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Aston Villa

2006–07 season
Chairman	Randy Lerner
Manager	Martin O'Neill
FA Premier League	11th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Fourth round
Top goalscorer	League: Gabriel Agbonlahor (9) All: Gareth Barry Gabriel Agbonlahor (10)
Highest home attendance	42,551 (vs. Tottenham, Man Utd, Liverpool, Sheff Utd)
Lowest home attendance	27,450 (vs. Bolton)
Average home league attendance	36,214
Home colours Away colours
← 2005–062007–08 →

During the 2006–07 English football season, Aston Villa F.C. competed in the FA Premier League. It was Villa's first season under the management of Northern Irishman Martin O'Neill, who was appointed as manager following the sacking of David O'Leary at the end of the previous season.

In August 2006, it was confirmed Randy Lerner had reached a £62.6m agreement with Aston Villa to take over the club. The statement to the London Stock Exchange confirmed that 60% of the club's shares, including the 39% stake of Doug Ellis had been sold to Lerner, beating competition from consortia led by Michael Neville, Nicholas Padfield QC, and Athole Still. Eleven days after the announcement, the LSE confirmed that Lerner had secured 59.69% of Villa shares, making him the majority shareholder. Lerner appointed himself Chairman of the Board of the club. The BBC reported in September 2006 that Lerner had moved closer to taking full control of the club, after increasing his share to 85.5%.

By the time that the deadline passed in September 2006, Lerner had secured the acceptance of 89.69% of the shareholders. Due to the acceptance only being 0.31% below the conditional limit, Lerner accepted it and made the bid unconditional. On September 19, 2006, Aston Villa PLC executive chairman Doug Ellis and his board resigned, and were replaced by Randy Lerner as chairman with General Charles C. Krulak, Bob Kain and Michael Martin serving as non-executive directors. At the close of the deal in 2006, Lerner became only the second American owner of a Premiership club. Ellis became a President Emeritus (Life President) of the club.

Villa started life under Martin O'Neill strongly and were the last team in the Premier League to be beaten, going nine matches without defeat and taking points against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea away before a 3–1 loss at Liverpool. A run of 11 games without victory during the middle of the season dragged Villa down to 14th place, putting paid to their early-season hopes of Champions League qualification, but Villa rallied and only lost 3 of their last 15 games to finish comfortably in 11th.

There were debuts for Ashley Young (210), Stiliyan Petrov (185), John Carew (113), Shaun Maloney (30), Isaiah Osbourne (19), Phil Bardsley (13), Chris Sutton (8), Didier Agathe (5), and Gábor Király (5).

Kit

Transfers

Transferred in

Date	Pos	Player	From	Fee
30 August 2006	CM	Stiliyan Petrov	Celtic	£6,500,000
12 September 2006	RM	Didier Agathe	Celtic	Free transfer
3 October 2006	CF	Chris Sutton	Birmingham City	Free transfer
22 January 2007	CF	John Carew	Olympique Lyon	£5,000,000 (P/EX)
23 January 2007	LW	Ashley Young	Watford	£9,650,000
31 January 2007	AM	Shaun Maloney	Celtic	£1,000,000
				£22,150,000

  Record

Loaned in

Date	Pos	Player	From	Loan End
13 December 2006	GK	Gábor Király	Crystal Palace	8 January 2007
8 January 2007	RB	Phil Bardsley	Manchester United	29 April 2007

Transferred out

Date	Pos	Player	To	Fee
1 July 2006	RB	Ulises de la Cruz	Reading	Free transfer
1 August 2006	CM	Mathieu Berson	Levante	£500,000
22 August 2006	CF	Kevin Phillips	West Bromwich Albion	£700,000
11 January 2007	LM	Peter Whittingham	Cardiff City	£350,000
11 January 2007	RM	Didier Agathe	-	Released
22 January 2007	CF	Milan Baroš	Olympique Lyon	£5,000,000 (P/EX)
17 April 2007	CF	Juan Pablo Ángel	New York Red Bulls	Free transfer
				£6,550,000

