Villa gets into bed with not one but two bookies...

Aston Villa is delighted to announce two new club partners and confusingly, there are both bookmakers.


Betfair and bet365 become official partners of the club from tomorrow s will share co-exclusive rights in the betting category.

Both will have the right to be associated with Aston Villa and "activate the partnerships globally"  whatever that means and both will appear on the club's tellies and interview backdrops.

Aston Villa chief commercial officer, Charlie Wijeratna (try pronouncing that after a few San Miguels), commented: "I am very pleased that we have got two top betting brands on board as partners for next season.

"Commercially the club has two aims - we want to partner with good brands that will activate extensively and we want to increase our commercial revenues so we can compete with the best on the pitch.

"These two deals represent a very significant commercial increase on last year's betting partnership and taken together with the recent announcement of an enhanced shirt sponsorship deal with a top US brand, demonstrate significant progress towards those goals."

Ray Wilkins joining the Villa: Sherwood goes for Butch

Ray "Butch" Wilkins is set to be unveiled as Tim Sherwood’s assistant at Aston Villa, though popular Kevin MacDonald will remain at the club.

Jordan

Butch

Wilkins has accepted an invitation from Sherwood to come in as assistant manager and his appointment could be confirmed in the next few days.

The 58-year-old has been out of football in England since leaving Fulham last February and had mixed fortunes as manager of the Jordan national team.

Wilkins has worked as assistant manager at Chelsea under Gianluca Vialli and Carlo Ancelotti, and also coached with Guus Hiddink during his spell as caretaker manager at Stamford Bridge.

Square Ball Ray

Many older fans will remember him as "square ball Ray" when he played in an England shirt.

"With the players they have there’s no reason they shouldn’t be in the top half of the table and we’ll work extremely hard to try and get there. They’ve got a good squad but it can work a lot better and a lot harder.” - Ray Wilkins speaking to Sky Sports about joining Villa

Matt Lowton buggers off to Burnley

Benchwarmer Matt Lowton has joined Burnley for an undisclosed fee.

The right-back has agreed a three-year deal at Turf Moor - with just the i's to be dotted and the t's crossed.

Lowton joined Villa from Sheffield United in July 2012 and initially seemed to be the most successful of Paul Lambert's captures, quickly making the right back berth his own in his first season, even netting the goal of the season season at Stoke.

Puzzlingly, he was soon discarded and replaced by the likes of out-of-position Leandro Bacuna and former bomb squad member Alan Hutton in the next two seasons.

Now 26 years old, the player will be keen to get his career back on track in the Championship as Burnley look to bounce back following relegation.

Yacouba Sylla buggers off to Stade Rennais

Sylla

Yacouba Sylla is the latest of Paul Lambert's misfits to be turfed out of Tim
Sherwood's Aston Villa.

The Mali international has joined Rennes on a four-year deal, having spent the whole of last season out on loan at Kayseri Erciyesspor after failing to hold down a regular first team spot at Villa.

He follows Andi Weimann through the exit door with Matt Lowton also expected to leave in the next couple of days.

The Villa faithful will hoping that the flurry of exits will lead to more arrivals following the capture of Micah Richards.

[Off. Mercato] Yacouba Sylla rejoint officiellement le @staderennais pour 4 ans (juin 2019). cc @91_yacou #SRFC pic.twitter.com/iEcG1Ln71y

— Stade Rennais F.C. (@staderennais) June 22, 2015

Andi Weimann buggers off to Derby County

Andreas Weimann is trapping off to join Derby County in a £2.75 million deal and has bagged a four-year deal with the Rams.

The 23-year-old Austrian international failed to tickle Villa boss Tim Sherwood's fancy and has been jettisoned from Villa Park. He hooks up with former teammate Darren Bent at the iPro Stadium (or Pride Park as we insist on calling it).

One of the stars of Villa's youth policy, the striker made a quick impact under Alex McLeish and initially under Paul Lambert too but his loss of form was symptomatic of Villa's general malaise as things quickly went sour.

Micah Richards signs for The Villa (at last)

Aston Villa Football Club has finally announced the much trailed signing of Micah Richards.

Although he seems to have been around forever, the England international is still only 26 years old. He's bagged himself a four-year deal with the club and joins on a free transfer on July 1.

Richards spent last season on loan in Italy with Fiorentina but will be hoping regular Premier League football at Villa Park can see him resurrect his international career .

He won Barclays Premier League and FA Cup gongs at Citeh.

Manager Tim Sherwood said: "I'm really pleased to get Micah on board and I'm sure he will prove to be an excellent signing for the football club."

Fixtures are out...

My garden shed....

Not much to report about the batch of fixtures for the coming season.

There's no real tough run of matches this time. Looks like the computer has been pretty kind to us.

The only bugbear is that the opening match of the season is away at Bournemouth's tiny ground, meaning that only a fraction of Villa's impressive away following will be accommodated.

First home match is a juicy one with Manchester United coming to town which should ensure a bumper gate.

Poor Alan...

Our local derbies against West Bromwuch Albion are currently scheduled for September 19th at Villa Park
and January 23rd at The Hawthorns. Bear in mind that all fixtures announced today are subject to being moved for TV purposes. 4 in every 10 games gets shunted for the gogglebox.

We're at home on Boxing Day as we welcome West Ham United.

Our final home game of the season is against Newcastle United. Some Geordies have never forgiven us for the relegation "party" we had when we sent them down a few years back. Could lightning strike twice?

We'll end the season in North London as we take on Arsenal. Let's hope we're a bit happier on the way home than we were after Wembley!

villamad.co.uk: Our statement on Jack Grealish.

We've seen the images of Aston Villa's Jack Grealish on holiday.

We can only say:

YOU'RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE!

GET IN THERE SON AND CARRY ON ENJOYING YOUR HOLIDAY!!!!