Aston Villa boss hits out at "nuisance" international friendlies

Aug 5 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

VILLA boss Martin O’Neill has hit out at the disruptive timing of the eve-of-season international friendlies next week describing them as a “nuisance”.

Fabio Capello’s England are expecting to get booed by a sparse Wembley crowd against Hungary on Wednesday after their World Cup woes.

And O’Neill is just as keen to voice his displeasure that the scheduling of the practice matches will affect Villa’s Premier League preparations.

The claret and blues kick off their season at home to West Ham on Saturday, August 15, but up to nine internationals could be away until the day before.

Capello could select from a Villa contingent including James Milner, Stephen Warnock, Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor and Stewart Downing.

And the club might also be affected by the Ireland v Argentina, Russia v Bulgaria, USA v Brazil and Norway v France friendlies on Wednesday.

Richard Dunne, Stiliyan Petrov, Brad Guzan and John Carew all expect call ups, but injured James Collins is set to miss Wales v Luxemburg.

“There’s no question that it is a problem to have an international match the week before the season starts,” said O’Neill.

“I think that international football has been well and truly accommodated by the Premier League, indeed all the leagues around Europe really in terms of games.

“Then in early September there’s two games in quick succession and the players are away for almost two weeks and it eats into the season.