Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Smirker on May 24, 2026, 06:07:41 PM
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A+ for me.
Unai 8)
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B+, we didn't win the league or FA Cup.
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11/10
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Shit start. Brilliant majority. Bit dodgy at the latter end. Phenomenal finish.
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Best ever. A ++++
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10/10. Best since the early 1980s.
Ollie Watkins A++
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A very good B+. A great finish and some sublime football at times. However, some truly terrible performances too.
A good summer transfer window and we'll be challenging for the title bext year.
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11/10
Same.
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82 out of 26
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12/10.
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82 out of 26
Is the right answer.
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Best ever. A ++++
That's a quadruple winning season for me.
A+ is about right.
We wanted CL qualification.
We got that and a major honour.
It's A+.
CL only would have made it a B.
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The most cohesive season I can remember. Nearly everything seemed to be part of the greater plan which then came to fruition. Very, very impressive! UTV!
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We had a thread before the season and I had us pushing for qualification to the small cups. We exceeded that and won a trophy. The best in my 30+ years supporting the team.
93%
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11/10
82/26
MARCO BIZOT!
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8 out of 10
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It's not how you start, it's how you finish and we have finished the season superbly, particularly the last week. If we can add some quality to the edges of the squad, with a couple of definite first team starters, we will be up there again. One thing is for sure, Aston Villa are a top 6 side, thanks to King Unai. It has to be a 9 out of 10 for me. 4th, won a trophy, what more can we ask.
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11/10
82/26
MARCO BIZOT, BIZOT, BIZOT!
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Compared to the last 30 A++
Compared to what I hope we go on to do, B+
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Even though I was living in my Villa kit from around 4 years old, I never understood or realised the importance of the league and being European champions and I didn’t really watch any of the games being so young, so this is by far the best season I’ve had, surpassing second place 89/90, the cup wins in 94 and 96.
Incredible season, cup win, fourth, the double over Man City, completely outplaying the champions for the best part of two matches. Beating Man Utd and Liverpool.
I think the game against Forest was the most complete and perfect performance I’ve ever seen and the noise at Villa Park sounded unreal. I’m so jealous of those who attended that game!
We’ve so many heroes in our team and the best manager in the world. Amazing season.
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9/10 best since 1982
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I just hope this is the start of something rather than the peak before beginning of the end as has tended to be our way in my time.
77 that great attacking side
81 Super Ron
82 Tony
94 Atkinson
96 Sir Brian
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It gets an Encona Hot Pepper on the sauceometer.
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Won a trophy. 10/10.
I've never seen that before.
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Cathartic
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Solid A+
Very solid
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Up there with 1995/96 as one of my favourite ever.
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Best season we’ve had since 1996 at least and probably better than that because 4th gets CL football these days.
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At times euphoric, at times woeful but ultimately magnificent. Best of all it really feels that we are only part way to what we can achieve and realistically can get stronger. After nearly six decades of following the Villa, I'm more optimistic than ever!
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Outrageously good.
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I'll just say that as a fan and attendee since 1988, when you consider the competition these days, when you consider what we're battling against with these bullshit rules and when you consider how last season ended, this is the best season I've seen. Also factor in the bad luck with injuries mid season. A major trophy, 4th in the league after finishing in style today, no doubt about it. Emery is the best manager we've had in that time and the owners are in a total different league to any we've had in those near 40 years. Well done to all involved, some of those players are all time legends of the club.
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Tremendous season.
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Just found out we have the longest winning run of any team this season - 8 matches
Probably got the best goal of the season shortlist as well.
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I'll just say that as a fan and attendee since 1988, when you consider the competition these days, when you consider what we're battling against with these bullshit rules and when you consider how last season ended, this is the best season I've seen. Also factor in the bad luck with injuries mid season. A major trophy, 4th in the league after finishing in style today, no doubt about it. Emery is the best manager we've had in that time and the owners are in a total different league to any we've had in those near 40 years. Well done to all involved, some of those players are all time legends of the club.
Sums it all up for me, been a fan since 1988 too.
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I think it was a shit season. Chance of winning the league and we bottled it.
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I think it was a shit season. Chance of winning the league and we bottled it.
We did have a chance yes. Wasn't a bottle though.
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I think it was a shit season. Chance of winning the league and we bottled it.
We did have a chance yes. Wasn't a bottle though.
I was joking. It was a fucking brilliant season.
