Match Preview: England v Ecuador

Who are we playing?
Ecuador

Big game?
Possibly, if you think that playing in Miami on a Wednesday afternoon is good acclimatisation for the Italy game in Manaus. It might well be. At the time of writing, temperatures and humidity levels are roughly the same.

Roy wants to give a couple of players who didn't get a kick against Peru a run out so this won't be his starting line-up for the Italy clash but gives the likes of Owbowlake-Chamberpot a chance to press their claims.

Ecuador will provide stiff opposition, having recently battled to a one-all draw with Holland and will see the game as key to their own preparations. They did go down 3-1 to Mexico but game was more even than the scoreline suggests.

La Tri are heading to the third World Cup in their history. They have an excellent chance of progressing through the group stage having been drawn with France, Switzerland and Honduras.

The stadium

Where are we playing?
Currently known as the Sun Life Stadium

2269 NW 199th Street
Miami Gardens, Florida
United States

It's the home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, as well as University of Miami Hurricanes. It's also hosts the venue for the Orange Bowl. It was the home to the Florida Marlins baseball team until they moved to their own custom built stadium.

Can I go?
A few tickets left last time we checked ranging from $45 to $80

Adrian

Easy to get to?

It's in Miami. If you've not made your arrangements by now, not easy, no.


Can I watch it on the telly?
You can but with added Adrian Chiles as it's on itv. Lee "Charisma" Dixon will be on hand with the punditry.

Ecuadorian on her dad's side

Any famous Ecuadorians?
Struggling here. Villa fans will be aware of Ulises De la Cruz but he's hardly what you'd call famous. However, it turns out that Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador though he was raised in Albuquerque.

Christina Aguilera's dad is Ecuadorian.

Who's playing for us?
Roy will shuffle his pack after the Peru victory, promising starts for Phil Jones and Oxbowlake-Chamberpot.

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Celtic), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion)

Oxbowlake-Chamberpot

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United)

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

Forwards: Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Daniel Welbeck (Manchester United)

Who's playing for them?

Jaime Ayoví

Goalkeepers: Alexander Dominguez (Liga de Quito), Maximo Banguera (Barcelona), Adrian Bone (El Nacional).

Defenders: Jorge Guagua (Emelec), Gabriel Achilier (Emelec),
Oscar Bagui (Emelec), Juan Carlos Paredes (Barcelona, Ecuador), Frickson Erazo (Flamengo), Walter Ayovi (Pachuca), Christian Ramirez (Fortuna), John Narvaez (Emelec).

Midfielders: Pedro Quinonez (Emelec), Luis Fernando Saritama (Barcelona, Ecuador), Carlos Gruezo (Stuttgart), Antonio Valencia (Manchester United), Segundo Castillo (Al-Hilal), Christian Noboa (Dynamo Moscow), Renato Ibarra (Vitesse), Edison Mendez (Santa Fe), Oswaldo Minda (Barcelona, Ecuador), Michael Arroyo (Atlante), Fidel Martinez (Tijuana).

Forwards: Armando Wila (Universidad Catolica), Jefferson Montero (Morelia), Jaime Ayovi (Tijuana), Enner Valencia (Pachuca), Joao Rojas (Cruz Azul), Felipe Caicedo (Al-Jazira), Cristian Penilla (Barcelona, Ecuador), Angel Mena (Emelec).

Any useless stats and info?
Hardly any but here we go:

• We've only played them twice ever, beating them on both occasions.

• The first match took place in the Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa in Quito on 24th May 1970. Francis Lee gave England an early lead and brave Brian Kidd made sure of the victory taking a boot in the face as he headed in England's second. The gloss was somewhat taken off the win when news filtered through that Bobby Moore had been arrested in Colombia.

• The second encounter was in the "Round of 16" at the 2006 World Cup in Stuttgart. England squeezed past by a single David Beckham goal on that occasion. Aston Villa misfit Ulises De la Cruz played for Ecuador.

Prediction:
An narrow Ecuador win, followed by much weeping and gnashing of teeth on Twitter.

Match Preview: England v Peru

Who are we playing?
Peru

Big game?
No, frankly.

It's all about the World Cup now so from a preparation point of view, it might have been better to play the game over in Lima. We're still paying for Wembley though so this is a "send-off" game, where players will be as keen not to get injured as to impress Woy.

