Europa League 2025-26

[144 Hard Boiled Eggs]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

It is a preserved European city though isn't it? Can't remember it being olfactorily offensive either. Ground was a shit tip and miles away though.

Me, Aftab and Steve (144 Hard Boiled Eggs) had a good few drinks with some locals last March. One of the joys of away trips is talking with the home fans and we’ve had a few scoops with the locals on most trips, except Warsaw and Monaco I think. They Bruges fellas were great considering we’d just ruined their night.

Great summary of the away grounds by Ads by the way.

Rotterdam was excellent mate, no doubt helped by finding great bars and friendly locals showing us some late night spots. Good record shops is always important on these trips too! Can’t comment on many of the away parts of grounds as I’m usually in the home end.

[Small Rodent]

Warsaw:

City: meh, obviously flattened by Gerry and had the burden of the Reds for 40 odd years. Wouldn't hurry back, Old Town had a nifty few bars
Police: like the Noses derby doubled
Ground: Meh
Getting There and Back: Overly filled busses. Unnecessary hold back and more unecessary use of riot shields to funnel us when there was only us there, onto the road
Opposition Fans: Moody, but you didn't see them about

The policing is like that for all away fans, European or domestic. It’s crazy.

I’ve been on a tram to watch Pogon Szczecin and opposition fans are all crushed in singing rival songs, then as soon as they see the police they all unify to sing fuck the police.

I did notice in Warsaw around the bars they brought out the pretty boys and girls of the police.

At last year’s cup final in Warsaw at the National Stadium they bizarrely locked in the losing fans (Szczecin) for an hour. The winning fans (Warsaw) were there celebrating the lifting of the trophy then allowed out before us. Totally back to front thinking.

[Dave]

Just to break up the talk of city breaks - we sent our updated squad list to UEFA.

Kamara / Malen / Guessand out, Douglas Luiz / Abraham / Bailey in. So no big surprises.

Thought it was a bit odd we were keeping in Elliott instead of adding Barkley, but then remembered we *can't* add Barkley. Presumably we also have the option to recall all the lower-league January loanees, as they are still included on the B-list.

[olaftab]

At last year’s cup final in Warsaw at the National Stadium they bizarrely locked in the losing fans (Szczecin) for an hour. The winning fans (Warsaw) were there celebrating the lifting of the trophy then allowed out before us. Totally back to front thinking.

Brainless dogma.

[olaftab]

Me, Aftab and Steve (144 Hard Boiled Eggs) had a good few drinks with some locals last March. One of the joys of away trips is talking with the home fans and we’ve had a few scoops with the locals on most trips, except Warsaw and Monaco I think. They Bruges fellas were great considering we’d just ruined their night.

Great summary of the away grounds by Ads by the way.

Rotterdam was excellent mate, no doubt helped by finding great bars and friendly locals showing us some late night spots. Good record shops is always important on these trips too! Can’t comment on many of the away parts of grounds as I’m usually in the home end.

Not sure what you both are on about
Yes you are right; two things make the away trip, chatting to local fans and right places to go to.
Funnily enough one of best other fans conversation I have had recently was with a group of Spurs fans in a hostelry outside Liverpool street station after the FA cup game. Four of them age range from mid 40 to nearly 80. A very knowledgable decent bunch.

[eamonn]

I never had you down as a big drinker, does that correlate to being too phat for the tower in Bruges?

Entertaining summary. Feels like away Villa fans are due a proper change, somewhere sunny in Iberia or a trip to Scandinavia and pay homage to our defensive vikings of the past. Vigo and Malmö ftw. A shame they finished second-last.

Vigo would probably be as wet as Brum, and likely no warmer.

I spent 9 months as a student up the road in Santiago de Compostela and well-remember the Welsh weather but at least Vigo is by the coast!

[AV82EC]

I don’t care if it’s wet, just give me a bottle of Albariño and some seafood and I’ll be happy.

[TCFKAE2]

The competition is there to be won. Emery's experience as a 4 time winner, 2 leg ties with 2nd at V Park under the lights and games where you typically get more space/time on the ball (than in the P League) which suits the squad mean it will (bar some mad Refereeing/VAR decision(s)) come down to mentality. Big games, with something hanging on them, have largely been bottled in recent history (e.g. Olympiakos Semi, Man U/final game last season) so the Senior Players (e.g. Martinez, Digne, Torres and McGinn (when back)) need to step/man up, call out underperformers when required and drag the team across the line.