Bigmouth defender shows some things don’t change at the Villa

Curtis Davies may be spending the next couple of days practising the ps and qs ahead of attending the England wrap party tomorrow evening, but his agents have had no such qualms about speaking out of turn recently. Castigating Martin O’Neill for refusing to open negotiations on a new contract (due when Davies has played 60 matches for Villa,) Davies’ people hinted that dark forces were at work when their client, who has featured in 58 Villa games thus far, was left out of the side earlier this season.

Nonsense and piffle of course, but it did remind thespoiler of a story from the Doug Ellis reign at Villa Park, involving Mustapha Hadji. Having spent months negotiating a fee with Coventry chairman (and fierce rival) Bryan Richardson, Ellis was still smarting from what he saw as an excessive final fee of £2.5million between the clubs. Richardson on the other hand, felt £2.5million in a summer which saw Blackburn Rovers pay £6.5m for Corrado Grabbi, and Villa themselves lose £6m in a Bosko Balaban shaped hole, was a little on the cheap side. The Coventry chairman thus engineered a £500,00 payment due when Hadji started 25 matches for Villa.

John Gregory failed to last the season at Villa, and his replacement Graham Taylor preferred more workmanlike performers. By the end of the 02-03 season, Hadji was marooned on 24 matches, a bit-part player at the Villa. Enter Mr Ellis and his opportunity for revenge on Richardson. New manager David O’Leary was warned not to start Hadji by any means, and O’Leary was forced to select such Villa luminaries as Mark Kinsella, Peter Whittingham and Ulises de la Cruz in place of the experienced Moroccan playmaker. Hadji was soon shipped off to Espanyol, leaving Coventry, by now in deep financial trouble, half a million quid light.