With the Aston Villa squad list confirmed, the squad is surprisingly missing both a number 3 and number 10 from the original shirt numbers of 1-11. Nobody took up the number 10 shirt which was a little surprising. Personally, if i was Jack Grealish, I would have snapped it up. Also, I’m surprised new boy Jordan Veretout didn’t fancy it either.
Some Villa fans were surprised to see former Villa number 10 Charle N’Zogbia in the squad line-up. The French winger is becoming more famous for his Twitter #lifestyle antics than anything he’s done on a football pitch recently, but Sherwood who gave him another chance in the run-in of last season, has left the door slightly ajar for one final chance to left Villa with some respect.
There’s no doubt N’Zogbia benefited from Emmanuel Adebayor not coming to Villa after talks. Interestingly, Adebayor might have taken N’Zogbia’s squad place, yet never made the Spurs’ 25 man squad-list.
Philippe Senderos wasn’t included on the final Villa 25 squad-list, so it looks like goodbye to him.
The reason the number three shirt was vacant was largely due to the original wearer of the shirt left-back Joe Bennett going out on loan to Bournemouth on deadline day. Bennett also signed a contract extension, to give Villa more scope for a better transfer fee, if he is sold at the end of his loan.
Full Aston Villa 25-man squad list
1] Brad Guzan
2] Tiago Ilori
4] Micah Richards
5] Jores Okore
6] Ciaran Clark
7] Leandro Bacuna
8] Idrissa Gueye
9] Scott Sinclair
11] Gabby Agbonlahor
12] Joe Cole
13] Jed Steer
15] Ashley Westwood
16] Joleon Lescott
17] Jordan Veretout
18] Kieran Richardson
19] Jordan Ayew
21] Alan Hutton
22] Gary Gardner
24] Carlos Sanchez
25] Carles Gil
27] Libor Kozak
28] Charles N’Zogbia
31] Mark Bunn
33] Jose Angel Crespo
39] Rudy Gestede
Three other players are registered as U21s.
20] Adama Traore
23] Jordan Amavi
40] Jack Grealish
A common problem in recent years is moving on players who do not fit into the team for one reason or another but are on the pay roll taking up pay that might be better used for more suitable players . But there is also the issue of the number of players in the 25 man over 21 squad with those not listed being ineligible to play . As Senderos is reputably not going to be full fit until the end of the year it makes sense that N’zogbia fills the slot in the squad he might otherwise fill