THOSE who insist that Benito Carbone is more than a little mixedup might point to the evidence of the licence plate on his silver Mercedes which, naturally, is a left-hand drive. It reads T10 BEN, which only after a double-take does one recognise as a personalised anagram. It could start a new trend in plates.

Now that the car is parked at Aston Villa's training ground, it is even more confusing to hear so many people with Brummie accents enthusing about the genius of "Beni", when the only Benny most of us can recall from around these parts was a gormless character in a bobble hat from Crossroads.

Carbone, 28, is wearing his own piece of dodgy headgear which looks as though it might have been borrowed from another television character, Uncle Albert from Only Fools And Horses. But everyone at Villa, from the chairman Doug Ellis down, metaphorically doffed his hat to Beni after last week's debut against Wimbledon.

Carbone is approaching folk hero status after that single gig. Dozens of fans have been pressing their noses to the Bodymoor fences this week for a glimpse of their new hero and the Villa players, according to the manager John Gregory, were equally goggle-eyed during his first training session.

His debut, says Gregory, was as good a first game as one could wish for. And Carbone, in that understated Italian way, says: "The fans were definitely brilliant, incredible, because they treated me as though I have been here for a long time. They gave me a chance and showed that they trust me and the team showed they trust me, too."

Trust is a word Carbone uses a lot, which is perhaps understandable after his treatment at Sheffield Wednesday, where he was bemused by his failure to get a first-team spot this season after three outstanding years. With the side at the bottom of the table, his omission was even more of an affront to his Italian pride, which led to him flying back to Italy instead of taking his place on the substitutes' bench at Southampton.

He admits that he was wrong to do so but has accused his Sheffield Wednesday team-mates of hanging an RIP sign above his dressing-room peg, on which they had draped a child's kit emblazoned with his name. He says: "I had no dialogue with the team in the last four months. The only players who spoke to me were Emerson and Pavel Srnicek.

"But I don't want to remember those last four months, when everything was put against me. I want to remember the three good years I had there. I want to remember the fans singing my name."

Villa fans will certainly be singing it at Old Trafford this afternoon, although it could die in their throats between now and the end of the season if he does not sign his future to the club. Villa have taken over his Wednesday contract, which expires in June, hoping they can agree new terms along the way.

Carbone says he wants to sign before Christmas, though on the recent record of Villa's big-money signings, one would not bet on him still being in the team by then. Paul Merson is now in the reserves, alongside Stan Collymore, Steve Stone and others bought for a total of £29m Stg.

Gregory says: "Beni is a player who can create something from nothing, which we possibly didn't have before."