Three and in – not just another football blog

They love a goalscorer in the North East, so it was no surprise when the Sunderland fans quickly took southerner Darren Bent to their hearts.  Bent has 81 league goals in the last five seasons – a record bettered only by Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney. With the Mackems, he found his richest vein of form, first in a powerful partnership with Kenwyne Jones, and latterly alongside Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck.

After Bent completed his surprise move to Aston Villa yesterday, dropping from sixth in the table to seventeenth in the process, Sunderland fans were understandably disappointed.

Until, presumably, they saw the fee.  £24m for a player of Bent’s limitations is a quite extraordinary sum.  Yes, he’s a goalscorer, but most Sunderland fans would admit that both Welbeck and Gyan have been in better form this season.  Selling Bent solves the ‘three into two’ conundrum that has been facing Steve Bruce all season.

Niall Quinn is no fool, and the chairman will remember well that Sunderland once rejected a £15m bid for Kevin Phillips, only to sell him for a fifth of that price two years on.  Bent’s value will never be higher, and Quinn has now turned a hefty profit on a player whose value will never be higher.  With the proceeds, expect him to try and do a permanent deal for Welbeck, as well as looking for a striker who gives the squad greater variation.

At Aston Villa’s press conference this afternoon, Gerrard Houllier called Bent’s signing “a major milestone”.  He’ll have to score an awful lot of goals to prevent the fee from becoming a major millstone.

Robert Pires might not have contributed much to Aston Villa yet, but he continues to make himself a hero to Arsenal fans:

Clearly a lot of animosity between the pair. Hard to explain, until you remember that it was Pires who dived to win a crucial penalty against Harry’s Pompey back at Highbury. Managers, like elephants and Martin Tyler, never forget.

The Premier League is about to get some swagger back. Yesterday, Aston Villa assistant manager Gary McAllister confirmed that Gerard Houllier is in talks with Robert Pires about a return to English football.

“Robert has been training at Arsenal.

I know the boss and Arsene Wenger are very friendly and I believe he’s spoken to him.

It would be perfect. I am sure he would arrive at the training ground in good condition.

He’s a player everyone would look up to because of what he has achieved.”

There aren’t many 37-year olds strutting their stuff in the Premier League, but Pires has the ability to counteract his increasing physiological limitations. His performances in his first spell in the Premier League were quite incredible, and class like that never fades altogether.

A succession of knee problems forced Pires to adapt his game in the more temperate climes of La Liga. He went from a lightening fast winger and goalscorer to creator and keep-ball merchant.

That, judging from Saturday’s match with Man U, is exactly what Villa need. They have plenty of exciting young talent: Barry Bannan, Marc Albrighton and Jonathan Hogg all began the game. But it’s that inexperience which cost them three points. Albrighton repeteadly sought to drive to the byline and cross, when turning back inside and finding a team-mate may have been the more sensible choice. Pires has the experience, cool-head, and passing ability to make that difference.

Just think, too, what Villa’s more senior players could learn from a true Premier League great. Robin van Persie has spoken effusively many times of how watching Pires train improved his game. Imagine what the same could do for Ashley Young: like Pires, a right-footed left-winger or support striker.

And finally, the clincher: it was at Villa Park that Pires helped Andy Gray coin his now trademark ‘Tek a boo, son’, with this, arguably his finest moment in an Arsenal shirt:

Tek a boo, indeed. The Premier League will get to say goodbye to one of its great entertainers – and an Invincible Champion, no less.
If a deal can be done in the next next week or so, Pires could be in line to be a part of the Villa squad on Saturday 27th. Their opponents at Villa Park that day? Arsenal. You couldn’t make it up.

Every week Lawrence Gray-Hodson, a man who made his name in the upper reaches of Division 2 in the 1970s and 80s as well as being a former Scotland and England international, writes a column exclusively for Three and in.

This week it’s memories of Aston Villa and a look at their future

——

I find it hard to look at Aston Villa and not think about what might have been. In late 1981, as I was ploughing a furrow in Division 2, I got a phone call. ‘Hello’ said the voice on the other end of the line, ‘this is Ron Saunders’.

‘Yeah right, Grimes’, I said, thinking it was my best pal Ashley on a wind-up. I advised him where he could go and how he could get there in a manner which would make Bernard Manning blush. Footballers are a foul-mouthed lot when they suspect they’re being pranked. Amazingly Ron Saunders understood and accepted my red-faced apology when I realised it was really him.

