Reviving sleeping giants (chapter 2): Aston Villa

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December 2019: sacked in the morning, I'm getting sacked in the morning?!

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Stoke away is, as we know, never easy. I was expecting a lot better from the team though. Thank God for Grealish performing well and allowing us to come back into the game and draw 2-2 but overall, this just isn't good enough and we need to start doing a lot better to push for Europa League football next season!

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This game was supposed to be a lot tougher than the one against Stoke but we actually completely dominated. We couldn't get the 3 points but I saw some big positives from the game and it's making me hopeful for our next few games. Again though, we need to do better to climb up that Premier League table!

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We finish off the Europa League group stages with a great 5-0 win. We were always expected to get a big win and to get confirmation of that is a great thing for us. Hopefully that positive result in the Europa League will motivate the players to get some decent results in the league now though!

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Finally a good result in the league! It feels like forever since we've won a game in the league and we've done it against Crystal Palace after an amazing game from Davis yet again. He's really turning out to be one of the most important players in the team and I'm very happy with how he's performing so far this season.

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After making it out of our group as group winners, we had the draw for the next round to attend to and we've been drawn against Krasnodar! It's a decent draw but they were in the same group as FC Porto and did quite well against them so I'm definitely wary that this could go horribly wrong but we'll hope it doesn't...

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Davis at the rescue again! We win 2-0 against Sheffield and make it to the Carabao Cup semi-final! Incredible! How about that for a cup run eh?! Only problem with this cup run though, is that we now have two legs in the semi-final... against Manchester United... The other semi-final is Stoke against Brighton, why couldn't we get one of those two teams?! Absolutely gutted but hey, we have to test ourselves against the best teams to become one of the best so I guess we just have to accept it now.

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If things continue to go the way they are right now in the league, I'm definitely getting sacked before the end of the season... Fulham should be an easy win for us but instead we've gone and lost 1-0. I switched up to a 4-2-3-1 system I used to use last year sometimes and tweaked it a little bit but it just didn't work. I'll keep making tweaks to the system and if it doesn't work just revert back to what I was using but I might not have enough time to do that in this kind of form.

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YES! Some more tweaks here and there and we get 3 points against Arsenal! They obviously had a lot more shots but we had better shots and clearly today that's what mattered most. Pereira is finally showing his true colours and stepping up a bit to show off the player that he really is and I'm so happy about that. I was so worried about this game, about getting battered (especially after losing to Fulham) so this really is a relief.

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Aaaaaand another bad result... I guess those tweaks I made didn't really work after all... I'm definitely reverting back to my initial system now for our first game of January 2020 against Manchester City and will hope that I get a good result then. Maybe I'll use the 4-1-2-3 DM that we used at the beginning of the season, who knows? Just a disappointing game against West Brom though, we did well in the first half despite conceding a stupid goal just 5 minutes after our opener but then just couldn't hold on to a win at all and actually had to come from behind to get a point from this game. Not the best way to end 2019...

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So 18 games in and well, even with a game in hand over a couple of teams above us, we're in 12th. Just to reiterate, we are expected to finish in the Europa League spots and as of right now that's where Bournemouth are. They might just be 5 points away but as you can see, 5 points seems very, VERY far away right now. We definitely need to improve our form to climb up the table but unfortunately for us, I don't think next month is where we'll see an improvement... As for the Europa League well, you saw who we got drawn against and we obviously finished top of our group and it was a pretty convincing group stage campaign for us. Ajax was the toughest team in there and they were the only ones who got a result against us so there you go.

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An absolutely MASSIVE amount of games coming up next month with 2 semi-final games against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup, a 3rd round game in the FA Cup against Milwall and 5 Premier League games on top of that. To start off 2020 with Manchester City away and Liverpool at home is probably not going to be a confidence booster but our games against Huddersfield, Southampton and West Ham could go a lot better. I want revenge from these few fixtures we did so badly in earlier this season and hopefully this is when we'll get it.

Villan of the Month:
View attachment 47525#39 Keinan Davis
21 years old
Striker
English

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Well, guess who's the Villan of the Month again? Yes, it's Keinan Davis! It was close between him and Xherdan Shaqiri to be honest, but Davis being younger and also contributing more stats-wise gave him the edge. With an impressive 7 goals and 5 assists in just 8 games, Keinan is definitely one of the best young talents I've ever seen and I hope he continues this form, even in our worst moments like last month.
 
