FanHouse AstonVilla

Proving once again that the best American soccer players are the ones that can use their hands, Aston Villa has made a £2.5 million offer to Blackburn Rovers for veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

This comes less than a week after Villa, a Premier League club owned by American entrepreneur and Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner, struck another deal with MLS for Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan. That deal is still pending Guzan receiving a British work permit.

Friedel, 37, joined Blackburn in 2000 and has 287 appearances with the club, in addition to his 82 caps with the U.S. men's national team between 1992 and 2005. He has stated in the past that "Blackburn is home to me," and new Blackburn boss Paul Ince had said that he wanted to keep Friedel, but when a club is offered £2.5 million for a 37-year-old, it has to listen.

Friedel is clearly being brought in to contribute now while grooming Guzan for the future. Last season, Scott Carson was loaned out to Villa from Liverpool, but Villa balked at the Reds' £10 million asking price for a permanent deal and ended the loan. Ironically enough, Blackburn may decide to use the cash from the Friedel deal to acquire Carson for less than half that price. (UPDATE: Or not. West Bromwich Albion just snagged Carson for £3.25 million.)

UPDATE: Guzan's UK work permit application was rejected. Click here for details.

Aston Villa is putting the finishing touches on its $4 million transfer deal for Brad Guzan today. All the Chivas USA goalkeeper needs now is a UK work permit, and he'll be able to join the Birmingham club as early as this weekend.

At first glance, it didn't look like Villa needed a goalkeeper. All signs pointed to Scott Carson's loan deal from Liverpool becoming permanent this season. However, Liverpool's shaky financial situation may have prompted Villa to make their bid for Guzan.

Follow me on this. As I wrote here, Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks admitted that the club will have to service annual interest payments of £30 million. That's money that comes out of the club. It's also the approximate amount the club got in TV money from its Champions League run last season.

That's all well and good until Liverpool doesn't qualify for the Champions League. That looked more like a real possibility last night, too, after a late penalty gave West Ham a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, dropping the Reds to 7th place, 3 points adrift of the 4th and final Champions League qualifying spot -- and one point behind 5th place Aston Villa.

As most English soccer fans know, the top four teams in the Premier League at the end of this season will qualify for the Champions League next season. Most of us expected the Big Four to claim those spots yet again this season. After today's matches, though, the race for that fourth spot suddenly looks wide open.

Liverpool salvaged only a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, while their rivals Everton notched a 1-0 win over Manchester City at Goodison Park. Meanwhile, Aston Villa took advantage of Reading's poor away form with a convincing 3-1 victory.

End result? Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Man City are all tied at 39 point apiece. Liverpool only maintains its faint hold on fourth place because of goal differential (+21). They also have a game in hand against West Ham, but as their recent form suggests, that's not exactly a gimme.