O'Brien's agent says Villa in talks with Newcastle

[eirebhoy]

"Newcastle want to keep Andy. Villa and Newcastle have spoken and it's with the two chairmen now.

"The ball is with Newcastle rather than Villa. Villa are very interested in him - he's played around 150 games for Newcastle, he's a good, solid competitor and he's got Champions League and international experience."

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0200sport/globalsport/tm_objectid=15059758&method=full&siteid=50002&headline=villa-in-battle-to-land--4m-ace-name_page.html

I'd love to see it happen. O'Leary, being an Irish centre half and a good coach, would be very good for O'Brien.

[brine3]

The sooner he gets away from the mess at St James' Park the better.

I bet Carr wishes he had stayed at Spurs.

[eirebhoy]

I bet Carr wishes he had stayed at Spurs.
Glad Carr left. It looks like Kelly will get his chance now.

[Closed Account 2]

I'd hoped to see the makings of an all-Irish backline at Newcastle, with the likes of O'Brien, Carr and Given in goal. This looks like a pipe dream now that Bobby Robson's quit... Souness's signed Babayaro, Boomsong and there is rumours of a bid for Distin etc, so it looks like he wants a new backline, and he's also started to play Bramble and the young one (Taylor is it ?) instead of O'Brien, even Ronny Johnsen seems to be further up the pecking order.

This lack of 1st team action could well affect his confidence and sharpness. Its bad for O'Brien's career or the Irish team's defence, Breen and Cunningham are getting old so O'Brien could well be the key man at the back.

As I see it, he's 2 options.

1) Wait, hope Souness either picks him (unlikely given he's signed a replacement for £8m) or gets sacked (could happen as Newcastle's form has been dire, they playing badly havent picked up many points and were beaten heavily at home by Fulham 4 or 5 -1 if i remember correctly).

2) Go to Villa where there is a quality manager who seems to want him and will prob play him regularly.

If I was him I'd go for number 2.

[drummerboy]

O’Brien replaced Bramble at half time on Sunday. Although he will never be Souness's first choice he has managed to get regular games, some at right-full. Hopefully for his sake he gets away to Villa. Wigan are also interested, they are managed by Paul Jewell, who gave O’Brien his debut in the Premiership with Bradford.

[eirebhoy]

O'Brien could well start Newcastle's next game. There is no "pecking order" at Newcastle atm and Ronny Johnsen is only there until the end of the month.

[Stuttgart88]

I think much has been made of O'Brien's recent absences. But he was injured for quite a few games after the MUFC game & was sick over Christmas. I think O'Brien could yet get a good run back in the side before too long.

I have my doubts about O'Leary but if he watches the Ireland games he'll have seen that O'Brien is quite a good player when he has a dependable partner who he isn't covering up for all the time. If anyone can teach O'Brien how to develop best it'd be him. I'm assuming Dave can take a lot of the credit for developing Woodgate & even Rio to some extent. Who are Villa's current CB's? Mellberg and who else?

I'm sure O'Brien & Dunne will be our regualr pairing after WC06.

[drummerboy]

Delaney, a full-back has been playing there until injured, now Ridgewell as youth. They also have Danish international Laursen who is long-term injured.