Loaned out

Date	Pos	Player	To	Loan End
29 September 2006	RM	Lee Hendrie	Stoke City	1 January 2007
29 September 2006	CF	Sam Williams	Brighton & Hove Albion	29 October 2006
20 October 2006	LB	Stephen O'Halloran	Wycombe Wanderers	21 January 2007
23 November 2006	AM	Patrik Berger	Stoke City	1 January 2007
12 January 2007	DM	Eric Djemba-Djemba	Burnley	31 May 2007
30 January 2007	RM	Lee Hendrie	Stoke City	31 May 2007
8 March 2007	GK	Bobby Olejnik	Lincoln City	29 April 2007

Overall transfer activity

Final league table

1. The highest-placed team who applied for the Intertoto Cup and not in an automatic UEFA Cup spot was awarded with a place in that competition. Blackburn Rovers occupied the Intertoto place, because Portsmouth and Reading did not apply. A further place in the UEFA Cup was up for grabs via the Premiership Fair Play League. The winner is placed into a draw with the winners of Fair Play leagues in other countries. The representatives from the two countries that come out of the hat first are given a place in the UEFA Cup first qualifying round. Since the winners of the Premiership Fair Play League, Tottenham Hotspur, had already qualified for the UEFA Cup by virtue of their league position, their place in the Fair Play draw was given to Aston Villa. However, the places in the UEFA Cup were awarded to the representatives from Finland and Norway.

Results

Pre-season

Date	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F–A	Scorers	Competition
21 July 2006	Walsall	A	5–0	Agbonlahor (2), Moore (2), Whittingham	Friendly
25 July 2006	Hull City	A	2–0	Davis, Gardner	Friendly
26 July 2006	Chesterfield	A	2–0	Bridges (2)	Friendly
29 July 2006	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	3–0	Ridgewell, Barry, Agbonlahor	Friendly
5 August 2006	Hannover	A	0–0		Friendly
8 August 2006	NEC Nijmegen	A	1–2	Agbonlahor	Friendly
11 August 2006	Groningen	A	2–2	Moore, Ridgewell	Friendly

Premier League

Results by matchday

19 August 2006 1	Arsenal	1–1	Aston Villa	Islington, London
15:00	Gilberto 84'	Report	Mellberg 53'	Stadium: Emirates Stadium Attendance: 60,023 Referee: Graham Poll

23 August 2006 2	Aston Villa	2–1	Reading	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Ángel 34' (pen.) Barry 61'	Report	Doyle 4' Sonko  34'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 37,329 Referee: Lee Mason

27 August 2006 3	Aston Villa	2–0	Newcastle United	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Moore 3' Ángel 38'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 35,141 Referee: Howard Webb

10 September 2006 4	West Ham United	1–1	Aston Villa	Newham, London
16:00	Mullins  45' Zamora 52' Zamora  58'	Report	Ridgewell 4' Barry  26' McCann  55'	Stadium: Boleyn Ground Attendance: 34,576 Referee: Steve Bennett

23 September 2006 6	Aston Villa	2–0	Charlton Athletic	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Agbonlahor 35' Moore 62'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 35,513 Referee: Mike Riley

30 September 2006 7	Chelsea	1–1	Aston Villa	Fulham, London
	Drogba 3'	Report	Agbonlahor 45'	Stadium: Stamford Bridge Attendance: 41,951 Referee: Graham Poll

14 October 2006 8	Aston Villa	1–1	Tottenham Hotspur	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Barry 81'	Report	Davenport  73' Ángel 76' (o.g.)	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 42,551 Referee: Martin Atkinson

21 October 2006 9	Aston Villa	1–1	Fulham	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Barry 26' (pen.)	Report	Volz 45'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 30,919 Referee: Chris Foy

