With the English season over, contracts are expiring for a number of players. The respective fates of three Americans came out today.

At Bolton, Stuart Holden signed a one-year extension as had been expected. The midfielder has made just a handful of appearances for Wanderers over the past two years following an injury and various setbacks, but he will join the national team for the first time in the Jürgen Klinsmann era this summer and is hoping to continue a return to full form.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Championship, Conor Doyle has re-signed for another season with Derby County. The 21 year-old played just 78 total minutes in 2012-13 although he was an unused sub in nearly half of Derby County’s games (seems like strange squad selection to have a guy there you never intend to use, but I once witnessed a college football team dress three kickers for a road game). Doyle will be available for loan which is probably for the best— he has made just 27 league appearances in three years, and I’m not sure he wouldn’t have been better off at Creighton for the last three years to be honest.

Finally, in the Premier League, Eric Lichaj will not return to Aston Villa. The one-time candidate for First Great American Leftback disappeared down the stretch (as part of an ongoing spotty playing time with Villa issue) but still dressed for most matches. I would probably bet on him landing in the Championship which wouldn’t be a bad spot for him at this point.

Remember the days when it looked like Aston Villa were headed to the Championship?  A couple wins later and they currently sit in 13th place with 40 points.  Brad Guzan made a couple saves while Eric Lichaj came off the bench in Villa’s 2-1 win over Norwich City today.  Here are the highlights.

Brad Guzan and Eric Lichaj both started for Aston Villa as their losing ways continue, falling 3-0 to Wigan.  Here are the highlights.

This is probably a game that Brad Guzan would like to forget as Chelsea scored eight goals on Aston Villa.  Here are the highlights.

Both Brad Guzan and Eric Lichaj went the full 90 minutes in Aston Villa’s 3-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield.  Here are the highlights.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvpnye_aston-villa-0-0-stoke-city-highlights-banthangvang-com_webcam?search_algo=2#.UMQGwIM0WSo

Eric Lichaj and Geoff Cameron faced off in a clash of unnatural leftbacks while Brad Guzan had an uneventful 90 minutes in this 0-0 draw. Maurice Edu failed to make the bench for Stoke.

A couple quick links for your Friday morning reading pleasure.

Here is a quick write-up from Bobby Wood’s start for 1860 Munich earlier this week.

Ryan Miller looks back at his season with Halmstads BK.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with US U-20 forward Jack McBean the week of MLS Cup.

Clint Dempsey thinks he was undervalued at Fulham.  He will get his chance to score against Fulham this weekend.

Doug McIntyre of ESPN Insider wonders if Icelandic-American Aron Johannsson could bolster the US attack.

Seb Hines is hoping his recent strong play has caught the eye of Jurgen Klinsmann.

Greg Seltzer likes numbers.  We like numbers.  He looked at some numbers about Oguchi Onyewu.

I missed this last week, but Eric Lichaj has a pretty gnarly mustache going on right now.

A few things worth checking out.

It looks like Rosenborg are planning on offering a contract extension to Mix Diskerud.  And a Norwegian report claims that Mix would be open to a Norway call-up, but he doesn’t think he will get one.

Staying in Norway, Brian Sciaretta caught up with Steve Clark to talk about his season with Honefoss.

Eric Lichaj picked up an injury over the weekend in Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Sunderland.

Zac MacMath is headed back to Everton to train with the Toffees again this offseason.  MacMath has trained with the English club in the past and some might know that Everton’s goalkeeper coach, Chris Woods, is also the US goalkeeper coach (since Klinsmann took over).

Finnish club Haka will be debating over the offseason whether to keep Jordan Seabrook or not.  Seabrook played in 11 games with Haka as they were relegated from the Veikkausliiga to the Ykkönen.

Brent Latham, writing for ESPN FC (Insider), writes about the challenges Tab Ramos will face as the U-20s begin their 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualifying in February.

And finally, CONCACAF should be having a live online stream of the World Cup hexagonal draw on its website on Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern.

Eric Lichaj went the full 90 minutes and assisted on the game-winning goal in Aston Villa’s 3-2 win over Swindon in the Capital One Cup.  Here are the highlights.

Eric Lichaj came off the bench and played 34 minutes in Aston Villa’s 4-2 victory over Manchester City in the Capital One Cup.  Here are the highlights.