Aston Villa: Sight, Not Might, Makes Right

We all know that Aston Villa isn't exactly the most physical imposing team in the Premier League. Remember watching them against Manchester City, where it appeared that a squad of elves, dressed in claret, had shown up only to find an NBA team waiting?

There's only so much a club can do to improve the strength of its players, beyond gradually selling each Barry Bannan and replacing him with Yaya Toures. So Alex McLeish has found a different solution: eye tests. Yep, according to the Birmingham Mail, the Villa have hired an optician to improve players' sight. Part of the reason Gabby Agbonlahor has been having his best season in ages is due to the help of the team eye doctor, believes AML.

Eye tests might seem silly at first blush, but credit to Lesser Scot for thinking outside the box. Military boot camp is all fine and dandy, but looking beyond the obvious to find ways to boost overall play, well, that's something the club just has to do if they want to stay competitive in the league. And if the help to his peripheral vision is really helping Gabby score more, well, I would go so far as to kiss McLeish. But I really wish he'd work on some actual basics of competitiveness, like how best to use substitutes, and how to teach your players not to break legs.

Also, I wonder if the Villa are even going to bother giving Emile Heskey an eye scan, or if they know just as well as the rest of us that such a test would be money down the drain. Give Ivanhoe a cuddle and send him off to Leicester.