Rumours and a football match

You'll maybe not know about this but you probably will; the club have arranged a pre-season friendly against Valencia. Valencia are considered one of the big five in Spain and this is a nice game to have at Villa Park.

The game is planned for August 6th and will kick off at 7.45pm so if you happen to find yourself close by, why not pop in and watch Stephen Warnock playing at right back.

I say that because there is a rumour doing the rounds that Martin O'Neill is interested in Evaldo from Sporting Clube de Braga and if he does come in, rather than play a right back at right back if we have any at the club by August 6th - he might put Warnock at right back instead.

I'm only playing. It's only a rumour and it probably won't happen, but it was worth a mention because today is a day for rumours. There is one doing the rounds that Warnock might make the England 23 man squad for the World Cup - he knows already - and we will find out soon. I hope he makes it - he has had a fantastic season for us all things considered.

There is another rumour that O'Neill is willing to swap Emile Heskey for Kevin Doyle and I think someone touched on this yesterday, but I'd really love to know what goes on in the heads of the people that make these rumours up - surely, we'd get money too!

Moving swiftly along to that lad from Leeds that signed for Everton; relax. We were never interested in him and while he might score a few goals next season he'll likely not break double figures and while there is little risk as he joins Everton for nothing and these days when all things are added up he'll end up quite cheap, there is an element of risk in so much he is unproven at this level - you might as well give that chance to someone from within your ranks. That is my view anyway.

Right back rumour of the day

Gregory van der Wiel is the name and I'm told he is a pacey winger with a bit of talent and well, the one position I think we are going to read a lot of rumours about this summer is right back, so we will add him to the list of potentials.

That is it from me - there really is very little going on because we have the World Cup starting in 9 days and seeing as we have a bit of time I'm working on a new look design for The Villa Blog that I'm hoping will be ready sometime just after the World Cup ends.