Im struggling with too many draws this season for Truro in the Premier League too, do you feel as if their is a bigger difference in FM when it comes to Home and Away than maybe real life for most teams, my Truro side seem very much like Burnley winning most of my home games and losing most of my away games KIU though Europe is looking good
 
coolmcool said:
Im struggling with too many draws this season for Truro in the Premier League too, do you feel as if their is a bigger difference in FM when it comes to Home and Away than maybe real life for most teams, my Truro side seem very much like Burnley winning most of my home games and losing most of my away games KIU though Europe is looking good
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Yeah that really seems to be an issue, although the main one that I've found is once you've used a certain tactic for some time, it seems the AI just learns how to counter it and you get bad results! Up till this point I was using a 4-1-2-3 DM wide formation and it was working wonders (clearly, since I finish 7th in my first season in the Premier League) but this season it's all gone wrong. I've had to change tactics a couple times and I've not had the best results so far unfortunately. I know what you mean about home and away though, home games always seem so much easier...
 
Davis is a beast!! Hopefully his head doesn't get turned when the inevitable offers come in from the Big Boys. You're not far behind Bournemouth, and with an upturn in consistency, you'll have a great shout at finishing top 7.
 
danjames101 said:
Davis is a beast!! Hopefully his head doesn't get turned when the inevitable offers come in from the Big Boys. You're not far behind Bournemouth, and with an upturn in consistency, you'll have a great shout at finishing top 7.
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So far no interest so it's all good! In terms of top 7, it really is tight so it can happen but at the same time a couple of bad results and we'll be way down in the relegation zone! Let's hope that doesn't happen XD
 
Linecoigne1998 said:
Cheers mate, last season was actually my second season of the save but yes first season in the Premier League. Really happy with how it went. Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far :)
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I meant in the PL ha! Should start to proof read my comments! Hopefully a good run in europe this season too!
 
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January 2020: a little hope

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Davis gets yet another young player of the month award for his fantastic form! His 3rd of the season! Surely Southgate has to consider him a key player for EURO 2020? Right?!

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Despite our good result against City in our first game of the season, we were unable to replicate that and lose, quite easily, to them away from home. I wasn't expecting much from this game but this is definitely not helping my position as a manager of this football club.

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I wanted to bring in some players on the cheap this month to improve our chances at finishing higher up the table but didn't see many players transfer-listed who tempted me. One player who did though is Abouchabaka of Leipzig. His contract is expiring at the end of the season so I immediately jumped at the opportunity to sign him. It means we'll only be able to sign one non-UK player next summer but Elias is a fantastic talent and I'm so excited for him to arrive at the club, on a free as well!

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I was hoping for a better result against Liverpool and well, we didn't get it. I'm going to need a big tactical revamp in order to get some good results because at this rate, I will 100% be gone before the end of the season! Grealish is now out for 4-5 weeks as well to make matters worse and it'll be really hard to replace him.

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I wasn't expecting to bring this man in but Kasey Palmer really impressed me in the Championship when he was on loan at Derby and when I saw he was transfer-listed at Chelsea for just £5 million, I immediately put in an offer for him. At just 23 years old, he has a lot of potential and a lot of time to get there so I signed him up! With the new systems I'm trying out, we're in desperate need of a competent attacking midfielder and Pereira hasn't been up to par yet so he'll bring in some great competition.

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What a game against Milwall! We absolute obliterated them and get a very well deserved 2-0 victory to move on to the next round of the FA Cup but the big, big negative is Palmer. He had a decent game and was so close to finishing his first game for the club but got a concussion in the 88th minute. 88TH MINUTE! He's now out for at least 2 weeks, which is a huge shame... especially considering we're playing Brentford in the next round and it would have a great opportunity for him to impress.

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I wasn't expecting anything from this game, especially given our league form, but it's a much better result than I anticipated! Yes we're a goal down for the second leg but it's still just 1-0! I have a new tactic in mind and I'm thinking of trying it out for the return leg since we have nothing to lose so hey, we'll see where it takes us.

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Just as I said our league form wasn't great, we finally get a win! A deserved 2-0 win against Huddersfield which helps us climb to 12th place in our race to Europa League football for next season! Pereira was fantastic in Palmer's absence and I'm really happy with the result. Oh and even better news is Frenkie de Jong is back from his 6-month injury! I'm so glad to have him back because this new system I want to use required 2 proper defensive midfielders and with Hughes already one of them, I just needed another one and de Jong is perfect for the role.

