Aston Villa return to the Premier League this weekend and will be taking their 12 new signings to London as they take on Tottenham Hotspur – live on talkSPORT.
The Villans have embarked on an ambitious overhaul as they look to avoid an immediate return to the Championship and you wouldn’t bet against them doing it.
Manager Dean Smith is a wise head and appears to have got the men he wanted for the new campaign, although some of new boys may take a few games to settle in.
But what are fans thinking ahead of the 2019/20 campaign? talkSPORT.com spoke to James Rushton from 7500 to Holte to find out how he’s feeling ahead of the massive match with Spurs and much more.
LIVE on talkSPORT
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT, beginning in east London
- West Ham vs Manchester City (Saturday, 12:30pm) – talkSPORT
- Leeds vs Nottingham Forest (Saturday, 12:30pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Crystal Palace vs Everton (Saturday, 3pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Tottenham vs Aston Villa (Saturday, 5:30pm) – talkSPORT
How are you feeling about the 2019/20 Premier League season?
JR: “I’m excited. There can’t really be another answer. There are no nerves – but ask me again in December!
“You get the feeling that Villa are back where they belong. I can’t wait to see the best players in the world come to Villa Park – back to Birmingham – and show their stuff.
“I really hope that this is a positive season for Aston Villa on the whole. If we can consolidate and grow, I expect big things from our ownership group and coaching team – who seem to relish the chance to put Villa on the map again.
“Dean Smith, our manager, really wants to attack the top teams – and it’s admirable. He wants to play the ‘right way’ – if there is such a concept – and while that might forecast some heavy losses, he’s earned the trust to play and manage however he chooses. We’re all a bit in love, to be honest.
“So yeah, it’s a lot of excitement. We can be quite dour in the West Midlands, but there’s nothing but optimism here right now when it comes to Aston Villa.”
How do you feel ahead of the Tottenham match?
JR: “Tottenham are an impressive team – and I’m pretty jealous of their setup. As much as we’ve improved in the past few months, I feel we’re still years and years behind Tottenham who have gone from strength to strength.
“They are such a good side and have a brilliant manager. It’s a tough ask to go to their new stadium on the first day of the season.
Then again, opening day against Tottenham is about as big of a free hit as you can get. No side is settled, and no side in the league will showcase anything near a finished product.
“I rate them, I really do, but I think we can pull off a bit of a shock if we get some luck. We need to take advantage of the fact that it’s the very first game and burst out of the stalls.
“We might end up needing these first three points down the line! If there is a time I’d want to take on Spurs, it’d be exactly when we’re facing them – this Saturday in the first game of the season on the telly.”
How do you feel about Aston Villa’s 12 new signings and the transfer policy this summer?
JR: “Very happy! You hear a lot of rubbish about ‘doing a Fulham’ but that’s just recency bias and ignorance speaking.
“If people think we’ll go down just because we’ve spent cash and brought in a lot of players, they’ll have another thing coming. You don’t get relegated based on that, but the points we collect throughout the season.
“I think our new squad gives us the best chance of doing that.
“Look, we had to make waves in this window. We had to spend. We had no other option – our squad was depleted. If we didn’t purchase new players, injuries would have killed us. We had to buy. There was no other option.
“As for the approach, I’m happy. The purchases aren’t up to a single person. It’s a committee approach and I think that suits us well. We’ve identified several targets and taken the best one each time.
“Dean Smith is happy with the squad he’s been given. We’ve got the right characters and I think we’ll have the fight to win out should it get tough.”
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 as we become your go to destination for all the Premier League action.
We’ll bring you LIVE commentary of Premier League games across all three time slots on Saturday – 12.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm – delivering award-winning coverage to more GameDay listeners than ever.
