The knives are already out for Chelsea’s young manager Andre Villas-Boas after just four months in the west London hot seat after yesterdays’ result.  Chelsea have lost three of their last four Premier League matches.  But AVB confidently deflected post-match questions that he is now under extreme pressure and insisted he was still in favour with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich & that together they were still working on long-term plans.  Though away from the media I would be surprised if Andre Villas-Boas isn’t looking over his shoulder, especially following the news last week that Guus Hiddink is now interested in a move back to Chelsea where his short reign as caretaker manager was heralded by all as a great success, culminating in Chelsea winning the FA Cup for some time now.

I see Hiddink being offered a ‘Director of Football’ type role, where he would effectively be on standby, ready to take over the reins if AVB becomes the latest manager to come and go as Roman Abramovich continues to crave instant success.

Liverpool are now joint fourth place, level on points with Chelsea ahead of Tottenham’s game tonight at home to Aston Villa.  The game will see the welcome return of Harry Redknapp after minor heart surgery.  If Chelsea end the year in such a position that Champions League qualification is not looking likely, I believe AVB will be sacked.

Less than one full season into his contract, Aston Villa has parted company with Gerard Houllier who was hospitalised before the end of last season. That said, I felt Houllier was about to get the sack anyway and expected Rafa Benitez, who has been loitering around since returning to his family home in England in January, to become the next Aston Villa manager.

But Fulham boss Mark Hughes is the bookies favourite for the job. This follows rumours that Hughes has recently fallen out with Fulham owner Mohammed Al- Fayed and that he has a get-out clause in his contract. But yesterday I heard that ex-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has stated that he would like to stay in England rather than return to Italy. I am sure both parties would be interested in Ancelotti becoming the next manager of Aston Villa.

The other manager-less Premier League team, Chelsea look like they are closing in on their first choice to replace Ancelotti at Stamford Bridge, as Guus Hiddink has apparently stated he is ready to leave his current position coaching the Turkey national team, to return to club management. If there is any truth in this statement then I would expect Hiddink to be the next Chelsea manager by next week.

Guus Hiddink to Chelsea & Carlo Ancelotti to Aston Villa is my bet.

The appointments of a Chelsea and Aston Villa manager will be followed by what I believe will be a busy summer for transfers in the English Premier League. Chelsea desperately need to buy some younger players and begin to build a team around striker Fernando Torres. While Manchester City will be throwing a lot of money around again, only in this transfer window they will be able to attract the very best players in the world with Champions League football next season.

Like Chelsea before them, Man City’s arrival has been cemented by a large sum of money while Harry Redknapp performs nothing much short of a miracle in Spurs continual ascendancy as one of the actual ‘big five’ teams in the Premier League.

But this season’s English Premier League has already thrown up a list of amazing results.  Just this weekend Chelsea lost a second game in succession to Birmingham, while Arsenal through away a 2-0 half-time lead to lose to Tottenham 3-2 at The Emirates; and furthermore, while Manchester United remain unbeaten this season they are playing far from their invisible best and only last week were allowed back into a game that Aston Villa should have killed off.

So, with Arsenal and Chelsea dropping points and Man Utd looking less than convincing, there is no better time for Tottenham and Manchester City to launch a real assault on winning the Premier League; and Man City done just that today by thrashing Fulham at Craven Cottage 4-1 and in the process playing a more expansive and attacking style of football under Roberto Mancini than I’ve seen all season.  Maybe the show was especially for former Man City manager Mark Hughes.  But after weeks of criticism of Mancini playing two holding midfielders and one striker both home and away, Manchester City started the game with Carlos Tevez and Joe upfront, and that appeared to signal a change from the more cautious, defensive approach Mancini has played in recent games.

Whatever happens, it is turning into an eventful, exciting season with every week.  I only hope Manchester City and Spurs continue to pile on the pressure by playing exciting football and that come spring, any one from five teams are still in with a chance to win this season’s Premiership title.

Robert Pires

Free agent Robert Pires looks set to complete an unlikely but most welcome return to the Premier League this week when he signs for Aston Villa.

