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The Ex-Villa Player thread - Keeping tabs on old Villans


Moneill

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1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Surely it's not much worse than League One level? Maybe League Two level. 

I don't know, I'm guessing. But there's some players who were once alright in Australia. 

Andy Keogh is one of the best strikers in the league

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On 06/05/2016 at 12:17, rodders0223 said:

So I guess Luke Moore was released after two uninspriing years at Toronto back in February.
No news of him training anywhere.

Add Nigel Reo-coker to that list after noticing he isn't on the latest MLS salary list.

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1 hour ago, BOF said:

Quadruple bypass for Ginola.  Looks like he's gonna be OK.  Lucky lucky man.

I was chatting to him at an event on Tuesday, seemed on great form. crazy stuff

Edited by zak
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Mikey Drennan has taken a break from/ left professional football and Shamrock Rovers as he battles with depression. He plans to return home to Kilkenny to seek employment and go back playing Hurling.

He speaks of his lack of support at his time at Villa. http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/i-walked-out-of-dressing-room-and-started-crying-shamrock-rovers-star-opens-up-on-depression-battle-34731605.html

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Drennan soon came to this realisation when he left the hurling hotbed of St Kieran's College in Kilkenny during Transition Year, aged 16, for greener pastures and the lure of the Premier League with Aston Villa.

It wasn't what he expected and, while he prospered on the pitch - he was second top scorer in the NextGen Series (Youths Champions League) when Villa won the competition in 2013 - he was capitulating off it.

"You went there (Villa) and there was no support - I used to go back and close the curtains and get into bed after training," the 22-year-old says.

"That was about 2.0 and the sun could be splitting the stones. You have way too much time to think. You need to keep yourself busy. If I had known that before I went over, I would have done a bit more college work and stuff for my education."

Instead, like so many before him he got sucked into gambling and the 'high' of the bookies. Being anonymous in a mass of punters was a temporary release from the 'low' he was experiencing the majority of the time.

"I was into gambling. That was a bad thing I was into - I was into all that stuff. You look for anything to pass time and the only thing you could do was go to the bookies and it's not a nice thing," he explains.

"You get such a high when you're down on such a low and it's not nice. Luckily enough I'm not like that any more. I'd have one or two bets but that's about it.

"Over there that's all you did. I used to go back, f**king watch telly for the whole day sitting in a black room.

"I didn't realise at the time what was actually going on. It messes your head up."

After leaving home in his teens, the talented striker suffered severe bouts of "homesickness" and regularly had to be dragged back to England. It was something that became the norm.

And even when he returned to Ireland to play with Shamrock Rovers, he thought his symptoms would improve, but he was only delaying the inevitable.

"I left when I was 16, I was really homesick and that, it wasn't nice but I'm not really sure what brought it on. There could be so many things that brought it on but it wasn't a nice place to be in," Drennan says.

"I used to hate it, I used to dread going back to England. One summer I was close to not going back.

"I don't really have any regrets about what I've done, but if I look back on it I probably would've done things a little differently if that makes sense.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

N'Zogbia has been 'taken care of' since he left, by an unnamed Chinese assassin.

Also,

  dcMzkMU.png

My OCD has been eradicated.

Edited by meme
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  • 4 weeks later...

Vassell is releasing an autobiography. Might finally get some insight in to why he used a power drill on his own toe all those years back...

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The Road to Persia is the story of Darius Vassell’s remarkable journey from humble inner-city Birmingham beginnings, to football’s fickle world stage and penalty heartbreak, before his gradual return to civilian life and the unbridled joy of becoming a father to his beautiful daughter, Persia.

Including a foreword from his Aston Villa teammate, Dion Dublin and contributions from England and Liverpool star Daniel Sturridge and the man who managed him for three different teams, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Vassell opens his heart on playing for his boyhood heroes Aston Villa, living the dream with England, before a shock move to Manchester City, a chaotic character-defining year in Turkey and a finale with Leicester City.

Leaving no stone unturned in his quest for an honest appraisal of his life on and off the field, including insight from his wife Amani, Vassell reveals all in his own long and winding Road to Persia.

To be notified of when this book is available to order, please submit your email below or follow Darius Vassell on twitter

 

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