Why TalkSport, Sky Sports and Five Live Still Can’t Accept Aston Villa’s Rise

Why They Hate Talking About Aston Villa

There is a conversation most of the established sports media still cannot bring themselves to have properly. Aston Villa are not a curiosity, not a purple patch, not a nice little story. We are genuine top four contenders and, whisper it quietly, title contenders too. And they hate it.

For years now Villa have been on a steady upward curve, ever since our owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris took control and Dean Smith rebuilt the club with intelligence and belief. The graph only dipped once, the brief and costly misstep that was Steven Gerrard. A terrible appointment, quickly corrected. Once Unai Emery walked through the door, the direction of travel was restored. In truth, any half decent manager replacing Smith would have pushed Villa forward. But thank God it was Emery, because he has taken us somewhere even better.

As that rise gathered pace, something else became obvious. TalkSport, Five Live, Sky Sports and large sections of the football press simply could not stomach it. Not all of them, but enough to notice. They struggle to talk about Aston Villa as a serious force. They talk around us, minimise us, qualify every achievement. Anything to avoid saying the obvious.

Villa are currently a better footballing side than Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea. That is not nostalgia or bitterness speaking, it is what the league table, the performances and the eye test all say right now. We are organised, ruthless, tactically sharp and loaded with quality. I would not swap our squad for anyone else’s in this league. That is how good this group is.

Yet listen carefully and you can hear the discomfort. Every compliment is followed by a caveat. Every discussion leans towards when it might end. The idea that Villa might be here to stay seems to cause genuine unease. It is as if acknowledging us properly would shatter a carefully protected hierarchy.

I listen to the radio, I read the papers, and the tone is unmistakable. Talking about how good Villa are feels like a chore to them. Well, they better get used to it. We are the spanner in the works, the fly in the ointment, the club that refuses to know its place.

Pep Guardiola has already said what many still avoid saying out loud, that Villa are a Champions League side. When the best manager of this era recognises it, that should tell you something.

If it makes them feel uncomfortable, good. Suck it up. Aston Villa are here, and for now at least, we are not going anywhere. UTV

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