Rooney: The Perfect Villan?

Possibly the final Great Challenge in English football is that of restoring Aston Villa Football Club to the top of the football tree.  The club that gave the world the game has often been the perfect metaphor for the triumphs and disasters that encapsulate the human condition.  The highs and lows of life are all there in the history of the world famous Birmingham club.

This is a football club like no other, let us remember.  Famous in the times of Boer Wars and peerless in the grim days of Great Wars.  A giant when Hitler began his reign of terror, this club has tasted historic triumphs and modern glories alike—even having the chutzpah to become Champions of Europe, too.

Quite simply, no other club has such a history of winning the biggest of prizes over such a long period of time.  Every decade since the game's creation, Villa have been there challenging and fighting for glory. This is the first club to compete in club finals in three different centuries, let it be noted, and it is understandable when scholars of the game say, "If you want to know the history of football, simply find out about Aston Villa—and if you want to know the history of Aston Villa, simply read up on the history of football."  The two histories are interwoven so uniquely at Villa Park.

When in late 2006 Randy Lerner and Martin O'Neill took up the challenge of restoring Villa to former glories, many football fans assumed a fast track spending spree in the style of Chelsea would follow.  However, instead of picking up world class players left, right, and centre, Martin O'Neill has overseen the painstaking operation of totally rebuilding his club's playing side bit-by-bit.  It has been an operation that has required patience and no little blind faith on behalf of Villa fans everywhere, but finally supporters are beginning to see their manager's plans bear fruit. 

A first final under O'Neill was reached in February of this year, and despite dreadful refereeing that robbed Villa of a fair match, O'Neill's club entered and left Wembley stadium with the reputation that they are fast becoming one of the hardest teams to beat in the Premier League.

Look at the squad O'Neill is developing.  Friedel, Dunne, and Collins form the heart of the meanest defensive unit in the league.  Scan further along the team sheet and note how the midfield is rammed full of young emerging talent, too:  Ashley Young, Stewart Downing, and James Milner are becoming the young heart-beat of a side that is being taken very seriously as one of England's finest.  It is all beginning to take shape.

Talk to Villa fans, however, and between the compliments that they will often dish out to their manager, chairman, and sharply rising young team, a common opinion will be voiced.  A striker.  A world class striker .  That is all the O'Neill needs to complete his team .  Someone to work with Agbonlahor, a goal poacher, a finisher of the highest order.

Of course, such players don't grow on trees, but as the title of this piece suggests, there is ONE player who perfectly fits the O'Neill mould of player. 

O'Neill's vision for his new Aston Villa is young, exciting, and preferably English.  So far the canny Villa manager has spent his billionaire chairman's dollars wisely.  As the club he builds steadily grows and restores itself to a position where it is able to compete for top honours, it becomes increasingly clear that, at some stage, he will have to find that special striker.  And be willing to pay big in doing so.

A striker is needed to help Villa challenge once more for league and European Cup glory.  The question is whether there is a striker out there with the relevant experience.  Well, Wayne Rooney knows what it's like to win the big prizes, and at the moment he represents debt-ridden Manchester United's most bankable asset.  As Villa's trajectory continues to shoot upwards and the bankers' cries steadily become louder outside Old Trafford, don't be surprised if you see Randy Lerner swooping for Manchester's celebrated forward.  It could be a deal that will make a lot of sense for both clubs.

Restoring Villa to No. 1 is the biggest and most romantic challenge in English football.  With every accolade that Wayne Rooney earns this season, he proves himself every inch the man capable of leading the Villans' charge. Man United fans will, of course, claim Rooney is priceless...but Newcastle fans claimed the same about James Milner.