The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aston Villa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Liverpool paid $13.8M 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.6M — a club that wants Kuryu Matsuki enough to be asked twice.
John McGinn 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Isak 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Iling-Junior and Aston Villa agree another 4 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fulham have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Đorđe Petrović
BoardroomAston Villa sign 10 boys into the academy
Aston Villa asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fee is $4.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. West Ham United drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ronnie Hollingshead had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Aston Villa offered $3.5M; Stoke City 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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aston Villa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Brighton for Zion Suzuki was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Aston Villa have gone to Stoke City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alexander Isak wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Jonathan Varane enough to be asked twice.
Middlesbrough paid $21.6M 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.
The name of Evann Guessand has come up in conversations Aston Villa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Alexis Mac Allister and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Middlesbrough waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Edward Hill recited it perfectly.
“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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Aston Villa have had the benefit of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zépiqueno Redmond will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
44 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Aston Villa now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ian Maatsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
43 appearances at Exeter City and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evann Guessand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 May 2028
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 0‑3 Oliver Phillips left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
0‑2 to Bournemouth, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Oliver Phillips to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexis Mac Allister signs something — a contract at Aston Villa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jamal Jimoh-Aloba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emiliano Buendía 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Leon Goretzka 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.
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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alexander Isak's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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.
42 appearances at Exeter City and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kosta Nedeljković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aston Villa has been clear about where Stefanos Tzimas stands, which is more than many ever get.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aston Villa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
41 appearances at Exeter City and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alexander Isak wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
18 clean sheets from 40 appearances at Exeter City. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
“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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aston Villa is running low.
“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.
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.
Emiliano Buendía 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.
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.
Alexander Isak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad27 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and Aston Villa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
21 appearances at Central Coast Mariners and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexander Isak signs something — a contract at Aston Villa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Western Sydney Wanderers. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Nottingham Forest had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Aston Villa did not stop to explain themselves.
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.
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.
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.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Nottingham Forest. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aston Villa told Emiliano Buendía something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Aston Villa can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Leon Goretzka 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.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zépiqueno Redmond will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
17 clean sheets from 37 appearances at Exeter City. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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.
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.
At 18 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
“I watch every Aston Villa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bradford City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oliver Phillips chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Aston Villa interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Oliver Phillips keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alexander Isak wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Aston Villa ran out of time with Blackpool. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
34 appearances at Exeter City and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Emiliano Buendía 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Evann Guessand. 1‑0 against Hull City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Evann Guessand was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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.
Aston Villa have gone to Leicester City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aston Villa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Aston Villa close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Alexander Isak 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.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Aston Villa will try again when the window opens; West Ham United may not be selling by then.
The fee is $9.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Charlton Athletic drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrés García had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
$3.4M on the table at West Ham United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sonny Carey has just signed for Aston Villa, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The fee is $119.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Liverpool drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
VfB Stuttgart pay $110.6M, 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Joseph Cook obliged against Brentford. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Aston Villa.
Derby County have accepted the money. What Aston Villa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.70 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aston Villa have done the hard part with Charlton Athletic, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Aston Villa offered $2.9M; West Ham United 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.
Aston Villa have gone to Liverpool with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Aston Villa asked and Brentford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ousmane Diomande had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Aston Villa have gone to West Ham United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Aston Villa asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aston Villa have done the hard part with Southampton, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Amadou Onana reports back to Aston Villa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Everton have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tammy Abraham. The answer from Aston Villa has not changed — yet.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aston Villa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Aston Villa have gone to Southampton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Loan watch27 Dec 2027
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 22 appearances at Exeter City. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aston Villa has been clear about where Ibrahim Mbaye stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aston Villa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Đorđe Petrović: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aston Villa is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
At 19 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
1‑4 to Manchester United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
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.
“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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.99, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 1‑4 Jonathan Martin left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Đorđe Petrović
The dugoutEvann Guessand asks for a word with the manager
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evann Guessand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Martin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zépiqueno Redmond will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evann Guessand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Central Coast Mariners to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aston Villa and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Aston Villa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Rory Wilson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I did not go to Western Sydney Wanderers to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aston Villa and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evann Guessand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Martin after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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.
