Carlos Cuéllar

[David_Nab]

Linked with Sunderland today

[Simon Ward]

http://t.co/chEscjIP

Official list of all players released by the club!

[Rigadon]

Under MON his passing was okay but his crossing was pretty ordinary.

With all the other centre halves.  Pulis probably dreams of a team made entirely from strapping stoppers. 

[David_Nab]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/24052012/58/premier-league-cuellar-villa-politics-forced.html

EXCLUSIVE: Former Aston Villa defender Carlos Cuellar is worried that the club's austerity drive could harm the club in the long term after they slipped from the top six to a relegation battle in two seasons.

 
Fan favourite Cuellar, released by Villa on Wednesday after his contract ran down, was a key player under former boss Martin O’Neill as Villa were genuine challengers and competing in Europe.

O’Neill quit two years ago when the club’s American owner Randy Lerner embarked on a cost-cutting drive, selling the likes of James Milner without allowing the Northern Irishman to replace him, and Cuellar feels this strategy left him isolated too.

"I’ve been on holiday for the past week as I needed to relax and clear my head after a stressful couple of years," Cuellar told Eurosport from Madrid, where he is visiting family.

"My first two years at Villa were brilliant as I was playing regularly and we were challenging for the top four. We were a really strong team, and I still love the club.

"But in the last two years something changed, both for the club and me – we lost many of our top players, and had constant problems with managers.

"We had no stability, and we became weaker because of the change in economic direction. Also, I was not in the first XI. So a combination of the club’s troubles and my own lack of playing time made me quite stressed, professionally."

Lerner’s cost-cutting measures saw Milner and Ashley Young among the major departures from the club as he sought to reduce a high wage bill.

That had a major impact on the American’s last managerial appointment, with ex-Birmingham boss Alex McLeish only lasting one season as Villa finished just above the relegation zone.

Cuellar, 30, is reluctant to blame McLeish for the troubles, insisting that internal politics was the overriding negative factor at Villa Park.

"I don’t think the manager wasn’t giving me a fair chance. Obviously as a player you want to play, but I had more of a problem with the way the board were dealing with me and others.

"Had the board come to me and said ‘listen, we are not going to offer you a new contract because of your wages, or because you are not playing well enough’, I would have accepted that and looked for another solution.

"But they said nothing. And yet in the past I had turned down offers to leave because I was told I would be given a new contract and would play!

"The problems at Villa are political – you can’t blame the coaches because they have to deal with the same things too."
Despite his negative experience in the last few years, Cuellar is keen to stay in the Premier League. As an experienced free agent who can play as a full-back as well as a centre-half, the Spaniard should not be short of offers, although none have come in yet.

"I haven’t got any strong ideas about my future because I went away and forgot about football for a few days," he admitted. "The plan is to spend a few more days in Madrid then go back and speak with my agent. But the first option is to stay in the Premier League.

"As a youngster it was always my dream to play in England because of the style of play. I had the opportunity and I want to keep it.

"Of course after five years abroad I miss my family and friends, so sometimes when I go back for holidays my heart tells me maybe I should return. But my head tells me to stay in England, and I know this is the best for me.

"Obviously it depends on if I get any offers, but this is my priority. I enjoy my sporting life in England."

Cuellar came into English football via a season at Rangers, who he joined from Osasuna in 2007. He was linked with a return to the Glasgow club last summer but an injury scuppered the transfer.

Rangers’ problems since then have been well-documented and, while Cuellar has gone on record as saying he would gladly play for the club again, he is not holding out any hope at the moment.

"Rangers will always be in my heart even though it was just one year of my life. But it was probably the biggest year in my life and I have a close emotional contact with the fans.

"I would love to play there again but there are a lot of problems and I believe they can’t sign senior players. But that year was amazing and all my memories of Rangers are good memories.

"They haven’t called me to express their interest though so I can’t say. Even if things clear up for them I don’t even know if they are interested, as things change from year to year, coach to coach."

[PaulWinch again]

To be honest that's hardly groundbreaking stuff. It's pretty obvious to anyone that the club has lost its way since the cutting back started. It's what they do moving forward that they need to address.

[Irreverent ad]

I don't see what the board have done. The whole season we were not mathematically safe. So why would we discuss contracts with him?

Best to keep quiet and let him try and earn one.

As it was he made mistakes in the run in and wasn't good enough. If he wanted a new contract he should have played better.

Nice guy, average defender worth knowhere near his reported £35-40k pw wages.

[eamonn]

Nice guy, average defender worth knowhere near his reported £35-40k pw wages.

Neither is Hutton, or Collins, or Warnock or...

[Matt C]

Yet we're presumably supposed to believe, Carlos, that the players are entirely blameless? Never the players fault is it.

Poor overpaid professional football is feeling a bit stressed, boo hoo.

[tomd2103]

Top man, but never felt he was physically dominating enough (especially in the air) to be a top class centre half in English football.  His ability to fill in at RB makes him a useful squad member, but we're no longer in the business of paying squad players £40,000 a week. 

[Irreverent ad]

Nice guy, average defender worth knowhere near his reported £35-40k pw wages.

Neither is Hutton, or Collins, or Warnock or...

Agreed. But they are not out of contract unfortunately

[WA Villan]

Hearts in the right place, but average (only just) at best. Should consider himself lucky that he managed to carve out a football career, along with Warnock, Collins, Beye, etc.

[OCD]

I agree with him in the sense that we need to be steering a clear direction and players/staff/fans properly communicated with. It all comes back to appointing the right manager who can be left to run the club for a number of years where the infrastructure can be made strong, plans drawn up, a clear strategy outlined and contingencies considered.

[villadelph]

Hearts in the right place, but average (only just) at best. Should consider himself lucky that he managed to carve out a football career, along with Warnock, Collins, Beye, etc.

come off it, Carlos is a good player.

[SoccerHQ]

Agreed, surprised by some of the comments on here.

Maybe not saying much but he is a much better centre half than James Collins imo and I dread to think what would happen if either Collins or Dunne had to play at full back.

[eastie]

Im reading cuellars situation at villa may be reconsidered. Possible he may be staying,according to a bit on kendricks twitter.