Final pieces in a couple of jigsaws?

Not surprised by this signing. It's been on the cards for a few days but I wonder if Benitez will live to regret not going for the signature himself?

Could Villa be genuine title contenders next season? They're on the up and up, whilst it could be argued that neither Arsenal nor Chelski will be as strong next season as they are this season or recent seasons past. Throw into the mix that if Liverpool do a bottle job this year, and that will scupper their chances for another couple of years. Could get interesting.

Villa to qualify for this year's Championship League. Arsenal of the big four to miss out.

Is now the right time that I remind blog readers that Villa were my favourite English team back in the early eighties? Just happened to coincide with their last League Championship and European Cup. Honest, I wasn't glory hunting. Just rather taken by that Tony Morley goal against Everton in their championship season.

To be honest, my flabber is ghasted by this signing also hitting the BBC Sport headlines today. Cracking player and a cracking signing for Hull City but I'm genuinely surprised no bigger club came in for Bullard. Man City should have thrown some spare change Fulham's way. If they can pay well over the odds for Bellamy and Bridge, signing Eric Stoltz's doppleganger would have been a tidy bit of business.

I'd love Hull to stay up despite their recent blip in firm but good bloke that Phil Brown is, I wish he wouldn't speak of himself in the third person. Who the hell does he think he is?

EPL 08/09 Guardian Bookmarks

For future reference:

Arsenal

Aston Villa

"Excellent Buzzcocks tunes are many, laughs on the Shelley sitcom were few."

Tony who?

OK, as I've now come clean to the fact that, for me, mention of the name Shelley in 1981 meant a miserabilst half-hour sitcom of non-laughs on Thames TV, rather than the joyful melodic punk noise on 'Singles Going Steady', I should also clear up the matter of 1981 and all things Morley.

In 1981, when someone mentioned the name Morley in my company, my hackles didn't rise at the thought of a gobshite NME journalist. That displeasure was to befall me many years later.

Rather, the mention of the name Morley in 1981 meant the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention at the thought of the brilliant Aston Villa footballer, Tony Morley, who, for a season and a half, was up there with John Robertson as the best left winger in British football.

And of course there was that goal against Everton at Goodison Park which won the goal of the season in 1981. It was a goal that ensured that Aston Villa were my favourite English team for a couple of years, and allowed me to glory hunt their European Cup triumph the following season. (And you thought we were all affecting scouse accents in the early eighties.)

Funny, I can't remember the subject of this month's Socialist Standard editorial but I'm sure I can remember Villa's team that won the Championship that season: Rimmer in goal; Swain, Williams, Evans and McNaughton in defence; Mortimer, Bremner, Cowans and Morley in midfield; with Withe and Shaw up front. [This old article from The Observer fills in the gaps.]

Cowans and Shaw in the same sentence? A beauty and the beast combination* that surely a foreshadows the teaming up of Ronan Keating and Mikey Graham many years later. I seemingly can't get away from drawing comparisons between perfect football and perfect pop on the blog. I need a cup of tea to wake me up.

*Bit harsh on Cowans, I know. In truth, I could have paired Gary Shaw with Bremner, McNaughton, Evans or Withe for the B & B line. They all fit (im)perfectly for the barb. Any thoughts of 'Spice Boys' was a lifetime away.