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Gardner: Blues Close To Being Brums Top Team; ''I Was Undercover BCFC Fan''
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Topic Started: Oct 29 2010, 11:16 PM (412 Views)
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Mr_Blue_Sky
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Oct 29 2010, 11:16 PM
Post #1
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Craig Gardner is the spy who came in from the claret and blue.
As a member of Aston Villa's squad he was a self-confessed "undercover Birmingham City fan". Now playing "the football of my life for the club of my dreams", he aims to halt Villa's run of six successive wins over their neighbours tomorrow – and give Gérard Houllier a torrid introduction to the Second City derby.
The instant effect of Alex McLeish's team breaking Villa's grip on local bragging rights, apart from piling pressure on Houllier, would be to lift them above their rivals in the Premier League. The bigger picture reveals that Birmingham have finished above Villa only once in 35 years, in 2003, but Gardner believes a shift in the balance of power may be imminent.
"We're the underdogs and Villa have been the top team for the past few years," says the 23-year-old attacking midfielder. "But last season we finished really high [ninth] and we're looking to improve on that. Villa are looking over their shoulders now – and so they should be. I'd like them to be the underdogs. It would be amazing to finish above them. Then we could give them back six or seven years of stick."
Gardner comes from a "Bluenose" family and is likely to be the only Brummie in the starting line-ups. Yet as a 19-year-old who progressed through Villa's youth system he helped them beat his boyhood favourites before defecting to St Andrew's in a £3m deal in January. Preparing to return to Villa Park, having appeared there for his new club in their contentious defeat in April, he offered a telling distinction between being thoroughly professional for Villa and a fanatic in the first team at Birmingham.
"When I was a Villa player, being an undercover Birmingham fan, it was my job. Whoever I'm playing for I'll give 110 per cent, but being a Blues fan and playing in this game, I'll give 150 per cent. It's a game I dreamed about playing in. It's massive. I'll be pinching myself in the tunnel before we go out. I'll be thinking: 'This is really happening. Come on, let's do it'.
"It's just another game for the players and the staff – we haven't changed our training regime – but for supporters it's the one they can't wait for. When the fixtures come out, they say, 'When have we got Villa?' It was the first thing I asked. Everywhere you go, you get Villa fans coming up saying, 'You're gonna get beat', and Blues fans telling you, 'Let's do it this time'."
Gardner, whose 18-year-old brother Gary is with Villa, struggled to break into Martin O'Neill's midfield but is thriving under McLeish's management, top-scoring this season with four goals despite a three-match suspension. Ironically, given the sale of James Milner, injuries to Stiliyan Petrov and Fabian Delph plus the suspension of Marc Albrighton, he might have made Houllier's 11 tomorrow. But there are "no regrets" and he will go head to head with two other players who became peripheral under O'Neill, Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell.
Villa, who have taken one point from three matches since launching the Houllier era with a derby success at Wolves, are also missing the injured Habib Beye and Gabriel Agbonlahor. However, Stephen Warnock, Luke Young and John Carew return, leaving Gardner under no illusions about the task ahead. "They're a top-class team. Just because they've got players missing we're not going to go there thinking we'll walk all over them. We're going to go out and play as if they have got a full-strength side. Whichever players come in will be good. We just have to get in their faces and make it hard for them."
In the last meeting, Birmingham dominated before succumbing to a fiercely disputed 83rd-minute penalty by Milner. "We've moved on," Gardner insists. "We were upset, but the decision got made. That's football."
McLeish has since recruited striker Nikola Zigic (who is "about nine feet tall" according to Gardner) and midfielder Alexander Hleb, both now showing signs of settling. Come the high noon kick-off, would the Serb and the Belarusian understand the importance of this parochial spat? "They'll know about it by 11 o'clock. They need to give everything but they're honest lads. They'll take a cut for the team and sweat for the team."
