Yet More Transfer News!

It's only October but we already have names floating around as possible transfer targets. Next up is yet another midfielder, this time Jeff Hendrick of Derby County. Reports suggest we are battling West Brom for his signature. Once again I know next to nothing about this player so feel free to leave a comment if you know anything about me. Reports say that he is a very highly rated 19 year old, which to me sounds a bit pointless. Surely this would just get in the way of Bannan and Delph's development into first team regulars. The only signings I would like us to make at the moment are for key players who would add something to the first team, but due to our financial state is unlikely. I would give anything for us to find a gem from another country, something that Newcastle seem to be experts at doing recently.

Given Full Of Praise For Villa

Shay Given is full of praise for all things Villa it seems. He has come out and praised the fans reaction to him since he has signed and also is excited by the potential that Villa possess with the state of the art training facilities. It's good to know that we are still an impressive club to those who join us!

Given said:

"I remember going to the kit launch at Star City and I was blown away by the reception I received," Given told the club's official website.

"The amount of fans who turned up for that and the noise they made when we made our way down the escalators was unbelievable. That's when it hit home to me how big a club I had just joined.

"You come into Bodymoor Heath every morning and you marvel at the quality of the place - it really is world-class.

"I've played at Manchester City and Newcastle and you're sometimes cocooned in that city's bubble and you don't really have a feel for how big other clubs are in other cities.

Mcleish Wants Tougher Villa

After once again failing to close out victory yesterday against QPR, we are once again left thinking what might have been.  If they had gone on to take 6 points from the games against Newcastle and QPR we would be sitting pretty in 4th place with 12 points.  As it happens, we failed to kill off teams that we should have done and now only have 8 points from our opening 6 games, which isn't bad but considering the teams we have faced we should be looking at double figures.

In response to this, Mcleish has called on Villa to become mentally tougher in an attempt to finish opponents off in games when we strike the first blow. 

"I'm not happy. I still feel that we should have ground out another four points, that's the mark of a team with real mental toughness and we have got to put that into the guys."

"I am gutted that we threw it away in the dying embers of the game, after a second-half performance which is much more what I expected from these players."
I think we all agree with what he is saying.  We have seen all too often us throwing away leads over the past couple of seasons and it's up to him to get that habit out of them.  It was a much thrown around stat last season that we threw away more points from winning positions than anybody else in the league.  That's possibly the most frustrating stat to claim!

Now from what I have seen from Mcleish so far as Villa manager is someone that knows the right things to say.  He has said on numerous occasions that he wants to play attacking, expansive football and that he wants to give youth a chance to show what they can do.  However so far the football has been pretty dire and he has only used youngsters when injuries have forced him to do so.  Therefore it will be interesting to see how the players react to this challenge in our next game against Wigan.  There is no doubt that Wigan at home is a game that should be won, no excuses.  We have struggled in this fixture in the past but I fear that anything other than a convincing performance and scoreline will get the boo boys out in full force.