding quite a few unnecessary goals. After this I was glad to see out the next 15 minutes and got to half time a goal down, after a few more scares. We came out in the 2nd half determined. Juan Angel broke free but blazed it over the goalkeeper...they were holding pretty strong but we were working hard. After an hour I brought the in form Berger in for Barry, who arguably, is to blame for both goals. We had our chances, Hitzlsperger hit the keeper at point blank range after Solano whipped in another great cross, that was the best of them, but our players were starting to tire and with only 15 minutes left I decided to revert to a 4-4-2 diamond strategy with Hitzlsperger playing a free role behind the strikers. We started to get the upper hand...more possession and the game was being played in their third...but they threw all their players back behind the ball and we couldn't break through. Once again a disappointing result, even more so this time because I felt we could have gotten something from this one. Aston Villa 1 Vassell 21 Chelsea 2 Lampard pen 2 Cole 33 I had noticed that Sorensen put in another game to forget...a rating of 5 and his moral had hit rock bottom. The next day I called Sorensen into the rooms after training...this was my first manager-player talk...the first time I had to tell a player he was underperforming. It was hard...but i had to let him know what was coming from him wasn't good enough. I had already decided to give Stefan Postma a try for the next game, a trip to Anfield for a clash with Liverpool. I wasn't sure what Sorensen thought of my words because he had just kept a blank face through my speech, although I picked up the paper and read this... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villans fans lambast gutless Sorensen Aston Villa fans are firmly behind Emerson Smith's decision to reprimand Thomas Sorensen for his lethargic performances of late. A spokesman for the supporters' club told The Guardian that, given the maound of money Sorensen takes home each week, he had no excuse for turning in such lacklustre displays. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Not to smile at poor form, but I was happy the fans agreed with me...I just hoped that Sorensen wouldn't toss the toys out of the pram and cause some squad unrest...which I could see potentially already. Afterall, the forwards and midfielders all had superb moral while the defenders had just average moral. I could see potential problems developing here...I didn't want a 3 game losing run against the top sides to tear our season to shreds... The goalie has turned into a marshmellow! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 17, 2005 Share Posted June 17, 2005 Ah not to worry about the Chelsea result. Still that's two tough games out of the way and forgotten! Can't wait for the League Cup clash though - looks very tasty Not that I'd want to let real life intrude on my opinions or anything but even an off form Sorensen is better than Postma Ah heck good luck firing him and the side up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucket Posted June 17, 2005 Share Posted June 17, 2005 Great story KUTGW. Good luck with the villa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 17, 2005 Author Share Posted June 17, 2005 30th September, 2004 EPL, Game 9 Liverpool vs. Aston Villa The big Dutch goalkeeper Stefan Postma was been given his debut after the decline in form of Thomas Sorensen. I can't see him being a decent option though and I have already started looking for possible replacements come the 1st of January, 2005. I've drawn up a bit of a shortlist of possible targets, we've got around 3 months so make a move so I've sent out scouts to check them out. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Maarten Stekelenburg, Ajax, 22 y.o. Mart Poom, Sunderland, 32 y.o. Henk Timmer, AZ, 32 y.o. Ronald Waterreus, Man City, 34 y.o. (out of contract at the end of the year) Jeroen Lambers, FC Groningen (Dutch), 24 y.o. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Some on that list are better than others but all of them bar the top one, possibly, are realistic targets. With a transfer budget of 3.2M left over I'm sure I'll be able to nab one of them. That list really is in order of preference and the last 2 are last resorts, really. Onto the game and we will go with what we have. Sorensen, in form and with morale, is a good goalkeeper. Looking over the injury list, they have Kewell, Baros, Dudek, Rufete (new signing) and Gerrard all out suspended/injured. That is a tick in our column. Things started off with them surging forward to try and claim an early goal, but the wet weather was making it hard...we managed to get forward ourselves with my strategy of letting Vassell be the focal point up front instead of Juan Angel, maybe his pace will surprise them in the wet. Unusually i had adopted a shorter passing strategy in the wet, and it was causing them problems at spots....Solano having a good look at the goals after cutting through their slightly slower central defence of Biscan and Hyypia. But once again I got ahead of myself...As Cisse let loose Luis Garcia on the left, who curled a brilliant shot passed Postma from a tight angle, and my right back Delaney really should have been there instead of leaving him with that much space. We did have opportunities to get the goal back and equalise, but their defensive tackling was right on the ball...and as if I was watching a replay of about 10 minutes ago, yet again Cisse let Luis Garcia loose on the left and he slashed a long ball passed Postma on the inside post. Postma, really, should have gotten that one. Left extremely frustrated, I let the game drift on. I felt we weren't even playing that badly but we had made 1 or 2 minor mistakes and were punished to the full extent for them. Then right before half time, finally, something to smile about! Young left fullback Jlloyd Samuel had gotten loose and whipped in a great deep cross to Juan Angel, who headed it past Kirkland to pull one back for us. That was a goal which basically came out of nowhere with that great cross...not to mention Angel who beat a 3 on 1 situation and headed it in...we managed to hold off the sleeping giants, who had awoken after sitting back and letting us come at them with their 2 goal lead, until half time. Coming into the 2nd half I decided to tell the boys to come out swinging, hard tackling and closing down all the way to try and get level....but Liverpool had awoken and they countered. Xabi Alonso had gotten loose on the edge of the box and whizzed a shot passed Postma to recapture their 2 goal lead. This was painful...each time we thought we were in with a shout, we had a momentary lapse of reason, and managed to concede a goal. After this they just threw their players behind the ball and waited it out....and it was working. We were totally falt and unable to break through...that was until 1 minute from time when the returning Charlton Cole was let loose by Angel and put one passed Kirkland to make the scoreline look respectable....and for those two minutes, looking for an equaliser, we managed to play with determination and vigour not seen for the whole match. Liverpool 3 Luis Garcia 17, 25 Xabi Alonso 54 Aston Villa 2 Juan Angel 40 Cole 90 And with three straight losses we slide from 5 to 10th in three short matches. As expected we got nothing from three games in a row against Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool and I just hope that the morale didn't die and we can recapture our early form.... With two weeks off to regroup, I was hoping we could come back out the other end and reverse our form slump... ...meanwhile...I reading of the papers would see speculation mounting about new goalkeepers... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villa boss Smith silent on goalkeeper speculation Aston Villa boss Emerson Smith was unmoved when asked to comment on speculation that the club is moving for one of two Dutch goalkeepers they have been linked with in the past few days. These two players are Henk Timmer of AZ, and Dennis Gentenaar of NEC. Strong rumours are circulating that a fee has already been agreed with one of the two parties and come January 1st Villa will have a Dutch goalkeeper lining up between the white posts. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Aston Villa star wants first team football Aston Villa's Stefan Moore has revealed that not being part of the first team at Villa Park is starting to unsettle him. The 21-year-old striker is unhappy that he continually finds himself turning out for the reserves and has said that he will be looking to leave the club if he doesn't break into the first team soon. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> How did word get out? There must be some snakes in the club...after being spotted by my scout, Dennis Gentenaar has become my number one target although it will cost us 3.5M, I believe, he will be useful I believe, and his form so far in the Dutch league has been stellar. After dropping Thomas Sorensen for a go in the reserves, interest has surfaced from Zaragoza in Spain for him. Despite his good stats, he hasn't been performing for me but he will get lots of chances to turn that around before the new year, but a deal with Zaragoza is a definite option for me if I manage to sign Dennis Gentenaar from NEC... Now with the break almost over and transfer speculation taking a back seat once again, we prepare to host Crystal Palace, hopefully, to regain some confidence... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 17, 2005 Author Share Posted June 17, 2005 18th October, 2004 EPL, Game 10 Aston Villa vs. Crystal Palace I really expected to win this one , but you never know in football, particularly with us coming off a three match losing run against the top sides. The pundits didn't agree though, and surprisingly with us sitting on evens and Palace the outsiders, Skysports.com predicted a Palace win. What had happened to moral? It had definitely affected some of the players. I had decided to bring Cole in for Vassell and let Torrado have his first start for McCann who was suffering a few minor morale problems. I also decided to bring Sorensen back into the side to see if he could turn around some of his form. The game started out with us taking possession forward, and with their 3-5-2 formation I wanted to go forward quickly and take advantage of the space on the flanks. After only 12 minutes things looked great when Solano whipped in a cross, and Cole was knocked over in the panic...but the spot kicker this time, Gareth Barry, whipped it straight down the middle at their goalkeeper Kiraly, and the opportunity was wasted... ...the thing was though, they weren't really threatening our goals so I tell our players not to surge forward so quickly, but to slow down and build the attacks a bit more. Our form did look much better than we had gotten results against the last three games, but we were still unable to get through their defense as their wingers came back and formed a large backline...but with their lack of full backs we had some opportunities, their wingers were tiring a little and Solano took full advantage by whipping in a deep cross to the far post which Charlton Cole tapped in a couple of minutes before half time. For the 2nd half I decided to put on Vassell for Juan Angel and try and give them some more pace to deal with up front. I knew we couldn't rest, and with a third of the game being played in our forward-most third I was confident of a bigger lead. Our wide strategy was playing out well, particularly with Solano and Barry on the wings...and when Cole hit a long ball finding Solano on his own on the right who put it into the net and we had a 2nd, on the hour. After being pretty confident the match was over I made a few substitutions, bringing Berger and Hendrie on for Barry and Hitzlsperger. After 70 minutes we had extended our lead again through another penalty, this time Berger put it in to give him his first goal for the club... Following this we just shut the game down, with Thomas Sorensen showing signs of form once more...if he starts to capture his form again then deciding what to do with my goalkeepers will start to become a problem...particularly with negotiations coming to a close with Dennis Gentenaar, of NEC in Holland. Aston Villa 3 Cole 43 Solano 61 Berger pen 73 Barry missed pen 13 Crystal Palace 0 So after 10 matches, here is the table... <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 7 | +15 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 4 | +17 | 24 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 8 | +12 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Blackburn | | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 12 | +7 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 14 | +3 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Southampton | | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Tottenham | | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 11 | +3 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Middlesbrough | | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 17 | +2 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Liverpool | | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Fulham | | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 14 | -5 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Charlton | | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 15 | +1 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Birmingham | | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Newcastle | | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Portsmouth | | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 16 | -4 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | West Brom | | 10 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Norwich | | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 18 | -8 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Bolton | | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 7 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Man City | | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 20 | -9 | 7 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Everton | | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 | -9 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Crystal Palace | | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 23 | -15 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Aston Villa announce signing of Dennis Gentenaar, NEC Emerson Smith has announced at training this Thursday, 21 October that the club have agreed a fee for Dennis Gentenaar, the Dutch goalkeeper from NEC, and the player has signed a contract and will be moving to Aston Villa on January 1, 2005, when the next transfer window is opened. "I am delighted with the signing of Dennis. He is a tremendous player and he will boost our squad significantly." Smith took the opportunity to deny rumours that current goalkeeper Sorensen may be on the way out after rumours of a bid launched from Spanish side Zaragoza having been accepted. "There is interest for Thomas around Europe, but I would like him to regain his form at Villa Park and stay with us." </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Publically I was denying that Gentenaar would be replacing Sorensen but that was my plan. but Sorensen's stint in the reserves and his impressive form against Palace have boosted his morale once more, whats more at training he approached me and said he was feeling "superb". I started to think that I may have acted prematurely in signing Dennis Gentenaar. There was still time to cancel the transfer but what would that do for my image? I was confident that Sorensen at his best was better than Dennis Gentenaar at his best (although Gentenaar had averaged 7.71 in the Dutch league so far whereas Sorensen had given me 6.33 so far). If I signed Gentenaar I would be saving on wages and I would pay for most of his transfer with Sorensen's possible departure... Once again there was some thinking to do... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedmanJB Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 R. Good!!! Keep it up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 18, 2005 Author Share Posted June 18, 2005 Thanks. All the support so far has been great! 23rd October, 2004 I was confused about what to do with my goalkeeper situation - with Sorensen finding some morale and form again. What I decided to do was ask each of my staff for their report on him, and they all ackowledged his mediocre form. Roy Aitken, my assistant manager, told me he was "not overly impressed with his approach to the game and you should carefully consider what part the player has in your future plans". That seemed to be the overall consensus, that of a poor attitude. His work rate was extremely slack. My decision to sign Dennis Gentenaar from Holland in the new year was vindicated somewhat, and I decided to go on with negotiations which were proceding with Zaragoza for the player. EPL, Game 11 Aston Villa vs. Southampton The same lineup was kept, with the well performing Gerardo Torrado holding his spot in the side over McCann and Angel and Cole starting up front. We sat on the same record as Soton, but their defence was much better than ours, statistically. Despite the perfect conditions, their passing was slightly off early on which was hindering their ability to create attacking movements. No side could really break the other, 5th against 6th but both sides were being really, very cautious and the game was becoming a bit flat. It was going to take some individual brilliance to break this one open... ...and that is exactly what we got. Once again it was Nobby Solano with a brilliant cross, finding Charlton Cole who put it past Niemi to give us the lead. Solano was really a revalation on the right wing so far and his lethal crosses have been the main pillar of our attacking so far...the German, Thomas Hitzlsperger, while playing well has not been the attacking creative force I hoped so far. Following the goal we kept pestering them, keeping them on the back foot. They threw their players back to counter, so the rest of the half was mainly played in our third, although we were unable to break through again... Coming out for the 2nd half, I was delighted with the crowd, 40,000 as opposed to last time out, 28,000. The 3 match losing run to the top sides didn't really affect us too much as I can see, yet, which is a great sign for the players character. We could have had more, we were dominating possession and setting up some good chances but the conversion rate was shocking. The worst offender, Thomas Hitzlsperger, had sprayed at goal 7 times for 1 on-target shot, although this was slightly my fault as I had told him to go for the long shots whenever possible. Thomas was injured on the hour and I was forced to unknowingly make a decision on the squad - the younger Peter Whittingham or the older Lee Hendrie to replace him? I brang on Whittingham - I am really impressed with this kid and I really consider him a player of the future whereas Hendrie - he may be on the way out if I can get something like 1M on the table. With Soton looking really flat, they weren't really troubling our defense and with a quarter hour to go we doubled our lead and, probably, killed off the game when Cole passed it to Juan Angel who fired home from the edge of the box in what was, to be honest, a pretty lucky goal for us, if I were my opposite boss Steve Wigley I would be reminding them just that afterwards. What followed was a lesson in what is called "shutting up shop" and the game finished exactly that way... Aston Villa 2 Cole 25 Juan Angel 77 Southampton 0 I was quite happy with that win...but there was some bad news to come out of it... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Thomas Hitzlsperger to miss 4 weeks Aston Villa playmaker Thomas Hitzlsperger will miss 4 weeks action with a sprained ankle suffered in the win against Southamption. The injury occured after a clash with Soton midfielder David Prutton. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> This was bad news, but considering Solano had been orchestrating our attack it wasn't the end all. I was happy in a way that Peter Whittingham would get an opportunity to start a few matches - the first being another derby match, the 2nd of the year already, against Birmingham City in the League Cup. After the public announcement of the signing of Dennis Gentenaar at the next window, what had to happen was the next logical step....a press conference was called the monday following the saturday win over Soton...present parties were myself, Thomas Sorensen, and Zaragoza manager Victor Munoz... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Zaragoza to sign Sorensen Speculation regarding Thomas Sorensen moving to Spain to join Zaragoza was confirmed today. It was announced the goalkeeper will move on December 15 for a fee rumoured to total 2.3M. Emerson Smith commented, "Something has affected Thomas and he doesn't seem to be up to his optimum level at the moment. Interest came through for him and we felt that the best option for the side and the player was to part ways. Of course Thomas will be with us for another number of weeks before the transfer window and we are confident that we can part ways on good terms." Thomas commented, "The lure of a club rich in history and currently competing in European competition was hard to resist. Obviously I am with Villa until December 15 and I will see out my commitments and give my absolute all to the Villa shirt until that day." </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Now that things had gone public I felt quite confident that we can put it past us and get on with things. Although I did notice that there is a period due to the difference in transfer windows, from December 15 to 31, that we will be without Sorensen before Dennis Gentenaar signs. Postma would have to do - and a glance over the fixture list and there is a Midlands derby in that period! So the goalkeeper swap is set...next up the 2nd Midlands derby of the year, when we host Brum in the League Cup... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
T!mbo Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 Still enjoying your trials and tribulations in the West Midlands, Taxman I like (in terms of your story) the way you've dealt with the issues surrounding Sorensen. KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 19, 2005 Author Share Posted June 19, 2005 27th October, 2004 League Cup, 3rd Round Aston Villa vs. Birmingham A few changes made for the match...Mellberg, Barry and Angel have been rested to give some lesser first team players their chance. Despite the fact it was a derby, it was still a League cup match, and with a trip to Bolton coming up in three days time on the Saturday we would not be going at this one full tilt. They on the other hand had named a full strength line up...things started at a slow pace with both sides playing a cautious match. Despite Mellberg being rested, the defence looked good with young Ridgewell stepping in his place...my 4-4-2 strategy involved the fullbacks largely staying back, even at home, and this had contributed I feel to our defense strength...which I felt wasn't too bad. The stats certainly made it look worse because we had conceded 7 goals in 2 matches against Man Utd and Liverpool - but from 11 games we have kept 4 clean sheets so far. They had the better possession early on but we began to wrestle it off them, and we went ahead on the half hour mark when Jlloyd Samuel booted a long ball infront of Cole who ran onto it and put it through the line into the net. Cole was doing very well for us and his market value had already soared from 5M to 6M after sitting 2nd on the Premier league goal scorers tally. I wasn't feeling confident about keeping him at the end of the year, unless we could make the Champions League and raise the funds to buy him... We held them off until half time quite well...they looked a bit flat today. Into the second half and we started to shut the game down quite well. Our defense had built a well which was standing strong, and we held them off quite well not even allowing them a shot on target....a slick goal from Vassell sealing the victory a minute from time to ensure we didn't have to endure a frantic last minute surge forward from the Brum. Another derby victory, same scoreline as before but much more comfortable in defence even with Mellberg out...confidence is getting higher... Aston Villa 2 Cole 33 Vassell 89 Birmingham 0 One piece of bad news coming from the match is that Lee Hendrie will join Hitzlsperger on the injured list for 2 weeks....this was going to be Lee's chance to establish himself...but now I'll be forced to dive into the depths of the squad and pull out Mathieu Berson, a defensive midfielder signing made this season shortly before I arrived, who doesn't really figure in my plans....his small wages is the only thing keeping him here although I'm sure he wont last until his contract says he will (2008!). League Cup 4th Round, Draw.....at home to Everton. Short update...but I want to keep things moving at a decent pace Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
podoooo Posted June 19, 2005 Share Posted June 19, 2005 Fantastic story so far Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 19, 2005 Share Posted June 19, 2005 And the Sc*m lose again waves goodbye to Tommy, and Berson - and wonders what the feck is being injected into Carlton Cole's brain Good stuff - league form back on track and should progress in the League Cup Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 20, 2005 Author Share Posted June 20, 2005 Thanks. Glad to see you following my progress Brian! 30th October, 2004 I was looking over the fixture list for the 4th Round of the League Cup and I was quite confident of a semi-final run at least. Not only would it be a way to get our first silverware since winning the same competition in 1994 and again in 1996, it would get us into Europe, albiet the UEFA Cup. Out of 16 sides left, only 9 of them including ourselves were Premier League sides, those being ourselves, Boro, Blackburn, Tottenham, Newcastle, Everton, Palace, Liverpool and Arsenal. Chelsea and Man Utd were both knocked out last round, by Wigan and Liverpool respectively, which made things much easier for us. Going back briefly to the subject of goalkeepers, I was made aware of an interest expressed in our 16 year old youth goalkeeper Lee Boyle, from Newcastle. He will sign his first professional contract hopefully for us, on January 22 of next year and after asking my coaching staff about him they all seem to be of the consensus that this boy is a player to watch for the future. After looking through the squad and the reserves, I decided to drop Postma back to the reserves and promote 17 year old Austrian goalkeeper Robert Olejnik to the first team. Simply put it looks like Robert Olejnik has a future at the club while Postma does not, really. EPL, Game 12 Bolton vs. Aston Villa Bolton had won only 1 of their 5 home games so far but they had also only lost 1...the lineup named was the same as our last Premier League match. Bolton however were slightly underdone with both Jay Jay Okocha and Kevin Davies out of the side, great news for us... It was a wet and soggy saturday afternoon, and we were playing keepings off trying to slow things down in the early stages. I had opted for Berger on the right instead of Barry once again not due to Barry's poor form (it was infact good) but because Berger's experience would help us on away trips and he was hitting a purple patch. Things only took 3 minutes to pay off, when Berger put Torrado into space who then found Angel, who went through the inexperienced and young Bolton defense to put us ahead early...finally we hit the net first in an away match! We continued to have the upper hand with possession...they were playing Diouf on the right wing in the wet and putting a player with few defensive qualities on the wing in these conditions seemed like a mistake as our attacks seem to come through the left wing early on. Things started opening up a little as they got more possession and went forward with more numbers to complement their 4-5-1, sole striker Michael Bridges. However without Okocha they were lacking something in spark. Both sides had their opportunities, not taken, and the match was half over but still wide open. Considering a loss would almost put Bolton into the relegation zone, they came out swinging...determined to get one back. As their send players forward though they were caught short at the back on the counter, giving us two distinct opportunities to take advantage although Cole and Angel couldn't convert chances that they probably would have on a good day. We had more opportunities to gain a buffer, with Juan Angel striking the bar from 30 yards out in what would have been one to remember... With them unable to break through but still surging forward, I decided to take off Cole and bring on young defender Ridgewell and attempt to hold them off for the rest of the match. This was always a risky strategy...and of course it didn't pay off when Diouf's pace started causing problems for us and he hit us on the counter attack to equal the match up in the last 10 minutes. Suddenly the match opened up but neither team was able to break through, which was fortunate because they were the ones who looked like breaking through and nabbing the victory. After leading all day it was very frustrating to concede a late goal after we had opportunities to extend our lead. Bolton 1 Diouf 83 Aston Villa 1 Juan Angel 4 We had a week off before the next match with Ecuadorian right back Ulises de la Cruz using it to tell me he was sick of being out of the first team squad and telling me that he would quit the club. I countered by calling his bluff and offering him a mutual termination, which he refused to accept. His contract would expire at seasons end but I really wanted him off and away before that. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Charlton Cole called up to England squad Charlton Cole has been rewarded for his superb start to the year with 10 goals in 11 Premiership appearances by being called up to the England squad for the upcoming friendly against Spain. Cole is currently on loan at Aston Villa from Chelsea for the season and has been turning in some magnificent displays for the club. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> I was approached after training about this, facing the media I announced what I believed the truth... "Mr Smith, what do you think of Charlton Cole's callup?" "He deserves it. He definitely deserves it. He has been just brilliant this season and I am so happy for him." "Would you like to acquire his services on a permenant basis?" "Of course, but I think we may have shot oursleves in the foot. He has been playing that well that if he continues his form for the season then he will probably be priced out of our price range. We would love to have him at the club next season with a permenant contract, and when the time comes closer we will be investigating this, but after performances like this I'm not sure Chelsea will want to sell him to us. We are currently looking at possible targets...because whether it will be Charlton or not, we will need another striker next season to fill the gap that he will leave." "What are your thoughts on the season so far? And your ambitions and expectations for the rest? "I am quite happy to be sitting in the top 5 with almost a third of the season played. If we can finish in this position we will be in Europe, a good result, but I think that we have the squad to be able to qualify for the Champions League if we can continue our good form and play well against the top sides. Our form has been decent so far, but against the top teams like Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool we have fallen short somewhat. I think we will be better prepared next time around." "What are your opinions on Gerardo Torrado so far?" "He has settled in with us very well so far, he has fought his way into the first team and he deserves it. He has adapted to the English game very well and I couldn't be happier with his performance for us so far." EPL, Game 13 Aston Villa vs. Norwich This was a home game against a team in the relegation zone that we really should win. And with Solano in his 300th league start and Sorensen in his 50th in the Villa shirt we had the occasion to play for, too. Things started out quickly for us, we went forward looking to cripple them early and that's exactly what happened after 9 minutes when Juan Angel headed through a cross from Charlton Cole to put us one to the good. We continued to dominate possession after this, although we couldn't break through again as they threw numbers back behind the ball. This meant though, that they had few numbers forward and they weren't really threatening our goal...by the time half time came along they hadn't even had a shot at our goal yet. Into the 2nd half...we had a penalty only 5 minutes into it but Barry got the nerves and missed his 2nd straight penalty. Previously I had let the players on the field pick out the spot taker but now I'll have to set up an order for them to follow. They still werent troubling us though, and we extended our lead a little after the hour mark when, Luke Moore, on his first appearance for the year due to the midfield being depleted with Berger out for the week, put his first goal for the club through to give us a two goal lead. Soon after it was two, with Moore latching onto a long ball after beating the offside trap and putting in a 2nd goal on his season debut....a very promising one. Aston Villa 3 Juan Angel 9 Moore 69, 79 Norwich 0 Another solid home victory....we are looking quite good at the moment and that victory has put us into 4th, qualification for the Champions League! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 10th November, 2004 League Cup, Round 5 Aston Villa vs. Everton Being a league cup match, of course the theory was to win the match with as little strain as possible. We are at the opposite end of the table to Everton, we are in quite good form whereas they are are struggling. Once again our wingers were playing well, Barry and Solano, and it only took 12 minutes for Barry to put across to Angel who gave us our first. From there we aimed to slow the match down a bit and deny them easy access to their forward third, and although we sacrificed some attacking prowess we managed to hold them off until the break. Into the 2nd half, we started attacking them again, creating chances through the midfield but their defence was tackling quite well. We kept at them though and hence they had few opportunities to go forward...and we managed to get a 2nd, 5 minutes from time when Cole, subbing on the right wing, crossed to Barry who put it through for his first of the season. After things things slowed down and we had another comfortable win. So on we go to the quarter-finals... Aston Villa 2 Juan Angel 13 Barry 85 Everton 0 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Ulises de la Cruz and Villa agree to part ways Ecuadorian right back Ulises de la Cruz has expressed his frustration at being cast aside by new manager Emerson Smith at Villa Park and that frustration came to a head yesterday when de la Cruz failed to turn up for training. Immediattely it is believed that Smith called de la Cruz into his office at the next opportunity and offered him a release on his contract, and they have agreed to buy out the rest of his contract for a sum of 185K. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Honestly the player was never going to get anywhere here and I was quite happy to get his 12,000 p/w week wages off of the books. On saturday morning the draw for the League Cup came through and we will have another home game, this time hosting Wigan who are 1st placed in the Championship currently. We should go through to the semi finals where we will face, if I am reading the tree correctly, the winner from Middlesbrough and Liverpool. On the other side of the draw, Blackburn & Arsenal, and Newcastle & Oxford will battle it out. <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Young Villa prospect transfer listed Aston Villa have announced that they have transfer listed young striker Stefan Moore after he has shown anger at not being in the first team and just yesterday failed to turn up for training at the team's training ground. Emerson Smith said, "Stefan is a promising player but his attitude just isn't right. If he followed the example of his younger brother Luke who has broken into the first team squad then he will be much better off than where moaning about it has." Aston Villa's asking price is said to be 750K. No interest has been registered at this early stage. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> EPL, Game 14 Portsmouth vs. Aston Villa After the international break where Charlton Cole didn't even get the cap he deserved, we head off to Portsmouth for a tricky away game. They use a tricky 3-5-2 strategy with an attacking midfielder behind the strikers and I was quite wary of problems that they may cause in the wet. Early on our passing was quite spot on in the wet, but our shooting was off. Both sides really had an attacking game going on and they were really determined to come out and win it early on. I was keeping the full backs in defense and not letting them run forward as I do throughout our away games it was proving good for us - in stopping their counter attacking particularly. Both teams were defending frantically - and quite well. But both teams were also wasting chances, Charlton Cole particularly, firing wide from a one on one situation later on the half. Half time came and the game was very even and still scoreless. As the 2nd half started we went in trying to counter attack their 3 man defense and catch them out on the blink and it works well almost right away when Delany hits a long ball infront of Cole who doesnt make the mistake this time, in a one-on-one situation. We've been getting lots of goals from long balls lately.... Now with the delicate strategy of what to do when away from home and 1 goal up. We stopped the counter attacking...they came at us fairly hard and we tried to hold on...the fact that they wasted some decent chances particularly from midfielder Diomansay Kamara who had replaced Patrik Berger after we bought him earlier on in the season. Things were really heating up and they were really coming at us after we held them off, towards the end of the game, when again a long ball from the midfield was put infront of Cole, this time by Torrado, and Cole put it through with a fine finish once again to give us his 2nd. After that we held them off quite easily as the game petered out allowing us to record a great, gritty, hard fought away win that I am quite proud of. I was quite pleased with our away form, our only away losses coming from Man Utd and Liverpool. Portsmouth 0 Aston Villa 2 Cole 47, 85 Now we had a week off until we hosted Arsenal at Villa Park in a match really to look forward to... Our form is looking quite good so far and with Newcastle and Liverpool not hitting their strides yet we are firming our position in the top 4.... <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 14 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 10 | +22 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 6 | +25 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 14 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 26 | 13 | +13 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Aston Villa | | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 25 | 15 | +10 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Middlesbrough | | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 28 | 22 | +6 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Blackburn | | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 22 | 17 | +5 | 21 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Southampton | | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 16 | 14 | +2 | 21 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Newcastle | | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 15 | +3 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Charlton | | 14 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 21 | +2 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Liverpool | | 14 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 18 | 19 | -1 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Tottenham | | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 22 | 19 | +3 | 18 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Birmingham | | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 17 | -3 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Portsmouth | | 14 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 18 | 24 | -6 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Fulham | | 14 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 23 | -12 | 14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | West Brom | | 13 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 17 | -5 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Bolton | | 13 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 18 | -7 | 11 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Everton | | 14 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 25 | -11 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Man City | | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 28 | -13 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Norwich | | 13 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 24 | -14 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Crystal Palace | | 14 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 31 | -19 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 27th November, 2004 Signs, i mean as in, reactions of our form were starting to come through...confidence was high and opening the paper I saw this: <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villa skipper Mellberg "proud" of clubs position Aston Villa skipper Olof Mellberg has declared after training wednesday this week that he is "proud of the clubs league position". Aston Villa currently sit three points clear in 4th position after a good start to the year from the team after being taken over somewhat controversially by previously, relatively unknown manager Emerson Smith. But now Villa fans have been won over, seemingly, after president of the Villa supporters club announced that he was "very pleased with the progress the club has been making". </div></BLOCKQUOTE> EPL, Game 15 Aston Villa vs. Arsenal This would be a huge match and it was just great timing that Thomas Hitzlsperger returns from his month long layoff to come into the first team, replacing the well performing youngster Peter Whittingham. We would still be under the pump though as we were up against a side who have lost only 1 of their 13 matches, won 11 of them and scored 31 goals in the process. Their confidence was sky high, too. We came out with guns blazing, and with a national television audience expecting Arsenal to teach us a lesson we were determined to show that we could do something against the top sides.... Our start was confident, unlike previous starts against teams above us. We couldn't have hoped for a better start and we capitalized quickly, when Solano booted a ball up field and the magnificently performing Charlton Cole found the end of it, yet again, and went through their defenders and put it in the net...and we were one up, already. Things stayed intense, and with Mellberg given the job to shut down Henry I knew we were in the best possible hands. They were doing their job so far...Henry hadn't broken free yet and we held strong for the moment. We didn't go into our shells because I knew that would be the worst mistake we could make...but inside 20 minutes, after we Barry knocked in a Solano corner, we were 2-0 up against the reigning champions, with Solano setting up both goals and really starting to establish himself as a big time player for me. Things started slowing down a little, and our defense was holding strong until a momentary lapse of reason, right before half time with goalkeeper Sorensen being caught offguard allowing Bergkamp, who had come on for the injured Reyes, to get a scrappy goal and pull one back for them just before half time. Into the 2nd half and they came streaming at us, and it wasnt long before Bergkamp slotted in his 2nd rather easily and we were back level, all of our good work undone. Suddenly things were much more intense again but both defenses were holding strong. We ourselves had our chances to go ahead, but didn't take advantage. Neither side was unable to grab a winner in the late stages and we were left with a 2-2 draw, which could have been so much more. Aston Villa 2 Cole 5 Barry 18 Arsenal 2 Bergkamp 42, 49 League Cup, Qtr Final Aston Villa vs. Wigan Only a three day break until the next match...at home for the quarter final. With Vassell in the team for a resting Cole, he took full advantage after only 3 minutes when he got around a couple of defenders and put us ahead early. Only a minute later we had another with Gareth Barry delivering a dynamite cross to Juan Angel and we had a healthy buffer, suddenly. Suddenly we started relaxing, but they caught us offguard when Jason Roberts booted home a long range shot past our sleeping rearguard. But we were kicked right back into action when Vassell got his 2nd from close range soon after