The 37 year old helped Arsenal to two Premier League titles and three FA Cups during his time with the North Londoners as well as collecting a World Cup winners medal and European Championship medal with France in 1998 and 2000 respectively.

Pires joined Spanish club Villareal from Arsenal in 2006 and despite a long term absence through injury in his first season in La Liga, the Frenchman became a firm favourite with the ‘yellow submarine’ fans during his time in Spain.

Testament to his fitness levels the player has continued to thrill fans with his clever footwork regardless of age and although he was often used as substitute in his later years at Villareal he has never looked out of his depth against younger players.

He was released in the summer and was most recently linked with Conference club Crawley Town.

Pires is set to join Aston Villa before this weekend and it will be great to see him back in England in the Premier League.

Stoke were no doubt lifted by the surprise half-time appearance of Tony Pulis who had not been present for the first half due to the death of his mother; and the result was crucial.  This is Stoke City’s third consecutive season back in the top flight of English football, and it has been their home form that has kept them in the Premier League thus far.

As for Aston Villa, what were they thinking when they appointed a manager in Gerard Houllier who has still not been released from his current position with the French FA. Last night, Caretaker Manager Kevin MacDonald told reporters he was still unsure when Houllier was going to take charge of the team.  For now he had been told to pick the team to play against Stoke and again on Saturday at home to Bolton Wanderers.

To suggest Aston Villa is a club in turmoil is far from the truth.  However, the next six weeks could be very important in deciding the fortunes of this so-called ‘sleeping giant’.

Following their home game on Saturday with Bolton they will play a very difficult game against Blackburn Rovers in the third round of the Carling Cup. In all honesty, neither side may play their strongest teams.  But if Sam Allardyce decides to strike while Aston Villa’s morale is low, Blackburn could quite easily knock Villa out of the cup.

After the Carling Cup game next Wednesday (22nd September), Aston Villa will play two difficult away fixtures at Wolves and Tottenham. They do not play another home game until they host a goal-rampant, ultra-inform Chelsea on Saturday 16th October.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, their only other home game in the Premier League in October is against arch-rivals Birmingham (31st October).

With an away game at Sunderland between the two, it is clear to see that Aston Villa needs the French FA to release Gerard Houllier as soon as possible.  And if the situation carries on until the end of October, Houllier could quite possibly arrive to find Aston Villa languishing amongst the relegation places.

Furthermore, the longer this bizarre situation continues, the more vocal the fans were air their disapproval and the higher eyebrows will be raised at the owner Randy Learner’s decision to appoint a manager who is actually not available!

Lastly, once Gerard Houllier eventually arrives at Villa Park he will have big shoes to feel with both the fans and club expectations, if he is to exorcise the ghost of Martin O’Neill; and there is also the small matter of how he consoles goalkeeper Brad Friedel and defender Stephen Warnock.  Both players were told they were surplus to requirements when Houllier became manager at Liverpool.

As one alcoholic striker once said, ‘it’s a funny old game’.  But its stories like this that makes the game of football as exciting as the results themselves.

Bob Bradley renews US contract

It looks as though the USA coach Bob Bradley has done the sensible thing and extended his contract with the US international team and put an end to any speculation linking him with the Aston Villa managerial vacancy.

Latest reports suggest that Bradley has agreed to remain in charge of the American team until 2014, a just reward for the achievements he has made with the international team during his current tenure.

Bradley has been responsible for the emergence of the USA as serious contenders at international level, their recent endeavours at the South African World Cup saw them reach the last 16 where they were beaten by Ghana.

It was at the 2010 World Cup where Bradley led the team to finish first place in their group for the first time in 80 years, having previously guided the team to the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the final of the Federation’s cup in 2009 where his team lost to Brazil after ending Spain’s long unbeaten run in the semi finals.

There is no doubt that Bradley deserves the plaudits for his achievements with the US team, he has taken a fairly limited squad of players and turned them into a tremendous team full of spirit, who will not be humiliated by ‘bigger better’ teams and who are prepared to fight for their country and each other and of course their coach.

The reason I believe it is the right decision for Bob Bradley to stay in the US is simply that Premier League football is a very different animal to what he knows, while I have no doubt that he would do an excellent job at Villa given time and resources it is not so easy seeing him fit into the in your face style of English media reporting, something that has quickly taken its toll on other coaches making the switch from international to EPL football.

