Juan Pablo Angel

Sean O'Conor talks to the Colombia and Aston Villa striker...

Portsmouth might have hit the top after five games, and Manchester United appear to be genuine title contenders once more, but the real story of the new Premiership season is the renaissance of Aston Villa, moribund for so long they had slipped into a claret and blue hibernation.

On paper, the biggest club of England's second city should be challenging for honours every season but are more normally found sailing the barren waters of mid-table, while reaching a domestic cup final every now and then.

Villa were the obvious English sleeping giant without a sugar daddy, a club with an already impressive fan base, stadium and catchment area to build on but who have never come close to emulating the heights they scaled when winning the European Cup in 1981 against Bayern Munich.

The Brummie whines of discontent grew ever louder over the past few seasons as the spectacle of empty seats appeared at Villa Park, challenging the consensus that English Premiership football is a never-ending cash crop.

Over the past decade, the Villans' fortunes notably stagnated under the prolonged, and many would say past its sell-by date tenure of president 'Deadly' Doug Ellis, so nicknamed because he clung on to his throne until the age of 82, hiring and firing 13 managers through a reign that began in 1968, a year before the moon landing.

At the Watford v Aston Villa match on the 16th of September 2006, Ellis glided into Vicarage Road in his claret Rolls Royce "AV1" for what would be his final match as chairman.

NFL owner Randy Lerner has ridden in like the knight in shining armour with a £62 million takeover, a promised cash injection of £100 million sponsorship at the end of the year and the familiar promise of a soon to arrive transfer kitty for the manager.

Lerner's first masterstroke was hiring Martin O'Neill, one of the most sought-after coaches around, and this double whammy of new blood has already begun to bear fruit in Birmingham.

Villa are in the top five with three wins and three draws from their first six games and are playing with a verve and enthusiasm unthinkable under David O'Leary last season. Whilst it is still early doors, to quote a former Villans boss Ron Atkinson, things really have not been looking up like this at the Villa for yonks.

Soccerphile spoke to Villa's centre-forward and Colombian international ace Juan Pablo Angel to ask how the players were viewing the transformation going on around them.

"I think it has been great, the start," Angel told Soccerphile. "It could not have got any better to be honest with you. We have an unbeaten record so far so we are really pleased.

I think everyone is playing a part," he went on, citing the Northern Irish manager as the prime reason for the renewal of self-belief:

"The coach has brought fresh air for everyone; we are playing with confidence and everyone has something to prove so obviously he is a top class manager but we, as the players, are the ones who do the job on the pitch and we have done it so far.

Although it is a very early stage of the season it is nice to have an unbeaten record so far and it gives you a bit more confidence to look ahead in the season."

So Angel is not counting any chickens just yet, but the signs are promising:

"There are a lot of positive things going on this year but we have to keep getting the results and hopefully over the next couple of months there are going to be some changes, more new faces, a new training ground and more good things for everyone here."

So can Aston Villa be a name feared again in Europe, a club who can finally expect to shake off the tag of being a former European Cup winner you wonder what became of, like Nottingham Forest. The marksman from Medellin remains cautious.

"We don't want to say anything just yet about qualifying for Europe," the former River Plate striker insisted, "but if we keep doing the job we have been doing so far I think we have got a chance to be in the top half of the table."

Hotels in Italy
Hotels in Italy
Hotels in Milan

"The Onside In-Site" Copyright © From 2000. All rights reserved. Soccerphile Ltd.