Good News For Aston Villa: he is back

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including VAR’s controversial decision to send Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin off, Jadon Sancho’s proposed loan back to Borussia Dortmund, rumours Aston Villa could offer Leon Bailey a new contract, plus much more.

These days, it seems like fans and pundits discuss the decisions more than the game itself. One of the worst decisions I have ever seen was Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s red card in the FA Cup on Thursday night. The issue with that, though, is that it is no longer shocking to witness such insane choices. Week in and week out, they occur, which is extremely frustrating considering that the technology was initially implemented to eliminate these errors. We seem to be witnessing more gaffes than ever before!

Please understand that while I detest seeing players suffer injuries as a result of shoddy challenges, tackling is an inevitable and significant aspect of the game. Nevertheless, what other options are there? — Will we make it illegal? If not, we must accept it as it is and not penalize people who successfully complete a perfectly good challenge.

Good News For Aston Villa: he is back

He needs to concentrate on the second half of the season and ignore Manchester United. His only goal from now until the end of the season should be to play at his highest level and restore his reputation to what it was before he signed for United in the hopes of drawing as much attention as possible. There is very little chance that he will ever return to fight for his spot at Old Trafford.

I wouldn’t be shocked if he accepted a transfer to a Saudi Arabian Pro League team if money were his top priority, but if he is serious about succeeding at the top, he might have to forgo some income in order to join a team that isn’t as prestigious as Manchester United.

Still, I’ll say it again: this player’s possible return to Dortmund is likely the best thing that could happen to him. All he needs to do is play as much as he can and rediscover his passion for the game.

I’m happy to hear that Aston Villa is getting ready to extend their contract to Leon Bailey because I think he’s a great player.

He was a relatively inexpensive transfer, coming from Bayer Leverkusen for £40 million, even though he didn’t immediately light up the world. He got off to a slow start when he first arrived, but under Unai Emery, he now appears to have settled in and is performing well; this may be a reflection of the manager of Villa’s skill as a coach as well as the player’s professionalism and willingness to pick up new skills.

I’ve watched him play a lot of games in person, and to be honest, he’s developed into a fantastic addition to Villa’s squad. He likes to cut in from the right side, is creative, and is now contributing goals of his own. Everything is going great for him, so I sincerely hope he can come to an understanding and decide to stay in the Midlands.

Recently, there have been some rumors circulating suggesting that multiple Premier League clubs are considering bringing Roberto Firmino back to the league. Fulham, Sheffield United, and Nottingham Forest are rumored to be interested. Firmino at either of the previous two would never be my first choice, but I believe Fulham and a potential strike partnership with Raul Jimenez could be a really intriguing setup.

Fulham is a good team on their day, and I believe they should sign him if they have the opportunity because he would improve the team even further.

Regarding Forest and Sheffield United, I don’t think either would be the ideal club for the owner, even though the former loves a big name and the latter is a more appealing and progressive team.