He told me he wanted me to sign for Villa. He needed cover for Denis Mortimer as they tried to make their way back up the first division and challenged in Europe. He was realistic and told me I wouldn’t play as often as I might want, but for me it was like Paul Gascoigne, a no-brainer. A club with the pedigree and quality of Villa looking to sign me?! It was fantastic. I remember getting off the phone and telling the wife. She was ecstatic and I think had it all gone well then she wouldn’t have run off with Alan Devonshire a couple of years later.

Saunders wanted me at Villa. Then in January he fell out with Doug Ellis. Some say it was about control of the team. He confided in me that he’d tried to insist Peter Withe shave his beard but Withe was an Ellis favourite and that brought about his resignation. His assistant, Tony Barton, too over and he never rated me. I rang him to see if there was still a chance of the deal being done. I’ll never forget his reply. “You’ve got as much chance of playing for Villa as I do of getting a handjob from Joanna Lumley”. I can still hear his laughter as he hung up. It stings.

So I think about what might have been and I maintain a soft spot for Villa despite missing out on being part of that glorious team that went on to lift the European cup. I see what’s going on now at the club, the resignation of Martin O’Neill and I see a club in a state of crisis. I was never fond of O’Neill. He was a man who played for Northern Ireland yet considered himself Irish. Didn’t he realise that Britain owned his country? I find that kind of anti-nationalism quite reprehensible.

Brown has never let his deafness get in the way of his career

David O’Leary was a real Irishman at least but no kind of a football manager. His time at Leeds was a fluke, like when you let Football Manager auto-pick your team and play through the games without making changes … every so often you’re going to go on a decent run of results.

One thing you can always say about Villa is that they give good English managers a chance. Look at the cream of the crop that have graced the club. Brian Little, John Gregory (a much underrated tactician and it was only his addiction to high cost transfer shopping cost him in the end), Graham Taylor and Big Ron himself. Quality managers, quality men, one and all.

So it’s with dismay that I read about the foreign managers being linked with the job. Sven Goran Eriksson. I think not. Ronald Koeman. No self-respecting Villa fan could ever accept him after his foul on Platty and the free kick he scored to put Graham Taylor’s England out of the World Cup qualifying.

And now the favourite is Gerard Houllier? Do me a favour. How can anyone even listen to this man after he tried to tell us Robbie Fowler was ‘chewing the cud’ and not honking up a great big line of the gicker when celebrating that goal? A man who made Liverpool so bad the hapless Rafa Benitez appeared to be a brilliant manager for years afterwards. It’s disgraceful, especially when there are good young English managers around who could do the job just as well.

My personal choice would be Phil Brown. He’ll have learned from his mistakes at Hull. Can anyone realistically see him growing a beard as bad as that again? Of course not. And if there’s any singing to be done he’ll do in the comfort of his own home or at his local karaoke night, not on the pitch. Phil Brown is a modern, forward thinking English manager who we have to ensure gets every chance in the game. Remember, Alf Ramsey went from managing Ipswich to winning the World Cup for England.

When Capello’s time comes we need an Englishman to take over and steady the ship. I can see Phil Brown bringing European Cup, or Champions League if you want to be a pedantophile about it, back to Villa Park. He could even win them the league. And then he could move to the biggest job in English football and show the world that an English manager can win the top prizes. I think we’d all agree it’d be the best trip we’d ever been on if he did that.

I hope Villa take a risk. Randy Lerner made his billions selling a credit card company. There are some things money can’t buy and that’s English spirit. Phil Brown has got that in spades.

The closest Gerard Houllier comes is when he has a glass of Pimms.

At Manchester City, they are waiting with bated breath.  Waiting for the medical to be complete, for the Is to be dotted and the Ts to be crossed, and for the contract to be signed.  Finally, it seems they’re about to get their man.  This afternoon, James Milner will complete his £26m move to Manchester City.

Yes, that James Milner.  The subject of the transfer window’s most tedious saga, outdoing even the tug of war over Cesc Fabregas, is the utility midfielder, auxiliary right-back, and apple of Henry Winter’s plainly perverted eye.  At first glance it seems like an awful lot of money for a player who has spent the best part of a decade in the mid-reaches of the Premier League.  That’s because it is.  To put it in context: with that money, Real Madrid have bought the German international pair of Khedira and Ozil, and had change to spare.

