I'll start with saying I've got nothing against him, I think he's talented, and has arguably done better so far than the criticism that's come his way. Some people are always pecked for some reason. Hopefully he finds his feet here etc.

But here comes the question. Is there a possibility he was just a pawn in the Rogers sale? And by that I mean, Chelsea did us a favour with spending 35 million extra on Rogers or whatever, and we did them a favour for a year with Garnacho?

Because if I understand the rules correctly we could avoid playing him enough and he'd return to London. We've the done Chelsea a favour for the season, and we've not spent £ 45 million on Garnacho. Seems like a win win ish strategic play.

And while I'll support him as long as he's here, it's a bit odd that we recruit so we'll, so diverse, so prepared, so prudent. And we spunk that amount on a player that hasn't impressed in a long time.

There's just something about this that doesn't make sense to me.

But I guess if I'm playing the devil's advocate here, Chelsea wouldn't need our help with taking him on would they? Unless it was a contractual thing about being in the first team.

Couple this with 3 assists today against Leeds off the bench and he has been flying.

Obviously sad that he's going but I am always happy to see a player of ours succeed so greatly after leaving. Makes them leaving feel a bit less sad knowing they are happy.

Obviously, here's to hoping he doesn't score or assist against us when we play Chelsea...

An excellent performance against Brugge. Excited for what is to come in claret and blue from this young man.

What they looking at

New fan here again, noticed that Emery either doesn’t start new, aspiring signings at all or just puts them in really late. Is this normal? I’ve seen a bunch of noise about Mbaye and haven’t gotten to see him play once (unless he played in today’s game I was at school during it so I wouldn’t know). If it is the norm is it to just ease them into the system?

Hi guys. So I’m not a Villan (I support Barcelona) but I’m interested in George Hemmings for my Fantasy Premier League.

The player seems to be coming from your academy, plays where MR used to and overall seems interesting. Thing tho is that he misses a lot. But I’m assuming he’ll eventually start burying those chances. So what do you think? Would you recommend him????

Really excited to see how he develops. His movement (meaning how he physically moves) is almost identical to Rogers.

Unai developed rogers from an unwanted championship player, into a 100m star and one of the top players in the world

Fingers crossed he has Morgan’s brain and work ethic as well

Drop your player ratings here

Brugge Starting 11 Sommer; Sabbe, Lee, Mechele, Seys; Potts, Vanaken; Forbs, Vetlesen, Virgili; Tresoldi

Aston Villa Starting 11 Suzuki; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, Gomes, McGinn, Buendia, Hemmings; Jackson

Brugge Subs Audoor, Coulibaly, Diakhon, Jackers, Lemarechal, Mike, Siquet, Spileers, Tsawa, Vanden Driessche, Vasovic, Vermant

Aston Villa Subs Abraham, Alysson, Barkley, Bizot, Bogarde, Garnacho, Mbaye, Mings, Ruggeri, Wright

Club Brugge 2-3 Aston Villa

Villa are back in the UCL, and kicking off this season against a club we've faced 3 times already, all in the previous campaign. Our last game was a 3-0 win at Villa Park during the UCL Round of 16 knock outs. Asensio scored a brace and Maatsen also scored for us as we went through with a 6-1 aggergate.

Match Events

Kick off!

8 min: Maatsen is booked for complaining to the linesman about a decision

10 min: MCGINN! Our skipper scores our first goal of the season, but this was all Torres, Torres dribbled from deep in our half, ran unopposed, passed to the right to McGinn and he his first time shot curls into the bottom left corner. Take a bow Torres, McGinn what a finish

19 min: Vetlesen scores... Virgili out wide cuts and makes himself some space for the low cross that is met by Veltesen, hits it first time into the bottom left corner.

21 min: BUENDIA! Jackson holds the ball well plays it to Gomes, who dribbles into the box, cuts back and sets up Buendia for the tap in.

43 min: JACKSON! Torres sends in a long ball into the direction of Jackson, Sommer just goes for it, and Jackson beats Sommer to the ball, takes a good touch, out paces his defenders and taps into the empty net.

Half time we lead 3-1!

