Villa need room for Makoun

Friday, 20/01/2012

by Steven Green, Shoot's Aston villa blogger

An interview with Alex McLeish this week concerned one of the more experienced members of the Villa squad, Jean II Makoun.

In the interview the boss managed dodged questions about the Cameroonian’s future at the club but many saw the writing on the wall when he was shipped out on loan to Olympiankos in the summer.

For many, this spells out how little McLeish is suited to his job. The fact that he sent out an international player with bags of Champions League experience in favour of the current crop who have so far underperformed seems to say everything about his judgement.

Makoun joined from French club Lyon exactly one year ago this week and quickly became something of a cult hero for his colourful taste in clothing. He gave a few glimpses of what he could do in the games against Wigan and Manchester United before he was sent off in the draw against Blackpool.

He made just seven appearances last season but it was widely thought that his inconsistent form was due to him finding his feet in a tougher league. Unfortunately he wasn’t given the opportunity to discover his form in the claret and blue.

This is sheer short sightedness from McLeish. Why ship out one of the very few players we have with the experience of winning trophies in favour of the likes of Fabien Delph? No disrespect to Delph of course, he’s a better player that I’ll ever be but it’s quite obvious that the step up was too soon for him and he’s now rumoured to be returning to Leeds.

Then he decided to spend money on one of the most injury prone players in the Premier League – Jermaine Jenas – who is now costing the club a lot of money to sit in the stands for the rest of the season.

Makoun has the ability to pass a ball through the eye of a needle, a player capable of keeping and moving the ball forward in a similar style to Gareth Barry who the club have failed to replace since leaving nearly two years ago.

It’s well known that purse strings at Villa have been tightened significantly but they aren’t making the most of what’s available. This isn’t a suggestion that Makoun would be the answer to all of the team’s problems on the field but he certainly wouldn’t do any damage either

The financial situation at Villa still hasn’t done anything to slow down the rumours of ex Birmingham players Scott Dann and Craig Gardner rejoining their former boss. Whether either will happen remains unclear but one thing that is clear is that McLeish is in way over his head here.

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