Marc Albrighton in tomorrows Guardian

[Trinitymiddle]

Interview with Albrighton In tomorrows Guardian. Seems to have a great attitude. It's one of us playing for the Villa.




Lounging on a sofa at Aston Villa's training ground, Marc Albrighton looks so comfortable it is as though he has been there forever. In a sense he has. The 21-year-old grew up in Tamworth just down the road from Bodymoor Heath, signed schoolboy forms as a youngster and regularly came here to collect autographs. "I was looking at old photographs the other day," he says, marvelling at the change in his life, "and there's a picture of me standing getting an autograph down the bottom. Phil King I think it was." Now, of course, he is the star footballer driving down to the gate, signing autographs.

On Sunday he hopes to line up against Birmingham City at St Andrew's in a fixture he has dreamt about. A local lad, derby games are in his blood; you can hear how much the club means to him as he describes pulling on the shirt for the first time, reliving the magic. "It was unbelievable," he says, wide-eyed, "it's hard to explain – you can't. When you're explaining it to someone who's never felt it before, like my mates, you can't. I'll never forget the feeling of doing it for the first time – but every week I do it I enjoy it." His dad, Terry, is a huge Villa fan, who in 1982 missed his wife's birthday to get to the European Cup final against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam – "and she's still not happy with him, now for that" Albrighton says.

But memories of European Cup glory feel a long way away for Villa this season as they languish in the relegation zone. Albrighton admits he feels torn: while his own career has flourished – five goals this season, including one against Manchester United, a performance that earned him a comparison to David Beckham – the club he loves so much is at a low ebb.

"The way the club is doing it's hard for me to be that happy, because every time I go out there, even if I have a good game, I'm not happy. I'm mardy, because we've lost. I'm distraught we haven't got the three points. The one thing I'd hate would be for Villa to get relegated or anything like that. Even just to be down there, if we finished bottom half it would be bad for us, so as a fan and a player it's really bad."

This will be Albrighton's first major derby, having missed two already – the first through a suspension after being sent off against Burnley in the League Cup, the second following an emergency operation to have his appendix removed in November. "The first thing I thought of when I woke up after the operation was: 'I'm going to miss another Blues game,'" he says. "It was heartbreaking."

It also proved to be a critical point in his life as doctors told him of just how close to death he had come. He grimaces at the memory. "I woke up at 2am in agony. I called the doc and he got me a car up to Little Aston hospital. We got there at about 4am and my appendix were out by 6am. I just thought it was a bad stomach bug but after they took it out they said half an hour later and it could have burst. And if it bursts you can die from it."

Growing up in Tamworth his friends were divided by colours – blue or claret and sky blue. "It's probably 70-30 in favour of Villa but you still get those ones who come out of the woodwork when Birmingham beat us, so it's nice to shut them up." After the last derby he suffered like a fan. "I was getting texts galore after the game when they beat us. For me personally it's not too bad, because I've not got to go into my workplace the next day and it's full of blues fans but I know for a lot of people in the city they've got to go to work Monday morning and face that."

He says he is already anticipating the banter from pitchside. "At Sheffield United on the weekend someone called me a soft Brummie! I'm not even a Brummie I'm from Tamworth!" he says, indignant. "It's not really been too bad but I think I'll get a bit of stick on Sunday."

While Albrighton has staked his claim for a place in the first team this season, many expected that he might have broken through sooner. Two seasons ago he made his debut in the Uefa Cup at CSKA Moscow – which his parents had to watch on a dodgy TV feed at their local in Tamworth – and then impressed again at the Peace Cup in pre-season. Two seasons later and only now is he establishing himself. Was the period of waiting frustrating? "Yeah a little bit," he says, shifting in his seat. "Everyone wants to play football or we wouldn't be here, so yeah when you're travelling week in week out with the first team and never getting the chance to pull the shirt on it's annoying. You know you're so close to it but you don't know how far away it is."

Was there anyone to advise him on what he needed to do to make that final step? He purses his lips. "It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked." There is a millisecond of a pause as Albrighton says this, the sort of private view casually shared among team-mates now inadvertently revealed. "But from my point of view, I went into it and thought I'm just going to work hard everyday in training and hopefully he'll notice and give me a game."

Despite intense speculation over whether Gιrard Houllier is the right man for the manager's job at Villa and rumours of a training ground bust-up with Richard Dunne, Albrighton speaks positively of the manager. "The change [after O'Neill] I wouldn't say it's for the better but it's a different kind of training. It's more technical so I work on the more technical side of my game which can only improve me … It's brilliant I'm training with the first team; it's overwhelming for me that I'm there."

