Apparently Birmingham -a city of over one million people- is located in "suburban London." On behalf of Americans capable of reading a map, I'd like to offer my apologies.

According to Martin Laurence and the Feyenoord official website which I cannot for the life of me get to load right now Ron Vlaar has finally agreed to terms with Aston Villa. The believed agreement is to be for 4 million pounds and a three year contract. We'll post more about this as it unravels but it looks like the back line has finally been bolstered.

The absolutely essential Twohundredpercent.net has been doing a wonderful "Match of the Past" series all summer long, and he's gone out with a bang, wrapping the series up with Aston Villa. This is a great way for younger fans (like myself) or fans who may have never even been to Birmingham (me again) to get in touch with the club's history and broaden their perspective when it comes to "what Aston Villa is."

This is probably no big deal. Please god be no big deal.

Twitter detectives were hard at work this afternoon when a mystery player and his agent were spotted with Paul Lambert at Villa Park on a Sunday. After extensive analysis it was determined that the player was Feyenoord's captain and center back for the Dutch national team, Ron Vlaar. His name fits into many songs. Does this mean Vlaar is set to join Villa? Rumor is the fee being discussed is anywhere from 5-8 million pounds.

Images of Ron Vlaar and his agent being shown round VP. He's a Dutch international CB for Feyenord.

There have been rumblings about the future of Liverpool big man Andy Carroll since Brendan Rodgers has taken over at the Merseyside club. Rodgers has plans for Liverpool that don't involve a player like Carroll but apparently Aston Villa's new boss Paul Lambert thinks he'd be a great fit in Birmingham. Could Villa look to bring on Carroll in some kind of season long loan? Would a team of Darren Bent and Andy Carroll work for you? Let us know what you think.

One of my main frustrations with the online soccer community is the relative dearth of statistical data available freely so people like you and I can wonk out to our heart's content. A man who doesn't have that problem, lifelong Villa fan and WhoScored editor-in-chief Martin Laurence, put together this post on Karim El Ahmadi's stats in the Eredivisie. Of particular interest is the line Laurence draws between El Ahmadi and captain Stiliyan Petrov, and if El Ahmadi can fill those boots and more, we've got a real player on our hands here.