Aston Villa's Foreign Exchange

"If the Premier League think we will produce English players and then lose them at the age of 16 – that's not happening.

Aston Villa will now, if it doesn't change, start to go into Europe to get players to develop. We have already met with the manager and the board of directors and talked about that. My job is to produce players for Aston Villa, not for Arsenal to pinch them. What is the point in developing players for eight or nine years only to then lose them cheaply? That will kill the game and it will kill development."

Pretty damning from Aston Villa's Head of Youth Development Bryan Jones. A statement I strongly agree with.

Why should a club like Villa, who have provided a record amount of players for England put up with such BS?

The case Jones is referring to is 16-year old Danny Crowley's acrimonious move to Arsenal for a piddly £200k (as is the amount necessary according to new EPPP guidelines.)

After spending countless time and resources over the years developing such a talent, Villa's argument is a valid one.

As anyone who know's me will know how much of a staunch supporter of the local youth systems I've been. And how much I have detested the influx of Johnny Foreigners in recent years.

The realization is, like Jones, my interest is solely in Aston Villa. Not England.

In the end though, if changes aren't made, fans may never see the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Gary Cahill or Daniel Sturridge breaking through to grace the Premier League again.

"You're Just a Sh*t Emile Heskey!"

A question, how bad does a player have to be, to be worse than Emile Heskey?

Ah, Emile Heskey. No player in Premier League history, has been a bigger joke figure than Emile Ivanhoe Heskey. A common target for terrace abuse, yet a point of praise from fellow professionals. Big Emile has provided such an amount of pro/con arguments and discussions like no other England/Premier League player ... until now.

So, step forward Manchester United 'striker' Danny Welbeck. With the emergence of the Manchester United player, it seems the laughable lump from Leicester may be about to surrender his joke tag.

Both players we're told by pundits are great 'team players'. But on observation, with a 'fly to light' type of attachment to the ball when in the opponents possession, yet devoid of any real ability to go on any sort of goal-scoring run, it's a mystery to see what they bring.

Forwards are, at least should be judged on goals, and assists.

Whereas Emile Heskey's record is o.k.,  Danny Welbeck's is poor. Shocking in fact.

To be fair, it wasn't always bad for poor Emile. His first 5 full years as a pro were encouraging, the sort you'd expect from a youngster breaking through I'd say. As a winger-turned-forward Heskey's first full season (the 1996/97 campaign) saw him net 10 goals in 35 games, identical to his goal tally and games the following season (he also added 2 assists). The 98/99 season however, saw the big man under the sort of criticism he'd later get used to, after only netting a relatively poor 6 goals in 30 appearances.

Despite this setback, Heskey improved the season after scoring 7 in 23 before making the big move to Liverpool midway through the season for £11m. He'd go on to bag another 3 to once again hit double figures for the season. He followed up that by having his best ever season to date hitting 14 goals in the Premier League for Liverpool, during their unique treble season.

Overall, up to his fifth full season as a pro, Heskey played 172 games scoring 50 goals (also chipping in with 3 assists.) That gives the ex-England international a goal every 3.4 games which to be fair, is a decent record.

All in all, those first 5 years (which are comparable to Welbeck's) show Heskey was decent, and showed a relative, encouraging improvement.

Welbeck on the other hand. Jeez, well ...

Since breaking into the Man Utd senior squad, Danny Welbeck has spent the majority of his professional career thus far in the Premier League. (His only time outside of the top flight being a 8-game stint at Lancashire minnows Preston North End.)

After playing 8 Premier League games for Man Utd in his first two years as a pro, a fresh faced 19 year old Danny Welbeck joined Sunderland on loan for the 2010/11 campaign.

From what many considered a successful campaign, Welbeck scored 6 goals, and claimed an assist in 26 appearances.

Sir Alex Ferguson must have seen something in him while in the North East as he gave the forward a bigger role for the 11/12 campaign, Welbeck's best to date in fact (although he still failed to hit league double numbers). He netted a fairly impressive 9 in 30 goals as Man Utd finished runners up in the Premier League.

Many had hoped Welbeck would push on for the 12/13 season. But he flopped, badly. 1 goal in 27 is a telling tally indeed. Lucky for the Red Devils that they had just bought Robin van Persie and had Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernàndez in reserve.

Welbeck fans like to point to a game Welbeck had against Real Madrid  as proof of Welbeck's quality (like Messi bashers do with the Bayern/Barca tie). Keep hanging your hat on that though reds fans, as the facts tell a different story.

Those facts being Welbeck has played 99 games, and scored a piss-poor (for a forward at least) 17 goals, (adding 8 assists) which gives a goal ratio of a goal every 5.8 games, nearly twice as worse as Heskey. 

So back to the original question, how bad does a player have to be, to be worse than Emile Heskey? The answer - as bad as Danny Welbeck!