Enda Stevens D Stoke City b.1990

[theworm2345]

Obviously just transfered to Villa, joins the many Irish youngsters already there, hopefully can get in to the first team sooner rather than later.

Article on Stevens's Euro 2012 aspirations (as a fan)
http://www.sundaymercury.net/midland...31-30078966/2/

[gastric]

And the great news is they can use our Stephen Ireland as a role model! The thought scares me.

[the bear]

hopefully he goes straight into the first team, as someone pointed out on this forum a while ago the villa fans aren't happy with warnock at left back so a chance could be there.

[Murfinator]

A lot of villa fans are very open to him walking right into the first team, Warnock has been their worst player of the season and a very notable problem. Saw him getting torn apart by some random Swansea winger the other day, a shadow of his former self. (sad for warnock, great for stevens!)

[SwanVsDalton]

Warnock's been poor enough alright but had a couple of strong showings. Very inconsistent. Definitely an opportunity for Stevens and I'd be surprised if he wasn't involved sooner rather than later.

[Closed Account]

Making his reserve debut at the moment:
http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/TV/LiveEv...572356,00.html

12:53
Good afternoon folks. Dan Harrison here for live coverage of Arsenal Reserves v Villa Reserves as Enda Stevens makes his debut.
12:54
VILLA: Barrett, Webb, Donacien, Williams, Stevens, Taylor, Gardner, Johnson, Cameron, Burke, Drennan. Subs: Grealish, Watkins, Nelson-Addy, Robinson, Kinsella.
ARSENAL: Shea, Hajrovic, Angha, Eastmond, Boateng, Hoyte, Murphy, Ebecilio, Park, Toral, Miyaichi. Subs: Rees, Charles-Cook, Anasah, Monteiro, Brislen-Hall.
13:01
Early touch for Enda Stevens, looking to start an attack but his chip forward is intercepted.
13:03
1-0 it's Michael Drennan! Enda Stevens was at the heart of that move which is good to see!
13:14
Great link-up between Stevens and Cameron so far. They are looking like a good left-sided duo.
13:17
Another burst forward from Stevens before he clips in a cross but Shea comes out to claim it.
13:46
HT - Villa 1-0 up at the break thanks to Michael Drennan's goal after three minutes.

[Murfinator]

Startling how close Villa are now to being able to field an All Irish XI

[backstothewall]

A lot of villa fans are very open to him walking right into the first team, Warnock has been their worst player of the season and a very notable problem. Saw him getting torn apart by some random Swansea winger the other day, a shadow of his former self. (sad for warnock, great for stevens!)

He made a mistake against Swansea for sure, but Warnock is having a decent season. The stats bear out as much. http://www.eplindex.com/6942/aston-v...omparison.html

I can't see Stevens getting his shirt any time soon.

[tetsujin1979]

Startling how close Villa are now to being able to field an All Irish XI

Answered this on football365 recently
Given
Devine* Williams Dunne Stevens
Carruthers Ireland Clark Grealish
Burke Keane

*the original list was short one player, AlaskaFox suggester Daniel Devine or Richard Bryan in defence or Mikey Drennan up front

[gastric]

Answered this on football365 recently
Given
Devine* Williams Dunne Stevens
Carruthers Ireland Clark Grealish
Burke Keane

*the original list was short one player, AlaskaFox suggester Daniel Devine or Richard Bryan in defence or Mikey Drennan up front

Do we still accept that Ireland is Irish?

[tetsujin1979]

Do we still accept that Ireland is Irish?

let's not kick that particular hornet's nest

[theworm2345]

Answered this on football365 recently
Given
Devine* Williams Dunne Stevens
Carruthers Ireland Clark Grealish
Burke Keane

*the original list was short one player, AlaskaFox suggester Daniel Devine or Richard Bryan in defence or Mikey Drennan up front

Do we still accept that Ireland is Irish?

let's not kick that particular hornet's nest

---------------Given--------------
-Devine--Williams--Dunne--Stevens-
Carruthers--Clark--Grealish--Burke
--------Drennan-----Keane---------

All better (alternately push Clark to defensive midfielder and Grealish into a more attacking midfielder...never seen Grealish play so I'm not sure where his strengths lie)

[the bear]

article about the value of EPL clubs signing players from LOI rather than scotland

http://www.football365.com/f365-says...e-Not-Scotland

[Murfinator]

The league quality isn't hugely different these days. Both sets of players carry more failures than successes in the EPL but LoI players are so dirt cheap theres very little financial risk to taking a gamble on them. It does continue to surprise me how people continue to overrate the Scottish league, theres many Irish examples of mediocre championship players being superstars in the SPL. Stokes, Sammon, Noel Hunt, Liam Miller etc.