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Hopefully we'll find out next season what we can do if we don't start the season like we've never trained together before and then lose our midfielders for yonks.
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A magical,historic but weird season.Up there with 77,81 and 82.
Watkins' form mirrored the season.
Ollie's poor start and then not fully fit but produced his best in a Villa shirt in a final flourish.
Dreadful start,fantastic recovery where we were possibly the best team in the league.Then the midfield got decimated and Fortress Villa fell to Brentford and Everton and only a point v Leeds.
Balancing the demands of the League and the Europa meant a few mediocre performances towards the end.
But look at what they achieved,17 goals v 2 in the Europa knockout stages and beat at least once the other top 8 finishers.
A seriously,talented,underrated team coached by the great Unai Emery.
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I think it was a shit season. Chance of winning the league and we bottled it.
We did have a chance yes. Wasn't a bottle though.
I was joking. It was a fucking brilliant season.
Well the chance to win the league thing is definitely true.
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10/10
Won European trophy, looked like title contenders for long chunks of the season, qualified for the CL twice over.
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As fun as it was at the time I don't think we were. Losing the midfielders at the same was horrendous but I still don't think we had enough depth to win it even if we'd had a more normal injury run.
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Rating: FUCKING BRILLIANT.
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Rating: FUCKING BRILLIANT.
This.
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A- and the minus is only because I don’t think we’ve reached our peak.
Can’t remember another season that’s had so many enjoyable moments. Buendia’s last minute winner and limbs against Arsenal, Rogers’ double against Man U, the Buendia Spurs goal, the crazy last few minutes against Sunderland and Abraham’s winner, McGinn’s quick fire double against Forest and the atmosphere almost blowing the roof off. It’s been loads of fun.
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If they do this for the next decade then I would be ecstatic - FA Cup next season please
It is all about winning stuff
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A- and the minus is only because I don’t think we’ve reached our peak.
Can’t remember another season that’s had so many enjoyable moments. Buendia’s last minute winner and limbs against Arsenal, Rogers’ double against Man U, the Buendia Spurs goal, the crazy last few minutes against Sunderland and Abraham’s winner, McGinn’s quick fire double against Forest and the atmosphere almost blowing the roof off. It’s been loads of fun.
On that basis it’s a solid A with an expectation of A+ next season.
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Trophy wise and joy 10/10 , performances across the board 7 edging on 7.5.
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Hopefully we'll find out next season what we can do if we don't start the season like we've never trained together before and then lose our midfielders for yonks.
Also, if we get the transfer window right, it could be an amazing season.
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10/10
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4th in a league where 6 teams have had years to build an insurmountable advantage, won our first trophy in 30 years and a 2nd European one at that, anything but a 10/10 | 5* | A+ feels like people are just being picky for no reason. Add in all the injury problems that left us without a functioning midfield for a couple of months and the restrictions that had us operating in the market with one hand behind our back and it's clear that Emery has performed miracles this season. The best bit is it feels like there's plenty more to come. We do need to bulk out the squad and start building towards the next team to phase in as this lot age out but I think we've got a few years to get everything sorted so I'm not worried on that front.
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Best I can remember (1987/88 onwards), prefer it to both '94 and '96 as those trophies came with 6 weeks of the season left and they ended on a bit of a flat note whereas this was anything but. Forest semi was the greatest game I've been at since Tranmere, possibly even better, ask me again in a decade.
Normally look forward to a couple of months off around this time of year but lets get our holidays out the way, get a few new faces in and kick on again in August.
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Started shit, got better, then shit again then better, then shit. Then nuclear levels of awesomeness.
Superb A+++
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I'm not going to get to over the top, suffice as to say, bloody excellent season, just a feeling that we are on the cusp of even better, a real world greatness, up with the very elite best in world football, Man City will need time to get over the Pep hangover, couple of seasons at least, Chelsea have got massive problems, can't see Carrick being that much for Man Utd, and Liverpool seriously need a manager, as for Arsenal who cares, boring...and then of course Spurs, main reason I wanted to see them down is because they will now spend shit loads to make sure they are back up there and this season isn't repeated.
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Hang on, you seem to be forgetting how seamlessly Man Utd carried on after the red faced man who called himself a socialist but then took a knighthood left.
