This isn’t meant to wind up the red half of Liverpool, but it needs to be said, just so there is a reference point to it in the future. Martin O’Neill will not leave Aston Villa to manage Liverpool, simply because it isn’t the step up a manager like

You’ve all heard of The Clowns – they are a football team that play at The Circus down the road. They have a new Ringmaster who has instilled this belief that anything is possible. It isn’t really new manager syndrome, but it is, sort of.

The thing

No time for faffing about today, straight to the news and we have another nice bit to begin with. The Aston Villa Academy team made the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup last night after beating Fulham on penalties. That means, for all you non smart people

When I didn’t see Gabby anywhere on the team sheet on Sunday, I was firstly disappointed, then surprised. By the end of the day I wasn’t that concerned by it and had decided that whatever the relationship between John Carew and the manager or whatever

There are so many things to mention about yesterday and about what is coming up that I don’t know where to begin. I think I’ll start with the rumour as it’s always a nice thing to start the week with.

The rumour is we are showing an interest in Cardiff

Hey all, hope you’ve been well. You’re looking great! It’s been a long time since I’ve written on here; between having a young child, a pregnant wife, a foam business to run and no internet for a while, it’s been difficult to find the time to watch

Another gap for the internationals and we’re back to league business. At home to Chelsea in the live match this Saturday after Milner, Gabby and Heskey did their bit in making sure that England sewed up the easiest of tasks in getting us over the line

I didn’t enjoy the result against Blackburn. I didn’t enjoy watching Delph and Petrov play together in the middle. I didn’t enjoy seeing Villa’s name come out of the hat away to Sunderland. I don’t like the way NRC is being treated, naughty boy though

The winners were clearly Aston Villa, over a very ordinary Portsmouth side, and, of course, Martin O’Neill over Nigel Reo Coker after their little spat last week. NRC is now back in training and has apparently said sorry for the kerfuffle.

Portsmouth

There’s a very solid look about Aston Villa going from the result and performance against Birmingham City. Brad Friedel had a couple of long range shots to take care of but I can’t remember him having to do anything else of note. James Collins and