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Trippier is proving to be a star signing for us as he gets another man of the match award! Southampton have been a great side since their promotion back to the Premier League and I'm really happy we're starting to get some results now against these "weaker" teams that we should be winning against!

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What a win again! It wasn't necessarily as deserved as our other wins but look at that, we're back in the race for Europe! Sitting in 8th, our last league game of the month was a very successful one and we get an incredible 5-2 win against West Ham! I'm so happy with our latest form and well, it's great momentum to bring in to the Manchester United second leg game in the Carabao Cup where I'll finally try out this new system I've been working on.

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INCREDIBLE!!! WE'VE DONE IT!!! THE NEW SYSTEM WORKED WONDERS AS WE GET A 2-0 WIN AGAINST MANCHESTER UNITED TO MAKE TO THE CLUB'S FIRST CARABAO CUP FINAL IN OVER 10 YEARS!!! I'm actually speechless right now. We just won 2-0 against United and how fitting that Pereira, who never got a chance there, scored one of the goals! I'm actually amazed right now, especially that this new system worked so perfectly. We'll be playing Brighton in the final in what should be a great game later on in March and I am SO EXCITED. Only sad thing is losing Shaqiri for so long... He's been playing so well and every time he gets an injury we play worse which is just a shame.

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After a great run of form towards the end of the month, we've somehow made it back up to 8th. Best part about it is we have a game in hand, and winning that would put us in 5th if West Ham lose! How incredible! I always believed in this team and I was confident we would get back in the top half of the table but not this high up! No time for all this happiness and excitement though, we've got a huge month ahead of us.

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Brentford away in our first game, then a couple of tough league games and of course our Europa League tie against Krasnodar to finish the month off. February is going to be a big, big month for sure and I hope we carry this form forward, I really do because otherwise I can say goodbye to Villa Park!

Villan of the Month:
View attachment 47472#8 Andreas Pereira
24 years old
Winger/attacking midfielder
Belgian

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It wasn't a great month for anyone individually to be honest, but Pereira stood out to me because his response to the signing of Palmer has been amazing. He scored 3 goals and made an assist in the 6 games he managed to play this month and started off our incredible game against Manchester United to go through to the Carabao Cup final, which I think is enough on its own to grant him the Villan of the Month.
 
Congrats on reaching the final, massive achievement! Fingers crossed you can bring it home to Villa.
 
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February 2020: tactical genius

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It might be a winter transfer window, but it doesn't stop Premier League clubs from spending! With a total of £315 million spent, our mere £5 million seems like absolutely nothing. Liverpool, sitting in 12th in the league and in deep trouble, spent almost £80 million in an attempt to fix that, most of which was for Benik Afobe of Bournemouth who's one of the league's top goalscorers this season. I guess we'll now see later this season if Liverpool have spent smart!

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Brad Smith hasn't played much but he's a very professional backup player who's great to have and when interest started to rise for him since his contract was expiring, I immediately offered him a new one to keep him at the club for another 2 years.

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Well, Palmer didn't take too long to impose himself in this team did he? A man of the match performance in a great 2-0 win against Brentford to put us through to the 5th round of the FA Cup! Against?! Manchester City... Great... The Premier League leaders will not be an easy opponent at all but hey, this system is making me look like a tactical genius and we beat Manchester United with it so it has to be good right?!

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Another fantastic result and yes, I can confirm, I am officially a tactical genius. We couldn't get a good result to save our lives a month ago and now there we are absolutely tearing apart every team in our way! I mean seriously, almost 20 shots to their 5 and over 60% possession without conceding a single goal? Absolutely incredible. This is exactly how I want my teams to play, like Germany kind of. Holding the ball, having a couple shots on goal and making sure we never concede!

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We're in 5th!!! This is absolutely amazing! Another great win, this time 3-0 and against a Newcastle side who did so well last season! Pereira is the big negative takeaway from the game as he's out for at least month but hey, with Palmer's performances so far, I'm not too worried about losing Pereira right now! Grealish is back into amazing form after a little break from good performances and we carry on!