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I'm not going to get to over the top, suffice as to say, bloody excellent season, just a feeling that we are on the cusp of even better, a real world greatness, up with the very elite best in world football, Man City will need time to get over the Pep hangover, couple of seasons at least, Chelsea have got massive problems, can't see Carrick being that much for Man Utd, and Liverpool seriously need a manager, as for Arsenal who cares, boring...and then of course Spurs, main reason I wanted to see them down is because they will now spend shit loads to make sure they are back up there and this season isn't repeated.
I like this post a lot.
Going into next season, we might look like genuine title contenders.
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A millionty out of ten.
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A millionty out of ten.
This
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A strange strange season - huge periods that were not enjoyable. Some awful awful performances. A few times when I thought this was the end - another what if in Villas recent history.
But we found something - something that we had been missing for a while - an absolute iron will.
This was the season I realised that McGinn will be spoken of in the same sentence as God.
This was the season I admitted to myself Ollie Watkins is the best Villa striker I have ever seen.
This was the season that confirmed that Unai is the best Villa manager of my life time
This was the season that reminded me that Emi is the best goalkeeper that has ever played for Villa
What we achieved this season should have been borderline impossible. For me - it all changed in the home leg v forest - that was different. There was not a player, staff member or fan that was leaving until the job was done. 40k people united in the believe that we were going to take what was rightfully ours.
Finishing 4th with a negative net spend was an unreal achievement - that same core group of players producing more magic orchestrated by the genius.
Waking up the night after the final with a smile on my face and a head that pleasantly hurt when I tried to remember the faces of all the strangers I had hugged was one of the best feelings of my life.
In short - this was the best season of my life.
But - it was also the season that made me hope that maybe, just maybe Villas future might be brighter than it’s past.
UTFV
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Never would have believed it would turn out like this after the start of the season. So 10/10.
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A for me, which is already brilliant, reflecting our joint highest league finish under Unai plus a trophy and the general flourish at the end.
Although the January injury glut was outside of our control, as well as (broadly) the financial restrictions, there were a few too many troughs in there for an A+ (the dreadful start, the poor recruitment, which compounded the restrictions). A+ would have had us on the shoulders of the leaders in third, for me.
But I think we’ll get there.
UTV!
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10/10. Maybe 11/10 if you take into account we lost our midfield for a big chunk of it. I think if we started the season like we finished it and we didn’t lose those key players we might have done a double.
We’ve made progress and people are beginning to notice.
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I'm assuming we are not having an official awards night this year?
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If we had not made a crap start and not lost 3 key midfielders for 3 months later in the season we would have won the League.
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Contrast the devastating way we ended last season in Manchester to this. The difference couldn’t be greater. The mood so much better and optimistic for the future.
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Fucking awesome!
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"Fantastic". Which is better than "Terrific", and much better than "We go again" or "A good bunch of lads".
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Demanding.
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It has been a strange season. At times we looked untouchable, at times we put in performances that were woeful. We sarcastically cheered someone who made a successful pass who went on to win Europa player of the year and is off to the WC. We scored a number of breathtaking goals and had spells where we looked incapable of even having a shot on target again. Spells where we never looked like dropping a point and spells where we never looked like winning again.
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Best season I can remember (bit too young to really remember 82). It’s a solid 10/10 for this manager and squad to have achieve what they have.
Keep the core together and add some extra quality and we will challenge for the league next year.
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It's been a magnificent season and also unique, the only season in which we have beaten every Sky 6 club and ended up winning a European trophy.
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As seen on MOTD.
Of the final top 5, we finished joint top of the mini league versus each other.
Of the same 5 we finished bottom in comparative results against the leagues bottom 5 teams.
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As seen on MOTD.
Of the final top 5, we finished joint top of the mini league versus each other.
Of the same 5 we finished bottom in comparative results against the leagues bottom 5 teams.
Unai likes a challenge, and he likes teams who press us high and man-to-man. I kind of prefer it this way, more fun really to beat Arsenal than Burnley in the end.
Overall - after that start we finished a clear fourth when fifth would have done, beat Man City home and away, had a thousand huge memories (Buendia against Arsenal? Tammy vs. Sunderland?) - oh yeah, and ended the three-decade drought with a proper European trophy we'd never won before. That's worth a weirdly bad day or two against Wolves, or Palace, or even Spurs.
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Agree, feels like it’s the first time in 20-30 years since we’ve regularly beaten the better teams.
Love it.