Albrighton speaks with all the excitement and innocence of a footballer untouched by excess. He describes learning to make spaghetti bolognese and cheesecakes at a six-week cookery course put on by the club – at his request – and his girlfriend's frustration at his habit of talking football with her dad. "He's a massive Villa fan so she'll be upstairs while I'm sitting in the living room watching football with her dad. She gives us a five-minute slot now to talk about football – it's horrible!"

Albrighton is unlikely to rush out and buy a flashy sports car anytime soon: "I don't think the senior pros would take too kindly to it, they'd think it's gone straight to my head." For the moment he would prefer to just concentrate on cementing his place in the team.

Will Sunday be the biggest game of his career? "I think it will be, yeah, in terms of the result. As a club to play against I think it was the Man Utd game but with both clubs down there there's so much riding on it now." He stretches his stockinged legs out and looks bright. "It will be a massive game."

[JJ-AV]

Lounging on a sofa at Aston Villa's training ground, Marc Albrighton looks so comfortable it is as though he has been there forever. In a sense he has. The 21-year-old grew up in Tamworth just down the road from Bodymoor Heath, signed schoolboy forms as a youngster and regularly came here to collect autographs. "I was looking at old photographs the other day," he says, marvelling at the change in his life, "and there's a picture of me standing getting an autograph down the bottom. Phil King I think it was." Now, of course, he is the star footballer driving down to the gate, signing autographs.

On Sunday he hopes to line up against Birmingham City at St Andrew's in a fixture he has dreamt about. A local lad, derby games are in his blood; you can hear how much the club means to him as he describes pulling on the shirt for the first time, reliving the magic. "It was unbelievable," he says, wide-eyed, "it's hard to explain – you can't. When you're explaining it to someone who's never felt it before, like my mates, you can't. I'll never forget the feeling of doing it for the first time – but every week I do it I enjoy it." His dad, Terry, is a huge Villa fan, who in 1982 missed his wife's birthday to get to the European Cup final against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam – "and she's still not happy with him, now for that" Albrighton says.

But memories of European Cup glory feel a long way away for Villa this season as they languish in the relegation zone. Albrighton admits he feels torn: while his own career has flourished – five goals this season, including one against Manchester United, a performance that earned him a comparison to David Beckham – the club he loves so much is at a low ebb.

"The way the club is doing it's hard for me to be that happy, because every time I go out there, even if I have a good game, I'm not happy. I'm mardy, because we've lost. I'm distraught we haven't got the three points. The one thing I'd hate would be for Villa to get relegated or anything like that. Even just to be down there, if we finished bottom half it would be bad for us, so as a fan and a player it's really bad."

This will be Albrighton's first major derby, having missed two already – the first through a suspension after being sent off against Burnley in the League Cup, the second following an emergency operation to have his appendix removed in November. "The first thing I thought of when I woke up after the operation was: 'I'm going to miss another Blues game,'" he says. "It was heartbreaking."

It also proved to be a critical point in his life as doctors told him of just how close to death he had come. He grimaces at the memory. "I woke up at 2am in agony. I called the doc and he got me a car up to Little Aston hospital. We got there at about 4am and my appendix were out by 6am. I just thought it was a bad stomach bug but after they took it out they said half an hour later and it could have burst. And if it bursts you can die from it."

Growing up in Tamworth his friends were divided by colours – blue or claret and sky blue. "It's probably 70-30 in favour of Villa but you still get those ones who come out of the woodwork when Birmingham beat us, so it's nice to shut them up." After the last derby he suffered like a fan. "I was getting texts galore after the game when they beat us. For me personally it's not too bad, because I've not got to go into my workplace the next day and it's full of blues fans but I know for a lot of people in the city they've got to go to work Monday morning and face that."

He says he is already anticipating the banter from pitchside. "At Sheffield United on the weekend someone called me a soft Brummie! I'm not even a Brummie I'm from Tamworth!" he says, indignant. "It's not really been too bad but I think I'll get a bit of stick on Sunday."

While Albrighton has staked his claim for a place in the first team this season, many expected that he might have broken through sooner. Two seasons ago he made his debut in the Uefa Cup at CSKA Moscow – which his parents had to watch on a dodgy TV feed at their local in Tamworth – and then impressed again at the Peace Cup in pre-season. Two seasons later and only now is he establishing himself. Was the period of waiting frustrating? "Yeah a little bit," he says, shifting in his seat. "Everyone wants to play football or we wouldn't be here, so yeah when you're travelling week in week out with the first team and never getting the chance to pull the shirt on it's annoying. You know you're so close to it but you don't know how far away it is."

