Aston Villa's Champions League league-phase opponents are confirmed: Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, Fenerbahçe and Viking all visit Villa Park, while Villa face trips to Barcelona, Club Brugge (again), Galatasaray and Slavia Prague.

We assess what lies ahead for the rebuilt Villa team, fixture by fixture: from the reality of an away day at a two-thirds-rebuilt Camp Nou to the banana skin potential of an organised Viking side at Villa Park. Could another European away day to Brugge actually be a blessing in disguise? There's also a third trip this year for Unai Emery's boys to Istanbul. 

None of it is straightforward to call. This is a Champions League campaign where it is hard to judge expectations of a team we haven't seen play yet, as the players are still being signed and coming through the door. Despite that factor, we judge the difficulty of what lies ahead and what's needed to progress.

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Aston Villa's 2026/27 Premier League season opened with a 4-0 defeat away at Brighton, a result that owed as much to what wasn't on the team sheet as what happened on the pitch. No recognised striker started. Ezri Konsa was long gone, while Emiliano Martínez remains missing, training alone and potentially bomb squaded along with Leon Bailey. And Ollie Watkins — absent from training, his locker cleared at Bodymoor, and deep in talks with Al Hilal — was nowhere near the squad at all.

This post-mortem covers the collapse in detail: the mix-up that gifted Brighton their opener, four goals conceded in twenty-three first-half minutes, João Gomes seeing red, and a Villa side with no shots on target across the 90 minutes. It sets out why the Watkins situation looks unrecoverable, what three years of dismantled combinations actually costs a squad entering the Champions League, and what's genuinely needed before the international break arrives.

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Aston Villa may have lost their 100% run in European finals in their Super Cup loss to Paris Saint-Germain in Salzburg, but it provided an insight into the actual starting line-up for the upcoming Premier League season, despite most fans thinking it was a one-off changed line-up in terms of a competitive game. Brian Madjo's goal was the night's one moment of real distinction, making the 17-year-old the youngest player ever to score in a Super Cup final. This week's episode is a catch-up recorded before the season proper begins, working through what is actually happening and what it means.

The decision to name Emiliano Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins in the squad but not play any of them is picked apart directly, alongside the individual performances that did go well — Madjo's redemption arc after missing earlier chances. We also look at the goalkeeper saga that's reopened: the move for Zion Suzuki from Parma and Juventus playing footsy with Martinez, only to do the dirty on him.

It closes on the bigger picture — the scale of this summer's overhaul, described on the show as bigger than anything seen under Unai Emery at Villa so far, and the uncertainty it brings for the season ahead.

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Aston Villa face Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup final at Stadion Salzburg on Wednesday 12 August — Europa League holders against Champions League holders. An unlikely win will lift Villa up a tier in English teams in terms of European royalty, as not many can boast two Super Cup wins to their name. This week's episode asks the question the squad list can't quite answer yet: is Emery's side actually ready, with the transfer window still open and noticeably weaker than in recent seasons due to injuries and World Cup returning player doubts.

The team-news picture is complicated. Lucas Digne's move to PSG has finally been made official, weeks after it was widely reported as done. Johan Manzambi is a confirmed absentee, having knee treatment with no return date given. And the three World Cup finalists — Emiliano Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins — are only just back in training (we hope) after three weeks off, leaving Unai Emery to decide how much to risk from the opening whistle.

Villa have five players missing from the XI who started Villa's last competitive meeting with PSG — Marcus Rashford, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana and Digne - and there hasn't been an upgrade on any of the positions. If nothing else, the game will provide an unflinching assessment of where the squad actually stands with just over two weeks to go to the new season. At best, Villa, with a bit of luck will carry on their proud unbeaten European final history.

Odds, history, and one very specific plan for Alejandro Garnacho — this week's episode has the full build-up before kick-off.

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Just over a fortnight out from the Premier League opener at Brighton, this week's episode asks the question Villa's midfield can't avoid: is it actually good enough for the Champions League and this season? Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers are both gone. João Gomes and, everyone hopes, Johan Manzambi are meant to replace them — not like for like, but as a different way of playing altogether.

The conversation works through the practical questions first. Is Gomes the same kind of deep-lying orchestrator Tielemans was, or something with more bite and less silk? Can Boubacar Kamara handle a full season without breaking down again, and would shifting him fractionally further forward protect him or just expose someone else? Where does Manzambi actually play — box-to-box eight, wide left, or as the ten Villa haven't reliably had since Rogers' best form — and does Alejandro Garnacho's arrival settle that question or complicate it further?

It broadens from there into the harder conversation underneath all of it: whether this is a refresh or a genuine rebuild, and whether a club can safely attempt one of those in the same summer it returns to the Champions League. There's also the cautionary tales of clubs like West Ham and Spurs, and indeed historic Villa, in terms of what can come on the heels of European glory.

No predictions or certainty — just an honest account of how much of this squad remains genuinely unknown with the season weeks away.

