Young Remenisces On Time At Villa

Former Villa favourite Ashley Young gives his view on his time at Villa and thankfully jas nothing but praise for him.  I loved Ash when he was at Villa and unlike Downing and Barry, I respect his decision to move away to further his career.  He had served his time at Villa and he chose the best move for his career and I have no problem with that.

He said:

"I can't say a bad word about Villa,"

"I only have fond memories.

"Everyone was brilliant to me - the chairman was fantastic but he could tell I was an ambitious person.  

"I joined Villa to play in Europe and challenge the top four. We did that - we played in Europe and made the top six for three seasons in a row - but I just felt the time was right to move on."

"I was concentrating on football all the time, nothing else, and that showed," he continued. "I was putting in good performances, even if the team were in the relegation mix for a while.

"Every time I put on that Villa shirt I would always give 100 per cent to try and get us up the table.

"I was asked 100 times if I was leaving but I was fully focused on football, certainly not my next move"

Bannan Full Of Confidence

Barry Bannan has been on the up in the last few weeks, getting more involved with the Villa and also shining for Scotland.  As a result of this, his confidence is on an all time high.  My main criticism of him last season was that he didn't influence the games enough and didn't get involved in the games.  It was clear for all to see that he possessed great technical ability and had an eye for a pass, displayed best by his fabulous assist for our goal of the season last year against Fulham.  It was simply a matter of getting the confidence to demand the ball from his team mates and influence the game as much as he possibly can.

However he finally seems to be turning into that player looking at his recent performances.  Mcleish had this to say regarding our penalty against QPR:

"Bannan claimed the penalty, I never pre-ordained who would take a penalty if we got one, but Barry was confident.
"You can see in the way he grabbed the ball that he was very confident he'd dispatch it."

From this one act it is clear to see that he has grown massively in confidence in his ability and it's rubbing off on his game.  If he keeps improving at the rate he is currently then we can expect a great season from the lad, and then it's just a question of whether we can keep hold of him.  Rumours circulating over Man United making a move for him.  However I'm led to believe this is nonsense from the £18 million price tag being mentioned.  Lets just hope it's a wind up!