Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Irreverent ad on November 12, 2010, 01:54:14 PM
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SSN: Signed until 2015.
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Good news.
Hope Ash is paying attention to this.
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well done GA, well done club. Rather have him than a moaning Tevez
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If Gabby cut himself he'd bleed claret and blue.Fantastic News :)
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Great news, barring injuries he will surely go on to be a Villa legend.
It's also good that there was no BS surrounding this, none of this, well i'm close to signing, oh well actually i'm not, well i just want to concentrate on my football and i will sign later rubbish.
Is that the third young player in the last few weeks we have tied down with new contracts? Bodes well for the future and you can't under estimate the value of having a talented young core to the team that have played together for years.
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That's brilliant news i am glad he has signed up just hope Ash does the same.
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Excellent news.
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Good lad Gabby, great news.
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At last some good news !
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Good news for a change. Ash Young needs to follow suite.
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That's cracking news. Payback starts tomorrow hopefully.
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I watched the highlights of the Villa - Blackpool game and as Gabby is getting ready to come on, Delfouneso scores. So Gabby had to sit on the bench again. You'd think he might be annoyed at not getting on, but he was beaming all over. Villa, through and through.
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Great stuff - another one sorted.
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Good news.
Does anyone know how much he'll be on?
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Interestingly, and assuming he sees out his contract and stays clear of injuries, he could well become the first player to score 100 goals for the club since Peter McParland.
Sends the right message out about the club - good stuff.
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Gabby, Gabby, Gabby...
Great news; let's hope A. Young is next?
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Lets hope MON playing him none-stop, even when injured, for the last 4 years hasn't caused him any long term damage and he can get somewhere near his best.
Potential club legend.
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Some good news down Villa....
well done Gabby ...... just need to get a top strike partner now....
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Good news indeed
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Good news, amazed to see the club can actually sign contracts! Hopefully we can get a striker for him to play off, and gerard can get him to play in the box and he'll be bagging even more than he does already!
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Excellent news which has suprised me as for some reason I thought he'd be on his way out.
On a side note sky really are shit. They have just said he'd signed a new contract after joining us from Sheffield Wednesday in 2005. Wasn't it us who loaned him to them to get experience?
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Excellent news which has suprised me as for some reason I thought he'd be on his way out.
On a side note sky really are shit. They have just said he'd signed a new contract after joining us from Sheffield Wednesday in 2005. Wasn't it us who loaned him to them to get experience?
Amateurs.He was born in Erdington went to my school St Edmund Campion and was loaned out to Sheffield Wed and I think Watford in 2005
I'm not there now I'm 40
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Fantastic news. Gabby has improved every season he's been in the team. He's really adapted his game well. We need him and should build the team around players like him and Albrighton.
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Delighted.
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He is rather fast you know ;)
Nice one Gabby.
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Good news.
Funny story, following on from the We always get shit ref's thread, my step brother and his mate went down the villa and we were singing the gabby gabby gabby agbonlahor song and my brothers mate turned to him and said why they singing he's fast and small?
Genius
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Gabby, Gabby, Gabby...
...Agbonlahor
He's fast as f*ck, He's fast as f*ck
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Good stuff.
Over to you Ashley.
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Excellent stuff!
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Nice one.
Hopefully he can improve on his movement and get back to his dangerous & fast best.
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Well done Gab and the club. Hopefully he'll get his sharpness back and be in full flow in time for the Christmas period of games.
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Love that he said "I can't see myself playing for another club"
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Good news.
Does anyone know how much he'll be on?
Six shillings and a Fiat to drive around in :D
UTV
PS a great bit of news before the Manure match, well done Gabby and the club.
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Xmas came early! Good to see Gabby locked up along with the other kids. Now to lock up Ash. Gabby is sure to get a rousing applause tomorrow. Up the Villa!
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good stuff...
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Good news.
Does anyone know how much he'll be on?
Six shillings and a Fiat to drive around in :D
UTV
PS a great bit of news before the Manure match, well done Gabby and the club.
