David Beckham: From Hero to Zero

After winning the FA Cup last season, Aston Villa have been admitted into the Europa League competition for the first time since the 2010-11 season.

However, unlike that year when they lost in the playoff rounds, Villa have skipped straight to the group stages with their win of the FA Cup, and groups were announced just today.

It is not the toughest group for the Villans but also definitely not the easiest. Bayer Leverkusen and Girondins Bordeaux will be looking to qualify and take as many points as they can from the group, and David Beckham's side will have to look out for them. The last club in the group is Moldovan side Sheriff Tiraspol.


Beckham has expressed his excitement at managing Villa into the Europa.

"I can't wait," he said. "Leverkusen and Bordeaux are very important and well-supported clubs and to play them for a serious competitive game will be very interesting. This is my first time in the Europa as a manager and I want to do well."

Villa captain Ciaran Clark has also pushed his team to give their all in the European competition.

"The last few times where we were given the honour of European qualification, we lost in the playoff rounds, or dropped out early. This time, we want to show that we really want to win this and believe we can. All of us have an eye on the Final in Estádio do Dragão and hopefully we can get there."

Pre-season and the start to the new season was not exactly the best for David Beckham. However, the 40-year-old manager is confident that things will soon change and Aston Villa's Premier League campaign will really be kick-started.



Friendlies
FC Porto 3 - 3 Aston Villa
Campbell
Campbell
Grealish

Paris Saint-Germain 2 - 1 Aston Villa
Lawless

Chamois Niortais 1 - 1 Aston Villa
Nem

AS Nancy 1 - 0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 1 - 0 Atletico Madrid
Fierro

Swindon 2 - 2 Aston Villa
Grealish
Lawless


Community Shield
Man Utd 1 - 0 Aston Villa




Premier League
Aston Villa 2 - 2 Tottenham
Campbell
Campbell

Man City 1 - 0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 1 - 1 Everton
Vlaar

Will Hughes has been crowned August's Young Player of the Month, ahead of Everton's Ross Barkley and on-loan Fulham man Nick Powell.

Pretty bad start, though I reckon you'll turn it around! Hopefully you will finish better than 8th this season

2013-03-27 00:02#87381 Chris : Pretty bad start, though I reckon you'll turn it around! Hopefully you will finish better than 8th this season

hopefully!

Bad start to the season, but it can only be up from here

Not the best start of the starts, but you can manage to pull some great wins. Continue!

A loud and proper shoutout to LJO200 for this awesome Community Shield banner.

August Transfers 2015/16

It was an extremely busy transfer window for David Beckham as he quickly made full use of Aston Villa's new-found wealth from European qualification by spending 40 million of his transfer budget on new players, while 15 million worth of players depart the club.

2015/16 Aston Villa Squad

Aston Villa have submitted their squad list for the Premier League 2015/16.

Goalkeepers

25. Samir Handanovic
13. Mattia Perrin

Defenders

2. Yuto Nagatomo
17. Andrew Black
6. Ciaran Clark
4. Ron Vlaar
23. Doria
22. Daniel Montero
5. Kolo Toure
3. John Romero

Midfielders

12. Xabi Alonso
35. Miguel Marques
16. Fabian Delph
14. Gary Gardner
7. Will Hughes
8. Frank Lampard
15. Jesus Blanco
21. Mattheus
19. Kaka
20. Jose Callejon
10. Wellington Nem
24. Jack Grealish

Forwards

11. Theo Walcott
9. Carlos Fierro
18. Adam Campbell

Look. Another Carlos Fierro sighting.
Good stuff.

I love the signing of xabi alonso

You only get 50m for winning the CL(irl), so how did you make 25m by qualifying for Europa?

2013-03-27 16:50#87471 Northwood : Look. Another Carlos Fierro sighting.
Good stuff.

Don't like same things in stories because I think it's unoriginal, but Fierro banged in 28 goals for Chivas last season! Had to get him.

2013-03-27 17:23#87473 jasonvilla4ever : I love the signing of xabi alonso

Me too

2013-03-27 17:41#87474 Liverbird : You only get 50m for winning the CL(irl), so how did you make 25m by qualifying for Europa?

Idk, but club finances are now Rich.

With the expiry of the contract with Genting Casinos, Aston Villa have announced new sponsors for the club. The Malaysian attraction has been sponsors of the Villans for a period of 4 years since 2011, but will now cease their association with Villa.


Instead, Aston Villa have turned to new sponsors Football Manager.

The popular managing game will now have their names imprinted on Villa kits for the period of a five-year deal.

Football Manager has been the number one football managing-related game in recent years. Interestingly, both Villa chairman Randy Lerner and manager David Beckham are rumored to be huge fans of the game.


This new sponsorship deal will only serve to heighten Villa's finances, which have already been boosted through European qualification.

On the Football Manager side, this is only the third club they have sponsored, having previously sponsored lower league sides AFC Wimbledon and Watford. Aston Villa will be the first club in the Premier League sponsored by Football Manager, and the second to be associated with it following their 2008 deal with Everton allowing the Toffees to use the game system for scouting purposes.

Miles Jacobson, creator of the Football Manager series, has described this as a "perfect" and "magnificent" opportunity for both sides to gain, and has expressed his honour for his game to be spotted on the front of a Premier League kit.