28 October 2006 10	Liverpool	3–1	Aston Villa	Liverpool, Merseyside
	Kuyt 31' Crouch 38' Luis García 44'	Report	Agbonlahor 56'	Stadium: Anfield Attendance: 44,117 Referee: Steve Bennett

5 November 2006 11	Aston Villa	2–0	Blackburn Rovers	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Barry 41' (pen.) Ángel 50'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 30,089 Referee: Howard Webb

11 November 2006 12	Everton	0–1	Aston Villa	Liverpool, Merseyside
		Report	Sutton 42'	Stadium: Goodison Park Attendance: 36,376 Referee: Phil Dowd

25 November 2006 14	Aston Villa	1–1	Middlesbrough	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Barry 45' (pen.)	Report	Christie 43'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 33,162 Referee: Peter Walton

29 November 2006 15	Aston Villa	1–3	Manchester City	Birmingham, West Midlands
	McCann 66'	Report	Vassell 18' Barton 32' Distin 75'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 30,124 Referee: Mike Dean

2 December 2006 16	Portsmouth	2–2	Aston Villa	Portsmouth, Hampshire
	Taylor 52', 80' Pedro Mendes  86'	Report	Barry 37' (pen.) Ángel 82'	Stadium: Fratton Park Attendance: 20,042 Referee: Uriah Rennie

11 December 2006 17	Sheffield United	2–2	Aston Villa	Sheffield, Yorkshire
	Quinn 50' Webber 64'	Report	Petrov 2' Baroš 65'	Stadium: Bramall Lane Attendance: 30,957 Referee: Mark Halsey

16 December 2006 18	Aston Villa	0–1	Bolton Wanderers	Birmingham, West Midlands
		Report	Speed 75' (pen.)	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 27,450 Referee: Mark Clattenburg

23 December 2006 19	Aston Villa	0–3	Manchester United	Birmingham, West Midlands
		Report	Ronaldo 58', 85' Scholes 64'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 42,551 Referee: Steve Bennett

26 December 2006 20	Tottenham Hotspur	2–1	Aston Villa	Haringey, London
	Defoe 67', 77'	Report	Barry 81'	Stadium: White Hart Lane Attendance: 35,293 Referee: Uriah Rennie

30 December 2006 21	Charlton Athletic	2–1	Aston Villa	Greenwich, London
	D. Bent 57' Hughes 90'	Report	Barry 40' (pen.)  61'	Stadium: The Valley Attendance: 26,699 Referee: Rob Styles

13 January 2007 23	Manchester United	3–1	Aston Villa	Trafford, Greater Manchester
	Park 11' Carrick 13' Ronaldo 35'	Report	Agbonlahor 52'	Stadium: Old Trafford Attendance: 76,073 Referee: Howard Webb

20 January 2007 24	Aston Villa	2–0	Watford	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Mahon 86' (o.g.) Agbonlahor 90'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 35,892 Referee: Peter Walton

31 January 2007 25	Newcastle United	3–1	Aston Villa	Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyneside
	Milner 5' Dyer 7' Sibierski 90'	Report	Young 25'	Stadium: St. James' Park Attendance: 49,201 Referee: Howard Webb

3 February 2007 26	Aston Villa	1–0	West Ham United	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Carew 36'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 41,202 Referee: Chris Foy

10 February 2007 27	Reading	2–0	Aston Villa	Reading, Berkshire
	Sidwell 16', 90'	Report		Stadium: Madejski Stadium Attendance: 24,122

3 March 2007 28	Fulham	1–1	Aston Villa	Fulham
	Bocanegra 23'	Report	Carew 21'	Stadium: Craven Cottage Attendance: 24,552 Referee: Lee Mason

14 March 2007 29	Aston Villa	0–1	Arsenal	Birmingham, West Midlands
		Report	Diaby 10'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 39,968 Referee: Martin Atkinson

2 April 2007 31	Aston Villa	1–1	Everton	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Agbonlahor 83'	Report	Lescott 15'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 36,407 Referee: Howard Webb