Asked whether a 100mph derby might prove a culture shock for Hleb after playing with the purists of Barcelona, Gardner laughs in mock indignation. "Why? Barcelona like to pass the ball and Blues want to pass it now," he says, fan to the fore and tongue tickling cheek. "I think we're as good as Barcelona to be honest."
Craig Gardner is quickly becoming 'Our Steven Gerrard', our talisman on and off the pitch.
Great article! Some of his comments are class! :wub:
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ESONEULB
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Oct 30 2010, 12:15 AM
Post #2
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Bluenose Ad Vitam = Bluenose For Life
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- Lukey_H
- Oct 30 2010, 12:16 AM
- Quote:
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Craig Gardner is the spy who came in from the claret and blue.
As a member of Aston Villa's squad he was a self-confessed "undercover Birmingham City fan". Now playing "the football of my life for the club of my dreams", he aims to halt Villa's run of six successive wins over their neighbours tomorrow – and give Gérard Houllier a torrid introduction to the Second City derby.
The instant effect of Alex McLeish's team breaking Villa's grip on local bragging rights, apart from piling pressure on Houllier, would be to lift them above their rivals in the Premier League. The bigger picture reveals that Birmingham have finished above Villa only once in 35 years, in 2003, but Gardner believes a shift in the balance of power may be imminent.
"We're the underdogs and Villa have been the top team for the past few years," says the 23-year-old attacking midfielder. "But last season we finished really high [ninth] and we're looking to improve on that. Villa are looking over their shoulders now – and so they should be. I'd like them to be the underdogs. It would be amazing to finish above them. Then we could give them back six or seven years of stick."
Gardner comes from a "Bluenose" family and is likely to be the only Brummie in the starting line-ups. Yet as a 19-year-old who progressed through Villa's youth system he helped them beat his boyhood favourites before defecting to St Andrew's in a £3m deal in January. Preparing to return to Villa Park, having appeared there for his new club in their contentious defeat in April, he offered a telling distinction between being thoroughly professional for Villa and a fanatic in the first team at Birmingham.
"When I was a Villa player, being an undercover Birmingham fan, it was my job. Whoever I'm playing for I'll give 110 per cent, but being a Blues fan and playing in this game, I'll give 150 per cent. It's a game I dreamed about playing in. It's massive. I'll be pinching myself in the tunnel before we go out. I'll be thinking: 'This is really happening. Come on, let's do it'.
"It's just another game for the players and the staff – we haven't changed our training regime – but for supporters it's the one they can't wait for. When the fixtures come out, they say, 'When have we got Villa?' It was the first thing I asked. Everywhere you go, you get Villa fans coming up saying, 'You're gonna get beat', and Blues fans telling you, 'Let's do it this time'."
Gardner, whose 18-year-old brother Gary is with Villa, struggled to break into Martin O'Neill's midfield but is thriving under McLeish's management, top-scoring this season with four goals despite a three-match suspension. Ironically, given the sale of James Milner, injuries to Stiliyan Petrov and Fabian Delph plus the suspension of Marc Albrighton, he might have made Houllier's 11 tomorrow. But there are "no regrets" and he will go head to head with two other players who became peripheral under O'Neill, Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell.
Villa, who have taken one point from three matches since launching the Houllier era with a derby success at Wolves, are also missing the injured Habib Beye and Gabriel Agbonlahor. However, Stephen Warnock, Luke Young and John Carew return, leaving Gardner under no illusions about the task ahead. "They're a top-class team. Just because they've got players missing we're not going to go there thinking we'll walk all over them. We're going to go out and play as if they have got a full-strength side. Whichever players come in will be good. We just have to get in their faces and make it hard for them."
In the last meeting, Birmingham dominated before succumbing to a fiercely disputed 83rd-minute penalty by Milner. "We've moved on," Gardner insists. "We were upset, but the decision got made. That's football."