That made me titter
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Love that he said "I can't see myself playing for another club"
Until Man Citeh offer to double/treble his wages............footballers dont know the meaning of the word "loyalty"
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Love that he said "I can't see myself playing for another club"
Until Man Citeh offer to double/treble his wages............footballers dont know the meaning of the word "loyalty"
Christ you're damned if you do or damned if you don't !!
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Well done Gabby.
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Good lad, hope he can celebrate it with a win tomorrow.
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I wouldn't be surprised if this spurs Young on to sign another deal. I feel that when Agbonlahor plays alongside him, Young has a smile on his face. You can see it when one of them scores that they're good mates and if Gab coming back leads to an upturn in form for the side, he'll sign.
Great news, btw
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I do love Gab. It's true what he says, I can't imagine him playing for anyone else either. He probably gets homesick during away matches.
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Great news,
Gabby's season starts now and he always scores most his goals first half the season. So come gabby who loves to score against Manure.
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SSN: Signed until 2015.
Quarter past eight? Quick sign him up again to play tomorrow.
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Get the feeling, from what was said on the AVTV interview and Delfouneso's comments that it'll be gabby from the bench again tommorow. Great news with the contract, and i hope what he said about players who are happy should be staying rings in Young's ears.
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Brilliant news. As said earlier this may well entice Ash to sign up as well as they are such good mates.
His comments were brilliant too about never wanting to play for anayone else.
A rare breed in today's footballers.
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We're tying up our best young talent with the least bit of fuss and bother. I'm really happy about Gabby extended his deal because he's one of us in every way. Great news indeed.
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Great news, and his comments are great to hear too.
Two questions: Anyone know when his previous deal was due to expire?
And is this merely an extension or a new improved-money deal?
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This is fantastic news. It is so refreshing to see someone who wants to stay with us , HIS club. He is truely claret and blue to the bone.
Well done to all involved.
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Great news Gabby, living the dream.
Now go and score the winner at the sty again to celebrate.
Villa Legend in the making.
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Great News! Delighted with this!Vote of confidence in the club!
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Too everyone who thinks this will make ash stay, I don't think that at all.
Everyone new Gabby was going to stay, as does Ash so I don't think this has any bearing on Ash signing a new deal.
Ash has played as a striker or supporting striker all season yet he never scores, so I'd rather he concentrate on that and hopefully this makes him happy and wanting to sign. We are in a stronger position than we all think, because he wouldnt be able to play this position for the likes of spurs or liverpool.
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i think i have seen enough of A Young to realise that he is a winger
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It's also occurred to me that when Houllier joined the club there were murmurs that Gab was unhappy due to some vague comments (or lack thereof). Presumably this puts it to bed.
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Good news.
Does anyone know how much he'll be on?
£65,000 according to Henry Winter. Decent article this; I like the Houllier quotes. Houllier's respect seems hard-won and thus all the more valuable.
On Saturday the focus rests on Villa’s fledglings, real prospects like Barry Bannan, Marc Albrighton and Ciaran Clark joining the more established likes of Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor.
Agbonlahor starts against United on Saturday lunch-time, examining the mobility and pace of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
When fully fit and flying, Agbonlahor is a marauding force, a home-grown talent so highly regarded Villa have awarded him a contract until 2015 that takes him into the £65,000-a-week bracket.
On Friday afternoon, shortly after agreeing terms, Agbonlahor strode across the Bodymoor Heath car-park with the stocky swagger that defines his match-day work.
'I’m pleased he’s signed but I want to make sure he keeps growing,’’ said Gerard Houllier, the Villa manager, sitting inside the splendid training complex and reflecting on young players like Agbonlahor and old friends like Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager he calls "a genius’’.
Ferguson knows that precocious youth can be led astray – Lee Sharpe was also in that 95 side – and Houllier is aware of the need for well-paid youngsters to keep learning, keep climbing the foot-hills of their profession towards the peaks.
"A contract is a trust but that trust goes both ways,’’ added Houllier.
