Despite it being a friendly it was a Midlands derby and there was a police presence on the night but with both set’s of fans in very good behaviour, they wasn’t really needed.

To the game anyway, Villa picked a mostly youthful and reserve side with the exception of John Carew, James Collins and Brad Friedel. With the other big names including Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Curtis Davis.

James Collins was replaced almost as quickly as he ran onto the pitch at the start of the game with what looked like a pull, although later reports confirmed he was already suffering with a knock from the weekend game in Dublin.

It was a game that was dominated from start to finish from Villa as expected with a few flashes from Walsall and goals in each half from Andreas Weimann was enough to cancel out Alex Nicholls late goal for the Saddlers.

Just like last season I have been hearing a lot of glowing reports for a certain Marc Albrighton and he certainly ran the show last night as the winger terrified the Walsall defense.

Overall it was a good run out as it always is against a side that always want to get one over on Villa so we can head to Portugal with our heads held high, and I would only presume a lot of the senior guys will feature the weekend.

Do I begrudge him a move to a club with ambition? No I don’t and just like Gareth Barry I wish him every luck in the future.

But the thing that does bother me is why are these players wanting to leave as soon as a club with money comes knocking? And if it is the ambition thing then we are no better off than we was under Doug Ellis.

I personally would leave a company if they offered more money and looked like they were going places so why should we begrudge James Milner the same?

The fact is Villa need to stop being stupid and stubborn now that Martin O’Neill has decided to show his cards as Man City know one way or another that they will get there man sooner or later. We simply need to get what we can from the player and as quick as possible so we can also replace him.

That is another worry of mine though. I fear what Martin O’Neill will do with the reported £25million and I just hope he does something decent with it.

He has struggled to hold down a first team spot since moving to the San Siro, only playing 14 times last season and most of them coming at full back.

I would definitely take him like a flash at the Villa, he is the sort of player we could really do with, and the reported £5million price tag suggests to me it is a deal I would definitely look at getting sorted as soon as possible.

Aiden McGeady

I’m sure you’ve heard the reported rumours about a possible move for Celtics Aiden McGeady but to be honest I’m not sure what the hell is going on with the story.

It depends on where you read to what is actually going on with some saying it will happen while others saying It won’t.

What is certain though is Martin O’Neill will not pay out the reported £10million fee for a player who isn’t proven in the English game.

John Carew came close early on but it was the home side who looked more dangerous at a very muggy London Road.

However, it was Villa who took the lead thanks to Ashley Young. He took a touch before superbly lobbing Lewis in the boro goal in a goal that was described as one of the best you will see in a pre-season fixture.

Posh equalised almost immedietly thanks to Aaron Davis. He fooled the Villa backline before beating two Villa players and slotting past Brad Friedel in the Villa goal.

Both sides created chances and came close but Villa once again took the lead. John Carew converted a cross with a neat little flick and it went in of the inside of the post.

Villa soon doubled there lead when Eric Lichaj fired a header past Joe Lewis to make it 3-1.

The home side then pulled one back thanks to Charlie Lee but it wasn’t good enough to give the home side a share of the spiles.

It was a useful run out for Martin O’Neill’s head before the head over to Ireland this coming weekend.

Football has become the sport of the world.  This is made evident by “cracking the final frontier” of North America.  It would appear to me that Canada and the United States were two places with minimal emphasis on the sport until the last 5-10 years.  The cultural around it forever growing and the fan bases are getting bigger and bigger.  I live in a small city of 100,000 people that’s an 8 hour drive from any other major city and I rarely see a day now without at least one football jersey showing up on someone.  It’s great though as I can talk to people about the sport while sitting at a bar watching a game.  

Today yet again though I see comments being made of how it’s unpopular in ‘America’ (which by default to a lot of Europeans includes Canada).  I want to dispel the rumors of that with just a few little points about the current status of Football in North America. 

Approximately 1,000,000 people are actively involved in leagues across Canada right now.  Why is this number important?  It’s currently higher than the amount involved with our beloved Hockey.  Not by much but it is still higher and getting lager every year.   

In the United States currently 90-95 million people are involved in soccer leagues in some capacity from being a Sunday player or a Sunday ref.  The works out to roughly a third of the US being involved which is more than the whole population of England.

Currently 16 cities have teams participating in the MLS league here which didn’t exist 20 years ago.  15 American teams and 1 Canadian team currently partake in it.  With two more Canadian teams set to join in the next two seasons plus an unknown amount of US ones. 

Of course I will be the first to say the television coverage is still pathetic.  You need to buy channels to view a good amount of Euro matches and I currently have my channels bought for the up and coming season!  Though as little as 4 years ago you would not even see one PL match on tele.  Now I can catch at least 2 or 3 live ones a week and another 1 or 2 on repeat so we do pretty well here now I must say. 