Was there anyone to advise him on what he needed to do to make that final step? He purses his lips. "It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked." There is a millisecond of a pause as Albrighton says this, the sort of private view casually shared among team-mates now inadvertently revealed. "But from my point of view, I went into it and thought I'm just going to work hard everyday in training and hopefully he'll notice and give me a game."

Despite intense speculation over whether Gιrard Houllier is the right man for the manager's job at Villa and rumours of a training ground bust-up with Richard Dunne, Albrighton speaks positively of the manager. "The change [after O'Neill] I wouldn't say it's for the better but it's a different kind of training. It's more technical so I work on the more technical side of my game which can only improve me … It's brilliant I'm training with the first team; it's overwhelming for me that I'm there."

Albrighton speaks with all the excitement and innocence of a footballer untouched by excess. He describes learning to make spaghetti bolognese and cheesecakes at a six-week cookery course put on by the club – at his request – and his girlfriend's frustration at his habit of talking football with her dad. "He's a massive Villa fan so she'll be upstairs while I'm sitting in the living room watching football with her dad. She gives us a five-minute slot now to talk about football – it's horrible!"

Albrighton is unlikely to rush out and buy a flashy sports car anytime soon: "I don't think the senior pros would take too kindly to it, they'd think it's gone straight to my head." For the moment he would prefer to just concentrate on cementing his place in the team.

Will Sunday be the biggest game of his career? "I think it will be, yeah, in terms of the result. As a club to play against I think it was the Man Utd game but with both clubs down there there's so much riding on it now." He stretches his stockinged legs out and looks bright. "It will be a massive game."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jan/14/marc-albrighton-aston-villa

Cracking read.

[pauliewalnuts]

Was there anyone to advise him on what he needed to do to make that final step? He purses his lips. "It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked." There is a millisecond of a pause as Albrighton says this, the sort of private view casually shared among team-mates now inadvertently revealed. "But from my point of view, I went into it and thought I'm just going to work hard everyday in training and hopefully he'll notice and give me a game."

Interesting.

[wozwebs]

What a top lad, UTV

[JJ-AV]

Quality read.

I also made a thread on it if a mod wants to delete it.

[Marlon's Hairy Wood]

interesting read, good on him.

cheers

[hawkeye]

Thanks Mark, for all of us that have never had the privalige to pull on the shirt, you described it perfectly. Top Top Bloke UTV

[Greg N'Ash]

Was there anyone to advise him on what he needed to do to make that final step? He purses his lips. "It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked." There is a millisecond of a pause as Albrighton says this, the sort of private view casually shared among team-mates now inadvertently revealed. "But from my point of view, I went into it and thought I'm just going to work hard everyday in training and hopefully he'll notice and give me a game."

Interesting.

yep. not just us then.

[myf]

Very refreshing

[usav]

Was there anyone to advise him on what he needed to do to make that final step? He purses his lips. "It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked." There is a millisecond of a pause as Albrighton says this, the sort of private view casually shared among team-mates now inadvertently revealed. "But from my point of view, I went into it and thought I'm just going to work hard everyday in training and hopefully he'll notice and give me a game."

Interesting.

But no longer earth shattering.

[Dave Cooper please]

Nice interview, he's living the dream really isn't he?

[villan1975]

Nice lad with a lot of talent,who we all hope progresses to the level we all think he should whilst perhaps remaining grounded.

[eamonn]

I kind of wish I was him.
I think he's gonna be the Villa player I love the most since Yorkie.

There was another great interview with him in The Sunday Times a couple of months back. When the young player of the season nominations are cast (usually done ridiculously early...possibly around now?) surely he won't be too far away. The boy's going to be a star.

[Holtenderinthesky]

How many players are there in the Premier League who genuinely feel for the club they play for?  I would think they are few and far between.  Its a reminder of how well the club is run and testament to the effort that Randy and co have put in since they arrived.  If you think back to the 14 million that was invested in the facilities at BH and then you look at players like Albrighton, Bannan and Clark (for example) it shows how much emphasis has been placed on the future of our club and it is something that when we get frustrated at the way things are going, we would do well to remember.  UTV 

[Rip Van We Go Again]

"It was hard training under [Martin] O'Neill. There'd be the feeling that no matter who trained well the same 11 would get picked."

What an utter piece of shit O'Neill was.
Didn't know talent when it was staring him in the face.