Aston Villa Academy make semi-final and Doyle and O'Hara

No time for faffing about today, straight to the news and we have another nice bit to begin with. The Aston Villa Academy team made the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup last night after beating Fulham on penalties. That means, for all you non smart people who struggle to add up, that we have two FA Cup semi-finals this season - the future must be really positive with these kids coming through.

We have won the FA Youth Cup before and most will be aware of the 2002 win against Everton and a certain Wayne Rooney, but we also beat Liverpool 5-2 in 1972 and Manchester City 3-2 in 1980.

Tony McAndrew
I'm not only delighted, I don't think I've ever been prouder in all my years in football. That performance out there was up there with the best things we have achieved. To come back from 2-1 down in the way they did was phenomenal - I'm just so proud of them.

Anything can happen in the semi-finals and while I maybe have a little more hope that the Academy team will do it, who knows, we could be going FA Cup final mad this season - wouldn't that be nice.

Aston Villa Rumours

Before we get to the lost letter, we have some rumours and they are only getting a couple of paragraphs, because I'm starting to get fed up of rumours. First one is Jamie O'Hara and the second one is Kevin Doyle. Really, are any good enough?

In my opinion neither will strengthen the squad and for that reason alone, these rumours are rubbish. This summer coming up is the summer when we really need to strengthen the first team. The owner has to make available proper funds so we can make a couple of signings that would not only strengthen the first but really move it forward. I mean, for all this talk about running the club as a business - we seem to be losing a lot of money, have an awfully large amount of debt and while everyone is getting paid, Lerner is the only one making money on his money.

Basically, there will come a time when the club can not afford to give Lerner his interest and his management fees at this level of investment and he won't just continue to invest for no reward. This summer has to be one where we have a proper push and if we don't do it, well, we can hope and have faith and we can all get down on our knees, but without significant money, it really isn't going to happen.

Lost Letter

Right, that is it for the moment but there might be something coming up later. We have in our possession a letter and before publishing it, we just want to make sure it is authentic. When we are over the 70% level of authenticity, we will probably publish, so there is every chance it will come later today, after I've had lunch.

But for now, rubbish rumours but another FA Cup semi-final. Not bad for a Tuesday.