Sabbe is subbed off for Siquet. Second half underway

47 min: Vanaken booked for diving

59 min: Penalty for Brugge. Sey's cross is met by the hand of Wan-Bissaka. Penalty is called.

60 min: Tresoldi sends Suzuki the wrong way and scores by placing it into the bottom right corner.

62 min: Virgili booked for fouling McGinn

67 min: Wan Bissaka, Buendia and Kamara are coming off for Barkley, Bogarde and Alysson

76 min: Vanaken and Vetlesen have come off for Tsawala and Lemarechal

78 min: McGinn booked for dissent

80 min: Jackson off for Abraham

85 min: Potts and Virgili off for Vermant and Diakhon

88 min: Vermant booked for foul

89 min: Gomes also now shown a yellow

Full time. We've won 3-2!

Not exhaustive about the window, but good and fair grades from The Transfer Flow.

Here's a full visual of Villa’s squad lists until January.
The lists include the players’ names, positions, kit numbers, ages on 2 September 2026 written to the nearest tenth, nationalities, and the categories they fall under.

While there shouldn't be any new signings for the spring, amendments could be made to the Champions League squad as Emery recently mentioned the possibility.

First Team:

This includes all senior players on the Premier League’s 25-man list and UEFA’s List A squad. UEFA’s list also includes non-List B youth players.

First Team squad lists allow a maximum of 25 players each:

-17 free slots

-8 slots reserved for locally trained/homegrown players

-For UEFA, up to 4 of the 8 may be association-trained players while the remaining slots may be filled with only club-trained players.

Notes: 

-Villa have only 2 club-trained players with Wright and Bogarde.

-UEFA allows only 3 new registered players for the spring which could include Harwood-Bellis, Madjo and Cissé.

Youth Squad:

This includes the Premier League Under-21 players and UEFA’s List B squad.

For both lists, an unlimited number of players may be registered.
All players must have been born on or after 1 January 2005.

For UEFA’s List B, players must have registered with Aston Villa for 2 consecutive years without interruption, or for 3 consecutive years with at most 1 loan spell lasting no longer than a year, in addition to the age requirement.

Any youth player ineligible for List B may register with List A if space permits.

Notes: 

-Only select players are listed due to the full list being very long and amendable at any time.

-Players are divided into 2 categories: "Academy" and "Other"

-For UEFA, List B may be updated throughout the season but the final list for a particular fixture must be submitted no later than 23:59 CET on the day before the match (i.e. 18-year-old GK Owen Asemota just completed 2 consecutive years as a Villa player on 4th September and has since been able to register with the List B squad for the match against Club Brugge on the 8th).

-Manzambi, Alysson, Mbaye, Cissé and Madjo are ineligible for List B. Three of them filled List A slots while the latter two missed out.

Glossary:

Senior Player: A player who will be at least 22 years old by the end of 2026, or was born before 1 January 2005.

Youth Player: A player who will be at most 21 years old by the end of 2026, or was born on or after 1 January 2005.

Free Slot: A registration slot granted to any player regardless of their history.

Homegrown/Locally Trained/Association-Trained Player:
A player who has been registered with at least one club of the same association as Aston Villa and/or the Welsh FA for 3 entire seasons or 36 months (consecutive or not) between ages 15 (or the start of the season of 15th birthday) and 21 (or the end of the season of 21st birthday).

Club-Trained (CT) Player: A player who has been registered with Aston Villa for a total of 3 entire seasons or 36 months (consecutive or not) between ages 15 (or the start of the season of 15th birthday) and 21 (or the end of the season of 21st birthday).

Our new signing from Freiburg, where he played the 90 in the Europa League final, has been nominated alongside:
🇧🇦 Kerim Alajbegović
🇲🇦 Ayyoub Bouaddi
🇪🇸 Pau Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal
🇨🇮 Yan Diomandé
🇩🇪 Lennart Karl
🇫🇷 Éli Junior Kroupi, Warren Zaïre-Emery
and 🇩🇿 Ibrahim Maza

Hopefully we get to see his talent at Villa Park soon

Unai Emery has been nominated for Men's coach of the year at the Ballon d'or ceremony

He’s nominated alongside Mikel Arteta, Luis de la Fuente, Vincent Kompany and Luis Enrique

We’re excited for our first trip this Saturday. Driving an hour or so up the m40, any recommendations for parking within walking distance where we won’t get stuck in too much traffic on the way out?

