Stephen Warnock Fan

Stephen Warnock has been disappeared from 18-man team and is now searching for a new club. From the World Cup squad to training with the stiffs at Aston Villa, it has been a spectacular fall from grace for Stephen Warnock.

And after becoming the most high-profile victim of Gerard Houllier’s hardline approach, the next four or five months do not promise to get any easier for the Villa defender.

Around this time last year Warnock was being spoken of as the second best English left back in the country and a genuine challenger to Ashley Cole’s seemingly assured place in Fabio Capello’s starting XI.

He made the final 23 that travelled to South Africa last year and earned his second cap in the friendly against France in November.

Stephen Warnock’s loan move from Aston Villa to Liverpool has been blocked because of certain demands from Villa. Warnock is eager to play first-team football elsewhere after being dropped from the Villa side following the 4-0 defeat by Manchester City last month. The England international has not been in the Villa squad since and has been training with the reserves.

Liverpool are keen to take Warnock back to Anfield, where he started his career before moving to Blackburn Rovers, and several other Premier League clubs have also expressed an interest in the 29-year-old.

Stephen Warnock could become a part of swap deal involving Christopher Samba from Blackburn Rovers. The defender has revealed his intention to leave Blackburn Rovers this month, following the controversial sacking of Sam Allardyce in December.

Although Steve Kean, the caretaker boss at Ewood Park, remains confident he can persuade the player to stay, a number of clubs, including Sunderland, are preparing bids to entice him.

The Daily Mail claims Gerard Houllier wants Samba in his Villa squad, and is willing to offer Rovers Stephen Warnock or James Collins as part of the deal.

Stephen Warnock is set to join the long list of players who are set to leave Aston Villa shortly. The Villa manager is looking to offload a number of senior players who are on the periphery of the first team as well as those who have been resistant to the changes he has introduced since taking charge in September.

Richard Dunne, Stephen Ireland and John Carew, who were all left out of the soccer squad who travelled to Wigan Athletic before Saturday’s game was postponed, are expected to move on. Carew’s contract is up in the summer and there is no prospect of him being offered a new deal.

It is understood that Brad Friedel, who will turn 40 in May, has also been told his contract will not be renewed in the summer. Villa have begun looking for a replacement for the former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper. Roman Weidenfeller, the 30-year-old Borussia Dortmund keeper, was watched at the weekend. Houllier is also closely monitoring Allan McGregor’s situation at Celtic
Rangers.

Stephen Warnock has refused to blame the number of injuries that Aston Villa are currently suffering from for their poor form. Villa have been hampered by the worst injury crisis in the league, with Steve Sidwell, young midfielder Marc Albrighton and striker Ashley Young among numerous key absentees.

But Stephen Warnock is refusing to blame the injury crisis for the side’s poor results, and instead questioned the performances of those who have played.

“You’ve got to look at it and wonder why you are down there,” Warnock said.

Stephen Warnock has admitted that Aston Villa league position is ‘a worry’

The Liverpool old-boy will join fellow ex-Reds Gerard Houllier, Gary McAllister and Emile Heskey in taking on their former club.

But Stephen Warnock insists the claret and blues’ current standing in 15th, just three points off the drop zone, is Villa’s most pressing concern.

He reckons climbing away from the unfamiliar territory in the table is more important than returning to the familiar territory of Anfield.

Villa need to bounce back with a positive result away to Roy Hodgson’s men after two league defeats and their Carling Cup exit at Blues.

Aston Villa were defeated by Stoke City despite the presence of Stephen Warnock. Stoke’s contrasting start to the season had seen them fail to register a point in their first three games, but record signing Jones, in search of his first goal since joining from Sunderland, was immediately involved.

The £8m summer buy was a menacing early presence and Stephen Warnock’s concentration was required to clear Etherington’s cross from his path after only 30 seconds. Nonetheless he and Robert Huth scored to give Stoke their first win of the season.

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has ruled out a move for former Liverpool player, Stephen Warnock. Aston Villa fullback Stephen Warnock has been linked with an Anfield return as Hodgson seeks a new left-back signing.

Asked if he was trying to bring Warnock back to provide reinforcements at left-back, Hodgson said: “No.”

Ex-Villa defender, Steve Staunton believes that Stephen Warnock would have learned so much from the World Cup and would return from it as a much better player. Like Warnock, Staunton came through the system at Liverpool before moving to Villa Park, though he now spends matches at Villa Park in the Aston Villa Hospitality Tickets.

Staunton is a big fan of Villa’s left-back, having spent a season with him at Coventry City.

Warnock was loaned out to the Championship club from Liverpool for the 2003-04 term and Staunton saw enough of him to realise he would have a big future in the game.

He told Villa’s website: “He was always going to make it.

“I was at Coventry when I first came across Stephen Warnock and played with him there. He came on loan from Liverpool. He was an aggressive full-back – and still is. That’s a big part of his game.

“He has tremendous running power too and he’s a good tackler. You could tell in his play that he was a tenacious player – he loved a tackle. He loves to get forward as well.

“His all-round game is very good. That’s why he was picked for the England squad. If you look at Villa’s back four and the goalkeeper too, it was another good season. When you’re full of confidence and keeping clean sheets, you’re going to play better. You can see that.

“The back four have come on leaps and bounds. Hopefully that continues again next season.”

Aston Villa’s Stephen Warnock could be a surprise inclusion when Fabio Capello names his England World Cup squad later on Tuesday.

Warnock had been rated as extremely doubtful to be on the plane to South Africa after failing to take any part in the two recent warm-up games against Mexico and Japan.

With only six minutes’ international experience – as a substitute against Trinidad and Tobago in 2008 – Warnock currently has the shortest England career on record and did not seem likely to increase that tally in South Africa given Leighton Baines featured against Mexico and in the friendly against Egypt in March.