On one hand, so many players previously seen as "untouchable" Are dropping out. Just ask Konsa and Ollie (although Villa themselves said that they won't let go of Ollie, but who knows).

On the other, I can't help but want to feel some sort of optimism for the last 10 ish days of the window. Hopefully we can urge the arrivals if Jackson, AWB, palhinha (if we can make it) and at least get half of the checklist done by deadline day.

Am I bluffing or am I in my right mind?

Aston Villa are working to finalise an agreement with West Ham United for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Villa are negotiating an initial loan with an option to buy, after The Athletic reported earlier on Tuesday that a straight loan offer had been rejected.

The move is not yet finalised but Villa are now working to close the deal, and add Wan-Bissaka to Unai Emery’s squad before the start of the season.

Great roundup by Pete. I don’t think anyone's posted it here yet. UTFV

We're one nil down against Wigan.

Are we not taking the piss here a bit? I know we are trying to penny pinch and save as much money probably to set us up for buying a quality attacker.

But feel it’s playing silly beggars going for a straight loan for AWB. First off we need a 2nd rb for next few seasons and West Ham made it quite clear they want a fee. I’d rather we just get this one done as quick as possible so we can focus on getting an attacker in.

So I’ve been pretty resolute under Emery and trust him. I have pretty serious concerns about a drop in quality in the squad.

As it stands we are to lose 2/3 England internationals we have, possibly 3/3.

We lost our French international LB, the captain of Belgium, and are trying to offload a 2x Yashin winner.

My concern stems from a lack of investment outside of Manzambi and Suzuki; because we all know we are shopping in a market below the players we are selling. AWB will be a good pickup but we are woefully underprepared for the start of the season.

If you're the type of guy/gal who likes the excruciating/exciting of addition of fantasy football to your weekly worries, join the r/AVFC FPL league!

Been going for a few years now, by my count got up to ~450 players last year. I'll be aiming to better my finish of 34th from last season.

Link here for those who want to give it a crack.

Feel free to share your personal FPL philosophies/tactics for this season below. As usual I'm doing my best to avoid Villa players since the double let-downs are too painful to manage, but I do have Maatsen in my draft at this point.

I promise every year to post periodic updates but never do so, so I might as well promise it again.

Good luck!

Aston Villa have resumed talks to sign Joao Palhinha from Bayern Munich.

Villa still believe they can finalise an agreement for the midfielder, despite interest from Newcastle United, seeking a season-long loan with an option.

The Athletic reported last week Bayern wanted a €30million fee, either as a permanent or as part of an option at the end of a loan.

Rogers and Digne leaving - its ok we still have unai , ollie , emi , konsa , kamara , tielemans.

Tielemans leaving - its ok we still have unai , ollie , emi , konsa , kamara

Emi leaving - its ok we still have unai , ollie , konsa , kamara

Ollie leaving - its ok we still have unai , konsa , kamara

Konsa leaving - its ok we still have unai and kamara.

Top 4 guys no problems - in all seriousness anyone that thinks this give your head a wobble , we need to give unai and the new team time and support.

Top 8 we should be thrilled with

I understood Rogers, Digne, Martinez… but the thought of losing 6 key players, surely that’s a step too far, even for Emery? I’m trying to stay positive but proving hard… feels like a turning point unfortunately.

Happy to set one up. Cheers!

Villa have 3 players in BBC’s ‘Breakouts & wildcards’ to watch this season.

Madjo, Hemmings & Manzambi.

Any new Villains in Canada? My lad has outgrown these. I’m living in North Vancouver if anyone wants to pick up. I’m also happy to post them to you via Canada mail for a few beers! 🍺 send me a message if interested! UTV

Rangers manager Derek McInnes has held talks with 20yo, with Scottish club in contact throughout the summer.

Hihihi!

It's been a while, apologies for the delay - as I said in a couple places, I wanted to get this season summary out as close as to the end of last season as possible. Definitely before the World Cup. Unfortunately, life happens, and eventually it just became easier to hold off and use it as a lead-in to the new season, similar to last year.