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.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Aston Villa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jonathan Martin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Boubacar Kamara signs something — a contract at Aston Villa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“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 0 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
“I did not go to Western Sydney Wanderers to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aston Villa and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aston Villa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Aston Villa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jack Spencer 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicholas Dixon 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.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Sep 2027
John McGinn 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.
“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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zépiqueno Redmond will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
John McGinn 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.
“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 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Brighton moved on, Tammy Abraham reports back to Aston Villa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kosta Nedeljković had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
John McGinn 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.
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.
Aston Villa asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Aston Villa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The phone has started ringing about Amadou Onana again, and this time the name on the line is Luton Town. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amadou Onana 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsThe window shuts on the Callum Wilson deal
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.
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.
The offer went to Brentford this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zépiqueno Redmond will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kane Taylor is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Evann Guessand
Player ratingsJohn McGinn beats them one at a time
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The offer from Stade Rennais for Zion Suzuki was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aston Villa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Stevenage have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tyrone Mings. The answer from Aston Villa has not changed — yet.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
John McGinn 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.
“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 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutZion Suzuki knocks on the manager's door
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Amadou Onana again, and this time the name on the line is Luton Town. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John McGinn 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.
“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.
“I did not go to Central Coast Mariners to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aston Villa and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Đorđe Petrović has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$6.9M on the table at Crystal Palace. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jamal Jimoh-Aloba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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.
He is going to Tottenham, the club has $129.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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.
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.
Emiliano Buendía and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John McGinn 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.
Aston Villa offered $99.0K; Brentford 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.
“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.
The offer went to Bournemouth this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Nicolas Jackson again, and this time the name on the line is Tottenham. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Aston Villa will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
John McGinn 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.
Aston Villa have gone to Brentford with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadLeon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
West Ham United pay $4.6M, 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.
The phone has started ringing about Amadou Onana again, and this time the name on the line is Luton Town. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
John McGinn 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evann Guessand 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ian Maatsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
46 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The offer from Milton Keynes Dons for Tyrone Mings was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Aston Villa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Jun 2027
15 new faces, and Aston Villa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
The offer from Cardiff City for Amadou Onana was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Aston Villa asked and Sunderland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The chase for Matt Grimes ended with $4.0M changing hands and Coventry City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matt Grimes has just signed for Aston Villa, and for once the answer mattered.
At 18 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.
$99.0K was the most the club would pay and Brentford were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
SquadEvann Guessand falls out with a teammate over standards
The chase for Alexis Mac Allister ended with $63.0M changing hands and Liverpool out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newport County waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Amadou Onana again, and this time the name on the line is Cardiff City. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
The offer went to Brentford this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
At 18 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Liverpool; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Derby County this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sunderland have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bolton Wanderers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Brighton for Boubacar Kamara was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $27.8M — a club that wants Bobby Clark enough to be asked twice.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
40 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alysson Edward was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Emiliano Buendía 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.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
John McGinn 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Leon Goretzka will call it something else in private.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad17 May 2027
John McGinn 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.
Amadou Onana 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Diego Costa 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.
42 appearances at Shrewsbury Town and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zépiqueno Redmond was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Everton, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
John McGinn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jonathan Martin could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Vinnie Hayward
A brace, and Tammy Abraham takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tammy Abraham provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Tyrone Mings 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.
A 2‑0 win over Leeds United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
John McGinn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alejandro Garnacho will call it something else in private.
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
John McGinn 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.
Amadou Onana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
15 clean sheets from 41 appearances at Shrewsbury Town. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Martin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Ousmane Diomande and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Aston Villa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
John McGinn 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ollie Bindley is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Aston Villa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tyrone Mings 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zion Suzuki is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jonathan Martin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aston Villa dressing room was either.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tammy Abraham wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amadou Onana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
15 clean sheets from 38 appearances at Shrewsbury Town. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over West Ham United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Jackson, and the manager let it.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 37 appearances at Shrewsbury Town. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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.
