Stan Collymore has described the season of Aston Villa as “mild disappointing” and believes that the club will miss European football next year.
Boyhood Villa Fan Collymore regularly attends competitions with those three seasons with the club in the late nineties and, although he recognizes the progress that is made under Unai Emery, he finds defensive weaknesses their progress.
Villa, who are ninth in the Premier League after the disappointing 1-1 draw of Saturday with 10-man Ipswich Town, is still in the Champions League and automatically qualified for the round of 16 in the renewed group phase.
Unai’s response to today’s draw against Ipswich Town 🗣️
– Aston Villa (@AVFCofficial) February 15, 2025
Collymore predicts that Villa will end up eighth
But Collymore believes that failure to sign at least one defender in the January window will come back to bite them.
Speaking with 101 great goals via William Hill Vegas, the 54-year-old said: “I have Villa to finish eighth so that we would miss Europe as a whole.
“It happened to Newcastle and it is just one of those mistakes and glitches where in particular clubs with small squadrons do not have the capacity to cope with the amount of tournaments that are being played.
“If I am right, Villa will miss Europe. I don’t think we will win the Champions League, so it will come to win the FA Cup? I think you still get that in the Europa League, so that’s the best chance.
“As far as the season in general is concerned, I dare to say that the light has been disappointing, which sounds bizarre when I have been with friends in the cavity to see us beat Bayern Munich, look how we beat Juventus …
“If you take the Champions League aside, one of the 10 efforts so far, the competition campaign is clear on average because there has been a lack of attention to detail in keeping clean sheets. Villa just can’t keep a clean slate. More often than not we give the first goal, which means that you follow the game. “
Collymore Eyes Fa Cup Glory
Villa is a challenge on three fronts, the competition, FA Cup and Champions League. Asked what would be success for the club this season, Collymore said: “With the hat of my villa fan, we have not won the FA Cup since 1957, so it would win a trophy, especially after the fast climb in the latter few seasons under Unai Emery.
“What Villa priority gives is to go as far as possible in the Champions League, but I think they will be extremely disappointed if they don’t get some taste from Europe.
“So the FA Cup as a fan. As a club, go as far as you can in the Champions League. ‘
Rashford and Asensio not enough – Collymore
Villa made two major signing sessions in January and put Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio on loan from Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain respectively, but Collymore was not entirely happy with the transactions of the club.
“As far as recruitment is concerned, the jury is out,” he said.
“I know that there were two selection frameworks in terms of Asensio and Rashford, but I think many Villa fans would have liked to have seen one or two central defenders.
“Tyrone Mings was recently injured again, he has now returned, Pau Torres has been injured, Diego Carlos went to Turkey and Ezri Konsa was pushed between the right and central defense.
“It’s great to have heads that attract attention – both national and local headlines – but the signing sessions that Villa has had, not exceptional. If you look at the three most important scorers of Villa – one is Ollie Watkins that Unai Emery inherited, one was Morgan Rogers, one of the 10 players, but it was probably not expected to play as many games as he has, so that’s a bit Happiness and Ross Barkley, who scored three. Again, he was probably expected to play a few games in cup matches and not weigh in terms of the Premier League. Leon Bailey is disappointing, Donyell Malen has not done much yet, Ian Maatsen … [Amadou] Onana started very well, but was driven away.
“Players who have arrived for good money are par or just below par, so there are questions for Unai Emery to answer. At the moment, Villa fans ‘say that we are still in the Champions League’, but we have to correct some of their striking inconsistencies in versions. “
