A new My Old Man Said column
To brighten up your Villa week even more, we have come up with a new column for your pleasure. After Paul Lambert called new signing Grant Holt a ‘proper man’ this week, here at MOMS, we’ve decided it was a good term to warrant a new column where we look at Aston Villa’s ‘proper man’ of the week. Kind of a variation on player of the week. As well as performances on the pitch, it will factor in behavior and their shenanigans off the pitch too. Also, to balance up the column, we’ll also take a look at the Villan who has to man-up, pick himself up and go again. Thanks to Paul Lambert for the ideas for titles and thanks to new MOMS writer Ashley Bannister for the text! UTV
Villa’s Proper Man of the Week
There is only one man that can take this prodigious award this week and that is the big man himself, Christian Benteke. He scored in back to back games after a goal drought only rivalled by the mighty Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey. An agonising 14 hours and 45 minutes had passed before he finally slotted past Wojciech Szczesny on Monday night.
However maybe the proper man of the week should not go to Villa’s big number 20 but to his father, Jean-Pierre. This beautiful man is the reason for big Ben’s sudden return to form. After a heart-to-heart with his old man in his home back in Belgium, Christian has definitely looked revitalised. Benteke Senior correctly pointed out to his beast of a son, that he had only scored five or six goals in the first half of last season and then went on to bag 15 goals during the second half.
The most promising sign for Villa fans this week has not just been Benteke’s goals but the way he played. The Belgian forward had that look of hunger in his eyes once again. The type of look that made defenders quake in their boots. This can only be good news for the Villa as they approach a run of fixtures which contains quite a few ‘winnable’ games.
The Villain Who Has To Pick Himself Up and Go Again
Ironically this award for the week will go to Paul Lambert himself. The reason being that the same day that the tiny northern club Hull Tigers signed Nikica Jelavic and agreed a fee for Shane Long, Lambert rang up the Greggs in Wigan to acquire the services of Grant ‘the pie man’ Holt. What ambition does this show? This is a guy that could not break down the defence of MK Dons, yet is expected to provide the goals that will help guide the Villa to safety and beyond.
Lambert did redeem himself later in the week with the loan signing of Ryan Bertrand, which looks like it will be a stroke of genius by the Scot. With Jose Mourinho picking a right-back in César Azpilicueta, in front of the young English left-back, a permanent deal at the end of the season maybe possible. PL also got his tactics spot on against Liverpool in outnumbering their midfield and in turn playing them off the park.
Also Villa fans, despite a difficult couple of months for Lambert, we are now in the top ten, so surely everything is going to be rosy.
WE STILL NEED A CREATIVE MIDFIELDER THOUGH! UTV
Who was you player of the week? Comment below.
*The column picture features former Villa skipper John ‘Jack’ Devey pictured here in 1895. As well as captaining Villa and being capped for England, he was also a top cricketer for Warwickshire, a decent baseball player, cyclist and runner. An all round proper man!
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JOhn Devey was the captain in the 1890s when Villa were without question the best club in England and that meant the world. We benefitted from him only being picked for England twice. As I said in my book VILLA FOR ENGLAND The International Football Federation (IFFR) study published before the second world war when people could still remember him said he was ‘the outstanding regisseur (inspiration) of the world famous ‘Villains’ and he was given a separate chapter in the book of football 1906. The writers said it was his bad luck to coincide with Steve Bloomer and jOhn Goodall, two of the greatest inside forwards of his era.
Good luck for the Villa however. Devey also played county cricket successfully, 1888-97 scored 6,500 runs. Top man no question.
trevor Fisher