Author: John Townley
Aston Villa are intent on building a powerhouse academy to supply England with a new generation of talent with players developing at Bodymoor Heath from inside and outside of Birmingham’s borders, which are brimming with exceptionally talented young footballers. While Louie Barry, Carney Chukwuemeka and Jaden Philogene-Bidace amongst others continue to catch the headlines, the likes of Chisom Afoka and Kahrel Reddin are all also impressing in younger age groups, with their chance to make the step up to Under-23s football soon to come. Afoka was a surprise inclusion in Villa’s starting line-up against Burton Albion in the fifth round…
Neil Taylor’s contract at Aston Villa will run out this coming summer and while you’d be forgiven for thinking his influence in the English top-flight has run its course, the Welshman is now intent on becoming a trailblazer to promote inclusion in the game ‘for all’. Not many people know that Taylor’s mother, Shibani Chakraborty, is a Bengali from Kolkata and the half-Welsh, half-Indian footballer is now using his experiences to support the hopes and dreams of aspiring footballers of similar backgrounds to himself. As a child, Taylor played cricket for his village side in North Wales and looked up…
Aston Villa’s academy has changed immeasurably in the past decade and while Jack Grealish is one of few homegrown graduates to make a name for himself in the first team, there’s fresh hope that young talent is starting to come through the ranks once again. Since Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens took over the club in 2018, Bodymoor Heath has gone through changes both in-house and indeed to the physical shape of the academy. Since then, preparations for HS2 were dealt with by building a brand new state-of-the-art £14million academy, which stands separate from the first team building. Fit with…
Asked to explain why so many people in the Ghanaian town of Juaben came to support Aston Villa, the chair of the Ghana Lions supporters club, Owusu Boakye Amando, will tell you his grandfather told him once that god’s name was Paul McGrath. The great plains of Africa are the unlikely destination for thousands of Villans to parade an Irishman’s legacy across Juaben’s streets, inviting young and old to bask in a celebration of the Birmingham-based Premier League club. If McGrath can influence a small town in the Ashante Region to such a degree, imagine the impact he and three…
John McGinn, possibly by his own omission, has been a pale imitation of the Scotsman who motored across the Villa Park turf every other weekend, as every blade of grass churned under his razor-like soleplate, whipping up the Holte End roar on every given matchday. That same tenacious midfielder who has played a crucial part in Aston Villa’s fortunes during a rollercoaster three years is one intent on writing more chapters in his story at the club – now it’s up to Villa to get the most out of him. When Villa required all three points to confirm their top-six…
Aston Villa’s talismanic captain Jack Grealish has returned to full fitness, and with the business end of the Premier League campaign insight, Super Jack is fully intent on making up for lost time following a forced withdrawal from Gareth Southgate’s England squad. With bare calves flashing, a slicked back undercut and number ten hanging off his back, Grealish’s unique style has become commonplace at Villa Park, and now top-flight onlookers have come accustomed to lauding his performances in the past 18 months. Derisory offers have are few and far between in modern football, with billions spread across European transfer windows,…
Tom Heaton hasn’t played for Aston Villa in over a year after suffering a knee ligament injury in the Premier League win against Burnley in January 2020. Villa’s goalkeeper – who joined the club in an £8million deal from Burnley last season – returned to fitness in December and has been providing backup for Emiliano Martínez, who has made the position his own since arriving in a £20million deal from Arsenal last summer. Heaton’s ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury was the start of a goalkeeping merry-go-round last season, as Dean Smith was forced to hand opportunities to Jed Steer, Orjan…
Player recruitment has often been a bugbear for Aston Villa fans, at least in previous Premier League campaigns where shoddy scouting and questionable transfer wish lists become the start of a drab campaign ahead. Villa had spent around £240 million on transfer fees since their last European campaign in 2010 and up to when new owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens took control of the club eight years later. Since their first summer window, NSWE have supplied a war chest just shy of the amount of money handed down by other regimes to managers, Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert,…
Aston Villa are modernising their approaches to almost every aspect of their football practices – not only are Dean Smith’s side competing amongst the upper reaches of the Premier League again but behind the scenes, Villa are leaving no stone unturned. Since gaining promotion back to the Premier League in 2019, the club have appointed a new Sporting Director, turned their attention to the smallest of details off the pitch, and even created new analytics-based roles. Johan Lange was head-hunted from Copenhagen last summer, while his former right-hand man in Denmark, Frederic Leth was also prized to Villa Park in…
Dean Smith has a quality full-back pairing capable of encouraging his dynamic and exciting brand of football, made all the more effective with insatiable appetites to improve at Aston Villa. Full-backs were once the least fashionable role on a football field, having rarely garnered the headlines in decades past, but in modern-day football, they’ve become a vital component in various playing-formations. After spending over £200 million on transfer fees alone since achieving promotion back to the Premier League in 2019, Villa’s recruitment chiefs have apportioned in excess of £30 million on full-backs during that time. The role of the full-back…