Joe Cole: If He Isn't A Team Player, Tell Him He Can Go!

Joe Cole has been very strong in his reply to Christian Benteke wanting to leave

In a bizarre twist to a already hectic season for Aston Villa, it is the revelation that the rest of the squad would rather see Christian Benteke leave than have someone around the club that doesn't want to be there.

Earlier this week Benteke apparently spoke to Villans' manager Paul McGrath about trying to force through a move to Tottenham Hotspur after they showed an interest but it was right towards the end of the transfer window so originally Paul McGrath had said no but a secret meeting with 97% of the squad was then sought after they found out that Benteke did not want to be part of the club anymore and told McGrath that they would rather he left than stayed without wanting too.

Joe Cole was the player to apparently speak and he said something like this. Christian is not a team player, he moans when he doesn't start and he moans that he starts upfront by himself and that he is a the best player at the club. Well we have no time for players like that and I hope you see sense boss and sell because we do not want him here and think that maybe you should look to bring someone in who will play as a team.

This apparently hit the Villa manager hard and he changed his mind and decided to allow Christian to leave but only if they get an offer that matches there evaluation. Rumours have now started that Spurs will look to throw in Nebil Benteleb, who is lingering in the reserves at the moment.

If Villa were able to sell it would represent a manic 2 days of activity as it looks like they would have £12.5m to spend on players and we wonder who McGrath would look at.

Hectic Transfer Deadline Day At Villa & Monthly Report

Hell of a day for Paul McGrath

With the end of the month and the Transfer Deadline Day at the same time and it is safe to say that Aston Villa manager Paul McGrath was extremely busy. There was a bidding war for Belgian striker Christian Benteke, who was the centre of a 5 team tug of war between, Newcastle United, Tottenham, Bayern, Dortmund and Juventus. There was interest from Benfica and Porto but they decided against the £25,000,000 price tag.


Benteke became a transfer target for a lot of clubs.

First to bid were Tottenham but their £10m bid was refused as out of hand. Benteke then got angry thinking that £10m was a good offer but before he could go to the media Juventus and Dortmund made an offer of £21m but again Villa refused it holding out for £25m.

At 9.45pm Newcastle and Bayern Munich launched a bid of £25m in which Aston Villa accepted and then Paul McGrath left the finalising to his Assistant Manager Roy Keane and got on with the deals he wanted to push through but with just an hour remaining, he was going to be hard pushed to get anyone.

At 10.15pm Paul McGrath got in touch with Tottenham manager Marcelo Bielsa in regards to loaning Nebil Benteleb who was lingering in the Under 21's and wanted to know of his availability and then 10 minutes later he was signed on loan for the rest of the season from Tottenham.


Nebil Benteleb has signed on loan at Aston Villa

Immediately after McGrath had got in touch with Paris Saint Germain in regards to Gregory Van Der Wiel. The Dutch right back moved to PSG two season's ago after impressing for Ajax has not been able to hold a place down in France so moves to Birmingham for the rest of the season to play at Villa Park.


Van Der Wiel signs for Villa on loan from P$G

The Dutchman said it was all down to fellow Dutchman Ron Vlaar, I spoke with Ron and he said what Paul McGrath wanted to do here so I thought I could get some playing time and hope to improve the fortunes of this club. I will admit I know very little about Aston Villa but I know they have won the European Cup before so I am sure they will be up there at the end of the season.

There was one more loan signing come in too, in the form of Ajax centre back Mike Van Der Hoorn.


Van Der Hoorn signs for Villa on loan

On 5 July 2013 it was announced that Van der Hoorn had transferred from Utrecht to Amsterdam for a reported fee of €3,8 million, signing a 4-year contract binding him to Ajax until the Summer of 2017. He made his first appearance for Ajax on 13 July 2013, in a pre-season friendly encounter against RKC Waalwijk. The match ended in a 1–5 victory for Ajax, with Van der Hoorn playing the full second half of the match, having replaced Toby Alderweireld at halftime. He scored his first goal for his new club on 28 July 2013 in a pre-season friendly encounter against Willem II, scoring in the 22' minute in the 3–1 win at the Sportpark De Toekomst. His first official match of the season for Ajax was against arch-rivals Feyenoord on the third match day of the season. Making his league debut for his new club in the Klassieker match in the Amsterdam ArenA, Van der Hoorn came on in the 88' minute for Ruben Ligeon, with the game ending in a 2–1 win for the Amsterdammers.