We may get an idea of his World Cup starting line up but then again we may not. He won't want to give Italy too many clues.


Where are we playing?
Wembley Stadium, in Wembley, in London. Wembley is not the loveliest part of the UK, but they still decided to build the national stadium there, giving foreign visitors a less than sparkling impression of our fair nation.

Can I go?
Still some tickets last time we looked but we haven't been bombarded with emails begging us to go so we're assuming sales are healthy.

Easy to get to?

Javier Perez de Cuellar 

Driving and parking can be a pain and you know what those motorways can get like of a Friday. If you are travelling from Birmingham, the train is probably your best bet, with direct trains from Moor Street to the Stadium, and trains back at 22:18, 22:50 or the last one at 23:17 if you fancy a cheeky couple of post match pints.


Can I watch it on the telly?
You can but with added Adrian Chiles as it's on itv. Lee "Charsima" Dixon will be on hand with the punditry.

Apart from sending Paddington Bear over (an immigrant, sorry UKIP voters) what has Peru ever done for us?
Well they gave us Javier Perez de Cuellar who used to be head honcho at the United Nations but other than that we are struggling a bit. Some of those annoying pan pipe players you get in town centres claim to be Peruvian but we're not convinced.


Who's playing for us?
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Celtic), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion)

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United)

Lallana

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

Forwards: Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Daniel Welbeck (Manchester United)

Who's playing for them?
Goalkeepers: Raúl Fernández  (Dallas), George Forsyth  (Alianza Lima) Pedro Gallese (Universidad San Martín)

André Carrillo

Defenders: Alberto Rodríguez (Rio Ave), Yoshimar Yotún (Sporting Cristal) Luis Advíncula (Sporting Cristal), Christian Ramos (Juan Aurich) Alexander Callens  (Real Sociedad B), Gianmarco Gambetta (Argentinos Juniors), Hansell Riojas (Cienciano), Renato Tapia (Twente)

Midfielders: Rinaldo Cruzado (Nacional), Luis Ramírez (Corinthians), Josepmir Ballón (Universidad San Martín), Paolo Hurtado (Peñarol), Cristian Benavente (Real Madrid Castilla), Christofer Gonzáles (Universitario), Edison Flores (Universitario), Mario Velarde  (Unión Comercio)

Forwards: André Carrillo  (Sporting), Raúl Ruidíaz (Universitario), Jean Deza (Montpellier), Miguel Trauco (Unión Comercio)

Any useless stats and info?
Hardly any but here we go:

• We've only played them twice ever: P2 W1-D0-L1 F5-A4 Record: 50%

• Both games took place at the Estadio Nacional, Lima

• In May 1959, Jimmy Greaves got on the scoresheet in what was his England debut but we went down by 4 goals to one.

• In May 1962, England got revenge. A Ron Flowers penalty put them on their way before a Jimmy Greaves first half hat-trick secured the 4-0 victory

Prediction:
An England win, raising false hopes and dreams for the summer.

Peru looking strong up front

Aston Villa confirm Culverhouse/Karsa exits via Brian Doogan tweet

In response to media reports, speculation & inquiries, can confirm both Ian Culverhouse & Gary Karsa have been dismissed #avfc

— Brian Doogan (@doogan_brian) May 24, 2014

Lambert for Celtic? Lennon departure sparks speculation.

Could Paul Lambert be off to Celtic?


The departure of Neil Lennon from one of the top jobs in Scottish football has sparked speculation that Villa's beleaguered boss might fancy a move back north.

With Randy Lerner now unable to offer his manager a secure future, it's unlikely he'd stand in Lambert's way, although he might be cheeky enough to expect a compensation payment were he to allow the former Celtic hero's release.


During seven seasons with Celtic, Lambert won four Scottish Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups and was crowned Scottish Football Writer's Player of the Year in 2002.

Another Celtic legend Henrik Larsson has emerged as an early favourite for the role while the names of Owen Coyle and David Moyes are also being bandied about.

Paul Lambert's departure would throw Villa's pre-season plans further into chaos and leave Lerner looking to appoint a short term caretaker boss to salvage Villa's preparations for the forthcoming campaign.

Gary Gardner handed new two year deal.

Injury prone midfield prospect Gary Gardner has been handed a new two year deal by Aston Villa.