Nicolas Jackson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
John McGinn 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amadou Onana 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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Tammy Abraham
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zion Suzuki is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Ruggeri asks for a word with the manager
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
33 appearances at Shrewsbury Town and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
11 goals in 21 games at Admira Wacker — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aston Villa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jonathan Martin to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Aston Villa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Leon Goretzka
Aston Villa offered $18.6M; Middlesbrough 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.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aston Villa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Wrexham moved on, Amadou Onana reports back to Aston Villa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
1 for Amadou Onana, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” John McGinn and Aston Villa agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John McGinn 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.
The offer went to Middlesbrough this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Swansea City have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $7.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Brighton drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stefanos Tzimas has just signed for Aston Villa, and for once the answer mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
Aston Villa asked and Queens Park Rangers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Aston Villa have gone to Brighton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The name of Amadou Onana has come up in conversations Aston Villa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
John McGinn 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aston Villa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $530.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Chelsea drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Charlie Savage has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fee is $25.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Nottingham Forest drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Aston Villa asked and Brentford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$7.0M on the table at Brighton. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aston Villa have done the hard part with Reading, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Middlesbrough moved on, João Gomes reports back to Aston Villa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ousmane Diomande is living that version at Aston Villa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer went to Nottingham Forest this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$19.3M on the table at Brentford. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$6.1M on the table at Brentford. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
John McGinn 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boubacar Kamara 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Koné is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John McGinn 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolas Jackson. 2‑0 against Leeds United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tammy Abraham. 1‑0 against Brighton, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
10 combined actions and 6.76. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
Player ratingsBoubacar Kamara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.83 for the rest of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cole Brannigan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A 3‑1 win over Chelsea, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Leon Goretzka 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
A 1‑0 win over Leicester City, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match9 Dec 2026
Markie Meade wins it after the whistle should have gone
108 minutes played. Markie Meade found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Leicester City went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jonathan Martin kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutZion Suzuki has become a man the manager trusts
SquadWords at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Amadou Onana 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugoutDiego Costa dropped after a run of poor form
18Edition
The Aston Villa Courier
30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Tammy Abraham takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tammy Abraham provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
John McGinn 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.87, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Ruggeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jonathan Martin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aston Villa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Alejandro Garnacho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
John McGinn 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aston Villa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Aston Villa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alejandro Garnacho has written the date down.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
Loan watchSam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Louis Page, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
Boubacar Kamara 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
4 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Martin after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Tammy Abraham
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Something was said to Matteo Ruggeri and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John McGinn 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aston Villa can tell you which week it ends in.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutRadamel Falcao dropped after a run of poor form
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
John McGinn 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Gomes wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
John McGinn 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.
At 18 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matteo Ruggeri and Aston Villa agree another 4 years.
“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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolas Jackson signs something — a contract at Aston Villa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Burnley next, and one man in the Aston Villa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
9 appearances at Shrewsbury Town and the goals have stopped going in. Aston Villa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Johan Manzambi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amadou Onana 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Garnacho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
At 19 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ruggeri 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jonathan Martin could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutZion Suzuki knocks on the manager's door
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Jonathan Martin could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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.
1 for Leon Goretzka, marked 7.48, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emiliano Buendía and Aston Villa agree another 5 years.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Aston Villa asked and Newcastle United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zion Suzuki, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 1‑2 Jonathan Martin left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
Aston Villa asked and Middlesbrough said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clock did what West Bromwich Albion would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Aston Villa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
John McGinn 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tyrone Mings's mistake
The dugoutIan Maatsen knocks on the manager's door
“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.
The deal with West Bromwich Albion is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Bromwich Albion have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 goals in one match, Tammy Abraham on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.
Amadou Onana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zépiqueno Redmond 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Squad4 Aston Villa players away with their countries
The dugoutRadamel Falcao dropped after a run of poor form
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aston Villa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Louis Page, marked 7.10, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The name of Victor Lindelöf has come up in conversations Aston Villa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Leon Goretzka 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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Gomes wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
$55.0M on the table at Arsenal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Chelsea paid $42.8M 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.
The offer from AS Roma for Boubacar Kamara was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Pau Torres has gone, the accounts have $42.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Louis Page is living that version at Aston Villa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $59.0M — a club that wants Martín Zubimendi enough to be asked twice.
Leon Goretzka 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Leicester City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Luton Town had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield United have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Jackson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.