Ciaran Clarke grateful for deal at Aston Villa

Nov 28 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

CIARAN Clark has expressed his excitement after being rewarded for progressing to the fringes of the Villa first team with a new contract.

Clark has continued his breakthrough season by signing a two-and-a-half year deal which will keep him at Villa Park until summer 2012.

It completes a whirlwind past few months for the 20-year-old defender who made his Premier League debut for Villa against Fulham in August.

The England under-19 captain also won his first call-up for Stuart Pearce’s under-21 squad recently, even though he did not get onto the field.

And after progressing through the ranks at Bodymoor Heath during the last eight years he is now looking forward to continuing to develop.

“I’m just really grateful and thankful for the contract and I’m just going to knuckle down now and work hard,” said Clark.

“I’ve been here since I was 12 and I know everyone around here now.

“I’ve got to know everyone well and I get on well with everyone. I hope I can push on and do well for Villa,” he said.

“Obviously you do well in the youth teams and reserve teams and if you get the call up it is good.”

The 6ft 2in centre-half insists his game has improved since he has linked up with the senior professionals of Martin O’Neill’s first team squad.

“When you are training with the likes of Ashley Young and defenders like Richard Dunne and Carlos Cuellar, it is a massive help and they help you through training sessions,” he added.

“They encourage you and if you make mistakes they keep your head up.

“If there’s stuff that they can help you with they’ll do that and obviously that helps you as a person and a player.”

n A statue in honour of Villa visionary William McGregor will be unveiled at 4pm today before the match against Tottenham at Villa Park.

The piece, which was sculpted by Sam Holland, will be unveiled by current Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney in front of the directors’ entrance of the Trinity Road stand.

McGregor, a Scottish draper, established Villa as one of the leading teams in England and went on to found the Football League in 1888.

The statue project was the brainchild of the Aston Villa Supporters Trust.