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Okay seriously, what is going on!? Over 55% possession, limiting them to 1 shot on goal, a clean sheet and 4 goals?! I can't remember the last time this happened for us! This is an incredible run and it's coming at the best time possible with the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League all still on the line and a now Champions League spot very much on the horizon if we keep playing this way!

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With every tactic or formation or system used, there's always a couple teams who know how to counter it and with this one, it's teams like Wolves. Thankfully though, we got our 7th consecutive league win and stay in 5th after another 3 points, thanks to amazing performances from Trippier and Davis who are starting to become the best players in this team!

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Wow, what a win! I knew Krasnodar would be a tough team to beat and well, it'd be unfair to say the red card they received in the 63rd minute didn't help us. It aboslutely did and Davis and de Jong were the two goalscorers in a great 2-0 win away from home. This means we can play the second leg at home, with a 2-0 goal lead and both of them being away goals and one of their best players out suspended! Fair to say we're through to the next round?

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What on Earth is going on with this tactic?! Have I found the perfect tactic for this team?! I was not expecting a result at all from this game and went into it thinking well, we'll probably lose 2-0 or 3-0 and we'll move on since the board expected us to get to the 5th round but no! We get to the FA Cup 6th round with an incredible 2-1 win over Manchester City courtesy of Barella! What a player he is! Only bad news is, we're playing Wolves in the next round who seemingly are the only side weaker than us who managed to counter this new amazing system I've come up with...

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I want to say we were basically through to the next round but you never know in Europe. Now we know! We've made it to the Europa League 2nd knockout round with an amazing 3-1 victory at home, putting us 5-1 up on aggregate and onto the next round where we'll face European giants in Benfica. They've not been European giants for a while now but are a very, very strong side and this will be a huge tie for us. The board wanted us to get to this round but I'm hungry for more now, especially after breaking the club record for most wins in a row. Benfica made it out of their group in 2nd, behind West Ham who they lost to once and drew against once as well. They're not a team we can't beat, I know that for a fact, and you can be sure that this team will fight to make it to the quarter-finals of the Europa League!

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What a turnaround this has been eh?! We were in the bottom half of the table back in January and now at the end of February, here we are level with Tottenham for Champions League football next season! I'm so proud of this comeback we've made and so happy with myself for coming up with this incredible tactic. Next month is, just like the last two months, going to be very stressful. This team has the quality to get the results, but I don't know if we've got the experience to deal with them yet. Hopefully the older boys like Davies and Trippier and Shaqiri can step up and keep the younger heads focused.

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How about that for a first game of the month! The Carabao Cup final awaits us, Wembley awaits us and hopefully, the trophy awaits us! Games in the league are two huge ones against Chelsea and Manchester United, but at this point this is the least of my worries. The two league games come right in between my main focus for this month, the Benfica tie in the Europa League. Later on, we finish the month with Wolves in the FA Cup as well and this will also be a huge game. I'm just amazed we're still in every competition we've played in so far this season still!

Villan of the Month:
View attachment 47452#23 Kasey Palmer
23 years old
Centre attacking midfielder
English

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For his first full month at the club, Palmer sure made an impression! With 4 goals and 5 assists in 8 games, I'm so amazed at his progress within the club so far and it's so nice to see him linking up with his teammates so well already. At 23 years old, I can see the potential he's got in him and I'm so happy he's chosen Villa as the club where he's going to progress! Southgate, call him up for the EURO, you know you want to!
 
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March 2020: first bit of silverware?

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Maresic gets the young player of the month to make it 5 young player of the month awards out of 7 going to Aston Villa! Funnily enough, these 5 awards are shared between just 2 players though so clearly Maresic and Davis are forces to be reckoned with!

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A fantastic month in February sees myself grab my second Premier League manager of the month after a perfect month with 4 wins from 4 games! It's all down to the players of course, although I'll take a little credit for these ones after this new formation change.

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WE'VE DONE IT!!! WE'VE WON THE CARABAO CUP!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE! I would have never thought going into this 3rd season in charge that we would win the Carabao Cup but we've done it! It was so tight, so incredibly tight but our penalty taking ability goes us through it and what a way to win it in the end. We dominated the match and probably deserved more in regular time but I'll take a win on penalties any day if it means taking the trophy home as well! We unfortunately lost de Jong in the process which could turn out to be a big blow but Hughes will step up in his place, I'm sure of it. We've also qualified for the Europa League as a result of this win, which is fantastic. We now have a backup if we end up bottling it in the league and don't finish in the Europa League spots!

