Expectations for 2023/24

[purpletrousers]

Been following this guy on Twitter. Never knew he was a Villa fan when I watched him on TV. Luis Miguel Echegaray is an ESPN reporter who mostly covers for the Spanish speaking audience. But he’s a mad Villa fan.

This is a good little thread on his current views

https://twitter.com/lmechegaray/status/1682907048638308352?s=46&t=0-BUXD66ovTcofwrbTW4Ag

It is, nice he’s a genuine fan, comments re: most excited since little/Gregory era as a kid.

From when he signed for ESPN:
“Born in England to Peruvian parents, Echegaray grew up in Perú. In the early 1990s, during an unbalanced and troubled time for many Peruvians, the Echegarays emigrated to England, where young Luis Miguel became an English Premier League fan and fell in love with Aston Villa F.C.

Echegaray is an adjunct faculty member at his alma mater, the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York”

[Brazilian Villain]

Yeah, the fact that he's a big Villa fan has been discussed on here He wrote about how that came about here.
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/becoming-an-aston-villa-fan-how-a-peruvian-kid-in-england-fell-in-love-and-became-a-villan/

We have our own Peruvian convert in our Lions Club, started supporting Villa solely because a few of us were Villa fans. He's been over to Villa Park a couple of times, is travelling up to to Philly and Orlando for the friendlies, and even bought his 75 year old Dad a Villa shirt.

[purpletrousers]

I’d imagined I’d read that but I hadn’t. That’s a lovely read, I value how his Villa love was forged in the challenge of child migration, shaped in grief. I guess we’ll all have our parallels, certainly the constant, including this forum through tough times is very important for so many of us.
In some ways football is so minor and silly, so not the most important thing, yet in other ways it’s thread a lifeblood that flows through all the life events. It’s both/and. Going to message my Dad now about getting him to VP.

[algy]

We can't keep pissing about saying it's getting a bit better all the time. We've got to aim for top six.

Top 6 - given where we finished last season that is "getting a bit better" isn't it?

I'll be happy with qualifying for Europe again in whatever form. It's highly competitive at that end of the table, I'll cut him some slack if things go awry.

That said, genuinely - I think Champions League football in 2024/5, and I'd look at that Europa Conference and say that whilst nothing's guaranteed in a cup competition - that's part of what I love about cups - we've got to be one of the favourites for that. Our manager's record, the strength of the Premier League (realistically whoever finishes 7th in the PL would win most leagues in Europe), ...

To be honest, right now whilst I'm not expecting it, I don't think a title challenge would be completely out of the question. When you watch that video of Bailey/Diaby at Leverkusen then think how strong the rest of our spine is, ... I mean, look at how well Arsenal did last season. Not to say that we'll emulate them, but it does give you a bit of hope that the jump from mid table to title challenge is possible.