The player has a nightmare couple of seasons with injury which had led many to believe that his chance of making a major impact at Villa had gone.

However, against the backdrop that the current situation makes it difficult to sign new players, this almost feels like a fresh signing.

Niggling injures last term meant that Gary was unable to force his way into first team reckoning, though he did have a brief spell out on loan at Sheffield Wednesday.

Gary said "The manager and other people at the Club believe in me and know what I'm capable of. I want to be a big player for the team next season and I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can to demonstrate the potential they see in me."

Gary's brother and former Villa player Craig is returning to the Midlands to play for West Bromwich Albion.

Benteke: It's infuriating, it's frustrating

Talismanic Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke has spoken out about his torment at missing the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The free scoring Belgian international has expressed his frustration to Sport/Foot magazine.

Christian Benteke tells Sport/Foot that missing the World Cup is the biggest blow of his career. #avfc #diablesrouges #rodeduivels
— BeNeFoot (@BeNeFoot) May 21, 2014

Benteke: This World Cup should have been the reward for all the ordeals I have experienced, the result of my work. #avfc
— BeNeFoot (@BeNeFoot) May 21, 2014

Benteke: I have fought to get here and finally I had the chance to show the world, to prove I am a good footballer. #avfc
— BeNeFoot (@BeNeFoot) May 21, 2014

Benteke: It's infuriating, it's frustrating. I am more frustrated than disappointed. I didn't deserve this. #avfc
— BeNeFoot (@BeNeFoot) May 21, 2014

Benteke: I had done everything to be there because I live for my job. #avfc
— BeNeFoot (@BeNeFoot) May 21, 2014

Danger UXB: Lambert turns to the Bomb Squad

Paul Lambert has performed a staggering U-turn by bringing ostracised high earners Darren Bent and Alan Hutton back into the first team squad Aston Villa.

Lambert will bring the two exiled internationals back into the Villa fold after talks with chairman Randy Lerner, in a move which shows graphically that the want-away chairman and his unpopular manager haven't got a Scooby Doo what they are doing.

Bent, Villa’s £24 million record signing, and regular Scotland right back Hutton have both been told to report for training with the first-team when the squad returns for pre-season in July.

Lambert said: "Everybody’s even now, everybody’s level. It’s public what’s happened and now everyone is on the same level playing field.

"Everybody knows the club is up for sale and it’s going to need everybody to pull in the same direction. The next few weeks and months are going to be testing, that’s for sure.

"The only uncertainty we’ve got is how long before the club is sold."

Alan Hutton

£65,000 a week Bent, has been shabbily treated since Lambert’s appointment in June 2012. Having been made captain, he was humiliatingly stripped of the armband and left kicking his heels on the bench as Christian Benteke made a name for himself.

Last summer he was dumped into ‘Bomb Squad’who were made to change in a separate dressing room to the first team. His coveted Number 9 shirt was handed to Nicklas Helenius and he was loaned out to Fulham for the season, managing scored only six goals under three different managers.

Enda

Hutton, 29, hasn't made a single appearance since Lambert’s arrival, but impressed in a loan spell at Bolton before picking up a knee injury. Lambert has admitted the former Tottenham Hotspur right-back was jettisoned from the squad due to his high wages of around £40,000 a week but it was never explained to the fans how not using these highly expensive assets while still paying them saved money.

Charlie N’Zogbia missed all of last season after rupturing his Achilles in June and had been training with the Academy but will now be considered.

Edna Stevens has spent the season bench warming at Doncaster Rovers and his future is less clear .

The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Super Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso have been released.

Super Marc and The Fonz shown the door

Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso have been released from Aston Villa as they reach the end of their current contracts.

Delfouneso has been out on loan at Blackpool and latterly Coventry City and his exit is no major surprise.

However, Albrighton had enjoyed a successful loan spell at Wigan Athletic, impressive enough for Paul Lambert to recall the player and restore him to Villa's  match day squad.

During the final weeks of the season, Albrighton's lively form was one of too few bright spots and he was just about the only forward player showing any sort of energy and creativity.

In the current impossible circumstances created by Randy Lerner, it seems the club were unable to offer the Villa supporting winger an acceptable new deal. It's now highly likely the player will hook up with newly promoted Leicester City, a club able to counterbalance the player's Premier League wages against the fact that there's no transfer fee.

