The Aston Villa Courier
Market21 Aug 2034
Queens Park Rangers come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Aston Villa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Vinícius Júnior 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.
Market21 Aug 2034
Mason Melia has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Aston Villa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market21 Aug 2034
Tobi Oluwayemi is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Aug 2034
7 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.
Match19 Aug 2034
Still nobody has beaten Aston Villa
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2034
Door shut on Antonín Kinský
Aston Villa asked and Ipswich Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market21 Aug 2034
One of our own: Benjamin Scott joins the Aston Villa first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamin Scott is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match19 Aug 2034
Aston Villa get the job done against Sunderland
A 1‑0 win over Sunderland, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
- Player ratings Ninety minutes of Josh King at his very best
- Squad A row about effort at Aston Villa
- Loan watch Samuel Thompson wants to come home