Dan Bardell

But he's forced his way into the team.

He did everything he could in his early substitute appearances.

And look, in the second half of the season, he's regressed a little bit like Villa.

Villa have had a patchy 20-26.

But he's always just been capable all season of just popping up with a moment of magic.

And I think he's in double figures for goals, which is absolutely outstanding from him.

I doubt he's ever done that, particularly at the start.

at the highest level before.

So he deserves so much praise for his resilience and his character and his battling, the way he's pulled himself into Emery's thinking.

And now that guy is going to be a Champions League player next season, man of the match in the Europa League final.

Although I'm critical of him sometimes, you can't argue with what he's done this season.

I mean, I like my wife's behind very much, but it is very close between hers and John McGinn's.

I can't believe you're dragging this podcast into the gutter like that.

Sorry.

There's been a lot of, I don't know if it's a meme or whatever, going around the time that John McGinn dressed up in a turkey suit at Buddymore Heath around Christmas and people have been...

using chat GPT to make that image of him in the turkey suit as a statue outside Villa Park I think that would be the one that would get the vote from the Villa fans but he's an incredible man like what he's been through through the club as well coming from the championship playing in

Every level of Europe, becoming captain and scoring double figures for him this season as well, which he's never done before.

Genuinely, he is a club legend.

And for me now, Paul McGrath, God aside, I think you've got to be saying that he's Villa's best Premier League era player in terms of longevity and everything he's done for this football club.

Because when he plays well, Villa play well.