Author: Alex Othon

The Steve Bruce debate is dominating the column inches on all things Aston Villa right now. The team is underperforming massively and the fans unrest is growing with each passing day. So, you’ll probably be glad to hear that this isn’t another piece which is going to focus on that particular avenue of despair. Instead, I am going to turn my focus to our scouting setup. I’ll be taking a wander down another less-well trodden path which has seemingly avoided really being investigated. But the consequences of it could be just as damning in the long run. Last week, it was reported…

Aston Villa supporters’ patience with Steve Bruce wore even thinner last weekend following a draw against Blackburn. But when will enough be enough? The trip to Ewood Park was always likely to be tricky. With Rovers having adjusted to life back in the Championship fairly well so far. And with the Lancashire outfit unbeaten at home in nearly a year, a win was by no means nailed on. I think the vast majority of fans are clued up enough not to just think that simply playing a newly promoted team equates into three points. Rovers are no mugs; players such…

On Saturday 22nd September, you may well hear a ripple of applause sweep through Villa Park. During the 35th minute of the match as we host Sheffield Wednesday, there are plans afoot for a minutes applause for Doug Ellis. But it might not quite be a mighty roar. The reason may not be immediately clear, but a group of supporters are currently trying to spread the word for a minutes appreciation. The reason behind this is to mark Ellis’s 35 years of service to Aston Villa. However, it hasn’t been universally accepted by any stretch of the imagination. Frail Doug…

Aston Villa were one of the busier clubs as the loan market transfer window closed at the end of last week. Yet manager Steve Bruce still finds himself with defensive issues. Impressive looking signings like Tammy Abraham, Yannick Bolasie and Anwar El Ghazi have taken the headlines. They have rightly created a ripple of excitement amongst fans who have every reason to expect attacking football with such an influx of personnel. Of course, whether Bruce is capable of delivering such style is a point of debate for another time. However, these top billing signings have covered up what is an…

The loan market closes tomorrow (August 31st) and there is bound to be a flurry of activity. Clubs will look to make their final tweaks to their squads until January. Villa are scouring the market for a couple of extra players, however, it is an outgoing loanee that has caught my attention in particular. Andre Green. News broke of Green’s proposed move to Portsmouth on Tuesday evening and instantly, I was confused. On the face of things for me, the move doesn’t make much sense. League 1 I’ve nothing against Portsmouth as a club. And I fully expect them to…

Aston Villa’s unbeaten start to the season continued with a 1-1 draw away at Ipswich last Saturday. Despite a summer of turmoil in which there was real uncertainty for the future of the club, our solid start has still left a large section of the fan base feeling underwhelmed. And it isn’t completely unjustified. Obviously, things could be much, much worse. And they almost certainly would’ve been had Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens not stepped in when they did. Yet there is a feeling that although we should be grateful for our current situation, we’re somewhat scrambling through games at…

Aston Villa’s season has kicked off in style with the club securing maximum points from their first two games for just the first time in almost twenty years and this is without last seasons star performer, Albert Adomah featuring too much. Whilst that particular stat in itself is pretty startling, after the summer of turmoil we have endured it perhaps makes it all the more impressive. In fact, the squad appears to be in relatively healthy shape considering what might have been. Whilst John Terry and Robert Snodgrass have departed, thankfully our new billionaire owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris…

Aston Villa’s third straight Championship season kicked off on Monday evening with a much needed 3-1 win against Hull City at the KCOM Stadium. The result was the most important thing on the night but the Villans didn’t have it all their own way and didn’t look overly convincing for large parts of the match. There were certainly positives to take from the match, but perhaps also a few questions to be answered. In the aftermath of the game, these are some of the main points for me. 1 – We’ve given ourselves a platform for once The last couple…

With the beginning of the new EFL Championship season now just days away, Aston Villa will be glad to see the back of an extremely turbulent summer and must start looking at our problems and one of those is our defensive worries. Ever since losing the Playoff final to Fulham back at the end of May, every few days seemed to bring news of how Villa was sliding further and further down a path that would’ve resulted in the club being wound up by the courts. As we now know, that particular threat has been removed and we appear to…

By the time you read this article, there is a good chance that Steve Bruce will no longer be the manager of Aston Villa. Media reports circulating at the time of writing suggest that Thierry Henry has verbally agreed on a deal to plunge himself into the deep end of management at Villa Park, where undoubtedly the most pressurised atmosphere in the Championship will be found. On the face of it, it’s incredibly exciting. I mean, it’s Thierry Henry. An absolute legend of the game. However, that was as a player. There is nothing to suggest that this will necessarily…