Things are hardly rosy at this point for Aston Villa, firstly they are being sucked into a relegation battle and secondly Gerard Houllier is showing no signs of improvement. The only person who must be more furious than the fans must be Darren Bent, yes Darren, this WAS a good move for your career.
Gerard is clearly someone who views the glass as being ‘half full’ because he is supposedly already stepping up his search for Summer transfer targets, and first up is Inter Milan player and Kenyan international midfielder McDonald Mariga. I would suggest he should be spending that time looking for new jobs as opposed to new players!
Mariga began his career at youth level playing in his native Kenya before he moved to the somewhat chillier Sweden where he played for Enkoping for a season and then Helsingborgs. He was such a success that after just one year with Helsingborgs he moved to Italian side Parma, initially on loan and then on a permanent basis.
He performed well for the Italian side and in January 2010 reports emerged that Roberto Mancini wanted to sign the player and take him to Manchester City, however unfortunately he was never granted a work permit so instead he moved to Italian giants Inter Milan.
Mariga has played well for Inter but has found games difficult to come by, he has only appeared in 9 league games this term and it is for that reason that he will apparently consider a move this Summer. Media reports in Italy suggest that Aston Villa are already considering launching a bid before there is any more interest, it is thought that Inter would want around £4.5million to sell the player.
Mariga is a strong defensive midfielder and would probably be a good player for Aston Villa, they did recently sign Jean Makoun however, so unless the Villa management team plan on playing two defensive midfielders it does seem a bit of a strange piece of business. It seems likely that Stiliyan Petrov could be moved on this Summer which could open up a position in the midfield, but how well the Villa Park faithful would take to playing 2 ruiners remains to be seen.
Mariga is clearly a good footballer but I am not entirely sure how much Aston Villa need him, if they were to sort out their defensive issues, by which I mean if Houllier could stop falling out with there good defenders, they would not be in the trouble they are currently in. I am unsure as to how an extra sitter is going to help them, whether this one comes to pass remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely to me!
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