Matt Swindale

Husband, father, gamer geek... Villa & Seahawks fan, love movies & books - All views are my own!

[Guillem Balague @GuillemBalague]

Nobody at Villa Park will pretend this rebuild was the plan back in May. But in football you cannot always decide what happens and a rebuild, at a pace that was not expected, eventually became the plan.

Everyone knows of the financial pressure, with UEFA’s oversight hanging over every decision the club made this summer. Morgan Rogers’ departure helped balance the books and freed room to address squad needs.

Then two release clauses landed that nobody had budgeted for, Digne and Tielemans’, forcing the plan to change again. Onana got injured long term, so he would miss most of the season where, by all accounts, he was going to fly and govern the midfield.

Then Emi Martinez wanted out, like in previous summers, and tried it every way he could. Add a squad whose average age was pushing 29, and the club faced a choice: patch the cracks or start a real generational turnover.

Imagine the long meetings, the long discussions, all the possibilities on the table. But clearly a new path had to be taken, one that accelerated out of anyone’s control. It happens.

Almost a dozen new faces later, and let’s see what happens today, this is a different Villa. Younger, leaner on the balance sheet, built in a shape and with names and positions chosen with Emery’s blessing, now everyone is determined to start a new cycle rather than defend the old one.

The financial side of this rebuild has gone about as well as it could, with sales of players in their thirties fetching prices well above expectation.

The football side has to be more honest: losing that experience for extraordinary fees is good business, but it leaves gaps a young squad can’t fill by talent alone.

Players are not yet a team, and there’s an acknowledgment inside the club that another experienced body or two would have helped soften the transition. But once a player has decided he’s done what he came to do, there’s little a club can do beyond protecting the valuation.

That’s the job now, and it will take patience, both from the coaching staff working with young talent and from the club itself. From the fans. That is what it is being asked of you.

Do you want new memories, a new trip around the demands of the Premier League while players develop their football and personalties?

Emery has rebuilt cycles before, at Valencia, at Sevilla. He knows what this looks like in year one. The timing is brutal, a new-look squad thrown straight into the Premier League with barely a pre-season together, but the people building this are the same people who got Villa to a Europa League final.

Who knows what will happen. But don’t you want to be part of what happens next? Then, I would say, help this team reach the best they can give.

[Matt Swindale @mattswin]

Anyone else see the resemblance?

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

I know Villa listen to supporters generally after a few years of a strained relationship as the club grows and evolves into a fit for purpose 21st century club.

So I'd hope that the club would consider opening Villa Park, big screen, music and celebrate the club on the day of the Final.

Get a couple of local bands, a rousing MC, charge £10 with a free drink or two, and make Villans who can't go to Istanbul feel involved. It's their day too.

Aged 11 i wouldn't have been able to afford to go to Rotterdam but I could have gone to VP and been very excited indeed.

Lots of families who already go to games and are financially stretched deserve to feel the magic, and those kids are the future of our club. Some fireworks, music, pop and crisps for a quid, a beer for the same and all of a sudden we make the most important people at our club who can't go to Istanbul, feel a part of the pride.

Hope @AVFCOfficial gives it a little thought, I'm seeing a huge appetite for it on here.

[BookofAEGIS @BookofAEGIS]

So I went through the Villa (#avfc) end of year report and, here's my take on it.

Record revenue of £378.1m — that's a 37% rise, up over £100m from last year.

Highest turnover the club's ever seen, driven hard by the UCL run to the quarter finals plus commercial income exploding 69%> to £70m. Sponsorship alone up 31% to £28.6m. The commercial machine under Heck is chugging along as he intended. Especially from a £89.5m loss the year before, they've swung to a £17m profit after tax.

The owners pumped £69.3m into capex — stadium hospitality upgrades, new retail spots, fan experience tweaks, Bodymoor Heath improvements, and getting The Warehouse over the line.

North Stand redevelopment prep is now underway. Which can only be referred to as a smart money play going into infrastructure.

