Right, I'm going to try and not talk about yesterday in this post, well, I have to for the John Carew story, but not about the result or the humiliating way in which the team lost. What happened yesterday is for the owner and manager to talk about.
So, to John Carew first and there is a rumour today in the Sunday Mirror that The Clowns are eyeing a summer move for the player as contract talks have apparently hit a stumbling block.
Now, I could look into this in detail but I don't think I'll bother. John Carew is better than the The Clowns and he really wouldn't want to become part of that travelling circus. Players like Carew do not take a step down when he could, quite easily, join a club playing regular European football.
The other story about Carew is his back injury that saw him miss a fair chunk of last season could be back. He was talking to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.
John Carew
I tried to continue, but in the second half I felt pain, like two knives in my back. I'm going to be have it looked at and treated in Birmingham, and the next 48 hours will determine a lot.
Carew has scored nine goals in his last eight games for us and if this is a recurrence of what kept him our last season, well, it isn't going to be good for him.
Brad Guzan
Little Brad is gutted and basically open to a loan move. He isn't happy about helping Aston Villa to the final of the League Cup then not playing. This was in the Sunday Mirror.
Little Brad
To make it to the final, and to then get benched and to lose the game was absolutely heartbreaking. After you help your team get to a final, especially a competition like the League Cup, it was devastating not to play. You always want to be part of the big games and help your team be successful, so to not be involved and then lose was a rough day for everyone.
There was not much I could do, as the manager makes the final decision. I just had to get on with it, and help the team in any other way, and then to lose the game was even more of a blow. I have not necessarily thought about leaving Villa, but I have thought about playing more regularly. I know that I need to start playing. If, at the end of the season, when I sit down with the manager, the plans make sense for me to go out on loan then that is a possibility I will be open to.
You have to feel for the player, you really do and he is a decent keeper, but half of me just thinks that he will never make it with O'Neill. When Friedel does finally hang up his boots, the manager will want a keeper he knows can do the job and isn't willing to have a player brought through who is untested.
Still, talking points that do not focus on the humiliation that was yesterday.