Filed under: Aston Villa, Premier League, Football
Manager
Gerard Houllier told Stiliyan Petrov recently that he can no longer expect to be a permanent fixture in the Aston Villa team. His excuse for marginalising the captain to whom former manager Martin O'Neill was loyal in the extreme was because Houllier believes in rotation far more than his predecessor.
Houllier firmly believes that professional football is a work environment where all players, who are being paid healthy sums of money each month, should work hard to justify their salaries.
All managers have different methods and on the face of it, Houllier was simply being refreshingly honest with his Bulgarian international and the rest of his highly-paid squad.
He qualified it further with the proviso that Petrov still has a role to play in the squad, but that was just before the club announced their financial figures for the previous tax year.
A few days later, operating losses of £37 million and an £80 million wage bill for the year ending May 2010, which was 88 percent of their record £91 million operating figures, were revealed and immediately the warning to Petrov was cast into sharper focus by a manager who accepts he has to reduce the wage bill.
"I need to find a better balance between the wage bill and our turnover," said Houllier - and that can only mean cutting players who are surplus to requirements.
It will not be achieved overnight, but there has to be a starting point and if Petrov thought he was under threat last week, events at Villa Park at the weekend will have not made him sleep any easier.
With Jean Makoun suspended against Blackburn Rovers, that opened up a central midfield role which Petrov had lost in the previous game against Blackpool.
There was competition for a place from Michael Bradley and Nigel Reo-Coker of course, but when Petrov found himself in the dug-out alongside the American international and watched Robert Pires take his place, the alarm bells would have been ringing even louder.
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Losing out to a 37-year-old, who is only at the club on a short-term deal until the end of the season, must have been a particularly bitter pill for the 31-year-old to swallow.
To Petrov's credit he accepted the demotion with apparent good grace and even declined to take his captain's armband from stand-in Ashley Young when he eventually replaced the former French international for the last 15 minutes.
Young felt it was a great gesture from Petrov, but what O'Neill's former general would have been thinking is another matter entirely.
Perhaps he felt insulted at being offered the armband for the last 15 minutes. Perhaps he felt insulted at losing his place to Pires.
Apparently there is interest from Turkish side Galatasaray, who are ready to offer Petrov the chance to join them in the summer and it might just prove to be the kind of opportunity that is too good to refuse, judging from the winds of change blowing through Villa Park.
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