Villa can't afford to carry passengers, says Dion Dublin
Jun 23 2009 By Mathew Kendrick
Former Aston Villa favourite Dion Dublin has warned that Martin O’Neill’s claret and blue bandwagon cannot afford to carry any passengers next season.
Dublin believes there were too many instances of players suffering off-days during Villa’s anti-climactic 2008-09 bid for Champions League qualification.
The retired centre-forward feels the individual lulls from Villa’s top stars ultimately undermined their chances of competing for a top four place during the latter part of last season.
“Sometimes I feel they’re not getting their best players all playing at the same time,” said Dublin. “You might get one or two playing well one game, but the other two having an off day.
“At Arsenal four or five of their top players are playing well, therefore you can afford to carry two or three if they are not having such a good game.”
An area in which Dublin feels Villa lose out to their established ‘Big Four’ rivals is the lack of winning experience in the dressing room.
The 40-year-old television pundit points to the medals that Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea’s players have won compared to their Villa counterparts.
“Manchester United have got 20 players used to success, Arsenal have certain players who are used to success, whether it’s in European football or with other clubs,” said Dublin.
“Villa haven’t got any players who are used to success, other than perhaps Stiliyan Petrov who was successful at Celtic and the big man up front, John Carew.
“Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor are new into the top flight of football. They haven’t really been used to success. I don’t know if they know how to get it and keep hold of it. It’s hard.
“But when you do have it you want to keep hold of it like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. That’s why they are the best.”
Meanwhile, O’Neill has backed Young, Agbonlahor and James Milner to continue impressing England manager Fabio Capello ahead of next summer’s World Cup finals.
O’Neill believes the Villa trio have a good chance of being selected by the Three Lion head coach for the tournament in South Africa if they maintain their level of development.
“It will be a big season for the England lads,” said O’Neill. “They want to get on that plane to South Africa.
“I think James, Ashley, Gabby will be very excited by the season ahead. They will want to improve.
“It’s that extra percentage of improvement that could make the difference for them.”
