The club has got of to a bad start this season without a win in either of the first two games, including a humiliating 3-1 drubbing at the hands of lowly Everton. We are looking to bounce back on Saturday when we entertain Coventry at Villa Park. This match will see the home debut of at 5 new players, including the controversial Pierre Van Hooijdonk who was recently signed from Nottingham Forest and will play alongside the towering Duncan Ferguson, who started his Aston Villa career well by scoring on his debut at Everton.

In the last week 2 big names have left the club as we try to rebuild and strengthen the squad. We accepted an offer from Newcastle United for Dion Dublin which saw Duncan Ferguson plus a reasonable sum of cash move in the opposite direction. We also negotiated a very appealing offer from Liverpool for Gareth Southgate, which ended up seeing Dominc Matteo, David Thompson, and Sean Dundee all move to Villa as part of the deal for the current club captain. Stan Collymore was also offloaded to Middlesbrough at a cut down fee of £2.5million.

We have already moved quickly to replace our ex-club captain Gareth Southgate by negotiating an offer from Newcastle for Gareth Barry which as seen Steve Howey the man we see as an ideal replacement for Southgate arrive at Villa park.

The Club is currently looking to fill the position of Assistant Manager, and also to appoint a couple of scouts to help bring in new talent.