Conan Doherty

European football wasn't on Villa's radar for 15 years until he came in.

Then he drags into the Champions League like he does at Villarreal, drags into the Champions League semi-final.

And something that's probably lost, I think, is if you look at the team over the last three seasons, the squad has definitely gotten slightly weaker because of the financial restrictions that they're under.

But they keep improving, they keep raising their own standard.

He's losing, like in an ideal world, he'd keep Diaby, he'd keep Malden, he'd keep Duran, like a United could do.

But they have to just flip players and bring somebody else in to make it work.

They'd keep Rashford and Asensio, but it's just a loan deal and they're gone.

And then you come into this summer and...

I think, based on reports, 36 million net spend.

It could be up to 38.

It could be as low as 34.

But 30 of that has gone to Crystal Palace, where Guessant has now gone mid-season.

So they actually haven't really spent anything on the current team that's gone and qualified for the Champions League and then won the Europa League.

And something that really sums it up is the man of the match yesterday is Emi Buendia, who was on loan last year, surplus the requirements really.

And then it looked like he was gone in the summer.

I mean, I remember seeing him and his wife over at Emi Martinez's house in the summer saying goodbye.

I saw this on social media.

I didn't see this personally.

And they looked like they had accepted that they were leaving.

And then suddenly he can't go.