The Aston Villa Courier
Match21 Aug 2027
16 unbeaten for Aston Villa
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Aston Villa did not have in the autumn.
Market23 Aug 2027
Business is business: Jamal Jimoh-Aloba goes
Brentford paid $2.7M and Aston Villa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Boubacar Kamara in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aston Villa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Rory Wilson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tammy Abraham has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ian Maatsen signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ian Maatsen and Aston Villa agree another 5 years.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Aston Villa
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market23 Aug 2027
Oliver Mitchell steps up from the Aston Villa academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oliver Mitchell has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Aug 2027
Aston Villa promote Joseph Harris from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joseph Harris has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
- Market Alexander Cooper steps up from the Aston Villa academy
- Match The run at home goes on for Aston Villa
- Boardroom A promise the Aston Villa board did not keep