And what a week it was.
The Big Transfer Week begins and starts taking shape with a load of big names linked with moves to… anywhere but Villa.
Then Marco Asensio’s definitely, absolutely signing for us.
At least something’s happening. The council have approved our plans for the North Stand, Witton station is getting an upgrade and it’ll all be ready in time for Euro 2028. The club are happy, the mayor says he’s happy. We all know that the North Stand will be standing exactly the way it is now the day after the upcoming nuclear holocaust, but everyone must have a dream.
Nicola Jackson’s definitely absolutely, no honestly he is, signing for us.
Zepiqueno Redmond, signed from Feyenoord last year, is moving to Huddersfield on loan for the season. Samuel Iling Junior will be in retirement at Smethwick for the same time. We may see either of them again, we may not.
Lucas Paqueta’s absolutely, definitely, no honestly he is, this time we’re serious signing for us.
Sunday morning and the storm clouds begin to gather. Rumours become stories become exclusives that Emiliano Martinez, formerly the world’s best goalkeeper, is moving to Manchester United. Then come even more confirmed reports that central defensive free agent Victor Lindelof, formerly of Manchester United, is joining us. Hopefully as cover, although the way things are going he might be one of the last eleven players left at the end of the month.
He certainly couldn’t have done much worse than the ones who turned out against Crystal Palace. Martinez wasn’t one of them, which would seem to indicate that we’ve seen the last of him and with injuries and players gone on loan we’ve suddenly got a bench full of youngsters and players who with the best will in the world aren’t good enough. The mood around Villa Park was gloomy and the opposition didn’t help.
Donyell Malen and Evann Guessand are definitely starting, Marco Bizot has got the opportunity to replace Martinez permanently and that looked a possibility for nineteen minutes. Then in the twentieth he brings down a Palace forward and we go a goal down from the resulting penalty. Ollie Watkins missed a good chance but we were a bit better in the second half, with Emiliano Buendia coming on and looking threatening.
And then, just as it seemed we might be able to get back into the match, Matty Cash makes another mistake and we’re two down. After that heads drop, nobody seems to care and a third is no great surprise. This has worrying signs of being less of a blip and more of the normal stay of events for the rest of the season. We’ve got a day to sort it out.
After the match there’s a lot more said about Martinez, including from Unai, who makes the point that he wasn’t focused and all the uncertainty is doing nobody any good. Then to add to it all, Jadon Sancho might be moving in the opposite direction. If nothing else, Monday promises to be interesting.