Villa have several players about to enter the final year of their contracts and with negotiations on hold, there is the serious risk that these players will able to walk away for nothing this time next year.

Statement & Radio interview: Paul Lambert

"As everybody is aware, I met with the Chairman along with Paul and I'm determined to get on with the job of managing Aston Villa.

"These circumstances are extremely challenging as the Club is for sale and as far as I know there is nothing imminent in terms of new ownership, but we're going to roll up our sleeves, prepare for the battle ahead and do our best by the Club.

"The squad requires strengthening, that's self-evident, and it won't be easy within the current circumstances. But we'll look to identify players of proven quality to bring in and get ready for the start of the new season.

"To the fans, my message is simple - this is your club and it's a fantastic club. Your support has made it into this.

"The past two seasons have been tough and expectations, rightly, are high. But success is always built on everybody working together and the circumstances now require us all to pull together and stick together and try to galvanise ourselves for this challenge we face.

"I'm determined to give it everything I have, the players will do the same and it is our collective strength as a club which, ultimately, will see us through."

Paul Lambert

Manager

Aston Villa Football Club

listen to ‘Lambert: 'No sale imminent'’ on Audioboo

Helenius surplus to requirements

Villa are not counting on @NicklasHelenius as a part of the squad next season.. Pity, but we are looking forward instead of backwards. 1/2

— Mads Bach Lund (@MadsBachLundSEG) May 19, 2014

@NicklasHelenius did his very Best, but many reasons behind this.. But great expierience and developement, he is a stronger player now! 2/2

— Mads Bach Lund (@MadsBachLundSEG) May 19, 2014

Paul Lambert tasked with building a team he may never get to manage.

Following crisis talks in New York, Randy Lerner is hanging a "Business As Usual" sign under the For Sale sign at Aston Villa, leaving Paul Lambert and Paul Faulkner to limp on through the summer, with their own positions hanging in the balance.

If Lerner does manage to sell the club, the likelihood is that new owners will want their own man in place as Chief Executive, while - unless they are completely barmy - they will definitely want to shake things up radically on the coaching side.

The current turmoil goes even deeper than the finances and the first team squad with the head of Villa's academy Bryan Jones stepping down in August, it seems there is no facet of the club not facing some degree of disruption.

Having splurged a large chunk of last year's transfer kitty on players that rarely got near the first team and couldn't even command a regular place on the bench, Paul Lambert will have to show that he has learnt from those mistakes if he is to improve the squad. He is unlikely to have the cash or the wage structure to bring in marquee signings so will have to do canny deals on Bosmans (there are plenty available if he can negotiate on salary) and take risks on homegrown youth to turn things around.

Whatever sort of squad Lambert is able to pull together though, that still doesn't address the coaching, with Villa's players seeming to go backwards, making basic technical errors while as a team they more often than not seemed tactically inept last year, with the attacking play rarely a patch on that shown in Lambert's first season and nowhere near the pass and move style that he was praised for at Norwich.

With such an air of uncertainty hanging over the club, it'll take major powers of persuasion to convince half decent players to get on board, especially when they see the way solid pros like Shay Given have been treated.

With Lerner desperately trying to lurch for the exit door, he may well feel that continuing with Lambert was his only credible short term option and will point to average crowds of 36,000 as evidence that Villa's loyal support will put up with any old rubbish.

Goodness Gracious Me: The Wild Rumours of The Week

As the season drew to a close last week, very few people were talking about our actual match. Everyone was talking about how brilliant Villa's away support had been, with the Traffic Cone lads and Jesus taking most of the plaudits. The other topic of conversation was of course Randy's impeding statement.

Randy didn't keep us hanging about for long, while rumours - helped by Andy Gray on talkSPORT- circulated that we'd be hearing from Randy by 3pm on Monday, we got the actual statement, just after 10am.

Limbo

As hinted by those with contacts close to the club, it was a statement destined to disappoint. Randy WAS selling the club "if possible" but there was no billionaire benefactor with more money than sense waiting to be unveiled from behind a velvet curtain.

The immediate impact of this statement was the grim realisation that it plunges an Aston Villa badly in need of swift change into a state of summer limbo. There'd be no big shift of playing staff or indeed of coaching staff until matters were resolved.  It also left Paul Lambert in the impossible  position of not knowing whether he'd be in charge next season but trying to prepare for it with presumably no budget.

