Aston Villa PR magic and Gary Gardner

The Chelsea match is long behind us and we have Wolves on Saturday, but that will get dealt with tomorrow. Today, it's about the relationship O'Neill has with Nigel Reo-Coker, because one of the papers/football websites is suggesting they've got a snitch inside the Villa Park dressing room.

Or, it could just be that new head of media, Brian Doogan, is weaving his magic and doing his best to put the Nigel Reo-Coker story to bed or maybe not allow him to leave so cheaply in January. Or there could be a third option.

The third option is that the reporter could just be making it up and while it is unlikely, it is a possibility. However, I'm going to scrap the making it up option and concentrate on the other two.

It also isn't a snitch and I've just figured it out. Want to know what gave it away?

Mirror Football
And O’Neill deliberately hugged Reo-Coker in the Villa Park dressing room in front of the club’s other players before their recent draw with Man City. O’Neill also made it clear that what had happened in the past between them has been forgotten.

It was that. Hugging in a dressing room before a match? Suspicious all by itself but then when O'Neill is telling a player something that was said to us over two weeks before, it seems like rehashing of news and that was what gave it away.

If it actually is the club spinning some press then that is another story and I'm leaving it here for today but talking of other stories, we've got the news that Gary Gardner has signed a two year deal and he's a happy lad.

Gary Gardner
This is without doubt the greatest moment of my career so far. Craig is pleased for me and he's been a big inspiration. I look up to him and after every game he watched I ask him what I've done right and wrong.

I'm not convinced any player from our academy will really break through under O'Neill but I would love to be be proven wrong. We will find out one day and I like Gardner, but I also like his older brother, as do quite a few clubs if you believe the rumours.

Right, good news about Gardner, PR spin from the club about Reo-Coker and this pig flu thing isn't so bad the second day (that could be the amount of medication I am on), so I'm going to go get some work done.