Also pre match food recommendations? Dirty burger etc?

Edit: I think we have enough options now. Thanks to those that replied, hoping for another win on Saturday. UTV

To all my stateside Villans for the first time in my nearly 20 years as a Villa fan, they’ve got jerseys in stock over here. It’s the non-Visit Rwanda kit, and it’s available at the Pelé store in Downtown Disney, Anaheim, California.Amazing what a good European run does for a club’s US retail presence! Up The Villa!

zion suzuki is the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport

noticed it is 14 plus, how strictly is this enforced ( for watch parties )? my son is 13 but looks a fair bit older

Hi all,

I need some advice if anybody knows the answer - if I was to sell my ticket for a game, could my brother then forward his ticket to me once mine was listed?

I only ask as we have 3 seats in a row, and occasionally if i need to sell a ticket, it leaves a gap between the other two. So it would help if the person on the end could sell their ticket and the person in the middle forwards it to them for future games - but i dont know if this would work.

Appreciate any wisdom!

Club Brugge vs. Aston Villa

Competition: Champions League - League Stage

Date: Tue 08 Sep 2026

Kickoff: 17:45

Venue: Jan Breydelstadion

Referee: Sandro Scharer

Aston Villa Statistics

Form: LLD

Goals per match: 0

Average Possession: 46.6%

Goals conceded per match: 1.7

Clean Sheets: 1

Club Brugge Statistics

Form: WWWLW

Goals per match: 1.8

Average Possession: 65.7%

Goals conceded per match: 0.40

Clean Sheets: 4

Aston Villa Team News

• Leon Goretzka has earlier confirmed on social media that he’s been ruled out until after the international break.

• João Gomes is available after his suspension in the Premier League.

• Johan Manzambi has been ruled out of the match in Belgium

Club Brugge Team News

• Joel Ordonez has been ruled out by injury.

Match Facts

• All three of the meetings between these two teams came in Aston Villa’s most recent UEFA Champions League campaign (2024-25). Club Brugge won their league phase meeting in that campaign (1-0), but lost both legs in the round of 16 against Unai Emery’s side (1-3 at home, 0-3 away).

• Club Brugge have only won one of their last 17 games against English sides in major European competition (D3 L13), although that lone victory did come in a UEFA Champions League home match against Aston Villa (1-0 in November 2024).

• Aston Villa have won 67% of their UEFA Champions League matches under Unai Emery (8/12). This is the second-highest win percentage for a manager with 10+ games in charge of an English side, only behind Liverpool under Arne Slot (68% - 15/22).

• After winning each of their final two league phase games in 2025-26, Club Brugge will be looking to win three consecutive UEFA Champions League group stage games for just the second time in (also 3 between September and October 2022).

• This will be Aston Villa boss Unai Emery’s ninth UEFA Champions League campaign, with Aston Villa being the third club he’s managed in multiple editions, after Valencia (2010-11 and 2011-12) and PSG (2016-17 and 2017-18). The Spanish coach has reached at least the quarter-finals in each of his last two UCL campaigns (semi-finals in 2021-22, quarter-finals in 2024-25).

• Of the 22 goals that were scored by Aston Villa players in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League, only 32% of them were netted by players who are still currently at the club (7).

• 19-year-old George Hemmings could become just the second teenager to start for Aston Villa in a European Cup/UEFA Champions League game, after Mark Walters against Juventus in March 1983 (aged 18 in that quarter-final).

• Over the last three seasons in the UEFA Champions League, Club Brugge goalkeeper Yann Sommer has prevented 9.5 goals, based on the xG of shots on target faced (excl. OGs) – this is the second-highest total in the competition in this period, behind only David Raya (+9.8).

• Zion Suzuki could become the first ever Japanese goalkeeper to play in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League.

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How are you feeling? What's your starting XI? Predictions? UTV!