It’s not Milner’s fault that he’s so preposterously expensive.  The main reason for the inflation on his fee is his passport.  There’s always been a tax on British players – the media hype around them combined with clubs’ desire to cling on to local favourites has long meant they’ve come at a premium.  Milner is one of the English media’s darlings.  Last season, the broadsheets’ pet project seemed to be to transform him from peripheral England squad member to starter.  Perhaps they were on commission for any potential move.

These sentimental reasons for inflated prices have now been augmented by the introduction of the new ‘homegrown’ rule – for City, a club stuffed full of foreign imports, signing a domestically-reared player could play a vital part in helping them meet their quota.  Of course, City have lost a homegrown talent to bring Milner in, with Stephen Ireland moving to Villa as an £8m makeweight in the deal.  Incredibly, The transfer values the younger Ireland at less than a third of Milner’s value.

Milner, a player who has spent most of his career characterised as a plucky underdog, will now join City with the weight of a £26m pricetag around his neck.  It’s the player I feel most sorry for: the money creates an unrealistic degree of expectation.  The only way Milner could justify his fee is by playing as well as Henry Winter think he can.  Which, frankly, is impossible.

Good luck, James.  You might just need it.

So, just like that, Martin O’Neill has left Aston Villa.  After flirting with the possibility of quitting at the back end of last season, O’Neill has chosen now, a week before the start of a new campaign, to announce his departure with immediate effect.  His mentor, the enigmatic Brian Clough, would be proud.

His initial statement expresses regret at leaving, but gives no reason for walking out.  This has, of course, sparked a flurry of rumour and speculation.  Most stories focus on the sale of James Milner to Man City, but O’Neill seemed to have come to terms with the possibility of losing Milner long ago.  There is some talk of a bid from Liverpool or Spurs for Ashley Young, whilst Sky Sports News’ migraine-inducing ticker has gone in to hyperbolic overdrive, claiming that O’Neill’s departure is related to losing Nicky Shorey, a man who spent most of last season out on loan.

I’m sure the ‘truth’ will out eventually.  O’Neill will have his say, either in a lengthy interview with the Sunday paper of his choice, or on a cosy sofa with Gaby Logan as he trawls for some work with the BBC to tide him over.

Whatever reason O’Neill gives, there’s no denying that it’s a convenient time to leave Villa.  In the last three seasons, he has led them to a sixth-placed finish and European qualification.  It hasn’t come cheap – he’s spent big on some occasionally under-achieving British talent – but O’Neill must still go down as one of the league’s most consistent managerial performers.  And the conundrum he faced entering this season was equally familiar: Where now?

The ultimate goal for Villa was Champions League qualification.  Yet how can you progress when you continue to lose your best players to your nearest rivals?  Barry left for City last term, and now Milner, a revelation as Barry’s replacement, is set to follow.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Ashley Young jumped ship to a more glamorous alternative.

Villa are stuck.  They can’t compete with City’s riches, whilst Spurs’ qualification for the Champions League will enable them to outmuscle the midlanders.  To finish sixth again this season, with a resurgent Liverpool and improving Everton hot on their heels, would have been a feat that exhausted O’Neill.  And for what?  More Europa League football.  He’s been there, he’s done it, he’s got the t-shirt and it’s not very stylish.  O’Neill has taken Villa as far as they seem prepared to go.

So where now for the man who has resigned from each of his five managerial posts of his own volition? Within the confines of the British border, only taking charge of one of the Big Four or England would represent a step up for O’Neill.  No matter: O’Neill can afford to relax alongside Lineker and Hansen, and wait for Hodgson to hop it, or Capello to crumble.  By leaving now, O’Neill has managed to preserve an already robust reputation.  A spell out of the game and a bit of astute punditry will only increase it.    I expect to see him at Anfield or Soho Square before 2011 is out.

Every week Lawrence Gray-Hodson, a man who made his name in the upper reaches of Division 2 in the 1970s and 80s as well as being a former Scotland and England international, writes a column exclusively for Threeandin.

This week he looks at the trend of foreign ownership.

