The Aston Villa star has accepted the changes going on in his team this summer, which is actually quite expected.
Aston Villa have been going through quite massive changes in the squad this summer. They are losing their key men, from Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Lucas Digne, plus some of their understudies such as Leon Bailey, Andres Garcia and most recently Evann Guessand.
Such changes might have shaken the team a bit. Yet, they managed to find replacements soon with the arrivals of Johan Manzambi, Joao Gomes, Alejandro Garnacho and the most recent one, Matteo Ruggeri. There are likely to be more signings to come, with deadline day being only two weeks away.
However, for the skipper, John McGinn, such changes are inevitable, especially when they have their stars performing well. It is not the first time Villa have had to go through such a change. The Scotsman shared his experience on that, as reported by ESPN.
“When we got promoted to the Premier League, there was a lot of change in the summer.
“When you’re signing the best young English talent, there’s only going to be interest in them. When your players are performing at the highest level, there’s going to be interest.”
As McGinn mentioned, Villa’s big change since returning to the top flight came in the 2019/20 season, when they released a number of key men such as Alan Hutton, Gary Gardner, Mile Jedinak, Birkir Bjarnason and Glenn Whelan. The Scotsman then saw plenty of new signings, from Anwar El Ghazi, Trezeguet, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Pepe Reina, Danny Drinkwater, Douglas Luiz, Wesley and Tom Heaton.
In that season, Villa narrowly avoided relegation by finishing 17th in the standings. Dean Smith needed some time to build the team after bringing in plenty of new signings in one summer.
The next big change before this season was probably in the 2021/22 season, when they had to lose their biggest star and captain, Jack Grealish, plus Ahmed Elmohamady, Anwar El Ghazi, Trezeguet and Conor Hourihane. Villa then had a number of notable incomings such as Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey, Lucas Digne, Danny Ings and Robin Olsen, plus Philippe Coutinho in the middle of the season.
There was even a managerial change when Dean Smith was replaced by Steven Gerrard. Villa managed to finish 14th, which was actually three spots lower than the previous season.
Ahead of the new season, the skipper believes that the expectation remains unchanged, as he shared with the press.
“The expectations? Similar to where it’s been in the past few seasons. I think we’ve consistently competed with the best in England, I think we’ve consistently competed with the best in Europe no matter what the competition is.
“We will have our challenges, there’s a lot of change, but when you look at other clubs around England there’s a lot of changes there as well.
“A lot of coaches are changing, a lot of players are changing, but what we have still is our main core; the same manager, the same methods, the same desire to achieve more.”
McGinn is confident because he has experienced himself how Villa have made significant progress, especially since Unai Emery’s arrival. They have thrived no matter what the predictions say about them. Qualifying for the UCL twice in three years and ending their title drought with a Europa League triumph last season were solid proof.
He also has faith that The Lions will always find a way of integrating new players into the team without losing their quality.
“So we’ve got a structure in place, we’ve got standards and rules which have made us successful over the past few seasons, and our job is just to integrate the new players and try and make them believe the same way the players in the last few seasons have believed.”
The post ‘There’s going to be interests’ – Aston Villa star on the expected changes in the team appeared first on AVillaFan.com – Aston Villa Fan Site.
