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Last update: Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 12:41:00 PM
Peter Schmeichel has said that he intends to play for another year, but it looks a nailed on certainty that he won't spend that year at Villa Park. Whilst publicly Villa are saying that they have not yet reached a decision concerning the extension to Schmeichel's contract, the fact that Graham Taylor is actively looking at goalkeepers to understudy Enckleman is proof that he at least doesn't see the Dane's future as being at Villa.
Taylor has been put off the Croat Stipe Petikosa of Hajduk Split by a £5m price tag, and is now, according to icBirmingham, looking very hard at Wimbledon's former England U-21 keeper Kelvin Davis. Davis is now 25 years old, and might make an able understudy to Peter Enckleman, who has said that if he's not number one next season then he'll be off. He looks certain to get his wish, with Schmeichel moving on to someone like Derby.
This leaves Villa needing to fill the goalkeeping no 2 spot, with youngster Boaz Myhill not quite ready to move up from number 3. I'll confess to knowing very little about Davis, so I'm not really in a position to offer an opinion as to his suitability for what is an important role.
Meanwhile, there remains confusion as to whether Taylor plans to replace Juan Pablo Angel with Portsmouth's beanpole striker Peter Crouch or Crewe's highly rated youngster Dean Ashton. Villa have had Crewe watched quite a bit recently, with Stuart Gray reportedly running the rule over 'Deano', and Graham Taylor himself went along with John Deehan to take in the Portsmouth-Crewe game this week, leading to the Crouch speculation. Certainly were Taylor to sign Crouch then there would be a lot of disgruntled people about, but the signing of a hot prospect like Ashton would doubtless get everyone excited, despite the fact that he is clearly no Juan Pablo Angel.
There are also rumours saying that Villa have agreed a £5m fee with Brighton for Bobby Zamora. As this rumour first surfaced on FTT we know to take it perhaps not too seriously, but it does certainly look as if Villa and Spurs are interested in the young striker. My view on the likes of both Zamora and Ashton is that they are likely to take up to 12 months to settle into the pace of the top flight (if at all). There is an absolutely massive gap in the quality of the defences in the Premiership these days to lower down the League. It is no longer a 'given' that a successful lower League player will be able to cope against arguably some of the best teams in the world.
Can a Championship challenge, or even a top four challenge be built around such players? Perhaps eventually, given top quality coaching and plenty of time to settle in. However, these are not qualities for which the Villa are famous·.
Peter Bosworth
Editor
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