Marc Albrighton scored last night to help England U-21's beat Lithuania U-21's 3-0 and on a different stage, Barry Bannan also scored as Scotland U21's beat Austria U21's 2-1 at Pittodrie.
The futures bright, certainly if Gérard Houllier gives these younger players a chance.
The news on Houllier, or the talk anyway, is that it will be announced by the club today or tomorrow and that there will be an unveiling stroke press conference at Villa Park tomorrow, where thousands are expected to turn out waving the French flag singing the Vanessa Paradis classic Joe le taxi.
Before all that though, we are given some speculation of what is to come.
January window
According to talkSHITE, Spurs are going to renew their interest in Webcam in January and apparently, he was close to a move in the summer but after O'Neill left, transfer activity was put on hold, so he stayed. All this from talkSHITE when the club were busy selling James Milner, after O'Neill left and brought in Stephen Ireland, who it turns out, if rumour is to be believed, had to be part of the deal as Manchester City were extremely keen to get rid.
I don't think Webcam will leave for Spurs, even with their Champions League football. I think he'll stay at Aston Villa, because he knows the révolution is about to begin. Again.
The daily tripe
According to The Mirror, the delay in the club appointing Houllier is because of fears that the players are not happy over the potential demotion of Kevin MacDonald. Well, shiver my timbers, that is a fine piece of work.
If you put a million clowns in a room with a typewriter each, they will eventually write a book. It might not be a very clever book, but you wouldn't expect much from a bunch of clowns, but they will, eventually manage to string together 100,000 words and glue all the pages together.
My point is, one day they will get something right. If you throw enough stones at a blind man, you will hit him eventually.
Steve Sidwell
Steve Sidwell is back after a run out with the reserves and while I expect one or some of you to say that you didn't know he was away, I say back the lad. He should get a fresh start under the new manager and I think he has something to offer.
All players should get a fresh start under the new manager. You just never know what can happen.
Stoke on Monday
Right. Houllier coming very soon, so he gets a day or two with the players ahead of Stoke on Monday. I think it would be quite important for him to have that time, but maybe that is just me. Maybe he wants to make an entrance on Sunday and sprinkle some French magic over Bodymoor instead.
Talking of Stoke, as of right now though, you can get odds of 9/4 on Aston Villa beating Stoke on Monday and this is a great price, even if Stoke have quite a good home record. Think new manager syndrome.
Right, I'm off to find YouTube clips of Albrighton and Bannan scoring so I can update this page a little later. That and coffee and maybe a cheeky bacon sandwich if the wife has any in the fridge.
Update: The Goals
Thanks to SlimJimVilla we have links to the goals. First up is Albrighton, click here for that one. Then, after you have witnessed his first goal for England, click here for the Bannan goal.
Update: Red Rafa wants our Gardner
According to Mail Online, Red Rafa Benitez who is no longer really red, is mulling over a move for our very own Gary Gardner. Now, I'm not one to beg and plead that often, but please do not sell Gary Gardner.
Look what happened when we sold the other Gary. Gary is a good Aston Villa name and we should have a team full of players called Gary.