7 April 2007 32	Blackburn Rovers	1–2	Aston Villa	Blackburn, Lancashire
	McCarthy 24' (pen.)	Report	Berger 34' Agbonlahor 73'	Stadium: Ewood Park Attendance: 24,211 Referee: Martin Atkinson

9 April 2007 33	Aston Villa	1–1	Wigan Athletic	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Agbonlahor 50'	Report	Heskey 21' Valencia  34'	Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 31,920 Referee: Mark Halsey

14 April 2007 34	Middlesbrough	1–3	Aston Villa	Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire
	Rochemback 13'	Report	Gardner 45' Moore 70' Petrov 77'	Stadium: Riverside Stadium Attendance: 26,959 Referee: Dermot Gallagher

28 April 2007 36	Manchester City	0–2	Aston Villa	Manchester
		Report	Carew 24' Maloney 75'	Stadium: City of Manchester Stadium Attendance: 40,799 Referee: Mark Halsey

5 May 2007 37	Aston Villa	3–0	Sheffield United	Birmingham, West Midlands
	Agbonlahor 25' Young 42' Berger 55'	Report		Stadium: Villa Park Attendance: 42,551 Referee: Peter Walton

13 May 2007 38	Bolton Wanderers	2–2	Aston Villa	Bolton, Greater Manchester
	Speed 32' Davies 58'	Report	Gardner 37' Moore 81'	Stadium: Reebok Stadium Attendance: 26,255 Referee: Mark Clattenburg

FA Cup

7 January 2007 R3	Manchester United	2–1	Aston Villa	Trafford, Greater Manchester
	Larsson 55' Solskjær 90'	Report	Baroš 74'	Stadium: Old Trafford Attendance: 74,924 Referee: Martin Atkinson

League Cup

20 September 2006 R2	Scunthorpe United	1–2	Aston Villa	Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire
	Sharp 73'	Report	Ángel 42', 64'	Stadium: Glanford Park Attendance: 6,502 Referee: Trevor Kettle

24 October 2006 R3	Leicester City	2–3 (a.e.t.)	Aston Villa	Leicester, East Midlands
	Stearman 42' Kisnorbo 85'	Report	Ángel 5' Barry 45' (pen.) Agbonlahor 119'	Stadium: Walkers Stadium Attendance: 27,288 Referee: Mark Clattenburg

8 November 2006 R4	Chelsea	4–0	Aston Villa	Fulham, London
	Lampard 32' Shevchenko 65' Essien 82' Drogba 84'	Report		Stadium: Stamford Bridge Attendance: 41,156 Referee: Mark Halsey

Players

First-team squad

Squad at end of season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  DEN Thomas Sørensen 2 DF  WAL Mark Delaney 3 DF  ENG Jlloyd Samuel 4 DF  SWE Olof Mellberg 5 DF  DEN Martin Laursen 6 MF  ENG Gareth Barry 8 MF  ENG Gavin McCann 10 FW  NOR John Carew 11 MF  BUL Stiliyan Petrov 12 MF  NIR Steven Davis 13 GK  ENG Stuart Taylor 15 FW  ENG Gabriel Agbonlahor

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  NED Wilfred Bouma 17 FW  ENG Ashley Young 18 DF  NIR Aaron Hughes 19 DF  ENG Liam Ridgewell 20 FW  ENG Chris Sutton 21 DF  ENG Gary Cahill 22 FW  ENG Luke Moore 23 MF  CZE Patrik Berger 24 DF  ENG Phil Bardsley (on loan from Manchester United) 26 MF  ENG Craig Gardner 27 MF  ENG Isaiah Osbourne 28 MF  SCO Shaun Maloney

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 7 MF  ENG Lee Hendrie (on loan to Stoke City) 9 FW  COL Juan Pablo Ángel (to New York Red Bulls) 10 FW  CZE Milan Baroš (to Lyon) 14 MF  CMR Eric Djemba-Djemba (on loan to Burnley) 17 MF  ENG Peter Whittingham (to Cardiff City)

