Villa fans can expect a committed Carew for the rest of the season

By James Nursey

Published 08:00 11/03/10

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Surely John Carew has now done enough to cement his place in Aston Villa's starting XI following a brilliant display against Reading.

Carew's hat-trick against the Royals ensured a memorable comeback from Villa on Sunday in a 4-2 win and secured Martin O'Neill's side another trip to Wembley.

And I just hope in the FA Cup semi-final next month against Chelsea, Norwegian striker Carew will not be left on the bench for 80 minutes as he was in the Carling Cup final.

Carew, 30, only got his chance against the Royals because Gabriel Agbonlahor was ill.

But he showed once again that he can be virtually unplayable when he is on his game and fully motivated.

Various people disagreed with me last week for expressing my disappointment that Carew didn't start against Manchester United in the final and that it took so long for him to appear.

Martin O'Neill must learn the lessons from Carling Cup defeat  

But I think the 6ft 4in striker always looks more threatening and likely to score than Agbonlahor or Emile Heskey.

And I believe the mercurial forward will be willing to put in that extra bit of effort from now until the end of the season - not least because his future will be up in the air this summer with just one year left on his contract.

According to my contacts inside Villa, Carew is what you could call a proper professional footballer.

By that I mean playing football is a job to him and not his passion.

So with his contract having just 12 months left this summer, both the club and the striker will be looking for a new deal at Villa in June - or a lucrative move elsewhere.

Villa fans may remember Carew's brilliant finish to the 2007-08 campaign when he scored seven times in the last 13 games of the season.

His efforts were enough to guarantee a contract extension until June 2011 on improved terms of £52,500-a-week.

But then last campaign I thought the striker looked a pale shadow of himself as he was controversially fined for visiting a strip club before declaring himself unfit to play at CSKA Moscow, which went down like a lead balloon as Villa controversially exited the UEFA Cup.

I can understand why O'Neill gets frustrated with the forward, who has been known to miss games with various minor niggles, and training with twinges.

On other occasions in training I am told he sometimes barely breaks sweat as he opts to play on the left wing.

But nevertheless, when Carew is in determined mood, he can undoubtedly be one of the finest forwards in the Premier League.

So I am tipping Carew, signed from Lyon in January 2007 in a swap deal with Milan Baros, to have a barnstorming finish to the season as he looks to earn his next big contract - either at Villa or elsewhere.

And good luck to him because the affable Carew is always charming with the press and normally has a smile on his face.