in a relatively eventful game. Things continued at their frantic pace when they pulled another back only 2 minutes later through Nathan Ellington. Not to be outdone, Thomas Hitzlsperger showed me some of his promise when he fired home a long range free kick to regain our 2 goal lead and boot home the 3rd goal in as many minutes in the match. Finally, we started to gain ascendency when Juan Angel was set free by none othan Solano, and incredibly we had our 5th goal within half time. The 2nd half was decidedly less exciting, luckily, and we had the game won once and for all when Vassell compelted his hatrick with an easy tap in after the hour mark. This was the way the game ended....I am quite happy with the confidence of the squad right now to be able to go out and attack like that. Aston Villa through to the semis! Semi-final draw, against Liverpool or Boro, as expected. Go Boro! Aston Villa 6 Vassell 4, 30, 68 Juan Angel 5, 43 Hitzlsperger 33 Wigan 2 Roberts 21 Ellington 32 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 4th December, 2005 EPL, Game 16 Man City vs. Aston Villa In the leadup to the transfer window re-opening the circus hadn't really kicked off yet and there wasn't really much to say except to get on with things. Next up we travelled to Man City to face the struggling side who are currently in the relegation zone in 18th, without a win in 9 matches. With their confidence floundering and ours almost sky high we had an opportunity for another away win. Our attacks would be based through the right with Barry staying back on the left to help out with defense duties...and with McCann back in the side for Torrado in the centre. We almost went ahead right away when Solano whipped in a lovely corner for Barry who's header hit the post. Anelka was trying to cause us some grief but Mellberg was on the job... After 15 minutes we went ahead with a goal stemming from McCann putting Juan Angel into space who put it past the English goalkeeper David James. I was convinced that only a few minutes later we had given up our lead when Mellberg knocked down Anelka in the box, but Anelka missed the penalty...we did our best to give them a goal when we knocked Anelka down again in the box right after...but Anelka hit the shot straight at our goalkeeper again! This was our lucky day so far... We were playing a good brand of football at the moment, full of confidence and drive...and it payed off again only a few minutes later when, after some scuffling in the box, Barry found Cole who jinxed past Dunne and put it past James to give us a 2nd. After holding them off until half time we went into the 2nd half quite confident. Our defense was holding up nicely and our attack was piercing their defense....and we did so again right on the hour mark when Solano (again) hit a long ball (again) infront of Cole who put it past the goalkeeper (again). They got one back a couple of minutes later when Anelka found some space, beating the offside trap in a goal similar to the one Cole just scored... ...for whatever reason lately our games have been quite high scoring, this has been going against what I intended, but as long as we were winning I wouldn't complain. We hit a 4th goal soon after when Solano broke free from Thatcher and put another one passed James. I can't explain this high scoring, but Anelka got one back for them after 70 mins when he outpaced our defenders and put one in from a tight angle. They were getting some momentum and they got a 3rd one back only a couple of minutes later when Wright-Phillips set up McManaman and suddenly the score was back to 3-4... We endured a spirited fightback from City, they came at us but our defense had toughened up and we withstood them. The win was sealed in this high scoring game a minute from time when Thatcher knocked down Barry in the box and McCann put in the penalty. This was the last goal in this high scoring game and we recorded another well fought away win much to my satisfaction. Man City 3 Anelka 64, 72 McManaman 75 Anelka missed penalty 18, 19 Aston Villa 5 Juan Angel 15 Cole 23, 60 Solano 67 McCann pen 90 The draw for the FA Cup round 3 came out and we will be facing Nottingham Forest away... Coming to training the next day, unawarenes, I was swamped by the media asking me about our form so far and what our ambitions are for the year..."avoid relegation" I told them with a grin. When I got back to the office I was handed the paper... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villa board delighted at win over City Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis could not hide his delight following his team's 5-3 win over Man City. Despite critics warning that they may fall off the pace during mid season, The Villans have maintained their title challenge with a superb run of recent form. Early season predictions of European football for the club look well founded and indeed such is the optimism around the club at the moment that fans are genuinely optimistic that the team could even go on to lift the title at the end of the season. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> WOAH! Some are getting ahead of ourselves here. If I saw this before I fronted the press I would have told them that I believe....no, I am sure, that we have no chance of winning the title. Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal are all a distinct class above us and we only have a 1 point buffer on Middlesbrough below us, in 5th position. EPL, Game 17 Aston Villa vs. Fulham This would be Thomas Sorenen's last game for the club, after which would have to deal with someone else in goals for 4 matches, including a derby (at home luckily), until our new signing arrives. Thomas has been a good servant for the club and we would love to send him away with a win. We also want to establish ourselves in 4th spot because 1 point ahead of 5th is too close for me. Things started out at a decent pace but we looked a little flat. We were certainly given an advantage after 20 minutes when their captain, Steed Malbranque was sent off for a 2nd bookable offence. The match was very flat and incident free though and half time came without either side even having a shot on target so far. Just as I was beginning to wonder how we would score we got somewhat lucky, with Hitzlsperger's long range shot deflecting off one of their defenders and skidding through the wet weather into the back of the net. As I subbed Mellberg off for young Ridgewell I decided to give Sorensen the captain's band in his last outing and he responded well to keep the clean sheet for the match - although they came at us late we held on quite well to escape with the (somewhat) lucky win. But out defence hadn't given them a sniff and if it wasn't for a tad of luck it would have been 1-0, this was a very dull match. Aston Villa 1 Hitzlsperger 53 Fulham 0 After seeing the table after the match I see that we have gone up to 3rd! Although we are only ahead on goal difference above Man Utd and they have a game inhand - this is a significant psycological moment. More good news after we found out we would be playing Middlesbrough - and not Liverpool, in the League Cup Semi Finals. And then finally on the 15th of December we waved goodbye to Thomas Sorensen, who headed off to Spain to join Zaragoza who were 12th in the Spanish league. We'll be forced to stick Postma in goals for two weeks until we get our new goalkeeper, Dennis Gentenaar in from NEC in Holland. EPL, Game 18 Everton vs. Aston Villa We've beaten Everton before in the League Cup but I doubt this match will be as easy. Particularly with Postma in goals, with Sorensen leaving early due to the Spanish transfer window opening. The match starts off evenly paced but we broke it open early...Once again, it was Nolberto Solano setting up the goal as he put Juan Angel into space who put home the goal after only 5 minutes to continue what was turning into some stellar form. We took over possesion and went forward with caution, but confidence. We were passing the ball freely through their midfield, and with them in the relegation zone and lacking confidence we were able to assert our authority once more, grabbing our 2nd goal relatively early in the match after Juan Angel gave it to Cole who yet again put it through to give us a 2 goal lead after only 3 minutes. Our confidence was rising, and our defence was up to the task of holding them off. But lately this side really hasnt known when to stop, and after 33 minutes Cole had a 2nd and we had our third after Hitzlsperger whipped in a great cross for Cole to tap in....we were really in some great form. We held the off until half time...but after the half they came out with new attitude and determination, and they got one back pretty quickly through some slick passing in the box. With a 2 goal lead but still more than a half hour to go, it was a tricky decision weather to stay back or go for more goals... ...We looked a bit uneasy and they took full advantage as super sub McFadden pulled another goal back after 68 minutes when he beat out inexperienced defender Ridgewell in a one-on-one....and after Vassell missed an open goal face with his header, we had 10 minutes to survive the best they've got... To the defenders credit though they managed to hold them off quite well...and we managed to record another away win. Everton 2 Chadwick 53 McFadden 69 Aston Villa 3 Angel 5 Cole 13, 34 Our form has been good! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 22nd December, 2005 EPL, Game 19 Aston Villa vs. Charlton Another match against a team in the lower half, and another chance to capitalise. With confidence sky high, we came at them with all guns blazing and it didn't take long, once again, for a bullet to connect with its target. Only 6 minutes, in fact, until Barry put through a cross which passed about 4 of their defenders before it got to Juan Angel who duly headed the ball in....and then after 25 minutes almost a carbon coby of the same play, Barry to Angel, gave us the 2nd goal of the match. Only 5 minutes later Cole was set free by who else than Solano, and suddenly we were 3 goals up still pretty early on in the game. I was confident we had a winning lead, although we did concede one back before half time but with the "swiss cheese" goalkeeper Postma our only real option at the moment, for the meantime, it was not entirely unexpected. They proved no further attacking threat to us though as the 2nd half petered out to our liking. We were able to get score more goals late, when Cole continued his scoring-for-fun run when he latched onto another long ball and put it passed the goalkeeper, and in stoppage time when Thomas Hitzlsperger hit a curving long shot from 30 years and put it passed the keeper in a tremendous display of talent. We had not only beaten Charlton - we had flogged them. Confidence was sky high. Aston Villa 5 Juan Angel 6, 25 Cole 30, 85 Hitzlsperger 90 Charlton 1 Lisbie 31 And there was yet even more great news, when we were told that Newcastle had held Man Utd at Old Trafford to a 0-0 draw, and we had leaped them in the table into 3rd place! I was handed a sheet of paper...this is what the table looks like with half the season gone... <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 19 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 45 | 13 | +32 | 48 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 47 | 13 | +34 | 46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Aston Villa | | 19 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 23 | +18 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Man Utd | | 19 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 30 | 15 | +15 | 37 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Southampton | | 19 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 23 | 18 | +5 | 30 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Middlesbrough | | 18 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 33 | 27 | +6 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Newcastle | | 19 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 25 | 20 | +5 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Liverpool | | 19 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 23 | 21 | +2 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Tottenham | | 18 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 26 | 25 | +1 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Blackburn | | 19 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Birmingham | | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 22 | 23 | -1 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Portsmouth | | 19 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 28 | 30 | -2 | 24 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Fulham | | 19 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 26 | -8 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Charlton | | 19 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 25 | 36 | -11 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | West Brom | | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 17 | 28 | -11 | 17 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Norwich | | 19 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 34 | -18 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Man City | | 19 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 24 | 40 | -16 | 14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Crystal Palace | | 19 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 18 | 40 | -22 | 14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Everton | | 19 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 22 | 34 | -12 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Bolton | | 19 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 15 | 32 | -17 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> We had established ourselves firmly in the Champions League positions so far, and if you had showed me this at the beginning of the season then I would have jumped all over it. I really felt vindicated and over the initial media sprayings that I copped early on in my tenure. One piece of bad news was that Charlton Cole, now the Leagues top scorer with 19 goals from 18 appearances in the Premier League, was banned for 1 match after accumulation 5 yellow cards. The thing was that the next match was another all important Midlands Derby, only a few days away... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haze.13 Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Suspension is the only way to stop Cole from scoring the way he's going. Heading for a 40 goal season is amazing and i can't help but think it has something to do with the extra 'H' you've given him. God even the media seem to be confused about Carlton Cole (yes, Carlton). And Sven. Press release - Carlton Cole will now be known as Charlton Cole. Following his recent rise to fame he has decidied that he simply does not have enough letters in his name and has moved to rectify this immediately KUTGW taxman! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haze.13 Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 I just had to let you know taxman. Every time i read your story i am just looking for the next Cole reference and grinning it's great. BTW this is a story so you can call him whatever you want. I'm guessing that by May you'll be calling him King Cole!