As the summer draws to an end and days begin to shorten, it can only mean that another season of Emery-ball is upon us. So, it’s time for the original Five Reasons to Be Cheerful as Villa supporters.
It’s Here
After a summer of PSR loopholes, more listless Gareth-ball and tedious Felix flirtation, Aston Villa finally returns to competitive football, away at a new look West Ham side. Wimbledon and the Olympics do little to satisfy the lust for Premier League and Champions League football, thank goodness the wait is nearly over.
Returning Comrades
Preseason saw the return of fallen soldiers Emi Buendia and Jacob Ramsey. Both recorded strong finishes to the season that led to Europa Conference League football, but now find themselves returning straight back into the squad as Champions League competitors. While Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara’s recoveries are taking slightly longer, all four players must be counting their lucky stars at the immense progress of the club in their absence.
All four should be given the time to ease back into competitive football to avoid any setbacks, but once they are back up and running, there is no doubt they can play an important part this season and Villa will be stronger than how they ended last season.
What’s My Name?
Villa have added a lot of new faces and extra inches to the squad this summer. One of the new faces is Amadou Onana, Villa’s new transfer record breaking central midfielder. With Douglas Luiz departing to Italy as part of the ‘Ozark’ PSR scheming, the Villa midfield has been pumped up by the signing of the 6ft 5in Belgian midfielder, who despite his experience in the game is still only 23.
As with the signing of Ian Maatsen, it feels as though Emery has decided on what last year’s team was missing and hasn’t delayed in going out and recruiting. Onana brings tenacity, physicality and ability on the ball, hopefully featuring in a role that allows him to improve the side but also improve his own game under the tutelage of Unai Emery and his coaching staff. Mostly importantly, he surely will make Villa more resilient.
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More To Come
Despite the large number of new signings this summer, it feels as though there is room for one more attacking signing to replace Moussa Diaby. With Jhon Durán now likely to stay put after a summer of whinging and flirting with other clubs, the reported £15m exit of Cameron Archer to Southampton suggests that Villa may get an additional striker for the season ahead.
With the Champions League games fast approaching, there is certainly need for an upgrade on Archer in terms of Villa’s attacking personnel. Monchi certainly intimated this week in his TalkSport interview that the club are still working on new signings, although this may be heavily dependent on the sales of Diego Carlos, Leandro Dendoncker, Cameron Archer and Alex Moreno to squeeze any additional players under UEFA’s Financial Sustainability regulations.
UEFA’s regulations sees clubs subject to squad cost controls. The cost control rule restricts spending on player and coach wages, transfers, and agent fees to 80% of club revenues in 2024/25 (for the 2025/26 season, it reduces to 70%).
Removing Moussa Diaby’s wages out of the equation would have been big in terms of potentially freeing up some room for an incoming player, while Archer’s exit will help too, albeit to a lesser extent.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
We are now less than two weeks away from the Champions League Group Stage draw, that takes place in Monaco on 29 August 2024. Villa’s first appearance in the modern Champions League coincides with an interesting shake-up of the league format. Rather than playing against three teams twice in the traditional six group stage games, Villa will now face four home games and four away games against eight different sides all competing in one large thirty six strong league table. I, for one, cannot wait!
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Follow Armen on Twitter/X here – @VillanArmen
