Dbonne10

 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-richard-dunne-told-3897597

 

He is done here.

 

 

Aston Villa's forgotten man Richard Dunne will this week be told to look for a new club after missing the whole of last season through injury.

Dunne has been unable to kick a ball competitively for the claret and blues since the final day of the previous campaign over a year ago and his contract will not be renewed when it expires next month.

Manager Paul Lambert has previously k ept the door open for Dunne to return to action to give the defender time to recover from groin trouble.

But it has been decided to allow the experienced Ireland international to leave on a free when his four-year deal at the club comes to an end in late June.

Dunne has been unable to turn out for Villa this season after sustaining the injury on Euro 2012 duty last summer.

He did take part in Villa’s pre-season tour of the U.S. last summer, but pulled out after cameos in two friendlies when it became too painful to continue.

The 33-year-old centre-half had an operation on the problem area last August and has regularly visited specialists, including a trip to see an expert in the States.

But after seemingly making progress, Dunne has suffered several setbacks and has failed to reach a level of fitness to make him available for selection.

He has been among Villa’s top earners since signing from Manchester City in August 2009, and at a time when Villa are managing their wagebill carefully does not fit Lambert’s preference for up-and-coming players.

Darren Bent, Stephen Ireland and Shay Given are set to have talks about their futures at the club during the next few days, while Alan Hutton will be spoken to when his loan at Mallorca finishes in a fortnight, as the manager steps up his plans for next season.

Villa have now finalised their pre-season programme by confirming a showpiece friendly against La Liga club and this season’s Champions League quarter-finalists Malaga at Villa Park at 3pm on Saturday, August 10.

 

Not surprised at this news. He was an ok defender but for what we were paying him every week was just silly money. Think the most important thing for him is to make sure he recovers but wouldn't be surprised if we see Richard Dunne hanging up his boots soon.

Going to be an interesting Summer of transfer activity. Darren Bent I expect will not be here come the start of next season but who will he go to? What sort of hit will Darren Bent take in wages and what sort of transfer are we going to find acceptable to take him off our hands. I think around 8-10 million, I think a Prem team might even pay more than that just because he will guarantee your team goals.

 I don't agree that Darren Bent is overrated, in the right system he can be lethal in front of goal. His goals alone in the McCleish season and the end of the Houllier season kept us up single handedly.

I think we will get 6 in this Summer but to be honest it depends who we move on.

Back on topic...

I am more than happy Lambert is continuing buying players with potential, hunger and desire. He has already shown that he has an eye for a player. I have absolutely no idea who we will go for but shoring up that defence would be a good start. This Summer will be interesting.

Did anybody else realise that Alex Mcleish managed Lambert at Motherwell???

And he was absolutely dire then. Made the same mistakes tactically and in transfer dealings back in those days. He is a woeful manager.

Ah yes you are correct kurtismonw. Getting my dates all wrong. The winner by Gabby was an absolute pearler in that one.

In my opinion Sylla is a good young player, he is strong, has a bit of pace about him and isn't afraid of putting in a tackle. However he isn't the most technically gifted and needs to work on his crossing a bit... Good player for a good price.

I like this topic.

I think the most important one is Gabby's winner against Norwich. Just purely because it got us to the  40 point mark and eventually safety. Was at work that day and on my break when Gabby popped up with the winner and I just danced around the staff and lapped it up.

I think in a close second is Benteke's winner against QPR for the first '6 pointer' of our season which kickstarted our terrific end of season run.

Fantastic that we have stayed up. Now to kick on next season.

Barry Bannan has some decent qualities but in my opinion he isn't a Premier League player. It seems to me that he doesn't fit the system of playing in the middle of a 4-3-3 either. He is too lightweight and he needs to go to maybe the Championship, play a regular number of games in a team that plays a 5 in the middle so he doesn't have to do too much defending or running but can spray the passes which is something he isn't too bad at.

I disagree, the best ive seen Bannan this season was when we used 433 against Reading...

That is fair enough, I haven't seen as many games as others on here. But I have seen him play for Scotland a few times. He is ok in a 5 in midfield but I just don't think he has the quality to be a premier league player.

Darren Bent is a good player and a goalscorer but I think it is just one of these ones where the manager just doesn't take to him. He isn't a target man like Benteke to play right up top and hold the ball up and he isn't a wide forward either like Weimann and Gabby or even N'zogbia. There isn't a position for him and Lambert would have to change the system to get the best out of him and he isn't prepared to do that.

Barry Bannan has some decent qualities but in my opinion he isn't a Premier League player. It seems to me that he doesn't fit the system of playing in the middle of a 4-3-3 either. He is too lightweight and he needs to go to maybe the Championship, play a regular number of games in a team that plays a 5 in the middle so he doesn't have to do too much defending or running but can spray the passes which is something he isn't too bad at.

Thanks guys, baptism of fire in here eh?! Haha.

As mentioned before it would take an incredible amount of results for us to be relegated now. I can see ourselves getting a result on Saturday against Chelsea anyway. Think we will be right up for it after our previous result against that mob.

My first post!

Been following Villatalk for a while and have decided to get involved.

We have almost beat the drop but what I think has been really positive is we have beat the teams around us in proper pressure situations by beating QPR, Reading, Sunderland, Norwich and even West Ham in the so called "must win" games. What has been unfortunate is that with our recent form it hasnt propelled us further away from relegation because of 1) our very poor Christmas period and 2) our rival teams picking up points.

I have seen enough this season that shows great potential for years to come.

Hi Moderators

Been a Villa fan since I was 10. I went on holiday to Birmingham and bought a villa strip from a JJB shop (i think) and havent looked back. The manager back then was John Gregory and have been through the Taylor, O'leary, O'neill, Houllier McCleish and now the Lambert years.

I am also a Motherwell fan in Scotland as well.

Cheers!