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone the Magazine Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Second page \o/ Enjoying this Taxman keep it up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 23, 2005 Author Share Posted June 23, 2005 Hehe. I didn't even realise I was calling him Charlton Cole. Oh well it's working so I'll keep it up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 23, 2005 Author Share Posted June 23, 2005 26th December, 2004 EPL, Game 20 Aston Villa vs. Birmingham Into the 2nd half of the season for the 3rd Derby of the season - we had already won. Carlton Cole, whose estimated market value had soared to 7.25M (and was pricing himself out of our market), was suspended for the match. Postma was in goals again and so we were vulnerable. Form tends to go out the window in derby's, luckily for Brum, because we were flying. But they went ahead after 18 minutes when Mikael Forssell, a possible target for us if we cannot land Cole on a permenant basis, put them ahead with a long range shot which Postma really should have gotten. But this was Posta and we were stuck with him for 5 more days... ...we were really lacking attacking flair in this match and we came up to half time with nothing really of note happening.... Into the 2nd half and the game was becoming a good old scrap in the wet weather and we began to take it right up to them. We got our reply just before the hour mark when Torrado's shot hit the crossbar, but their captain Kenny Cunningham knocked the ball back into his own net for an own goal. The game was a scrap through and through though, both sides gave and took nothing and the game ended in a somewhat boring stalemate. Aston Villa 1 Cunningham o/g 58 Birmingham 1 Forssell 19 Amazingly Man Utd have been kept to another home draw, 0-0 again, by West Brom this time, so we remain in 3rd place. We had only 2 days break before a trip to Ewood Park to face Blackburn... EPL, Game 21 Blackburn vs. Aston Villa Damn that Postma in goals, two shoddy performances and I wasn't very confident of keeping a clean sheet at all. And as last game showed, we cannot rely on our attack to win us the game on their own every time....not to mention Solano who was out for this game with a small injury to his shin (although Cole was back in). I decided to take a risk and put Robert Olejnik, the young Austrian, in goals for Postma. I wanted to see what he had in him before we get our new goalkeeper from NEC in 3 days time, New years day. With Juan Angel out it was an all-pace strike force today, with Vassell and Carlton Cole up front for us....and things payed off almost right away when after 5 minutes Cole broke free (!) and crossed to Vassell who put it home and we had bolted out of the blocks. We continued to get at them, but we were unable to convert our chances. They turned the tables and started coming at us, but the goalkeeper Olejnik was doing far better than Postma and was keeping us ahead very well. I was quite happy with our lead as it was, until Cole once again broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper to put in his 20th league goal of the season. Carlton was already 5 goals ahead at the top of the scorers list and his season's form was continuing...I very much doubt we'll be able to keep him and nab him permanently, unfortunately. Things started drifting along........but they woke everyone up shortly past the hour when Ferguson headed home a corner to reduce the lead back to only 1 goal. I responded by replacing the tiring Vassell with another midfielder to deny them some space.... Our goalkeeper was right on his game....later on they came at us fairly intensely but we managed to hold on to record another well earned away win. We had now built up a decent-sized 10 point gap over 5th placed Liverpool and the Champions League was looking good so far. To overtake Man Utd and stay there for the last few rounds has just been a big bonus and a tremendous morale booster, particularly after the flogging they dished out to us. Blackburn 1 Ferguson 69 Aston Villa 2 Vassell 4 Cole 39[/b] As my worry about being able to keep Carlton Cole started to increase as did my interest in possible replacements. One player I had been eyeing off was Diego Tristan from Deportive, and being Transfer listed and on the market meant that if I didn't move for him right away then we might not be able to nab him. His asking price was only 1.3M which we could afford, so right on 6am on the transfer day, January 1, we launched a bid. No sooner had I launched a bid than Carlton Cole had gone to the press and expressed his delight with his form and accounced that he is loving the friendly atmosphere at the club immensely! He then said that, along with Chelsea, Villa is now his favourite club! ...imagine my surprise when an FA official showed up at training with a medal for me....the paper went like this.... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Emerson Smith named Manager of the Month Aston Villa boss Emerson Smith has been named Manager of the Month for December after guiding the Villans to 5 wins in their past 6 matches. Villa are in top notch form at the moment and are steaming towards a Champions Lague qualification spot for next season. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> And finally... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Dennis Gentenaar joins Aston Villa Former NEC Goalkeeper Denis Gentenaar has joined Aston Villa officially after agreeing to a contract back in October. Dennis has taken over the number 1 jersey from Thomas Sorensen who signed with Spanish side Zaragoza on December 16. Gentenaar is in town and has been for a few days, and he will lineup in goals for Villa as they host Middlesbrough later today. After turning around his from late in his tenure, some Villa fans have said they are "disappointed" in the sale of Sorensen.[/b] </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsy009 Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 This is fantastic dude, KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 24, 2005 Author Share Posted June 24, 2005 Thanks lawsy, haze and Tryone 26th December, 2004 EPL, Game 20 Aston Villa vs. Birmingham Into the 2nd half of the season for the 3rd Derby of the season - we had already won. Carlton Cole, whose estimated market value had soared to 7.25M (and was pricing himself out of our market), was suspended for the match. Postma was in goals again and so we were vulnerable. Form tends to go out the window in derby's, luckily for Brum, because we were flying. But they went ahead after 18 minutes when Mikael Forssell, a possible target for us if we cannot land Cole on a permenant basis, put them ahead with a long range shot which Postma really should have gotten. But this was Posta and we were stuck with him for 5 more days... ...we were really lacking attacking flair in this match and we came up to half time with nothing really of note happening.... Into the 2nd half and the game was becoming a good old scrap in the wet weather and we began to take it right up to them. We got our reply just before the hour mark when Torrado's shot hit the crossbar, but their captain Kenny Cunningham knocked the ball back into his own net for an own goal. The game was a scrap through and through though, both sides gave and took nothing and the game ended in a somewhat boring stalemate. Aston Villa 1 Cunningham o/g 58 Birmingham 1 Forssell 19 Amazingly Man Utd have been kept to another home draw, 0-0 again, by West Brom this time, so we remain in 3rd place. We had only 2 days break before a trip to Ewood Park to face Blackburn... EPL, Game 21 Blackburn vs. Aston Villa Damn that Postma in goals, two shoddy performances and I wasn't very confident of keeping a clean sheet at all. And as last game showed, we cannot rely on our attack to win us the game on their own every time....not to mention Solano who was out for this game with a small injury to his shin (although Cole was back in). I decided to take a risk and put Robert Olejnik, the young Austrian, in goals for Postma. I wanted to see what he had in him before we get our new goalkeeper from NEC in 3 days time, New years day. With Juan Angel out it was an all-pace strike force today, with Vassell and Carlton Cole up front for us....and things payed off almost right away when after 5 minutes Cole broke free (!) and crossed to Vassell who put it home and we had bolted out of the blocks. We continued to get at them, but we were unable to convert our chances. They turned the tables and started coming at us, but the goalkeeper Olejnik was doing far better than Postma and was keeping us ahead very well. I was quite happy with our lead as it was, until Cole once again broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper to put in his 20th league goal of the season. Carlton was already 5 goals ahead at the top of the scorers list and his season's form was continuing...I very much doubt we'll be able to keep him and nab him permanently, unfortunately. Things started drifting along........but they woke everyone up shortly past the hour when Ferguson headed home a corner to reduce the lead back to only 1 goal. I responded by replacing the tiring Vassell with another midfielder to deny them some space.... Our goalkeeper was right on his game....later on they came at us fairly intensely but we managed to hold on to record another well earned away win. We had now built up a decent-sized 10 point gap over 5th placed Liverpool and the Champions League was looking good so far. To overtake Man Utd and stay there for the last few rounds has just been a big bonus and a tremendous morale booster, particularly after the flogging they dished out to us. Blackburn 1 Ferguson 69 Aston Villa 2 Vassell 4 Cole 39[/b] As my worry about being able to keep Carlton Cole started to increase as did my interest in possible replacements. One player I had been eyeing off was Diego Tristan from Deportive, and being Transfer listed and on the market meant that if I didn't move for him right away then we might not be able to nab him. His asking price was only 1.3M which we could afford, so right on 6am on the transfer day, January 1, we launched a bid. No sooner had I launched a bid than Carlton Cole had gone to the press and expressed his delight with his form and accounced that he is loving the friendly atmosphere at the club immensely! He then said that, along with Chelsea, Villa is now his favourite club! ...imagine my surprise when an FA official showed up at training with a medal for me....the paper went like this.... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Emerson Smith named Manager of the Month Aston Villa boss Emerson Smith has been named Manager of the Month for December after guiding the Villans to 5 wins in their past 6 matches. Villa are in top notch form at the moment and are steaming towards a Champions Lague qualification spot for next season. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> And finally... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Dennis Gentenaar joins Aston Villa Former NEC Goalkeeper Denis Gentenaar has joined Aston Villa officially after agreeing to a contract back in October. Dennis has taken over the number 1 jersey from Thomas Sorensen who signed with Spanish side Zaragoza on December 16. Gentenaar is in town and has been for a few days, and he will lineup in goals for Villa as they host Middlesbrough later today. After turning around his from late in his tenure, some Villa fans have said they are "disappointed" in the sale of Sorensen.[/b] </div></BLOCKQUOTE> EPL, Game 22 Aston Villa vs. Middlesbrough Our side was getting a little tired and needed a rest...but looking at the fixture list we're still involved with League Cup, FA Cup and the PL and there wasn't a rest coming up in the next month. This saturday afternoon game was played in very cold but fine conditions and with Middlesbrough doing well in 5th position we knew it wouldn't be easy. We went at them though, intent on going ahead but our shooting was very poor. Their defence was good, despite the number of goals conceded in the league, and the match drew out to a somewhat boring stalemate which ended 0-0. Aston Villa 0 Middeslbrough 0 EPL, Game 23 Newcastle vs. Aston Villa Off to face the other PL north-eastern side at their home ground in what would probably be a very difficult match. Newcastle are a difficult side to go to no matter where they were on the table...let alone an in a Europe-paying position, 6th. Especially with half of our backline out to injury or suspension.... My fears were realised early on when Laurent Robert struck one of his trademark free kicks wonderfully and put it right into the back the right inside 10 minutes. They continued driving at us but our makeshit defence was holding up - the problem was though that we couldnt create anything up front. This was made worse when Berger, subbing for Barry on the left, went off injured and I was forced to place Vassell on the left and throw Luke Moore up forward. This worked wonders though as Vassell broke free soon after hte half hour mark and fed a ball through to the ever-reliable Cole who beat off Bernard and put it passed Given. This was quite important for us considering our lead over them was 10 if the game was drawn and 6 if they won - especially because they are another serious contender for the last Champions League place. Going into the 2nd half and neither side was able to break the deadlock. Gentenaar was doing a good job for us but we were unable to break them again. After 65 minutes we had our first red card of the season and it was a straight red, to Juan Angel for a late tackle on their defender Kouffour.........thats a 1 game suspension at least....and we will miss him. We managed to get through the last 20 minutes of the match with 11 men, away and in front of a hostile St James Park crowd and earn the draw, which I am quite proud of. Gentenaar, the new goalkeeper, showed great ability in defence as did the tiring make shift defence composed of defensive midfielders. Newcastle 1 Robert 9 Aston Villa 1 Cole 35 FA Cup, Round 3 Nottm Forest vs. Aston Villa Forest were 15th in the Championship, but I was conserving players and this was a good opportunity for them to strike us and take advantage. Though I was quite happy that the 1 match ban slapped on Juan Angel was an FA Cup match! We went ahead early, just on 5 minutes, when Hitzlsperger fed Vassell who was in the open and put it straight into the net. After half an hour we went two ahead with Luke Moore yet agian taking full advantage of his limited first team opportunities to put through a goal. After an hour we went ahead when Vassell knocked in a cross from young Foley-Sheridan, a reverses player, and the win looked sealed. Later on they got one back but this was after we had fell asleep and gotten on the plane back home (mentally). Nottm Forest 1 Johnson 90 Aston Villa 3 Vassell 6, 64 Moore 33 I can feel my writing style turning very descriptive here...I'm going to take stock and change it a little next time hopefully Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
