Aston Villa captain John McGinn has dismissed suggestions that the club’s transfer difficulties have leaked onto the pitch.
Villa have made an awful start to the 2025/26 Premier League season, drawing one and losing the other of their first two matches without scoring a goal.
While we’re only two games into the season, the performances that underpinned the results have left a lot to be desired and those results do represent Villa’s worst start for years.
It’s the first time since 2019/20 that Villa have begun the season without winning either of their first two league games. That year, Villa had just been promoted and were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur and AFC Bournemouth at the start of the season before beating Everton in the third.
Dean Smith’s team went on to narrowly avoid relegation before kicking on behind closed doors the following year.
The last time Villa failed to score in their first two league matches in the Premier League was back in 2002/03. In the late Graham Taylor’s second spell in charge, Villa were beaten 1-0 by both Liverpool and Spurs. Again, they scored and won in their third match, beating Manchester City. They finished 16th that season.
So poor have been Villa’s displays this season that supporters have questioned whether the mood around the team has been affected by the team’s financial constraints, which have restricted Villa’s ability to compete in the transfer market ahead of a third consecutive season in Europe.
They’ve also been pushed into selling Jacob Ramsey, clearly a popular member of the squad, and the miserable summer has, according to some fans, begun to show on the field.
McGinn does not agree. As reported by BirminghamLive, the Scotland international shrugged off the idea that the players should be distracted by off-the-pitch concerns.
“No, it is a separate situation,” he said. “We are professional footballers, and it is what it is. Once you go out on a Saturday, you should have enough to compete.
“We do have enough. We knew going to Brentford we needed to compete, and I think over the game, it was pretty even. It could have been a draw; it could have gone either way. But we need to be better.”
Instead of finding ways to justify the team’s subpar standards so far this term, McGinn sought to engender unity in the team and is determined that they power through what’s become a self-inflicted tough start.
“It feels like we can make too many excuses, and I don’t want to add to that. [Against Brentford] we weren’t good enough, and we know in this league if you are not at your best, you can get beaten,” McGinn added.
“We can use it as an excuse, but we don’t want to. The manager is not one for excuses. We have spoken about it enough, and I don’t want to keep talking about it. I think we need to just focus on what we have in the dressing room and on the pitch.“
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