Marked for Renaldo Cephas
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aston Villa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Feb 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Nicolas Jackson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market17 Feb 2031
Ivo Kralj has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aston Villa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jay Mingi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aston Villa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match15 Feb 2031
It finished 1‑0, and it was Will Alves’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aston Villa.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Ninety minutes of Will Alves at his very best
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aston Villa.
Loan watch17 Feb 2031
12 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sol Brynn has been having a lot of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Aston Villa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barnet, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Aston Villa asked and Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Feb 2031
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aston Villa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Nicolas Jackson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Feb 2031
Only the photograph left for Renaldo Cephas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Renaldo Cephas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Feb 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Aston Villa heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Luigi Cuppone gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luigi Cuppone has just signed for Aston Villa, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
The window shuts on the Noah Hoarau deal
Aston Villa ran out of time with Birmingham. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Taiwo Awoniyi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aston Villa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Aston Villa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market30 Dec 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aston Villa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Nicolas Jackson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match28 Dec 2030
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match28 Dec 2030
0‑1 to Sunderland, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
The game went through John McGinn — 7.24
Marked 7.24 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aston Villa told Nicolas Jackson something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aston Villa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Nicolas Jackson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Dec 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aston Villa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market23 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Noah Cooper
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noah Cooper will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Renaldo Cephas has agreed terms with Bolton Wanderers for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Krstović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match23 Dec 2030
Half the programme played, position 15, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Loan watch23 Dec 2030
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Aston Villa, and 5 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Dec 2030
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.
Market9 Dec 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aston Villa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Dec 2030
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.
Market9 Dec 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match7 Dec 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Evann Guessand. 2‑0 against Burnley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match7 Dec 2030
The drought breaks for Aston Villa
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Burnley were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.43, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Age has not caught Matty Cash yet — 8.01
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market28 Oct 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Nicolas Jackson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market28 Oct 2030
Devon Matthews has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aston Villa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch28 Oct 2030
“I did not go to West Ham United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aston Villa and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Oct 2030
29 days out for Tyrone Mings after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aston Villa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Oct 2030
Sam Sherring hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aston Villa can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Oct 2030
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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Nicolas Jackson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match12 Oct 2030
Arsenal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Justin Clasie left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Aston Villa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Justin Clasie made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Tyrone Mings breaks a bone — 65 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match14 Sep 2030
No end in sight to Aston Villa's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aston Villa has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Jacob Murphy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jacob Murphy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market16 Sep 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aston Villa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Nicolas Jackson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Noah Cooper has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad16 Sep 2030
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Aston Villa offered $19.8M; Reading said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market17 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chippa United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Jun 2030
Ipswich Town pay $3.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Jun 2030
Mathew Hudson hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aston Villa can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Jun 2030
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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aston Villa know it.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.