Mellberg to the Moon

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So this week we see the career of a Villa legend Olaf Mellberg come to an end.  The legendary beard has hung up his boots for one last time.

During his time at Villa that beard had magical powers – when the beard went the performances dipped, when the beard grew the Viking spirit took over and the performances were solid.  Mellberg was signed by John Gregory in 2001, he soon became club captain and marshalled a solid defence which pushed us back up the league.

Mellberg sealed his status as a hero amongst the Villa faithful due to his outspoken views of Small Heath, he was once quoted as saying

"I could never think about playing for Birmingham City. That's not an option, I don’t like Birmingham City at all” – Legend!  To mark the end of Mellberg’s time at Villa there was a Mellberg appreciation day on his final home match, and Mellberg showed his pure class by giving all of the travelling fans a shirt saying “Thanks 4 Your Support” in his final game away at West Ham – a rare gesture amongst footballers these days.

Enjoy your retirement! Hope to see you at VP soon!

News also doing the rounds this week is the impending departure of Tony Moon, if ever a player peaked too soon it was Antonio Luna.  After scoring in the opening game against Arsenal last season he went on to put in some questionable defensive performances.  Luna was often caught napping and he always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  With the signing of Kieran Richardson Luna’s opportunities are likely to be limited so a move to Serie A is on the cards.  You would not think he is well suited to the defensive game associated with Serie A but Hellas Verona must see something that I don’t.  For that one moment against Arsenal in which I still don’t understand why you were so far up the pitch – Good luck Tony Moon!