In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Villa’s Champions League debut, Brennan Johnson’s social media abuse plus much more.
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Villa’s brilliant UCL debut hands them advantage in captivating new format
I looked at the Champions League table this morning, and I saw Bayern Munich, then Celtic, then Aston Villa.
It’s going to be a tough old series of games and a massive test for Villa, but I’m actually more confident than going to lots of places like Young Boys.
I think that when you’ve got so many big games – Bayern at home, Juventus at home, Celtic at home – interspersed with Monaco and Club Brugge, that Villa are more comfortable in that kind of environment.
When you’re paired against minnows, with respect, it’s very difficult to be up for a European night.
UEFA changed the format to stop the issue at the latter stages where the big teams had already qualified and the smaller teams knew that they were going to go into the Europa League, so everything was a little bit ‘meh.’
Now that isn’t the case, and big teams could be going into the final game of the league set up needing to win – so it drags that little bit extra out of you.
I was incredibly critical of this new league phase because none of us really like massive change, but I think that we’ll get better games, stranger outcomes for longer and ultimately, you have to put your hands up and say that’s what we want as fans.
That jeopardy and the need to get points in most games makes it a captivating and fascinating watch.
Man City should be relegated to the National League if found guilty
My bar on whether Man City beat the charges against them is set very low because when you are employing best-in-class lawyers, who are finding out every single part of law, that’s an obvious advantage.
It’s the red tape, it’s the ‘you didn’t file this before midday’ or a ‘paragraph that includes a sentence that we consider factually incorrect, so we want the whole document struck out.’
If they are found guilty they should be starting, in my opinion, in the National League.
Getting relegated to the Championship and having two or three windows where they’re not allowed to compete in the transfer market isn’t likely to see any of their big names leave.
If, however, you’re kicked out of the Premier League and you’re kicked out of the Football League, that really sends out the strongest possible message.
And the reality is that the National League would welcome them with open arms, because it’s Man City, and they would generate a significant amount of revenue.
Allegedly, it’s taken the club a number of years to run roughshod over the rules in order to be able to get a competitive advantage over other clubs, so it has to follow that it takes a number of years to get back up to the Premier League.
Erling Haaland, Rodri and Jack Grealish et al aren’t staying put if their best years of their playing career are spent in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid.
If we look back in 10 years and see City have had dropped down one division whilst winning 15 trophies, the owners of other big clubs are likely to think that’s a risk worth taking.
Fans need to lay off social media abuse if they want authenticity from their stars
I saw a clip of Brennan Johnson being pushed by his team-mates last night in the League Cup towards the away end, and he literally just put his hands together three times, a little clap and turned away.
After the social media abuse directed at him, that was a message to the Spurs fans at Coventry and supporters more generally.
If I was still playing today, given how outspoken I was then never mind today, I’d have probably been deleting my Instagram, my X, my Tiktok etc. every single week.
I remember in the early days, I was the first current or former player to use Twitter, and I started to use it on talkSPORT as a great tool to get real time feedback from supporters.
Now we already have a situation where lots of players accounts are managed by their people, and you just see a very sanitised version of themselves.
I think that fans want authenticity in their superstars but aside from the likes of Marcus Rashford, a lot of players’ social media is very, very benign.
What I’d say to supporters is, if you want to engage with your heroes on social media, don’t send them nasty messages. It’s that simple.
And for players like Brennan Johnson, I’d say one thing; if deleting your social media means that you’re able to get the maximum out of your career, you go right ahead son.
Eddie Howe could be on borrowed time if trophies aren’t around the corner
Any arguments or heated disagreements between club management, directors of football and the general management of the club are necessary, and if you can’t have those, you’re in real trouble.
News that Eddie Howe are Paul Mitchell are apparently at loggerheads doesn’t surprise me. You don’t want a dictatorship, otherwise you end up with what Chelsea had initially under Todd Bohely.
If Eddie Howe were to leave Newcastle, I think it would be the club moving on from him rather than the other way around.
I think that they’ve started the season relatively okay, and with no European football this season, there are no players flying here, there and everywhere with their country. That means Howe has no excuses in terms of bringing further success to the club.
If Newcastle are fifth, sixth or seventh at a time when the likes of Aston Villa are juggling lots of different balls, I’m sure that a director of football would have been given the remit by the ownership to say, keep your eye out for other people.
It would be ridiculous for Newcastle United to not have a hit-list too in case Eddie Howe decided tomorrow, for example, that, he wanted to move elsewhere.
In any event, I don’t think Eddie Howe is the man for longer term and the one to get them winning titles. I just don’t.
Why wouldn’t Newcastle even openly say Eddie Howe is our manager but if we don’t hit these quite incredible high notes consistently, then we could look elsewhere in order to continue to move forward?
I’m watching that situation with interest at the moment.
Top photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP, Stu Forster/Getty Images, Carl Recine