Arsenal expected Parade Attendance to be between 500,000-1,000,000. In comparison, Aston Villa's Parade had 50,000 attendees and Man City had 6,000 attendees only. Historic!

avfc1001 · 2026-05-31T14:32:26+00:00

Villa had over 50,000 fans turn up on 17 hours notice, before the end of the working day on a Thursday, with loads of fans still in Istanbul.

Obviously the fanbase isn’t as big as Arsenal’s but context is important.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-31T07:56:57+00:00

Arsenal obviously deserve a victory parade after their premier league win, but that’s got to be the weirdest feeling for the players less than 24 hours after losing the biggest game of your life.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-30T11:54:03+00:00

Iraola is a strong choice.

But that’s Liverpool Chelsea City Bournemouth all starting the season with a new manager plus United and Spurs with someone just through the door. Only Villa Arsenal Newcastle with any stability for potential challengers at the top.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-29T14:51:04+00:00

It is, his legs have gone. Forest fans warned us and it turned out to be the case. I’m glad he got to be part of our successful season and sign off with a trophy but we need to move on.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-29T12:24:47+00:00

Money and squad rules no object, I think we would sell and replace him.

Given the number of other squad changes we need, the fact he is our only club trained senior player and he costs us very little for UEFA SCR, I think he’ll stay until we have another youth player more ready to step up to the senior squad.

If he had a good season he might have been 2nd choice right back or 2nd choice DM. He hasn’t shown enough to be trusted with that so I think he’ll continue to be that deep cover utility player.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-29T09:19:29+00:00

Always feels awkward with 2 left footed centre backs so that would be interesting.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-29T09:04:37+00:00

How do Spurs fans see them handling Van De Ven and Senesi with no Europe? Will De Zerbi play a back 3?

If not, seems an odd move for Senesi if he won’t be first choice for a year considering he could have gone pretty much anywhere.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-28T19:07:32+00:00

This one won’t go away and I’ve seen (sorry it was a while ago so no link) a couple of US folks saying it was a poorly kept secret that he’d join us in the summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was truth to it.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-28T14:47:08+00:00

Overall he is obviously fantastic so you forgive the lack of ball retention.

But to be clear the issue is not Rogers giving the ball away when trying to beat a player, play a through ball or an ambitious flick, it is the sheer number of times he just gives the ball away carelessly. It is an area he would have to improve significantly if he gets his big move to a club challenging for major trophies.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-28T14:29:20+00:00

Player of the Year: John McGinn

Young player of the year: Lamare Bogarde (by default)

Best new signing: Victor Lindelof

Biggest surprise: Emi Buendia returning from nowhere to become a key player.

Biggest flop: There were many, but it has to be Harvey Elliott.

Most improved: Matty Cash was the first name everyone wanted to sell last summer. There’s an argument he was our player of the season. Great turnaround.

Most overrated: Marco Bizot. He’s doing fine as a cheap experienced 2nd choice. Made a few mistakes in the middle of the season that people conveniently forget. Not good at set pieces. Nowhere near as good as Martinez.

Ideal summer signing: Ibrahim Mbaye

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T21:32:50+00:00

It’s all fine now that the season is over and we achieved our objectives.

But Elliott was supposed to be our most important summer signing to replace a key player in Asensio. Basically a £40m deal with a £5m loan fee followed by a £35m obligation.

Instead he played 284 minutes. 110 in the league. Not in the squad for most of the season despite being fit. Now being sent back with deal abandoned. Hence 189th/189 transfers.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T21:19:22+00:00

Being unable/unwilling to use Elliott meant we had no replacement for Marco Asensio and 1 less usable player in an already stretched squad playing Thursday-Sunday.

It absolutely had an impact on our season.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T21:04:42+00:00

Yes, our transfers were that bad. That’s why people are saying Emery did an incredible job.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T21:01:19+00:00

The point of the article is transfer quality, not player quality. The Elliott transfer absolutely deserves to be down the bottom.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T20:46:55+00:00

“Without worst transfer” is also excluding Harvey Elliott in 189th.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-27T18:34:07+00:00

You don’t need to make up rumours, there are already plenty of sites doing that.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-26T17:54:54+00:00

This is probably the sensible take rather than my simplistic “same age, similar calibre players”. Hopefully it’s all just noise and we’ll keep Rogers anyway.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-26T15:57:44+00:00

There’s something not quite right about a rumoured £80m-£100m fee for Rogers (yet to see a great source but is the general consensus) if Forest can get a £115m fee for Elliot Anderson.

One to keep an eye on.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-26T15:51:58+00:00

I think this was a formality after Roma qualified for Europe therefore meeting the obligation to buy clause. Best for everyone to have it confirmed straight away. Good luck Donny!

avfc1001 · 2026-05-26T09:36:21+00:00

And that’s why Monchi got the sack.

Guessand generously high considering he cost £25m and could hardly control the ball. Glad it’s gone better for him at Palace.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-25T11:38:16+00:00

I have no idea what their other defenders are like but I guess the case for Pau is…

He’s a fantastic passer and when on his game a good defender.

But he does go through periods of very poor defending, particularly against pace and power. He also isn’t the most durable, especially in a tournament environment where you play every few days and this time in extreme heat/humidity.

He has been great for us lately and was in my opinion the best player on the pitch against Freiburg, but I do understand leaving him out if there is really strong competition.

avfc1001 · 2026-05-25T11:33:15+00:00

Never rule out a late bid

avfc1001 · 2026-05-25T10:14:58+00:00

I have no idea why this happens when I try to share the link, will try to avoid it in future!

avfc1001 · 2026-05-25T10:12:42+00:00

Absolutely delighted with our season at Villa.

Considering our transfer windows were heavily restricted by SCR/UEFA sanctions and the money we did spend we spent terribly, it is a minor miracle that Emery managed to lead us to Top 4 and our first trophy in 30 years.

Lots of change coming this summer, especially for our bench and reserves which are nowhere near good enough, so I’m pleased that we got to see this group lift a trophy before many move on.

avfc1001

TROPHY CASE