Onto some new in the world of football starting with the New York Red Bulls….wait what?  Didn’t expect that did you?  I assume most people have heard of the move by Theirry Henry to the New York Red Bulls and if you haven’t, well now you have!  He has moved to the club (currently 2^nd in the east and 4^th overall in the league) for an undisclosed amount.  Smart on his part, move to the big apple, paid big, will be considered utterly GENUIS in the league here and all he has to do is play a full season to show up Beckham.  And according to Hans Backe (head coach of NY) they are trying to add another quality player like Henry to the lineup. 

I think it’s great that the MLS is able to attract these players and bring them over.  It’s a great way to promote both the club they sign for and the league as a whole.  However, what I don’t want to see happen is that the MLS turns into a place where quality players playing sub par in Europe sign into so they can play first team football, less games, less pressure and look like stars.  Or essential where players go off to wind down their careers and die.  Though currently when you look at it 30 game season (considerably less than most) and with no real tournaments or cups here most won’t play more than 35 total for the year.  The games are in the summer mostly so its nice and warm no nasty cold weather (though Henry didn’t have to worry bout that).  To top it all off they get paid stupid high amounts of cash!  So why not right? 

The new set of jersey’s were released to and 2/3 look fine to me.  I am sure everyone can guess the odd one out.  Sorry Brad but you will now only remind me of the cartoon bumble bee man on the Simpsons.  Home and away both look good and particular fond of the away.  Won’t get the new home one but I will get the away as my white one needs an upgrade…

Nothing to new to report on transfers and such despite Villa being link to everyone as per usual.  The one thing that worries me the most and is a newer development (not the first time its come up though) is that Ashley Youngs name has come up as interest for Spurs, Liverpool and of course Sheik City.  I am really hoping to not see both Milner and Young go though as I saw on the Avilla forums it could work out in our favor to have upwards of 50million to use on transfers.  Of course that is all dependent on how MON invests it and currently everything is there for the man to be successful and get quality signings in. Should be an interesting month ahead of us.

So what do we look back and find most memorable about this World Cup?  The early exits of teams such as France and Italy?  The surprising run of teams such as Ghana and Uruguay?  The controversial calls (or no calls) for several goals?  The newest installment of the hand of God?  The final doused in yellow and no not the glow of the world cup but of course the yellow card frenzy.  In the end I look back as another nail biting, unexpected and exciting world cup. It led to cheers, it led to tears but most of all it led to the world coming together to watch the beautiful game.

Another Chapter Begins…

Now all of our attention can be turned towards Aston Villa and what is too happen over the next couple months.  Transfer talk is nearly a boiling point with many big names being linked to not only Aston Villa but many other clubs as well.  The biggest story line surrounding the club right now has to be that of the fate of James Milner. 

Is he staying, is he going no one is really too sure just yet.  The deal that seems most likely to happen is that of the offer by surplus cash Manchester City.  15 million pound, Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha is the deal that’s has surfaced most recently on the matter.  A move which can perhaps do some good to the club and help strengthen the squad. 

We pick up some cash to help in the transfer market plus whatever we get from a few others sales.  We pick up a quality attacking MF in Ireland (something we have all been shouting for) and we pick up a defender who has talent and shows promise though he has a few injury problems (though it seems that comes with many players these days).  We sell a few other players pick up cash and we could have upwards of 30 million pound to play with.  With that who knows what the possibilities are?  Of course now the talk has come up over Klaas Jan Huntelaar joining the Premier league from AC Milan and Villa has been linked to the move.  186 Goals in 290 appearances is something that can’t be ignored and Klaas wants first team football which I think puts Manchester City out of the race as they are already too loaded up.  Of course other top clubs such as Spurs can offer Champions League Football.  We will see where things end up of course as only now with the end of the World Cup will the transfers begin to come in. 

Continuing Growth

The European U-19’s are about to being now and this has brought into light a very promising young talent Villa have.  Of course I speak of Nathan Delfouneso.  Although I don’t like the idea of him missing the training camp and some preseason matches the international competition is important for his development as well.  With his continuing development I do hope to see him on the pitch this season several times and putting in goals for the first team.  He has been able to produce on the Academy team and shown great pace and drive when been in action.  Fans cry for a talent striker to be brought to the club.  Well perhaps we have bred our own quality striker in the Fonz.

Final Thoughts

It is time to focus on the Claret and Blue and wait for the transfers to start.  Who knows despite all the talk perhaps Milner will still be dawning AVFC on his jersey at kick off this season.  Stranger things happened…Heskey at the World Cup?