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When I was a young professional, making my way in the game, I had ambitions. To play a cup final at Wembley, perhaps score the winning goal or make a goal line save with my hand that the referee didn’t spot. In those days you didn’t have all the replays so you would have been a real hero instead of a villain like Thierry Henry who did what any good professional should have done against Ireland. Not least because they’re Irish. Only joking, some of my best friends are bogtrotters!

I never got to play at Wembley, nor score the goal, nor make the save, but I did get to turn out at Anfield. What a day that was. The famous ‘Here is Anfield’ sign, the Kop, the stench of stale wee and the rousing Scouse singing and banter. I remember taking a throw deep in the Liverpool half when some wag piped up from just behind me ‘Hey, Gray-Hodson, why’s your wife so fat?’. I simply turned around and said ‘She is addicted to cakes which contain massive amounts of calories’. Good times.

Abramovich's enthusiasm for English football is undisputed

So it was with great sadness that I read about consortiums from all over the world lining up to buy Liverpool, one of England’s greatest clubs. It was bad enough that the Moores family sold out to the Americans, and I never took to Gillett anyway being a Wilkinson Sword man. Yet now we have Huang Kong Phooey and Yahya Kirdi (didn’t he just sign for Man City?) trying to come over here to milk the money from the Premier League like it was a cow, literally filled with cash. What has happened to our game?

Look at the biggest clubs in England. Man United, owned by Americans. Chelsea’s owner is Russian oil magnate. Aston Villa, an American. Birmingham City, an Asian country of some kind. Man City by Abu Dhabi (no wonder their fans are uploading videos to the YouTube with them running around doing Yogi Bear impressions – “Abu Dhabi Doooooo!”, because they do do and it’s greater than your average picnic basket). Arsenal retain a bit of Englishness but face a pitched battle between an American and a Uzbeki and even good old fashioned Fulham is owned by a man refused British citizenship because his son’s driver killed Princess Diana. How times have changed.

It wasn’t long ago that we wanted to bomb Russia out of existence and nobody had even heard of Uzbekistan. More clubs are sure to follow and soon all the Premier League clubs will be owned by foreigners. Now, in general, I have no real problem with foreigners. They have their place, it’s abroad. When we go there we respect their customs. For example, an Englishman would never go to Saudi Arabia and drink but they come here and buy up our football clubs. We don’t go all over the world purchasing Turban Rovers or Vladivostock United, do we?

It begs the question as to why there are no rich Englishmen with sufficient pride in their country and their country’s national sport to do something about this. It’s all well and good for Richard Branson to spend his money on trains which are always late and trying to fly a balloon across space but why doesn’t he put his money where his beard is and buy Liverpool. A great British club owned by a great British man.

Couldn’t the Royal Family dip into their reserves and stop Blackburn falling into the hands of a consortium which is probably made up from Triads and

Arsenal's Stan Kroenke

scimitar wielding hoodlums? Bernie Ecclestone has money to burn, he needs to look beyond silly car racing and buy a football club better than Queens Park Rangers. The Duke of Westminster? Simon Cowell? TV stars get paid so much money now that even Ant and Dick could buy their beloved Sunderland.

Something must be done to ensure that English clubs stay English. I know I’m not the only one who shares this point of view. I was recently out for a few pints with Terry Venables and Jack Charlton, two men who have done so much for English football and who would never take the foreign shilling, and they both expressed their deep dismay at the situation.

“I’m all for immigration”, said Big Jack, “as long as they don’t come buying up our football clubs and marrying my daughters”.

Terry nodded wisely, took a gulp from his glass and said “Like my beer, English football clubs are probably the best football clubs in the world. Let’s keep ‘em like that”.

And when El Tel talks you’ve got to listen.

Sunderland striker Darren Bent said of his ommision from England’s World Cup squad:

I feel really disappointed. I have always said to myself, if you play well and do your best for Sunderland, then there is a chance you can go to the biggest tournament in the world. But obviously on this occasion it has not worked out.

And his disappointment is completely understandable. After being written off during his time at Spurs, Bent scored a whopping 24 Premier League goals for Sunderland this season. At a big club where you get lots of chances and good service that would be an impressive tally, at Sunderland where goals don’t come as easy it’s even more so.

Only Drogba and Rooney scored more; players like Tevez, Adebayor, Defoe, Berbatov and Torres were all left in his wake. And yet Bent missed out on going to the World Cup as a striker to Emile Heskey, a player who scored just 5 goals for his club in 42 appearances, only 3 of them in the Premier League. His last goal was Villa’s 4th in a 5-2 win over Burnley on February 21st. He has scored two goals in 2010.