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Absolutely brilliant 11/10 for me.
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Best in my living memory. The Europa league is in my view more prestigious that even the 90s version of the league cup. To finish as high in the league is harder now than in 96. I loved the 96 team, i love this team more. This also feels its been building for a few years, making the relief/happiness all the greater. Im also 52 now, so times ticking etc, making this now, so meaningful.
As has been said, I hope its the start of our time.
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This season was great but not quite 1981. Closest to this is 95/96 when Brian Little won the league Cup, reached the semi-final of the FA cup and finished 4th.
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*9/10
...to give me room for a 10/10 next season when we do the league/Champions League double. 😉
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Marvellous.
Just bloody marvellous.
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As seen on MOTD.
Of the final top 5, we finished joint top of the mini league versus each other.
Of the same 5 we finished bottom in comparative results against the leagues bottom 5 teams.
Unai likes a challenge, and he likes teams who press us high and man-to-man. I kind of prefer it this way, more fun really to beat Arsenal than Burnley in the end.
Overall - after that start we finished a clear fourth when fifth would have done, beat Man City home and away, had a thousand huge memories (Buendia against Arsenal? Tammy vs. Sunderland?) - oh yeah, and ended the three-decade drought with a proper European trophy we'd never won before. That's worth a weirdly bad day or two against Wolves, or Palace, or even Spurs.
For me this is the clearest sign of all that our biggest weakness is squad depth. People like Rogers and Konsa have to play so many games that they sometimes aren't quite up to it against the poor teams but we also can't afford to rest them most of the time. 3-4 signings who are around the standard of the first them and we'll be able to take a very different approach to those games.
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For me, the best ever.
11/10
Your heart is our heart!!
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Like Rambo, I was too young to remember 80/82 era with my only real memory of it seeing a picture on the mantelpiece at my uncles which had my 3-4 month old cousin sitting in the trophy.
So this is the main one followed by 95/96 and 93/94 with Emery's other seasons jostling with SGT and Big Ron's second place seasons in the following places.
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I think it was way better than A+ Smirker, though I understand your reasoning. Had we not had the majority of our central midfield out for so long I may agree with you, but despite that we finished 4th, and won the EL. Those are remarkable achievements alone, but when you consider all of the restrictions from TPTB, what we achieved was beyond incredible.
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I think it was way better than A+ Smirker, though I understand your reasoning. Had we not had the majority of our central midfield out for so long I may agree with you, but despite that we finished 4th, and won the EL. Those are remarkable achievements alone, but when you consider all of the restrictions from TPTB, what we achieved was beyond incredible.
Agree with it all but I've gotta leave some room for a title win/CL/quadruple.
A+ I think is fair.
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It has been a strange season. At times we looked untouchable, at times we put in performances that were woeful. We sarcastically cheered someone who made a successful pass who went on to win Europa player of the year and is off to the WC. We scored a number of breathtaking goals and had spells where we looked incapable of even having a shot on target again. Spells where we never looked like dropping a point and spells where we never looked like winning again.
Way I see it too, a rollercoaster of a season. There was the OT debacle to finish up the previous season, a disastrous summer/transfer window and unsurprisingly that led into a terrible start. Brentford, Sunderland...these were some of our worst PL performances since the Garde/Black days. But there was no dramatic tactical changes just old fashioned gritting of the teeth from Emery, McGinn, Cash etc and it turned around. Very quickly too. Unbelievable run of form took us into an unlikely title race that injuries dropped us promptly back out of. We seemed stuck on the line of top 3/4 for what seemed forever before getting over the line in the final games. The EL win was memorable, we looked far too strong for that competition from early on and proved it beyond doubt in the knock outs. Home game v Forest matched the PSG performance. Final was reminiscent of the 96 league cup with outstanding goals.
We are blessed really to have lived through some utter stalwarts in the claret and blue - Martinez after his OT kamikaze effort and then trying to leave, still simply the best, Cash the boo boys favourite (best RB in the division?), McGinn our leader, no team without him, Watkins a warrior, Buendia the redemption king, Konsa once he got his head out of his arse showed his quality, Rogers the star boy - some great characters in the group and led by a superb manager and coach. Doesn't get anywhere near enough credit for his man management skills.
In saying all that, I think this is possibly the end of this era/team and a rebuilding job is ahead for Emery to build our next team. But the 25/26 season will live long in the memory. UTV