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I don't even care about this result right now. We won the Carabao Cup and I couldn't be happier about that. Chelsea away was always going to be a tough match and losing just 2-1 is a big achievement for me. We dominated possession and had a good amount of shots so there were plenty of positives in this match.

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Uh oh... This isn't good news at all! Pickford has been our starting keeper for most of the season and has done pretty well but we're about to lose him for over a month now and Pope is going to have to step in and pull out the good performances he had last season in more stressful matches. Let's hope Jordan does come back fully fit sooner than expected.

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What a win! Benfica were so much better attacking wise and we were really lucky to keep a clean sheet in the end and to come away with an away goal is HUGE. Barella continues his amazing form and we get a crucial win in our first leg of this Europa League 2nd knockout round.

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What a result for us again! It's only a 0-0 but it's a point against one of the best teams in the league and that's a point that keeps us in 5th place. Maresic is becoming better and better by the week and a point against Manchester United with a clean sheet? I'll take that.

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Barella has been on £15,000 a week for the longest time and he finally gets a new contract. It's incredibly well deserved for him and I'm just so happy to have him at this club. He's an incredible talent and is not even done with his progress yet so I can't even imagine how he'll be when he grows even more as a player.

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Another player who absolutely deserves a new contract is Maresic. His agent pushing for a release clause every time we negotiate a new contract is annoying but hey, I'll take £64 million if anyone wants to come in for him! He's been outstanding and as just a 20-year old, he could grow and become even better than he already is!

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I'm speechless. I can't believe it. We're in the Europa League quarter-finals! It might be against Roma and it might mean the end of our European journey but we're in the quarter-finals! Absolutely incredible from the lads who smashed it out of the park in the second leg winning 4-1. I was expecting another 1-0 at best but this is just insane. What a performance. What a loss in Maresic though getting injured for so long and other than Chester, this has just made me realise that we have no decent backup defender. Something to look into for next year I suppose.

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And another win! This time in the FA Cup which actually puts us through to the FA Cup semi-final! How amazing is that?! Davis and Shaqiri were the goalscorers in a game where I was expecting to really be countered since Wolves did so well at that in the league but we smashed them and what a win this is. No news on the draw for the next round yet but hopefully it's not too bad for us.

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With 2 games in hand over Liverpool, we're just a point behind. We also have a game in hand over Tottenham but they're 5 points clear so we'd need results to go our way if we want to potentially finish in the Champions League spots!

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I mean how about that for a schedule. As many as 6 Premier League games in April on top of a Europa League quarter-final tie against Roma! We play at home first in that tie which isn't the best since for both previous rounds we started away from home and I always felt confident about that. The Premier League games we have next month are all ones that we can win, a couple of which I'll want us to get revenge in and I hope we can get as many points as possible to hopefully clinch a Champions League spot for next season if it's possible.

Villan of the Month:
View attachment 47427#11 Nicolò Barella
23 years old
Defensive midfielder
Italian

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It wasn't the best month for Barella to be honest, but he was our best performer this month. I gave the award to him because he not only scored the penalty to win us the Carabao Cup but he also scored the only goal in our Europa League 1st leg against Benfica. Turns out it wasn't that significant of a goal in the end but it was still an important one.
 
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April 2020: the best season ever?

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Yet another fixture added to our schedule for April but hey, it's worth it! Bristol aren't doing well in the Championship and the two times we faced them back in 2017/18 in the Championship, we didn't lose once which is good news. The other semi-final is Everton against Watford so it's fair to say that if we get through this semi-final, we have a real shot at doing the domestic double and winning the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup as well!

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This was a very, very close game but we couldn't come out on top in the end and it's a real shame. I wanted us to do better against a team like Stoke and we just didn't which is very disappointing.

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What a win! We absolutely crushed Roma somehow and we might actually have a chance to make it through to the Europa League semi-final! Is this Aston Villa side good or what?! What a performance from new signing Will Hughes and just the whole team overall. I'm just so proud of everything we've achieved so far this season and I think even if we were to go out in this round, I still wouldn't be disappointed.

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After a disappointing game against Stoke, we needed a good result against Leicester away from home and we got it! A great 2-1 win gives us 3 points and puts us up in 6th place. We've been doing amazing since the now famous formation change and today was no different. Leicester were very decent but just couldn't score to save their lives, probably have to thank Pickford for that one!