Now, people might talk about how Heskey does ‘donkey work’ for the benefit of the team, but perhaps he does donkey work because he’s … well … a donkey. When Theo Walcott has been excluded from the England squad ostensibly because of his poor form how on earth does Capello justify the selection of Heksey over Bent?

Yes, he’s strong, but then so are lots of othe players. Yes, he’ll win you some headers, yes, he can hold it up now and again, but beyond that Heskey as a striker is decidely second rate. He won’t win you a game when you’re playing top class opposition, any decent defender can play him like a fiddle all day long. Bent is by no means perfect but he’s had a fantastic season, knows where the goal is, has pace and would have provided England with more threat.

Perhaps he’s a victim of England’s goalscoring midfield. Capello might think he can afford to take a striker who doesn’t score when he’s got Lampard and Gerrard. He knows they can pop up and grab a goal at any time.

Some might say the fact that he’s been picked constantly by England managers down the years is proof that he offers more to the team than he’s given credit for. Personally, I think a forward’s main job is to score goals, taking a player to the World Cup who really doesn’t do that often enough just doesn’t make sense to me.

Continuity is a much underestimated quality in football. Chairmen and fans are too quick to seek change when they’d be better off sticking with what they’ve got.

Aston Villa’s owner Randy Lerner confirmed Martin O’Neill would continue as manager next season, saying:

It has already been settled. He and I spoke on a number of occasions in person and over the phone. Yesterday I dragged him out of a series of meetings with chief executive Paul Faulkner trying to get plans for the summer underway.

While O’Neill said:

I think next year will be exciting and worthwhile and I look forward to it.

Getting it sorted early is sensible. Uncertainy over the future of the manager would make doing transfer business very difficult, so Villa can concentrate on that and look to bring in players who will improve them.

I think it’s a good move for both parties. I don’t think Villa have the clout to attract a better quality manager than O’Neill, nor does O’Neill have the quality for a ‘bigger’ club. There was talk of Liverpool but Benitez is still there and the job looks like a step down as long as Liverpool’s financial position is so precarious.

Villa and O’Neill fit each other perfectly right now, common sense prevails.

Congratulations to Chelsea, the table doesn’t lie and all that, but I can’t help but sit here this morning and wonder about the overall quality of the league this season.

Yes, there have been some stand-out stats. The amount of goals Chelsea have scored for one but that begs its own question – is a league in which you score 7 goals three times and 8 once really competitive?

Does the fact that the smaller teams have beaten the established big teams mean it’s more competitive, that anyone can beat anyone, or is it down to a lack of focus or a measure of arrogance on the part of the big teams? How do you tally Wigan’s 3-1 win over Chelsea with their last day hammering (10 men notwithstanding)?

Liverpool, many people’s tip for the title, ended up in 7th, financially broken and it looks like a long way back for them. The only thing lesson we can take is that pundits, most of whom thought they could win the league, talk an awful lot of rubbish.

Spurs finished in 4th and you can point to the wins over Arsenal and Chelsea as being crucial – they really were, but City could have done it and lacked the bottle, Villa never looked like they wanted it and Liverpool, from a footballing point of view, have fallen on the stubborn sword of Rafa. That Harry Redknapp has been named manager of the year for scraping into 4th tells its own story – and Fulham’s fans will feel rightly aggrieved that Roy Hodgson’s achivements, accomplished without the millions Redknapp has had to spend, haven’t been acknowledged.

At the other end the three worst teams undoubtedly went down but look at those above them. West Ham on 35 points, Wigan on 36, Wolves on 38, Bolton on 39. It used to be a case that you absolutely needed 40 points to be safe, that was the target everyone spoke about, this season you could have survived in 31. Hardly suggests the league is better, does it?

For years the Premier League has been widely regarded as the best in Europe – although I’ve long been of the opinion that the Spanish league’s technical superiority would provide better football and win more matches – but this season’s league, along with the relative failure of English clubs in the Champions League means the tide has well and truly turned.

The product is still glossy, well package and overly marketed, but the proof is in the pudding – there were more empty seats in Premier League stadiums than in any previous campaign. I’m sure that has to do with the times we live in, but like the economies around the world, the Premier League is suffering a football recession.