And so we arrive on the doorstep of a new season, the 34th in the Premier League era, and another year of fun with VAR, PSR, UEFA and the looming World Cup now just ten months away.
Join us for live coverage as we build up to the big kick-off with AVF Matchday LIVE!
Aston Villa are difficult to gauge at the moment. There’s cause for optimism. Unai Emery is quite obviously a tremendous manager with the ambition and ability to deliver real success, and Villa are about to embark on a third consecutive season in European football.
In the Europa League, Villa have a second potential route back into the Champions League, which has to be the primary objective in 2025/26.
Yet there’s negativity too. How can there not be when Villa are selling players they might otherwise prefer to keep and offloading limbs like the women’s team in order to comply with financial regulations? The current framework as set out by the Premier League and UEFA is actively harmful to most clubs.
I’m in favour of financial controls in football for two reasons. One, to protect clubs from their owners. Two, to maintain sporting competition. We’re doing the opposite on both counts.
I don’t think the health of the business is unimportant. But if relative success on the pitch is immaterial at best and punished at worst, it’s easy to wonder what is the point of it all.
Newcastle United are feeling the effects of the current transfer system too and they are in the Champions League this season. Villa and the Magpies meet at Villa Park at 12.30pm on Saturday.
Despite playing Marseille just a week ago, Villa have a clean bill of health ahead of the first Premier League match of the season. Emery’s press conference on Friday afternoon could reveal otherwise but until then, we can assume the squad’s in decent nick.
Morgan Rogers picked up a knock in the friendly against Roma at Walsall but all reports this week have indicated that he should be available on Saturday and it’s just as well – with Jacob Ramsey gone, this isn’t a game for Emi Buendía to get another crack at a spot.
It’s not really a game to be throwing Evann Guessand into cold either, so Emery is likely to opt for the tried and true wherever he can.
We know there will be one debut. Emiliano Martínez was sent off in Villa’s final game of last season and is suspended, so new signing Marco Bizot will make his Premier League bow in goal.
Predicting a line-up for any football team is a bit of a mug’s game but I’m nothing if not a glutton for embarrassment, so predict a line-up I will.
Newcastle have been having a time of it lately. Transfer targets have been swiped out from under their noses left, right and centre, and the Magpies face another season in which the extra games of a Champions League campaign look like a big challenge for a squad they’d surely prefer to be a little deeper.
Striker Alexander Isak has treated his club with appalling disrespect, skipping their pre-season tour in order to try and force a move to Liverpool despite the Reds already having signed the player earmarked by Newcastle as his replacement.
The Swede has sunk from being one of the hottest goalscorers in the world in a team that had just qualified for the Champions League and won their first major trophy for 70 years – a demi-god, basically – to deservedly being one of the most despised players in Newcastle’s history. He will miss the start of the season because of his lack of professionalism.
Imminent signing Jacob Ramsey won’t feature against Villa either. Anthony Gordon, who has recovered from a knock according to Eddie Howe on Friday, will be available and is expected to play as a centre-forward, or as close to it as Howe will have on the pitch on Saturday. Joe Willock is injured.
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