"You can’t say I don’t trust Gabby. I play him. He’s a local boy and it’s good to keep the roots. The target is to make him a regular player for the national team.’’
All managers share a fear that riches can distract the young and impressionable. "But if a player has hunger, money won’t change him,’’ Houllier observed.
"To last at the top level requires intelligence and desire as well as tactical and technical qualities. Some players are not clever, do silly things and waste their career.
"The biggest temptation when they get in the first team is to think they are the finished article. But they are in their development years. We push them.
"Agents and family can be counter-productive for the player. That’s where the manager has to be strong.
"The player must keep focused on his work. If after a few games he says 'I want an increase in my salary, a bigger car, a bigger watch’ then he loses his focus.’’
Villa’s youngsters have been nurtured by Gordon Cowans and Kevin MacDonald and now Houllier and Gary McAllister are building on their good work.
From their time at Liverpool, this Franco-Scottish alliance has experience of developing youngsters, appreciating that the best teams enjoy a blend of young and old.
"I got a lot of stick for signing McAllister at Liverpool [in 2000] when he was 35,’’ said Houllier. "He was a good example to Stevie [Gerrard]. Gary’s record and the way he trained pulled the young players to the top.
"I agree in some ways with Alan Hansen. He meant that if you have too many kids at the same time it can be dangerous. You need a mix. United had Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister. You need good experienced players who can keep the kids going.’’
Richard Dunne’s influence cannot be over-stated.
"Having all these young players doesn’t daunt me, it excites me,’’ smiled Houllier. "The majority can be the future of Villa. At some stage one of them will have a very poor game but you must not judge on one game.
"That’s what I said to young Bannan. He was distraught after Birmingham [0-0]. 'Hang on,’ I said to him, 'you are not judged on one game.’ He thought it was make or break.’’
The only test Bannan has properly failed recently is for his driving licence (twice) despite his instructor being Pat Heard, Cowans’s old Villa team-mate.
"I believe in young Bannan,’’ said Houllier. "He’ll make a player.
"Ciaran Clark and Albrighton, too, stand out. Albrighton needs to improve his tactical knowledge. He needs to lift his head at times, see the picture. But his work-rate and attitude are excellent. He’s brave, he doesn’t bottle out. He can go on to England.’’
Saturday's game will give a truer picture of Albrighton’s potential, particularly if Patrice Evra is fit.
Houllier knows that Ferguson’s teams represent an immense test.
"In my time, the managers who’ve stood out are Sir Alex, Arsene Wenger obviously, and Jose Mourinho because wherever he’s gone he’s delivered something.
"Alex’s a genius. He knows football inside out. He’s a workaholic. You can call him at 8am and he’s in the office. I think his family doesn’t want him to retire.
"He’s a very loyal person to players, club and friends. When you are in the circle, you’re in. He came to see me at the hospital [when Houllier had a heart problem in 2001] and that warmed me.
"There are a few opportunities when he gave me a call that helped. You never heard one word of criticism from Alex against [Eric] Cantona after the kung-fu kick. He stood by him.
"Alex has this capacity to evolve as a manager. Look at his record with different teams, it’s tremendous. Being at the top is one thing, staying at the top is more complicated.
"When Alex started at United, there were a few years when he didn’t win anything but he kept going.
"I don’t know if people would be as patient now. With the media and fans’ expectations a manager needs to get results immediately.
"That’s why Alex’s very supportive of managers in difficulty. He’s been there.’’
On Saturday though, Ferguson must deal with some new kids on the block.
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Well done, putting pen to paper is what its about. Not for Gabby the meaningless badge kissing and quotes and empty platitudes through the media of so many.
Maybe, just maybe, he will have that rarest of careers seen these days....being a one club man.
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Great news, and his comments are great to hear too.
Two questions: Anyone know when his previous deal was due to expire?
And is this merely an extension or a new improved-money deal?
Improved deal. The Express say he'll be getting £17m over 5 years.
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I like Houllier when he talks he talks sense, He doesn't just tell everyone they are brilliant all the time