O'Leary's faith in Angel pays off

David O’Leary’s faith in Juan Pablo Angel is paying dividends as Aston Villa’s record signing clinched a Carling Cup semi-final meeting with Bolton Wanderers last night.

Angel scored his 11th goal of the campaign and then created the winner for midfielder Gavin McCann as Villa gained a surprise 2-1 home win over big-spending Chelsea.

But it needed O’Leary to persuade Angel that he had a future back at Villa Park after his fall-out with Graham Taylor – and the Colombian is now responding with some great displays.

O’Leary said: “It took a while to track him down. Nobody really knew where Juan Pablo was. I wanted to ask him to come back for pre-season training.

“On the first day I had a good chat with him and I found him an excellent person to deal with. I wanted to let him know that, no matter what had gone on in the past, that everyone was starting afresh.

“I said that I was going to try a new adventure with Aston Villa and I wanted him to be part of that and let’s see how it goes. People have said to me that Juan took a liking to me and was willing to have a go for me.”