T!mbo Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 Excellent again Taxman. Good idea to take stock but I can't see much wrong with what you're doing (just be a bit more careful with the code tags ) It'll be interesting to see what you bring to the next update. Just don't lose your enthusiasm. This has been a very good read so far Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone the Magazine Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T!mbo: Excellent again Taxman. Good idea to take stock but I can't see much wrong with what you're doing (just be a bit more careful with the code tags ) It'll be interesting to see what you bring to the next update. Just don't lose your enthusiasm. This has been a very good read so far </div></BLOCKQUOTE> whs I certainly found my writing style changing and developing as I went along. Nothing wrong with it atm. You may want to try a little back story to the story like a character has a shady past etc. Thats just me and what I like, but this is still v.good keep it up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixie Flatline Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 Very good story, Taxman. KUTGW! As for your style, keep developing it in the way you think suits you best. I've seen quite a few stories on here that features a character with a shady past, and I've tended to find them becoming rather the same. It's refreshing to see a story that concentrates on the football. Then again, the stories with their own background attract their own following and each to their own, I expect. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 25, 2005 Author Share Posted June 25, 2005 Thanks for the words...character with a shady past? What is this a pulp fiction novel? My goal is to give an analytical story not a descriptive one. But making characters and things like it's an episode of Lost doesn't seem appealling to me. Anyway I slowed down a little and here's the next "episode". 10th January, 2005 News came through that Juan Angel has been given an extra two match suspension. The good news though is that one of the matches is the League Cup Semi Final which is up next so he will only be missing for one Premier League match. FA Cup 4th Round Draw....away to Brentford (League One side). We should progress without too many problems there. Word had come through to me at training that Charlton were interested in signing Lee Hendrie. They could get him on a free in the summer so I had some tough decisions to make as to whether to keep him or get his wages off the bill so help clear some room for my (expected) excursion to Europe next season (barring a major mishap we should make the UEFA Cup at least). League Cup, Semi Final, 1st Leg Middlesbrough vs. Aston Villa We were going in here with a defensive mindset, obviously hoping to keep a clean sheet for the 2nd leg. Far too often going in with a defensive mindset is a mistake and it proved so again this time when Nemeth latched onto a free kick to put their first one in after 20 minutes. We were going in with the same depleted squad as the FA Cup match but Boro were a lot better than Forest... ...things got uglier, or so I thought, when we conceded a penalty shortly after the half hour mark, but Gentenaar did brilliantly to save Hasselbank's shot and keep the defecit at only one. We were sitll on the back foot though and they kept coming at us, and just before half time we succumbed to them, conceding another one this time from a corner. Into the 2nd half and we would try and get something back, but it went the opposite way when Barry hit an "ambitious" back pass straight into their path to give them their 3rd goal and possibly, write off the whole thing for us. I felt we needed to get an away goal bakc on them....but our attacking was off and we couldn't. So we've lost our first game in a while...but I'm happy it wasn't a league match. Hopefully this doesn't affect our confidence too much. Middlesbrough 3 Nemeth 20 Delaney 45 Job 54 Aston Villa 0 EPL, Game 24 Aston Villa vs. West Brom At home against a side in the relegation zone and on a decent unbeaten streak, we really should have beaten West Brom, although without Angel up front we really lacked a holding forward....and maybe the pressure got to us or something, I am not quite sure, but we were actually the ones on the backfoot through the first half hour as we struggled to build attacks.through our wings, not to mention their defence which was on the ball and doing very well at keeping us out. We had 7 corners up until half time but had done nothing with any of them - out set pieces werent our strong point. We were served up some luck through right after half time, when their defender Paul Telfer came in late to Barry and was given a (somewhat harsh) straight red card. Maybe we got confidence from it...soon after Thomas Hitzlsperger drilled in a volley from the edge of the box and we had the lead we wanted. Our task, we thought, got a lot more difficult though when Nobby Solano was sent off for a 2nd bookable offence after an hour to send both sides back to only 10 men - this wouldn't be just a matter of seeing the game out anymore. I went back to a 4-4-1 formation with Hendrie coming onto the right...but my fears were somewhat unfounded when 10 minutes later, Hendrie crossed to Hitzlsperger who fired home a 2nd volley from outside the box to give us a healthy and probably match-winning buffer....and so it proved, as we held them off comfortably to regain our 9 point buffer over the 5th placed team which today was Southampton. Aston Villa 2 Hitzlsperger 53, 76 West Brom 0 I was quite happy with that win as our squad tires and tires even more...our decent buffer over 5th place should mean hopefully that we will be able to hold off all comers and secure a Champions League spot (although we were still 3rd, 2 points above Man Utd, I fully expected them to overtake us by seasons end). Our team was starting to tire a little and the fact that we were still active in all competitions (League Cup, FA Cup & EPL) meant that we weren't getting much of a break at all. As I mentioned a while back we were hopeful of snaring Diego Tristan for cheap price of 1.4M after he was told he was no longer wanted at Deportivo, but he decided to stay in Spain and sign for Mallorca. It was a shame and a disappointement to me because I saw him as potentially just as good for as Carlton Cole had been and for a fraction of the 13.5M that Chelsea now wanted for Cole when I made an equiry about a week ago... Just as I was standing up, about to go off to training I received a fax through the machine from French club, Marseille, launching an offer of 3.4M for Olof Mellberg. Are they kidding? It didn't take long for me to send one back, politely rejecting their advances for my star defender. Villa in shock move for LarssonAston Villa boss Emerson Smith has been linked with a shock move for Barcalona's Henrik Larsson, just 10 days before the closing of the current transfer window. Larsson had been linked with Villa through a swap deal with Olof Mellberg earlier in the season but the deal, obviously, never came to fruition. Larsson is said to be seen by boss Emerson Smith as the ideal player to help them with the securing of a Champions League spot for next season, and should they secure one, his vast European experience as the ideal help to guide the team through it's campaign next term. Barcalona's asking price is said to be 2.1M FA Cup, Round 4 Brentford vs. Aston Villa Facing a team 2 divisions below yours always was a little bit of a concern as there is always the possibility of an embarrasing upset. Our fears were fading only 10 minutes in though when Luke Moore took advantage of limited opportunities once more to fire home a shot after only 10 minutes to put us ahead. I thought we looked good and we could hold them off for the match though I was wrong, just after half time they equalised and sent me into action to avoid the dreaded rematch....and once again, salvation came in the form of Carlton Cole when the subbed on player scored a simple goal from a 1 on 1 to give us our lead back. Just to confirm the win a few minutes later, as if to showboat, Cole put in his 2nd with ease....jeez he has really come of age this season. Later on we got another with Barry popping one in after the tie was dead and buried... Brentford 1 Burton 52 Aston Villa 4 Moore 11 Cole 68, 74 Barry 88 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone the Magazine Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The Taxman: Thanks for the words...character with a shady past? What is this a pulp fiction novel? My goal is to give an analytical story not a descriptive one. But making characters and things like it's an episode of Lost doesn't seem appealling to me. Anyway I slowed down a little and here's the next "episode". </div></BLOCKQUOTE> The best piece of advice I can offer is to write for yourself, don't try and write for other people. Write the way you feel is the best and what you feel most comfortable with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 26th January, 2005 We were coming up to the 2nd leg of the League Cup semi final and we were already 3 goals down without scoring an away goal, so we needed a comprehensive win to just stay in this one and reach the final against what looks like being Newcastle. It would be very tough.... League Cup, Semi Final, 2nd Leg Aston Villa vs. Middlesbrough Well I'm not going into much detail for this match because there's not much to say. We pressed forward pretty hard but their defence was very up to it and we were unable to break through... Aston Villa out of the League Cup at the Semi Final stage... Aston Villa 0 Middlesbrough 0 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Larsson snubs Villa Aston Villa target Henrik Larsson has snubbed a possible move to Aston Villa. Emerson Smith is said to be deeply disappointed at this development however apparantly hasn't given up on signing Henrik. It is reported he will go in for another swoop should Villa secure Champions League football next season. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Man Utd sign Gallas Man Utd have splashed the cash on Chelsea's defender William Gallas, paying a reported 19.75M for him just 4 days before the close of the transfer window. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Chelsea sign Ronaldinho Chelsea have decided to splash the cash on Barca's Ronaldinho. The deal is thought to be worth 34M. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> EPL, Game 25 Tottenham vs. Aston Villa This would be an extremely tough match against a Tottenham side who have gotten themselves into a clear 5th position with a good run of form and could significantly close the gap with another win here. This proved the case in the fine weather when Kanoute broke free and put them in the lead in under 10 minutes putting us on the backfoot already. They kept coming at us with a lot of intensity and we were using a lot of gas to (nearly) hold them off as shown at half time with numerous players carrying niggling injuries and needing assistance on the sidelines while we had also had a total of 5 yellow cards handed out. Just as we thought we had the half time whistle and just a 1 goal disadvantage, they took advantage when Robbie Keane put in a 2nd to effectively i think, seal the match. Throughout the 2nd half they came at us even harder and we had no real chance of getting back into the game as they simply wouldn't let us back in. The score finished 2-0 though and we had lost to a far superior side on the day. Surprisingly we stayed 3rd on the table as Man Utd were unable to beat Palace at home. Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 0 The transfer window had come and gone and we hadn't signed anyone although as you can see there was quite a bit of activity with Man Utd signing Gallas and Chelsea signing Ronaldinho. Liverpool also managed to sign USA striker Landon Donovan. EPL, Game 26 Aston Villa vs. Man Utd This would be a huge game not only because it is 3rd (us) vs. 4th but because we will find out where we stand pretty quickly. There was some media mudslinging with Sir Alex suggesting his side would win easily and I was positive that I wouldn't let this get to my players (considering the thrashing they gave us at Old Trafford earlier on in the season) so I replied echoing his confidence but in my side this time. I wanted to stand right up to these guys... I was determined to make them pay for their pompous decision to leave Van Nistelrooy and Rooney on the bench but Smith proved his worth after only 5 minutes when he fired home their first from close range.... I had noticed that we had started going downhill on a form slide for some reason. Our players just seemed very flat and something was missing from our earlier form and soon we were down a 2nd goal through Q. Fortune. My failure to secure any signings during the transfer period and our being active in all periods have also contributed to the squad tiring quicker than they normally would have... In the 2nd half we were unable to fight back although we did have more possession and we able to at least push them. Although our reversal in form was slightly worrying considering our next two matches were against Chelsea and Liverpool, and we could easily see ourselves out of 4th place if we lost both of them... Aston Villa 0 Man Utd 2 EPL, Game 27 Chelsea vs. Aston Villa Another tough game for us particularly with our fledgling form and injuries which saw Solano and Cole out for 2 and 3 weeks respectively. The match was being played with a lot of intensity and early on we looked up to the challenge although we were on the back foot. However after half an hour they broke through with 2 goals in the space of 2 minutes from Drogba and Duff respectively. This was extremely frustrating and put us in danger of losing 4th position as Tottenham had come within a point of us now and had a game in hand on us. Into the 2nd half and Ballack scored early on to seal the win for them and further secure our plunge. Injuries and fatigue were getting to us and we were in real danger of plummeting down the table through the last 10 games... I was amazed at how quickly our fortunes turned around after only a few games ago it looked like we had all but secured a Champions League place. Chelsea 3 Aston Villa 0 We had a much needed break to follow before facing Liverpool in a weeks time. I'm hoping we can reverse our form slump right there.