Aston Villa Banter

01 Apr 2026 18:16:47
So Chelsea lose £262m in one year and still comply with PSR. WTF.

01 Apr 2026 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, United's Manager Choice: Upgrade or Trust Carrick?

29 Mar 2026 13:57:52
Have you noticed, the amount of Arsenal players leaving their international squads, to return home for medical checks. Not just the three with England, but other squads, you can bet they are all fit for Premier League return. UTV.

30 Mar 2026 19:56:31
The dark arts have no boundaries. 🤣

30 Mar 2026 22:25:59
Whack 10 players now. It's a complete utter joke. The Premier League should investigate it and react. Fergie was the main one for doing this. These players should not be allowed to play the next Premier League game. UTV.

01 Apr 2026 22:35:48
Let's say we were on to win the league, and Unai pulled the same stunt, I'm sure we'd have no issue with it?

27 Mar 2026 14:45:18
Sounds like we had a good work out, agains Letche, even the elusive Adjobi got a run out. With the players we had missing, we did well to keep it to 2-1, sadly Sancho got an injury.

I went to a funeral so missed the game on Villa TV, but the read up says that Sancho was having a great game. Put lots of youngsters on in the later stages. All good experience for them. UTV

25 Mar 2026 22:11:38
25 million for Luiz. I say not a chance. Lucky to be worth half of it.

26 Mar 2026 15:46:54
That's what an average player costs these days. We've either got to buy young and develop, or buy older players with no resale value. We can't afford players of the level we need to progress in their prime.

26 Mar 2026 19:49:54
I'd rather spend it on a young player to learn off Kamara and Tielemans. Luiz's best days are behind him.

27 Mar 2026 11:56:45
You won't get a young player with potential for £25 million. Take Archie Gray, 20 years old, a good young player who we are allegedly interested in, particularly if Spurs are relegated. Opening bids are likely to start at £50 million. I don't think they will get £50 million, but they will certainly get more than £25 million.

Gray is a good player, but still has a lot to learn, nowhere near a £50 million player in my view. As with all these things, the market will ultimately determine the fee.

27 Mar 2026 16:34:44
Ultimately our recruitment has to be better.

The likes of Brentford and Sunderland have pulled some cracking players in for minimal fees this season.

For all the great work Unai has done, his talent id is questionable. He's got the best out of a Smith and Gerrard team, but we are 4 years in, and we should be seeing him get the best out of Unai Emery.



Cannot deny we have PSR restrictions, but he's still had £450m to spend, and, let's be honest, it's not been utilised very well.

27 Mar 2026 19:00:53
But most of that £450 million has been recovered in sales. His net spend is less than £50 million, and I know your view is his transfer dealings haven't been great, but I think he has got at least as many right as wrong.

28 Mar 2026 01:11:11
Archie Gray is a good young player, but, more importantly, in relation to his transfer fee he is a good young player with loads of Premier League experience, which drives his price up. We need to find these players before they hit the Premier League, cause there is no value to be had once they prove themselves at top level. We need to go abroad and even the Championship.

Some players he bought worked and some didn’t. Some worked to a degree. For example, Roger’s worked and is a constant in the first team, but that’s about it. Onana and Maatsen worked to a degree, but neither have managed to nail down their place if everyone was fit. Torres worked to a degree, but is he our best left sided CB? It’s still up for debate. Diaby and Malen worked to a degree but couldn’t nail down their spot either, and both moved on.

Duran worked but, with his personality, he wasn’t happy to stay either, but we made a good profit on him so it’s probably seen as a win. Abraham doesn’t look like a win cause he can’t dislodge a striker who couldn’t score for 2 months.
Ask yourself this, in a fully fit squad how many Emery players start? Only 1 for definite, maybe Torres and Maatsen aswel, that for me is poor recruitment after 3 years and a decent amount spent. Dean Smith has more transfer wins in the current squad and he’s been gone for 4 years. I know Tielemans is an Emery player aswel but he was free. We need to spend the money we get for Malen and Guessand wisely or we will struggle next season.

28 Mar 2026 18:04:06
The fact that we are constantly being linked with free transfers, the likes of Wilson, Brandt, Mingueza, Senesi, I think, tells you where a lot of our focus is at currently, and that links very much to the financial package Unai is having to work with at present.

29 Mar 2026 18:48:46
100% lotm, if we could snag Wilson and Senesi, it would be great business 2 very good squad players at the very least, they would be very close to being first team if Emery worked his magic and extracted that extra bit that he seems to find in players.

24 Mar 2026 19:07:08
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

22 Mar 2026 19:04:40
Solid performance today, dominated them for the majority and a great result. Didn’t get to watch all of it. I had 12 kids here for a party but what I seen of it we looked quiet comfortable and deserving of the 3 points. Boy did we miss meatball, look a different team with him back. Decent looking squad today and delighted to see YT back in action.

Other teams stumbling now so maybe it’s our turn to push on. Win our next 5 and the last 2 games of the season won’t matter is my opinion. All in our own hands. Shout out to Barkley he’s so much better than Luiz. Good performance from Watkins too and great work getting his goal, hopefully it will give him some confidence.