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Another great win to put us up in 5th place. It's also another dominant performance as we win 3-1 away from home and really giving the team a lot of confidence ahead of our FA Cup and Europa League games.

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As one of our top performers this season, I was so happy to be able to extend his contract. A well deserved new contract for the heart of our midfield along with Barella and de Jong.

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I have no idea how this happened, but we just won 3-2 in Rome making it 6-3 on aggregate and through to the Europa League semi-final! We were drawn against Liverpool, arguably the best draw for us considering we know them well. The fans will be a little worried though considering we've not won once against Liverpool in the 4 games we've played against them so far since our promotion. They're a great side and I really hope we can get a decent result at Anfield to start the tie.

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Could we get a Champions League spot for next season in our second season in the Premier League?! It definitely seems like it as we win 2-0 against Crystal Palace and move up to 4th! What a game from Grealish and the rest of the lads to continue our good run of form and hopefully finish in the top 4 this season!

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Another good result for us considering our bad performance. A 2-2 draw is a great point to take, even at home, against a side like Tottenham. We're getting closer and closer to the end of the month and even more stressful performances though so let's hope we keep this focus up and do the job!

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So soon after his new contract, Hughes is out for at least a month meaning he not only will most likely miss the rest of the season, but newspapers are also thinking he might not even be considering for the EURO 2020 England squad as a result. An absolutely awful time to get an injury for him.

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We've done it lads! We were at Wembley for the semi-final of course, but we're back at Wembley for another final! What a great result against Bristol who were just so weak against us and never looked like winning the game! Watford won their game 1-0 meaning they're through to their second ever FA Cup final, and our first since 2014/15 when we lost to Arsenal. This is my opportunity to win yet another trophy from Villa's past and bring them back to their past glory days.

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Another terribly timed injury for another key player in Kasey Palmer. Both him and Hughes got twisted ankles from sprinting during their games, which is making me think that I really want to invest in a new medical staff for the club during the summer. Talking about this semi-final though, we lost just 2-1 meaning we have an away goal and would need a 1-0 win at home to go through. It's absolutely doable but will be very tough.

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With 4 games left in the league and a game in hand over Arsenal, we have a HUGE chance of making it in the top 4 this season and actually get a Champions League spot for next season! That would be a huge achievement but regardless, if we finish above 7th, that'll be an achievement in itself since it'll be an improvement on last season.

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Games against the bottom of the league, a team fighting relegation and our FA Cup final opponents and Arsenal are our last 4 games in the league. We need good results in the games against weaker opposition, but the most important one is the game against Arsenal purely because they're so close to us in the league. We of course have the Europa League semi-final second leg as well as the FA Cup final to play for too, so May is not going to be a relaxing month to end the season off!

Villan of the Month:
View attachment 47377#12 Kieran Trippier
29 years old
Right-back
English

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We didn't have a lot of very consistent players in the last month, so I've chosen Kieran Trippier as our Villan of the Month because he was probably our most consistent player. He's been a rock at right-back since joining the club and 2 goals definitely get him up there as the top performer for the club this month. You know what I'm going to say now: let's hope he carries that form into next month, the most important month of my Aston Villa career so far!
 
Congrats on the Carabao Cup win.....Looking good for a double this season with Watford in the final of the FA Cup
 
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May 2020: the start of something great?

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Yes! Barella what a hero! We still have a game in hand over most of the teams ahead of us (actually just Arsenal) and we are so close to Champions League football next season! It would be absolutely incredible to finish in the Europa League places last season and Champions League this season.

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Has that just happened?! After losing 2-1 at Anfield in the first leg, I thought surely that was it but we've run away with a 1-0 win and go through to the club's first EVER Europa League final!!! Shaqiri is the hero in this match and what a signing he's turned out to be! I'm absolutely amazed! I'm speechless. We are in the Europa League final! Please, no one wake me up from this dream now! Oh and what a final it's going to be by the way, against Leipzig in Germany!

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After that incredible result against Liverpool, I'm not sure I really care if we finish in 5th or 4th this season in the Premier League! We have to play Watford next as our game in hand and as it stands, even if we win that game, we'll be a point behind Arsenal. As they face Huddersfield in their last game and we play Fulham, I imagine we'll finish 5th and that's still more than good enough for me!

