It's a hard life

[Legion]

From Pravda:

You may already be tucking into your mince pies and supping well-deserved wine but for Villa's star players it was business as usual at Bodymoor Heath.

Boss Gerard Houllier put his players through their paces this morning at their training HQ.

Click here to check out all the pictures.

Villa are gearing up for a tough festive programme of matches, including Tottenham [h], Manchester City [a], Chelsea [a] and Sunderland [h].

And manager Houllier wants the lads in tip-top shape as they look to climb the Barclays Premier League table.

It was superb to see Fabian Delph involved in the action and no wonder he was smiling after seven months out of the game with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

The players will now go home for Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day before joining up again in the evening.

Houllier explained: "We will leave the players to have the full day with their families on Christmas Day and then they will meet up in the evening to train. We won't have training in the morning.

"We can practically enjoy the whole day whereas with Tottenham their players will have to travel here.

"The tradition of Christmas for the players is sometimes not the best period but they are professionals in the game.

"I love Boxing Day in terms of atmosphere and seeing a lot of families bring their children in the stadium. If the weather is good it will be fantastic.

"A lot of families come with their children. That's preparing fans for the future."

Click here to check out all the pictures.

[olaftab]

They  had to play two games christmas day and boxing day on minimum wage  not so long ago...I am told.... so on about 50K a week it's not so hard!

[eamonn]

Could be wrong but it seems he's been a bit stung by the ''over-training'' accusations and is making too much out of giving the lads most of the day off while comparing it with Spurs' having to spend their day travelling/in a hotel.

[darren woolley]

They seem to be enjoying training just hope it pays off on Boxing day with a win over Spurs.

[PaulWinch again]

Great to see Delph back in training, he will be a massive plus.

[Greg N'Ash]

mebbe professional footballers are a cossetted bunch but i wouldn't work christmas day or boxing day. sod it. offer me 60k a week and i wouldn't work boxing day

*runs off*

[SashasGrandad]

Have you heard Ireland has just joined ASLEF?


He wants triple pay for working on Boxing Day!

Plus extra holiday in the summer.

All that for handing out nibbles in the Sponsors lounge!!!!

[Stu]

mebbe professional footballers are a cossetted bunch but i wouldn't work christmas day or boxing day. sod it. offer me 60k a week and i wouldn't work boxing day

*runs off*

lol. He's back in form people.