[theworm2345]

Stevens captained the Villa reserves in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal today.
http://www.birminghammail.net/birmin...19-30108927/2/

Plenty of Irish involved, James Shea in goal (there is some debate over him as I recall though) and Rhys Murphy played the full 90 for them up front. For Villa, Stevens and Williams both played 90 in defence, as did Micky Drennan up front (he got Villa's goal with a header). Drennan was partnered up front by Graham Burke who played 75 minutes, and Jack Grealish came on after 70 minutes.

[Closed Account]

Stevens captained the Villa reserves in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal today.

Seen the captaincy reported wrong a couple of places but it was definitely Gary Gardner who captained. Would of been very strange otherwise.

[Olé Olé]

The league quality isn't hugely different these days. Both sets of players carry more failures than successes in the EPL but LoI players are so dirt cheap theres very little financial risk to taking a gamble on them. It does continue to surprise me how people continue to overrate the Scottish league, theres many Irish examples of mediocre championship players being superstars in the SPL. Stokes, Sammon, Noel Hunt, Liam Miller etc.

Is Aiden McGeady the best export the SPL has had since Henrik Larsson? McGeady cost quite a sum but has been impressive in Russia and is one of Karpin's most integral players.

Adam Rooney is another one you could mention in that he hasn't set the world alight with Birmingham City in the championship, as of yet.

I think you've reflected it there, the main crux of that article is the fact that the SPL players have a relatively inflated price, even though (Celtic and Rangers apart, arguably) the standard of football isn't all that great. Reading have benefited from the fact that many LoI players have one year contracts and have brought in a 20 year-old striker who has scored goals both domestically and one against PAOK in the Europa League. To put that into context, one of PAOK's best players, Vieirinha has subsequently signed for Wolfsburg for €4m and Shamrock Rovers progressed further in Europe than Celtic would have but for the issue with Sion. Villa have, similarly, signed Stevens who is a left-back with similar European experience.

I suppose to create an Irish-flavoured contrast, Wigan signed Sammon from Kilmarnock for £600,000. 6 months later Sunderland splashed out £350,000 on James McClean from Derry City. Which player is most likely to fulfil the relevant outlay in the transfer market, and most likely exceed it?

[liamoo11]

Stevens captained the Villa reserves in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal today.
http://www.birminghammail.net/birmin...19-30108927/2/

Plenty of Irish involved, James Shea in goal (there is some debate over him as I recall though) and Rhys Murphy played the full 90 for them up front. For Villa, Stevens and Williams both played 90 in defence, as did Micky Drennan up front (he got Villa's goal with a header). Drennan was partnered up front by Graham Burke who played 75 minutes, and Jack Grealish came on after 70 minutes.

Fair play to Drennan he was reported to have left villa at end of last season due to homesickness and his promising start to his career looked over but he seemed to come back around October and has done well. Maybe he just went home for the Kilkenny hurling championship!

[theworm2345]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-Fletcher.html

[theworm2345]

Well just finished watching the Villa Reserves lose 3-1 to the Manchester United Reserves. Heres how they lined up:



Villa were pretty much completely overrun in the match -- United had a strong side with Phil Jones, Smalling, Fabio, Cleverley, and Pogba all starting.

Derrick Williams was pretty shaky at centre half. Did OK dealing with anything that came down the middle of the pitch and showed some composure on the ball but looked out of sorts when crosses came in. Was beaten in the air by Will Keane for United's first after a cross from the left and I believe was beaten by Smalling for United's third from a corner (not 100% sure it was him).

Enda Stevens was relatively solid at left back but did not get forward at all and Courtney Cameron probably could've used some help in that aspect of the game. Showed some good skill in some of the long balls he played.

Samir Carruthers was sort of enigmatic. Started on the right but quickly appeared to move in to the middle of the pitch. Appears to be very talented with the ball at his feet but in McGeady fashion often lost possession. Took Villa's corners from the right as well. Showed some inventiveness with some passes but overall was stifled. Also seems to have a temper on him, clattered in to a few challenges and mouthed off to the referee a bit.

Graham Burke in midfield had little impact on the match. I think he pushed further forward than the above diagram would lead you to believe, but they really got nothing going there. Was taken off after about an hour.

Mikey Drennan was given the chance to start in Andreas Weimann's absence. Seemed to be moving between the right hand side of midfield and the centre forward position, though he wasn't particularly effective in either place. Was taken off after about 70 minutes right after nearly having a free header from about 10 yards out (Carruthers crossed from the right and Drennan just couldn't get on the end of it, couldn't really tell if he should've done better or not).

Michael Keane came on for United late on, didn't have much of an impact and I believe he switched allegiances anyway.