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 FW  ENG Kevin Phillips (to West Bromwich Albion) 24 MF  FRA Mathieu Berson (to Levante) 28 GK  HUN Gabor Király (on loan from Crystal Palace) 31 DF  REU Didier Agathe (released)

Reserve squad

The following players spent most of the season playing for the reserve team, and did not appear for the first team.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 GK  AUT Bobby Olejnik 29 DF  IRL Stephen O'Halloran — DF  ENG Paul Green

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  BEL Christian Tshimanga Kabeya (sacked) — FW  ENG Scott Bridges — FW  ENG Sam Williams

Youth squad

The following players spent most of the season playing for the youth team, and did not appear for the first team, but may have appeared for the reserve team.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ENG Elliot Parish — GK  IRL David Bevan (on loan to Hull City) — GK  IRL Lee Boyle (on loan to Bohemians) — GK  IRL Stephen Henderson — DF  ENG Daniel Bradley — DF  ENG Ciaran Clark — DF  ENG Jordan Collins — DF  ENG Ben Love — DF  ENG Will Ricketts — DF  ENG Matthew Roome — DF  ENG Sam Simmonds — DF  IRL Danny Earls — DF  IRL Shane Lowry — DF  SWE Erik Lund

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  AUS Chris Herd — MF  ENG Marc Albrighton — MF  ENG Jonathan Hogg — MF  SCO Barry Bannan — MF  SUI Damian Bellón — MF  SUI Yagó Bellón — MF  HUN Zoltán Stieber — FW  ENG Nathan Delfouneso — FW  NIR Adam McGurk — FW  SWE Tobias Mikaelsson (on loan to Ljungskile SK) — MF  ENG Josh Burge (on trial from Grimsby Town) — DF   Steven Clancy — MF   Aaron Griffiths — MF   Danny MacDonald (contract terminated by mutual consent)

Other players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  NOR Lasse Staw (on trial from Fredrikstad) — MF  CYP Stefanos Georgiou (on trial from Olympiakos Nicosia) — MF  CYP Feidos Panagiotiu (on trial from Olympiakos Nicosia) — FW  SWE Jacob Flingmark (on trial from Ljungskile SK) — FW  SWE Robin Söder (on trial from Stenungsunds IF)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ENG Phil Green — DF  IRL Mark Power — DF   Seyi Morgan (contracted cancelled) — MF   Morgan Evans

Squad statistics

References

1. "Lerner closer to control of Villa". Article on BBC Sport. 5 September 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2006.
2. "RIP Sir Doug Ellis". Aston Villa F.C. 11 October 2018.
3. "Aston Villa's Seasons". AVFC History.
4. Spurs win may harm Rovers' Intertoto chances
5. "FootballSquads - Aston Villa - 2006/07".
6. "Aston Villa Player Database".
7. "Villa matches 2006-07" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 February 2012.

Notes

1. Samuel was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, but also qualified to represent England internationally and represented them at U-21 level before making his full international debut for Trinidad and Tobago in September 2009.
2. Bardsley was born in Salford, England, but also qualified to represent Scotland internationally through his father and would make his international debut for Scotland in October 2010.
3. Maloney was born in Miri, Malaysia, but was raised in Scotland from the age of 5 and represented them at U-21 level before making his international debut for Scotland in October 2005.
4. Kabeya was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), but also qualifies to represent Belgium internationally and has represented them at U-16, U-17, U-18 and U-19 level.
5. Clark was born in Harrow, England, and represented them at U-17, U-18, U-19, and U-20 level, but also qualifies to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and would make his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in February 2011.
6. Lowry was born in Perth, Australia, but also qualifies to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally through his parents and represented them at U-17, U-19, and U-21 level before switching his international allegiance to Australia.

External links

• Aston Villa official website
• avfchistory.co.uk 2006–07 season

• Aston Villa F.C. seasons
• 2006–07 FA Premier League by team