“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 The request is on a desk at Aston Villa, and it is not being withdrawn.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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Amadou Onana delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Amadou Onana scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lewis Dobbin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aston Villa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rory Wilson is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Zion Suzuki has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
John McGinn has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
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 Ibrahim Mbaye is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Swansea City in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The phone has started ringing about Emiliano Buendía again, and this time the name on the line is Luton Town. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leo Castledine is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elijah Briscoe is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
16 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.
“I watch every Aston Villa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Doncaster Rovers runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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 language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Luton Town paid $3.8M 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 Barnet for Brian Madjo 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Position 5, 70 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Hannibal is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hannibal has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nathan Broadhead trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
46 games, 12 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Jul 2027
17 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rory Wilson has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Vinnie Hayward's mistake
“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 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Zion Suzuki has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Emiliano Buendía has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutJoe Worrall asks for a word with the manager
The offer from Notts County for Brian Madjo 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.
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. Ibrahim Mbaye is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Johan Manzambi. The answer from Aston Villa has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
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 Douglas Luiz is on it.
The chase for Jack Clarke ended with $41.0M changing hands and Ipswich Town out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jack Clarke has just signed for Aston Villa, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 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.
Aston Villa asked and Millwall 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 clubs have shaken hands with Ipswich Town; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$73.9M on the table at Coventry City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Aston Villa asked and Coventry City 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 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.
A season average of 6.61 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Aston Villa know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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.
In brief
SquadAmadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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 Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
41 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.
The loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 2 goals later he is back at Aston Villa no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“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 Amadou Onana signs something — a contract at Aston Villa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 7 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Emiliano Buendía has written the date down.
Zion Suzuki 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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 3 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aston Villa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 5 on 70 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 70 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Wolverhampton; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Emiliano Buendía.
4 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.
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 Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejandro Garnacho. 1‑0 against Brighton, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Zion Suzuki 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.
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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 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.
6 goals in one match, Alejandro Garnacho on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Aston Villa and Everton.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 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.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Aston Villa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Orebro runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Johan Manzambi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Aston Villa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tyrone Mings is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
The dugoutZion Suzuki has become a man the manager trusts
Manchester City will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Aston Villa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Zion Suzuki 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alejandro Garnacho has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
John McGinn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
8 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 2‑0, Charles Jackson could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
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.
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 Mar 2027
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
31 appearances at Preston and the goals keep coming. Aston Villa are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
Sam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 18 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.
26 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.
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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against West Ham United; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Charles Jackson after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aston Villa told Leo Castledine something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1 for Roméo Lavia, marked 7.87, 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roméo Lavia. 1‑0 against Arsenal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Aston Villa, and 5 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tammy Abraham. 3‑2 against Brentford, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Roméo Lavia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Port Vale waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
15 goals in 27 games at Preston — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aston Villa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Marked 8.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Amadou Onana at his very best
Loan watchSam Proctor’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Squad7 new faces, and Aston Villa are still learning each other
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
91 minutes played. Nicolas Jackson found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Crystal Palace went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aston Villa asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Aston Villa are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Aston Villa close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 3 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Aston Villa offered $78.3M; Tottenham 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The fee is $11.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sunderland drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Aston Villa have paid $7.4M for Oliver Dovin, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Romaine Mundle has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Aston Villa have gone to Tottenham 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 Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chase for Freddie Woodman ended with $4.8M changing hands and Liverpool out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Roméo Lavia has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aston Villa have gone to Fulham 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 offered $67.0M; Liverpool 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.
Liverpool 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Javor-Matis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aston Villa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 chase for Joe Worrall ended with $3.6M changing hands and Wrexham out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Aston Villa offered $67.0M; Manchester 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.
The offer went to Wrexham 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 offer went to Wrexham 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alejandro Garnacho has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
14 goals in 20 games at Preston — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aston Villa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
13 goals in 19 games at Preston — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aston Villa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Aston Villa had all but put away. Bournemouth will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
A 2‑0 win over Ipswich Town, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ibrahim Mbaye takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ibrahim Mbaye provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Leo Castledine did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Zion Suzuki 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
11 goals in 17 games at Preston — 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Diego Costa is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Charles Jackson was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Aston Villa dressing room was either.
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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
16 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout30 Nov 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 0‑1 Charles Jackson left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.15. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Madjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 7 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Aston Villa had all but put away. Manchester City will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Tammy Abraham wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Tammy Abraham found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Newcastle United went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Tammy Abraham takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tammy Abraham provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 2‑1 win over Newcastle United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Charles Jackson kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
In brief
Looking aheadAston Villa take on the side everybody is chasing
Successful dribbles: 35. 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 99th minute. Wigan Athletic will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Johan Manzambi did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Matty Cash 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 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.
At 21 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.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
“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.
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leo Castledine is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Zion Suzuki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Aston Villa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Onana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
10 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Charles Jackson was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aston Villa dressing room was either.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elijah Briscoe is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
8.14. 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Squad12 Oct 2026
13 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Charles Jackson could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Costa dropped after a run of poor form
Looking aheadA test against the best for Aston Villa
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
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. Ronnie Hollingshead is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alejandro Garnacho has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.63. 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.
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
26 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.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Boubacar Kamara's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Madjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Josh King did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Josh King has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
100 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.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aston Villa are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 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 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Boubacar Kamara reports back to Aston Villa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Zion Suzuki 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 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Liverpool will make the call about Boubacar Kamara this week. Aston Villa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brian Madjo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Diego Football Club have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
$24.4M was the most the club would pay and Sunderland 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Boubacar Kamara scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Add another name to the list: Nottingham Forest have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lamare Bogarde. The answer from Aston Villa has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Aston Villa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Leo Castledine has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
The offer from Manchester City 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leo Castledine has, at Aston Villa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
2 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Madjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Richard Taylor is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jayden Danns is in the works
Middlesbrough 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Josh King is living that version at Aston Villa, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 phone has started ringing about Tyrone Mings again, and this time the name on the line is Manchester City. Aston Villa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jason Parker is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joshua Hawkins is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadAston Villa are still strangers to each other
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Costa is living that version at Aston Villa, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emiliano Buendía wants continental football; whether Aston Villa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Amadou Onana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Aston Villa have made the call to Sunderland. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutBrian Madjo asks for a word with the manager