They've done the internal restructuring play (women's team and Warehouse rights shifted within the NSWE group) — same loophole others have used because the Premier League left the door wide open after Chelsea and City. Like I said earlier "There should be no complaints here; if you want to compete, you use what's available until they close it." PSR-wise, this profit gives real breathing room in the rolling three-year calc. Previous years had heavy losses, but this £17m black number changes the picture. Villa stay fully compliant with the EPL rules. That means no more panic-selling your best players every summer just to balance the books.

What this means for Villa's transfer spending next season? This creates proper legroom. You're talking potential net spend in the £30-80m+ range (before any sales *agreed or obligated* and exact rolling figures), assuming commercial keeps growing. Europa League means some UEFA income drop-off, but the commercial base is now more permanent and the stadium upgrades will keep feeding revenue. Less reliance on one big European run.

NSWE have stuck to the plan: sustainable growth, invest in squad and the club itself, avoid the reckless overspend that kills clubs. They've already sunk hundreds of millions in — this shows the strategy is working.

Bottom line: These are strong accounts. Villa have turned a corner financially. Record top line, first profit in ages, heavy but targeted investment in the future, and actual PSR flexibility heading into the next windows. No more "we must flog Watkins or Rogers" nonsense every close season. The club is in a far healthier spot than 12-18 months ago.

[Matt Swindale @mattswin]

@currys Die Hard #CurrysToshiba

[Matt Swindale @mattswin]

@claytsfm @SurpriseShirts XL

[AVFC - The Religion @AVFCTheReligion]

No matter what happens.

Unai Emery saved us from mediocrity or even relegation.

The only none “sky 6 team” to make European football 3 seasons in a row, his reward for this is UEFA screwing us over,

We should all back Emery 100%, The rule makers do not want him to succeed.

[Kieran Maguire @KieranMaguire]

We now have a football finance game thanks to @FT

https://t.co/ukev5jXF0z

[Damian Vidagany @DV1874]

General rule: When I want to know the news I go to sources that I trust, I go to the many people that is able to do fact checkkng or try to. Sources with agenda, clickbait or not fact checking intention just deserve to be ignored, Nothing else. That is your power.

[Matt Swindale @mattswin]

@Alex_Berwick Looks decent, wouldn’t have minded if Louie Barry had stayed tho. Give him a chance!

[Forestmad 🔴⚪️ @forestmad80]

The 3 disruptors…

Forest, Toon and Villa are not going away and I truly hope all three continue to disrupt the supposed big 6.

#NFFC #AVFC #NUFC

[Aston Villa @AstonVilla]

Showing the third kit off to Brum 🏙️

[John Townley @johntownley11]

Only Man City, Liverpool, and Arsenal have won more PL points than #AVFC - who reached UCL QF last season - since Unai Emery's first match.

With a negative net spend soon to near -£75m since June 2024, imagine what might be achieved if Villa could operate like their rivals...

[The Special Ron @TheSpecialRon]

RIP Ozzy

[Aston Villa Statto @AVFCStatto]

This might be the best video I have seen 😍.

Up the Deano 💜

#AVFC

[Save Station Street, Birmingham @OldStationSt]

He walked into The Crown as John Osbourne. He walked out of The Crown as Ozzy Osbourne - Birmingham's Eternal Prince of Darkness.

Save The Crown. We'll never have another Ozzy. But we can give the world opportunity to experience the transformative Black Magick in those walls. 🖤

[Aston Villa @AstonVilla]

This is Aston Villa Football Club.

[Damian Vidagany @DV1874]

The process it is not about signings. It is about the beautiful moment of AVFC. This confidence in what we are doing. With Mistakes and imperfections. Up and downs. We have NSWE, committed owners, @leonsfdo, experienced and sharp management team and staff, an amazing squad -honest players and hard workers- and a world class manager like Unai. All together. With you, the fans. The process is trust each other and help each other. Create a culture, a mentality. Through the effort and togetherness. See you on Sunday!!! UTV!

[AsensioSZN @avfc_it]

@nocontextfm1 The only way to have every single wonderkid under supervision in your shortlist (add every youth intake from transfers page) - thank me later

[Ozzy Osbourne @OzzyOsbourne]

Ozzy X @AVFCOfficial now available in the UK web store at https://t.co/7AZQzBWRKY