He stated he had a five year plan to take Villa to the next level, and that means bringing silverware of some type to Villa Park or breaking the top four.

Although we may have finished 6th in the last few seasons, we have improved season upon season with last season’s trips to Wembley and not to forget the fact we got more points that we did in previous season’s.

The one problem Martin O’Neill has is there are so many other clubs with money that are improving all the time, and as he said sometimes you need to spend big money just to stand still.

I on the other hand believe that if we can buy a 20+ goal striker and maybe even a midfielder in the mould of Patrick Vieira in his hay day then I believe we will give plenty of teams trouble this season.

The likes of James Milner, Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young will only improve this season and that will only benefit our club.

Robbie Keane

You may or may not of heard already but there is very strong rumours that Irish International Robbie Keane has been spotted around Bodymoor Heath this week.

Of course every season we here rumours of this type so don’t read to much into this but let’s just think about it for a second.

Robbie Keane maybe 30 years old but they say that a forward reaches his prime between the ages of 28 – 32 and he has averaged a goal every two and half games.

James Milner

The talk is that Man City are to offer Villa £24million for Milner, once again but will refuse to budge to Villa’s £30million asking price which should and could see James Milner continue to be a Aston Villa player again next season.

Modeste M’Bami is a Cameroon international and is available on a free transfer and it’s no secret that Villa have at least made contact with the midfielder because he has been making a lot of noises.

He told Sky Sports: “I’ve been in contact with many clubs, Villa are a very good team but nothing’s official. I’m not going to talk about anything.”

I’m not going to big this player up or put him down because if I’m quite honest I don’t have a clue who he is or what he’s about. What I do know about his is what his wikipedia page tells me.

He’s a 27 year old Midfielder who’s just finished a season in Spain with Almeria after playing 27 times for them. Before that he had three years with Marsaille and six years with PSG in France. He has also represented Cameroon no less that 28 times.

Hatam Ben Arfa

The Mirror are today stating that Villa will look to Ben Arfa of Marsaille if they do lose James Milner this summer to Manchester City.

This is a player I know had a big reputation as a teen and was expected to produce big things but the talk about him has died down over the past few years.

A bid of around £12million is believe to be enough to prize him away from France. He has been capped 7 times by France despite being of a Tunisian descent and is described as a talented player but does tend to be criticized by his lack of discipline.

The last sentence suggests to me that this won’t happen as Martin O’Neill will only bring in players who will be yes men and do as there told. He doesn’t like players challenging him which Ben Arfa could well do if the French press are to be believed.

Nicky Shorey

We all know he will be leaving Villa Park this season but the question is where to? Billy Davies is today making noises stating that he would love to make Shorey a permanent fixture at Notts Forest after having a loan spell there next season.

Despite West Ham declaring that all there players have a price except Scott Parker apparently we are ready to test there resolve by making a £10 million bid for the England International.

Parker, in my opinion is a fantastic player and one I wish we took full advantage of when he left Chelsea but I think the greedy Hammers owners will demand to much for a player reaching the later years of his career.

Tranquillo Barnetta

Tranquillo Barnetta is a Switzerland international who played a big part in the Switz World Cup Campaign even though they were sent packing in the group stages.

I don’t know a lot about the midfielder except that he’s 25 years old and that he helped Bayer Levukusen to a fantastic early season run last season – courtesy of Wikipedia of course.

Apparently we will make a £4million offer for the player, which does sound like the kind of cash Martin O’Neill likes to splash around but he doesn’t have the British pedigree that he tends to go for.

Eduardo

Now we was linked with Eduardo earlier in the summer and over the past few days the rumour has come back from nowhere with Talksport announcing it yesterday.

There is no doubt he is a quality player but I’m pretty sure a lot was made about songs sung about him at the Emirates by Villa fans when he broke his leg which would make me question why he would have any interest in signing for Villa at all?

Never the less despite him not regaining the form he had before his injury I still think he could be a fantastic player with a new club and a fresh start so I would welcome the move.

Our first away trip will be to newly promoted Newcastle United on the 21st of that month.

Our first derby match of the season will be at Wolves on the 25th September and we will host Birmingham City at Villa Park on October 30th.

The last game of the season will be Liverpool at home while we travel to the Emirates for the final away of the season.

Other big fixtures worth knowing are:

November 13: Man Utd (H)
November 27: Arsenal (H)
December 4: Liverpool (A)
December 11: WBA (H)
January 1: Chelsea (A)
January 15: Birmingham (A)
February 1: Man Utd (A)
March 19: Wolves (H)
April 30: WBA (A)

To view the fixtures in full click here.