As we go into the final week before the October international break, here’s a run down of the Villa stories and issues doing the rounds in the last Villa week…
Easy Street
Steve Bruce gets to play the two teams currently at the bottom of the Championship this coming week, with Preston the mid-week visitors to Villa Park and an away day at Millwall on Saturday.
You could argue it’s a bit of a win-win situation for Villa fans. Hopefully there will be some points to get us back to the right end of the table. And, if not, then Bruce will be on very thin ice during the international break that follows – one win in 11 games during a soft fixture list period, will not impress anyone.
Of course, some would argue that if Villa do win both games, it would simply be a case of putting lipstick on a pig.
Terry Bull
The Birmingham Mail are STILL trying to get some mileage out of John Terry headlines – playing on some Villa supporter’s desperate hope to see JT in a Villa shirt again.
The truth be told, if he was having a second season at Villa, he would have been in a Villa shirt before the season kicked off. The equation of the club being willing to pay his wages and Terry actually wanting to play at the club, obviously didn’t add up.
Terry now goes back to being a Chelsea legend, so he’s really no-news for Villans now.
With Terry publicly studying for his coaching badges while he was at Villa, a coaching role at Chelsea was always a strong possibility and he now looks likely to coach the Chelsea U-23’s.
Transfer Window is Closed
The multiple transfer windows maybe closed, but it doesn’t stop the clickbait kings peddling their wares. You may have noticed several ambiguous headlines doing the rounds for a completed Villa transfer.
‘Confirmed: Aston Villa wrap up transfer deal’ – teased the Birmingham Mail
“Done deal: Aston Villa agree terms with player, he is pictured holding shirt” – declared the pond life of clickbait, that is .
This is Futbol is a site owned by advertising agency Snack Media, which runs it simply to make ad venue, with its content offering up very little to those who get tricked into clicking. Avoid – especially when you see the term ‘Reliable Journalist’ in their headlines.
Anyway, so who is the mystery player that has signed for Villa?
17-year-old Hungarian keeper Akos Onodi. He joins both Viljami Silisano and Matija Sarkic as the main youth keepers at the club at U-23 level and below.
Yep, no mention of ‘youth player’ in the headlines.
The Dapper Villan
This week the relationship between Villa’s kit design Luke 77 and Villa developed further with the release of The Dapper Villan collection, a range that Luke has labelled a ‘luxurious limited-edition line for the Villa faithful’.
It’s a good idea to have something more high-end in terms of style above and beyond the standard clothing club merch you see. They’ve taken the classics like polos and the Harrington jacket and given them a subtle and classy Villa twist. Also, check out the Villa-related names of each item.
MOMS Favourites are the claret polo and Harrington jacket – you can check out The Dapper Villan range here
Jack Grealish’s Wages and Release Clause
This week has been full of articles on the face of Dapper Villan, Jack Grealish’s new contract and the release clause (including the MOMS one below). The release clause offers up some interesting potential developments (see below), while articles have reported his wages to be between £40k-a-week to £50k-a-week. It’s closer to the £40k side of things, if you go by the more reputable sources.
News on the Pitch
Mile Jedinak is still playing at centre-back…
Despite the fact that there isn’t many legit centre backs in the Villa squad, MOMS does have a theory to why Bruce is playing Jedinak over Axel Tuanzebe. Read it below:
The Theory of Why Steve Bruce is Playing Jedinak at Centre-back
UTV
All a waste of space at the moment, we probably have the best attacking players in the championship and two high quality wingers that Bruce doesn’t play, Grealish playing as a winger, and Jedinak as CB. Do me a favour and get Dean Smith in ASAP before we loose more ground. Nothing against Bruce personally but as a manager he’s totaly useless and we have a snowball in hells chance of promotion.