smetrov Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Looks a steal at £2m My seat on sat was about 3 rows from the pitch - when close he looked like a sun tanned Gordon Cowans ! Hes going to be great player for us - another 10 of those please Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonno_2004 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 The main reason why I'm gutted Lambert doesn't have the money MON did, I think all his signings have been better than what we currently have. Need someone who's going to allow El Ahmadi to get forward - Diame would have been perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Shame we didn't go for Diame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I like his comments after the Everton game - We have to show some character as a team and as players. We are professionals and we have to stand up. In the second half I was playing more behind the strikers and trying to get near them and the ball was following me. I had the opportunity to shoot on goal and I think it was a good goal. But I’d rather be winning than scoring a goal Shows that he has the right attitude and footballing mentality, just needs those in front of him to shake a tail feather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 Every new signing faces challenges and the obstacles tend to be even bigger if the player moves overseas. There is often a language barrier to overcome along with the difficulties of adapting to a new culture, as well as all the on-the-field issues that accompany playing for a club for the first time in an unfamiliar league. There is also the problem of trying to choose the right road to get home from the stadium, as Karim El Ahmadi discovered when leaving Villa Park last weekend. "I didn't know the way and satellite navigation didn't work when I was travelling back from the ground, so I stopped off and asked somebody, 'Where is the Mailbox?'" El Ahmadi says smiling. "The guy saw me with the Aston Villa tracksuit and I think he was a Villa fan. He said, 'Come, I'm going to take you there.' He just got his own car and I drove behind. It was very kind of him." In truth it would not have been surprising if most of Villa's players left the stadium in a state of confusion after the 3-1 defeat against Everton eight days ago. Paul Lambert's side were comprehensively outplayed and could easily have ended up on the end of a hiding but for the combination of Everton's profligacy and El Ahmadi's goal, a swerving 30-yard shot that reduced the damage and prompted a late fightback. These are early days, of course, but there is no escaping the fact that it has been a chastening start to the season for Villa, with successive Premier League defeats highlighting how big a job Lambert has on his hands before trip to Newcastle. One of the few positives, though, has been the way that El Ahmadi has settled in. The Morocco international, who arrived from Feyenoord and was Lambert's first Villa signing, has added a touch of composure in central midfield. "It was nice to be the first signing. It says that the trainer believes in me and that's always good when you come to a club," says El Ahmadi, who was soon joined at Villa by his former Feyenoord team-mate Ron Vlaar. "The coach wanted me to go to Norwich, so I knew he liked the way I played. So when he went to Aston Villa, I knew that they wanted me. For me it was a big club. I wasn't so excited in the beginning with Norwich but Aston Villa is different, I think." El Ahmadi is a likeable character who has quickly endeared himself to those who work behind the scenes at Villa as well as the players and coaching staff. After a recent signing session with supporters at the club shop, the 27-year-old took it upon himself to go into Villa Park and introduce himself to all the employees, a nice touch that was well received. He comes across as a footballer in touch with reality, which probably owes much to his upbringing. A devout Muslim, El Ahmadi was the youngest of seven children raised by his Moroccan parents in the Dutch city of Enschede, where he honed his football skills on the backstreets. "When I was seven or eight my father always said to me, 'Go to a club.' And I said, 'No, I don't want to. I just want to play on the streets.' But he told me I had to go, and when my father said something at that time, I always listened. So when I was eight or nine I went to a club and two years afterwards I went to Twente. "I don't know what it is like in England but in Holland street football is very big. A lot of technical players have [gained their ability] from the streets. We would put a bottle of water down and you had to kick the bottle of water over, playing one-on-one or two-on-two. We'd make goals with everything, things like shoes. Sometimes we would just have the ball with four or five guys and you would see who was best at keeping it the most." Life was not particularly easy at times. "We were not a family who had it very big," he says. "My mother was at home so my father was working alone and he had to take care [financially] of seven children, so it was hard for him. And we, as kids, always knew that, so we didn't ask for much. It was sometimes tough but it made me what I am now. When you don't have a lot of things that my friends at that time had … sometimes I think about it now that I can buy everything and that's why I stay with two feet on the ground." After progressing through the youth ranks at Twente, he made his debut in 2004 and joined Feyenoord for £4.3m four years later. Not long afterwards Robin van Persie revealed during a television interview in Holland that he had told Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, that he should sign El Ahmadi. "It was nice that Robin said something like that about me. It was a very big compliment and I was very happy with it," El Ahmadi says before adding with a smile, "But the telephone never rang." In fact El Ahmadi's next move ended up being to the UAE, at the start of 2011, after Feyenoord ran into financial difficulties. El Ahmadi agreed a six-month loan deal with al-Ahli, who were managed by David O'Leary, the former Villa manager, at