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 10th February, 2005 During training on the 8th, Juan Angel came to me and told me that he was suffering some personal problems. I had known this for a while but he told me he was really feeling very badly at the moment, his morale had been affected and inturn his performances had started to drop. So I decided to give him a leave of absense for a few weeks to sort himself out....i knew this was a huge risk with Cole already out for a few weeks but I was hoping he would come back with better morale and better ready to contribute to the side... EPL, Game 28 Aston Villa vs. Liverpool I had gone into todays game with some fresh players from the reserve side, specifically Stephen Cooke on the right wing, Luke Moore up front and Stuart Bridges and Steven Foley-Sheridan on the bench. With our usual wingers out (Berger and Cooke on the wings), Hitzlsperger was going to have to take a lot of the attacking load... ...and he duly accepted the load on the 7th minute mark when he fired home a ball from outside the box passed Dudek to put us one up. The Villa crowd had recognized the importance of this game and they had come along to support us, packing out the house on this saturday afternoon. Following the early goal we settled in much better than the previous two outings and even pressed forward for a 2nd which we could have gotten with some more industrious finishing. However we did well in the end to go to the break holding onto the lead we had gotten early and I was quite happy with the performance to that point. Into the 2nd half and they were really coming at us...but we held them off for a time and I was very proud of the boys efforts....that was until Sinama-Ponglle hit home an equaliser only 5 minutes from time to undo all our good work and force the draw. The result stood and we had dropped out of the top 4 for the first time in a long while. Tottenham now were 1 point ahead of us with a game in hand after a great run of form on their part corresponding with a shocking run of form from us. Aston Villa 1 Liverpool 1 Our form was now LLLX and we had deservedly dropped out of the top 4. Although with 3 weeks off until the next PL fixture I was hoping to have a full squad when we visit Palace on March 5. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Arsenal | | 27 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 69 | 19 | +50 | 67 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Chelsea | | 27 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 56 | 20 | +36 | 59 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 27 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 38 | 20 | +18 | 50 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Tottenham | | 27 | 15 | 4 | 8 | 50 | 34 | +16 | 49 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 28 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 48 | 34 | +14 | 48 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Southampton | | 27 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 31 | 25 | +6 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Liverpool | | 28 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 32 | 28 | +4 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Newcastle | | 26 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 33 | 27 | +6 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Middlesbrough | | 28 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 43 | 44 | -1 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Fulham | | 27 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 33 | 35 | -2 | 37 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Birmingham | | 26 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 32 | 33 | -1 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Blackburn | | 27 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 35 | 35 | 0 | 32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Charlton | | 28 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 32 | 46 | -14 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Norwich | | 28 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 24 | 42 | -18 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Bolton | | 26 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 25 | 37 | -12 | 27 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Portsmouth | | 28 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 32 | 50 | -18 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | West Brom | | 28 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 23 | 37 | -14 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Man City | | 27 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 32 | 54 | -22 | 21 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Everton | | 26 | 5 | 5 | 16 | 31 | 50 | -19 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Crystal Palace | | 26 | 3 | 8 | 15 | 25 | 54 | -29 | 17 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Looking at the table above, I figured that Tottenham after their recent run of 7 straight victories (including us) were now our main threat for the last Champions League place...so here are both of our runs home. First, them; A Bolton H Arsenal A Man City H Fulham A Everton H Charlton A Birmingham H Blackburn A Middlesbrough H Newcastle A West Brom And now, our run home... A C Palace A Southampton H Bolton A Norwich H Portsmouth A Arsenal H Man City A Fulham H Everton A Charlton Out of the top sides only Arsenal we both have still to have in the season. It looked very even and it may go down right to the wire, but firstly I was hoping that Bolton beat them to cancel out their game-in-hand on us. Damn early season form creating high expectations...now I will feel disappointed if we don't make the CL... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 15th February, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Villa and Postma part ways Aston Villa have agreed to a mutual termination to the contract with Stefan Postma. Postma hasn't figured in first team plans since Emerson Smith took over and will be looking to move on after becoming frustrated. The fee is believed to be in the region of 159K. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> Well that was basically the snippet of what appeared in the paper the next day after I announced it at training. Finally I had gotten the wage budget close to the actual budget! I was only 2,000 p/w over the 230,000 p/w demanded of me. And when looking at the budgets of the other teams looking for CL spots we are damn-well on a shoe-string. Financially though the club was making money, we were up for the year with a balance of 7.1M even though I had spent a couple of million of transfers. This was probably due to the fact that the club didnt have any loans outstanding - so, financially, the club was in good shape.... ....but maybe if they gave me some of that money to strengthen the squad then we wouldn't be slipping away due to the small squad we have! I also used the situation to announce that I was delighted with the form of Dennis Gentenaar after joining the club as our new first choice goalkeeper (average of 7.87 so far). I am always on the search for new transfer targets and with Everton in the relegation zone, should they be relegated, two targets for me will be James McFadden and Tim Cahill. I was starting to develop a final shortlist for players to chase during the offseason which may or may not get more ambitious depending on us making the Champions League or not. Here is a quick rundown of potential targets... <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Mark Bresciano, AM RLC, 6M, Parma Parma were eduring a poor season, currently sitting 11th on the table and Mark Bresciano was one player that was starting to get disilliusioned at the club. Brilliant attacking midfielder who can play on the left or right and if we make the Champions League I will chase him, although I think he may be out of our league. Dirk Kuijt, SC, 4.9M, Feyenoord Also being chased by Porto. Started the season brilliantly but has dropped off slightly as Feyenoord drop off to 5th. Great work rate and first touch which are two things I really look for. James McFadden, F LC, 4.7M, Everton Young striker who I will chase if Everton are relegated. Wesley Sonck, SC, 4.1M, Ajax Has spearheaded Ajax's campaign being their top scorer this season. Is a fixture in the Belgium international team, has a great finishing shot and good pace. Tim Cahill, AMC, 3.7M, Everton Another player I will chase if Everton get relegated. Darren Ambrose, AM RL, 3.3M, Newcastle Can play on either wing and would be a great backup. But unless he demands a transfer then it's unlikely I will be prepared to pay the price set by the market. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> FA Cup, 5th Round Southampton vs. Aston Villa To be perfectly honest I'm not really phased whether we progress or not. Because Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd are still in the draw and it's unlikely we'll beat either of them if we come up against them (going by past experience). This was a significant match because it was the first time we actually broke out the grey strip! The first half was fairly uneventful as both teams lumbered along. I got the feeling that Soton, in 6th position in the League, were gearing themselves up for a run to the Europe spots as well so they were holding back like us. Into the 2nd half and Beattie broke the deadlock right after with a decent header from a corner. However, only 2 minutes later young Luke Moore equalised after finding an open net from a Vassell cross. In an effort to get things going and to avoid the "dreaded replay" I decided to push forward with all my might in an effort to try and win the match...but it backfired when Svensson socred off a corner in the last 10 minutes.... Aston Villa out of the FA Cup. Southampton 2 Aston Villa 1 With us out of the League Cup and FA Cup, and (obviously) not competing in Europe this season, all we had left to concentrate on was the run home of 10 matches which was a good thing, although it was a downer obviously that we were out of both cups.... Looking like a grandstand finish to the season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 The usual mid to end of season slump for Vila that ends many a fans hopes Ah to be fair there were tough games there - and with no cup competitions should be all focussed on reverting the form as soon as possible. Come on Villa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">NEWCASTLE WIIN LEAGUE CUP! The first silverwave has been handed out as Newcastle beat rivals Boro on penatlies after going through 120 minutes with no score. The Toon endured to penalties even after having two players sent off. Alan Shearer is said to be delighted at finally winning some silverware with his club. Shearer came on at half time and fittingly fired home the first penalty which sent them on the path to victory. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> After our quite lengthy (and fully needed) break it was back in business and a crucial (as everything was from now on) trip to Palace who were sitting in last place....(from now on I'll outline Tottenham's results concurrently to mine or anyone else who enters to the CL race). EPL, Game 29 Crystal Palace vs. Aston Villa Palace were dead last at the moment but only 5 points from safety so they had a lot to play for. As the game started I could see they looked slightly weak and there was opportunities for us to get a vital away win... Gerardo Torrado scored his first goal for the club after 10 minutes and he couldn't have picked a better way to do it, with a first-touch volley from 40 yards after a Palace defender headed it out of the box in his path...I had bought this guy to give me stability and hard working-ness in the midfield and he comes out with that volley! What a way to mark his return from a while off with international duty and injury! Scoring an early goal in an away match can sometimes be a curse. But the players kept at it and didn't get complacent, and they performed well in the face of a resurgent Palace. After a half hour though my wingers, reformed in their partnership, partnered up again this time when Solano fired a ball across the park to Barry who fired it past the goalkeeper to give us a healthy 2 goal buffer. We looked to have survived until half time with our lead and we did, though just before half time we managed to extend it through Barry being involved agian, and linking up with Vassell. I had the rare pleasure of being able to take Cole off at half time to give him a rest as I enjoyed the players finding a little form once again. They managed to get a goal back after an hour but things weren't looking overly threatening so I didn't think much of it. However, after an hour they snuck another one back and suddenly the score was on 3-2 and they were coming at us late.... ...however Thomas Hitzlsperger hit a brilliant volley from many yards out to match Gerardo Torrado's from earlier on in the match, and the win was sealed. C Palace 2 Aston Villa 4 Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1 After Tottenham's draw with Arsenal, we have regained 4th position on goal difference (Tottenham no longer have a game on us, either). Man City 0 Tottenham 1 EPL, Game 30 Southampton vs. Aston Villa After Tottenham's away win we really needed to follow it up and at least not lose this one...but Soton were sitting up there in the table as well, they had beaten us in the FA Cup and it wouldn't be easy. Our confidence and form seemed to be back at a high level though, and we attacked the game and took it right up to them...taking the lead after a quarter-hour after Barry crossed to Cole who headed it in to give us the lead. We really seemed to be up for the occasion, we were pressing well through the wings and Barry was involved again when he let Hitzlsperger open up and fire up a volley after 25 minutes to give us a 2-0 lead. We managed to hold off until half time, and then into the 2nd half we were looking quite comfortable. I was extremely pleased with the side holding a lead away against a side in the top 10, seemingly quite comfortably. However with 15 minutes to go they managed to break through our defences and get a goal back and they shattered that sense of comfortableness. They stretched us late, though the defence held on to record a well fought away win, our 2nd in a row. Southampton 1 Aston Villa 2 EPL, Game 31 Aston Villa vs. Bolton We were looking to attack Bolton from the outset and that's exactly what we did....and it didn't take long for us to break though with Cole latching onto a cross from Solano on 10 minutes and firing it in. After our goal we were playing confidently and dominating posession, but we were unable to break through.... ....into the 2nd half and it was Solano and Cole who linked up once again to give us a 2 goal buffer....after this we were doing comfortably, and we got a 3rd when Vassell pounced on a rebound from a Cole shot to effectively seal the match for us. Following this Bolton never really challenged us and we cruised to a good victory... Aston Villa 3 Bolton 0 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Gareth Barry attracts interest from Arsenal Gareth Barry has been putting in some brilliant displays for Villa recently as they strive and battle it out with Tottenham for the last Champions League place, and his performances haven't gone unnoticed as Arsenal are now reported to be tracking the situation of Barry. Barry's value has skyrocketed this season and to nab Barry, Arsenal are expected to have to bid 10M or upwards.