I've chosen to write a piece for the people that ask: "What's happened to Aston Villa in recent seasons?" The answer is this, they've lost their entire midfield in the space of two years without replacing them with players anywhere near their quality or playing style.
Arguably the biggest shake up at Villa Park over the summer was the sacking of Alex McLeish and
hiring of new boss and ex Norwich manager Paul Lambert . Lambert's goal: to return the villains to
the heights of European qualification that they reached under Martin O'Neill not so long ago.
Villa's transfer dealings have seen them restructure their entire defense.
Ireland international defender Richard Dunne has consulted Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert
for advice about whether to retire from international football to focus on his club career.
Asked if he'd considered retirement, Dunne, who is entering the final year of his Villa contract,
replied: "Yes, it has a few times.
Aston Villa have announced their traveling roster for their upcoming U.S. tour, and it includes
most of their key players as well as the two U.S. men's national team players.
Eric Lichaj and recently re-signed Brad Guzan are just two of the players on Aston Villa's
25-man roster for their tour of the United States, which starts off with a friendly match against
the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday and then has matches against the Chicago Fire and Portland
Timbers on July 21 and 24, respectively.
Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has named his squad for the club's pre-season tour of the U.S.
where Villa will play the Philadelphia Union, Chicago Fire and Portland Timbers.
Headlining the Villa squad are Republic of Ireland internationals Richard Dunne and Shay Given
as well as England striker Darren Bent.
The Philadelphia Union host Aston Villa on July 18 and the English club finally released its
squad list for a three day American tour this summer.
7500 to Holte, SB Nation's Aston Villa site, noted that the list showed that American goalkeeper
Brad Guzan was re-signed by the Birmingham located side.
Emmanuel Adebayor scored from the penalty spot at the stroke of the hour but that was not enough
for 10-men Tottenham Hotspur to claim all three points at Villa Park.
Aston Villa, who have been dragged into an unlikely relegation battle in recent weeks, took the
lead through Ciaran Clark in the 35th minute a goal that drew just as much cheer from Arsenal and
Newcastle fans as it did from those in attendance.
Aston Villa v Tottenham Preview: Big Clubs And Small Margins - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Aston Villa take on Tottenham on Sunday afternoon with two clubs separated by 28 points and
fighting on opposite ends of the table, yet not too long ago they were both considered 'equal'
footballing powers.
Ireland's manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, made a huge decision this week, in announcing his squad for
the nation's upcoming friendly match against Serbia in August, which excludes Ireland legends, Shay
Given and Robbie Keane.
Accompanying the felled duo out of the national set-up are Richard Dunne – the hero of Ireland's
qualifying campaign – and Stephen Hunt.
Taking into account both pre-tournament expectations and performances therein, here's our XI of
the biggest flops, bumberclarts and turgid let-downs from the group stages of Euro 2012...
1. Spain delivered the ultimate 'up yours' to us all. After 87 minutes of sniping about their lack
of penetration and subsequent lack of a striker, they literally walked it into the net. 2. The
reigning champions did look precarious at one point. Fortunately, they had Jesus (Navas) to be
their saviour.
The Republic of Ireland's Euro 2012 dreams came to an end last night as they were soundly beaten
4-0 by Spain, while Italy's progression to the knockout stages is in doubt after drawing 1-1 with
Croatia.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque went with a more orthodox line-up against the Irish, inserting
Fernando Torres into his starting line-up and Torres repaid his coach by scoring two goals, and
giving the type of performance that made Chelsea spend all that money on him 18 months ago.
This article titled "Euro 2012: Fernando Torres calls time on Ireland as Spain's real No9″ was
written by Sid Lowe in Gdansk, for The Guardian on Thursday 14th June 2012 21.05 UTC
He was gone before Richard Dunne could even react. Before anyone could. Fernando Torres
accelerated past the Ireland centre-back, cruised beyond Stephen Ward and sent the ball screeching
into the top corner, taking all the doubts and the debates with it.
In Gdansk against Spain, Ireland's fans were superb once again, but alas, the 11 men on the
pitch failed to perform to the level that had got them to Poland in the first place.
The 4-0 scoreline didn't flatter the Spanish at all, with Fernando Torres opening the scoring
after just four minutes, courtesy of some dreadful Irish defending.
Continuing on from our first part of the Euro previews, here were are with a look into
another group
Group B is just too glamorous to be analyzed this early in the process and so in today's edition
of "Doing the Poznan" we will be invoking the Carlton Palmer in me and analyzing Group C.
As all squad rosters for Euro 2012 have been made official to UEFA, so have Italy's Group C
adversaries: SPAIN, IRELAND, and CROATIA. If you
want to find out who Del Bosque, Trapattoni, and Bilic have selected to feature in this Summer's
tournament, look no further!
As all squad rosters for Euro 2012 have been made official to UEFA, so have Italy's Group C
adversaries: SPAIN, IRELAND, and CROATIA. If you
want to find out who Del Bosque, Trapattoni, and Bilic have selected to feature in this Summer's
tournament, look no further!
Richard Dunne has spoken of his excitement at making the trip to Poland for the Euro 2012
finals next month, and going head to head against some of the world's best teams.
Ireland kick-off their Euro 2012 campaign against Croatia on Sunday June 10th in Poznan.They will
then meet Spain – the tournament favourites and reigning world and European champions - in Gdansk
on June 14th before meeting Italy in Poznan on June 18th.
Young wideman James McClean has enjoyed a superb breakthrough season with Sunderland, with his
surging left wing runs even earning him a place in the Republic of Ireland's preliminary squad for
EURO 2012. However, not everyone is happy with the midfielder's success in securing a berth with
the Boys In Green.
Giovanni Trapattoni has announced his squad for the upcoming friendly against Serbia.
Skipper Robbie Keane, keeper Shay Given, central defender Richard Dunne and midfielder Stephen Hunt
have been left out of the squad for next month's friendly clash with Serbia in Belgrade.
Stoke's Marc Wilson, Everton's Seamus Coleman and Wigan midfielder James McCarthy all come into the
squad.
If only Robbie Keane's singing voice had been the low point of the evening. The lyricism of the
Irish language is not exactly enhanced by the Dublin accent. When you add Keane's atonality – and
the dirge which is Amhran na Bhfiann, Ireland's national anthem you are in a form of hell. And
there Ireland's followers stayed.
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Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trappatoni has named his Euro 2012 Finals squad and as
hoped and expected Sunderland's James McClean was named in the squad.
However there was sad news as Wigan midfielder James McCarthy made himself unavailable for the
squad following his Dad's fight with Cancer.
There has been much debate about where the little Uruguayan should be deployed, up front or down
the wings. Suarez has played on the wings before, in fact, he started his career down the right
flank, he impressed at FC Groningen from this position, notching up 10 goals in 29 games,
impressive, to say the least for a winger.
Like they needed the help. Spain were only ever going to be denied victory over Ireland by the
sort of rearguard action Giovanni Trapattoni's men produced in the qualifying group game against
Russia in Moscow. But whereas in Moscow the ball usually ended up rebounding off centre-back
Richard Dunne's arse, in Poznan, centre-back Sean St.
Regardless of your stance on international friendlies, it would be pretty hard to deny that the
upcoming Aston Villa game is exciting. After all, they would be the highest profile team to visit
Portland since Manchester City came in 2010 (I rank them a bit higher than West Bromwich Albion,
although not as exciting as Ajax).
Alex McLeish has been sacked as Aston Villa manager after just one season in charge of the
Premier League club.
A vocal minority of Villa fans did not want McLeish, who used to manage bitter rivals Birmingham
City, in the first place and they got their wish as today he was terminated "with immediate effect"
because "the club has been disappointed with this season's results, performances and the general
message these have sent to our fans.
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