Forget the referees, Aston Villa have no one to blame but themselves

It’s one thing when a manager blames referees, linesmen or VAR to explain a disappointing away defeat; it’s very much another when a club does it.

When Nottingham Forest’s official X account posted its risible statement that the club were ‘considering its options’ - whatever they were - after being denied three penalties in their 2-0 defeat to Everton at the end of the 2023/24 season, their fans applauded; the rest of us sat there wide-eyed and opened-mouthed.

A Premier League club had implied bias from a match official, pointing out that the VAR was a Luton fan, saying they ‘could not accept’ the decisions and that their ‘patience had been tested multiple times’.

It was deeply sinister and the statement had a threatening tone about it; the £750,000 fine the club received as punishment barely qualified as a slap on the wrist, paving the way for future ludicrous behaviour from football clubs.

Again, we’ve come to accept when managers cross the line – they have their own rules to follow and if they break them, they're subject to fines and touchline bans, but there’s something unedifying about an actual football club, particularly a great institution such as Aston Villa, sinking to such a level. A manager will have a microphone thrust in his face minutes after the final whistle and sometimes emotions do boil over, but there’s a pre-meditation to posting statements on social media; Aston Villa’s, for example,  came more than three hours after the final whistle.

The statement read: "Aston Villa can confirm the club has written to the PGMOL to raise concerns over the selection process of match officials following today’s game with Manchester United at Old Trafford" which suggests they did not raise such concerns prior to the game. If there's one thing you can say about Forest's statement it's that they said they'd raised their concerns (however ridiculous) before the meeting with Everton. Villa's statement looks like nothing more than sour grapes.

It continued: "The decision to disallow Morgan Rogers' goal, which would have given the club a 1-0 lead with 17 minutes remaining in the match, was a major contributing factor to the club not qualifying for the Champions League."

Yes, the referee made a mistake, but that’s not the reason they haven’t qualified for the UEFA Champions League and fans shouldn’t kid themselves into believing it.

There’s no one reason why Aston Villa didn’t qualify for the UEFA Champions League, but there are plenty of them from throughout the season.

Aston Villa didn’t qualify for the UEFA Champions League because they couldn’t beat 10-man Ipswich Town at home; because they conceded two late goals at Nottingham Forest; because they conceded in the 96th minute against Bournemouth.

But above all, Aston Villa didn’t qualify for the UEFA Champions League because in their biggest domestic game of the season, they turned in their worst performance.

Unai Emery is an excellent manager but it’s hard to work out what his gameplan at Old Trafford was.

Villa were dismal, not forcing a save from Altay Bayindir until stoppage time when they were already 2-0 down. They spent the entirety of the first 45 minutes unable to get out of their own half, thoroughly second best to Manchester United (yes, the same Manchester United from Wednesday’s Europa League final), playing like a side who’d finally escaped the toil of a relegation battle, rather than one needing a win to rejoin Europe’s elite.

And that’s before getting onto the individuals. Villa are quick to blame the referee’s mistake but will now happily overlook Matty Cash’s woeful backpass, or Emi Martinez – two-time Yashin Trophy winner – bodychecking Rasmus Hojlund into next week, or Ian Maatsen clumsily giving away a penalty.

These were game-changing moments when Villa players made bad decisions and the referee made good decisions.

It’s easy for Villa to overlook all their individual mistakes and point to one from the referee, but it does more harm than good.

English football will not attract better referees when they’re subject to more scrutiny than ever, and when any mistake has a spotlight shone on it for days on end. The entirety of half-time ‘analysis’ being devoted to a refereeing decision – as opposed to, say, a manager’s tactical choices – and programmes like ‘Ref Watch’ don’t help matters.

Perfection is now demanded of only one part of a football game and that’s the officials.

It’s high time clubs take accountability for their own shortcomings with referees kept out of the firing line, but it will only happen with the FA’s intervention.

They quickly need to nip this in the bud, and paltry fines won’t cut it.

Liam Williams

• Aston Villa F.C.
• Premier League
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