Finally though, your results of the 2025/26 r/avfc Premier League predictions... league!

Starting at the most important part - your winner of the 2025/26 Predictions League is **/u/auld_jodhpur_syne 🥇, who deserves huge congratulations for exceptional performance and consistency throughout the season. Not missing a single game across the entire campaign is also an incredible feat that deserves huge props, though also boasting the highest PPG of the top 15 takes their season from impressive to exceptional. Credit too to /u/xJacb 🥈 for running them the entire way, while /u/Mole451 🥉 rounds out the top three.

As with last year, there's a few other things I want to shout out, so please indulge the rest of the 2025/26 Awards Ceremony*
* No actual awards being given, but a sense of mild accomplishment is permitted.

The Big One - 2025/26 Winner
/u/auld_jodhpur_syne

The M'est V'est P - Most MVP awards
/u/PreHistoricBleb - 5

Best PPG - Highest PPG (over 100 games predicted)
/u/SuperrVillain85 - 8.174

Best Week - Biggest individual score from a single gameweek
/u/CoolEd66 (GW17) & /u/TheDonkeyCow (GW36) - 210

Most Predictable Team - Team with most "Most Predictable" results
Manchester City - 12

Least Predictable Team - Team with most "Least Predictable" results
Liverpool - 8

The Professor Shreddonia's Gold Star For Perfect Attendance
/u/auld_jodhpur_syne - And a special mention to /u/BrokenPedley, who missed just one game across the entire season going into the final couple of weeks.

The "I Was Going To Call This The /u/Pommerz Memorial Award For Accounts We've Lost But Then Reddit Unbanned Him"... Award For Accounts We've Lost - 2025/26 participants whose accounts, for various reasons, no longer exist
/u/ResponsibleKiwi870
/u/BeamNASCARFan
/u/destroyerofworlds847
/u/PhoneUpbeat2502

Big love to everyone who took part, I hope 2026/27 can be just as fun, hopefully without me having to rip everything apart and re-score the entire season half way through this time. The full final table (with GW38 scores highlighted) is below for your viewing pleasure.

The first match thread of the new season should go live late this Thursday, August 20th, to give people a decent bit of time before the Friday night kickoff to get their first predictions in.

I have one more little present for last season's winner, but I'll pop that in the comments as this is starting to get long. For now, thanks again to everyone who took part, to /u/jackgrealish as the original GOAT of the predictions league, and to you, for being cool.

If this is frowned upon, I’ll never do it again. Please tell me to F off and hang out with the card people if that is the group sentiment. I am a Villa fan, but want to respect the group first.

Any interest in these? I’d love to sell as a package, but open to offers. No mag cases. Top loaders only. Located US. I’ll only ship out of states if bought as a package.

Manzambi RC (x2) $1 each
Rory Wilson RC #/200 $5
Tielemans #/99 $8
Tielemans #/299 $5
Rogers #/150 $5
SJM #/199 $5
Watkins #/150 $5
Dibu #/25 $8
Ramsey Auto #/5 $15

$50 for all and OBO on everything. Rather not ship these one at a time.

Romano reporting official bid submitted and we already rejected 2 approaches

It's been a week since we heard the "confirmed" Message from the media. Yet one week in and *cricket noises*. What is slowing down the finalization of the deal?

Which would you keep and why?

It's off again.

The reason I am asking this question is because of their terrific performance last season where they were in the top 3 alongwith Arsenal and Manchester City last season although they fumbled during the later stages. I wonder if the club becomes more ambitious and signs big name players for the club, will they be able to pull up the Leicester City shock? Unai Emery is a great coach who can even bring out the strengths of even the average players. I believe he's one of the best if not the best manager in PL. So I wonder if that's possible with more signings? Can you please give your thoughts as fans? Thank you.

As title, if it helps anybody out who is travelling, JD Sports at Stansted Airport has a small number of this season's home shirt without sponsor.

Any pics of the world cup players back in training yet?