Van der Hoorn made his debut for the Netherlands U-21 team on 5 February 2013, in a friendly match against Croatia U-21 which ended in a 3–2 win for the Dutch.[15] With the national under-21 team qualifying for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, Van der Hoorn was selected by head coach Cor Pot to play in the tournament.[16] Van der Hoorn made two appearances during the tournament, which saw the Dutch eliminated in the semifinals losing to Italy U-21.

On 6 March 2013 he received his first call up for the Dutch national team from head coach Louis van Gaal, appearing in the teams preliminary squad ahead of their trip to Asia to play scheduled friendlies with China and Indonesia. Van der Hoorn however did not make the final squad for the trip, and has yet to make his debut for the Dutch national first team.


Dorin Rotariu will join at the end of the season

There were also two signings paid for by Villa, the first is Dorin Rotariu, who has been signed for £4.1m but will be on loan to Dinamo Bucharest until the end of the season. The Romanian wonderkid chose Villa because they showed the most passion to get him, speaking in very basic english said this of Villa. I am very glad to be at Villa from next season. I would like to thank them for letting me stay here at Dinamo until the end of the season.

The last signing has a bit of De Je Vu to it because it is Tom Cleverley again and Aston Villa again. Last window they loaned him because they couldn't get him signed in time and this window they are paying the £4.5m but the deal went through late so it will now be done at the end of the season and manager Paul McGrath was very happy with the activity this window but bemoaned the lack of funds.

I loved the last day of the transfer window! We signed some quality players, Gregory (van der wiel) is going to prove a great peice of business and although I did not sign a striker to replace Christian Benteke, that is OK because we have Andi (Weimann), Gabby (Agbonlahor) and Luc (Castaignos) because we only want players at this club who will play for us.

Nebil (Benteleb) and Mike (Van Der Hoorn) are going to be very important for the rest of this season too. Nebil is a great young prospect and the fact he was not getting game time for Tottenham Hotspur was a joke in my view and I expect him to cause shock-waves here at Aston Villa.

Mike is also a young man coming here with a work ethic like no other I have seen for a long time and if he can perform the way I have been told he trains in Holland then this could be a awesome situation for us and him. Also I am happy to know that we are going to be keeping Tom (Cleverley), this guy has surpassed everyones expectations this season and I had to make sure that we held on to him.

The only other thing that I have to say is sorry to the Aston Villa fans. I really wanted to buy more players but out of the £25m I was given £6m to spend for that I am very, very sorry.

The Monthly report

It was a good month for Villa this month with one defeat in the Premier League and an F.A Cup exit but there was some amazing victories amongst that this month and obviously the tragedy that was the Second City Derby.

The first match of the month saw Villa smash West Brom 4-2 in what would be the game that Kieran Richardson let everyone know he was still alive with a performance of the highest quality.

Charles N'Zogbia, Luc Castaignos, Benteke and Richardson gave Villa a massive victory in a time when Paul McGrath needed it most.

Then followed the Birmingham match, enough said!

Agbonlahor then demolished Hull as Benteke was dropped from the main squad into the under 18's as punishment for starting the crap about leaving. In a match where 9 minutes were added on Agbonlahor made sure he was the main talking point and also shot himself back into the England reckoning.

Swansea and Stoke then defeated the Villans. The Swansea game was the dullest affair that you would ever of seen and Bony struck in the 87th minute to give Swansea the win they probably just deserved.

Stoke then knocked Villa out of the F.A Cup with a Peter Crouch hat-trick cancelling out Agbonlahor and Joe Cole's goals but Villa bounced back against rock bottom Sunderland.

They had smashed them earlier in the season 8-2 but this time it was a 3-0 victory and Jack Grealish is liking playing against the Black Cats because they were demoralised when the late show at Villa meant three goals in 6 minutes to beat them!

Premier League Table

Stoke are still in the top 4 and having a fantastic season but Villa are surpassing all expectations in 9th place so far. Sunderland and Palace look doomed already and Chelsea are 8 points clear at the top.

Villa Player Of The Month

Grealish claims the player of the month...........again

Jack Grealish got the award for young player of the month again and therefor gets the Villa player of the month award. He has been awesome this season and yet again he is showing why Villa sorted his contract early this season instead of waiting.