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Frenkie, who was out injured for so long this season but came back and has played so well since, gets a new contract. A very well deserved new contract for one of our best players ever since his arrival and at 23 years old, he's got a lot more to offer and I can't wait to see what that is!

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(Forgot to screenshot the Watford game but we won 1-0 and were a point behind Arsenal on the final day)

We've only gone and denied Arsenal Champions League football for next season! They drew with Huddersfield and our own little magician in Shaqiri scored twice against Fulham to give us a 3-2 win and get us Champions League football for next season! What an incredible win this and what an achievement to come 4th, after coming in 7th last season and being in such a bad place halfway through. I'm just so proud of this team, I don't think this season could have been better in terms of trophies and results.

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We've not quite got the £80 million we got last season from the board but £50 million is still more than good enough and I'm so excited to bring in some new talents next summer. We already have a great team, clearly, but I know we can get an even better team and with £50 million, we could get some great bargains for next season.

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HAS. THAT. JUST. HAPPENED!!! We have just won 2-1 against Leipzig and won the 2020 Europa League as a result!!! What an absolutely incredible result and Shaqiri is our hero yet again! We have two of our new signings in the Team of the Season and look who's there as always, Maresic and Davis! Absolutely incredible pair the two of them and just what a season this has been! We still have the FA Cup to play for of course but to win a double of the Carabao Cup and Europa League is just incredible already. Leipzig are such a good team and I was so worried about this game but we came away 2-1 winners after knocking out Krasnodar, Benfica, Roma and Liverpool to get to the final! Leipzig also had a really hard journey to the final having to win against Lyon, Espanyol, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen but we deserve this and I'm SO proud of the lads.

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It's a treble!!! Third season in charge of Aston Villa and a FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League treble! Am I dreaming?! Did this actually happen? Am I just sleeping after a horrendous defeat against West Ham back in September and have dreamt the rest of the season?! This is absolutely incredible! I was always confident playing against Watford, especially because we beat them so often in the league and to now beat them for such an occasion is incredible. We've just won the club's 8th FA Cup, meaning I now have to win another 6 to reach the tally of 7 FA Cups that Villa had won prior to my arrival at the club. What a season this has been!

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There were so many players who could have won Player of the Season: Keinan Davis, Dario Maresic, Xherdan Shaqiri, Will Hughes, Nicolò Barella but it's Grealish who wins it in the end and he deserves it! Ever since I arrived at Villa, he's been a driving force of this team and even with all these new arrivals, it stayed the same and he won the award. How our average attendance was lower this season than last season I'll never know, but what a season. You also get to see the formation that got me here for the first time! I was inspired by a deep 4-2-3-1 that I found some time ago and thought I would try to tweak a system around and dropped the right winger to play him as a right-mid and well, the rest is history now. What a season for everyone and what a season for Davis by the way! He scored just 17 goals in 39 games last season and this season he just exploded! He did play almost double the games with a total of 62 games played (what even...) but scored 33 goals and I'm so proud of him! He came in as the 6th top goalscorer in the Premier League with 18 goals but the top goalscorer of the Europa League with 11 goals and what an achievement that is. That's it for season 3 now, I can't wait for the EURO 2020 now, see how England get on and of course the summer after that for any new signings, some pre-season games and the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE as well!
 
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EURO 2020, pre-season and cups

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We had a couple of players called up for EURO 2020, mostly for the England national team! Hughes, Pickford, Maguire, Grealish and Pope were all called up and I just don't understand how Davis wasn't. He scored 33 goals and was one of our best players this season but apparently it wasn't enough. Maresic and Shaqiri are the two other Villa players who are going to the EUROs. More on the competition when it finishes!

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Our club captain gets a new contract after a fantastic first year at Villa which will keep him at the club for another 4 years. I'm sp happy to be renewing his contract as he's such an important player to the side and the partnership of him and Maresic has worked so well.

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There wasn't much I wanted to do this transfer window to be honest, but with Chester's contract now expired we needed a new backup centre-back and Calum Chambers was on the transfer list at Arsenal. It's a pretty good deal for £8.5 million and I think he'll be great for us when he's called upon throughout the season.

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Our academy prospect Max Morris, who arrived in the academy last season, will definitely play more next season and his new contract will keep us at the club for another 4 years!

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Another new contract for another great prospect for the club. He's not at his best in terms of potential yet but he's a fantastic player can potentially become a really, really great right-back for the club.

