Transfer gamble backfires as Villa are left in a tight spot

Unai Emery's side were one point short of qualifying for next season's Champions League, but there is now an uncertain future for a sizeable chunk of the squad, writes Richard Jolly

- Richard Jolly

Sixty-seven points, Unai Emery said, was “very fantastic”. He soon corrected himself. Aston Villa only had 66. He downgraded the description to “fantastic”. One extra word, one extra point, but one very different scenario.

A 67th would have secured them Champions League football. A year made a difference: 68 points brought fourth in 2024, 66 sixth 12 months on.

The simplistic explanation was that referee Thomas Bramall proved “a significant contributing factor to the club not qualifying for the Champions League”, as Villa claimed in their complaint to PGMOL, by wrongly disallowing a Morgan Rogers goal in the 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.

Although, somehow, they neglected to mention the significant contributing factor of Emi Martinez getting himself sent off just before the interval for flooring Rasmus Hojlund. It is easier to blame officials. Some of Villa’s powerbrokers took the populist approach of scapegoating the man in black.

And in his defence, a more dignified Emery argued that everyone makes mistakes and that Villa deserved to lose at Old Trafford. He was doubly correct. Reducing 38 games to one piece of officiating entails ignoring a host of other elements.