Martin O'Neill The Biography by Simon Moss

Football needs its characters. It needs surprise, people who can take the breath away, it needs beauty, skill and imagination, and it needs people who can express an opinion, perhaps even start an argument.

Martin O’Neill is one of the very few people within the ‘industry’ (players, managers, administrators, journalists or broadcasters) worth listening to. A lad from Northern Ireland, whose relatively unsung playing career saw him achieve far more than most present day kiss-the-badge mercenary millionnaires ever will. It included a successful world cup campaign for a start, when the journeymen of Northern Ireland defeated hosts Spain and made it to the last twelve in 1982. Add to this a league title and two European cup medals. A successful career in management has followed from Wycombe to Leicester, Celtic and, until this week, Aston Villa. He is an erudite and usually outspoken pundit on the box. He should also have got the England job when it was offered initially to Scholari and then to the hapless Steve McClaren.

Martin O’Neill is one of the present-day game’s few characters and, of course, he played for the biggest character of them all – Brian Clough OBE.

It is for all of these reasons that a biography of O’Neill should arouse the interest of anyone true football fan.

However, I am sorry to say that he is poorly served by this book. For a start, there is neither an index nor acknowledgements. All biogs should, at the very least, have an index. It is unclear from the publisher’s blurb whether the author has ever met or spoken to his subject (The Unauthorised Biography?). In fact,all quotes seem to have come from various newspapers. It would appear that the author has not spoken to a living soul in the writing of the book and instead produced it by spending diligent hours in a newspaper reference library.  Surely a first-hand quote or opinion could be gathered by picking up a phone to a former team mate, current player, fellow journalist or broadcaster? Just to add a little colour to the dryness of yellowing newspaper cuttings?

Let me give further examples of disappointment. By page 10, the young O’Neill, a bright lad from a tolerant nationalist household, has already left school with enough qualifications to study law (his other great passion) at university. However, he is playing senior football for Distillery and everyone know’s he is going to “make it” as a footballer. On page 12, “Terry Neill rewarded O’Neill with his first cap for the national side and teams from England started to send scouts to assess him.” That was it – Your debut for your country warrants half a sentence. How old was he? (He was 18 or 19 according to Wikipedia). Who did they play? What was the score? Did the young man play well? Did he impress the manager? What were his feelings? Was his Mum and Dad proud? Nothing.

Chapter two is Brian Clough and the Forest years. Oh goody. I have read every book by and about Clough, but there is nothing here I haven’t already read or heard. On page 17, O’Neill tells the Irish Times, “I have often said that it would have been difficult to work with that man (Clough) for five years and not to have learned anything from him.” On page 21, “you would have had to be really bone stupid to be with Brian Clough for five or six years and not learn something from him…”

O’Neill’s first managerial job was actually at Grantham Town. “Despite an inauspicious start, Grantham rapidly improved …as they began to play the style of football their new gaffer demanded. The squad responded to his methods, training and ideas of how he wanted the game played.” So, what was his style, his methods, training and ideas? How did they differ from those learned under Clough? Again, we are left to guess.

I could go on. As I’ve said, his story is a good one and one I was eager to read it, yet this book provides few answers and gives so little insight into this talented, strong-willed and principled man. A man who gave up his Celtic job to spend time with his sick wife. Here, Simon Moss rightly states the fact without delving deeper into what must have been a distressing time for all of the family.

The 58-year-old O’Neill spent five years at Celtic, yet this period fills half of the book. The author would have done better to make this the main focus of the book – bulk out the Celtic era to around 200 pages, with an additional 40 pages of background covering his previous career/life, then call it ‘Man of the Bhoys’ and you would still sell the print run to the thousands of Celtic fans worldwide.

The book also lacks a career record/stats appendix – another minimum requirement in a sporting biography.

To conclude, as if I have to, this is a very disappointing look at an engaging and intriguing football man.

Martin O’Neill The Biography by Simon Moss is published by John Blake.