[/b] </div></BLOCKQUOTE> I had gotten word that Arsenal were tracking Gareth Barry but there was no way I was interested in selling. Tottenham 2 Fulham 2 Tottenham finally slip up and now we have a 2 point buffer on them. Which may come in handy because we have Arsenal coming up before too long while they don't play any of the top teams for the rest of the season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 EPL, Game 32 Norwich vs. Aston Villa As with every match for the rest of the season it was an important one...another away win would be vital to us. It wasn't looking good early though as our over-enthusiasm may have gotten to us as they pounced early putting us behind. However our confidence was high against a lower side despite them taking the lead early and we surged forward, two goals from Hitzlsperger and then Cole within 2 minutes of eachother giving us back the lead which we held until half time. In the 2nd half they never really challenged our lead, and when we went ahead with a 3rd thanks to Cole, the win was sealed. Just when we thought the game was over though they nabbed a goal back in stoppage time which caused a bit of fuss but we held on without too many problems. Norwich 2 Aston Villa 3 Everton 0 Tottenham 1 Tottenham won away as well so they keep within 2 points of us. But with Man Utd's failure to get a win at Fulham we have now drawn level with them, though their goal difference is better than ours by a bit. EPL, Game 33 Aston Villa vs. Portsmouth Portsmouth are in the relegation zone and came to Villa Park determined to get some points and this came through as they surprised us a little and went ahead through Yakubu after 20 minutes. However two awesome volleys from distance from Hitzlsperger cancelled them out and gave us the lead. Just as we thought we had the game won they equalised through Lua Lua in the last quarter hour, and despite a late charge we couldn't get a winner....a bad slipup conceding that last goal which has given Tottenham an opportunity to get back level with us, AND we have Arsenal away at Highbury coming up next... Aston Villa 2 Portsmouth 2 EPL, Game 34 Arsenal vs. Aston Villa This was the match that really made me realise our defensive frailties. We played quite well in parts but they pacy attack just ran us ragged and in the end we were left for the killing. There was just nothing they could do wrong in the 2nd half..after levelling the match at 3-3 after being 3-1 down I thought we were in with a chance but after that they just blew us away. And we were humiliated. To give a goal-by-goal rundown would be depressing, suffice to say that Henry single handedly destroyed us with 5 goals. Arsenal 9 Aston Villa 3 Our morale has been destroyed. The media are having a field day with my defence and have launched into them with venom, their morale has gone from "superb" to "very poor" in one match. Facing the media was quite a chore - Tottenham had beaten Blackburn at home 2-1 and with our goal difference destroyed they now sat equal with us on points but above us on g/d with a match in hand. I felt we probably needed to win ALL of our remaining games to have a chance of qualifying for the CL. EPL, Game 35 Aston Villa vs. Man City What we needed was to bounce back and well. Not only for confidence reasons but to restore our battered goal difference after the hammering at the hands of Arsenal, which was potentially terminal to our season... Man City were in the relegation zone and this would prove a good chance for us to regain a little form. And it worked out that way. Juan Angel was back into the first team after being outsted by Vassell for a time after Cole and Vassell had played that well that both got called up to the English squad. However Angel got our first goal to set us on the way, the 2nd came from an own goal from them and Cole took the third early in the 2nd half. Aston Villa 3 Man City 0 Tottenham thrashed Charlton at home 3-0 as well so they reclaimed their third spot with just 3 matches left (4 for them). Although looking at the draw left, 3 of their 4 remaining games were away while 2 of our remaining 3 were... Tottenham's run home A Middlesbrough A Birmingham H Newcastle A West Brom Our run home... A Fulham H Everton A Charlton Here's an updated table: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 35 | 24 | 7 | 4 | 69 | 24 | +45 | 79 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 35 | 23 | 8 | 4 | 87 | 32 | +55 | 77 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 34 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 53 | 25 | +28 | 64 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Tottenham | | 34 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 61 | 39 | +22 | 64 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 35 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 68 | 50 | +18 | 64 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Liverpool | | 35 | 13 | 17 | 5 | 41 | 30 | +11 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Southampton | | 35 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 41 | 32 | +9 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Newcastle | | 35 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 43 | 37 | +6 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Fulham | | 35 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 44 | 43 | +1 | 48 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Blackburn | | 35 | 12 | 9 | 14 | 47 | 43 | +4 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Middlesbrough | | 35 | 11 | 9 | 15 | 49 | 59 | -10 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Birmingham | | 34 | 8 | 15 | 11 | 38 | 44 | -6 | 39 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | West Brom | | 35 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 34 | 42 | -8 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Bolton | | 35 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 32 | 52 | -20 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Norwich | | 35 | 7 | 13 | 15 | 29 | 51 | -22 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Charlton | | 34 | 8 | 8 | 18 | 36 | 58 | -22 | 32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Everton | | 35 | 7 | 7 | 21 | 44 | 67 | -23 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Portsmouth | | 35 | 6 | 10 | 19 | 35 | 61 | -26 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Crystal Palace | | 35 | 6 | 10 | 19 | 36 | 70 | -34 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Man City | | 35 | 4 | 14 | 17 | 36 | 64 | -28 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Look at our goals conceded! 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The Taxman Posted June 29, 2005 Author Share Posted June 29, 2005 As we head into the last 3 matches for the season, the final stage, the pressure was mounting between us and Tottenham for the last Champions League spot and there was a huge amount at stake. We now sat in 5th position. On the last saturday in April, we would both face tough away matches which could determine a lot of what the final placings are. We were away to Fulham who were sitting 9th, and Tottenham were away to Middlesbrough who were sitting 11th. My new goalkeeper, Dennis Gentenaar from NEC in Holland, was proving to be a bit inconsistent as he would produce a brilliant performance one day then allow 9 goals through the line into the net as he did against Arsnel (to be honest though he isn't to blame it was the back 4 that day). EPL, Game 36 Fulman vs. Villa It was a wet day in London and they came at us early, quick and hard, catching us on the back foot as they went through Legwinski grab an early lead after 5 mins, and this was exactly what we didn't need. We fought off their initial attack period and worked ourselves into the game, consoled by the fact that Boro had gone up 1-0 early on against Tottenham as well, in their game being played concurrently to ours. As we fought it out we got ourselves into a good position and eventually it was Juan Angel who gave us the equaliser 5 minutes before half time. I was quite happy with the way we were playing and before the half was up we got an added bonus with their defender Ian Pearce being sent off. Looking over my half time notes I was told also that Tottenham have had a player sent off, infact it was Ricketts only 3 minutes after he scored the equaliser... The 2nd half though was a distinct change in fortune for us. They scored a goal in the 88th minute to break open a game that was drifting along, but we were able to get a late late late equaliser through sub Steven Cooke to put it back to 2-2. I got word through that Tottenham had gotten a late winner over Middlesbrough though, so they go 2 points ahead of us with 1 game in hand and I fear that unless they slip up and lose a couple we have lost the fight for the last Champions League place. Fulham 2 Aston Villa 2 Birmingham 1 Tottenham 1 With 2 games now left for both of us they sit 3 points clear of us with a goal difference of 23 compared to our 18... <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 36 | 18 | 14 | 4 | 56 | 25 | +31 | 68 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Tottenham | | 36 | 20 | 8 | 8 | 64 | 41 | +23 | 68 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 36 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 70 | 52 | +18 | 65 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Our Champions League hopes were almost totally killed off after Tottenham beat Newcastle 1-0 at home. With one game to play for them, and two for us, they are 6 points ahead and now 6 on goal difference. We'll need to win both games gaining 6 goals up in the process while they lose their last game which is away to West Brom.... Meanwhile, Leicester and Reading have been promoted to the EPL, while Wigan, Leeds, Brighton and West Ham are in the playoffs... EPL, Game 37 Villa vs. Everton We needed to win this one and win well... We came at them attacking attacking and attacking some more and it didn't take long, only 5 minutes, for Angel to get on the end of a cross from Torrado and put us ahead one goal after only 5 minutes. We kept at them and after 20 minutes we had another when Cole crossed to Solano who headed it in. They had gotten one back shortly before half time but they never really threatened our lead and we got the goal back shortly after half time to restore our 2 goal lead. In the last 10 minutes Angel headed in to complete his hattrick and give us a 3 goal lead and cut their goal difference lead over us to only 3, so if West Brom managed to beat them on the last day we would have a chance to nab them... Aston Villa 4 Everton 1 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Interest hightens in Barry Interest in Gareth Barry is hightening as he continues to do well for Villa. Clubs following the progress of Gareth now reportedly include Arsenal, Bordeux and Spanish giants Real Madrid. After being quizzed in the media, Emerson Smith has said that anyone coming in for Barry will have to provide "sufficient compensation" for taking away Villa's in-form left winger. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> EPL, Game 38 Charlton vs. Villa and concurrently... West Brom vs. Tottenham This was the last game of the year. For us to get into the Chamions League we would need to win, Tottenham lose and us make up 3 goals goal difference on them in the process. It would be tough but not entirely out of the question. Charlton were having a poor season and sat in 15th place. Our match started off slowly and I had assigned a staff member to give me updates on the Tottenham/Brom match.... ....West Brom go ahead after 5 minutes! Unfortunately just as I was handed that paper Charlton went ahead through a corner to break the jubilant mood....we didn't lose confidence however and we kept at them....and it only took 7 minutes for Juan Angel to get the equaliser just on 13 minutes... ....meanwhile in an eventful match at The Hawthorns, Brom had gone up another goal only for Tottenham to equalise....2-1 to Brom after 10 minutes.... Before half time though they got a 2nd. And although Brom upheld their end of the bargain by beating Tottenham, Charlton got a 3rd and we were soundly beaten in an extremely frustrating match. We could have had it but we weren't good enough. Charlton 3 Villa 1 So after being in 4th place for most of the year we squandered it and finished 5th. Here is the final table, at least we are in the UEFA Cup next season *sigh*.... <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Chelsea | | 38 | 27 | 7 | 4 | 77 | 25 | +52 | 88 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 38 | 26 | 8 | 4 | 99 | 35 | +64 | 86 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 38 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 59 | 25 | +34 | 74 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Tottenham | | 38 | 21 | 8 | 9 | 66 | 43 | +23 | 71 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 38 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 75 | 56 | +19 | 68 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Southampton | | 38 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 46 | 36 | +10 | 60 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Liverpool | | 38 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 44 | 33 | +11 | 59 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Newcastle | | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 45 | 39 | +6 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Fulham | | 38 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 50 | 45 | +5 | 55 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Blackburn | | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 47 | 46 | +1 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Birmingham | | 38 | 9 | 17 | 12 | 43 | 51 | -8 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Middlesbrough | | 38 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 51 | 65 | -14 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | West Brom | | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 36 | 46 | -10 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Bolton | | 38 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 36 | 57 | -21 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Charlton | | 38 | 10 | 9 | 19 | 43 | 64 | -21 | 39 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Norwich | | 38 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 31 | 57 | -26 | 35 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Man City | | 38 | 5 | 16 | 17 | 38 | 65 | -27 | 31 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Everton | | 38 | 7 | 8 | 23 | 48 | 75 | -27 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Crystal Palace | | 38 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 39 | 76 | -37 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Portsmouth | | 38 | 6 | 10 | 22 | 35 | 69 | -34 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> So as you can see, Everton, Palace and Portsmouth relegated and Chelsea win the title after Arsenal led most of the year.... Overall our season was good but we conceded way too many goals... to come in the next update I will conduct my squad evaluation and chase my summer targets as the offseason kicks into gear...Thank you for following me this first season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haze.13 Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 Nice work on the first season. Bad luck about the CL spot but UEFA's a good platform to build on. KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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