McLeish has since recruited striker Nikola Zigic (who is "about nine feet tall" according to Gardner) and midfielder Alexander Hleb, both now showing signs of settling. Come the high noon kick-off, would the Serb and the Belarusian understand the importance of this parochial spat? "They'll know about it by 11 o'clock. They need to give everything but they're honest lads. They'll take a cut for the team and sweat for the team."
Asked whether a 100mph derby might prove a culture shock for Hleb after playing with the purists of Barcelona, Gardner laughs in mock indignation. "Why? Barcelona like to pass the ball and Blues want to pass it now," he says, fan to the fore and tongue tickling cheek. "I think we're as good as Barcelona to be honest."
Craig Gardner is quickly becoming 'Our Steven Gerrard', our talisman on and off the pitch. Great article! Some of his comments are class! :wub:
you can feel how much hw wants this game and revenge :bluzz:
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alfred E nueman
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Oct 30 2010, 12:24 AM
Post #3
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.....and can anyone remember those dire threads we had when he signed?
All about him not being a bluenose only coming here for the money and so on.
Where are those people now...or better still, what usernames are they using now, having the truth rammed down their keyboard throats.
As Lukey says---the comments are brilliant. Anyone ever see a villa player with a sense of humour?
:LMAO:
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PartisanBCFC
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Oct 30 2010, 05:32 AM
Post #4
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Credit to Gardner and the BlueNoses have taken to him very well....Especially given the fact he admitted he was a BlueNose all along despite earlier claims to the contrary
Always concerns me a bit though when some of our players go out talking to the media about the big game
I'd rather they bottle it all for the match itself......Remember how fired up we were after Olef Mellberg's dumb***e statements about us back in 2002
Thank God the journos haven't gone after Gary O'Connor for a comment :banghead: :banghead: Although there's still more than 24 hours to go
KRO
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R Kid
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Oct 30 2010, 06:52 AM
Post #5
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Craig may well become a legend for us. Quality player and a true blue. We've not had many of our own doing the biz. Rob Hopkins springs to mind. Anyone else? Frainy?
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christoi
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Oct 30 2010, 07:53 AM
Post #6
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- alfred E nueman
- Oct 30 2010, 01:24 AM
.....and can anyone remember those dire threads we had when he signed? All about him not being a bluenose only coming here for the money and so on. Where are those people now...or better still, what usernames are they using now, having the truth rammed down their keyboard throats. As Lukey says---the comments are brilliant. Anyone ever see a villa player with a sense of humour? :LMAO:
I was thinking a similar thing - but more on the number of pages of debate about whether he was one of us or one of them. And no-one really knew... Ha!
So - one last time... Craig's a Bluenose, then...?!
Great article. I think we got an absolute bargain. How does his brother get on in the Village?
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bluev
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Oct 30 2010, 08:59 AM
Post #7
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BBC have a 2 1/2 min video which sum's up the article, about 1 min in he mis-speaks and call's himself a villa fan (to be fair he had mentioned he was a blues fan 3 or 4 times at this point) and he corrects himself to say a villa player.
Great player - Great man
Can't wait for him to score tomorrow
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dant1875
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Oct 30 2010, 09:55 AM
Post #8
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- alfred E nueman
- Oct 30 2010, 12:24 AM
As Lukey says---the comments are brilliant. Anyone ever see a villa player with a sense of humour? :LMAO:
According to a Villa fan I work with - Stephen Ireland's got a great sense of humour - he told everyone he was better than Milner when he signed after all....... :silence:
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PartisanBCFC
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Oct 30 2010, 10:47 AM
Post #9
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- dant1875
- Oct 30 2010, 05:55 AM
- alfred E nueman
- Oct 30 2010, 12:24 AM
As Lukey says---the comments are brilliant. Anyone ever see a villa player with a sense of humour? :LMAO:
According to a Villa fan I work with - Stephen Ireland's got a great sense of humour - he told everyone he was better than Milner when he signed after all....... :silence:
Ireland is better than Milner though
He's still a big headed Viler though
:ball:
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