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The preseason catch-up show returns with the foundations of Villa's summer transfer business largely settled — Johan Manzambi, João Gomes and Alejandro Garnacho in, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne, and Morgan Rogers out. Also we reflect on Villa player's impact on the summer's World Cup.

From there it's Villa news — the North Stand rebuild, injury concerns and Brian Madjo's registration appeal success. The Three Points has a shirt theme, while Emery's Clipboard tries to unearth more Buendia's.

Subscribe to AVWTF - www.astonvilla.wtf Sharp and informative Villa writing for supporters who can spot the clickbait from the back of the Holte.

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Credits:

David Michael - @myoldmansaid  | Chris Budd - @BUDD_music / Phillip Shaw - @prsgame

This Podcast has been created and uploaded by My Old Man Said. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORT

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Aston Villa's summer took another turn this week: Morgan Rogers completed a British-record £117m move to Chelsea rather than Arsenal, João Gomes' switch from Wolves was announced, while João Palhinha's loan from Bayern Munich is less straightforward than it looked.

This week's episode goes back over the week that was and explains why Chelsea, not Arsenal, always made more sense once the pieces were on the table — Johan Manzambi's arrival, the timing of the announcement, and what it signalled about who Villa expected to be negotiating with. There's a breakdown of João Gomes' fit alongside Boubacar Kamara, an honest look at where the Palhinha deal actually stands, and the developing left-back competition between Pervis Estupiñán and Ian Maatsen.

There's also a proper explanation of Squad Cost Ratio, the rule that has replaced PSR this season, and why it changes the calculation on every sale Villa make from here. Plus: Emiliano Martínez's finger and Ezri Konsa's situation.

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Aston Villa's transfer window has gone from silent to frantic inside a week. Youri Tielemans has had his £35m release clause triggered to join Manchester United, Lucas Digne has had his release clause triggered to, as he's heading to join Paris Saint-Germain, and Johan Manzambi is arriving from SC Freiburg.

We look at what frames it all, the restrictive UEFA settlement Villa have in place and the fact they desperately need to refresh an aging squad, that is one of the oldest in the Premier League.

This week's episode gets into why Villa are moving on two influential, well-liked players in the same week, and why that's a rational response to the situation rather than a sign of panic. There's a breakdown of the numbers behind the Tielemans exit — the release clause nobody outside the club knew about, the pure profit it books, the wages it clears — and why Digne's move to PSG might be the cleanest piece of business Villa do all summer.

Then we get into what the incoming Johan Manzambi is all about.

There's also time for the parts of the summer that aren't about the pitch: the Visit Rwanda shirt sponsorship and the ethics around it, and progress on the North Stand rebuild.

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The main show is back. Pre-season friendlies have forming on the horizon, there's a Super Cup to be won, and we know the Premier League fixtures, well, until Sky Sports changes them. The World Cup is on, and while the transfer window is in stasis until the knockout rounds begin in earnest, there is a lot to get through.

We catch up with all the latest news - a positive update on Boubacar Kamara, Villa's key FIFA appeal, progress on Aston train stations, and more.

The Three Points section covers everything from FIFA causing a hotel crisis with a "vacuum of availability" in World Cup host cities to the pitch that caused Boubacar Kamara's injury being under the spotlight.

Emery's Clipboard has a World Cup theme and Villa's English player's impact on the Premier League. 

In the main section of the show, we look at the often forgotten UEFA financial settlement — year two of three — that has not gone away. Most Villa fans understand there is something called PSR that clubs have to navigate. What is less well understood is that UEFA operates its own separate set of rules, and those rules are considerably harder. This is the lens through which everything happening this summer has to be read: the Rogers noise, the Martinez whispers, the quiet on incoming signings.

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The Mad Few is back. For the uninitiated: the name comes from Steve Bruce's affectionate description of Aston Villa supporters who weren't particularly happy with his management. It stuck. So when the questions for MOMS pile up, they become a Mad Few episode.

Part one of at least two covers the season just gone, the questions it raised, and the conversations it opened. It starts where the season ended: relief, disbelief, and a growing suspicion that what just happened might be the best sustained run of results in over forty years.

Was the last week of the season the best since 1982? And where does Istanbul sit in the long history of Villa nights?

The transfer market has already woken up. The Morgan Rogers noise is in full swing — the clickbait farms have him going to every club with a large international fanbase, and the media framing has been, to put it politely, somewhat disrespectful of what Villa are now. The sell-on clause reality and the contract length tell a rather different story to the headlines.

The episode also works through listener questions on Villa legends, statues, redemption arcs, the best non-goal moment of the season, kit history, and a proposed updated closing line of Rise of the Villains.

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Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Check out all the 2026-27 home kit options and new training range, here

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Credits:

David Michael - @myoldmansaid  | Chris Budd - @BUDD_music / Phillip Shaw - @prsgame

This Podcast has been created and uploaded by My Old Man Said. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORT

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.