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Our pre-season is looking very decent, with some nice relaxed games first and then two big cup games in the Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup as well! Those two games will be big tests for us and will really prepare us for next season's Champions League so I'm excited.

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After our first game against Celtic, new signing Aboubachaka can now say goodbye to football for at least a month and a half... It's heartbreaking because I really wanted to use him throughout pre-season to get him to gel with the team.

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EURO 2020 is finished now and both Spain and France have come forward and asked me to manage their national teams! That is pretty incredible if you ask me, especially considering I've just spent 3 years at Villa! I rejected both offers though, as there is only one national team on my mind and in my heart: England. It would be my dream to manage the lads at Villa, then go manage the national team and be able to work with these players again.

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Speaking of the EUROs, here's how it went down. Shaqiri's Switzerland didn't make it out of the groups, whilst Austria lost in the Second Round to Czech Republic, the eventual opponents of England in the quarter-final! The current holders Portugal got knocked out by Sweden, who in turn were knocked out by England's opponents in the semi-final, Germany. Our beloved England lost in the semi-final to Germany, who would go on and win the whole tournament but it was a very decent tournament for Southgate and the English lads, so as happy as I am that they did well, I don't think the England job will become available any time soon.

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A bit of a controversial departure perhaps, but with the Champions League now at stake, I wanted to change something up. The team has been working really well up front, with Davis our star striker so far but he's not really of the calibre of the top strikers in the Champions League. Berahino didn't really develop the way I wanted so we'll sell him and make a £1 million profit, giving me over £70 million to sign a new striker (after adjusting expectations and telling the board I can finish in the Champions League places next season).

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[FONT=&quot][/FONT]That's our last non-UK signing done! I said I wanted a world-class striker to replace Berahino and start ahead of Davis and Schick will do just that. He's already a very good striker and has the potential to become even better so for just £32 million, he's an absolute steal and I can't wait to see him perform for Aston Villa. He's also the new biggest transfer in the club's history, breaking last season's record of £22 million for Hughes and speaking of Hughes, £22 million seems like a bargain now so let's hope the same happens with Schick.

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I had enough money to make one or two last signings to create some more quality depth and Evans was the first defender I jumped on. He's a defender in his prime years and who can be a really great rotation option so for under £2 million, I was more than happy to sign him as a backup to our centre-back pairing of Maresic and Maguire.

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Kieran Tierney is our last signing of this transfer window. Davies has been a great left-back but I wanted an upgrade and Tierney, with his existing talent on top of his amazing potential, will do just that. This means I can now get rid of Neil Taylor, who hasn't aged very well, and have Davies as a bit of a rotation option for Tierney!

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So there we go, a nice £6 million fee to get rid of Taylor as he leaves for the Championship. This leaves us with £18 million to spend in the winter transfer window if we need it, which is a great amount to have kept aside.

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WOW!!! We've done it! I know it's just the Community Shield but it's so good for our confidence to win against Manchester City! Not only did Schick score on his debut, but another debutant in Tierney scored the winning penalty as well so this is a huge win for us. Up next is PSG now and what a result it would be to win that!

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Wow... I really didn't expect that. Ask and you shall receive I guess! PSG fielded one of their weaker teams with some big names in there so it's not that incredible a result but it's still a large win and Schick now has 4 goals in 2 competitive games for the club so a great start to his career at the club! And another trophy we can tick off the board as well!

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It was a very successful pre-season considering our two trophy wins and 4 wins from 4 games in the games leading up to the trophies. Shaqiri, who came back home early from the EUROs, definitely helped us to some nice wins and Davis was also very good, probably the player of the pre-season before he was put out of the team by Schick.

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Our fixtures for August look like a great way to start the season off. Newcastle at home is our first game of the 2020/2021 Premier League season and they finished 17th last season so will want to prove a point now. Leicester finished 8th so had a decent season but not as good as us and Stoke finished in 11th in their first season since their promotion back to the Premier League so another game that could be tough but could also be an easy win. I'm looking forward to the rest of August now for these games and also the Champions League group stage draw!
 
F***ing amazing mate! Great last season, and started this one with a bang! Villa in the champions league, sack Bruce now and employ you mate!
 
Smashed it! Congrats on a historic season. Next up, the Premier League Title and Champions League Trophy! Good luck.
 
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