the time. "I liked David very much. He was always speaking about me and saying that I had the quality to play in a good club," El Ahmadi says. "I also played with Fabio Cannavaro when I was there. I remember Fabio said to me one day, 'What are you doing here?'" That remark reflected how strange it was for Cannavaro to see a footballer who was in his prime knocking around with players who were at the end of their careers and happy to pick up one last pay-day in a league rich with money but low on quality. "It was very good in Dubai – I think the best time in my life," El Ahmadi says with a chuckle. "But in a sporting way I didn't feel it was my level. The club wanted to sign me and they already had an agreement with Feyenoord but I was thinking this is not the end. So I thought I have to go back and show the people what I can do. We finished second in 2011-12 and I had a very good season." His move to England this summer was followed by Liverpool's signing of Oussama Assaidi, another Morocco international. "I always looked up to the [Morocco] guys that were playing in the Premier League," says El Ahmadi, who played for Holland's youth teams but opted to represent Morocco at senior level. "I think [Adel] Taarabt is one of the biggest talents I have ever seen. If you see what he did for the Moroccan national team, it is unbelievable. [Marouane] Chamakh, I think, is a great player. And Assaidi, for me, was the best in Holland. He's very skilful." El Ahmadi often returns to Morocco in the summer. He is proud of his roots as well as his strong faith. "I am a very strict Muslim. I pray five times every day and I try to do things a Muslim has to do," he says. "With Ramadan [which has just finished], every time I train I always fast but with the games I don't because I tried it in Holland once and it was very hard. Managers always said to me, 'You have your own choice but, if I see you're going to lose energy or you are going to lose your quality, I'm not going to let you play.' I respect that. But it's also nice that they give me the respect to have the choice to do what I want." Time is ticking on and El Ahmadi has been talking for long enough, especially as he may have to negotiate Spaghetti Junction to get home. At least Villa fans know that he can find his way around a football pitch. "I'm happy with the two games, apart from that we lost them," El Ahmadi says. "But it's still the beginning of the season. We have a new coach and a new system, so not everything can be good in the first matches. If you see training, every week it is getting better. So I have confidence that the results will also get better." http://tinyurl.com/cvwh65z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarpie Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 I already like him even more, comes out very well in that interview...and so far it looks to be a blessing for us that Wenger didn't sign him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KjParton Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 ^ such a likeable character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 I wasn't so excited in the beginning with Norwich but Aston Villa is different, I think.Read 'em and weep Wiz. 8) Does anyone think he should've been made captain? I love Bent and all but he isn't captain material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 Does anyone think he should've been made captain? I love Bent and all but he isn't captain material. I would make Vlaar captain tbh.. clearly a leader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 The main reason why I'm gutted Lambert doesn't have the money MON did, I think all his signings have been better than what we currently have. Need someone who's going to allow El Ahmadi to get forward - Diame would have been perfect.maybe lambert would still sign the same players with whatever budget? I don't think he's been particularly hamstrung by cash tbh. Perhaps our sliding reputation, but not cash. We don't know what percentage of his budget he spent this summer. Maybe he thinks he'll be able to make us exciting and more desirable with the money he spent, and rather than coaxing big name mercenaries in for the money, he's holding into cash for when we're a bit more attractive Pure speculation like, but we just don't know. If he had £50m to spend there's nothing to say he'd have bought any differently is all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Good article, I think it's funny that both KEA and Vlaar have came out as leaders as such, they both clearly have a great deal of passion for the game and now the club - even more so than a lot of the players at the club already, which to me shows that maybe Lambert's way is the way we need to be doing things after all. KEA or Vlaar for captain 100%! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onje_villa Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Saw little to inspire me and frankly don't understand why people rate him. Un-be-****-lievable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Hopefully that knock he got is just that, and nothing more serious. Quality on the ball, quality signing, shown again today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazdavies79 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Really classy performance today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingsombrero Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 By the time we get to the midway point of the season he is going to be totally running the show for us. A real find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I love this guy, really do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulver Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 He's a find Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete165 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Just a brilliant footballer. No wonder RVP told Wenger to sign him up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Love this guy. Really hope that injury wasn't serious because from day one he's been our most important player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts