Well, there it is, following a fairly convincing and enjoyable third round victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, we crash out of the FA Cup at the hands of the Geordies, who are delighted to get their own back on us after they were schooled on the art of simple football a few weeks back by Unai and the lads.
A game largely overshadowed by stupidity and refereeing decisions, Villa completely capitulate again after losing Marco Bizot to a completely foolish move. Seriously, what were Bizot and Bailey thinking? Regardless of that anyways, this is something we happen to see time and time again – Villa proving that they are quite simply not cut out to win things unless we get over this bottling it when push comes to shove. Obviously, had I have had the choice – beat them in the cup and lose at St. James in the league, or beat them in the league at St. James and lose to them in the cup – I would of course, like many, have chosen the latter, but it still feels beyond the point, the point that we are just not natural winners in our modern era, even with Unai.
In terms of the actual match, I was sat in the Upper Holte due to being forced to move from the Upper North Stand due to Newcastle being entitled to an allocation of around over 6,000 tickets. This is something that is great for the atmosphere, however awful if you want to actually watch the game. It is more chaos than away games, and if I had a season ticket up there I would sure be fuming that my seat will pretty much be occupied every single week by people who buy a ticket and stand anywhere. Let’s just say I’m grateful to be returning to the Upper North Stand next week, where I will be able to watch the game better, and also a lot closer to the pitch. That being said, it was magnificent to be back in the Holte End and I always do love it when I am there.
I thought the goal from Tammy Abraham, despite being technically offside, showed something that we have missed from Watkins this season, and I thought he took it very well. Additionally, I thought we saw the level of composure at times in the first half that we showed in the away game against Newcastle a few weeks back, and it was good to see. However, the game just completely changes once Bailey tries a blind pass in acres of space and Marco Bizot just acts out of complete stupidity and costs us the entire match. I knew it was over when that happened, despite being 1-0 up. Newcastle’s deflected goal levelled the scoring after they were denied a blatant penalty, and Sandro Tonali secures his brace as Villa yet against let a defensive player score for fun, just like we have done Fabian Schar in previous fixtures against this lot. The third goal wraps it up, and that was me out of the stadium. Really, really poor and I suppose it just means full focus must be turned to our run in the league now, as missing out on top five… well, I would have to find a stronger word to title an article than ‘capitulation’.
Oh well, over and out I suppose, this just makes the Europa League absolutely vital. Onto Leeds next weekend, which needs to be a win.
The referee was very eager to send Bizot off I noticed. Not seen a referee as eager to give our blatant penalty calls all season, but I’m sure it’ll be swept under the carpet like it always is.
Still gutted over Saturday we would of won without the sending off as for baily he has come back even worse he never got past his man once there has to be an upgrade on him next season
Really worried we will fall to pieces now after a very good season hope I’m wrong
I’ve just seen the Bizot red. It’s not a red. There are players everywhere and Murphy is going wide. It’s utter bollocks. Doesn’t excuse him charging out but the letter of the law was NOT applied. It shouldn’t be a red. Just my opinion.
From what I can gather, that’s the general opinion.
On the other side of the coin, it seems that the same group think Digne was very lucky not to get a red for an horrendous tackle.
Personally didn’t see the game, as having a really nice Valentine’s night out with the missus, so can’t personally comment on either incident.
Alfie is right. The ref was trigger happy. Whipped out the red without even thinking. Pathetic. Generally, nearly every decision they made was wrong. They’re basically zombies without VAR and were totally exposed on Saturday. In many ways, it’s the AI effect and tech in general. We’re losing the ability to think because we no longer have to. Tragic, dangerous, and totally f***** up.
Yep BFR – VAR has reduced the standard of refereeing.
Just see their third. Embarassing. Don’t they ever f****** learn?
I coach 8-9 year olds and I don’t let them pass it around in their own half. Nor are they allowed to pass to the goalie. The object of the game is to get forward and score goals. So find a way to do that! Not passing backwards is a good start. And not inviting pressure in your own box is another. On Saturday, our opponents were pissing around in their box, passing to the goalie. So I told the boys, pin them in and score goals. Needless to say we won.
Literally schoolboy errors from Villa. Inexcusable as it’s a regular occurence. With all Unai’s analysis, why doesn’t he come to the conclusion that we have to stop doing this!?
https://www.sportspro.com/news/sponsorship-marketing/premier-league-sponsorship-centralisation-revenue-proposal-february-2026/
The plot thickens.
Sidenote. IF we can afford him, Gibbs-White is THE perfect replacement for McGinn and a marquee signing. I’ve been praising him on here for years. Brilliant, old-fashioned box-to-box dynamic midfielder. I hope the rumours are true and he wants to stay in the Midlands; a move to City will destroy him. Be wary, Morgan.
I like Gibbs-White and would love for us to get him signed in the summer to replace Barkley. If Citeh come in for him, he should remember what has happened to Kalvin Phillips!
Circa £75m being quoted – fat chance and no chance even if we get CL given the financial straight jacket imposed on us.
We need to continue to look for young and exciting talent in Europe at sensible prices or pick up frees – Sancho for free in the summer would be a decent grab.
So we would be facing Man City in the cup. Still relieved we lost.
Agree 100% 1874.
We really don’t need the distraction and risk of the FA Cup – no matter how much it pains me to say so. It’s already cost us Kamara for a season with literally no upside either financially or in terms of European qualification,
As I previously posted – involvement is emotional not pragmatic!
Shocked at the decline in Digne. He’s been immense! What’s gone on???
If we DO win the Europa League, that’s £45m in the bank. There is also a handsome pot of EPL prize money, potentially £60m. Then we can spend the CL earnings as long as we don’t really screw it up of at least £60M. The maybe £40m in sales? That’s over £200m to spend.
We need an overhaul badly…
Time catches up with everyone sooner or later. Digne has been brilliant for us but Maatson is the new left back pick going forward.
I think Digne will go in the summer with a new younger left back coming in.
Part of a wider reset – particularly if we qualify for the CL.
Good grief Alfie, you’d rather be in the North stand than the Upper Holte?
That’s sad! The whole idea is that you stand where you want!
No such luxuries of turning up five minutes before the game and then spending half of it on the concourse drinking beer.
We had to be in our spot for 1pm, else we’d have lost it.
And we wanted to get every pennies worth of our ticket too. I’m sure the junior season ticket when I was only 16 and an apprentice was only £5.
Yep. For the whole season.
And you could fill up your car for 10bob 😂
(That’s 50p in new money)
Sorry but you’ve previously said many times you’d rather be at home than in the stands, this doesn’t make sense!
And you’re hardly getting your tickets worth if you aren’t seeing the game. I’m short, lol.
Newcastle draw Man City in the FA Cup last night after facing Villa away in the previous round.
But remember, it’s only Villa that get difficult draws and we should keep believing Facebook comment sections.
https://insidefutbol.com/2026/02/17/suits-him-perfectly-aston-villa-out-on-loan-stars-move-backed-by-ex-forward/706533/
This is painful reading. In summary, Malen is a shit-hot striker who’s tearing it up in Italy. Meawhile, tumbleweeds bounce around the opposition area at Villa Park 🙁
(and he’s 3 years younger than Watkins – peak age: 27)
(and we’ve sold him for peanuts, despite being skint)
It genuinely hurts to see – dreadful business.
We could’ve got 60 million for Watkins! FFS.
Alfie, would Villa get 25 million (the joke fee for Malen) now? If yes, surely you keep Malen and sell Watkins.
As for Duran, he’s 22. Cantona, Zlatan, Rooney, even Maradona, weren’t exactly ‘stable.’ Not to mention Gascoigne (not a striker, I know). Duran should have been our striker for the next 5 years; his finishing and talent are ridiculous, outrageous at times, as good as anything out there currently. They should have tried to find a way to smooth off the rough edges a bit. You could still sell him for more than 80 million in 4-5 years time when he peaks.
Totally agree with you. Maybe Saudi would pay more for him? £40m perhaps, but I bet he wouldn’t go there.
Seems we might need to start dragging players by their arms to the Saudi Pro League because other teams are smart enough not to fork out for average players. Reminds me of the last season of Benidorm when they put that entertainer bloke on that cruise with no idea where he’s going. Lol.
Duran is and will always be a liability – just track his ‘career’ since leaving Villa.
It was noticeable in the Fenerbahce game when he went down ‘injured’ all his team ‘mates’ completely ignored him – even the comms mentioned it – unsurprisingly they moved him on.
We got £70m for him a good profit – time to move on.
Jhon Duran now playing in Russia for Zenit St Petersburg!!!!!
Looks like Emery was bang on the money on this one. How the hell did we get nearly £100m for the nutcase???!!!
Sounds like the slower pace of the Italian game suits Malen… Looks like Cash is back for Leeds.
But that’s just it. We pay under £20m for him and get £70m. We pay nothing for Grealish and get £100m. We pay nothing for Ramsey and get £40m. Yet we STILL can’t spend a penny. It’s just corrupt, sick of it.
We should have kept Duran?
Seriously? You must be joking.
I suspect Al-Nassr were glad to get rid of him after paying us £64 mill and add ons.
I’m still laughing at how we didn’t get done robbery.
He scored 5 in 21 for Fener in the crappy Turkish league.
Plus he’s just a headbanger;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15568399/Jhon-Duran-Zenit-St-Petersburg-WWE-debut-Russian-Premier-League.html
I’ll be surprised if he’s playing at all in a couple of years.
We need a natural finisher. Still don’t see how you can want to go to the retirement home that is Saudi Arabia at 21 years old.
Do you need it spelling out?
You obviously do.
M-O-N-E-Y
It’s clearly all he’s interested in.
So why go to Zenit then?
I suspect the word has got around and he ran out of options, because nobody would touch him. There’s no way Zenit will be paying him much.
But in fairness, that’s guesswork on my part. Makes sense to me though.
Just over a year ago (before the red at Newcastle on Boxing Day), he was looking one of the best players in the country, pretty much unplayable. My argument is if we hadn’t sold him and helped him stabilise. Getting a dodgy red card then booting a water bottle in frustration isn’t, in my view, so horrific that you dump him. Our performances in the final third since he left correlate with his career: downward trajectory. What might have been if he’d stayed and been coached and guided to be a world class player?
Idealistic, I know. But we’ve not seen goals like the ones he scored since…Atkinson? Benteke?
BFR, have you forgotten how Emery basically said he couldn’t control him?
He was ill-disciplined and probably a bad influence. Even McGinn hinted at his behaviour.
I’m confident he was given every chance and Emery was glad to be rid of him.
I do agree however, we was certainly an exciting player.
What about Malen then? What’s the excuse for that dreadful bit of business?
Ask Emery. He obviously preferred Ollie over him, probably for his overall contribution and Malen wasn’t happy with that.
I’m not saying that’s right, because Ollie has been awful for too long, but it’s the only reason I can see.
Don’t forget, I said I’d have dropped Watkins after Tammy’s first game.
Still fuming about malen what on earth where we thinking
As for baily pete the canadian villain said he played well well I thought he was dog shit we need to get on top for the leeds game had a week off so no excuses
Bailey over the last two seasons has been really poor. He constantly runs into players and loses possession and looks incapable of going past a fullback. I would only play him as a last resort. We loaned out Jimoh-Aloba who i would prefer to play. Selling Malen for a small loan fee with an obligation to buy for what is a very small amount makes no sense at all. I know he wanted regular football but even so, he was under contract and we are short in numbers when it comes to quality strikers. Madness that could cost us millions if we don’t get Champions League through inability to score.
Bailey will go ASAP.
Does anyone else fail to see the correlation of how good our recruitment team were meant to be and the absolute cack we’ve signed in the last few years, for large sums of money?
If we’d have spent money more efficiently, or not spent certain bouts of money at all, we may be fine for PSR. Although, in saying that, they’d still find a way to do us.
It’s still mostly the players who were already at the club before Emery who have proved the most successful:-
Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Mings
Digne
Luiz
McGinn
Kamara
Watkins
I might have missed some names in the above list but it seems our recruitment has been on a downward trajectory over the last few years barring Tielemans and Rogers!
Smith
Smith
Smith
Smith
Smith
Smith / Emery (I think it is to be credited to Smith though, really)
BRUCE!
Gerrard
Smith
People are going to make the argument that it isn’t Emery’s team… but he signed Diaby who we then got rid of, Onana who is made of glass, Guessand who was effectively useless, Torres who has been decent but not incredible really… not exactly been short of money to spend.
This is well and truly Emery’s team. Even with that personnel another Manage would see us averaging 11th.
The buying has been a bit suspect though…
Great shout holte
Arsenal 0-1 up against Wolves 5 mins in.
Saka.
Arsenal 🤣🤣🤣
Haaa 5 points behind if we win our game in hand we still can dream yall
UTMV
If we’d beaten Everton and Brentford at home, we’d be going top with a win on Saturday. But we sold Malen so never mind.
Or. If we’d drawn against Everton and Brentford and been awarded a penalty at Palace, we’d close the gap to 2 points with a win on Saturday.
Or. If we hadn’t entered the FA Cup and Kamara had stayed fit, and Malen had stayed, we’d be top and very much in the driving seat.
Horrible decisions from officials (referrees and club directors) cost points and titles. It could well be another ‘what if’ season like last year and ’93.
I think Leeds will beat us comfortably on Saturday. We’re slow and malfunctioning and playing with fear. They’re in good spirits and play fearlessly. Not looking forward to it..
Blimey, after reading all the last posts I nearly rang The Samaritans 🫣😂
We’re still third guys, even with the whole of our midfield having been kicked off the park and a refereeing conspiracy to boot.
12 games to go, everything to play for and if there’s one indestructible quality about this Villa team it’s they won’t ever give up.
UTMV
Quite strange isn’t it Hitch?
We’re both generally amongst the most negative on here, but we’re not feeling it at the moment.
Are we out of touch with reality or are others being a bit OTT?
The way I look at it, yes things are bleak.
But we’re still hanging in there.
McGinn is due back first, around the middle of March.
His return and extra graft and energy will be a big Fillip.
And then slowly others will return to boost us further, hopefully just at the right time for the final push (just don’t mention the run in).
True Badger but our negativity (or should that be objectivity) is probably inherited from years of being let down by the club.
I don’t get sense of that in this Emery era; maybe that’s the difference.
We may not get a CL place; that’s the uncertainty of football and the fact that we’re battling against clubs with bigger budgets and bigger squads but, if we don’t, it won’t be for the want of trying by the owners, the managers and the squad.
That brings hope – surely?
Coutinho has come out and admitted “mental exhaustion.” It’s obvious when players are going through this. Even physically, they don’t look well. Wish him well. Was unplayable at Liverpool.
Yeah. Certain players can only play in momentum, and once he’d stopped firing for us his career at Villa was over.
Don’t know about you guys, but the past few weeks I’ve sort of detached from Villa. I can’t take the stress!!!!
Humans are strange creatures…
Same here mate.
Vlahovic at Juve is a free agent in the summer. 26 years old. Quality striker.
https://youtu.be/HYuHZgrEWNo?si=7W492p3vmWWcHFxO
Surely, Mr Olabe should be all over this with his Juve links?
I suspect BFR that our summer transfer business will all depend on whether or not we qualify for the CL.
Then again I suppose that’s a statement of the b****y obvious.
Never mind. Olabe doesn’t have Juve links. Don’t know where I got that from.
I see we’re still in line to sign half of all players who are available in the global game, including Ferran Torres for about 80 mill.
It’s just laughable.
And downright annoying.
Two rumours that are more likely to have legs are Villa’s interest in Harry Wilson (free) and James Trafford (possibly loan with option or straight buy?). The latter, if true, would suggest Martinez moving on and Trafford becoming our new No.1
If Sancho continues to show good form, I could see us making his move permanent and Bailey going.
We do have to start looking at elements of the team which is ageing – its second oldest average age (nearly 29 years) in the Prem.
That age thing is a good point.
Given our recruitment record recently, I actually find that more worrying than our present position!
Sancho???! Good form???! If Villa sign him, they don’t deserve to progress. Underwhelming is a huge complement to him and the understatement of the century. I’ll refrain from adding a sweary derogatory statement of what I think of his contributions, especially given his (alleged) reputation. He should NOT be on the agenda for the summer.
BFR – I don’t think he’s been too bad to be honest. When other players haven’t been performing he’s looked somewhat lively – especially at games like Chelsea away I watched him in the second half when we was kicking towards the away end and he looked good.
That’s harsh BFR – I think Sancho for Bailey would be a decent upgrade.
Fleeting and sporadic, guys. We need stability and consistency at a very high level. He is definitely not it. An upgrade on Bailey is like saying a cracker is an upgrade after a famine; a very low bar and shouldn’t even be a marker. Think bigger and better, guys; we’ve been there before with Coutinho. It would be a massive error and money wasted that Villa simply can’t afford to waste.
Wages might be a problem but he’s available on a free which leaves us money to spend elsewhere – and frees have been good for us.
Think squad depth BFR – I still believe Sancho on a free would be good business.