Meanwhile Google must have been scratching their heads as to why there had been a sudden rush of searches of "Shunammite". Then the rumours started...

1.  The Done Deal - "Back into bed Mister Ellis"
Phil Williams from BBC Five Live sparked interest by claiming he'd interviewed Villa's President Emeritus, Doug Ellis who said that a deal was done. Well Doug did sort of say that in the interview, but also that he didn't know what was happening. Sort of. We're not sure that aging Herbert knew what day it was but hey judge for yourself:

listen to ‘Doug Ellis speaks’ on Audioboo

2.  Stool Pigeon - The Louis Walsh/Westlife deal
The following night in the "Doug Ellis slot", Phil spoke to King of the Jungle (or did Joey Essex win we weren't paying attention) Kian Egan. We fearlessly asked the BBC man if the stool-using Irish warbler knew anything...

@villamadtweets he is tabling a bid with Louis Walsh.. Keep that to yourself.
— Phil Williams (@PhilWilliams) May 13, 2014

3.  Larry's been on the radio
Larry Ellison - a man we KNOW is pursuing co-ownership of the LA Clippers with his super-rich buddies - continues to be linked with a Villa purchase and it MUST be true because it has not only been apparently carried by sports radio stations in the USofA, but on stations from Tokyo to Tower FM in Bolton.

Let's brush aside that report that he's never even heard of of us and when questioned said "Ashton who?". He's incredibly old - despite the age of that Ukrainian bit-of-stuff on his arm, so his hearing can't be that great can it?

4.  Fancy an Indian?

Just as social media was in the verge of working itself into a total frenzy regarding Indian ownership of the Villa, the source story vanished from the website of The Indian Express where it had briefly appeared.

Now, this could be because the website thought the story was nonsense or not true but since when have news websites EVER cared about that as long as the hits come rolling in? Could it be that it was vanished because the news organisation had got too near the truth about a CONFIDENTIAL negotiation?

The story centred on Indian Fast Food Giants Hari and Shyam Bhartia, whose Jubilant FoodWorks benefits from running Dominos and Dunkin Donuts franchises.

The story's disappearance almost as fast as it had arrived meant that the panic over Venkys Mk2 pretty much subsided before it had began.

The rumours that TATA might be keeping tabs on the situation haven't really taken off. Some say the JLR takeover by an Indian giant unscared of diversification has been a good thing. Some of us are still sulking that they flattened our beloved Showcase Cinema to add more parking spaces.

5.  Collymore's Door
Stan Collymore randomly tweeted a picture of the Villa manager's door, sparking speculation that Paul Lambert was toast. The point was that sign on the entrance merely said "Manager" instead of bearing the legend "Paul Lambert" but apparently it always did (he's never invited us for a chat, can't think why...).

The version Collymore tweeted didn't include the "Vacant sign" seen here. We added that more in hope than expectation.

6.  Come Fly With Me
Those clutching at straws that a deal was done to sell the club and that there's only the odd "i" to dot and "t" to cross seem to have convinced themselves that Paul Lambert and Paul Faulkner were off to meet the new owners.

Clearly, an end of season meeting between the owner, his chief executive and the manager wouldn't be unexpected in any circumstance. With Randy's announcement pretty much tying their hands together and giving then little wriggle room in the summer, there was much to discuss.

Our assumption is Paul Faulkner will be asked  to keep things ticking over till the new people come on board and pay him off. We really can't imagine what Randy expects Lambert to do in these circumstances so we've spent all week expecting a "mutual consent" announcement, to the extent that we've even been monitoring the news agencies from the pub...

7.  Restaurantgate

The Meeting House Restaurant in Amagansett was closed for business on Friday for a private function.

Naturally this led to the 2+2=5 brigade convincing themselves that a deal to sell Villa would be brokered here.

We'd imagine many a multi-million sports deal has been concluded in a restaurant renowned for it's turkey cheeseburgers but on this occasion it seems the establishment in Randy's neck of the woods was booked for a wedding party. We've no idea if Villa's army of New York supporters had the place staked out to see if the bride was actually a billionaire investor disguised in a wedding dress, but I'm sure we'll find out shortly.