In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest points, including Villa’s Champions League debut, the abuse of Brennan Johnson’s social media and more.
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Villa’s brilliant UCL debut gives them the edge in a captivating new format
I looked at the Champions League table this morning and saw Bayern Munich, then Celtic and then Aston Villa.
It’s going to be a tough run of games and a massive test for Villa, but I’m actually more confident than going to a lot of places like Young Boys.
I think when you have so many big games (Bayern at home, Juventus at home, Celtic at home) interspersed with Monaco and Club Brugge, Villa are more comfortable in that kind of environment.
When you’re paired against fish, with respect, it’s very difficult to stay awake for a European night.
UEFA changed the format to stop the problem in the latter stages, where the big teams had already qualified and the small teams knew they were going to the Europa League, so it was all a bit “huh”.
That’s not the case now, and the big teams could be going into the last game of the league they need to win, so it drags you down a bit more.
I was incredibly critical of this new phase of the league because none of us really like massive change, but I think we’re going to have better games, weirder results for longer, and ultimately you have to put your hands up and say this is what we want. fans
This danger and the need to score points in most games make it an engrossing and fascinating watch.
Man City should be relegated to the National League if found guilty
My judgment on whether Man City overcame the charges against them is very low because when you use best-in-class lawyers who are figuring out every part of the law, that’s an obvious advantage.
It’s red tape, it’s the “you didn’t file this before noon” or a “paragraph that includes a sentence that we believe is factually incorrect, so we want the entire document redacted.”
If they are found guilty they should start, in my opinion, in the National League.
Relegated to the Championship and having two or three windows where they are not allowed to compete in the transfer market is unlikely to see any of their big names leave.
However, if you get kicked out of the Premier League and kicked out of the Football League, that really sends the strongest possible message.
And the reality is that the National League would welcome them with open arms, because it’s Man City, and they would generate a significant amount of revenue.
Allegedly, it has taken the club several years to comply with the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage over other clubs, so it must follow that it will take several years to return to the Premier League. .
Erling Haaland, Rodri and Jack Grealish et al are not sitting still if their best years of their playing careers are spent in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid.
If we look back in 10 years and see City have dropped down a division while winning 15 trophies, the owners of other big clubs are likely to think it’s a risk worth taking.
Fans need to lay off social media abuse if they want authenticity from their stars
I saw a clip of Brennan Johnson being pushed by his teammates last night in the League Cup towards the home end, and he literally just put his hands together three times, clapped and turned around.
After the social media abuse directed at him, this was a message to Spurs fans in Coventry and supporters in general.
If I was still playing today, given how outspoken I was today, I’d probably be deleting my Instagram, my X, my Tiktok, etc. every week
I remember in the early days, I was the first current or former player to use Twitter and I started using it on talkSPORT as a great tool to get real-time feedback from fans.
Now we have a situation where many player accounts are managed by their people and you only see a very sanitized version of themselves.
I think fans want authenticity in their superstars, but apart from Marcus Rashford, a lot of players’ social media is very, very benign.
What I would say to fans is that if you want to engage with your heroes on social media, don’t send them nasty messages. It’s that simple.
And for players like Brennan Johnson, I would say one thing; if deleting your social media means you can get the most out of your career, go ahead son.
Eddie Howe could be on loan if trophies aren’t around the corner
Any heated discussions or disagreements between the club’s management, the directors of football and the club’s general management are necessary, and if you can’t have them, you’ve got a real problem.
The news that Eddie Howe is Paul Mitchell apparently doesn’t surprise me. You don’t want a dictatorship, otherwise you end up with what Chelsea initially had under Todd Bohely.
If Eddie Howe were to leave Newcastle, I think the club will move away from him and not the other way around.
I think they have started the season relatively well, and with no European football this season, there are no players flying here, there and everywhere with their country. This means that Howe has no excuses to give the club more success.
If Newcastle are fifth, sixth or seventh at a time when the likes of Aston Villa are juggling lots of different balls, I’m sure ownership would have tasked a director of football to say, watch out. other people
It would be ridiculous if Newcastle United didn’t also have a hit list should Eddie Howe decide tomorrow, say, that he wants to move elsewhere.
In any case, I don’t think Eddie Howe is the man in the long run and the one to win titles. It just doesn’t.
Why wouldn’t Newcastle even openly say that Eddie Howe is our manager, but if we don’t hit those incredible high notes consistently, we might look elsewhere to continue progressing?
I am currently watching this situation with interest.
Top photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP, Stu Forster/Getty Images, Carl Recine