Milner’s transfer looks to be a ‘done-deal’ and follows Gareth Barry’s departure this time last year.  And with rumours circulating of a move to Tottenham Hotspur for Ashley Young, it appears Martin O’Neill rightly sees there is no way forward for a team that in the past two years has clearly suffered in the latter stages of the season due to a lack of squad depth.

With Spurs and Manchester City finishing above Aston Villa last season, and already adding to their larger squads for the new Premier League season that starts this weekend, Martin O’Neill has probably decided that he will not be able to better three successive top 6 Premiership finishes and a Wembley Final if Aston Villa continue to sell their best players without buying good quality replacements.

With Randy Learner at the helm, one of the frontrunners to replace O’Neill is fellow American and current USA national manager Bob Bradley, who has previously stated he would love the opportunity to manage in Europe.

Martin O’Neill has never been one to keep his opinions to himself and appears to be someone who sticks to his guns.  What appeared to be a strong, close owner – manager relationship following his appointment, seems to have become very strained over the past 12 months or so.  I believe this has been caused by O’Neill taking Aston Villa to the brink of Champions League football without further backing and available money to strengthen a small squad.

His departure follows reports early this year suggesting Liverpool were interested in signing Martin O’Neill as a possible replacement for Rafa Benitez.

Martin O’Neill will probably now have a relaxing August while Randy Learner is left with less than a week to find a quick replacement.

Emile Heskey

He has come in for more stick than many of the under performers in the England squad in recent times but unlike the others Emile Heskey has had the good grace to announce his retirement from international football today.

Although Heskey was prominent in England’s World Cup qualifying campaign the player hardly played a game for his club side Aston Villa last season.

Despite his lack of first team football Fabio Capello chose to ignore his own warning that players not playing regular football would not be considered for England and made the most awful decision to not only include Heskey in the squad but to include him in the starting line up for the first two qualifiers.

To his credit Heskey did what he does best and worked tirelessly for the team, even setting up the England goal scored by Steven Gerrard in the first few minutes of the opening match against USA.

But at 32 years old and lacking match fitness at club level Heskey soon became sluggish and England one dimensional as the game wore on.

I doubt there are many England fans who will be crying in their beer over Heskey’s decision to quit the international scene, but we should remember that he was at the World Cup out of the choice of Capello.

Capello is not the first England manager to see something in Heskey’s play that the general football fan cannot see and despite ‘experimenting’ with other players in his position, England invariably fall back on the player to hold up the ball for the livelier players in the team.

Seven goals in 62 England games for a big centre forward is not impressive, but Heskey can at least be honest and say he gave his best and wore the England shirt with pride.

The turf is being relayed for the 11th time since 2007 but why is it such a problem?

Three of the four FA Cup semi-final managers, Harry Redknapp (Tottenham Hotspurs), Avram Grant (Portsmouth) and Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa) agreed the Wembley turf was a ‘disgrace’, and watching both games it was clearly apparent the state of the pitch had a bearing on both results.

Players from Chelsea, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Spurs were slipping and losing their footing, no more so than the Spurs captain Michael Dawson who slipped in front of the Tottenham goal at a crucial moment, as he was attempting to clear a free-kick, leaving Piquionne to score the winning Portsmouth goal.

James Milner (England & Aston Villa midfielder) said it was the worst football pitch he had played on this season, including the lower league pitches during their League and FA Cup run.

As with previous turfs, the latest Wembley surface will not have much time to bed in.  This is one of the main problems.

The FA Trophy final is on 8th May, followed by the FA Vase final the day after. The FA Cup final is on 15th May and England is due to play a pre-World Cup friendly against Mexico on 24th.

Furthermore, there are three Football League play-off finals and the Blue Square Premier play-off final to be played at the venue in May; and this is just the football events to be held at the stadium!

BBC Radio 5 Live commentator, Colin Murray suggested the FA use the same grass seeds as his mother, as the grass in her garden is always in pristine condition.

The other problem is caused by other events and concerts that take place at Wembley.  But surely this is a bad advert for England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals.

Next month the FA Cup final will be beamed around the world to millions of fans and FIFA officials alike.  Not only is the final going to be spoilt by the state of the turf, but surely the FA must realise this is both embarrassing and a complete waste of money.  Money that could be better spent on the grassroots, rather than the turf!