Now, it could still all fall through, but it seems like our favorite former Aston Villa manager is on his way to Sunderland. Not that this is a huge surprise to anyone, I would think.

I know us Villa fans are having hard enough times with our manager at this minute, but let's not look at the MON era with too rose-colored of glasses. The club is still trying to offload some of O'Neill's ridiculous pickups. His players can't play under any system than the long-ball punt. If Sunderland give their -- assumed -- new manager a blank check, they can expect to still be picking up the pieces when he leaves in a huff.

Your thoughts?

Aston Villa managed to sell Luke Young to Queens Park Rangers, who clearly have an excess of money right now to be able to afford his ridiculous wages. So how does Alex McLeish propose to use the money freed up by the second Young's sale? Why, on Alan Hutton, of course. Who is now behind our old friend Kyle Walker in players Harry Rednapp is willing to use.

The last time I critiqued Hutton in this space, I made a couple of Scots quite angry -- apparently they think the defender is pretty good, and that Tottenham Hotspur simply haven't used him correctly. And to be fair, there really aren't a lot of spectacular right backs playing in England. But it doesn't seem that putting Hutton at right back will solve Villa's problems.

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I was hanging out at home on Sunday, doing chores and trying to advance my apartment along from the "if we can't see the boxes they don't exist" phase to actually, functionally moved in. The weather was crap and my wife was at work so I was fine with the arrangement, but having the attention span of a puppy on a sugar high, I spent most of the day half re-watching both of Villa's Asia Trophy games and the Sounders game from the previous evening. Later in the afternoon I flipped over to a replay of the Dublin Super Cup game between Manchester City and Inter Milan, and because I only have so much productivity in me on Sundays I began ignoring my domestic responsibilities and became somewhat bizarrely engrossed in the game. I knew the outcome ahead of time, but I'd heard City looked absolutely deadly and I hadn't been misinformed; it's silly, because I am well aware of how much weight pre-season friendlies actually carry (even when the word "trophy" is tacked on at the end) but for the first time I found myself believing that they may well be the team to beat in the Premier League this season.

As the game wore on, I began paying more and more attention to James Milner. Milner earned a rare start for City and he looked every bit the James Milner that finally announced his long awaited arrival as one of England's best young players in his final season with Aston Villa; a classic English box-to-box midfielder, winning balls in the midfield, sending in good crosses, letting fly with long, speculative shots that seldom missed the target by much. He didn't do anything flashy, and he rarely does. But he was solid. He was, well, James Milner-y. I thought he looked quite good. The older English color commentator was full of praise for his performance. But even I could tell that he just didn't fit in.

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News has just broken that Mark Hughes has resigned as Fulham manager. We don't know for certain that he's Villa bound but all indications seem to point that way despite Hughes' insistence that he has " not been approached by another club."  Of course, people say a lot of things. We shall see.

Full reaction to come if and when Hughes is confirmed as manager, but suffice to say I would not be pleased with the signing for a multitude of reasons. I don't think Hughes would be a poor manager but I don't like the style his teams play and I don't see him doing anything to move Villa forward significantly. I cannot fathom Hughes garnering results any better than the team achieved under Martin O'Neill and quite frankly I'd prefer a mid-table team that plays interesting football than a team on the fringes of the Europa League places that plays boring football.

Maybe that makes me a snob or maybe it means I don't have my priorities straight. If that's the case, so be it. Football is entertainment and Mark Hughes does not manage teams that I find the least bit entertaining. I hope the reports tying him to Villa are wrong. If that isn't the case, I hope I am wrong in my assessment of his abilities. Sadly, I don't see either of those situations being the case.

Update: According to a release from Fulham, Hughes is not able to leave the club until the end of June. So, the plot thickens just that little bit.

Update #2: Sky Sports News is now reporting that Villa are not considering Hughes for the job. So do with that what you will.

Update: Confirmation from the BBC.

Well this is unexpected.

Avram Grant has been on the proverbial hot seat for months now and if Sky's sources are to be believed his time at the helm has finally come to an end. If any further proof of the fungibility of managers were needed, this is it; less than three years ago Grant's Chelsea side were defeated in the Champions League final by Manchester United on penalties. After leading a doomed Portsmouth to the FA Cup final Grant left to take over a West Ham side that had barely avoided relegation in the previous season and nothing but turmoil followed. If this is the end of Grant's tenure at Upton Park it would be no surprise; there is little to suggest that Grant is anything less than a competent manager but West Ham are a bit of a mess on multiple fronts and the board's sacking of Gianfrano Zola after he somehow managed to keep the team in the Premier League last season should serve as evidence.

Whether or not Avram Grant was hard done by West Ham is of course the lesser of the two major stories of interest to Villa supporters; the bigger deal here is obviously the man that is rumored to replace him, none other than Martiin O'Neill. There are a great many things worth discussing as it relates to O'Neill, his decision to leave Villa and his decision to take the reigns at West Ham (should that end up being the case) but I will leave those for after confirmation of this news is received. This is quite honestly a massive shock to me and though Sky is as reliable a source as they come (particularly in these sorts of instances when their choice of words is so assured) a big part of me has a great deal of trouble believing it.

I'm firmly in wait-and-see mode, and I hope this turns out to be a jumping of the gun on Sky's part because otherwise some of the portents as they relate to Villa make me feel anything but comfortable.

I had a nice little chat with Kevin McCauley today while I should have been studying civil procedure. KMac is the founder of Cartilage Free Captain, SB Nation's newest Premier League footy blog, and we both decided that it's probably better to let a person more familiar with the opposition give their verdict on how the team is playing, and what we might expect from the match on Saturday. While I certainly pay attention to the rest of the league, it's great to have someone else provide more depth and knowledge, and so I hope this becomes a regular feature on 7500.

My views on Villa can be seen on Kevin's site, while his thoughts on Spurs are after the jump.

PS--In case you haven't noticed, Eric Lichaj earned himself a call up to the USMNT. Expect to hear more from Aaron soon, unless he's fainted with glee.

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We're back with another Sunday wrap up, bringing you a couple lines about each Premier League match as well as notes from the rest of the world of football. This week, last year's English, German and Italian champions can't find any points.

Yesterday started with the week's biggest match, and let me tell you, it's not fun opening your eyes to see Carlos Tevez grinning maniacally on a 42 inch screen. Is it just me, or has he had his teeth fixed? Tevez scored the only match in Manchester City's 1-0 triumph over Chelsea, and anyone who thinks Frank Lampard is unlikely to reclaim his starting spot when he finally returns from injury failed to see Ramires make a total muck-up of the field.

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The international break is over and football is back! Yes, I know that other kind of football is back as well, but that's not discussed around these parts. Instead, here's a rundown of the fun* things that happened before Saturday ended:

*some of these are in fact not so fun, no matter which team you support. Some are fun, or quite funny, from the viewpoint of non-supporters.

The day started off with Manchester United traveling to Everton. While Steven Pienaar managed the first goal at Goodison, by the 66th minute United were winning 3-1, thanks to goals from Darren Fletcher, Nemanja Vidic and Dimitar Berbatov. But Everton made a compelling argument for never doing away with added time, with goals from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta providing the draw for Everton. And in a move reminiscent of the Seattle Sounders v Real Salt Lake, referee Martin Atkinson blew the whistle as Phil Jagielka headed toward goal, denying the last chance for Everton to finally find three points.

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