An Alternative Reality

by Robert Tressell  |   13/03/2025  5 Comments  [Jump to last]

I don’t know about you, but I was jealous of Aston Villa winning a tie 6-1 on aggregate against a decent Club Brugge side in the Last 16 of the Champions League.

The soul-destroying thing is… that should have been us – and could quite easily have been us had Moshiri had an ounce of competence as an owner.

We all know the recruitment strategy was disastrous from 2016 to 2021 (old news) and that it’s been extreme sustained cost-cutting ever since.  But let’s looks at what our squad might have been had Moshiri not pulled the plug at the end of the 2020-21 season.  At that point, we were about neck and neck with a Villa side getting its act back together – and ahead of a Newcastle side yet to be bought by a sovereign nation.

With a very unremarkable net spend compared to our peers, we could easily be looking at something like this (indeed I’ve included a lot of players we were strongly linked with but couldn’t afford):

First XI

Pickford
Porro (Spurs)
Digne (now at Aston Villa)
Branthwaite
Guehi (Palace)
Matheus Nunes (Manchester City)
Onana (now at Aston Villa)
Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)
Kudus (West Ham Utd)
Gordon (now at Newcastle Utd)
Joao Pedro (Brighton)

Second XI

Johnstone (Wolves)
Aarons (Bournemouth – on loan at Valencia) – or Coleman
Tierney (Arsenal)
Tarkowski
O’Brien
Garner
Wharton (Crystal Palace)
Iwobi (now at Fulham
McNeil
Richarlison (now at Spurs)
Boniface (Leverkusen) – or Dominic Calvert-Lewin

What could have been…  The good news in some ways is that we are now at least back on a stable financial footing and should be able to, like every single other Premier League club, spend more than we recoup from player sales year on year.

It is of course not just how much you spend but how you spend it.  But those clubs with a healthy net spend and a good strategy are doing very well.  Our horrible neighbours are the best example. If, like Villa, we can sustain both for a decent period, then we too can take our place in the later rounds of the Champions League. 

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Reader Comments (5)

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Tamhas Woods
1 Posted 13/03/2025 at 19:54:04
I see your point, but Villa aren't getting past PSG. It's a one-off, like Leicester was. VAR will find a way to keep the likes of Man Utd afloat so they can have their insane stadium from Star Wars.

And the Champions League is no guarantee of milk and honey forever. I mean, Leeds got to the semis in 2001. Just six years later, they were losing to the likes of Oldham and Carlisle in League One.

Andrew James
2 Posted 13/03/2025 at 19:55:53
Robert,

I agree yet there are several clubs who I feared would leave us in the dust like Newcastle, Spurs and West Ham. They haven't because they've all made terrible decisions. So, it happens to everyone.

The incompetence of Moshiri has been overtaken by Levy at Spurs. They had a brief flirtation with trophies towards the end of the last decade yet, lo and behold, they won nothing and now are even talked of as being in a relegation battle!

If we can have a couple of seasons of stability, I am sure we can overhaul these flash-in-the-pan clubs and get up the table.

And that is exactly what we need. Some boring mid-table seasons where the squad gets stronger and we remain financially solvent and build a base at BMD.

Robert Tressell
3 Posted 13/03/2025 at 21:32:46
Tamhas # 1. Villa probably won't win the Champions League that's right. But that's not really my point. My point is that without disastrous incompetence we should be rubbing shoulders with these star studded sides. My point is also that we can get there too as long as spending is competitive and sensible over a period of a few years.

Andrew # 2. Boring top 10 finish would be big progress. Hard to see Man Utd and Spurs being this awful again. Man Utd comically bad this year - but that's what we're now on course for.

Danny O'Neill
4 Posted 14/03/2025 at 12:22:14
I said elsewhere, Robert, that Villa, a club I've always liked, had fairly recently, to endure two seasons in the Championship. In fact, not that I remember all of it, they have sunk to Tier 3 of English football and Tier 2 three times in my lifetime. One of my favourite away days was at Villa Park in 1987. We were marching towards our 9th league title, they were on their way to relegation.

In many ways they remind me of Everton in terms of stature and successes.

I don't think there is such a thing as a first and second 11 in the modern game. Be it through injuries, suspension or rotation for certain games, it's a squad game more than ever and that is what recruitment should reflect.

Jerome Shields
5 Posted 21/03/2025 at 23:44:32
Robert,

I found the possibilities, had Everton not been a bad career choice, in your first eleven very enlightening.

It just shows you what the level of challenge could have been.

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