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Paul McGrath & Joe Cole have something to celebrate

When Aston Villa walked out at Villa Park to take on a Chelsea side who were top of the Premier League, unbeaten in 5 matches and not conceded a goal in 4 matches you kind of feared the worse for the Midlanders but with two of the 3 new loan signings making there debuts in Bentaleb and Van Der Hoorn you thought maybe just maybe it could be a awesome Evening match on ITV.

Paul McGrath, hailed as GOD to the Aston Villa fans had just signed a brand new 2 year deal worth £33,000 a week and Villa Park, which was a 41,200 sell out was rocking. Joe Cole replaced the injured Charles N'Zogbia, Bentaleb replaced Cleverley, who was on the bench due a knock and Van Der Hoorn was in, in place of the injured Ron Vlaar.

Chelsea were without Petr Cech and Villa manager Paul McGrath stated that his side could punish Chelsea for having to play Courtois, although he is an awesome keeper in his own right.

Chelsea dominated the first half an hour and as early as the 2nd minute Diego Costa, who had been in awesome form this season thought he had scored the first. It was a brilliant run but he had just gone too early in a marginal but right offside call.

Aston Villa then started to get into the game, Cole was showing glimpse's of his old self when he played through Agbonlahor, playing on the right wing but was only able to hit it wide. Then in the 25th minute Costa, who was causing Villa all sorts of problems thought this time he had score dbut was again deemed to be offside. When the 42nd minute hit there was to be a twist as Aston Villa hit Chelsea on the break, Grealish and Agbonlahor, who were having storming games were 2 on 1 and he unselfishly played Agbonlahor in and made no mistake this time. Chelsea were shocked and it was 1-0 to the hosts.

Chelsea were out early for the second half and carried on dominating but this time Guzan was holding firm in his net. Fabregas, Willian and Hazard all went close but Guzan was having an amazing game. So it wont surprise you that Villa hit Chelsea on the counter attack and won a corner from which new signing Mike Van Der Hoorn hit a bullet headed goal for a even more shocking 2-0 scoreline and Mourinho was now getting completely angry and then stuck his fingers up at the fans who just laughed at him.


Joe Cole hit his 50th goal

Mourinho still thought he could get something out of the game but from the hour mark Aston Villa took over and in particular Joe Cole. Cole, who spent seven seasons at Chelsea was given the ball 25 yards out and he unleashed this absolute crackerjack of a shot that caused Courtois not to move as it nestled sweetly into the top corner of the net. Villa manager Paul McGrath then got sent to stands by referee Phil Dowd for walking upto Mourinho and doing the wanker sign at him, the Villa fans loved it and Villa held on for a 3-0 victory and we interviewed Joe Cole after the match because he picked up the MoM award.

It has took a long time but I could not have wished to hit 50 goals with a shot like that. I have been lucky enough to be given a fresh new leash of life here and I love Aston Villa fans and the stadium here is amazing. I am pleased to pick up the man of the match award but in reality this is a team effort and god, do we have a good team in the making here.

As for Paul McGrath, he will just get a £12,000 fine

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How Have Villa Done It: A Cole and Cleverley Insight

Tom Cleverley has impressed this term for Villa

When Aston Villa announced they had signed Tom Cleverley on loan for the season there was a lot of people and sources that thought Wow another player who has not played very well moving to Aston Villa to join Joe Cole.

Nobody gave them, Villa or manager Paul McGrath a chance but Aston Villa are sitting pretty in ninth place and McGrath seems to have got the Cleverley and Cole combination working well. Tom Cleverley, 25 is even being discussed for a England return. The midfielder has 14 English caps to him name and thought his England career was over but he has had a new lease of life at Aston Villa and seems to be flourishing in the central midfield role alongside other England hopeful Fabian Delph.

Aston Villa have a lot of great young talent available, except one Joe Cole. The ex Chelsea and Liverpool attacking midfielder seems to have rolled back the years this season and has starred in some unbelievable games for Villa but none are better than the 3-0 win against Chelsea at Villa Park just 3 days ago. The veteren midfielder is very happy at Villa and thinks he will take his option up for another season with The Villans.

It is going well here this season and that will mean I will stay on for another season. This is such a great club and just look at the amazing talent I have to work with, it would be ridiculously silly to move now. I have a job to do with these youngsters.

You can catch the next Villa match away to Liverpool in 3 days and who would bet against a Villa win there too!

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